Where Are The 2015 USWNT Women’s World Cup Stars Now?
Many legendary players have been named to the USWNT Women’s World Cup roster over the years. First, there’s the star-studded 1999 team featuring the OG GOAT Mia Hamm, Jill Akers, Christine Lily, and Brandi Chastain—who, let’s face it, stole the tournament with that iconic PK celebration. 2003 saw the start of the changing of the guard, bringing fresh faces that would eventually become household names. The 2015 USWNT completely turned the tide for the program.
Coming off of two third-place finishes and one second-place finish in the last three FIFA World Cups, the 2015 team had a score to settle. They wowed the entire world when they rocketed out of the group stage, conceding only one goal the entire tournament leading up to the final match against Japan, which ended in a 5-2 victory for the back-on-top USWNT. Those players are legends, but you might have lost track of a few of them through retirements and team changes. So let’s take a look at where they are now.
Current
Some members of that roster are still fixtures to the USWNT and hardly need a recap. Players like super keeper Alyssa Naeher, defender extraordinaire Julie Ertz (Johnson at the time of her roster placement), phenomenal forward Christen Press, with Morgan Brian holding it down at midfield, were completely fresh faces at the time, and 2015 was their first World Cup.
Defensive powerhouses Kelley O’Hara, Becky Sauerbrunn, dynamic duo Tobin Heath and Megan Rapinoe were all on their second run-through, along with Alex Morgan still holding the front line. Everyone on this part of the list is still actively playing either in the NWSL or abroad—a few are currently on reserve due to injury and/or pregnancy. They could make another show at this upcoming World Cup.
Retired from USWNT
Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger
Several members of this championship team have retired from international play but still have plenty of soccer left in them. Keeper Ashlyn Harris recently retired from Gotham FC, and defender Ali Krieger currently plays for the team.
Krieger played her last game for the USWNT in 2019, and Harris managed one more year in the net, hanging up her gloves for the country in 2020.
These two are stellar players in their own right but are perhaps more well-known in pop culture for being the first out couple of the USWNT.
Meghan Klingenberg
Meghan Klingenberg was a member of the senior team for eight years, showing up for the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Though she was not called up to the roster in 2018, Klingenberg is still a vital member of the Portland Thorns.
She is a black belt in tae kwon do and is part owner of the gender-neutral clothing and lifestyle brand Re Inc, along with other USWNT alumna Rapinoe, Press, and Heath.
Heather O’Reilly
Heather O’Reilly was on her third tour for the team by the time the 2015 World Cup rolled around, but that year was her first win. O’Reilly also played in four Olympics games, winning a total of three gold medals.
O’Reilly retired from international play the following year but stayed on at Arsenal for a season before coming back to retire on NC Courage in 2019. After nearly two decades in the game, it felt like a natural end to an illustrious career, but O’Reilly wasn’t quite satisfied and made a huge splash by coming out of retirement to play for Shelbourne in Ireland.
Playing in the UEFA Women’s Champions League was the one dream yet to be realized. In her second year on the team, after facing elimination from the league, O’Reilly and Shelbourne returned and did the unthinkable by winning Ireland’s top-tier division and the primary cup competition all in one, a feat commonly referred to as a Double. She now plays for the NC Courage USL W League team.
Sydney Leroux
Sydney Leroux retired from international play in 2017, but that seems to be when things took off for her. Leroux’s last few years with the USWNT were spent mostly on the bench, sidelined due to a combination of injury rehab, recovering from giving birth to her son Cassius and testing new team dynamics.
She has two children and a minor Twitter celebrity dog, Boss Leroux. And now, she plays for Angel City FC. While pregnant with her daughter, Roux, Leroux made waves by practicing with her then-team Orlando Pride well into her second trimester. Some lauded her as a complete badass, while others condemned her actions.
Either way, Leroux was back on the pitch three months after giving birth and has only slowed down once due to a recent ankle injury—but she’s back and feeling good!
Retired Greats
Hope Solo
For a lot of people, when it comes to the gold standard for keepers, it’s Hope Solo. Solo has been retired from soccer entirely since 2016 and still, to this day, holds the record for most clean sheets of the program. 2015 was Solo’s third World Cup and first win.
Solo is one of two 2015 roster members inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame this year.
Abby Wambach
If you were paying any amount of attention to sports in the 2010s, you knew the name, Abby Wambach. Now a Hall of Famer, Wambach was a member of four World Cup teams in total, with 2015 being the only time she saw gold.
Wambach actually retired in reverse compared to a lot of the other players on this list, leaving Western New York Flash in 2014 and playing one more year with USWNT in 2015.
She has a list of awards and accolades that seem to go on forever, but here are a few: two-time Olympic gold medalist, six-time U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year, and FIFA Player of the Year, for which she was the fourth woman and first American to win.
After retiring at the absolute top of the game, Wambach fell in love with author Glennon Doyle and the two now live in California with their children and dogs.
Amy Rodriguez
Amy Rodriguez, who played for the USWNT from 2005-2018, is now on the other side of the pitch as a coach. A would-be three-time Olympian, Rodriguez had to sit the 2016 games out since she was expecting her second child.
A two-time gold medal winner and one-time FIFA World Champion, Rodriguez was right on that front line, scoring the most international goals of her career in 2012 with nine points. Since retiring from play entirely in 2021, Rodriguez has taken to coaching.
It began with an assistant coaching position at the University of Southern California. Now, Rodriguez is signed to come on as the Utah Royals’ head coach in their first season back in the league since folding in 2020.
Carli Lloyd
Carli Lloyd‘s retirement is still fresh for a lot of us. There seems to be a GOAT for every generation, and Lloyd has earned her title. Two-time FIFA World Champion and FIFA Player of the Year, four-time Olympian and two-time gold winner, and the second most caps in the program, Lloyd left her mark.
Even though she’s now officially retired, Lloyd hasn’t slowed down much. She was recently on the new Fox reality show, Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test that pushed celebrities of all kinds to their physical limits—she won, of course. We can all also look forward to seeing her at the upcoming World Cup, or at least hearing her voice, as she has signed on again as a Fox analyst.
Shannon Boxx
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022, Shannon Boxx played midfield for the squad for over a decade and was a player for every iteration of what is now NWSL. Most recently, Boxx has been at the forefront of advocating for girls’ and women’s soccer.
She was a recent speaker at this year’s SheBelieves summit, along with Carli Lloyd, and headed up the safety task force for US Soccer. Amid all of the systemic abuse within the program coming to light in recent years, it’s great to see former players like Boxx using their power and experience to do something for the better.
Christie Rampone
Christie Pearce (formerly Rampone) was this roster’s captain and most senior player. This was her fifth and final World Cup appearance. Starting on the National team in 1997, Pearce had the most time playing with the greats Hamm, Chastain, and Foudy of anyone else on this list.
Pearce was placed in the Hall of Fame in 2021, four years after she retired from league play and six years after international.
Unfortunately, Pearce has been entangled in some controversy lately. Her engagement with Christy Holly, a former coach with abuse accusations against him, has caused a lot of waves and raised a lot of questions about player/coach power dynamics.
Lori Chalupny
2015 was Lori Chalupny’s second World Cup, and she is another multi-Olympic and World Cup competing member of the team.
Chalupny retired from the game completely after 2015. She was in the mix for this year’s Hall of Fame but ultimately came in fourth in the votes.
Whitney Engen
2015 was Whitney Engen’s first and only Women’s World Cup; talk about finishing on top. Engen was on the team from 2011 to 2016 and on several NWSL teams during that same time, including Red Stars, Dash, and the now-debunked Breakers, the team from which she retired.
As a defender, Engen’s style of play was a lot like Julie Ertz’s now, a force to be reckoned with and one to be feared on a set piece. Since retiring, Engen has pivoted quite a bit. Since 2020 she has begun practicing law and was sworn in as an attorney in October of the same year.
Lauren Holiday
Like so many on this list, Lauren Holiday, a gold medalist twice over, was also inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. Her complete retirement came after the 2015 World Cup, and since then, Holiday has slowed down a bit to focus on her health and her family.
In 2016, Holiday announced that she was expecting her first child and had also been diagnosed with a brain tumor in June. The benign tumor was removed after she gave birth to her daughter Jrue in September of the same year.
In 2020, her family grew when she gave birth to a son, Hendrix.
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Featured image via Getty Images
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