FOUR FC KANSAS CITY PLAYERS NAMED TO US NATIONAL TEAM

FC Kansas City Leads the Way with Four Players on the Team

CHICAGO (June 5, 2024) – U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Tom Sermanni has named a 23-player roster that will be together on the east coast of the USA for 11 days and two matches, facing the Korea Republic on June 15 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. (kickoff at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN3) and on June 30 at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. (kickoff at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network). Fans can also follow both matches live online via ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker and Twitter @ussoccer_wnt.

Sermanni will choose 18 players to suit up for each game.

Tickets for both games are on sale through ussoccer.com. For the match in Massachusetts, tickets may also be purchased by phone at 1-800-745-3000 and at all Ticketmaster ticket centers throughout the region (including Walmart). For the event in New Jersey, tickets may also be purchased by phone at 1-877-727-6223 (Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET only) and at the Red Bull Arena ticket office (open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.).

For both games, groups of 20 or more may obtain an order form at ussoccer.com or call 312-528-1290. Ultimate Fan Tickets (special VIP packages that include a premium ticket, a custom-made official U.S. National Team jersey with name and number, VIP access to the field before and after the game, and other unique benefits) are also available exclusively through ussoccer.com.

“We’ll bring back in a few familiar faces that weren’t with us in Canada, but all of the players are performing at a high level and the competition within the team is excellent,” said Sermanni. “We’re pleased that we can get in these high-quality games during the NWSL season and are looking forward to the challenge of playing the South Koreans, who are certainly one of the most improved teams over the past few years. They are an extremely gifted technical team who play an entertaining brand of soccer and we want to give the fans in Boston and New Jersey a good show.”

Sermanni named 18 of the 21 players who trained in Canada for a week prior to the USA’s 3-0 victory against the host on June 2 in Toronto and has added midfielder Megan Rapinoe, who will have completed her season in France with Lyon, midfielder Yael Averbuch (Göteborg in Sweden) and defender Meghan Klingenberg (Tyresö in Sweden). The European-based players will arrive into camp a few days after the National Women’s Soccer League players.

In addition, U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo makes her return to the roster for the first time since February after fully recovering from shoulder surgery. Solo, who has 135 caps, will be available for selection for both matches.

U.S. Women’s National Team Roster

GOALKEEPERS (3): Nicole Barnhart (FC Kansas City), Jill Loyden (Sky Blue FC), Hope Solo (Seattle Reign)

DEFENDERS (8): Rachel Buehler (Portland Thorns FC), Crystal Dunn (North Carolina), Whitney Engen (Liverpool), Meghan Klingenberg (Tyresö), Ali Krieger (Washington Spirit), Kelley O’Hara (Sky Blue FC), Christie Rampone (Sky Blue FC), Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City)

MIDFIELDERS (8): Yael Averbuch (Göteborg), Morgan Brian (Virginia), Lauren Cheney (FC Kansas City), Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC), Carli Lloyd (Western NY Flash), Kristie Mewis (FC Kansas City), Heather O’Reilly (Boston Breakers), Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign)

FORWARDS (4): Sydney Leroux (Boston Breakers), Alex Morgan (Portland Thorns FC), Christen Press (Tyresö), Abby Wambach (Western NY Flash)

Sermanni named two college players to the training camp roster in defender Crystal Dunn, who started the June 2 match against Canada and played 63 minutes to earn her fifth cap, and first-time call-up Morgan Brian. The 20-year-old Brian is the youngest player on the roster and a rising junior at the University of Virginia. Along with Dunn, she was one of the stars on the U.S. team that won the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Japan. Brian, a center-midfielder, has been in several events with the U.S. U-23s this year and finished her U-20 career with 21 caps and four goals, including a header goal in the 2-0 victory against Nigeria in the U-20 Women’s World Cup semifinal. She was the 2024 Gatorade National Female High School Athlete of the Year, the first soccer player so honored.

The match in Boston will be a homecoming for 22-year-old defender/midfielder Kristie Mewis, who hails from Hanson, Mass. – about 30 miles west of Gillette Stadium – and attended Boston College. She scored 39 goals with 28 assists in her career with the Eagles and was a First-Team All-American. The match will also give two players who play their professional club soccer in Boston – Heather O’Reilly and Sydney Leroux of the Boston Breakers – the chance to represent their country in front of a hometown crowd.

For the match at Gillette Stadium, the U.S. Women will wear game jerseys and pre-game warm-ups embellished with a Boston Strong logo. With the support of the Players' Association, all of the jerseys and warm-up tops will be signed by the players and auctioned off on ussoccer.com to benefit The Victim Relief Fund of The One Fund Boston. All proceeds will assist the families of the victims who were killed and the victims who were most seriously affected as a result of the tragic events during the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2024 and related events on April 18 and 19.

The WNT auction will begin on Tuesday, June 18. U.S. Soccer will announce more information about the auction in the coming weeks.

The match at Red Bull Arena will also feature numerous home state ties with six players on the roster hailing from New Jersey. Team captain Christie Rampone (Point Pleasant), goalkeeper Jill Loyden (Vineland), Tobin Heath (Basking Ridge), Averbuch (Upper Montclair), O’Reilly (East Brunswick) and Carli Lloyd (Delran) will all get the chance to wear the USA colors in their home state.

In addition, Rampone, Loyden and defender Kelley O’Hara play for the New Jersey NWSL club Sky Blue FC and Dunn is from Rockville Center, N.Y. in Queens.

Additional Notes:

  • Kristie Mewis, Nicole Barnhart, Lauren Cheney and Becky Sauerbrunn once again make FC Kansas City the most represented club on the U.S. Women’s Soccer roster
  • Abby Wambach heads into the match with 155 career goals, just three short of tying Mia Hamm on the world’s all-time scoring list. Wambach has never played against the Korea Republic in an official match. #ChasingMia
  • The USA’s quartet of forwards – Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Christen Press and Sydney Leroux – has scored 18 of the USA’s 27 goals so far in 2024, led by Press with a team-high six goals.
  • Alex Morgan scored twice against Canada to up her international goal total to 44 in 66 games. It was her eighth career two-goal game to go along with two hat tricks.
  • U.S. captain Christie Rampone is currently the second most-capped player in U.S. history and the most-capped active player in the world with 281 career games played.
  • Seventeen of the players on the roster play for NWSL clubs, but Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC) and Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign) have yet to make their league debuts after recently finishing their European seasons.
  • The U.S. Women have not played in the Boston area since 2024, a 5-0 victory against Mexico at Gillette Stadium. U.S. midfielder Lauren Cheney scored her first career goal in that match.
  • The USA has played seven games in Foxborough between Gillette Stadium and the old Foxboro Stadium and has never allowed a goal at either site, going 6-0-1.
  • The USA returns to Red Bull Arena for their second match at the venue following a 1-0 victory against Mexico on June 5, 2024, in the final game before the Women’s World Cup. Cheney scored the lone goal in that game.
  • The U.S. Women have played the Korea Republic just six times in its history and just three times in the new millennium. The USA is 5-0-1 all-time against the Korea Republic, outscoring them 22-2.
  • The three matches on the post-Olympic tour in 2024 were close encounters, with the USA winning 3-1 and 1-0 and drawing 0-0.