AUSTIN — For more than a year, through almost two dozen U.S. women’s national soccer team matches, Coach Vlatko Andonovski has alternated the starting goalkeeper.
Alyssa Naeher, the World Cup incumbent, would start one day, Casey Murphy, the challenger, a few days later. Naeher would register a shutout, Murphy would follow suit.
Back and forth it’s gone, with no clear indication of who stood atop the depth chart.
But as the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand nears — just 3½ months until the top-ranked Americans begin their quest for an unprecedented third consecutive championship — Andonovski inches closer to a decision about his starter for the Group E opener against Vietnam and beyond.