Same, but Different: USWNT Again Uses SheBelieves Cup As Olympic Proving Ground

At this time last year, U.S. women’s national team coach Vlatko Andonovski was announcing the roster for the 2020 SheBelieves Cup, a proving ground to find the squad he’d take to Tokyo for the Olympics.

Twelve months later, Andonovski is again readying for a SheBelieves Cup. And after a pandemic-induced postponement, he’s still preparing for the tough task of whittling down his player pool to 18 ahead of an Olympics scheduled to start in July.

Fifteen of the players who lifted the SheBelieves Cup in Texas on March 11, 2020—what wound up being the U.S.’s last match until Nov. 27—are on this year’s squad, but a host of personnel developments since then have made Andonovski’s upcoming roster…