The United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) has just released its lineup for the Paris Olympic Games. That’s it here. Read it once. Twice, even.
Your eyes are not deceiving you.
Alex Morgan is not on the team.
New USWNT coach Emma Hayes is leading the team into its first global competition of her tenure and is certainly making a statement. Morgan, who along with the recently retired Megan Rapinoe, has been one of the main faces of US women’s soccer for the last decade or so: she is the USWNT’s all-time leading active scorer and is fifth on the all-time list. the times. She helped lead tThe team’s high-profile and ultimately successful fight for equal pay.
These will be the first Olympic Games since 2008, in Beijing, where Morgan is not preparing for the USA. She has played in every World Cup for the USWNT since 2011.
(Morgan’s rep did not respond to a message from TIME seeking comment.)
Morgan took to Instagram on Wednesday after the list was released.
“Today I am disappointed that I did not have the opportunity to represent our country on the Olympic stage. This will always be a tournament that is close to my heart and I am immensely proud every time I put on the crest. month, I look forward to supporting this team and cheering them on alongside the rest of our country.”
Hayes’ decision will be debated for days, if not weeks, before the Olympics. Morgan is a superstar forward who has proven herself over the years, and her experience and leadership are an asset to any team. But she had a slow start to the NWSL season: She missed more than a month with the San Diego Wave after injuring her left ankle on April 19, although she returned. She scored for the USWNT against Argentina on February 23: it was her first goal in a year for the national team. Morgan went scoreless at last year’s World Cup, which ended in disappointment for the USWNT with a penalty shootout loss to Sweden in the round of 16. It was the USWNT’s first World Cup elimination.
Hayes is playing the long game, turning the page on the USWNT’s past achievements – back-to-back World Cup victories in 2015 and 2019 – and building a new generation of players for the 2024 Olympics and beyond.
The 18-player roster has an average age of 26.8 years old, which is the fourth youngest roster the U.S. has ever sent to the Olympics, and the youngest since 2008. The average age of the 2020 Olympic team – the USWNT lost to Canada in the semifinals of the Tokyo Games – he was 30.8 years old.
NWSL scoring leader Sophia Smith, 23, made the team, as did Mallory Swanson, 26, whose injury prior to the 2023 World Cup was devastating to the team’s third-place effort; she badly needed her jab in Australia and New Zealand. Trinity Rodman, 22, and Morgan’s San Diego teammate Jaedyn Shaw, 19, also made the team as forwards, Morgan’s position. USWNT vet Crystal Dunn, a defender in previous international competitions, is also listed as a forward, speaking to Hayes’ strategy. Olympic rosters are smaller than World Cup rosters: games allow 18 players, while 23 players can go to World Cups. Players who can play multiple spots, like Dunn, are particularly valuable. Morgan is a striker through and through.
Hayes called up reliable veterans with 100 or more caps for the national team, such as midfielders Lindsey Horan, 30, a World Cup co-captain with Morgan last year, and Rose Lavelle, 29. Alyssa Naeher, 36, returns in goal. Defenders Emily Sonnett, 30, and Tierna Davison, 25, return for their second Olympics: completing the squad are Olympic debutants Korbin Albert, Sam Coffey, Catarina Macario (midfield); Casey Murphy (goalkeeper); and Noami Girma, Casey Krueger and Jenna Nighswonger (defenders).
The USWNT, which has not won Olympic gold in twelve years, begins its campaign on July 25th against Zambia in Nice, one day before the Opening Ceremony. No, Morgan. No, Rapinoé.
A truly new day in the history of US women’s soccer.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
