Tournament Notes: WNT 2014 CONCACAF Women's Championship

ROSTER SPOTS: U.S. head coach Jill Ellis chose 20 players for the USA’s 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship roster, which includes two goalkeepers, seven defenders, six midfielders and five forwards. Many of the players can play multiple positions, giving Ellis variety and depth on the roster, which consists of 19 professional players and the USA’s lone college player, Morgan Brian, who is a senior at the University of Virginia. Of the USA’s 20 players, just five are over 30 years old: team captain Christie Rampone (39), forward Abby Wambach (34), goalkeeper Hope Solo (33), midfielder Carli Lloyd (32) and defender Ali Krieger (30). Rampone heads into the tournament with 297 caps as she is the most-capped active player in the world and second all-time in world history. The least-capped player on the roster is Ashlyn Harris (3). Three players on the roster helped FC Kansas City to the 2014 NWSL title: Becky Sauerbrunn, Lauren Holiday and Amy Rodriguez. 

U.S. Women’s National Team By Position – Detailed Roster
GOALKEEPERS (2): 18-Ashlyn Harris (Washington Spirit), 1-Hope Solo (Seattle Reign FC)
DEFENDERS (7): 6-Whitney Engen (Houston Dash), 19-Julie Johnston (Chicago Red Stars), 16-Meghan Klingenberg (Houston Dash), 11-Ali Krieger (Washington Spirit), 5-Kelley O’Hara (Sky Blue FC), 3-Christie Rampone (Sky Blue FC), 4-Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City)
MIDFIELDERS (6): 7-Morgan Brian (Virginia), 17-Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC), 12-Lauren Holiday (FC Kansas City), 10-Carli Lloyd (WNY Flash), 9-Heather O’Reilly (Boston Breakers), 15-Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC)
FORWARDS (5): 2-Sydney Leroux (Seattle Reign FC), 13-Alex Morgan (Portland Thorns FC), 14-Christen Press (Chicago Red Stars), 8-Amy Rodriguez (FC Kansas City), 20-Abby Wambach (WNY Flash)

U.S. ROSTER NOTES:

• Fourteen of the players on this roster participated in the qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympics. The six players that did not are: goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris, defenders Crystal Dunn, Whitney Engen and Meghan Klingenberg, midfielder Morgan Brian and forward Christen Press.
• Eleven players on the roster have previous Women’s World Cup qualifying experience, led by forward Abby Wambach and midfielder Heather O’Reilly, both of whom played in the qualifying tournaments for the last three Women’s World Cup tournaments. Defender Christie Rampone and midfielder Carli Lloyd played in the last two CONCACAF Women’s World Cup qualifying tournaments. Other U.S. WNT players with previous qualifying experience are Lauren Holiday, Ali Krieger, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Amy Rodriguez, Becky Sauerbrunn and Hope Solo.
• Holiday, the 2013 NWSL MVP and 2014 NWSL Championship Game MVP, became the 30th American female player to earn 100 caps when she played against Canada on May 8. She currently has 103 caps.
• Wambach is the USA’s top scorer on the roster with 170 goals. After Wambach, Lloyd is the top scorer with 51 career international goals, followed by Morgan (49) and O’Reilly (41). Sydney Leroux is quickly climbing the charts with 32.
• Rodriguez had an excellent NWSL season with 13 goals in the regular season, good for second in the league, and then scored three more in the playoffs, including both goals in the NWSL title game. Rodriguez has 28 international scores.
• Leroux is the USA’s leading scorer this year with eight goals. Wambach has seven and Lloyd, Morgan and Press have five goals each.
• Lloyd, Press, Rapinoe and O’Reilly each have four assists, tied for best on the team this year.
• Press is scoring at almost a one-goal-per-two-games clip, finding the net 13 times in her first 27 caps.
• All nine NWSL clubs are represented on the roster.
• Twenty-nine players have seen game action for the USA in 2014, including first-cappers Samantha Mewis, Sarah Hagan and Allie Long, none of whom made the qualifying roster.

JOHNSTON REPLACES DUNN: One day before the USA kicks off the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship against Trinidad & Tobago, U.S. head coach Jill Ellis made a roster change due to injury, replacing defender Crystal Dunn with defender/midfielder Julie Johnston, who has been training with the U.S. team. An MRI confirmed that Dunn suffered a mild sprain to the medial collateral ligament in her right knee at training and will be out 2-4 weeks. 

Johnston, who has four caps, including two appearances this year, was the 2014 NWSL Rookie of the Year for the Chicago Red Stars and scored her club’s first and last goals of the season. She was the captain of the U.S. team that won the 2012 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Japan (a team on which Dunn also played a key role) and was awarded the Bronze Ball as the third best player in the tournament, a rare honor for a defender.

MORGAN IS BACK: Although she has played in just five games for the USA this year, Alex Morgan has shown that she’s regained the form which has made her one of the world’s most dangerous strikers. Coming off scoring three goals with three assists in the two most recent games against Mexico, Morgan now has five goals in her five games in 2014. Before her return to the U.S. team in June for the two matches against France, she had not appeared for the USA since November of 2013, an absence due to an injury of almost seven months. She now has 49 goals (10th all-time) in her 75 caps and with her next goal will become the 10th player in U.S. history to score 50 or more goals.

WORLD RECORD AND COUNTING: After scoring twice in the first half against Mexico on Sept. 13, forward Abby Wambach hit 170 goals for her career. On June 20, 2013, Wambach passed the legendary Mia Hamm to become the world’s all-time leading scorer when she pounded in four goals against South Korea at Red Bull Arena. Hamm had 158 international goals from 1987-2004. The match against Mexico marked the 109th win for the USA in a game in which Wambach has scored at least one goal (109-2-8). Wambach has scored 45 goals in her past 56 games over 2012, 2013 and 2014. She is also third all-time in assists with 65, behind only Kristine Lilly (105) and Hamm (144).

IN THE RECORD BOOKS:

• Christie Rampone will likely hit 300 caps during the CONCACAF Women’s Championship. She would become just the second player in world history to reach that mark after former teammate Kristine Lilly, who finished her career with 352 games played.
• Rampone debuted for the USA in 1997 and has appeared for the WNT in three different decades. She has started 263 of her 297 caps and played 23,081 minutes in a U.S. uniform during her career.
• The USA’s current 87-game unbeaten streak at home (76-0-11 since Nov. 6, 2004) is a team record. The next-highest streak is 50 games (48-0-2) from Feb. 10, 1996, through April 22, 1999. The USA tied the record on May 14, 2011 (2-0 win against Japan at Columbus Crew Stadium) and broke the record with the 51st game on May 18, 2011 (another 2-0 win against Japan at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina).
• Heather O’Reilly is the ninth player to hit 200 caps in U.S. history after reaching the milestone against Korea DPR on March 12 and with 208 is now eighth on the USA’s all-time list. Abby Wambach (224) and Christie Rampone (297) are the only active players ahead of her.
• O’Reilly is the second-youngest player to hit 200 caps for the USA. Lilly was 28 years old, 9 months, 15 days when she earned cap No. 200 on May 7, 2000. O’Reilly was 29 years old, 2 months, 10 days when she earned her 200th cap.
• O’Reilly is currently sixth all-time in assists with 51.
• In addition to breaking Mia Hamm’s world scoring record, Abby Wambach’s June 20, 2013, performance against the Korea Republic also made her the USA’s all-time leader in multiple-goal games with 39 for her career. She has since added another on March 12 against Korea DPR and another on Sept. 13 against Mexico and sits at 41. She has 34 two-goal games, five hat tricks, one four-goal game and one five-goal game.
• With her goal against Switzerland on Aug. 20, Wambach joined Hamm as the only WNT players to reach 400 points in their career. Wambach has 405 points (170 goals, 65 assists) and Hamm had 460 (158 goals, 144 assists).
• Carli Lloyd’s goal on Oct. 27 against New Zealand gave her 46 goals in her career and moved her past Julie Foudy into ninth on the all-time scoring list. Lloyd scored her first two of the year against Russia on Feb. 8 and added another two-goal game on April 10 against China PR to become the ninth player in U.S. history to score 50 or more goals. She added one more against Switzerland from the penalty spot on Aug. 20 to run her total to 51. She is also the highest-scoring player in U.S. history who has played exclusively as a midfielder. She is just two goals behind Carin Gabarra in eighth place.
• Lloyd is currently tied with Shannon MacMillan for 12th on the U.S. WNT all-time appearances list with 176.
• In the Jan. 31 match against Canada, defender Becky Sauerbrunn became the 46th player in U.S. Women’s National Team history to hit 50 caps. She now has 64, tied for 40th all-time. Sydney Leroux became the 47th to hit 50 (she now has 56) on April 10 vs. China PR and Ali Krieger will become the 48th player with her next cap.
• Leroux is tied with Lindsay Tarpley for 15th on the all-time U.S. WNT goal scoring list with 32 goals.
• With one more goal, Alex Morgan will become the 10th player in U.S. history to score 50 or more.
• On Sept. 18, Hope Solo earned her 73nd shutout since debuting for the USA in 2000, extending her team record. Eleven of Solo’s shutouts have come in world championship play – five in the FIFA Women’s World Cup and six during the Olympics. As a confirmation of her reputation as a big-game player, 42 of Solo’s career shutouts – almost 60 percent – have come in tournament competitions that include world championships, qualifying for the World Cup and Olympics and elite tournaments such as the Algarve Cup, which is held annually in Portugal.

BY THE NUMBERS:

• 0.73: Goals per game the USA has allowed in 2014
• 1: USA’s FIFA ranking
• 3: Players who have appeared in all 15 games in 2014: Heather O’Reilly, Christen Press and Becky Sauerbrunn
• 3.20: Goals per game the USA has scored in 2014
• 4: Assists by Carli Lloyd, Christen Press, Heather O’Reilly and Megan Rapinoe in 2014, tied for most on the team
• 12: U.S. players to score a goal in 2014
• 13: Goals in 27 career games for U.S. forward Christen Press
• 51: Career goals by Lloyd, most ever for a WNT player who has played exclusively as a midfielder
• 70: Minutes on the field per goal averaged by Sydney Leroux in her career
• 73: Career shutouts by Hope Solo, the USA’s all-time record
• 88: Minutes on the field per goal averaged by Alex Morgan in her career
• 99: Minutes on the field per goal averaged by Abby Wambach in her career
• 109: U.S. victories when Wambach scores a goal (109-2-8 overall)
• 130: Minutes on field per goal averaged by Mia Hamm in her career
• 297: Caps by Christie Rampone, second all-time to Kristine Lilly (352)

USA IN NWSL: Following are the final 2014 NWSL regular season statistics for U.S. players on the qualifying roster. Amy Rodriguez, with 13 goals, was the top WNT scorer in the NWSL and second in the league. She added three more goals in the playoffs – one in the 2-0 semifinal victory against Portland Thorns FC and both goals in the 2-1 Championship Game win against Seattle Reign FC. Rodriguez becomes the first player to score three goals in the NWSL playoffs and first to score twice in the short history of the NWSL Final. Lauren Holiday’s seven assists were the most among this year’s WNT players and tied for second in the NWSL. The 2014 Championship Game MVP had both assists in the final to Rodriguez. 

JILL ELLIS FACT FILE: After her second stint as interim head coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team, a capacity in which she coached two games this year – a win against China PR and a tie against Canada – Jill Ellis was officially named the eighth head coach of the U.S. WNT on May 16. After coaching the final seven games of 2012 when she compiled a 5-0-2 record, Ellis officially started the job with a 6-0-3 record and is now 10-0-3. In taking the top position, Ellis stepped away from her job as Development Director for the U.S. Women’s National Teams, a job she was appointed to in January of 2011, but will still work closely with U.S. Women’s National Team Technical Director April Heinrichs to oversee the USA’s youth teams.

• Ellis has extensive experience in the U.S. Women’s National Team programs having served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team under Pia Sundhage, helping the team to a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. She has served two stints as head coach of the U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team, guiding the squad to the CONCACAF title in 2010 and to the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Germany.
• Ellis also had two stints as the head coach of the U.S. Under-21 Women’s National Team, the second starting in the middle of 2005, after which she guided the team to the Nordic Cup in Sweden. She also coached the U-21s to the Nordic Cup title in Germany in 2000.
• Ellis was a scout for the USA at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and has served as an assistant coach with the U.S. U-21s and U.S. U-16 Girls’ National Teams.
• Ellis joined U.S. Soccer full-time after a highly successful 12-year run as the head women’s soccer coach for the UCLA Bruins. Ellis led UCLA to eight NCAA Final Fours, including seven in a row from 2003-2009, and won six straight conference titles from 2003-2008. She finished her time in Westwood with a record of 229-45-14. Ellis, who was also head coach at the University of Illinois, has an all-time collegiate coaching record of 248-63-14.
• She was the 2000 NSCAA National Coach of the Year after leading the Bruins to the NCAA Final in just her second season as head coach.
• Ellis arrived in Westwood after heading the University of Illinois women's soccer program for two years. In 1998, she brought the Fighting Illini to a 12-8 record and a first-ever Big Ten Tournament berth. Prior to coaching at Illinois, Ellis served as an assistant coach at the University of Virginia for one year (1996-97), at Maryland for three years (1994-96) and at North Carolina State for another three years (1988-90). As an assistant coach at North Carolina State, Ellis helped the Wolfpack secure the 1988 ACC title and an NCAA Final Four appearance.
• A forward during her playing days at the College of William & Mary from 1984-87, Ellis was a Third-Team All-American in 1987. In 1984, Ellis helped Braddock Road in Virginia to the Under-19 club national championship.
• Ellis grew up in Portsmouth, England, and came to the United States in 1981 at the age of 15. She also lived in Singapore for two years while her father helped to develop a national soccer program in that country. She earned her B.A. in English Literature and Composition from the College of William & Mary in 1988 and currently resides in Los Angeles. She has a USSF “A” coaching license.