USWNT vs. Japan: Starting XI & Lineup Notes on Friday, April 17 in Commerce City, Colorado
Kickoff is 7 p.m. MT on TNT, truTV and HBO Max in English, on Universo and Peacock in Spanish
USWNT vs. JAPAN
Date: April 17, 2026
Venue: DICK’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.
Broadcast: TNT, truTV and HBO Max in English and in Spanish on Universo and Peacock
Radio: Westwood One in English
Official Kickoff Time: 7:07 p.m. MT
USA: 1-Claudia Dickey, 2-Trinity Rodman, 4-Naomi Girma, 10-Lindsey Heaps, 11-Sophia Wilson, 12-Tierna Davidson, 15-Claire Hutton, 16-Rose Lavelle, 21-Alyssa Thompson, 22-Gisele Thompson, 23-Emily Fox
Available Subs: 3-Avery Patterson, 5-Lilly Reale, 6-Emily Sams, 7-Lily Yohannes, 8-Jaedyn Shaw, 9-Ally Sentnor, 13-Olivia Moultrie, 17-Sam Coffey, 19-Emma Sears, 20-Michelle Cooper, 24-Phallon Tullis-Joyce, 25-Kennedy Wesley
Not dressing: 14-Emily Sonnett, 18-Jane Campbell
USWNT Starting XI Cap Numbers (Including this match): Heaps (176), Lavelle (120), Fox (76), Davidson (69), Wilson (61), Rodman (55), Girma (54), A. Thomspon (31), Hutton (17), Dickey (10), G. Thompson (10)
Notes:
STARTING XI NOTES:
Lindsey Heaps, 31, earns her 176th cap, 136th start and it will be her 43rd game captaining the U.S. She currently has 40 career goals, good for 16th all-time in U.S. history. The OL Lyonnes midfielder will finish out the season with the French side before returning to the NWSL in her home state to play for expansion side Denver Summit FC.
Rose Lavelle, 30, earns her 120h cap and 101st start. She ties Lorrie Fair for 35th most caps ever with 120. Lavelle was the 31st player to reach 100 starts for the USWNT – doing so on April 11 vs. Japan – and is tied for 14th fastest player to hit that mark with Abby Wambach. The fastest players to reach 100 starts were Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett who both did so in 101 caps.
Emily Fox, 27, earns her 76th cap and 64th start. The Arsenal FC right back played the final 210 minutes of the 2026 SheBelieves Cup, playing her first two full 90-minute international matches since October of 2025.
Tierna Davidson, 27, earns her 69th cap and 53rd start. Davidson makes her first start since Feb. 23, 2025, a 2-1 win over Australia. She played a full 90 minutes in that match. This is Davidson’s second appearance and first start since returning to the roster in this camp. She had not played in an international match since the final SheBelieves Cup match of 2025 vs. Japan on Feb. 26.
Sophia Wilson, 25, earns her 61st cap and 42nd start as she returns to the USWNT after giving birth to her daughter. Wilson passes Casey Krueger to tie Leslie Osborne for 60th most caps in WNT history. Wilson’s most recent match before this window for the U.S. was on Oct. 27, 2024, vs. Iceland, her most recent goal was on Oct. 24, 2024, also vs. Iceland. Wilson is the 18th mother to play for the USWNT. Should Wilson score she would become the ninth woman to score as a mother. Players who have scored as a mom are Alex Morgan (with 16 goals as a mom), Joy Fawcett (13 goals), Danielle Fotopoulos (5), Amy Rodriguez (4), Jessica McDonald (2), Kate Markgraf (1), Kristine Lilly (1) and Tina Ellertson (1). With a goal against Brazil on Feb. 22, 2023, Morgan moved past Fawcett to become the all-time leader in U.S. goals as a mom with 14 and ended her career with 16 goals as a mom.
Naomi Girma, 25, this is Girma’s 54th cap and 52nd start for the U.S. and she was the 70th player to earn 50 caps, doing so on Dec. 1 vs. Italy. Girma starts the match alongside fellow former Stanford center back Tierna Davidson.
Trinity Rodman, 23, earns her 55th cap and makes her 34th start. Rodman earned her 50th cap on March 1 vs. Argentina. Rodman is the 22nd fastest player to make it to 50 caps and the 71st to do so overall.
Alyssa Thompson, 21, earns her 31st cap and 18th start. She and her sister Gisele extend their record for sisters starting in the same USWNT match. Samantha and Kristie Mewis started in the same match three times, and the Thompsons have now done so five times. Alyssa was named the London Football Awards Women’s Young Player of the Year at the end of 2025.
Claudia Dickey, 26, earns her 10th cap and 10th start. She has earned seven shutouts and nine wins across her nine caps thus far for the USWNT.
Gisele Thompson, 20, earns her 10th cap and seventh start. She made her debut in last year’s SheBelieves Cup, earning her first cap vs. Colombia on Feb. 20, 2025, and earning her first start vs. Australia on Feb. 23, 2025. She earned her first assist in this year’s match vs. Paraguay on Jan. 24. This is the (record) fifth time she and her sister Alyssa Thompson will start a USWNT match together and seventh time they’ll play in the same USWNT game. They have surpassed the Mewis sisters in shared starts (five) but are five games short of tying the Mewis sisters for most USWNT games played together (12).
Claire Hutton, 20, earns her 18th cap and makes her 14th start. On April 11, she subbed on in the first match against Japan in the 85th minute, replacing Lindsey Heaps in the midfield. She started on April 14 and captained the team, making her the youngest captain to start a game with the armband since 2001. She is the only player to start the April 14 game who also gets the start tonight.