Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) The top-ranked U.S. will bring a veteran group to the four-team Tournament of Nations, which begins next week with a match against Japan at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City. [ MORE: Man City, USMNT’s Mix Diskerud loaned to South Korea ] U.S. coach Jill Ellis announced her training roster of 25 players Wednesday, all but three of whom played for the national team this year. The newcomers are goalkeeper Adrianna Franch, forward Kealia Ohai and defender Jaelene Hinkle, while defenders Casey Short and Emily Sonnett are back from injury. The roster will be pared to 22 before the U.S. faces Japan on July 26. Brazil plays Australia the same day in the opener of round-robin tournament. The Tournament of Nations is an important tuneup for the U.S. ahead of World Cup qualifying, which begins with group matches Oct. 4 in Cary, North Carolina. FULL ROSTER Goalkeepers: Adrianna Franch (Portland Thorns), Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars) Defenders: Abby Dahlkemper (NC Courage), Tierna Davidson (Stanford), Jaelene Hinkle (NC Courage), Merritt Mathias (NC Courage), Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals), Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars), Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns) Midfielders: Morgan Brian (Chicago Red Stars), Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars), Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns), Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit), Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC), Samantha Mewis (NC Courage), Allie Long (Seattle Reign), McCall Zerboni (NC Courage) Forwards: Crystal Dunn (NC Courage), Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns), Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride), Kealia Ohai (Houston Dash), Christen Press (Utah Royals), Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign), Amy Rodriguez (Utah Royals)<doc-sep>Starting XI: Alyssa Naeher, Crystal Dunn, Tierna Davidson, Abby Dahlkemper, Emily Sonnett, Morgan Brian, Julie Ertz, Lindsey Horan, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Christen Press The United States opened up its 2018 Tournament of Nations run against Japan looking a little wobbly, but still able to focus in moments. It was just enough to hang in there with a much more focused Japanese side that never gave up poking and prodding at the United States for the entire first half. The US had some early looks, letting Crystal Dunn press high and collab with Megan Rapinoe to put the ball across the face of goal, but Alex Morgan was still calibrating at that point. Japan put their numbers in the middle, initially looking for balls over or through for Tanaka, who looked likely to peel off her defenders and snag one. Instead, she came up with an equalizer after Alex Morgan clicked with her wide players and scored in the 18’. Megan Rapinoe finds Alex Morgan to open up the scoring for the USWNT! pic.twitter.com/1yGcDc9siv — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 26, 2018 Well, that lead didn't last long... Tanaka equalizes for Japan with a lovely chip! pic.twitter.com/c30qJ4cVrf — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 26, 2018 The two goals were somewhat emblematic of the stylistic differences playing out: the United States fumbling a little but still powering along, Japan patiently looking for the spaces and then turning up the pressure. Dunn was more pinned back as Japan really tested her side of the defense, but the US shifted to Sonnett as the attacking fullback option, and eventually Dunn got her moment to press forward again. She put a ball into the box, Sonnett arrived late, and dropped a nice ball for Alex Morgan, who had too much space in front of goal and finished it to make it 2-1 in the 26’. The rest of the half didn’t find much more coherence for the United States; the midfield was a choose your own adventure of Ertz, Horan, and Brian trading off positionally but not adjusting well in handing off who was pressing and who was dropping. Rapinoe was the big ball mover, taking over lots of space in front of the 18 or looking up to see Press in open space for a big diagonal. Otherwise there wasn’t a lot of consistent connection between the midfields and forwards. The last big chance of the half was from Ertz as Alex Morgan’s header dropped the ball neatly into open space in front of goal. Ertz ran onto the ball and flubbed it right at the keeper. Things turned around in the second half despite the US not really altering their overall style that much. What did change was McCall Zerboni coming on for Morgan Brian to start the half and immediately going full bumper car as she enforced her will in the midfield and set up some nice feeds for Morgan and Press. The US had much better spells of ball possession to start the half and wasn’t so choppy moving forward. The next sub was Tobin Heath in the 54’ for Press; Heath was another one who changed the pace and immediately made an impact, assisting Alex Morgan for her third goal of the night in the 56’. Julie Ertz came out in the 64’ for Rose Lavelle, who returned to the pitch once again after another spell of rehab on her hamstring. She’s already been easing back into match fitness with the Washington Spirit and she looked fairly confident out there, initially playing in a bit of a 10 role, but drifting to the right as the midfield continued their mix ‘n match approach. Lavelle helped set up a give-and-go with Megan Rapinoe in the 66’ that put in a fourth goal for the US, just about sealing Japan’s fate for the night. Megan Rapinoe gets in on the action! But what's that celebration all about, @mPinoe?? pic.twitter.com/CHzaTaR35p — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 27, 2018 Naeher had to make a big block in the 69’ on a point-blank shot in the box, and then narrowly escaped another attempt as Japan switched it up with a cross but put the resulting shot over. Then the United States made a big triple sub in the 73’, bringing on Carli Lloyd, Sam Mewis, and Casey short for Morgan, Horan, and Rapinoe. Dunn moved up to left forward with Lloyd at center forward and Mewis at left midfield and Short in her usual left back position. Japan scored three minutes later as Sakaguchi put Tobin Heath on the ground with some confident maneuvering and then floated in a hell of a ball from outside the box. Sakaguchi put Tobin Heath on skates and placed it in the corner to pull one back for Japan! pic.twitter.com/wpLm0pprCe — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 27, 2018 The US shifted into a 5-4-1 after that, bringing Dunn back on the left side, and they finished the game out to end it at 4-2. It wasn’t the prettiest game from the United States; they often looked like a rough draft in some areas next to Japan’s more polished product, and yet they also pounced on nearly every chance. They absorbed Japan’s testing jabs and came back with a couple of nice combinations, putting the game away with several top individual efforts. Up next: Australia, who might be a much bigger question mark if the US midfield continues to teeter not-quite-on-balance. USA vs Australia July 29 7 PM ET Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. FS1<doc-sep>
After the success of the She Believes Cup, which the US Women’s National Team has won two out of the three years, US Soccer announced the Tournament of Nations. It’s another series of friendlies to help keep the USWNT fit and sharp for upcoming World Cup Qualifying. This is the second annual Tournament of Nations, which the lowest seeded Australia won in 2017 (the US came in second). The She Believes Cup featured England, Germany and France so the Tournament of Nations picked up the other top tier teams: Japan, Brazil and Australia. They should be good tests to see where the United States women are before World Cup Qualifying starts for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France. WCQ for CONCACAF is also hosted in the US and will take place from October 4th through the 17th of 2018. Three teams will qualify automatically from that event and a fourth will go to an intercontinental playoff. That fourth place team will do a home-and-away intercontinental playoff, with the third-place finisher of CONMEBOL’s 2018 Women’s Copa America. For WCQ the eight teams involved will be broke into two groups of four with the top two in each group advancing to a tournament format. For the Tournament of Nations though, it’s a simple round-robin format where each team plays the other once and the team with the most points at the end wins. If there is a tie, the tie-breakers go in the following order: best goal difference then total goals scored, head-to-head record and finally, FIFA ranking. Speaking of FIFA Rankings, the US are first, Japan are sixth, Brazil seventh and Australia eighth. For the ToN Jill Ellis called in 25 players, including for FC Kansas City players Becky Sauerbrunn and Amy Rodriguez. Controversially, Ellis included Jaelene Hinkle in her call-ups. However, Ellis released Hinkle and Kealie Ohai yesterday bringing the roster down to 23 players. How to Watch/Stream In the US the only games scheduled currently to be aired on TV are the USWNT games. All of them will air on Fox Sports 1 (FS1) live and can be streamed through Fox Sports Go. Of course the opening two matches are going to be played in the home of Sporting Kansas City, Children’s Mercy Park. Those two games are on Thursday, July 26th and will be back-to-back. So take the afternoon off and go catch some of the best women’s players in the world. In Australia, the games will air on Foxtel (Fox Sports). No information is currently available (in English) for the Brazil or Japanese rights to the games. The full schedule is below.