It’s January so that means international soccer’s most club-like team, the USWNT has once again assembled players for a camp outside of a FIFA window. Given that it’s not an official window, clubs have no duty to release healthy players to camp so they can play friendlies that have nothing to do with anything. But this is where having a strong domestic league like the NWSL comes in handy. So Emma Hayes plucked from a pool of U.S.-based NWSL talent to cobble together a fun group to face off against Paraguay and Chile.

Because it’s a fun group, I’m going to look at each outfield position group and who I’m interested to watch.

First things first, Tara Rudd is Tara McKeown. She married her partner in the offseason so we have a name change. In this instance I’ve come up with a good trick to help you get used to the new name: Tara McKeown was a forward turned center back, Tara Rudd has always been a center back. There, done.

Anyway, this is a fun and very possession and attack-focused defensive group. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the inevitable ball or two that gets into space behind them, but Paraguay and Chile aren’t really expected to test them severely enough to reveal many glaring deficiencies.

Here’s who I’ll be watching the most:

Bugg is 19-years-old but the more Emma Hayes gets to see her in camp the closer she’s going to get to establishing herself in the senior team when everyone’s available for selection. Bugg has great awareness, is physical in duels, and is essentially a midfielder with the ball at her feet. If Hayes could build a center back in a lab the result wouldn’t be much different than what Bugg is turning out to be.

To be entirely honest with you I am just hoping Gisele makes it through the entirety of the camp injury free. She turned 20 in December but is having a hell of a time shaking nagging injuries that’s cost her time on the pitch for club and country. In 2025 she had to exit multiple USWNT camps early with hip and hamstring injuries.

When she’s on the pitch though? Sweet Mother Mary Josephine Baker.

Kate Wiesner is another ultra-talented defender who struggles with injury. Unfortunately Wiesner’s injury issues are the nagging type that cost her weeks at a time, instead, she’s missed months. But every time she gets healthy and steps on the pitch she immediately shows her potential, and Emma Hayes calls her into a camp.

Wiesner’s best attribute is her wicked left foot. When she receives the ball in space she has an array of passes and crosses that she can pull off. She’s not much of an on-ball creator, so working the ball around to find her in space is the best way to use her skillset. It will be interesting to see whether Hayes plays her as the fullback that drops beside center backs in possession, or whether she’ll want her taking more risks going forward.

I love this midfield group. For all the chatter about the U.S. needing more technical players, this is a unit with a lot of range — from on-ball creators to off-ball runners to midfield scrappers. I’m here for this. While I’m a noted Bethune, LaBonta and Hutton Truther, I’m slightly more intrigued to see some of the other names in the group.

Sam Meza is a real midfielding ass midfielder who just wants to midfield. It feels like there’s a high probability that she’ll be in midfielder of the year conversations soon. My only concern is if she can sharpen all of her skills if Laura Harvey remains committed to scamming points through sufferball tactics. I’m not quite at #FreeSamMeza yet, but ask again in 4-5 months.

Riley. Jackson. Be. Passin.

Jackson turned 20 in December but I am already hype by what she’s shown in the pitch in the NWSL. She has a natural vision and determination to break lines with her passes, and has a range of techniques that see her thread, lob, spin and slide the ball forward for teammates. The good folks at Boots on the Ground dropped a highlight reel of plays she made against Orlando Pride that is well worth watching.

There’s still some strength work to be done, but as I said, she’s 20. I would much rather her have the passing and vision ability now than the physical strength, one of those is much easier to build than the other.

Menti feels like a classic midfield engine. As of yet there isn’t a particular technique or skill that jumps out, she’s just a very intuitive midfielder with a desire to cover as much ground as she needs to be where she needs to be. A pretty-good-at-everything midfielder who’s a tireless runner and coaching sponge can be a dangerous thing with the right guidance.

Ok hear me out. I tend to position myself as nerd-adjacent so that i can make fun of both sides, but I am completely exposed when it comes to Hal Hershfelt. There’s a lot of meh on her player radar, but I can tell you that the Washington Spirit are a very different team without her. She does a lot of sideways and backwards passing and is a tough tackler and physical presence, but without the range and athleticism of Julie Ertz or Jaelin Howell.

She’s just very good at what she does and that is: being Hal Hershfelt. Personally, I don’t think the stats capture how subtly she receives and repositions the ball to open up passing angles to the other side of the pitch. The Spirit don’t often switch play with a ling diagonal punt, instead they use Hershfelt, and she is very good at it. Where does that fit on a national team? I will leave that to Emma Hayes to figure out.

I love this midfield group. For all the chatter about the U.S. needing more technical players, this is a unit with a lot of range — from on-ball creators to off-ball runners to midfield scrappers. I’m here for this. While I’m a noted Bethune, LaBonta and Hutton Truther, I’m slightly more intrigued to see some of the other names in the group.

Jameese Joseph is one for the ‘step away from the spreadsheet and look at this’ crowd. During her rookie season in 2024 she showed the ability to not look out of place opposite Mallory Swanson. In 2025, she often did the same with Ludmila.

Despite the multiple dumpster fires of Chicago leadership (from front office decisions to coaching), Joseph has found ways to continue to develop, and now her stats show the player she can be. I particular love the combination of high xA/96 and low turnover rate. You can see why Mal and Ludmila enjoyed playing with her.

I don’t know if Reilyn Turner was always utilized correctly under Rob Gale (ok that was just me being nice, I do know, and she was not), but there’s a serious goalscorer who could have a breakout season in the right setup. From a shots perspective, this is exactly what you want from a center forward. Turner took an overwhelming amount of her shot in areas below the penalty spot, and within the width of the six yard box.

The struggle was in finishing those shots. Twenty-four of her sixty-seven shots being on target is about a 36% on target percentage, which is also good. But getting six goals from 9.14 total xG is #ungood. But with a dearth of true 9s in the USWNT player pool, and Turner also eligible to play for Mexico, it’s very good to get her in camp and see if the finishing woes were more about environment than a knack for scuffing chances.

Getting out of Utah was a smart move. Sentnor had just turned 21 and throughout the 2025 season it was becoming evident that Utah’s best chance was Sentnor doing something outrageous. The pressure and lack of help from the coaching staff meant that a young player who needed development was instead leaning into bad habits. At Kansas City she got to step back and be part of a team, rather than its savior. (Though now she’s going to be coached by Chris Armas for some reason, so, yeah.)

What I’m hoping to see from Sentnor is more calm on the ball. She is wildly talented, has great acceleration across small distances, very good change of direction and solid dribbling technique, but can rush to end a sequence rather than assessing her options. I’m not even mad that she ends most of them with long range shots, bangers are my drugs and she is a player who has the ability to score them more than most, but finding the right time and windows for those piledriver shots is important.

If she can mix in different speed settings (in play and in thought) she’ll become a very serious problem of a footballer.

Yes, actually. Look out for Claudia Martínez for Paraguay, especially if you have a tendency to enjoy watching the Washington Spirit. The Spirit are reportedly close to agreeing to shell out a $950,000 transfer fee for the 18-year-old forward. She scored against damn near everyone in last summer’s 2025 Copa América Femenina (Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela). Then in November she added Uruguay to the list in 25/26 CONMEBOL Women’s Nations League play.

I can’t claim to have watched anything other than highlights from her time with domestic club Olimpia, so I can’t really tell you much. All I know is that Olimpia somehow finished second to Club Libertad (my guess is head to head) despite an equal number of points, wins, draws and losses, and with Olimpia’s goal difference being ONE-HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN to Libertad’s paltry (lol) +94. Martinez also received the league’s MVP award in December. So, uh, I for one am extremely hype to overanalyze everything I see from an international friendly against the USWNT. It’s what I do.

Happy USWNT’ing, everyone.