heartwarming: after decade, national team finally calls up one of country's best midfielders

Not soon after Emma Hayes landed in America and took on the day-to-day responsibility of assessing the U.S. player pool, she spoke of a ‘lost generation.’ Since its early days, U.S. Soccer’s penchant to treat the U.S. Women’s National Team as half team/half marketing entity has meant that only a fraction of the talent in the country had a perceived “right” to wear the shirt, and be in the commercials. This mindset, which lasted throughout the tenure of various coaches, led to several deserving players never being considered as national team caliber talents. Lo’eau LaBonta, who graduated from Stanford in 2014, seemed destined to fall into that category.

Instead, on a random Tuesday in May of 2025, LaBonta was finally called up. Saturday, May 31st, she stepped onto the pitch to earn her first national team cap at 32-years-old. The narrative predictably became one of inspiration and never giving up on your dreams. While on the surface the puzzle fits, and makes it the easiest story to tell, the reality is more frustrating than inspiring. The whole ordeal reminded me of those horrific late-stag capitalism headlines like ‘HEARTWARMING: Students Host Bake Sale to Buy Bus Pass for Custodian Who Walks Seven Miles to Work’.

For LaBonta herself, this is incredible and she deserves all the celebration and publicity that’s been long overdue. However, the rest of us—while still celebrating LaBonta—can also point at a system that's repeatedly overlooked one of our most talented midfielders for a literal decade.

One of the saddest side effects of U.S. Soccer’s Hunger Games-ification of the national team has been casual fans and non-NWSL following media defaulting to a belief that so few players are deserving of the USWNT. This may seem like petulance, given that there are only ever 23 slots for major tournaments. But it wasn’t that long ago that the USWNT functioned like a club team, particularly prior to 2022, which marked the end of the allocation system that saw national team stars sign contracts with the federation, rather than the league or their clubs.

There are also the truths that an established domestic league is supposed to benefit a country’s national team by deepening the talent pool, and that we have a collegiate system in which thousands of players compete to become professionals. It’s unimaginative and quite lazy to believe that, given all this, the best approach to our national team is artificially restricting the talent pool.

It’s also just unfair. Because Lo, and others, have shown the talent and performances that would qualify them for a look at the international level. Last year, LaBonta was a key midfield piece for a record-breaking attack in the NWSL. She often played alongside teenage talent, Claire Hutton, and fellow member of the lost generation, Vanessa DiBernardo. Lo’s well-rounded game helped Hutton ease into life as a professional, and supported DiBernardo, who put in MVP shortlist caliber performances.

Within the Current’s system, LaBonta’s ability to execute different roles based on the opponent, and team’s needs, is irreplaceable. But LaBonta didn’t just become good, or good enough for the national team. She’s been one of the league’s most fun and complete midfielders for almost her entire time in the league. The living, sometimes twerking, counter to the belief that the United States doesn’t develop technical midfielders is Lo LaBonta.

On a national team that has a perpetual need for midfielders, it’s frustrating that so many members of the lost generation are natural midfielders. The USWNT scrambled, floundered, and stumbled into their worst ever World Cup due to an inability to replace the abilities of Sam Mewis and Julie Ertz. Those were two of our most uniquely dynamic players, but from March to November NWSL pitches featured several players with the skills and abilities to take on the challenge—but were never called.

While I appreciate Emma Hayes’s attempt to finally expand the player pool, it’s hard not to think of what could and should have been for so many American talents, LaBonta included. When I finally steal that green stone from Dr. Strange’s neck and figure out how to do the whole meditating through alternate futures thing, I’m going to come back with a smile and tell you all about the one in which a pivotal 2023 World Cup knockout round match was won with yet another Lo’eau LaBonta banger.