Concacaf W Championship – Final: USA vs. Canada

Date: July 18, 2022
Venue: Estadio BBVA; Monterrey, Mexico
Broadcast:  Paramount+, ViX
Broadcast Time: 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT
Official Kickoff Time: 10 p.m. ET / 9 p.m. CT

Starting XI vs. Canada: 1-Alyssa Naeher; 3-Alana Cook, 4-Becky Sauerbrunn (Capt.), 8-Sofia Huerta, 9-Mallory Pugh, 10-Lindsey Horan, 11-Sophia Smith, 13-Alex Morgan, 16-Rose Lavelle, 17-Andi Sullivan, 19-Emily Fox

Available Subs: 2-Ashley Sanchez, 5-Kelley O’Hara, 6-Trinity Rodman, 12-Naomi Girma, 14-Emily Sonnett, 15-Megan Rapinoe, 18-Casey Murphy, 20-Taylor Kornieck, 21-Aubrey Kingsbury, 22-Kristie Mewis, 23-Midge Purce, 24-Sam Coffey

GAME NOTES | FIVE THINGS TO KNOW – CANADA

• USWNT Starting XI Cap Numbers (including this match): Sauerbrunn (207), Morgan (196), Horan (116), Naeher (83), Lavelle (78), Pugh (78), Sullivan (32), Smith (21), Huerta (19), Fox (17), Cook (13)

• The starting XI to take on Canada – which is the fifth unique starting lineup used by the USA at this Concacaf W Championship – features two different players from the lineup that started the semifinal vs. Costa Rica; Naeher for Murphy in goal and Fox for Sonnett on defense.
• Tonight’s starting lineup includes just five players who started against Canada in the Olympic semifinal, which was the most recent meeting between the teams: Naeher, Sauerbrunn, Horan, Lavelle and Morgan.

• Horan and Smith will now have started every game for the USA at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship, both making their fifth consecutive start.
• This starting lineup averages 28 years of age and 77 caps per player, with three players – Sauerbrunn, Morgan and Horan – at over 100 caps and three – Huerta, Fox and Cook – with fewer than 20 caps.

• Becky Sauerbrunn will captain the USA for the 36^th time overall but her first in a Final as she makes her 207^th international appearance for the USA. Sauerbrunn now breaks a tie with Tiffeny Milbrett to take sole possession of ninth on the USA’s all-time cap list, the most caps by any player in USWNT history to have played almost exclusively as a defender.

• Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher will make her second start of the Concacaf W Championship as she earns her 83^rd career cap. Naeher, who pitched a clean sheet against Jamaica in the USA’s second group stage match on July 7, has 48 career shutouts, which ranks third in USWNT history. Two of Naeher’s 48 career clean sheets have come against Canada. Naeher, who had a standout tournament in Tokyo, started the Olympic semifinal against Canada but was forced to leave in the 30^th minute and the score tied 0-0 with a knee injury that would sideline her for the rest of the year.

• Alana Cook will make her fourth start of the Concacaf W Championship as she earns her 14^th career cap for the USWNT. Cook, who is playing in her first competitive tournament with the USWNT, leads the USA in total minutes played this year with 746 minutes of action. This will be Cook’s 12^th start in the USA’s last 14 matches, a span that dates back to the November 2021 matches in Australia.

• Sofia Huerta will make her second consecutive and third start overall of the Concacaf W Championship as she earns her 19^th cap with the USA. Huerta, who will now have seen the field in all five games at the Concacaf W Championship, has two assists in 2022 and has also helped create two own goals. Seven of Huerta’s nine career starts will have now come since her return to the national team picture in November of 2021.

• Forward Mallory Pugh will make her fourth start of the Concacaf W Championship as she earns her 78^th career cap. Pugh leads the USA with seven assists in 2022, two of which have come this tournament, and scored her 24^th international goal in the July 14 victory over Costa Rica. This will be Pugh’s second time starting a final for the USA and her first since 2016 Olympic Qualifying when she started the USA’s 2-0 win over Canada in the championship match.

• Lindsey Horan will start her fifth consecutive game at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship as she makes her 116^th international appearance. Horan, who led the USA in scoring with six goals at the 2020 Concacaf Olympic Qualifying Tournament, has eight goals and eight assists in 18 career appearances in Concacaf Qualifying matches and has two goals and two assists in seven career appearances against Canada.

• Sophia Smith will earn her 21^st cap as she makes her team-leading 11^th start of 2022 and fifth consecutive start of the tournament. Smith, who is playing in her first competitive tournament with the USWNT, leads the USWNT in scoring with seven goals on the year and tallied a brace within the first eight minutes of the USA’s 5-0 victory over Jamaica on July 7.

• After scoring a brace in the USA’s opening match against Haiti, Alex Morgan will make her fourth start of the tournament as she earns her 196^th cap and moves past Shannon Boxx to take sole possession of 13^th on the USA’s all-time caps list. The brace against Haiti marked Morgan’s 29th career multi-goal game, third best in U.S. history. She has now scored 21 goals in 23 career qualifying appearances for the USWNT, third-most in USA history.

• Midfielder Rose Lavelle will make her fourth start and fifth appearance overall this tournament as she earns her 78^th cap for the USA. Lavelle scored the USA’s third goal in the 5-0 victory over Jamaica on July 7 for her third goal of the year and tallied her sixth assist of 2022 in the USA’s July 14 victory over Costa Rica. Lavelle, who has two goals in four career appearances against Canada, has been directly involved in nine goals in the USA’s last eight matches, tallying three goals and adding six assists.

• Andi Sullivan will earn her 32^nd career cap as she makes her fourth start of the Concacaf W Championship, which will be her first start and first appearance for the USWNT in a final. Sullivan is third overall on the USWNT this year in total minutes played with 658 and will be making her 10^th start of 2022.

• Defender Emily Fox returns to the USA starting lineup after missing the last two games while in COVID protocols. Fox started the USA’s games against Haiti and Jamaica and is set to earn her 17^th career cap. She will have now appeared in 13 of the USA’s 16 games since the October 2021 FIFA Window and will be making her 12^th start during that span.