Barring an unforeseen injury recovery, the USA women’s soccer national team is set to miss two of its most important players at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup after star attacker Catarina Macario officially bowed out, and influential winger Mallory Swanson suffered a serious injury that many expect will force her to sit out.
Macario suffered a torn ACL in June 2022 in a meaningless late-season match with her club team Lyon, leaving her sidelined for a year. While she was hoping to emerge from that ordeal fit for the 2023 World Cup, it didn’t happen, and on May 23, 2023 she announced she would not be available for selection.
Swanson, meanwhile, suffered a torn patella tendon in April 2023, picking up the injury in a friendly against the Republic of Ireland. She’s been out since, and given that the injury typically requires a significant layoff from the moment of diagnosis, it’s expected to leave her unavailable for World Cup selection though her absence has not yet been made official.
Fans of the USWNT dreaming of seeing striker Alex Morgan, possibly in her last Women’s World Cup, feasting on the service of Swanson and Macario, will not get that chance as things stand today.
The double blow leaves the USWNT without their two most electric young attackers. The 23-year-old Macario had emerged as one of the world’s most fearsome dual threats from an attacking midfield position, while the 25-year-old Swanson’s development had seen her become one of the most dangerous wingers in the game.
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God’s plan. I will be back ✊🏾❤️ pic.twitter.com/JNMsl2RbMz
— Catarina Macario (@catarinamacario) May 23, 2023
How will USA replace Catarina Macario at World Cup 2023?
The easy answer is: they won’t. There is no player with Cat Macario’s profile in the U.S. player pool, which strikingly lacks a true No. 10. Her ability not only to score goals, but also to create chances, makes her unique in women’s international soccer.
During the 2021/22 French league season, according to FBRef, Macario finished in the 99th percentile in all of the following categories: non-penalty goals, non-penalty expected goals, shots, expected assists, and shot-creating actions. And she did that while scoring in the 97th percentile in touches in the opponent’s penalty area, and the 92nd percentile in both progressive carries and progressive passes received.
It is now USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski’s job to reconfigure his alignment to best make up for Macario’s absence. That plan would have involved the emergence of Mallory Swanson through the early part of 2023, but now that option looks to be gone as well.
With Macario being unavailable to the national team over the last year, Andonovski has had plenty of time to entertain alternatives. The 4-3-3 tactical formation he employs is also not specifically built around a playmaking and goal-scoring No. 10 like Macario, so he’s been able to mix and match replacements over recent months.
There is one definite truth, however, now that Macario is unavailable. The reliance on the attacking abilities of midfielders Lindsey Horan and Rose Lavelle becomes amplified, and they will be critically important to the team in Australia and New Zealand. They were already going to be essential to the USA’s World Cup chances, but they have now become indispensable.
In all likelihood, Macario’s absence will open a spot for someone like Ashley Hatch or Midge Purce, neither of whom have done quite enough to force their way into the final World Cup squad, but they continue to perform at a level that could qualify them for a place given the open slots.
MORE: Complete FIFA Women’s World Cup schedule
How will USWNT replace Mallory Swanson at 2023 World Cup?
Mallory Swanson burst into 2023 with such ferocity that talk of a Ballon d’Or season was not unwarranted.
Those dreams came to an end after her serious knee injury, and now the USWNT will need to reconfigure unless she makes a miraculous comeback.
As in the case of Cat Macario, the starting lineup can adjust to Swanson’s absence on paper, thanks to Sophia Smith’s ability to slot into the vacated left wing position. As with Horan and Lavelle, Smith’s health and form now take on critical importance, and her offensive production will play a huge factor in how far the U.S. can go at the 2023 tournament.
The player who would get more playing time in Swanson’s absence would surely be Trinity Rodman, who would presumably move into a starting role. With Smith shifting to Swanson’s left wing spot, and Morgan the likely starter at central striker, Rodman would slot into the right wing position as the third forward in the attacking line.
Rodman was always going to be on the roster. But one player who might get a callup if Swanson joins Macario on the sidelines is Alyssa Thompson, who should now almost surely be on her way to Australia and New Zealand as part of the USWNT roster.
The 18-year-old Thompson has a lot of developing still to do, and fans should temper their expectations of her playing a key role in the 2023 squad. But she could see minutes off the bench, and Thompson’s mere presence at the World Cup will set her up nicely for what many expect to be a long, productive national team career.
if it wasn’t obvious before today, it’s now even more clear that Alyssa Thompson is going to the World Cup
— Seth Vertelney (@svertelney) May 23, 2023
Finally, Swanson missing out should afford 37-year-old Megan Rapinoe a few more minutes with which to provide fans with a swansong moment. Her presence on the roster will be largely down to her veteran influence, but she’s actually playing quite well in her limited role with OL Reign this season, and she could now turn into an important piece of the USWNT puzzle at the World Cup, too.
MORE: How long is Mallory Swanson out for USA?
Can USA win the World Cup without Macario, Swanson?
The USA are still a top title contender at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, even without the presence of Catarina Macario and Mallory Swanson. They will still enter the tournament as the No. 1-ranked team in the world, and deservingly so.
The injuries deprive the USA of two supremely talented players, but the four-time world champions still have top-class players to fill in. There is no doubt, however, that the injuries make for a thinner squad when it comes to depth.
If Trinity Rodman is forced to start, the team will have to look to someone else to bring game-changing energy off the bench. And manager Vlatko Andonovski may not be able to rotate the front line as much as he’d normally like to keep the team fresh under the rigors of a high-intensity tournament like the World Cup.
The impact on the U.S. team’s quality depth puts far more pressure on the starters to not only perform, but to quite simply stay healthy. All the margin for error on this roster has seemingly been used up, and any further injury trouble could potentially be devastating.
While the starting lineup will still be strong, they will have to perform in every match for the U.S. to be successful, because the options to replace the starters aren’t nearly of the caliber they could have been.