#uswnt

[ajokewemade-finrodsfriend]

All credit goes to the creator @preathfc

[tcifob]

USA v Paraguay • FIFA World Cup 2026

SoFi Stadium • Inglewood, USA - June 12, 2026

🎥: USWNT Players via IG Reels

[melodious-oblivion]

recently (like 3 days ago) i made the call that michelle cooper could be following some form of a kelley o'hara arc with the uswnt. then i actually looked into it. and yeah, michelle cooper can follow a kelley o'hara arc.

for those unfamiliar, a history lesson. kelley was an incredible forward to start her career off. her senior year at stanford she got 26g/13a, and ended her time there with 57g/32a in 87 appearances, a mac hermann, and the most unfortunate final game of a college career. in her time with the u20 usynt she had 24 goals in 35 appearances. during her time in the short lived wps (drafted 3rd) she played in the midfield a bit more, and that was when pia decided "hey, if you want to play you're playing out back" and kelley was like "fuck this but okay i guess." and then like 6 months after her first start as an ob she was an olympic iron woman and got a gold medal out of it, and then became one of the most prolific outside backs the usa (and world) ever knew. and retired with 2 nwsl championships, 2 world cups, a gold medal, a bronze medal, and 6 concacaf trophies as an outside back, when she would've likely been cut from the forward pool, or at best languishing in the depth chart, due to how many talented forwards there were.

and now to the coop of it all. coop played college ball at duke, where she picked up the mac hermann award, and in her 40 appearances she scored 31 goals, 16 assists. she was drafted #2 in the 2023 class to KCC, where she's been since. in 2023 she had 3g/1a, 2024 3g/3a, 2025 6g/3a. she was called up to the uswnt in february 2025 and has established herself since then. and then against brazil we saw in the first half her showing off defensive chops to try and bolster the right side, and then in the second half she just became a wingback/outside back. okay, sure. and here's the thing: i can see it. coop is incredibly smart on the ball, she sees the field, she's aware of her physicality, and as we saw last camp she's incredibly adaptable to a variety of game states and is unafraid of some scrapping (if anything she invites it) and can pick up a new position in a pinch apparently. in general, coop reminds me of kelley. so why not add this?

one major part of kelley's switch was about where she'd get more playing time. that's true for coop too. on the plane to 2027 you've got trin, soph, mal, alyssa, and then after that it's honestly open imo. in the vague "forward or people who can play up there" pool you've also got emma, alyssa, coop herself, cat, ally, jaedyn, and they'll throw moultrie up there. not to mention yaz, reilyn, jameese, and some others hanging around the edges. the ob pool, specifically on the right? foxy, gisele, avery has established herself as front runner for the left starting spot but her as a backup. but it's foxy really and then behind her a big old ???????. if coop wants on that plane, the best way to get there is to set herself apart and make herself as valuable as possible. formidable forward who can play on the backline? that'll do it.

and with that, let's see some very rudimentary numbers and see what worlds i can create out of them.

because of the lack of minutes, i can't see her 2026 data yet, so i ran 2023/2024/2025. it's limited data generally, because she's never played as a defender for club, so we're expounding here.

here's her position map, showing yes that she's never played on the backline except for times considered statistically insignificant, meaning for the whole season she played in that position for less than 97 minutes total. i would like to know about when in 2023 they needed her as the cb for long enough it registered but still less than a full game. as you can see she's also a good midfield option if needed as an outside midfielder, making her essentially a 3 line threat.

this is her radar. you can compare it to a variety of player types, so for her that would normally be winger, but for this i looked at her in the fb category. this was the first thing i looked at and it's when i texted @trustherkindheart and said there actually may be some truth to my rambling. these numbers are much better than i thought. given that she's 5'3 i didn't expect her aerial numbers to be as high as they were. obviously xA will be astronomically high for a fb, as will prog carries, dribbling g+. turnover stat is solid, she can keep the ball. her defensive action numbers p96 look small because again this is not her position but it's actually a positive number. it's above a lot of wingers, and slightly below ob's like jenna nighswonger (10.23, 2023) or lilly reale (9.95, 2025), but not low enough that it's impossible to see room for improvement.

now we can see her def actions. 2023, rookie season, she was more a jack of all trades player (see above) and you can see her more officially solidifying on the right. obviously, again, it's not a high number because she's become a very reliable and renowned part of kcc's frontline during her breakout 2025 season, and a solid end to 2024.

THIS is where it gets the most interesting. her defensive statistical contributions are incredibly good for someone who is not a defender! her 2025 def actions won contribution is about the same as kayla sharples in 2025, as is the recovery stat. some of these numbers are close to where tara or sonnett have been for their most notable seasons. that's wild!

so like the tldr, will this happen? idk. who knows! there were a couple OB's on the bench that emma passed over in favor of putting michelle back there. but this was fun to think about. and now if it does happen you can all say "hey mel told us that would be a good idea!"

[pickledwoso]

i’m being so deeply deadass when i say i literally forget that the usmnt even exists until the men’s world cup comes around 🧍‍♀️

they’re so bad and they have like three fans so i never hear anything about them 🧍‍♀️ i keep seeing world cup posts on instagram referencing some of the players and i literally have never heard these names before 😭😭😭

as a side note the next time someone says the US has never won a world cup i might actually explode 😌

[fab-aa]

I have absolutely 0 interest in men’s soccer/football (or men’s anything) but the USMNT share their mens world cup prize money evenly with the USWNT so I’m rooting for them this world cup. Tonight while watching them I was like okay they’re playing well and the broadcasters were all seemingly surprised that they did well which was kinda funny. I also lol’ed at the Paraguay player getting carded due to flopping that’s just hilarious. And I’m loving the 4k HDR streaming option hope we get this in next year’s world cup😌

[sinister-yet-satisfying]

Watching the men’s World Cup and couldn’t help but think how much better it would be if all the players were women.

[twist3dtinkerbell]

It really hurts watching all the women’s national teams supporting their male national team counterparts in the World Cup

Yet the moment the women’s World Cup comes around suddenly the men are silent

Why must women support the men or get called out on it yet the men can’t support the women that are better than them in achievements

[hyperfixationsstation]

they are so nice for going out to the game