USWNT positional battles: As Concacaf W Gold Cup kicks off, USA must settle lineup questions across the field

As new-look USWNT is poised to compete at the Olympics, can old vets Becky Sauerbrunn and Alex Morgan assert themselves?

For the U.S. women's national team, the inaugural edition of the Concacaf W Gold Cup will act as a testing ground for new players and new ideas, which means several spots are up for grabs ahead of July's Olympics.

While a handful of players who competed at the Women's World Cup are in the squad, a sizable portion of the Gold Cup roster is made up of those who were not in the picture last year. It means the road to Paris will be filled with experimentation, especially as the USWNT eyes a refreshed tactical identity under incoming head coach Emma Hayes, and the likelihood that the Olympics squad might only bear a passing resemblance to the World Cup team.

Ahead of the USWNT's opening Gold Cup match against the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, here's a look at the positional battles that will dominate the narratives around the regional heavyweights for the next week.

The center back conversation

The discussion around roster spots, regardless of position, will start with two points: the players who feel like locks and the formation the coaching staff ends up utilizing. There are a lot of things up in the air as it pertains to the second point, not only because Hayes has yet to start, but because she is ultimately a tactical pragmatist who never sticks to one particular formation. Still, in the center back position, one thing is very clear: one spot is reserved for Naomi Girma. The question, then, is this: Who will start alongside her?

Hayes, being Hayes, has rotated between playing four at the back and three at the back in recent years. It means as many as two spots could be open, which is good news for the long list of center backs the USWNT have at their disposal. The frontrunner for at least one of the spots is Tierna Davidson, who was on the 2019 World Cup-winning team and spent the last year re-establishing herself as arguably one of the best players in the pool after recovering from an ACL tear. The pecking order after her, though, will be worth tracking during the Gold Cup since the rest of the field are in very different stages of their national team careers.

The freshest face of the group is NWSL rookie of the year Jenna Nighswonger, who picked up her first start for the USWNT in December as a center back alongside Girma and Davidson but excelled for NJ/NY Gotham FC as a fullback and was drafted as a forward. Two veterans are in the mix, too -- Abby Dahlkemper and Becky Sauerbrunn. The pair were the USWNT's starting center backs in the 2019 World Cup final, but feel like question marks right now for different reasons.

The 30-year-old Dahlkemper spent the better part of two years combating injury, but finally made her national team return in December, and so the Gold Cup feels like a ramp for her to build a good run of form and keep herself in the conversation. As for the 38-year-old Sauerbrunn, she recovered from a foot injury that kept her out of last year's World Cup but has been left out of the USWNT rotation in recent months -- whether it's solely because the coaching staff is fleshing out the depth chart or a sign of Sauerbrunn's stock dropping is still up in the air. She was initially left off the Gold Cup roster but Alana Cook's injury meant the veteran got the invite, and now has a chance to prove that she still has something to offer a youth-focused team.

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Wide players: Defense, attack or both

Hayes may be a flexible tactician, but if there is one thing she prefers, regardless of the formation she selects, it's impactful wide players. It's a position on the pitch where the USWNT is incredibly deep, leaving a long list of players and formational preferences for the coaching staff to choose from.

The favorites for the roles might be Emily Fox and Crystal Dunn, two players who have seemingly locked down the respective positions of right back and left back. Dunn has a long-demonstrated ability to contribute to the attack and Fox seems eager to build a similar profile after joining Arsenal this winter. In terms of wide players with proven defensive sensibilities, Casey Krueger showcased a talent to go forward in a December friendly while Nighswonger has done the same during her rookie season with title-winning Gotham.

Should the coaching staff prefer players who are out-and-out forwards, Lynn Williams and Trinity Rodman recently got looks on the left side during the December friendlies. It's also worth name-dropping Midge Purce here, the reigning NWSL Championship MVP who has made a name for herself as a forward but has earned a chunk of minutes for the national team as an outside back.

Attacking ability is seemingly a must, and something all but Krueger have a well-known pattern of showcasing, but the December friendlies suggests that there might be room on the pitch for one player classified as a defender and one listed as a forward on the roster. Two games is a pretty small sample size, though, so the Gold Cup could provide some clarity on the tactical desires of the USWNT coaching staff that could clear up the picture as the Olympics rapidly approach.

Midfield rebuild

If there's one area of the pitch that might be destined for a full rebuild, it's the midfield. The retirements of Julie Ertz and Sam Mewis mean the USWNT will finally have to replace them, but it seems like there might be some obvious answers to the midfield questions.

After a strong outing in defensive midfield during the USWNT's round of 16 loss to Sweden at the World Cup and an impressive season in the NWSL last year, Emily Sonnett seems like the frontrunner to be the new anchor of the team's midfield. Captain Lindsey Horan feels like a lock, as does Rose Lavelle when fit. Where they fit on the field and who lines up alongside them, though, is a different story.

During the December friendlies, there were two advanced slots that were designed to complement Sophia Smith, who appears to be the go-to for center forward on this squad. Those roles have been offered up to a mix of midfielders and forwards, with Lavelle and Savannah DeMelo taking the honors in one game and Horan and Jaedyn Shaw filling those spots in the other. Add to the mix the attack-minded Olivia Moultrie and the versatile Korbin Albert to make for yet another competitive race for tickets to Paris, and the battle for playing time at the Gold Cup a fascinating one.

The link between the midfield and forward line also raises questions about where two more players factor into the picture -- Sam Coffey and Alex Morgan. The deep-lying midfielder Coffey played alongside Sonnett in the USWNT's final friendly of 2023 and now has a chance to prove that she's more than a useful backup, while Morgan is in the same camp as Sauerbrunn as a veteran with something to prove. She might now be frontrunner to serve as Smith's understudy after Mia Fishel tore her ACL on Monday, but needs to improve upon a 2023 in which she scored just nine goals for club and country.

It might come down to recent form for several players eyeing a ticket to Paris, and ultimately erase the struggles of the World Cup by assembling a team that can convince onlookers they are set up to succeed.