After Mallory Pugh, head coach Jill Ellis has called up a second 17-year-old player to the U.S. women’s national team. Ashley Sanchez, who plays for the U.S. U-20s and U.S. U-17sfor whom she is the captain, was one of 23 players called up ahead of two matches against Colombia in April.
Sanchez, who hails from Monrovia, California, scored five goals over the fivegames as the USA swept all five games to win the recently completed Concacaf Under-17 Championship, where she won the Golden Ball award as the best player. In December, Sanchez had the winning goalsas the USA beat host Honduras in the semifinals and Canada in the final to win the Concacaf Under-20 Championship.
Sanchez, who turned 17 last week, plays for So Cal Blues, a program thatalso features U.S. U-17s Kennedy Wesley, Hillary Beall and Karina Rodriguez and Mexico U-17 Ashley Soto.
Sanchez is a high school junior and has verballycommitted to attend UCLA, where Pugh is slated to be a freshman in the fall.
Ellis also gave a callup to Portland Thorns midfielder Allie Long, who played with the USA in 2014 when she earned four caps. The Seattle Reign’s Lauren Barnes earned her first seniornational team call-up for the SheBelieves Cup but was not called back. Stephanie McCaffrey is the lone player on the Olympic qualifying roster not brought in for the SheBelieves Cup or Colombiaseries.
The USA will train in Orlando, Florida, for six days before playing Colombia April 6 at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford (7 p.m. on FS1). The teams will meet againfour days later at sold-out Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania. (2 p.m. ET. on ESPN).
“We don’t have that many international matches before the Olympics, so every game takes onincreased importance as far as the performance of the players, the evolution of the relationships among the positions and the overall growth of the team,” said Ellis in a statement. “Most of theplayers will be coming in from NWSL preseasons so we expect everyone to be sharp and we are looking forward to the challenges that a team like Colombia will present as we continue our Olympicpreparations.”
U.S. Roster:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars), Hope Solo(Seattle Reign).
DEFENDERS (8): Whitney Engen (Boston Breakers), Jaelene Hinkle (Western New York Flash), Julie Johnston (Chicago Red Stars), Meghan Klingenberg (Portland Thorns), AliKrieger (Washington Spirit), Kelley O’Hara (Sky Blue), Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City), Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns).
MIDFIELDERS (7): Morgan Brian (Houston Dash), Tobin Heath(Portland Thorns), Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns), Carli Lloyd (Houston Dash), Allie Long (Portland Thorns), Samantha Mewis (Western New York Flash), Heather O’Reilly (FC Kansas City).
FORWARDS (5): Crystal Dunn (Washington Spirit), Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride), Christen Press (Chicago Red Stars), Mallory Pugh (Real Colorado), Ashley Sanchez (So Cal Blues).