The U.S. roster for the under-20 women’s World Cup in Poland features eight professional players from the National Women’s Soccer League and 13 from the NCAA, U-20 head coach Vicky Jepson announced Wednesday.
During a news conference after the announcement, Jepson elaborated on the process — and the challenges — of selecting players for the roster and working with club decisions on whether to allow them to participate in the tournament.
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Notable absences from the squad list, comprising athletes born on or after Jan. 1, 2006, include NWSL players recently called up to the U-20 side, such as 18-year-old San Diego Wave forward Melanie Barcenas and 20-year-old Bay FC forward Onyeka Gamero. Jordyn Bugg, a 20-year-old center back for the Seattle Reign, also did not make this World Cup roster despite being invited to U-20 camp in late March and making six appearances with the senior U.S. women’s national team since her first call-up last June.
Barcenas’ omission from the roster is particularly surprising, though it is unclear whether the Wave decided to release her. The forward has scored four goals this season for San Diego and was last called to U-20 camp for its June window. Bay FC announced last Wednesday it had loaned Gamero to Dallas Trinity FC of the USL Super League for the remainder of the season.
According to FIFA rules, clubs are mandated to release players selected for national team duty only when a camp or competition falls in an international window. The U-20 World Cup does not. After the release of the U.S. roster, Jepson explained how she selected players, starting by informing them and their clubs or universities, then navigating those teams’ decisions whether or not to release the players.
From a provisional list of 55 players, Jepson selected 21 to take to Poland in September for the tournament. Jepson said she called all 55 players to inform them of her decision.
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“I think that’s respectful that they hear from me in person rather than via an email,” Jepson said.
From there, the U-20 manager phoned the clubs and colleges of the 21 selectees, asking questions such as, “‘What are your thoughts and feelings? Are you comfortable with releasing this player?'” she said.
“We will show them the time frame that they’ll be with us, and then it’s the club’s decision to say, ‘Yes, we support this,’ which we have some great examples where we’ve had that, and then there’s some that say, ‘No, we won’t be releasing this player,'” Jepson said.
Jepson, a former Tottenham assistant coach who was hired to manage the U-20 side in May 2025, did not specify which clubs declined to release players but noted “there’s nothing we can do about that.”
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When a club does not release a player for the tournament, Jepson said, “We then have a conversation with the player where we say, ‘You have been selected for the World Cup, but unfortunately the club is not releasing (you). But we want to show that we respect this decision in the way that we will still continue to monitor you, to support you as a federation.'”
She said some NWSL clubs, such as Racing Louisville with forward Audrey McKeen and the Houston Dash with midfielder Linda Ullmark, were cooperative in releasing athletes.
Colleges with historically successful soccer programs such as Stanford, Penn State and the University of North Carolina released multiple players: goalkeeper Caroline Birkel, defender Lizzie Boamah, and midfielder Y-Lan Nguyen of the Cardinal; goalkeeper Kealey Titmuss and defender Emma Johnson of the Nittany Lions; and defenders Aven Alvarez and Hope Munson and forward Sealey Strawn of the Tar Heels will travel to Poland.
“I am really grateful for all the college coaches and also the NWSL clubs that have been really collaborative, because ultimately, when a player wants to represent their country, for me, you should be respected,” Jepson said. “They should be the one that makes the decision, and we back that, and at the same time if a player doesn’t want to come, that’s also fine.”
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She reiterated that U.S. Soccer and the NWSL have a positive relationship. Jepson created a memo she plans to give the coaching, medical and performance staffs correlated to each player on her roster “so that we can do a handover of loading, and then when they finish the World Cup we can hand our data and loading back to keep that real close, tight relationship,” she said.
The U-20 World Cup has been shrouded in uncertainty in the run-up to kickoff. Scheduled to begin Sept. 5, it will be the first World Cup since FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s swiftly scrapped proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors in a project called FIFA Forward Enterprise.
Infantino’s plan immediately encountered harsh criticism and an outright rejection from UEFA, the governing body for European football. The 55 nations that make up the European confederation met virtually July 30 and agreed to boycott all World Cups over FIFA’s private investment plans.
“As a result of today’s discussion, no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership,” the confederation said that day.
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Concacaf, the governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, joined UEFA in rejecting the FFE proposal after meeting with its 41 member nations. The Asia Football Confederation later joined the criticism.
By July 31, FIFA and Infantino had walked back the FFE proposal considerably. After insisting that “nobody is selling football,” the FIFA president acknowledged in a statement that “the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place.
“Our purpose has always been — and will always be — to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”
Jepson said that the U.S. hadn’t been affected by the recent furor.
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“I know there’s a lot of noise around it, but that noise hasn’t slipped into our camp, and it’s certainly something that I’ve not been concerned about because the (U.S. Soccer) Federation has never once said to me that there’s a concern about this tournament going ahead,” she said Wednesday.
On Aug. 11, the Poland Football Association stated: “Preparations for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup are progressing according to the agreed schedule and have now entered their final stage. At this point, the Polish Football Association (PZPN) has not received any information regarding the possible withdrawal of any participating team from the tournament.
“We believe that the current situation will be resolved swiftly, allowing young players from across the world to compete in Poland.”
The U.S. has been placed in Group D alongside Japan, New Zealand and Italy. The United States will play its first match against Italy at noon ET on Sept. 6. North Korea is the reigning champion.
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The U.S. Under-20 World Cup roster in full.
(College/club; Hometown; Number of appearances (caps)/number of goals scored for the senior national team.)
Goalkeepers (3):
• Caroline Birkel (Stanford; St. Louis; 6)
• Evan O’Steen (Seattle Reign FC; Grapevine, Texas; 2)
• Kealey Titmuss (Penn State; Grand Blanc, Mich.; 5)
Defenders (7):
• Aven Alvarez (UNC; New Hill, N.C.; 12/0)
• Ella Bard (Louisville; Wadsworth, Ohio; 6/0)
• Lizzie Boamah (Stanford; San Diego; 6/0)
• Pearl Cecil (Virginia; Encinitas, Calif.; 2/0)
• Emma Johnson (Penn State; Greenfield, Ind.; 9/1)
• Hope Munson (UNC; Holladay, Utah; 6/0)
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• Katie Scott (Kansas City Current; Fairview, Pa.; 11/1)
Midfielders (6):
• Kennedy Fuller (Bay FC; Southlake, Texas; 8/2)
• Lily Joseph (Notre Dame; Hamden, Conn; 2/0)
• Ainsley McCammon (Seattle Reign FC; Bedford, Texas; 6/0)
• Y-Lan Nguyen (Stanford; Fairfax, Va.; 5/0)
• Nyanya Touray (Florida State; Silver Spring, Md.; 4/0)
• Linda Ullmark (Houston Dash; Buffalo, N.Y.; 7/6)
Forwards (5):
• Emeri Adames (Seattle Reign FC; Red Oak, Texas; 4/1)
• Alex Buck (Washington; Medina, Wash.; 6/1)
• Micayla Johnson (Chicago Stars FC; Troy, Mich.; 4/2)
• Audrey McKeen (Racing Louisville FC; Vienna, Va.; 2/0)
• Sealey Strawn (UNC; Prosper, Texas; 2/0)
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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