As the United States Women’s National Team prepares for their toughest challenge of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup yet, they’ll be without one of their top players. U.S. midfielder Rose Lavelle will be serving a one-game suspension after being assessed a yellow card for a hard challenge during Tuesday’s match against Portugal.
And because she drew her second yellow card of the tournament, she will now have to serve an automatic one-match suspension when the team takes on Sweden in the knockout stages of the tournament.
Lavelle, who was on a minutes restriction, as she worked her way back from injury, had come on as a substitute in the first two games. She started the third game of the tournament and national team coach Vlatko Andonovski said that she changed the game when she came in. However, it came at the expense of another yellow card.
Andonovski said via ESPN that Savannah DeMelo and Ashley Sanchez can possibly step into Lavelle’s attacking midfielder role., but declined to say who would take her place in the starting lineup.
“Rose is a great player — one of the best players in the world — and not having her is definitely going to change some of the ways we’re going to approach the game,” Andonovski said, via ESPN. “At this same time, we have a great roster of players who are here for a reason, for moments like this and are ready to step in.”
The United States will now be without Lavelle for their pivotal match against Sweden this weekend as the team continues its pursuit of an unprecedented third consecutive FIFA Women’s World Cup title. We’ll have to see how the team replaces her on the field.
[ESPN]
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.