U.S. women in Australia with World Cup in mind

A new-look U.S. women’s national team ends a long season with its first appearances in Australia since losing the gold-medal match at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Head coach Vlatko Andonovski on Thursday said it’s no coincidence that the Americans are playing Australia in two matches in the country that will co-host the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

The two-time defending champion Americans still have to qualify for the 2023 event, but that’s practically a foregone conclusion that should be confirmed early next year.

“We wanted to test the players against one of the best teams in the world,” Andonovski said during a conference call from the team’s training camp in Sydney. “But also test them for the adversity, long travel, jet lag after a long year. I think very quickly into the game we will find out who is cut out for this and who is not.”

The U.S. plays Australia on Saturday (8 p.m. PST Friday) at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium, where a crowd of 35,00040,000 is expected, and Tuesday at Newcastle, about a two hour’s drive north of Sydney.

Andonovski will do so with a far different lineup than the one that beat Australia 4-3 in the bronze-medal match at the Tokyo Olympics in August. The Americans have lost just two matches this year, but they were big ones: a 3-0 loss to Sweden in the round-robin portion of the Olympic tournament and 1-0 to eventual goldmedal-winning Canada in the semifinals.

For the matches in Australia, there are only 10 players in the 22-player roster from the squad that played at the Tokyo Games. There are 12 members with 10 or fewer international caps, including five uncapped players.

Becky Sauerbrunn, one of two players on the roster over 30, is by far the most experienced player with 197 appearances. Lindsey Horan, 27, is the only other player on this roster with 100-plus caps, with 106.

“I’d like to be a role model for them,” Horan said. “It’s exciting to see, new younger players coming in and to start a new cycle, a new era.”

That new era includes Brazilian-born Catarina Macario, who skipped her senior season at Stanford to turn pro in January, then received her U.S. citizenship in time to play for the Americans in Tokyo. Former Stanford midfielder Andy Sullivan and Fresno native Lynn Williams (five goals in 2021) are also on the roster.

MLS playoffs: Larrys Mabiala scored in the 90th minute durng a scrum following a corner kick and the Portland Timbers won 1-0 at top-seeded Colorado to advance to the Western Conference final.

Portland will face the winner of Sunday’s game between Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake.