Swanson, Macario return to USWNT after long absence
Just in time for Olympic roster consideration, long-absent Mallory Swanson and Catarina Macario are returning to the U.S. women’s national soccer team.
They were among 23 players named Tuesday to the roster for the SheBelieves Cup, the last tournament before preparations intensify for the Paris Olympics this summer.
The Americans, who have slipped to a program-low No. 4 in the FIFA rankings, will play Japan on April 6 in Atlanta and Canada or Brazil on April 9 in Columbus, Ohio.
The ninth annual SheBelieves Cup falls one year since Swanson’s last national team appearance - an April 8, 2023, friendly against Ireland. A dynamic winger in the best form of her career, Swanson tore a patella tendon and was ruled out of the World Cup last summer.
Her return to the national team this spring was expected after she was invited to training camp as a nonroster player before the recently completed Concacaf W Gold Cup. Swanson, 25, has started each of the Chicago Red Stars’ first two NWSL matches.
Macario’s last appearance for the national team came in April 2022. She was a rising star for both the United States and French club Olympique Lyonnais, but in June 2022, she tore an ACL. Complications in her rehab and issues with her other knee stalled her comeback.
Now with English club Chelsea - which is led by incoming U.S. coach Emma Hayes - Macario returned to action March 3, scoring six minutes into her appearance against Leicester City. She scored again a week later in the FA Cup against Everton and, since her re-* turn, has totaled 103 minutes in five matches across three competitions.
Macario, 24, has recorded eight goals and two assists in 17 national team appearances and will help compensate for the loss of Mia Fishel, her U.S. and Chelsea teammate, who tore an ACL in U.S. camp this winter.
While Swanson and Macario are returning to the mix, two young players from abroad will enter it: Paris Saint-Germain defender Eva Gaetino, 21, and Ajax Amsterdam’s Lily Yohannes, a 16-year-old midfielder from Springfield, Va., who moved with her family to the Netherlands six years ago.
Yohannes has posted four goals in 16 Dutch league matches and started nine UEFA Champions League games this season.
She becomes the youngest player to be called up for a full U.S. camp since 16-year-old Sophia Smith in April 2017.
The W Gold Cup, which the Americans won by defeating Brazil in the final, “provided a lot of players with needed experiences and presented us with different adversities we had to overcome together,” interim coach Twila Kilgore said in a statement.