"I watch every football match, and I've loved the start of the NWSL," Emma Hayes said this week. That's not a throwaway line. For the players on the outside of her World Cup picture, it's the most important thing their national team coach has said in months.
January camp brought zero first-time call-ups. The SheBelieves Cup — where the U.S. beat Argentina, Canada, and Colombia to lift the trophy — looked like Hayes drawing a line under her audition phase. The squad was crystallising. The door was narrowing.
Three weeks of NWSL football later, and that door is wedged back open.
Wilson and Davidson: the returners who matter most
The two names with the most to gain right now are Mallory Swanson and Tierna Davidson — both returning from extended absences, both accumulating minutes with Portland and Gotham respectively, and both expected to feature in the upcoming Japan friendlies camp in some capacity.
Swanson's progression with the Thorns has been deliberate. Fifteen minutes on her regular-season return, then 31, then 45, then a start with 68 minutes against Kansas City. She hasn't scored yet, but she hit the post, drew a penalty, and forced a top-level save from goalkeeper Lorena in the same match. She isn't 90-minutes fit. She will be soon.
Davidson's return is harder to quantify — center backs rarely announce themselves with numbers — but Hayes has been direct about wanting her back in the environment. "She hasn't been in it for such a long time, there's been so many developments," Hayes said, adding she'll be used in a limited capacity initially. Her left foot and ability to carry the ball into the final third are qualities Hayes has flagged before. Those attributes haven't diminished.
The comparison that makes Hayes' job genuinely complicated: how do you weigh Ally Sentnor — 18 caps deep into the Hayes system since November 2024 — against Swanson, an Olympic gold medalist returning cold to a national team that has moved on tactically without her? There's no clean answer. Hayes has to find one anyway.
The names pushing from outside the core
Beyond the two headline returners, several NWSL players are making the selection conversation harder to ignore:
- Pietra Tordin (Portland Thorns) — Hayes said this week she "has started really, really well." That kind of unsolicited praise from Hayes is rare and deliberate.
- Ayo Oke (Denver Summit) — the fullback has turned heads in the early NWSL weeks and represents the kind of positional depth Hayes will need for a long World Cup cycle.
- Jordynn Dudley (Gotham FC) — forward options are always at a premium; Dudley's early form puts her in the conversation.
- Eva Gaetino (Denver Summit) — center back cover behind Naomi Girma is a genuine need, especially with Davidson easing back from an ACL. Gaetino is providing a case.
- Lia Godfrey (San Diego Wave) — midfield depth that could matter in the later qualification and preparation windows before Brazil 2027.
None of these players are necessarily boarding a plane to Japan. But Hayes has been explicit: she's tracking 35 to 40 players she considers WNT core material, and she's leaving room for those who "really, really progress" over the next 12 to 15 months. Some will drop off. Some will arrive.
The USWNT's World Cup odds are built on a core that looked settled six weeks ago. The NWSL season is already making that settlement look premature — and Hayes, by her own admission, is paying close attention.
