Jill Ellis names 2017 SheBelieves Cup roster

Jill Ellis has named the 23 players who will be rostered for the 2017 SheBelieves Cup, to be held March 1 - March 7 in Chester, Harrison, and Washington, D.C.

GOALKEEPERS (3): Jane Campbell (Houston Dash), Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars)

DEFENDERS (6): Julie Johnston (Chicago Red Stars), Ali Krieger (Orlando Pride), Kelley O'Hara (Sky Blue FC), Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City), Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars), Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns FC)

MIDFIELDERS (8): Morgan Brian (Houston Dash), Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC), Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC), Rose Lavelle (Boston Breakers), Carli Lloyd (Manchester City), Allie Long (Portland Thorns FC), Samantha Mewis (NC Courage), Brianna Pinto (CASL)

FORWARDS (6): Crystal Dunn (Chelsea Ladies FC), Jessica McDonald (NC Courage), Alex Morgan (Olympique Lyonnais), Christen Press (Chicago Red Stars), Mallory Pugh (UCLA), Lynn Williams (NC Courage)

The list comes after she initially called 25 players into camp in Orlando. Of that 25-player camp, Meghan Klingenberg, Sarah Killion, and Amy Rodriguez did not make the final cut. Ellis brought back forward Jess McDonald to bring the roster back to 23 after McDonald trained with the WNT in January camp in California.

Ellis implied Klingenberg is still battling injury, but she could also be making way to try other players as wingbacks in Ellis’ current trend of using a three-back. As for McDonald, it seems Ellis was always keeping in her mind while she was evaluating Amy Rodriguez, who is returning to the squad after time off to give birth to her second child. “Jess was close to joining us in this camp, but I felt that I wanted to have another look at A-Rod here,” Ellis said in an interview on USSoccer.com. “I wanted to have this camp be smaller (in roster numbers) so we could really focus and get players on the field in an 11 aside game and not rotating.” Ellis also revealed in the interview that Alex Morgan “took a knock” in France while playing for Lyon, making it more important to bring in another central forward.

The youngest player on the roster by far is 16-year-old Brianna Pinto, though there are plenty of new young faces around. Campbell and Lavelle are also uncapped, and Short, McDonald, Pugh, and Williams all have less than 20 caps. SheBelieves could be just the beginning of Ellis tossing all sorts of new faces into the deep end with a game against Norway scheduled for summer and more games against Japan, Australia, and Brazil rumored.

SheBelieves kicks off March 1, 2017. The United States will take on Germany at 7 PM ET at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, PA and the game will air live on FS1.