Is U.S. women’s soccer ready for its toughest test? Analyzing the World Cup roster

SAN JOSE —

Alex Morgan has played in three World Cups and won two of them, enough experience to know the tournament doesn’t get any easier.

“By far it’s going to be the most competitive World Cup,” she said of this summer’s tournament, which kicks off in 10 days. “It’s just getting increasingly competitive.”

Since 2011, the field has doubled from 16 to 32 teams, the number of games has gone from 32 to 64 and where once you could count the number of legitimate contenders on one hand, now you need all of your fingers — and perhaps a few toes as well.

And for those contenders, winning means knocking off the U.S., which has never finished lower than third in eight World Cups, winning the tournament four times.

“For us, it’s just about continuing to put our best foot forward and continuing to try to be dominant and be the best team in the world,” said Megan Rapinoe, who will be playing in the tournament for the fourth time. “I can’t believe we’re back at the World Cup. This is the best moment of our career. It never gets old.

“There’s always something incredibly special about being able to compete at the very highest level against the very highest level and try to go out there and do your thing.”

The challenge this time will be far greater though. Not only is the field larger and better, but 14 women on the 23-player U.S. roster are going to the tournament for the first time, the largest turnover from one World Cup to the next. The players range in age from the 38-year-old Rapinoe, who graduated high school during George W. Bush’s first administration, to the 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson, who graduated high school last month, and in experience from Morgan, who has played 207 times for the national team, to Savannah DeMelo, who made her debut Sunday.

Even the coach is new; Vlatko Andonovski was coaching in the NWSL four years ago.

After riding two second-half goals from Trinity Rodman to a cautious 2-0 win over Wales in its final tune-up match Sunday, the team headed for its 13-hour commercial flight to New Zealand carrying a wave of momentum since the victory ran its unbeaten streak to nine games, the first eight over World Cup qualifiers. But the team also boarded the plane with a number of questions, the answers to which will determine just how far the U.S. will go.

Here’s a breakdown of the roster (with age, international appearances and World Cup experience in parentheses):