Hayes made room for Ashley Sanchez by sending two regulars to the under-23s

For one week in October, the United States women's national team and its under-23 team will train in the same building in Fayetteville, Georgia. Then on Friday afternoon one of them gets on a plane to Washington to play the world champions, and the other one stays behind to play the Dominican Republic on Field 3.

Jaedyn Shaw and Ally Sentnor are staying behind.

That is the news in the roster Emma Hayes named on Tuesday for the two matches against Spain. Shaw has 37 caps. Sentnor has 23. Both were in each of the last three senior camps. Both are on the under-23 roster announced Wednesday morning, whose camp opens October 5, trains alongside the senior team that week, and plays the Dominican Republic under-23s on October 9 and October 13. (The second of those kicks off at noon Eastern. The senior team plays Spain in Chester, Pennsylvania, seven hours later.)

Hayes explained it herself, and she did not dress it up.

"I want to prioritize the development of players," she told U.S. Soccer. "I don't want less experienced players always sitting on the bench and playing few minutes. Ally and Jaedyn are still central to our plans, but I think with Ashley Sanchez and Trinity Byars performing the way they have, there is a competition for places."

A competition for places is a phrase coaches use a great deal. It is rarer to see one actually held.

The two who won it#

Ashley Sanchez has 20 goals in 26 matches for the North Carolina Courage this season, which ties the NWSL record for goals in a single season, by anybody. She has 28 caps and three international goals. She was last called up in January 2025 and has not played for the United States since October 30, 2024, against Argentina. For most of this summer her name and the phrase "not on the roster" traveled together, and Hayes has now separated them.

Trinity Byars has 10 goals in 21 matches for San Diego Wave FC, in what is functionally her first NWSL season, because an ACL injury took the one before it. She has never been capped. She played for the United States at the 2018 Under-17 World Cup and the 2022 Under-20 World Cup, and U.S. Soccer's release notes that she and Trinity Rodman give the roster "a double dose of Trinity," which is the sort of line a federation writes when it is in a good mood.

Those two, plus Sophia Wilson and Rodman, are the four Americans with the most league goals this season. All four are on the roster. That is the whole selection logic for the front line, and it is hard to argue with.

Everybody else who changed#

Byars is one of four uncapped players, after three straight rosters with none. The others are Angel City midfielder Evelyn Shores (three goals, seven assists), Portland forward Pietra Tordin (seven goals, nine assists, and the leading American scorer at the 2024 Under-20 World Cup) and Bay FC goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz. This is Silkowitz's third senior camp. She has not played in either of the first two.

Naomi Girma and Sam Coffey return after missing the June trip to Brazil. Mallory Swanson is on it again. She was on the June roster as well and did not play, and her last match for the United States was the 2024 Olympic final.

Some of the room was made the other way. Per U.S. Soccer, Emily Sonnett and Olivia Moultrie have had major knee injuries since June, Croix Bethune has been out with a hip injury, and Catarina Macario has not played for club or country this year.

"I have to think about the players that are available," Hayes said, "which is why I've always been adamant that we have to develop a larger playing pool because just like that, something can happen."

The Spain part#

Spain have lost twice in regulation in 27 matches since the 2024 Olympics, both times to England at Wembley. They are first in the FIFA ranking and the United States are second. The Concacaf W Championship, the World Cup qualifying tournament, comes later this year. That is where Hayes's attention was for three rosters running, and she has decided it will not be the only thing this one is for.

"You can't always park the development of the generation that will be there for tomorrow," she said.

Which brings us to the part I can be wrong about. Hayes gave 32 players their first caps in her first 32 matches, and three of the four uncapped players here are outfield players on hot streaks. She also said, in the same conversation, that she may bring players "into the environment" without giving them caps at all, and Silkowitz has now been in that environment twice without getting on the field. I think at least one of Byars, Tordin or Shores plays against Spain. The world champions are a strange opponent for a debut. They are also the one opponent a young player will remember debuting against.

Anyway. Everybody trains in Fayetteville on October 6. The plane leaves Friday.

Sources: U.S. Soccer roster release, September 29, 2026; U.S. Soccer, "Emma Hayes on October Roster," September 30, 2026; U.S. Soccer under-23 women's roster release, September 30, 2026.