Four Breakers Called Into WNT Camp

UConn Grad Meghan Schnur Also Makes the Cut

August 26, 2009

U.S. women’s national team head coach Pia Sundhage has called in 26 players for a 12-day training camp at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., running from Sept. 21 to Oct. 2. This will be the first U.S. women’s national team event since the end of the inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) season.

Among the group is four Boston Breakers - defenders Amy LePeilbet and Heather Mitts, midfielder Angela Hucles and striker Amy Rodriguez - and UConn alum Meghan Schnur, a fullback for WPS champion Sky Blue FC.

Amy LePeilbet

Defender Amy LePeilbet is firmly back in the national team fold after an All-Star season for the Boston Breakers. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com)

Twenty-three of the players on the roster come from WPS clubs while three are currently seniors for their college teams in UCLA forward Lauren Cheney and a pair of North Carolina Tar Heels in midfielder Tobin Heath and goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris.

Sundhage named 18 players from the roster that defeated Canada twice in mid-July, but is also giving looks to several players who put in some quality work during the WPS season. Los Angeles Sol utility woman Brittany Bock gets her second call-up of the year after also making the U.S. roster for the match against Canada in Toronto on May 25. She was denied the opportunity to earn her first cap due to a heel injury suffered in training the day before the match.

Sundhage also named FC Gold Pride midfielder Tina DiMartino (5 caps/1 goal), Washington Freedom midfielder Lori Lindsey (1/0), and Sky Blue FC midfielder Yael Averbuch (2/0), as well as uncapped Chicago Red Stars midfielder Brittany Klein and Schnur. All five are veterans of the USA’s youth women’s national teams. The roster also features the return of Sky Blue FC midfielder Kacey White (17/0), who has not been called up since the Algarve Cup last March.

Veteran U.S. midfielder Lindsay Tarpley will miss her first camp in years as she is out 8-10 months after suffering an ACL tear during training with the Red Stars at the end of the WPS season. U.S. captain Christie Rampone is pregnant and will miss her first camp since her last pregnancy in 2005. With Rampone out, forward Abby Wambach and defender Cat Whitehill are the most capped players in camp with 130 each.

Sundhage will use this camp to select a roster for the USA’s trip to Germany in October when the Americans will face the reigning Women’s World Cup champions on Oct. 29 at Impuls Arena in Augsburg, one of the nine venues that will host matches at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The U.S. women currently sit atop of the FIFA women’s world rankings and have compiled a record of 6-0-1 in 2009, having scored 11 goals while allowing just one, that coming in the championship game of the Algarve Cup where the USA eventually succumbed to Sweden in penalty kicks.

USWNT Training Camp Roster

GOALKEEPERS (3): Nicole Barnhart (FC Gold Pride), Ashlyn Harris (North Carolina), Hope Solo (St. Louis Athletica);

DEFENDERS (8): Brittany Bock (Los Angeles Sol), Rachel Buehler (FC Gold Pride), Lori Chalupny (St. Louis Athletica), Stephanie Cox (Los Angeles Sol), Amy LePeilbet (Boston Breakers), Heather Mitts (Boston Breakers), Megan Schnur (Sky Blue FC), Cat Whitehill (Washington Freedom)

MIDFIELDERS (12): Yael Averbuch (Sky Blue FC), Shannon Boxx (Los Angeles Sol), Tina DiMartino (FC Gold Pride), Tobin Heath (UNC), Angela Hucles (Boston Breakers), Brittany Klein (Chicago Red Stars), Lori Lindsey (Washington Freedom), Carli Lloyd (Chicago Red Stars), Heather O’Reilly (Sky Blue FC), Leslie Osborne (FC Gold Pride), Megan Rapinoe (Chicago Red Stars), Kacey White (Sky Blue FC)

FORWARDS (3): Lauren Cheney (UCLA), Amy Rodriguez (Boston Breakers), Abby Wambach (Washington Freedom)