Will Ashley Hatch or Olivia Moultrie make the USWNT Olympic roster?
Ashley Hatch and Olivia Moultrie appear to be on the outside looking in when it comes to this summer’s Olympics roster.
Both ESPN and The Athletic have released predictions for who will represent the U.S. in the Paris Olympics, and neither publication has Hatch or Moultrie making the cut.
Incoming head coach Emma Hayes has the difficult task of selecting just 18 players from a deep player pool for the U.S. Olympic squad.
Olivia Moultrie’s Olympic chances
The Athletic’s Steph Yang thinks Moultrie, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has the talent to make the Olympic roster and sees her doing so in the future — just not this time around.
“I think Olivia Moultrie is a little extraneous if a roster has to get trimmed to 18, and I say that only in the context of that trimming and not at all as a referendum on her talent or ability to play at this level. It’s just that with (Catarina) Macario and (Jaedyn) Shaw in the mix, and especially if (Rose) Lavelle gets healthy in time, I think it pushes her down the list a bit. Even though I think she’s on track to eventually work her way deeper into this team,” Yang writes.
In last month’s predictions, Yang said she could see Moultrie making a strong case for herself if she has a strong spring performance with the Portland Thorns.
The Athletic predicts team captain Lindsey Horan, Lavelle, Sam Coffey, Macario and Emily Sonnett will be the five midfielders selected.
ESPN’s Jeff Kassouf sees Moultrie as an “on the bubble” player, meaning she is one of the “players who could be among the final selections or who might be alternates. Players who have had a passing look or players who were once integral but no longer seem in favor fit into this category.”
Kassouf has Lavelle and Horan as locks and Korbin Albert and Moultrie’s Portland Thorns teammate Coffey as substitutes on the squad.
Moultrie made her senior national team debut in December and earned her first start in February at the Gold Cup, scoring a brace in that game and becoming the third-youngest player to score multiple goals in a game for the national team, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Ashley Hatch’s Olympic chances
The emergence of the young Shaw and the return of a healthy Mal Swanson doesn’t help Hatch’s chances of making the Olympic roster, especially since she wasn’t called up to the Gold Cup or SheBelieves Cup this year.
Kassouf considers Hatch a bubble striker candidate behind locks Alex Morgan and Sophia Smith and substitute option Macario.
Hatch spoke with the Deseret News last week and said she’d welcome the opportunity to play in Paris but recognizes that the decision is out of her hands.
“If I get invited, it would be an honor and it’d be a cherry on top, but it’s also just the reality of how soccer is that it’s not 100% up to me,” she said.
Instead of thinking about the Olympics, the former BYU Cougar is focusing on her NWSL club, the Washington Spirit, and the things she can control.
“Obviously, there’s a lot in this situation with the national team that I don’t have control over, so I’m just focusing on what I can do here and now, especially with the Spirit and my role with the Spirit,” she said. “If I continue to do well, I could get invited, or I could continue to do well and still not get invited. That’s just the reality of it, and so, (I’m) focusing on the things that I can control and the things that I can actually do today.”
