Guidry, Rouse named To U.S. roster for U-20 Women’s World Cup

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Defenders Samar Guidry and Laney Rouse of the Virginia women’s soccer team have been named to the 21-player roster for the United States in the 2022 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica from August 10-28. United States head coach Tracey Kevins and U.S. Soccer announced the roster on Monday.

Kevins named the final World Cup roster following a dominant title-winning run at the 2022 Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship, which was held last March in the Dominican Republic, and five additional international matches in May and June. The World Cup qualifying tournament marked the return of international matches for this age group after a long pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guidry and Rouse were both members of the U.S. squad that competed in the Dominican Republic back in March.

Guidry also competed for the United States in the 2018 U-17 Women’s World Cup and has been a part of the U-19 Youth National Team. She was also part of the 2020 U-20 Youth National Team. Rouse has been a member of U.S. Soccer Youth National teams at the U-14, U-16, U-19 and U-20 stages.

The USA roster is composed of 18 players currently in college or enrolling this fall, one youth club player and two professional players, the most professionals ever for a U.S. team at a FIFA youth Women’s World Cup. Players born on or after Jan. 1, 2002, are age-eligible for the World Cup.

The sixteen teams that will compete at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup are host Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico and the USA from Concacaf, Australia, Japan and Korea Republic from Asia, Ghana and Nigeria from Africa, France, Germany, Spain and Netherlands from Europe, New Zealand from Oceania and Brazil and Colombia from South America. There are no first-time participants in this year’s U-20 Women’s World Cup, and 11 countries return from the last edition in 2018. The five countries that did not compete in 2018 are Australia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica and Korea Republic.

The 16 participating nations were drawn into four groups of four teams. The top two finishers in each group will advance to the quarterfinals, to be held on Saturday, Aug. 20 and Sunday, Aug. 21. The winners of those matches will advance to the semifinals on Thursday, Aug. 25. The Championship Game and Third-Place Match will be played on Sunday, Aug. 28.

All matches of the World Cup will be played at two venues, which are only about 12 miles apart: Estadio Nacional in San José and Estadio Morera Soto in Alajuela. All of the matches will be broadcast on the FOX Sports family of networks

The U.S. opens the tournament on Thursday, Aug. 11 against Ghana at Estadio Morera Soto (1 p.m. ET; FS2). The teams last met in the U-20 WWC in 2016, a 1-1 draw in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The USA and Ghana also met in the opening game of the 2012 U-20 World Cup, a 4-0 U.S. win, and in the opening game of the 2010 U-20 World Cup, another 1-1 draw.

The U-20s will then face the Netherlands for the first time in a U-20 World Cup on Sunday, Aug. 14 at Estadio Nacional (7 p.m. ET; FS1) and finish the group stage against Japan on Wednesday, Aug. 17 back at Estadio Morera Soto (7 p.m. ET; FS2). The USA has played Japan in the last two U-20 World Cups, both 1-0 losses, the first in the Third-Place Match of the 2016 tournament and the second in group play in 2018.