USA roster revealed for 2026 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup

ATLANTA – U.S. Under-20 Women’s Youth National Team head coach Vicky Jepson has named the 21 players who will represent the United States at the 2026 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland that will run from Sept. 5-27.

The USA opens the World Cup on Sunday, Sept. 6 against Italy (Noon ET / 6 p.m. local on FOX Soccer Plus), then faces 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finalist Japan on Wednesday, Sept. 9 (Noon ET / 6 p.m. local on FS2) and finishes the group stage against New Zealand on Saturday, Sept. 12 (9 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. local on FS1). The U.S. will play its first and second group games at Stadion Miejski LKS Lodz in Lodz and its final group game at Arena Sosnowiec in Sosnowiec. Every match of the tournament will be broadcast in English on the FOX family of networks.

2026 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup

Group D – USA Schedule

The USA roster is composed of eight professional players currently playing in the National Women’s Soccer League and 13 college players. The eight pros play for Seattle Reign FC, Racing Louisville FC, Kansas City Current, Houston Dash, Bay FC and Chicago Stars FC. The USA’s 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup team, which finished third in the world, also had eight professionals on the roster. Players born on or after Jan. 1, 2006, are age-eligible for the World Cup and the USA roster features nine players born in 2006, seven born in 2007 and five born in 2008. Those players born in 2008 are age-eligible for the 2028 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup as well.

“We have selected a special group of players who bring a broad and diverse range of qualities from both the college and professional game,” said Jepson. “One thing we all have in common is the understanding that it takes everyone to win a World Cup.”

2026 FIFA U.S. Under-20 Women’s World Cup Roster by Position (College or Club; Hometown; U-20 Caps/Goals)

Goalkeepers (3): Caroline Birkel (Stanford; St. Louis, Mo.; 6), Evan O’Steen (Seattle Reign FC; Grapevine, Texas; 2), Kealey Titmuss (Penn State; Grand Blanc, Mich.; 5)

Defenders (7): Aven Alvarez (UNC; New Hill, N.C.; 12/0), Ella Bard (Louisville; Wadsworth, Ohio; 6/0), Lizzie Boamah (Stanford; San Diego, Calif.; 6/0), Pearl Cecil (Virginia; Encinitas, Calif.; 2/0), Emma Johnson (Penn State; Greenfield, Ind.; 9/1), Hope Munson (UNC; Holladay, Utah; 6/0), Katie Scott (Kansas City Current; Fairview, Pa.; 11/1)

Midfielders (6): Kennedy Fuller (Bay FC; Southlake, Texas; 8/2), Lily Joseph (Notre Dame; Hamden, Conn; 2/0), Ainsley McCammon (Seattle Reign FC; Bedford, Texas; 6/0), Y-Lan Nguyen (Stanford; Fairfax, Va.; 5/0), Nyanya Touray (Florida State; Silver Spring, Md.; 4/0), Linda Ullmark (Houston Dash; Buffalo, N.Y.; 7/6)

Forwards (5): Emeri Adames (Seattle Reign FC; Red Oak, Texas; 4/1), Alex Buck (Washington; Medina, Wash.; 6/1), Micayla Johnson (Chicago Stars FC; Troy, Mich; 4/2), Audrey McKeen (Racing Louisville FC; Vienna, Va.; 2/0), Sealey Strawn (UNC; Prosper, Texas; 2/0)

“This group wears the crest with honor, and we’re excited to see what they can accomplish together,” said Jepson. “They all have tremendous pride in earning this opportunity to represent their country on the world’s biggest stage for their age group. We really want to thank the NWSL clubs and the colleges for their collaboration in releasing their players for this tournament as it will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for many of them and we know it will be an invaluable growth experience for these young women on their soccer journeys.”

Four players on this U-20 WWC roster, one on each positional line, played for the USA in last year’s 2025 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco, making the transition directly from the U-17 World Cup to the U-20 World Cup. Those players are goalkeeper Evan O’Steen, defender Pearl Cecil, midfielder Nyanya Touray and forward Micayla Johnson. O’Steen played in three of the four matches at the U-17 World Cup while the other three players featured in all four. Cecil played every minute of each of the four games, captaining the USA in three of them, and Touray was the team’s leading scorer with four goals. She scored in all three group games, tallying against Ecuador, China PR (twice) and Norway.

Johnson scored twice at last year’s U-17 WWC, including a world class strike from distance against the Netherlands in the Round of 16 match that the USA eventually lost in penalty kicks after dominating proceedings during the first 90 minutes. Johnson, who also scored in the 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, became the first U.S. player to score in two FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup tournaments and will be looking to tally in her third consecutive FIFA event.

Six players on this U-20 roster played in the 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup on the team that finished third in the world in the Dominican Republic. Those players are O’Steen, defender Katie Scott, midfielders Kennedy Fuller, Ainsley McCammon and Y-Lan Nguyen and Johnson. O’Steen played in five of the six matches and won the Golden Glove as the tournament’s best goalkeeper. Fuller won the Silver Boot as the second leading scorer in the tournament with four goals and three assists. Fuller and McCammon split captaining duties in that World Cup with each wearing the armband in three matches.

Two players return from the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup squad that finished third in the world in Colombia in goalkeeper Caroline Birkel, who was a back-up on that team, and Seattle Reign FC forward Emeri Adames, who started all seven matches in that tournament and had a team-leading four assists.

“We all have seen the massive growth of the women’s game over the last decade, and the U-20 Women’s World Cup is a prime example of that,” said Jepson. “More and more players at this age level are in professional environments, the competition is elite and this tournament is a true proving ground for players who aspire to play for their senior National Teams. I know all our players are excited to face the challenges this World Cup will present in every match.”

For the second time ever, and in its 12th installment, the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup will feature 24 nations. This competition started in 2002 as a 12-team tournament played at the U-19 level. The 2004 tournament also featured U-19s before moving to U-20s for the 2006 tournament. The USA has played in every FIFA tournament at this age level.

The 24 teams that will compete in the tournament are host Poland, England, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain from Europe; the USA, Mexico, Canada and Costa Rica from Concacaf; Benin, Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria from Africa; Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia from South America; Korea Republic, Japan, Korea DPR and China PR from Asia; and New Zealand and New Caledonia from Oceania.

The first-time participants in this tournament are Benin, Ecuador, New Caledonia, Poland, Portugal and Tanzania. There haven’t been as many as six debutantes since the 2006 tournament.

The 2026 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup features 24 countries divided into six groups of four teams. The top two finishers in each group and the four best third-place finishers will advance to the Round of 16 taking place on Sept. 16 and 17. The quarterfinals will all be played on Sept. 19 and 20 with the semifinals being contested on Wednesday, Sept. 23. The FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Final and Third-Place Match will be held on Sunday, Sept. 26. This is the second time the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup will feature Round of 16 matches.

The 52 matches of this tournament will take place at four stadiums and in four cities spanning three metropolitan areas: Arena Katowice in Katowice (15,500 capacity), Stadion Miejski Bielsko-Biala in Bielsko-Biala (14,963), Stadion Miejski LKS Lodz in Lodz (18,029) and Arena Sosnowiec in Sosnowiec (11,600). Katowice and Sosnowiec are adjacent cities in southern Poland. Lodz is in central Poland while Bielsko-Biala is 40 miles south of Katowice and Sosnowiec.

Additional Notes:

• This will be the first World Cup for U.S. head coach Vicky Jepson, who came to U.S. Soccer after spending four seasons as the senior assistant head coach with Tottenham Hotspur in the England Women’s Super League. Jepson previously served as manager of Liverpool FC Women in the WSL and has also worked at the youth international level, where she served as a coach educator with the English FA and coached the England U-17 Women’s National Team, guiding the team through qualifiers and at the UEFA Women’s U-17 Euros.
• Just eight of 21 (38%) of the players who helped the USA qualify for this World Cup in the spring of 2025 at the Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship made this World Cup roster.
• The eight players who made the World Cup roster who were a part of the Concacaf qualifying team are goalkeepers Caroline Birkel from Stanford and Kealey Titmuss from Penn State, defenders Aven Alvarez from UNC, Emma Johnson from Penn State and Katie Scott from the Kansas City Current, Houston Dash midfielder Linda Ullmark, Bay FC midfielder Kennedy Fuller and forward UNC Sealey Strawn.
• The USA lost to Canada, 1-0, in the semifinals of that tournament, and all eight players from the qualifying tournament logged significant minutes in that competition, with Ullmark and Fuller each scoring twice while Strawn, Johnson and Scott each had one goal. Only five players on this World Cup Team played in that semifinal loss.
• The roster features eight pros, two college freshmen, seven college sophomores and four college juniors in Alvarez, Lizzie Boamah from Stanford, Lily Joseph from Notre Dame and Alex Buck from Washington.
• Of the professionals…
  • Evan O’Steen (18 years old) is in her rookie year for the Reign but has yet to see NWSL minutes.
  • Fuller (19) is in her third year as a professional, having spent the first two and half with Angel City FC before transferring to Bay FC. Including action for both clubs, she has played in 19 games this year over 1,382 minutes while scoring three goals.
  • Scott (19) is in her second season for the Current and has played 607 minutes in 11 games in 2026.
  • Ainsley McCammon (19) is in her third season with the Reign and has played 16 games this season spanning 1,165 minutes. She has four assists.
  • Ullmark (20) is a rookie with the Dash and has played in 18 matches spanning 1,358 minutes. She has scored two goals with three assists so far.
  • Ullmark was named the NWSL Rookie of the Month for July. She had two goals and two assists across four matches in the month, highlighted by a goal and an assist in Denver to help her team earn a point on the road. She also had the game winner in Houston’s 1-0 win against Bay FC.
  • Emeri Adames (20) is in her third season with the Reign and has played 485 minutes over 15 games this season. She has two assists this season and seven career NWSL goals.
  • Micayla Johnson (18) is in her second season with the Stars and has played in 14 games spanning 199 minutes this season. She has one goal in her NWSL career, that coming against the Utah Royals at age 17. The goal made her the youngest goal scorer in club history.
  • Audrey McKeen (17) is in her first season with Racing Louisville and scored her first NWSL goal on Aug. 7 in a 3-1 win over the Orlando Pride, becoming the youngest goal scorer in club history. She has played 15 matches this year, spanning 302 minutes.
  • McKeen is also the youngest player on this World Cup roster.
• With the exception of Ullmark, who played two seasons at North Carolina and scored 13 goals in 48 matches for the Tar Heels, the other seven pros signed professional contracts as high school-aged players via the NWSL Under-18 Entry Mechanism, opting out of college soccer.
• There are no players on the roster who have trained with the senior U.S. Women’s National Team, but McCammon was called into the Futures Camp in January of 2025.
• Birkel, Virginia’s Pearl Cecil, Stanford’s Y-Lan Nguyen, Florida State’s Nyanya Touray and Buck were all a part of the U.S. National Team Development Camp in January of this year.
• Four players – Titmuss, Boamah, Alvarez and Adames – all have experience playing in the 2023 Pan American Games for the U.S. U-19 WNT. The U.S. team, playing against senior Women’s National Teams from Bolivia, Costa Rica, Argentina and Chile, took bronze in that tournament. All four players played significant roles in the competition with Adames scoring three goals, one each against Bolivia, Costa Rica and Chile. Against Chile in the semifinal, even though the USA fell, 2-1, Adames scored on Christiane Endler, widely considered one of the top female goalkeepers in the world at that time.
• Adames, who also played in the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, is the youngest goal scorer in Seattle Reign history. She scored in the 96th minute against the Washington Spirit on May 24, 2024.
• All players on the roster have been capped at the U-20 level, led by Alvarez (12 caps) and Scott (11 caps), who are the only two players in double-figures.
• Ullmark leads the U.S. U-20s in scoring this year with four international goals, three of which came via a hat trick in a 5-0 win over France, Johnson has two goals and Adames has scored once.
• Ullmark is the top international goal scorer on the roster with six goals in her seven U-20 caps.
• Several of the players on this U-20 roster found great success at the U-17 international level. Micayla Johnson finished her U-17 career with nine goals in 18 caps. O’Steen racked up 13 caps as a starter in two consecutive U-17 World Cups. Touray scored eight goals in just 13 U-17 caps. McCammon had two goals in her 11 U-17 caps as a holding midfielder, including one in the Third-Place Match victory over England at the 2024 FIFA U-17 WWC. Nguyen had eight caps and one goal at the U-17 level. Scott played 15 times for the U.S. U-17s and scored once.
• The five players born in 2008 who are age-eligible for the 2028 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup are O’Steen, Cecil, Touray, Micayla Johnson and McKeen.
• Fuller, McCammon and Scott were part of the U.S. team that won the 2022 Concacaf Girls’ U-15 Championship.
• Four players on the roster played in the 2025 NCAA College Cup, Birkel, Boamah and Nguyen for runner-up Stanford and Touray for NCAA champion Florida State.
• The roster is made up of players from six different pro clubs and eight different colleges with three players each from Stanford and UNC. Penn State has two players with Florida State, Notre Dame, Louisville, Virginia and Washington having one each.
• There are four players on the roster from Texas, two from Michigan, and two from Southern California, more specifically, San Diego.
• Four additional players will train with the USA in Poland up until the start of the tournament, those being defender Avya Jordan from the University of Tennessee, 15-year-old midfielder Loradana Paletta from the NYCFC boys academy, UCLA defender Abby Gemma and 17-year-old midfielder Emmy O’Donnell who plays for FC Stars in Massachusetts.
• Eighteen of the 21 players who were on the USA roster for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup are currently playing professionally with the other three still in college soccer.
• Of the USA’s college players, several are already highly decorated for their schools:
  • Birkel was the ACC Goalkeeper of the Year as a freshman, helping lead the Cardinal to the NCAA College Cup.
  • In 2024, Alvarez was one of three freshman to play in all 27 matches and helped the Tar Heels to the NCAA title.
  • As a sophomore in 2025, Boamah played in 24 of Stanford’s 25 matches, helping the Cardinal to the NCAA College Cup.
  • Hope Munson made the ACC All-Freshman team for UNC in 2025, playing almost 1,800 minutes.
  • Nguyen made the ACC All-Freshman Team in 2025, played in all 25 games for the Cardinal, spanning almost 1,700 minutes, and helped her school to the NCAA College Cup.
  • Touray had the rare experience of winning an NCAA title as a freshman last season with Florida State. She scored two goals with two assists in 16 games.
  • Buck was named First-Team All-Big Ten last season and led the Huskies in scoring with nine goals and five assists. Buck is the oldest player on the World Cup roster.
  • Joseph opened her junior season with a bang, scoring twice in a 2-2 draw with Penn State in the second match of this year.
• Strawn is the one player on the roster who played significant time in the USL Super League, playing two seasons with Dallas Trinity FC as an academy player before heading off to college at UNC. She scored nine goals in 45 matches for the Trinity, an impressive number for a teenager.
• Quite a few of the current USWNT players have used the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup as a springboard to the senior team. From the USA’s 2018 U-20 WWC Team, Savannah DeMelo, Emily Fox, Naomi Girma, Jaelin Howell, Mandy McGlynn, Tara McKeown (now Rudd), Ashley Sanchez and Sophia Smith (now Wilson) have played for the full USWNT. The 2020 tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19, but from the USA’s 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Team, Korbin Albert (now Shrader), Michelle Cooper, Sally Menti (who did not play in the tournament due to injury), Olivia Moultrie, Ayo Oke, Lilly Reale, Ally Sentnor, Jaedyn Shaw and Alyssa Thompson have appeared for the senior USWNT. From the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Team, Jordyn Bugg, Gisele Thompson, Claire Hutton, Riley Jackson, Maddie Dahlien and Ally Sentnor have all played for the USWNT. Defender Savy King has seen training time with the senior USWNT.