U.S. women's national soccer team using SheBelieves Cup as chance to foster young talent

Nineteen-year-old Claire Hutton is one of four players on the U.S. women's national team roster for the start of the SheBelieves Cup this week who have never appeared in a game for the team. The defensive midfielder for the Kansas City Current said she “gets chills” just thinking about the opportunity she's getting to compete at this level.

“It's amazing,” she said Wednesday. “Early on in my career just to get this experience under me and to be around such amazing players and people seeing their habits on and off the field is just going to help me keep growing as a person, as a player, and hopefully make the most of my career.” Hutton and the U.S. meet Colombia on Thursday night in the second of two games in Houston to open the 10th annual edition of the tournament, which also includes Australia and Japan. The three-city event also features games in San Diego and Glendale, Arizona, and runs through next Wednesday.

Each team will play one game in each city, with the winner determined by points. The U.S. has won the tournament seven times, including in each of the past five years. The inclusion of Hutton and fellow newcomers Tara McKeown, Gisele Thompson and Michelle Cooper is part of coach Emma Hayes' plan to make developing talent a priority ahead of the Women's World Cup qualifiers next year. Hayes said she sat down with the team's leadership group this week to explain the importance of growing the team from within.

“But there's no point talking about the development of a program without providing opportunities for people to do it,” she said. “But with that comes the risk, and of course it won't look polished in its entirety. But I trust the process and I've been a coach for a long, long time to know that doing it this way will give us a much better chance down the road to compete at the top end.” Cooper, a 22-year-old forward who also plays for the Current, said she and Hutton have talked at length about what it means for them to be included on the team for this tournament.

“I'm super glad that we get to share this experience,” she said. “Because we both are super happy that Emma's investing in the youth and making sure that we close the gap between the full team and the U-23's and all the youth teams underneath that and making sure we're all in the same slate.” While the new additions to the team are thrilled to be learning from the established players, the veterans are also getting a boost from the infusion of young talent. Veteran midfielder Sam Coffey said the young players have added an “exciting vibe” to their preparations for the tournament.

“There's so much opportunity for us as a team to continue to deepen our player pool, to continue to layer in our understanding of tactics and, the way we want to play,” Coffey said. “And so, I think it's been such a cool experience to kind of help bring some of the newer and younger ones along. I know that's something none of us take lightly and we love kind of the aspect of leadership that that brings.” (AP)