Alex Morgan, Becky Sauerbrunn dropped from USWNT’s Concacaf W Gold Cup roster

On Wednesday, Alex Morgan and several other mainstays were left off the roster for the inaugural Concacaf W Gold Cup, the U.S. team’s first official competition since last summer’s dud in Oceania.

Other absences include Becky Sauerbrunn, Kristie Mewis, Andi Sullivan, Ashley Sanchez, Kelley O’Hara and Sofia Huerta.

All were also overlooked for the team’s December camp, the first since Emma Hayes was tabbed to run the program when her tenure with English club Chelsea ends in May. Those roster decisions — a collaboration between Hayes and interim coach Twila Kilgore — did not set off alarms because some regulars required rest and prospects needed opportunity.

The latest selections, however, are a clear sign that career tenure and automatic assignments under previous coach Vlatko Andonovski will not guarantee an invitation.

“Nobody is out of the mix,” Kilgore said. “That goes for some of our bigger names, that goes for lesser names that we’ve been tracking. We want to get it right and everybody’s still involved. … This is the group we feel is the right group for right now.”

Morgan — a 34-year-old striker who has played in four World Cups and served as a co-captain in Australia and New Zealand this past summer — is the program’s active scoring leader by a wide margin and sits fifth on the all-time list with 121 in 215 appearances. But she has gone 11 games without a goal and posted two in 18 international matches.

Sauerbrunn, 38, captained the squad before suffering a foot injury that forced her to miss the World Cup last year. She has been poised to cap her stellar career at the Summer Games in Paris. Sullivan, 28, was the team’s primary defensive midfielder the past two years.

The roster decisions follow the retirements of Megan Rapinoe, Julie Ertz and Sam Mewis.

Final decisions about the Olympic squad are months away and performances in the NWSL or leagues abroad this spring could sway the coaching staff. “We will be watching,” Kilgore said.

But with few U.S. camps remaining and the Olympic roster limited to 18 players, the outlook for many seems to have grown faint.

Also left out this month was midfielder Savannah DeMelo, 25, who started two World Cup matches. She was invited to this camp for pretournament training purposes only. Mallory Swanson, a star forward sidelined since last spring with a major knee injury, was also invited to work out as she prepares to return to competition in the NWSL.

“We believe she’s absolutely ready for this step,” Kilgore said. “She has stayed connected and involved in different ways while going through her recovery, and this is just the next natural progression.”

The other nonroster invitee is Gisele Thompson, an 18-year-old defender preparing for her NWSL rookie season with Angel City. Her sister, World Cup forward Alyssa Thompson, 19, wasn’t selected to the Gold Cup roster because a back ailment has limited her winter training.

Two World Cup veterans left off the December roster — goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and defender Crystal Dunn — were invited back.

The roster does feature several World Cup players, such as defenders Naomi Girma and Emily Fox, midfielders Lindsey Horan and Rose Lavelle, and forwards Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman.

There are also five players who debuted late last year: Jaedyn Shaw, 19; Olivia Moultrie, 18; Korbin Albert, 20; Mia Fishel, 22; and Jenna Nighswonger, 23.

The W Gold Cup involves eight teams from the Concacaf region (North and Central America and the Caribbean) and four guests from South America: Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Paraguay.

The United States will play all group matches in Carson, Calif.: Guyana or Dominican Republic on Feb. 20, Argentina on Feb. 23 and Mexico on Feb. 26.

Los Angeles will host the March 2-3 quarterfinals and San Diego will stage the March 6 semifinals and March 10 final.

Goalkeepers: Jane Campbell (Houston Dash), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars).

Defenders: Alana Cook (Seattle Reign), Abby Dahlkemper (San Diego Wave), Crystal Dunn (Gotham FC), Tierna Davidson (Gotham FC), Emily Fox (Arsenal), Naomi Girma (San Diego), Casey Krueger (Washington Spirit), Jenna Nighswonger (Gotham FC).

Midfielders: Korbin Albert (Paris Saint-Germain), Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns), Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyonnais), Rose Lavelle (Gotham FC), Olivia Moultrie (Portland), Emily Sonnett (Gotham FC).

Forwards: Mia Fishel (Chelsea), Midge Purce (Gotham FC), Trinity Rodman (Washington), Jaedyn Shaw (San Diego), Sophia Smith (Portland), Lynn Williams (Gotham FC).