FAYETTEVILLE, Georgia — Forward Ashley Sanchez said she is focused on getting “up to speed” again with the United States after receiving her first recall in nearly two years.
“Obviously, I want to put my best performances in training, but I think my main focus is just trying to get caught up to speed, and all the tactics and stuff,” Sanchez told ESPN before Tuesday’s practice at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center. “Obviously, Emma [Hayes] is a great coach, and this team is so successful, so I’m just trying to get caught up to speed as quick as I can, and just learn a lot and have as much fun as I can.”
Sanchez is the NWSL’s leading scorer this season with 20 goals, tied for the single-season league record. Her form earned her a recall to the national team for a pair of upcoming friendly matches against world No. 1 and reigning World Cup champions Spain.
She last played for the United States in October 2024.
Sanchez’s historic scoring this season has come with her playing as a winger for the North Carolina Courage. She had primarily played as a central playmaker for club and country in the past.
On Tuesday, during the team’s first practice of the international window — which ESPN observed in entirety — Sanchez trained on the wing as the USWNT prepared tactics to take on Spain.
She half-joked that she had forgotten how many meetings there were in national team camp, and praised the team’s “attention to detail.”
Hayes told reporters moments later that Sanchez and other players who have not been with the team recently will need time to adjust. Midfielder Jaelin Howell is in training camp — replacing the recently injured Sam Coffey — for the first time in nearly a year.
Defenders Kate Del Fava (who replaced injured Naomi Girma) and Evelyn Shores, and forwards Trinity Byars and Pietra Tordin all received their first call-ups to the senior team during this international window.
None of those players will start either game against Spain in the coming week, Hayes said, but some “might” play a role off the bench. If and how many minutes each player earns will depend on how they adapt.
“I think the players that have come in, they’re going to be behind the rest of the group — in terms of the way we do things, not in terms of their own individual qualities,” Hayes said. “So, if I talk about the importance of all that tactical detail, if you’re Ashley Sanchez or Jaelin Howell, you’re not going to pick all of those things up in three sessions, you’re just not.”
Hayes said that players who have not been with the team recently, like Sanchez, have extra tactical meetings to get caught up.
“You ask any of the players here. They’re like, ‘it takes a few camps.’ It’s intense. We’re intense here. So, if you’re Ashley Sanchez, who hasn’t been in here for a long period, that’s a lot to all of a sudden absorb: Oh, how we attack as a team. How we defend as a team. Oh, and play with players you haven’t played with. Yeah, maybe at youth level. So, I think we need to respect and appreciate that, but I will need them to be ready because they’re good enough to be in here.”
Sanchez, 27, was a standout player at every youth international level for the USWNT. In 2016, she became the first U.S. player to play at a U17 World Cup and U20 World Cup in the same year.
She made the 2023 senior World Cup roster for the USWNT, but didn’t not see the field during the tournament.
Her 20 goals this season are more than she scored in her first five seasons as a professional combined.
Sanchez has three more games with North Carolina after the international break to take sole possession of the scoring record set in 2024 by Kansas City Current forward Temwa Chawinga.
“I try not to think about it, but yeah, I mean, it is a very crazy accomplishment to be in the conversation with Chawinga and all this success she’s had,” Sanchez said. “But I think not until it’s like done and over with [breaking the record] will I truly think about it.”
