Savannah DeMelo’s Unlikely Path to the USWNT’s World Cup Roster

The midfielder is the first player to receive a World Cup call-up without a cap in 20 years.

To the casual soccer fan, Savannah DeMelo’s rise to U.S. women’s national team stardom seemed to happen overnight, but to those who have been following closely, the 25-year-old’s inclusion on the World Cup roster comes as no surprise—although far from a foregone conclusion.

DeMelo’s place on coach Vlatko Andonovski’s squad is nearly unprecedented, with the midfielder the first uncapped player to receive a World Cup call-up since Hall of Famer Shannon Boxx in 2003. The Racing Louisville star was included in the USWNT’s September and October camps, but neither outing produced a senior national team debut.

Instead, DeMelo has taken a less obvious path to Australia and New Zealand, playing her way to the USWNT’s World Cup squad (a notoriously difficult group to break into) by fielding an emphatic performance with her NWSL club. Notching five goals and two assists through 12 matches, DeMelo is directing the goalscoring charge for Louisville, following up a solid rookie year with a sensational sophomore season.

• Women’s World Cup Schedule: Group list, streaming information.

“This year my mentality was more like I am going to do everything I can to be dangerous for the team,” says DeMelo. “I want to be the one scoring. I want to be the one assisting and I think my team gives me so much confidence to go do that and trusts me to give me the freedom to do that.”

DeMelo possesses a unique ability to win back the ball in the midfield, halting opponents’ transition with a 70% tackle success rate, and then turn around and quickly distribute up the pitch. Another key to DeMelo’s game is her comfortability in playing without the ball, as Louisville holds the lowest possession of any club in the NWSL at 46.5%. The USWNT typically prefers to dictate pace and tempo and has struggled against teams that command possession, so having a player like DeMelo could pay dividends Down Under. A Swiss Army knife of a midfielder, DeMelo’s versatility is a massive plus for a confined 23-player roster—especially with Rose Lavelle entering the World Cup on the heels of a knee injury and veteran Julie Ertz still working her way back into the U.S. on relatively short notice.

DeMelo earned her first cap at the USWNT's send-off game on July 9, after she had been named to the World Cup roster.  :: Karen Ambrose Hickey/IMAGO

While DeMelo’s focus was on winning games for Racing Louisville, she admits the USWNT and the World Cup weren’t too far back in her mind during her early-season tear. Throughout the NWSL campaign, Andonovski messaged DeMelo, giving her pointers, telling her what he liked about her game while reassuring the midfielder that club form mattered, even—and especially—when she wasn’t being called into USWNT camps.

“Sav did very well and was very consistent. Her performance in the league was one of the biggest reasons why she is on the team,” Andonovski said during a June press conference. “Based on the needs that we have in terms of the opponents and different situations we may face, we see Sav being very important for us going forward.”

With Andonovski and the rest of the USWNT coaching staff watching, DeMelo’s run with Louisville paid off and then some, earning the young rising star the opportunity of her career. DeMelo got a taste of what’s to come this summer, logging her first senior national team cap, subbing into the USWNT’s July 9 send-off game against Wales in the 64th minute. With the game still scoreless, DeMelo's debut was imbued with some drama (as is typical with the USWNT), and the midfielder delivered, helping inject the squad with much-needed urgency as fellow second-half sub Trinity Rodman notched a brace to save the day.

Still, clocking only 30 minutes with the senior national team ahead of the World Cup can be quite daunting. DeMelo’s dearth of caps in comparison to her U.S. teammates has, of course, crossed her mind, and while it’s at times felt overwhelming, she is taking the formidable jump in stride.

“I think it's important to not let that thought control my actions or the way I think,” says DeMelo. “It’s something I think about, but it’s not something that’s intimidating me or making me think any sort of way.”

If DeMelo, and Andonovski for that matter, need any reassurance on her experience, perhaps looking to Boxx will provide some relief. One of the best to ever don the crest, Boxx started her tenure with the national team by scoring a goal in her first cap (a World Cup warmup match against Costa Rica) before scoring again in the team’s next game against Mexico, and more importantly, again in the USWNT’s 2003 World Cup opener against Sweden. Twenty years later, can DeMelo introduce herself at the World Cup in a similarly prolific fashion?

While a remarkable achievement, DeMelo isn’t happy to simply celebrate making the team: She has a job to do. “Winning the World Cup would be awesome,” she says. “I don’t think anybody on this team is expecting anything less and I think we hold ourselves to that standard.”