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USWNT vs. Japan: Starting XI & Lineup Notes on Saturday, April 11 in San Jose, California

USWNT vs. JAPAN
Date: April 11, 2026
Venue: PayPal Park, San Jose, Calif.
Broadcast: TNT, truTV and HBO Max in English and in Spanish on Universo and Peacock
Radio: Westwood One in English
Official Kickoff Time: 2:37 p.m. PT

USA: 1-Claudia Dickey, 2-Trinity Rodman, 4-Naomi Girma, 10-Lindsey Heaps, 11-Sophia Wilson, 16-Rose Lavelle, 17-Sam Coffey, 21-Alyssa Thompson, 22-Gisele Thompson, 23-Emily Fox, 25-Kennedy Wesley

Available Subs: 3-Avery Patterson, 5-Lilly Reale, 6-Emily Sams, 7-Lily Yohannes, 8-Jaedyn Shaw, 9-Ally Sentnor, 13-Olivia Moultrie, 15-Claire Hutton, 19-Emma Sears, 20-Michelle Cooper, 24-Phallon Tullis-Joyce, 26-Jameese Joseph

Not dressing: 12-Tierna Davidson, 14-Emily Sonnett, 18-Jane Campbell

USWNT Starting XI Cap Numbers (Including this match): Heaps (174), Lavelle (119), Fox (75), Wilson (59), Girma (53), Rodman (53), Coffey (45), A. Thomspon (30), Dickey (9), G. Thompson (8), Wesley (5)

Notes:

  • Tonight’s Starting XI averages 56.3 caps heading into the match.
  • Eight of the starters have FIFA Women’s World Cup and/or Olympic experience: Lindsey Heaps, Rose Lavelle, Emily Fox, Naomi Girma, Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson, Sam Coffey and Alyssa Thompson.
  • Naomi Girma is the only player from the Bay Area to start the match. Tierna Davidson who returns to this roster for her first international callup in a little over a year, is from Menlo Park but will not dress.
  • Girma, Wesley and Wilson are three of five players on this roster who played college soccer at Stanford University. Girma and Wilson enrolled at the same time, playing their freshman and sophomore seasons together before Wilson left early for the pros. Girma and Wesley played two full seasons together on the backline over three overlapping school years (2019-2022) as Girma took a redshirt season for her junior year (2020-21) due to injury. Tierna Davidson and Jane Campbell are the other two members of the roster who went to Stanford.
  • The Thompson sisters are the third pair of sisters to represent the USA. The first time Gisele and her older sister Alyssa were called in together was the 2025 SheBelieves Cup, and they became the first pair of sisters to come to camp from the same professional club (Angel City FC). The first instance of sisters on the same USWNT roster was in the late 1990s when twins Lorrie and Ronnie Fair were called up together. More recently, Samantha and Kristie Mewis were on the 2021 Olympic Team together.
  • This match will mark a record for sisters starting together as the Thompon’s will share the same Starting XI for the fourth time. This will be the sixth all-time WNT match they have played together. Most recently, the Thompson sisters both started the March 4 match vs. Canada. Had Alyssa not been subbed out of that match in the 90th minute, it would’ve marked the second time ever two sisters on the USWNT played a full match together. The first time was when the Mewis sisters played against Mexico on July 1, 2021, and combined for a goal. The Mewis sisters hold the record for most USWNT matches played together by sisters with 12.

MATCH HUB | MATCH PREVIEW

STARTING XI NOTES:

Lindsey Heaps, 31, earns her 174th cap, 134th start and 42nd time captaining the U.S. The OL Lyonnes midfielder will finish out the season with the French side before returning to the NWSL in her home state to play for the expansion side Denver Summit FC.

Rose Lavelle, 30, earns her 119th cap and 100th start. She is the 31st player to reach 100 starts for the USWNT and is tied for 14th fastest player to hit that mark with Abby Wambach. The fastest players to reach 100 starts were Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett who both did so in 101 caps.

Emily Fox, 27, earns her 74th cap and 63rd start. The Arsenal right back played the final 210 minutes of the 2026 SheBelieves Cup, playing her first full 90-minute international matches since October of 2025.

Sophia Wilson, 25, earns her 59th cap and 41st start as she returns to the USWNT after giving birth to her daughter. Wilson’s most recent match for the U.S. was on Oct. 27, 2024, vs. Iceland, her most recent goal was on Oct. 24, 2024, also vs. Iceland. Wilson is the 18th mother to play for the USWNT. Should Wilson score she would become the ninth woman to score as a mother. Players who have scored as a mom are Alex Morgan (with 16 goals as a mom), Joy Fawcett (13 goals), Danielle Fotopoulos (5), Amy Rodriguez (4), Jessica McDonald (2), Kate Markgraf (1), Kristine Lilly (1) and Tina Ellertson (1). With a goal against Brazil on Feb. 22, 2023, Morgan moved past Fawcett to become the all-time leader in U.S. goals as a mom with 14 and ended her career with 16 goals as a mom.

Naomi Girma, 25, this is Girma’s 53rd cap and 51st start for the U.S. and she was the 70th player to earn 50 caps, doing so on Dec. 1 vs. Italy. Girma starts the match alongside fellow Stanford center back Kennedy Wesley.

Trinity Rodman, 23, earns her 53rd cap and 33rd start. Rodman earned her 50th cap on March 1 vs. Argentina. Rodman is the 22nd fastest player to make it to 50 caps and the 71st to do so overall.

Sam Coffey, 27, earns her 45th cap and 32nd start. She had scoring contributions in four straight camps for which she was called up to at the end of 2025. In January, Coffey transferred from the Portland Thorns to Manchester City.

Alyssa Thompson, 21, earns her 30th cap and 17th start. Today, she and her sister Gisele break the record for sisters starting in the same match. Samantha and Kristie Mewis started in the same game three times, and the Thompsons have now done so four times. Alyssa was named the London Football Awards Women’s Young Player of the Year.

Claudia Dickey, 26, earns her ninth cap and ninth start. She has earned seven shutouts and eight wins across her eight caps thus far for the USWNT, five of those shutouts in her last five appearances. 

Gisele Thompson, 20, earns her eighth cap and sixth start. She made her debut in last year’s SheBelieves Cup, earning her first cap vs. Colombia on Feb. 20, 2025, and earning her first start vs. Australia on Feb. 23, 2025. She earned her first assist in this year’s match vs. Paraguay on Jan. 24. This is the fourth time she and her sister Alyssa Thompson will start a USWNT match together and sixth time they’ll play in the same USWNT game. They have surpassed the Mewis sisters in shared starts (four) but are only halfway to tying the Mewis sisters for most USWNT games played together (12).

Kennedy Wesley, 25, earns her fifth cap and fourth start. She made her debut in the 2025 October window, starting in her first match on Oct. 29, 2025, vs. New Zealand. She started her two most recent appearances as well.

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