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Angelina Anderson was sure the call never would come.
After playing every minute in goal for the U.S. in the U17 women’s World Cup in 2018, she thought maybe the senior national team would call. It didn’t.
After pitching a shutout in her NWSL debut, helping Angel City FC to its only playoff appearance in 2023, she thought maybe the national team would call. It didn’t.
So by the time the phone rang this month with an invitation to a weeklong training camp in Florida, Anderson had stopped waiting.
“Yeah, I guess you could say I was a little surprised,” she said.
Mark Wilson, Angel City’s technical director, wasn’t. Although Anderson has played just 10 times in all competition in two seasons in the NWSL, Wilson had seen enough of her in training for the quality to shine through.
Angel City FC owner Willow Bay made her first major personnel move, hiring NWSL veteran Mark Parsons to be the club’s new sporting director.
“She has everything to be a world-class goalkeeper,” he said. “I’m watching Angelina every day and I’m thinking ‘U.S. women’s team No. 1.’ She has all the attributes to be one of the world’s best.”
The timing of the call couldn’t be better. Alyssa Naeher, the national team’s longtime starter in goal, retired from international play three weeks before being named FIFA’s goalkeeper of the year last month. That leaves the U.S. looking for a new No. 1 for the first time since Naeher replaced Hope Solo following the 2016 Olympics.
“It’s just really an exciting time to be a young goalkeeper in the U.S. and have this kind of opportunity,” said Anderson, 23. “My motto has recently just been ‘Life is fun.’ This is super cool that I get to get in and do this. So I’m trying my best to not kind of think too deeply about ‘Oh my gosh, in five years where am I going to be?’”
The January camp, which opened last Friday, was moved from Carson to Ft. Lauderdale amid the Southern California wildfires. It’s the first winter camp under coach Emma Hayes, who took over last May and led the U.S. back to the top of the Olympic podium last summer in Paris.
Because the camp falls outside a FIFA international window, none of the U.S. team’s European-based players will participate, nor will it end with a friendly. For the most part, this one is about auditioning for the new coach. So in addition to summoning 26 women to the senior team camp, Hayes also called in 24 U23 players for a concurrent “futures camp,” giving her a chance to see 50 players — just 12 of whom have played at least 13 times for the senior national team.
“I’m planning for the future,” Hayes said. “This is an opportunity to see Angelina among others. And I’m very much, you know, looking forward to seeing a deep and talented goalkeeping pool.”
Deep, perhaps, but also inexperienced with just two of the seven keepers called in having played on the senior level. Just one — Casey Murphy of the North Carolina Courage — has more than one international cap. Murphy has registered clean sheets in 15 of her 20 appearances with the senior team, and if that makes her the favorite to succeed Naeher, it also means there will be a spirited battle to fill her role as the top backup.
Anderson says she isn’t thinking about any of that. Her primary goal, she said, is to learn and then take that knowledge with her when she returns to Angel City, where she’s already been given the starting job.
Five days before Angel City star Ali Riley was to be married in Ventura County, her parents were evacuated from her childhood home in Pacific Palisades.
“Angelina is going to be our No. 1,” Wilson said. “We do have a lot of confidence in Angelina and we’ve looked at data and we’ve looked at the qualitative, cultural pieces and we just believe she absolutely can be not only our No. 1 for many years but also a future women’s national team No. 1.
“But, like any player, you have to prove it.”
Anderson spent the last two NWSL seasons playing behind DiDi Haracic, whose contract expired at the end of last season. Wilson said Haracic, Angel City’s all-time leader in NWSL appearances, was welcome to come back under a new deal but was told the team intended to start Anderson.
“We made a clear stance and direction on Angelina and we moved in that direction,” Wilson said.
Yet while the team has shown Anderson confidence, it hasn’t been able to provide her with much stability. When she finishes with the national team this week and returns to Southern California and Angel City’s preseason training camp, she’ll be playing for her third coach in two seasons.
Bohemian FC turned to politics and social causes to market itself, with the grassroots campaign making them a viable team in Ireland’s first division.
“I’ve been getting a lot of chances to start over and start over,” she said. “It’s definitely a challenge being a young goalkeeper and having so many new coaches in such a short time, especially because there’s an aspect to me and my game that still needs to be molded and developed.
“Having a bunch of coaches makes that kind of a challenge.”
But, she added “when you put your head down and you just keep doing the right thing, eventually good things will come. That’s kind of my mindset in hard times, good times, bad times.
“I think that helped me.”
It finally got the phone to ring.
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
