Emma Hayes promised to wait until the last minute to make the call on Tierna Davidson and Jaedyn Shaw, and she has — with a good news/bad news split. Shaw finally returns to the 18, having missed the entirety of the group stage with an unspecified leg injury.
As a quick reminder, Shaw’s return could play a role here against Japan as she’s scored against them before earlier this year at the SheBelieves Cup. But she also impressed then-interim head coach Twila Kilgore with a complete performance.
“I just want to point out, not only did she score a brilliant goal, and not only was she part of a lot of very effective build-ups, but she did a great job defensively. And this is an area where she has accepted a challenge and is continuing to grow and makes a massive difference for our team,” Kilgore said this spring.
She might not be ready for a full 90 on Saturday, but maybe she’s ready to make a difference off the bench.
Now onto the bad news: no Davidson, with that swelling due to the knee contusion clearly still a factor. Hayes has options to replace her in the starting XI, but the leading candidate should be Emily Sonnett. Davidson remaining off the roster plus Sam Coffey’s absence as the team’s defensive midfielder due to yellow card accumulation might cause some nerves for the fans watching this one, though center back Naomi Girma will still be in the middle controlling their defensive line.
