Yesterday afternoon, Alyssa Naeher played her 115th and final game as a goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s soccer team.
Quietly, she put herself in a pantheon with other great goalkeepers who have worn the U.S. shirt — Mary Harvey, Briana Scurry, and Hope Solo.
Naeher, numerically, may have been better than all of them. She had 69 shutouts, of which two create a singular distinction. With clean sheets in the 2019 World Cup final and the 2024 Olympics, she is the only goalkeeper to have ever kept opponents goalless in both major competitions over the course of championship games.
Naeher also became part of U.S. lore in 2024 when she saved three penalty kicks against Canada in a driving rainstorm in the semifinal of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup. In addition, Naeher took the fourth kick to beat the Leafs in the tournament. A month later, in the SheBelieves Cup, Naeher did it again. She stopped three Canadian kicks and scored on a penalty as the States would win in the seventh round of the shootout.
How special is that feat? As the old soccer saying goes, “If you save one penalty kick, you’re done well. If you save two, you’re a hero. If you save three, they will make a statue of you in your hometown.”
Let’s focus on that again: Naeher did it twice. In an international match against a continental rival.
That’s unbelievable.
Naeher’s performance yesterday against Holland, in which she pulled off some pretty amazing saves, showes that perhaps she has the kind of skills to keep wearing the U.S. kit. However, she would be pushing 39 for the next major international tournament, the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
Which is why, with Naeher’s retirement, the U.S. selectors are looking into a void when it comes to international experience. In the most recent camp, the United States goalkeepers aside from Naeher had exactly one cap.
It’s going to be an interesting few years to see which goalkeeper will step up. Will it be Casey Murphy, who is already sixth in shutouts in U.S. history? Will it be Aubrey Kingsbury, who had her own three-save penalty shootout win in the NWSL playoffs this year? Might it be Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who plays her soccer for the Manchester United women’s team? Might it be Jane Campbell, who was on the Paris Olympic roster as an alternate? Or is it going to be veteran Adrianna Franch, who has done great work in the NWSL for the Portland Thorns, winning the league’s top goalie award in 2017 and 2018?
If Franch is able to stay healthy and get back to the form she had when she was the CONCACAF Goalkeeper of the Year in 2017, watch out.