To the casual soccer fan, Savannah DeMelo’s rise to US women’s national team stardom seems to have happened overnight, but to those who have been following closely, the 25-year-old’s inclusion on the World Cup roster comes as no surprise—though far from a foregone conclusion.
DeMelo’s place on coach Vlatko Andonovski’s squad was almost unprecedented, with the midfielder becoming 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 camps of the USWNT in September and October, but neither outing made a senior national team debut.
Instead, DeMelo took a less obvious path to Australia and New Zealand, playing on the USWNT’s World Cup squad (a notoriously difficult group to crack) by putting on a spirited performance with her NWSL club. Notching five goals and two assists in 12 games, DeMelo led the goalscoring charge for Louisville, following up a strong rookie year with an outstanding sophomore season.
“This year my mentality is like I’m going to do everything I can to be a danger for the team,” DeMelo said. “I want to be the one to score. I want to be the one to help and I think my team gives me a lot of confidence to do that and trusts me to give me the freedom to do that.
DeMelo has an uncanny ability to win the ball back in the midfield, stop the transition of opponents with a 70% tackle success rate, and then turn around and quickly distribute the pitch. Another key to DeMelo’s game is his comfort playing without the ball, as Louisville held the lowest possession of any club in the NWSL at 46.5%. The USWNT often prefers to dictate the 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 huge plus for a limited 23-player roster—especially with Rose Lavelle entering the World Cup with a knee injury and veteran Julie Ertz is still working her way back to the US on relatively short notice.
Karen Ambrose Hickey/IMAGO
While DeMelo’s focus is on winning games for Career Louisville, he admitted that the USWNT and the World Cup were not far from his mind during his early season tear. Throughout the NWSL campaign, Andonovski has been messaging DeMelo, giving him pointers, telling him what he wants in his game while assuring the midfielder that club form is important, even—and especially— when he wasn’t called up to USWNT camps.
“Sav has done very well and has been very consistent. His performance in the league is one of the biggest reasons why he is in the team,” said Andonovski during the press conference in June. “Based on the needs we have in terms of opponents and different situations we can face, we see Sav as very important for us going forward.”
As Andonovski and the rest of the USWNT coaching staff watched, DeMelo’s run with Louisville paid off and then some, earning the young star the chance of his career. DeMelo got a taste of what’s to come this summer, logging her first senior national team cap, subbing in the USWNT’s July 9 game against Wales in the 64th minute. Before the scoreless game, DeMelo’s debut was filled with some drama (as is often the case with the USWNT), and the midfielder delivered, helping to inject the squad with much-needed urgency while the second half Trinity Rodman grabbed a brace to save the day.
However, clocking only 30 minutes with the senior national team ahead of the World Cup can be daunting. DeMelo’s lack of caps compared to his U.S. teammates, of course, got to his mind, and even though it felt overwhelming at times, he kept up the awesome jump.
“I think it’s important not to let that thought control my actions or the way I think,” DeMelo said. “It’s something I think about, but it’s not something that scares me or makes me think in any way.”
If DeMelo, and Andonovski for that matter, needed any reassurance of his experience, perhaps a look at Boxx would provide some relief. One of the best ever, Boxx began his tenure with the national team by scoring a goal in his first cap (a World Cup warm-up 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, would DeMelo have introduced himself to the World Cup in quite the same way?
While a remarkable achievement, DeMelo isn’t happy to simply celebrate making the team: He has work to do. “Winning the World Cup was great,” he said. “I don’t think anyone on this team expects anything less and I think we hold ourselves to that standard.”
