A highly anticipated meeting between league-leading San Diego Wave and perennial NWSL Championship contender OL Reign delivered on Sunday afternoon at Torero Stadium in SoCal. 

The home crowd was on its feet in the eighth-minute as Alex Morgan got on the end of goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan's long ball forward before cooly collecting her ninth goal of the season in just nine appearances.

The 2022 Concacaf W Championship is just 26 days away, so USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski has to be close to knowing the final 23-player squad he'll name for the tournament in Mexico — which serves as qualifying for both the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympic Games.

But he's not showing his hand yet.

On Monday, Concacaf revealed the provisional rosters for the W Championship, so while the final 23 will have to be selected from this list, the provisional roster for the USWNT includes an all-encompassing 59 names.

Early NWSL leaders San Diego Wave travelled to Lumen Field in Seattle on Sunday to play OL Reign with all eyes on two of this season's most impressive attacking talents. For the expansion Wave, Alex Morgan has fueled the quick success with a league-leading six goals. For the Reign, Rose Lavelle entered with the most shots, 18, across the NWSL.

The Reign defense, anchored by the center half pairing of Alana Cook and Sam Hiatt, did an excellent job marshaling Morgan and the Wave's attack. At the other end, San Diego had no answer for Rose Lavelle's threat off the left-hand side.

The 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup isn’t over yet, but the 2022 NWSL regular season is upon us. While four teams still compete for the first trophy of the season, expansion club Angel City FC hosts the N.C. Courage at 10:30 p.m. ET on Friday night (live on CBSSN) to open what is sure to be an enthralling campaign. That means it’s time for some NWSL predictions. 

In September, the USWNT crushed Paraguay in back-to-back friendlies by a 17-0 aggregate score. This past week, the USWNT crushed Uzbekistan in back-to-back friendlies by an 18-1 aggregate score. While the September matches felt mostly a waste of time, the April matches felt instructive and useful, for both Vlatko Andonovski’s plans moving forward and U.S. fans trying to figure out those plans.

If you just look at the opponent, the USWNT’s April friendlies against Uzbekistan are likely to be fairly drab. Matches against the 48th-ranked team in the world in Ohio and Philadelphia, on the face of it, don’t really kindle much enthusiasm. But the April USWNT roster makes it clear: This is the final chance for some young players to earn a spot on the team at World Cup and Olympic qualifying this summer in Mexico.

The 2022 SheBelieves Cup will be the least challenging yet for the U.S. women’s national team. So Vlatko Andonovski is giving less-experienced players an opportunity to show what they can do. But the USWNT roster for the 2022 SheBelieves Cup left off two of the nation’s most promising young players.

After a 2020 that was, in many ways, a lost year for international soccer, the U.S. women’s national team went into 2021 with high hopes. The year ended with feelings of missed opportunities and the need for a rethink moving forward less than 20 months away from the next Women’s World Cup.