With some help from Alex Morgan, 19-year-old Jaedyn Shaw is shining with the USWNT
Jaedyn Shaw is always coming up to Alex Morgan and asking the veteran superstar all kinds of soccer questions.
The two forwards, 15 years apart in age, have a big sister-little sister type of relationship, which has grown from playing together for the San Diego Wave in the NWSL and for the United States women's national team. The latter has been a newer development, as the 19-year-old Shaw has just nine caps, the first earned last October.
She's certainly made the most of them and has played a significant role in helping the USWNT advance to Sunday's Concacaf Gold Cup final against Brazil.
Shaw has started in three of five games this tournament and leads the team with four goals, though she has a total of six so far on her senior national team resume. The one she scored in the semifinal win over Canada last Wednesday made her the first player in program history to score in each of her first four starts.
"When it comes to Jaedyn, she is just a special player," Morgan said Saturday. "It's always so fun to play with her week in and week out and just see the game through her eyes. She has so much passion for soccer and she wants to talk with me about soccer every chance she gets — more sometimes than I want to.
"But she's eager to learn and that's all you can ask for from a teenager. She's completely bought in and just to see the variety of goals that she's scored this tournament has been exciting because I see it day in and day out at San Diego. So for her to be able to showcase that on an international stage is really exciting."
Morgan was only joking about the frequency of their soccer chats, but she wasn't kidding about the array of goals Shaw has put in the back of the net the last few weeks.
Shaw stole the show in the second group stage match against Argentina, scoring a brace in a 4-0 win. The first goal came out of a bit of trickery started by captain Lindsey Horan on a quickly-taken free kick. Horan sent a short pass to a streaking Shaw, who drew out the goalkeeper and slipped her shot inside the near post. The second came a few minutes later when Rose Lavelle curled a cross into the box and Shaw powerfully volleyed the ball into the goal.
In the quarterfinal win against Colombia, Trinity Rodman threaded a pinpoint pass across the box where Shaw beat her defender and one-touched her shot past a diving goalkeeper. And then, most recently in the semifinal slog against the Canadians, Shaw took advantage of the elements to put her team on top early. In the 20th minute, Vanessa Gilles' backwards pass to her goalkeeper got stuck in the waterlogged pitch. Shaw recognized what was happening, saw the ball stop in the box, and chipped a left-footed shot past the goalkeeper.
"She's a special player that has really shown that she deserves to be here," Morgan said.
Shaw simultaneously plays with an edge and a joy about her. When asked Saturday how she's feeling about everything she's accomplishing, she laughed, almost uncomfortable to talk about herself in that kind of way.
"It's obviously really amazing and I feel really blessed to be in the position that I'm in right now," Shaw said. "I'm really excited that I've [done that] stuff, but I'm also just wanting to contribute to the team however I can, whether that's goals or just being a good teammate. I feel like it's just a great environment to be in, and I just want to continue to be here. I just want to make the team better and help us get better in the future."
Playing in her first major tournament for the senior national team, Shaw said she's learned how to deal with a "roller coaster" tournament. The USWNT dominated its first two matches against the Dominican Republic and Argentina before being upset by Mexico. They regrouped and won a chippy quarterfinal match vs. Colombia, and then showed the kind of grit, relentlessness and determination the world is used to seeing from this squad in a rain-soaked semifinal vs. Canada.
Shaw said this experience has helped her balance learning from the last game and then "flipping a switch" to move forward. It helps, too, that she said she has "always loved a bit of pressure."
Much has been said about the generational shift happening in this squad and the younger players who are making names for themselves in big moments. With the Paris Olympics beginning in July, new head coach Emma Hayes will have some difficult roster decisions to make — especially since rosters are limited to 18 players.
Shaw plays the most competitive position with a U.S. forward line stacked with talent. There's Sophia Smith, who might be getting her scoring groove back, and Trinity Rodman, who has played the most minutes this Gold Cup. There's Morgan, who was only called up after Mia Fishel tore her ACL, but has scored goals and is making a case for reclaiming her spot up top. There's also Lynn Williams and Midge Purce, who have been consistent playmakers.
And that's just the group that's on the current Gold Cup roster. Mallory Swanson, who trained with the team before the tournament began, and Catarina Macario, who recently scored a goal in her first game back in almost two years for Chelsea, expect to be back in camp soon fighting for Olympic spots.
In spite of all that, Shaw appears to be rising to the top of the player pool with her recent performances.
"I think that all you can ask for is the players on this team coming up in big moments," Morgan said in reference to making the Olympics roster. "And she's done exactly that."
Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her on Twitter @LakenLitman.
