Key USWNT questions to answer before the World Cup for coach Emma Hayes - ESPN

The U.S. women's national team is about to embark on a rare journey of playing the same team three times in a week — and it's Japan, the fifth-ranked team in the world.

The 2027 Women's World Cup is just over a year away, and USWNT head coach Emma Hayes has begun to narrow down her roster, refining both the team's tactical ideas and the personnel she thinks can best execute them. Still, she has plenty of questions that still need answering — and less time than it may seem to do it.

Forward Sophia Wilson is due to play for the United States for the first time in 17 months after her maternity leave, and defender Tierna Davidson is back with the team for the first time in over a year after tearing an ACL. Those two returns alone are major headlines, and they each further complicate important positional decisions.

The USWNT will have just six international windows before the World Cup once these friendlies against Japan are over, meaning Hayes can't let any USWNT matches go to waste. Here are the burning questions for Hayes in this crucial international window, with the USWNT's first of three meetings with Japan on Saturday.

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Wilson's highly anticipated return comes with Catarina Macario sidelined by a lingering heel injury, meaning the two players yet again won't be in camp together. That is an important note because they are the two obvious starters for the No. 9 role — and they play it in entirely different ways.

Macario had held down the No. 9 role in Wilson's absence and hit her groove in late 2024, ending the year with a strong showing in a pair of