USWNT must urgently get younger, and Vlatko Andonovski is right to look beyond veterans at SheBelieves Cup

The time for transition with a team is never easy to predict, but there is one near certainty for the U.S. women's national team: you typically do it after an Olympics because you have a big, three-year gap before the next World Cup on the calendar. Well, that is until a pandemic hits — I'm adding it to my «Another Thing COVID-19 Has Messed Up» list.

With the 2020 Olympics delayed by a year and the window for transition much tighter, everything's a bit more complicated for USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski. Yes, this new USWNT is going to look very different than the 2020 Olympic team, and for the past three years, the escalating murmur from USWNT fans has been«Go younger!» as it relates to players. That mantra turned into a low roar during the USWNT's struggles at the Tokyo Olympics last year, and it became a full-fledged chant by the time the USWNT lost to Canada in the Olympic semifinals.

To my surprise, that rumble to go younger quickly turned into, «Where are all the veterans??!!» once the SheBelieves Cup roster was announced two weeks ago without players like Megan Rapinoe, Christen Press, Tobin Heath and Alex Morgan. Not that I will ever pretend to understand social media — and honestly, there isn't enough wine to convince me to try — but I am sure Andonovski has been very clear with his sentiment: «I need time to see younger players.»

— Watch: SheBelieves Cup: USWNT vs. Czech Republic, 2/17, 11 p.m. ET, ESPN — Read: Murray: The newcomers who could be the USWNT's next stars

Andonovski could not bring in all younger players during the USWNT's post-Olympic games in September and October because he was contractually obligated to bring in the Olympic roster for those so-called «victory tour» games. But he said repeatedly