Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe left off U.S. women's national team in dramatic roster shakeup

“The times, they are a-changin’.” That’s how Pia Sundhage announced her departure as women’s national team head coach in 2012, by referencing the old Bob Dylan song.

Her departure set in motion a modernization of a program that was stuck in time. Tom Sermanni succeeded her and pushed through tactical and logistical reforms and introduced new players. He was soon dumped for Jill Ellis, who has sought to continue that process. And on Thursday, a symbolic culmination of those changing times was apparent in the roster she announced for upcoming friendlies with Switzerland.

Certainly, those changes will probably be brief. Ellis called up a wildly inexperienced and unusually little-known roster for the games. She isn’t cleaning house, exactly, instead declaring in a statement that “we are in a phase where we want to try to expand the player pool, look at a number of players and start the long process to qualifying for the next World Cup.”

But at the outset of that process, that has meant excising several stars and stalwarts, not least of them striker Alex Morgan and attacking midfielder Megan Rapinoe. Also left out of the team were defenders Ali Krieger, Julie Johnston and Megan Klingenberg and 18-year old prodigy forward Mallory Pugh. Goalkeeper Hope Solo, of course, remains suspended and is unlikely to ever return to the fold.

In their place, Ellis called three collegians and 11 uncapped players in all, including nine who had never even been invited to a national team camp before. Switzerland, whom the 2015 Women’s World Cup champions will face on Oct. 19 and 23 in Salt Lake City and Minneapolis, respectively, are a solid if unspectacular opponent. But the very fact that Ellis should make such wholesale changes, even between cycles, is significant. That’s just as true if the turnover is only temporary, which it’s sounding like it is.

“Several of our more experienced players won’t be in for this camp while we get to evaluate some different personnel,” Ellis said. “In order to see if these players can contribute, we need to get them into a national team training environment and games.” That does not sound like a coach ready to phase out half the core of her team. Rather, it’s one who just needed to make a little room and sent some regulars on a brief hiatus.

In the past, however, such a move would have been unthinkable. Sermanni was, by several accounts, the victim of a bloodless coup by the senior players when he replaced too many of them at once in the starting lineup. The women’s national team was long run by its players; the head coach was largely there to figure out the X’s and O’s. Perhaps the reason that Sundhage lasted longer in the job than anybody since Anson Dorrance in the 1980s and 1990s is that she never changed anything. You knew months ahead of time what her lineup looked like. That’s how the players liked it. Such a roster as this one would never have happened.

But in addition to the newfound clout of her office, Ellis benefits from a domestic league that is finally doing what it was intended to: develop talent. That’s in part because the low wages drive out more experienced players, but then that makes more minutes available to young players with national team potential.

“Our staff has been watching NWSL games this season and these are the ones that stood out,” Ellis said of her new national teamers. “The league is vitally important to create a tremendous competitive environment for these players to show their talents as professionals and we are excited to give them a chance with the national team.”

And so we’ve wound up with a national team that has, for once, only a few recognizable faces — co-captains Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn; winger Tobin Heath; forwards Crystal Dunn and Christen Press; and, well, that’s kind of it.

The big names will surely return. But even their brief absence is remarkable.

Full roster:

Goalkeepers: Jane Campbell (Stanford), Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars)

Defenders: Abby Dahlkemper (Western New York Flash), Arin Gilliland (Chicago Red Stars), Merritt Mathias (Seattle Reign), Kelley O’Hara (Sky Blue FC), Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City), Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars), Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns FC)

Midfielders: Morgan Brian (Houston Dash), Danielle Colaprico (Chicago Red Stars), Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC), Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC), Carli Lloyd (Houston Dash), Allie Long (Portland Thorns FC), Samantha Mewis (Western New York Flash), Andi Sullivan (Stanford)

Forwards: Crystal Dunn (Washington Spirit), Shea Groom (FC Kansas City), Ashley Hatch (BYU), Kealia Ohai (Houston Dash), Christen Press (Chicago Red Stars), Lynn Williams (Western New York Flash)