The U.S. has cemented itself as the one world’s most dominant footballing nations on the women’s scene. While it’s easy to just point at the senior national team and its mountain of accomplishments, this success wouldn’t have been possible if not for the youth national teams.
All the USA’s stars have come up and developed through these youth national teams, preparing them for the big stages that the senior team has thrived on. A large part of this development has come thanks to the coaches of these youth national teams, which includes the current batch of coaches of these teams, who are leading a new generation of U.S. soccer talents into the limelight.
Vicky Jepson – U-20 National Team
Hired in mid-2025, Vicky Jepson is the woman tasked with leading perhaps the country’s most prominent youth national team. She brings well over a decade of experience in her native England, which notably included over 50 games as manager at Liverpool, as well as a brief stint with Tottenham as well. More notably though, Jepson also has experience coaching England’s U-17 national team.
Not long after taking over, Jepson led the U-20 team all the way to the semifinals in the 2025 CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship. Although they fell short in the end, this placement was good enough to earn the U.S. qualification to the 2026 U-20 World Cup, which will take place in September. Jepson and the squad open up play against Italy, and will look to bring home the first U-20 World Cup trophy since 2012.
Carrie Kveton – U-19 National Team
Carrie Kveton has been at the helm of the U.S. U-19 national team since, bringing a wealth of prior playing and coaching experience. Kveton grew up in Texas, where she would go on to play collegiate soccer at North Texas University. Afterward, she would go on to put together a playing career of over ten years, including in the USL W-League and the FA Women’s Premier League.
Kveton’s coaching career began in Denmark, which is where she would spend over nine years before heading back to the U.S. After a brief stint coaching the U-23 national team, Kveton was soon appointed as the U-19 national team head coach, which is of course where she is to this day. Kveton led the squad to a bronze medal finish at the 2023 Pan American Games, and has seen steady success since, including five wins in seven friendlies thus far in 2026.
Ciara Crinion – U-17 National Team
Around the same time, the U-20 national team hired Vicky Jepson, and the U-17 national team hired Ciara Crinion to take over its team. Crinion came into this role with the necessary coaching experience, having coached the U-15 national team, as well as at the collegiate level with Seton Hall and Hartford.
Crinion was brought into the U-17 team fold for this current World Cup cycle. So far, it has been an outstanding start, going 3-0 in CONCACAF World Cup qualification, winning the three games by a combined 32 goals. Crinion will look to ride the momentum from those qualifier games into the tournament in October, with the USA’s opening game taking place against Samoa.
Featured image via @usynt
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