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Who Is Alyssa Naeher? Her NWSL and USWNT Career

Who is Alyssa Naeher? Trace the goalkeeper’s 11 Chicago seasons, her World Cup and Olympic shutouts, and why her club and U.S. exits came two years apart.

By Brett Hanson · Underdog Podcasts · November 14, 2026

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On a crowded sports bulletin, Chris Horwedel gave a few seconds to a goalkeeper whose last game had already passed. In the “Spurs Win 11th Straight, Red Sox Add Bauers & Dejounte Wants Out” episode of Yesterday in Sports, he said Alyssa Naeher’s career was “defined by the games with the least room for error.”

So who is Alyssa Naeher? She is a retired American goalkeeper who played 11 seasons for Chicago, set NWSL records for goalkeeper appearances and saves, and won two Women’s World Cups with the United States. She started the 2019 World Cup final and the 2024 Olympic gold medal match. Neither opponent scored.

Who is Alyssa Naeher?

Naeher grew up in Stratford, Connecticut. She played basketball well enough to score more than 2,000 high school points. Soccer took her to Penn State, where she earned All-America honors twice and played 88 games in goal.

She also has a twin sister, Amanda. They chose opposite ends of the soccer field. Amanda became a high-scoring college forward; Alyssa chose the position where every mistake looks enormous.

Her first professional team was the Boston Breakers in 2010, before the NWSL existed. She then played in Germany for Turbine Potsdam and won a league title there. When the NWSL began play in 2013, she returned to Boston.

The honors arrived before the famous U.S. saves. Naeher was the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year in 2014, a season in which she made 106 saves. She joined Chicago ahead of 2016. By then, she had also won the 2008 Under-20 World Cup and made her senior U.S. debut.

It took longer to become the senior team’s regular starter. She was on the squad that won the 2015 World Cup, with Hope Solo in goal. Naeher’s first World Cup start came four years later.

Who did Alyssa Naeher play for in the NWSL?

Boston and Chicago were Naeher’s NWSL clubs. Chicago acquired her in November 2015, when the team was called the Red Stars. It later became Chicago Stars FC. She stayed through the 2026 season, her 11th in the city.

That long stay gives the numbers their weight. Naeher finished with 224 NWSL regular-season appearances, 223 starts and 765 saves across both clubs. Of those appearances, 179 came for Chicago. She also recorded 45 of her 50 league clean sheets there.

A clean sheet means the other team did not score. It belongs partly to the goalkeeper and partly to everyone defending in front of her. A save is narrower: a shot was heading for goal, and the keeper stopped it. Naeher made more of those than any NWSL goalkeeper before her.

She became the league’s career leader in goalkeeper saves in May 2023. Her 519th save passed former U.S. teammate Ashlyn Harris. Naeher also became the first NWSL goalkeeper to reach 200 regular-season appearances. Those are records built across ordinary weekends, far from a World Cup final.

Chicago gave her plenty of hard ones. In 2018, she made 11 saves in a game against North Carolina. Her first season with the club included a 485-minute stretch without conceding, then a league record. Keeping a scoreless run alive for that long takes patience. It also takes a defense that knows what its goalkeeper will do.

How did Naeher build her Chicago career?

Chicago reached the NWSL Championship game in 2019 with Naeher in goal. The club reached the first Challenge Cup final in 2020. She was part of another championship finalist in 2021, though an injury suffered at the Olympics kept her out of that postseason.

There is no NWSL title hidden in her Chicago record. That matters when telling the story straight. Her club career was marked instead by how often she was there: 16,012 regular-season minutes in Chicago’s goal, through changes in teammates and the club’s name.

One of her strangest Chicago moments came near the end. On August 18, 2025, the Stars trailed Seattle Reign by three goals. They pulled two back, then sent Naeher forward for a corner deep into stoppage time. She scored the equalizer in a 3-3 draw.

It was her first NWSL goal, scored in her 200th league appearance. Goalkeepers do sometimes run upfield when a team has nothing left to lose. Few get a finish to show for it. Naeher had spent years keeping shots out; for one night, she was the player Seattle could not keep out.

“Hers was a career defined by the games with the least room for error.”
— Chris Horwedel, on Yesterday in Sports

The play also says something about her reputation. A goalkeeper may see little of the ball for long stretches, then be asked to make the one touch that changes the match. In Seattle, that touch happened at the other end of the field.

Why are Naeher’s World Cup and Olympic shutouts historic?

Naeher started every U.S. match at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France. In the semifinal against England, she saved Steph Houghton’s penalty in the 83rd minute. The U.S. held on to win 2-1. In the final, Naeher kept the Netherlands scoreless in a 2-0 win.

That sequence explains Horwedel’s line about little room for error. A penalty save is one action. The final asked for something different: a whole match without the lapse that might let the Netherlands back in.

Naeher’s place on the 2015 winning squad counts as her first World Cup title. The 2019 title was the one she won as the starting keeper. She started again at the 2023 tournament, where the U.S. went out to Sweden on penalties in the round of 16. Naeher converted her own shootout attempt.

Then came Paris in 2024. Naeher played every minute of the U.S. Olympic run and kept four clean sheets, a team record for one Games. In the semifinal against Germany, she stopped a late header with her foot during extra time. The U.S. won 1-0.

Brazil pushed hard in the gold medal match. Mallory Swanson scored for the U.S., and Naeher made a late save from Adriana’s header to protect the 1-0 lead. Her shutout made her the first goalkeeper in women’s soccer history to keep a clean sheet in both a World Cup final and an Olympic gold medal match.

It is an oddly exact distinction. It is also a good measure of her best work. In two finals, five years apart, the team in front of her scored enough to win. Naeher made sure it was enough.

Is Alyssa Naeher still on the USWNT?

No. Naeher announced her international retirement on November 25, 2024. Her last U.S. matches were against England and the Netherlands, with the Netherlands match on December 3 closing her national-team career.

She finished with 115 senior appearances and 69 clean sheets. She was part of three World Cup squads and three Olympic teams. At the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, she helped the U.S. reach the bronze-medal match, though an injury ended her tournament in the semifinal.

The timing can be confusing. Her U.S. retirement came almost two years before her Chicago retirement. She still played NWSL soccer in 2025 and 2026. A clip showing her in a Stars shirt after December 2024 does not mean she had returned to the national team.

Her final international year brought another honor: U.S. Soccer named her its 2024 Female Player of the Year. She was also named The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper for 2024. Both awards followed the Olympic gold medal run, when the late saves were hard to miss.

Is Alyssa Naeher retired from the NWSL?

Yes. Chicago announced her retirement from professional soccer on November 13, 2026, after the 2026 season. She was 38. The club’s final regular-season game had been on November 1, so the announcement came after her last chance to play for the Stars that year.

Horwedel’s episode covered the news in a single-host roundup. There was no guest exchange or long farewell. He gave the league records, the two World Cups and the Olympic gold, then moved to the next result. That is how sports news often works. A career can take 16 professional years and get one paragraph when it ends.

There is a useful distinction in the records he mentioned. Naeher led NWSL goalkeepers in career appearances and saves. Her Chicago totals for appearances, starts and saves were club records. She started 223 of her 224 NWSL regular-season games overall, an almost comically small gap.

Chicago’s announcement did not set out a next job for her. What she will do after playing is hers to say. For now, the last fixed image from her club career might be that bright goalkeeper shirt arriving in Seattle’s crowded penalty area, with the clock already past 90 minutes.

The full episode of Yesterday in Sports is on Underdog Podcasts, with the rest of the network's shows.