Why Zara Chavoshi's call-up to CanWNT is so crucial in Casey Stoney's quest to expand depth
As she gets set for her third camp in charge of the CanWNT, Casey Stoney continues to try and expand her team’s depth pool, having previously noted that it’s the next step for her team to take a big leap forward long-term.
The best teams in the world are filled with depth at each position, with competition throughout their squad, raising the level of their teams through that.
Because of that, it’s not surprising to see Stoney once again cast a wider net in her latest Canadian squad, which was revealed this week ahead of friendlies against Haiti at the end of this month.
“I think I've been very intentional about trying to widen the player pool and the players that we’re bringing in and looking at,” Stoney said this week. “And the best way to do that is to see them in our environment, on the international stage, close up.”
In that squad was one new Canadian dual-national, and that’s Orlando Pride defender Zara Chavoshi, who was called up to Canada’s senior team for the first time. Having previously represented Canada at the U20 World Cup in 2022, she’s not a completely new face to this program, but she most recently suited up for the US’s U23s earlier this year, showing the importance of this call-up.
Someone who also has links to Iran and Vietnam, it looks like her international future either lies with the US, where she was born, or Canada, where her parents became citizens before moving south of the border, which is fascinating to see.
By making this call, however, Stoney is looking to get an inside track towards a long-term commitment, and for good reason, especially given that she said this week that Chavoshi is leaning towards sticking with Canada going forward.
“We've had conversations, and her allegiances are that she doesn’t want to switch,” Stoney said. “She wants to stay with Canada, so for us, it's an opportunity to bring her into a camp, to see her play, see her close up, and see her at the levels that we want to be at.”
Why is that important, one might ask? Despite being in just her first year with the Pride, who did an NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship double in 2024, Chavoshi has already earned minutes at centre back on a team that conceded a league-low 20 goals in 28 regular-season games in 2024.
Zara Chavoshi with an unbelievable clearance off the line for Orlando 🧱 pic.twitter.com/9J21TPRbtC
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) May 4, 2025
Having signed with the Pride out of college this past offseason, coming off a four-year stint with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, where she made 74 appearances, it’s been impressive to see, yet it is a credit to Chavoshi’s profile as a player.
That she signed with a team as good as Orlando is an important clue, as it’s important to remember that this was the first offseason without the NWSL draft, as college players are now free to sign wherever they want.
Had the draft still been in place, Chavoshi would’ve most certainly been drafted, likely sitting as a top pick given her resume and American citizenship, which would’ve put her on a team that had a worse finish in 2024. Instead, she got to pick her destination, and Orlando stepped up to try and sign her, making her their first college signing in the NWSL’s post-draft era.
Now, she gets to develop in a top environment, which is exciting given where she’s already at, despite being only 22 and without much professional experience.
Zara is purple 😈
— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) January 13, 2025
We have signed @WakeWSoccer defender Zara Chavoshi through the 2025 season 🤝
With that in mind, however, it leads to an important question - what can Chavoshi bring to this Canadian team?
To begin, it’s worth looking at her profile as a player. A defender, she mainly plays as a centre back, but can also deputize at full back if needed, showing good versatility in that regard.
As for her style of play, she’s more of a ball-playing centre back, something that stands out when looking at her college numbers, for example. There, across her 70+ games, she averaged 50.3 passes and 8.79 long balls per 90 minutes, completing 80.6% of those passes and 44.6% of her long balls.
Not only that, but she showed improvement in that area over her four years with Wake Forest, too - she finished with 51.31 passes (at a 82.7% clip) and 8.99 long balls per 90 (at a 50.4% clip) in her senior year, showing steady progress in that area of her game.
Because of that, it’s not a surprise to see that she also averaged 6.54 passes into the final third in her four years at Wake Forest, with 22 of her 50.3 passes per 90 being aimed forward, as she looked to get on the ball and progress it forward. (All NCAA stats via WyScout).
That’s key to note, as Orlando are a side that want to funnel the ball forward from their defenders to their dangerous attackers - there’s a reason why they were 2nd in xG and shots despite being a middling possession outfit (50.5%) in 2024 (via FBRef).
Of course, as noted with Orlando’s strong defensive record, they do want their defenders to defend, too - Chavoshi is no slouch in that category, either.
Her college numbers show that - she averaged 4.05 interceptions, 12.24 recoveries, 1.88 clearances and 14.52 duels per 90 (at a 64.1% win rate) across her 4 years with Wake Forest. In particular, she had a high number of recoveries, interceptions and duels, but a low number of sliding tackles (just 0.07 per 90) actually bodes very well for a centre back - it shows that her positioning is her best attribute.
The best defenders tend to snuff out plays before they develop, either by stepping up to make interceptions, or by recovering the ball in other scenarios, cutting out balls in behind. Then, when needed, they also get stuck into duels, winning a high rate of them, showing that they’ll get stuck in.
Usually, a slide tackle for a defender can indicate they’ve made a mistake, so that’s a credit to Chavoshi that she didn’t need to make many of them for Wake Forest, given her proficiency in the interceptions, recoveries, and duels won categories.
Yet, that shows her skills as a defender - she truly fits the profile of a modern centre back, one who will want to dominate games by getting on the ball and by snuffing out dangerous attacks through smart reads and anticipation.
Plus, importantly, those skills have been on full display in her first NWSL matches, too, as she’s already made four appearances for Orlando, including two starts.
Just look at the stats from those two starts - first, she completed 61/79 passes (77%), four passes into the final third, and 9/19 long balls, while making 8 interceptions, 3 clearances (including 1 goalline clearance), 7 recoveries and won 3/7 duels vs. the Portland Thorns on May 3rd. Then, she followed that up by completing 72/80 passes (90%), 12 passes into the final third, and 11/15 long balls, while making 1 interception, 7 recoveries and winning 9/14 duels vs. the North Carolina Courage on May 10th. 
Those performances bode very well for Canada - they’ve already got a couple of centre backs who are among the best in the world in Vanessa Gilles, Kadeisha Buchanan and Jade Rose, who are all perfect examples of the modern centre back (although it must be said Gilles has the art of old-school defending down pat, as well). By bringing Chavoshi into that mix, they’ll have to feel that she could have plenty to learn from that group, one that she fits into very well.
Plus, while Canada has a lot of top-end centre back talent, depth has been an issue for them, as beyond Shelina Zadorsky and Megan Reid, their centre back pool is still quite thin. Because of that, Chavoshi could quickly climb the depth chart, similar to how Rose has done over the past few years.
Combined with that ability to play as a full back, that makes Chavoshi a nice fit on this Canadian side, helping show why Stoney was so eager to bring her in.
Yet, it’s a good sign for Canada, who will hope to bring more players like this into the fold under Stoney going forward. It’s a small thing to remember in all of this, but for all of the talk of the importance of the Northern Super League, especially in terms of unearthing players like Holly Ward, there are still a generation of players who went to college instead of going pro right away, and several of them will graduate over the next few years.
Some will emerge in the NSL, like Ward (a teammate of Chavoshi’s at the 2022 U20 World Cup), which is great for the success of that league long-term, but some will also head to the NWSL (like Chavoshi or fellow 2022 U20 World Cup teammate Zoe Burns) or Europe (like other 2022 U20 World Cup teammates Simi Awujo and Mia Pante), as it’ll all depend on the player and the options available to them.
While the NSL will be huge for developing young talents who will forego college route and go pro as teenagers, there is still a lot of value in the later bloomers that come out of that system ready to make an impact professionally in their early to mid 20s, and Chavoshi is the latest example of that.
“Sometimes, different journeys take different routes and different times to get here,” Stoney said. “They don't all develop at the same rate, so we have to be patient. Sometimes, some are late developers. Some will get there a little bit later, but we need to make sure that we've got a system in place where we're tracking all these players.”
“Zara didn't feature a lot in the U20s, so she’s probably a late developer because she's now kicked on a little bit more. But it shows the work that's been done in the younger age groups, but also shows that there's probably still even more work to be done to widen that talent pool, and that the competition is at the right level, from U17 to U20s, that we’re giving them the right amount of support and resources, but also challenge them same so that when they come into a senior environment, it's not such a big jump.”
“It shows that there are different opportunities out there for players to get to the senior level, and I think that’s great because a player can pick what sort of challenge they need at the right stages of their career.”
Now, Chavoshi will look to continue a big 2025 by making her debut for Canada, as she becomes the latest new face to step up under Stoney, and she’ll now look to carve out a role in this team going forward.
