Surely, U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes has noticed the tags she’s been getting on Instagram about Ashley Sanchez.The routine begins when the North Carolina Courage attacking midfielder, who has increasingly played on the wing, finds the back of the net. Her NWSL-leading 13 goals in 20 games mean this is a regular occurrence.Then, a legion of supporters flocks to the comment section of the Instagram highlight for Sanchez’s latest heroics to alert Hayes or the USWNT. It happened when the 27-year-old scored the latest game-winner in NWSL history over the weekend, and the goal-of-the-week volley while playing away against former club Washington Spirit. It was the same story when she executed a stop-motion pirouette in the penalty box before a calm 10th goal of the season last month.What more must a player do, they ponder in collective frenzy, to get called back into USWNT camp? It has been nearly two years since Sanchez landed on a national team roster in October 2024.The answer is the topic of this week’s “Three Words,” a weekly column that takes key players, teams and moments in global women’s soccer and boils them down to three words. It should be that simple, and for Sanchez, an invitation back onto the USWNT, which will play a pair of friendlies against Spain in October’s international window, should only be a matter of …When, not ifThose who’ve followed Sanchez’s career since the Spirit selected her in the first round of the 2020 NWSL college draft know her DNA has hardly changed.Sanchez, a former UCLA player, was the fourth pick behind Taylor Flint, Morgan Weaver, and Sophia Wilson. She has always been crafty with the ball at her feet, and thrives in environments that allow her to build deep relationships with her teammates — just ask Trinity Rodman.North Carolina Courage midfielder Ashley Sanchez has been the perfect partner for team-mate Trinity Rodman. (Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)But despite the talent she showed early in her career, including an NWSL Championship with the Spirit in 2021, Sanchez has unlocked a new dimension to her game this season with North Carolina. Former Courage midfielder Manaka Matsukubo’s departure this summer for Chelsea sent shockwaves across Cary, N.C. It also meant Sanchez had more space and freedom further up the pitch than she had in previous seasons, and she’s been making the most of it.She has nearly doubled her touches in the opposition box from last season (averaging 3.7 per game in 2025 compared to 7.31 this year), and more than doubled her expected goals (xG) from 0.18 per game last year to 0.45 now. Playing on the left flank for North Carolina allows Sanchez to drift inside if she sees an opening, and the burgeoning collective between Erica Meg Parkinson, Shinomi Koyama, and Riley Jackson in the midfield affords her even more space to roam.