McCutcheon, 23, signed her first pro contract with the Courage this year after a decorated college career at Oklahoma and then West Virginia, where she won the Big 12 Championship in 2022.
At high school she led FC Dallas to an Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) championship, as well as numerous conference titles.
Phoenix head coach Paul Temple believes McCutcheon will be a great fit for the team and the club, and he can\u2019t wait to start working with her.
\u201c<\/strong>Maya is a player who I believe can make a big impact on the team and the A-League,\u201d Temple said.
\u201cShe is everything I\u2019ve been looking for this off-season, in terms of what the team needs for its balance and bringing something different that will complement the other players we have in the middle of the pitch.\u00a0
\u201cMaya can do a bit of everything and I think the supporters will love watching her play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/09\/Maya2.jpg?w=1200\")
Maya McCutcheon is looking forward to taking the next step in her football career. And McCutcheon believes she has the attributes to help the Phoenix.
\u201cWhen the opportunity came up to join the Phoenix it was kind of like a no-brainer,\u201d McCutcheon said.
\u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot at North Carolina but now I want to gain some experience and I\u2019m super excited about seeing another part of the world.
\u201cWhen I talk to a lot of the girls here I feel like a lot of them regret not going abroad and taking the opportunity to learn a lot about themselves and the world when they were my age.
\u201cAfter talking to Paul and learning about the team\u2019s values it felt like a lot was aligning at the right time and it felt like the right step to make.\u201d
She was convinced after speaking to former Nix forward Isabel Cox and some of her Courage teammates.
\u201cI feel like the A-League and the NWSL seem to be pretty interconnected. There are at least four girls at North Carolina who have had experience in the A-League and played for Sydney and Brisbane.
\u201cThey all only said good things about the A-League. That\u2019s what made me so eager to take up the opportunity because you\u2019re talking to five people and you\u2019re not hearing one bad thing.
\u201cIt seems to align with a lot of what I want to get out of my soccer career at this stage. The A-League is going to be a great league for me to compete in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/09\/Maya1.jpg?w=1200\")
\u201cI\u2019m very athletic,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a physical presence, I\u2019m good at ball distribution and I really cover the field.
\u201cI would say I\u2019m a box-to-box player and I\u2019m pretty strong defender.
\u201cI hope I can be another piece of the puzzle to help the team become great.\u201d
Maya McCutcheon is the 17th player confirmed in Paul Temple\u2019s first team squad a week out from the start of pre-season training.
McCutcheon will join the Phoenix in Wellington once she obtains a New Zealand work visa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":322844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[329,330,343,349,355],"tags":[],"competition":[],"acf":{"match_card_embed_league":null,"match_card_embed_club":null,"match_card_embed_match":false,"match_card_embed_disable":false,"auto_publish_updates":true,"reference_article":null,"article_featured_video":"","article_featured_video_tagline":"","article_byline":"","article_media_type":"news","article_video":"","gallery":"","shared_ffa_source":"keepup","shared_hide_in_app":false,"article_player":"","article_team":"","article_competition":"","article_match":"","credit":"","related_articles":"","push_to_social":false,"priority":1,"sport":false,"language":"en","private_content":false,"access_level":"","article_id":"","app_featured_image":null,"article_content_group":"news"},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/news\/american-midfielder-signs-on-with-the-nix\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"American midfielder signs on with the Nix","url":"http:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/news\/american-midfielder-signs-on-with-the-nix\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/news\/american-midfielder-signs-on-with-the-nix\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/09\/MAYA-MCCUTCHEON-Yellow-Web-1920x1080-1.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/09\/MAYA-MCCUTCHEON-Yellow-Web-1920x1080-1.png"},"articleSection":"Breaking News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"brenton"}],"creator":["brenton"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Wellington Phoenix","logo":"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2022\/04\/cropped-Wellington_Phoenix_FC_logo-2.png"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2024-09-16T21:00:00Z","datePublished":"2024-09-16T21:00:00Z","dateModified":"2024-09-16T21:00:00Z"},"rendered":"