Women's Soccer

The seventh season of NWSL play kicked off on Saturday, and the 2019 campaign will attract more attention than ever since it falls in a World Cup year. With 52 days to go until the main event in France, international players remain with their club sides for the time being. 

However, that’ll soon change, and USWNT call-ups will expect to miss around two months of the season (the Send-Off Series begins on May 12 vs. South Africa and the World Cup final takes place on July 7), although the NWSL will break for group stage play.

The 2019 NWSL season is underway and although everyone was too caught up on the new season of Game of Thrones, the Portland Thorns were busy upsetting the Orlando Pride in their opener on Sunday night. The Thorns proved to be the favorite after a cheeky performance from USWNT standout Tobin Heath.

Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, or just the Lyon women for short, is the best team in Europe. Lyon has won three straight Champions Leagues (five since 2011) and the last 12 (yes, a full dozen) Division 1 Féminine league titles. 

You can now add a new attendance record to the list of Lyon triumphs.

Lyon hosted Paris Saint-Germain in what was essentially the title decider on Saturday at Parc Olympique Lyonnais, which later this summer will host the Women’s World Cup semifinals and final.

20,941 at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles watched the USWNT put six past Belgium — five of them headers — on Sunday night in a celebratory World Cup warmup that included a tribute to the legendary ’99 squad. 

It was the sort of match that Alexi Lalas will burn onto DVD, sharpie “Set Pieces” on and rewatch seven hundred times.

It all started in the 14th minute with Tierna Davidson lofting a direct ball into the box and there was Carli Lloyd, on her 271st appearance, to nod home. 

Alex Morgan has been a consistent impact player for the U.S. women’s national team. In her 2019 campaign, she has started and played in four games totaling 349 minutes for a total of 159 caps, ranking her 17th all-time in games played. She continues to add to her accolades after just being named the 2018 U.S. Soccer Player of the Year.

She finally reached her 100th goal at age 29 in an international friendly against Australia on Thursday in Commerce City, Colorado.

The U.S. women’s national team just wants to be treated fairly and equally by the United States Soccer Federation. On Equal Pay Day — the date representing how far into the current year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned the previous year — the USWNT received an unexpected boost toward equal pay. 

Youth soccer in America is changing. Over the past few years, U.S. soccer has moved to profoundly address the exclusivity of high-level grass roots play. Talented footballers at the high school age can get offered to play for a program known as a Development Academy (DA). Both Major League Soccer and other youth clubs all over the U.S. have Development Academy teams, from the high school age all the way down to U-12. 

The UEFA Women’s Champions League quarterfinal second legs were held across Europe today, and the field has now been trimmed to four after some truly captivating matches between the continent’s biggest clubs.

After defeating Norwegian side LSK Kvinner 3-0 in the first leg, Barcelona took care of business in Lillestrøm by opening the scoring in the seventh minute to doom any hopes of a Kvinner comeback. Barca has advanced to the semis in two of the last three seasons, but the club has never made it to the final. 

It's not everyday that you see a women’s professional team pack a stadium, especially women’s soccer. However, the reigning Serie A Women champion packed the house this past Sunday during its match against Fiorentina, reaching an Italian record of 39,027 fans in attendance.