August 12th, 2016 was a low point for the United States women’s national team. They were heading home from Rio after falling to Sweden in a penalty kick shootout in the quarterfinals. A fifth place finish for a team that had won gold at the previous two editions of the Summer Games, and who had just won the World Cup a year ago, was an embarrassment.
There was something vaguely familiar about yesterday’s Orlando Pride vs. Sky Blue match up: a handball clearance off the line in crunch time, a red card, a penalty, a penalty save. All right, it’s not exactly a World Cup knockout game and Carli Lloyd didn’t know much about the goal-saving move (it seems), but one can’t help but think of a certain Uruguayan striker by the name of Luis Suarez after seeing this.
Carli Lloyd's red card pic.twitter.com/iOnZwEiY0d
The Mexico Women's National Team won the gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games on Monday night in Barranquilla, Colombia.
With staggering goals and extraordinary performances, Mexico bounced back from an early deficit in the final vs. Costa Rica.
El Tri Femenil secured the highest prize with a final score of 3-1. Mexico trailed 1-0 after María Alvarado scored via a penalty kick for Costa Rica in the 13th minute.
Had the head of Lindsey Horan not come to the rescue in the dying seconds of the match against Australia last night, the USWNT would have been handed its first loss in over a year. Though they salvaged a draw, fans of the game have seen this before and the message is loud and clear: the rest of the world is catching up.
The USWNT hadn’t suffered a defeat since last July’s Tournament of Nations match against Australia, so with the clock striking 90 in tonight's rematch and the Matildas holding a 1-0 lead thanks to Chloe Logarzo’s 22nd minute strike, it looked like time was indeed a flat circle. But Lindsey Horan’s header at the death pushed the USWNT’s unbeaten streak to 18 games and kept the host nation in the running for the 2018 Tournament of Nations trophy.
The USWNT defeated Japan 4-2 to begin Tournament of Nations play (essentially the warmup for October’s World Cup qualifying event) with Alex Morgan registering a hat-trick inside 56 minutes and The Best FIFA Women’s Player finalist Megan Rapinoe adding the fourth in the 66th.
International football’s governing body revealed its candidates for the FIFA Best Women's Player award on Tuesday, the winner of which will be announced at the Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony in London in two months.
Here is FIFA’s list of the nominees up for the award:
Who is the best women's soccer player? Christine Sinclair, or “Sinc” as she is fondly referred to, falls somewhere between the obvious and not obvious choice for this title.
Sinclair is not the kind of name that’s in your face in the headlines all the time like Alex Morgan or Sam Kerr. She doesn’t have the flash or the fan following of Tobin Heath, the individual trophy case of Marta or Birgit Prinz, or the jaw-dropping biggest stage performance like Carli Lloyd. But if you ask who is the best women's soccer player in the world, Christine Sinclair is the answer.
In her post-game interview on July 7 after playing former club Sky Blue, Chicago Red Stars forward Sam Kerr did not want to talk about her hat-trick or the satisfaction of clinching three points on the road. Rather, Kerr used the mic in front of her to say this: “I wish things were better here [at Sky Blue]. I’m just going to say the girls deserve better and I’m just going to leave it at that. These girls are great girls. They give everything of themselves for this club and this league and they just deserve better.