Despite pandemics and lawsuits, one constant for the U.S. women’s national team lately has been the SheBelieves Cup. Every year since 2016, the USWNT has hosted some of the best teams in the world in a four-team competition aimed at inspiring young women. Unfortunately, the 2022 SheBelieves Cup looks like it’ll be the least inspiring yet.
Perhaps more so than any other type of soccer, international football lends itself to the hero forward who saves the day with a miraculous goal. Whether it’s Pelé dominating the men’s World Cup, Michelle Akers scoring at will at the Women’s World Cup, Landon Donovan’s unforgettable finish against Algeria or Carli Lloyd’s midfield bomb in 2015, there’s something about the international game that loves a star goal scorer.
After a 2020 that was, in many ways, a lost year for international soccer, the U.S. women’s national team went into 2021 with high hopes. The year ended with feelings of missed opportunities and the need for a rethink moving forward less than 20 months away from the next Women’s World Cup.
Are you the kind of person who prefers to respond to emails and texts with GIFs instead of having to type something out? Do you also love the USWNT? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, then you or a loved one may be entitled to a plethora of new USWNT GIFs.
As a sendoff for 2021, the USWNT social team decided to do its version of Spotify Wrapped in GIF form. You might want to put a few of these in your back pocket for a rainy day.
The USWNT released 18 total GIFs for your viewing pleasure. The18 (see what I did there?) USWNT GIFs are as follows.
Carli Lloyd passed the torch to Lindsey Horan this year. Lloyd, who won two Women’s World Cups wearing the vaunted No. 10 jersey, bequeathed the number to Horan after retiring. On Thursday night, it was Horan who honored the jersey by being named U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year.
The first 2021 award winner for the USWNT was revealed on Tuesday morning with the Goal of the Year being announced. The USWNT Goal of the Year 2021 nominees included a list of sensational goals. Here’s a quick refresher on what fans could vote for.
All of them were pretty great, but what was favorite goal of 2021?
U.S. Soccer announced the nominees for its wide range of 2021 Player of the Year awards, and voting is open now for fans until Dec. 12. The finalists for the awards highlight where the men’s and women’s national teams are right now, and they’re clearly not in the same place.
There was a large sense during the USWNT’s last two friendlies against South Korea that the team was growing stale.
Carli Lloyd’s final USWNT appearance is Tuesday, Oct. 26, in a friendly against South Korea from Saint Paul, Minnesota. One of the greatest women’s soccer players of all time is retiring at the end of the NWSL season to start a family, and she’ll have one last sendoff with the national team. To commemorate her final cap, Fox Soccer will have a dedicated stream — a Carli Cam, if you will — following her every move at Allianz Field, according to Engadget.
On Thursday night, the USWNT bossed South Korea around the pitch but couldn’t find a way through to score. The 0-0 draw ended a 22-game home winning streak that dated back to another draw with South Korea in 2019.