NWSL

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been widely praised for his handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic in his state, which has been hit harder than anywhere else in the country. While many leaders have done their best to ignore or even flout the experts, Cuomo has embraced science and proven to be an excellent communicator during this crisis. 

But the governor may have lost a lot of that good will with one poorly conceived graphic.

During his daily media briefing on Tuesday, Cuomo spoke about how eager he is to have professional sports resume play as soon as possible. 

FIFA has proposed that teams should be allowed to make up to five substitutions per match, instead of the usual three, as a temporary measure to help cope with potential fixture congestion in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus outbreak. 

Football has been at a standstill since mid-March but many leagues and federations are still hoping to complete the season but to do so they would have to cram fixtures into a shorter period than usual once play re-starts.

Carli Lloyd, like the rest of us, would prefer life would return to normal sooner rather than later. But the two-time Women’s World Cup winner, as she often does, is finding the positive aspects of being forced to shelter in place, with the NWSL season on hold and 2020 Olympics pushed back a year.

Ever since the dawn of the NASL in the 1960s, American soccer teams have tried everything under the sun to create iconic club names. From the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Dallas Tornado of the old NASL to modern-day Real Salt Lake and the short-lived Houston 1836, there have been some winners and many more losers. The new Louisville NWSL club might be going the Houston 1836 route.

The U.S. Soccer Federation said on Wednesday it was shutting down its youth development academy permanently due to the financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

U.S. Soccer, the sport's governing body in the United States, said in a statement the decision to shutter the academy, which it founded in 2007 and included competitions across five age groups, was effective immediately. 

Many female footballers are at risk of losing their livelihoods due to the global soccer shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a report by global players' union FIFPRO said on Thursday. 

The report said specific measures were needed to help women's football during the crisis, which has brought world sport to a standstill and caused the postponement of major international events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Otherwise, it said, the women's game could be facing an existential threat.

Donald Trump’s feud with women’s soccer players continued on Saturday as he spoke with the commissioners of every major sports league in the U.S. with one exception: the NWSL.

To no one’s surprise, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and PGA commissioners were all invited. Somewhat surprisingly, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, LPGA’s Michael Whan and MLS’s Don Garber also got invites. Also included were UFC and NASCAR, which probably speak to Trump’s base, and WWE, which is more akin to Broadway than sport. 

But no National Women’s Soccer League. 

When North American sports leagues return to action after the coronavirus crisis, questions are sure to linger over whether the fans will be willing, or have the resources, to pack stadiums as they once did, sports analysts have said. 

Julie Ertz might just be the most dominant player in soccer right now — and the most magnanimous. 

The two-time Women’s World Cup winner teamed up with her husband to donate $100,000 to Philabundance, a Philadelphia-area food bank, to provide meals to those in need during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Ertz and her husband, Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz, announced the donation on Friday evening through their Ertz Family Foundation.