Women's Soccer

The excitement is real for the 23 games, eight NWSL teams and the first U.S. professional league to begin play. The NWSL will return and many key players will be participating, but the real talk is the new faces who will get their opportunities at a professional debut. Some fan favorites will be competing with their respective teams such as, Crystal Dunn, Sam Mewis, Julie Ertz, Debinha, Christine Sinclair and many more. Not only are we excited to see familiar faces, but it is the recent 2020 top college draft picks that will really keep us on our toes. 

NEW YORK — The National Women's Soccer League roars into action on Saturday, as back-to-back champions North Carolina Courage kick off the month-long NWSL Challenge Cup against the Portland Thorns on Saturday.

The NWSL becomes the first major North American league to return after the coronavirus outbreak, with eight of the league's nine teams traveling to suburban Salt Lake City, Utah, for the competition to be played without spectators.

A joint bid from Australia and New Zealand was voted the 2023 Women's World Cup host by the FIFA Council on Thursday.

The Australia-New Zealand bid was a heavy favorite to win the hosting rights after Brazil and Japan both pulled out in the weeks leading up to the vote. Colombia was the only other nation vying to become the 2023 Women's World Cup host.

SYDNEY — The task of building on the huge success of last year's Women's World Cup will fall to a region that has never staged it before when Colombia and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand vie for the 2023 hosting rights in Thursday's FIFA vote.

The 2019 World Cup in France was hailed as a watershed for global interest in the women's game and FIFA President Gianni Infantino personally drove the campaign to increase the field to 32 teams from 24 for 2023.

NEW YORK — The U.S. women's national soccer team's bid to immediately appeal the dismissal of their equal pay claims against their national federation was denied on Tuesday.

Judge R. Gary Klausner of the United States District Court for the Central District of California said their appeal must wait until after their remaining claims — including unfair medical services, travel and training — proceed to trial, which is set for Sept. 15.

Last month, the judge threw out players' claims that they were under paid in comparison with the men's national team.

Two more U.S. national team members joined Megan Rapinoe in deciding to skip a month-long National Women's Soccer League tournament in Utah that will be played in empty stadiums amid the COVID-19 outbreak, it was announced on Tuesday.

Utah Royals forward Christen Press and Portland Thorns midfielder Tobin Heath, who played with Rapinoe on last year's World Cup-wininng U.S. squad, both cited the virus as their reason for skipping the event that begins on Saturday.

The National Women's Soccer League's restart plan took a major hit Monday when the Orlando Pride withdrew from the NWSL Challenge Cup after six players and four staff members tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Challenge Cup, scheduled to start Saturday in Utah, is due to make the NWSL the first U.S. pro team-sports league back in action amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pride wrote in a statement that all of the players and staffers who were found to have the virus were asymptomatic.

Women’s soccer in the U.S. is on the rise, slowly but surely. As the conversation gains traction, questions about the possibilities of National Women’s Soccer League expansion are all the buzz. People love their home teams and want to add a women’s soccer team to their list — come on, who wouldn’t?

The latest news on NWSL expansion comes from The Athletic’s Meg Linehan. On Wednesday, Jun. 17 she wrote an article hinting at a team coming to Los Angeles.

The Japanese Football Association announced on Monday that Japan is withdrawing its bid to host the 2023 Women's World Cup, just days before football's world governing body holds a vote to determine the successful candidate.

The NWSL is preparing for its Challenge Cup beginning on Saturday, June 27 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah. The nine teams participating in the 25-game tournament have been back training, but with the time-crunched preseason, not all the big names will be making an appearance. 

Several USWNT players will not be joining their respective teams due to injury or concern over the possible spread of the coronavirus.