Women's Soccer

Colombia's soccer chief and the head of South American football confederation CONMEBOL have written to FIFA complaining of "erroneous and discriminatory conclusions" in the assessment of the country's bid to host the 2023 Women's World Cup.

The Colombian proposal to bring the tournament to South America for the first time received the lowest score in an evaluation of three bids to host the tournament carried out by world soccer's governing body ahead of next Friday's vote.

The United Women's Soccer league is a national second-tier league with regional conferences in the United States and Canada. The league was created to provide high-level competition for top current/post collegiate players, aspiring/former professionals and international stars. The season is usually played from May through July, but due to COVID-19 the season was suspended. 

Diego Costa scored an equalizer to give Atlético Madrid a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao as both teams returned to play for the first time in three months on Sunday. More importantly, Costa paid a special tribute to a player on the Atleti women’s team, Virginia Torrecilla.

Atlético went behind in the 37th minute to a well-taken shot from Iker Muniain but didn’t trail long. Two minutes later, Costa kept his composure in the box to fire past Unai Símon to even things up at 1-1.

A day after the U.S. Soccer announced that it had overturned its ban on protests during the national anthem, federation president Cindy Parlow Cone apologized to women's national team star Megan Rapinoe for the policy being instituted originally.

U.S. Soccer added the rule to its bylaws in 2017 after Rapinoe began kneeling for the anthem to protest racism and police abuses. Rapinoe was following the lead of then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began the same protests in 2016 and hasn't played in the NFL since that year.

And then there were three. On Monday, Brazil withdrew its candidacy to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup, leaving Colombia, Japan and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand as the remaining contenders before the final FIFA Council vote on June 25.

The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) has begun to consider repealing its ban on players kneeling during the national anthem. The board of directors plans to meet on Tuesday, June 9 to discuss the policy.

This comes in the wake of outrage and resulting protests over the murder of George Floyd while in police custody. Protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and against police brutality have sprung up across the nation and are now drawing global attention.

Ada Hegerberg's season had been cut short by the time the new coronavirus wiped out the football calendar, but the break has given her time to rehabilitate her injured knee and the Ballon d'Or-winning striker is relishing her return to training.

Lyon’s Hegerberg ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in training in January, a cruel blow that immediately ended the prolific forward's campaign.

Sam Kerr can claim a league title in her first season in England, even if her side wasn’t atop the Women's Super League table when the last match was played before the novel coronavirus pandemic shut down league play.

The English FA announced Friday that Chelsea would be awarded the Women’s Super League crown based on a points-per-match basis. Manchester City was atop the table with 40 points from 16 matches, but Chelsea’s 39 points from 15 matches were rewarded with the trophy.

Professional team sports return to America beginning Saturday, June 27 with the start of the NWSL’s Challenge Cup in Herriman, Utah. The NWSL Challenge Cup schedule was unveiled Monday, and the tournament will feature 25 extremely meaningful matches over the course of a month.

Things begin with an 18-game preliminary round that takes place between June 27 and July 13. Each of the league’s nine teams will play four games and those results will be used to determine the seedings in the quarterfinal knockout round with the last-place squad being eliminated.

Veró Boquete is one of the most accomplished footballers in the world. A short list of her achievements includes being Spain’s all-time top scorer, having a stadium named after her and fighting for women to be included in the FIFA video game.

The 33-year-old has been all over the world playing for clubs in the United States, Spain, Russia, Sweden, Germany, France and China. She recently returned to the NWSL last year after a five-year hiatus from the U.S.