Women's Soccer

Rose Lavelle was one of the USWNT’s best players at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, taking home the tournament’s Bronze Ball while winning her first world championship.

Carli Lloyd should replace Matt Gay as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker after the NFL rookie stunk up the field with some foul kicks in last week’s loss to the New York Giants. At least, that’s what Secret deodorant is suggesting with a Carli Lloyd NFL ad in a local newspaper this week.

Although she finished eighth in The Best FIFA Women’s Player 2019 voting, Lyon attacker Ada Hegerberg was omitted from the first-ever FIFPro Women’s World11 due to the inclusion of Marta in attack. With all due respect to Marta’s legacy, the 33-year-old playmaker didn’t warrant her place after scoring five goals and providing zero assists in 12 appearances for the NWSL’s worst team before a disappointing World Cup that included zero goals from open play and zero assists in three games.

The Best FIFA Football Awards 2019 went down in Milan today, and you can rest assured that The18 tried its best to watch on YouTube, but good lord, this stuff is mostly unwatchable. It's remarkably drawn out, full of self-aggrandizing nonsense from FIFA and the forced banter between hosts Ilaria D'Amico, Ruud Gullit and the guests makes you search for the mute button while your skin crawls.

But other than that it's pretty good! 

Let’s go to the green carpet for some select photos before the ceremony. Here’s Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe looking fly. 

New Zealand opened its 2019 Rugby World Cup campaign with a 23-13 victory over South Africa on Saturday in Yokohama, Japan, and it's easy to see why the All Blacks are favorites to win the tournament for a third straight time.

I’m not talking about their play out there — I didn’t wake up at 4:45 a.m. to watch it — I’m talking about their first haka. I’m no rugby expert but I don’t think anyone is going to beat these guys. I’m looking at the schedule now and next up is Canada on Oct. 2. Send all your thoughts and prayers to Canada.  

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has just publicly announced that Iran’s ban on women attending soccer matches is “unacceptable” and must be lifted.

The comments come in response to the tragic death of Sahar Khodayari, an Iranian woman who set herself on fire in protest after she was arrested for attempting to attend a soccer match in Tehran.

The Orlando Pride will be without star forward Alex Morgan for the remainder of the NWSL season. The Pride are currently in last place with only 14 points from 21 games and an overall record of four wins, two draws and 15 defeats. 

The North Carolina Courage celebrated the accomplishments of Heather O'Reilly as she will be hanging up her boots at the end of the 2019 NWSL season. 

Despite missing three games while on World Cup duty with Australia — where she finished with five goals in four games — the Chicago Red Stars’ Sam Kerr is just one goal shy of the NWSL’s single season goalscoring record. Kerr scored against Sky Blue yesterday to bring her total to 16; the record is the 17 she scored as a member of Sky Blue back in 2017. Time is a flat circle.

I know of no greater natural human curiosity than the one that demands we discover the ball’s final resting place. One of our most beloved sports, golf, is entirely based on this premise. So when a ball actually exits the field of play, the novelty of it all can lead to some of the greatest moments in all of sports.

But sometimes, you don’t want to know the end. Because how can the end be happy when so much random chance is involved?