In UEFA Women’s World Cup qualifying there are a lot of routs. Half of the 10 matches played Tuesday involved scorelines of 3-0 or worse (most were worse, much worse), including Germany’s 11-0 thrashing of Faroe Islands. Scotland’s match against Albania was no different but for one feature: none of those other lopsided affairs had a goal this pretty.
In the end, Netherlands and FC Barcelona attacker Lieke Martens was the deserved recipient of 2017’s The Best FIFA Women’s Player award (an accolade presumably named by a toddler or Sepp Blatter). But the three-woman shortlist for the prize continues to flip the bird at anyone who wishes to try and make sense of it all.
Iceland became the smallest nation to ever qualify for the Men’s World Cup earlier this month. The Iceland women’s national team is trying to follow suit. Iceland stunned Germany, the top-ranked team in Europe, 3-2 in UEFA qualifying for the 2019 World Cup on Friday in Wiesbaden, the first World Cup qualifying loss for the two-time world champions since 1998.
Lindsey Horan struck in the 50th minute to propel the Portland Thorns to their second NWSL championship, a 1-0 victory over the North Carolina Courage in the NWSL final on Saturday in Orlando, Florida.
A crowd of 8,124 watched the final at Orlando City Stadium.
Portland won the inaugural NWSL championship in 2013 and lost in the semifinals to North Carolina last year after winning the NWSL Shield. On Saturday, the Thorns edged the Courage, who themselves won the NWSL Shield this year as the league’s best regular-season team.
Ronaldo’s poor start to the season? Catalonia voting in favor of independence? There is certainly a lot of tumult unfolding in the Spanish capital right now. However, here is one headline Madridistas and others can rejoice in.
According to a report from Norwegian broadcasting company NRK, Norway’s men’s national team has agreed to a pay cut with the money then going to the women’s side, resulting in equal pay from the Norwegian soccer federation beginning in 2018.
After finishing three points behind Atletico Madrid in Spain’s Primera Division while also becoming the first Spanish side to reach the semifinals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, it was evident that FC Barcelona Femení, Barca’s women’s football team, was on the cusp of greatness entering its 17th season.
TMZ Sports reported Tuesday that USWNT and Orlando Pride striker Alex Morgan was part of a group asked to leave Disney World after an incident at a bar in the Epcot Center. According to TMZ, witnesses said there was a confrontation between members of Morgan's party and another party at a pub in the U.K. section of Epcot. Police were called, and several members of Morgan's group were reportedly asked to leave.
Folks are extremely mad online about the nominations for FIFA's Best Women's Player Award. The reason for this is the three nominations are Lieke Martens, Carli Lloyd and Deyna Castellanos.
The French men’s national team has been looking better and better recently, rocketing up to No. 8 in the most recent FIFA World Rankings. The women, though, are still better, as evidenced by a Eugenie Le Sommer goal in a friendly against Spain on Monday.
Les Bleues are currently ranked No. 4 in the world and dispatched No. 17 Spain 3-1 thanks to a gorgeous bit of football between Ouleymata Sarr and Le Sommer.