Women's Soccer

Marta is approaching the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics like a woman possessed. She sees the chance to win gold in her home country as the culmination of her life’s work, and she credits her “stubbornness” with putting her in this position.

Marta took to social networking service LinkedIn to explain her emotions heading into the Olympic games.

The defending World Cup and Olympic champions USWNT have set their 18-player squad that will head to Rio in a few weeks. Jill Ellis has picked a group that includes most of the mainstays (Carli Lloyd, Hope Solo, etc.) and some good young players (Mallory Pugh).

The biggest surprise is probably Heather O'Reilly, a fixture in every major tournament since 2004, not making the cut, instead being selected as an alternate. Also, Megan Rapinoe has made the team after rapidly recovering from a torn ACL.

The Seattle Reign and Western New York Flash were in need of a field this weekend, but what they got was a small patch of grass in the outfield of a minor league baseball stadium, resulting in one of the silliest-looking soccer games we have ever seen. In case you were wondering if the NWSL is a serious professional league, signs would point to "no" (We mean the league itself is not a serious professional league.

Megan Rapinoe has been repeatedly forthcoming about her chances of making the United States women’s Olympic squad. There’s simply too much at stake with regards to her career to rush back after her third serious knee injury. However, it’s impossible not to get excited about the news that Rapinoe has returned to training with the USWNT. 

When I was told to write a profile of Dutch footballer Anouk Hoogendijk, a defender for Ajax’s women's team, that emphasized why people would like her, I thought: impossible.

She doesn’t know her place. She has won the Dutch women’s league twice with Saestum, the Dutch cup once with FC Utrecht, and the FA cup once with the Arsenal Ladies.

The US women’s national team will take to the pitch in Rio this summer wearing a distinctly different home kit from the ones debuted with the new US Soccer badge earlier this year. 

This kit was designed specifically for use in the Olympics because of an Olympic charter that mandates the absence of federation crests. Instead, the USA’s controversial new ‘Captain America’ crest will be replaced with simple “USA” lettering.

Women’s soccer is rare in Europe and South America, the widely agreed-upon cradles of the game. It is not unheard of. It is rare. As an Italian, I like telling my American friends that women’s soccer is illegal where I come from. “Yes, the police come and take you away!” I tell them to get a laugh.

I finally got my chance to attend a women’s soccer match when the world-champion U.S. Women’s National Team took on Japan in a friendly last week at Dick’s Sporting Good’s Park in Commerce City, Colorado.