It’s a busy time in the NWSL. Players are coming and going across the league, from big-name stars to lesser-known role players ahead of next week’s NWSL Expansion Draft and NWSL Draft. But that doesn’t excuse what Racing Louisville did this week.
The NWSL’s wild offseason continued Monday with the announcement of a major trade featuring two USWNT stars. NJ/NY Gotham FC announced Krashlyn is heading to the Big Apple, confirming the rumor Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris would leave the Orlando Pride.
U.S. Soccer announced the nominees for its wide range of 2021 Player of the Year awards, and voting is open now for fans until Dec. 12. The finalists for the awards highlight where the men’s and women’s national teams are right now, and they’re clearly not in the same place.
Kelley O’Hara is back at a Washington Capitals game, so two things are guaranteed: she’s celebrating another piece of major hardware and crankin’ foamers.
Mal Pugh just missed out on an NWSL championship ring this year after her Chicago Red Stars lost 2-1 in extra time to Trinity Rodman’s Washington Spirit on Nov. 20. But she got another ring that’ll last even longer.
Major League Baseball player Dansby Swanson proposed to USWNT forward Mal Pugh this week, and the 23-year-old said yes.
Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC will start to really fill out their rosters during the NWSL expansion draft on Dec. 16, during which time each team is allowed to draft up to nine players from other preexisting NWSL squads. But neither club is waiting around for the expansion draft or the 2022 NWSL Draft two days later to make moves, with one USWNT player heading west and a potential blockbuster trade in the works ahead of Friday’s trade deadline.
Beginning in May 2022, the USL W League begins play with Minnesota’s community-owned soccer team among the competitors. The division is a pre-professional league that effectively represents the third-tier in America, behind the NWSL and the recently announced USL Super League.
Viewership for Saturday's National Women's Soccer League championship match increased 216% over the 2019 finale, the league reported on Tuesday.
The Washington Spirit's 2-1 win over the Chicago Red Stars in Louisville, Kentucky, averaged 525,000 viewers on CBS, the NWSL said, after the majority of the regular season was broadcast on the Paramount+ streaming service.
Back when allegations first arose against former NWSL coach Paul Riley’s sexual coercion and verbal abuse, I made a timeline of all the women’s soccer coaches and staff in America who had been fired, resigned or were otherwise accused of some sort of abuse. Even then I said there were probably more cases out there that hadn’t been reported upon yet. Sadly, it looks like I was right.