NWSL

Donald Trump’s feud with women’s soccer players continued on Saturday as he spoke with the commissioners of every major sports league in the U.S. with one exception: the NWSL.

To no one’s surprise, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and PGA commissioners were all invited. Somewhat surprisingly, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, LPGA’s Michael Whan and MLS’s Don Garber also got invites. Also included were UFC and NASCAR, which probably speak to Trump’s base, and WWE, which is more akin to Broadway than sport. 

But no National Women’s Soccer League. 

When North American sports leagues return to action after the coronavirus crisis, questions are sure to linger over whether the fans will be willing, or have the resources, to pack stadiums as they once did, sports analysts have said. 

Julie Ertz might just be the most dominant player in soccer right now — and the most magnanimous. 

The two-time Women’s World Cup winner teamed up with her husband to donate $100,000 to Philabundance, a Philadelphia-area food bank, to provide meals to those in need during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Ertz and her husband, Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz, announced the donation on Friday evening through their Ertz Family Foundation. 

The 2020 NWSL schedule has been announced with the eighth season of the league set to begin play on Saturday, April 18. The same nine clubs return to do battle with the North Carolina Courage having won the last two NWSL Championship games. 

Fresh off helping the USWNT book its ticket for Tokyo 2020 by scoring six goals at the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, Lindsey Horan was back in her home state of Colorado on Wednesday night to watch the Denver Nuggets host the Los Angeles Lakers at the Pepsi Center.

You don’t need a reminder of Horan’s remarkable skill on the ball, but here’s a reminder — the goal she scored against Canada in the final was poetry in motion.  

Mal Pugh is Sky Blue.

The USWNT starlet who skipped college at UCLA to join the Washington Spirit in 2017 was traded to Sky Blue FC for four — yes, four — draft picks during a blockbuster draft-day move on Thursday.

The Portland Thorns selected Sophia Smith with the first pick of the 2020 NWSL Draft, making her the first teenager ever selected in any NWSL draft, but the focus quickly shifted to what Sky Blue was doing. 

The NWSL Draft 2020, the eighth such draft for the league, featured a first. Sophia Smith, taken with the No. 1 overall pick by the Portland Thorns, became the first teenager selected in the draft on Thursday morning. 

Smith, a 19-year-old forward who just finished her sophomore season with Stanford, won a national title and scored 24 goals in 33 games with the Cardinal. 

Deyna Castellanos, perhaps the biggest international college soccer player in the history of the game, has no interest in playing in the NWSL.

The Venezuelan international who starred at Florida State for four years, will instead join Atlético Madrid. The 20-year-old inked a two-and-a-half-year contract through the 2022 season on Thursday.

Tired of hearing about Megan Rapinoe? Yeah, me neither. 

Rapinoe has had herself quite the year and to add on to her standout persona, Nike honored her with a pair of cleats designed specifically to commemorate her triumph at Monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony.  


She’s known for her pink hair, her activism and her recent World Cup performance with the USWNT, where she earned herself the Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards. Now if you had to describe Rapinoe by customizing a cleat, it would look a lot like Nike’s design.

Argentina’s 1-0 friendly victory over Brazil on Friday — thanks to Lionel Messi’s goal in the 13th minute — created quite the conversation on Twitter. From Messi telling Brazil manager Tite to shut up after he believed Messi should’ve been given a yellow card to penalty misses from both Gabriel Jesus and Messi, it was quite an entertaining match.