First things first, I mean absolutely no disrespect to Marta. When I tackled the impossible task of ranking the 18 greatest female soccer players of all time last week, I concluded with Marta in the top spot. She’s an unreal footballer, but 2018 hasn’t exactly been the best of the 32-year-old’s career. And yet here she is as one of three finalists shortlisted for The Best FIFA Women’s Player 2018.
As highlighted by her win at the 2018 ESPY Awards in the category of Best International Women’s Soccer Player, no one in the women’s game comes close to matching to consistent brilliance of Australia and Chicago Red Stars forward Sam Kerr.
It seems the Houston Dash’s 4-0 drubbing of the Spirit over the weekend proved to be the nail in the coffin for Washington Spirit coach and general manager Jim Gabarra. The result brought the Spirit’s winless streak to 12 (having lost 10 of those) with the side failing to notch a victory since May 23.
The North Carolina Courage are the NWSL Shield winners. Again. The decisive match was set to be played on Saturday night but was postponed due to lighting, and when things finally did resume in Cary, North Carolina, Sunday morning, it was just another day at the office for the Courage. The team was able to bag a 3-0 win thanks to second half goals from Debinha and Lynn Williams.
The Houston Dash have never made the NWSL postseason in their four-year history. The club better known for being snubbed by USWNT stars is trying to change that, and a 4-0 rout of the Washington Spirit on Friday night could be just what they need to finally make it over the hump in their fifth year.
There was something vaguely familiar about yesterday’s Orlando Pride vs. Sky Blue match up: a handball clearance off the line in crunch time, a red card, a penalty, a penalty save. All right, it’s not exactly a World Cup knockout game and Carli Lloyd didn’t know much about the goal-saving move (it seems), but one can’t help but think of a certain Uruguayan striker by the name of Luis Suarez after seeing this.
Had the head of Lindsey Horan not come to the rescue in the dying seconds of the match against Australia last night, the USWNT would have been handed its first loss in over a year. Though they salvaged a draw, fans of the game have seen this before and the message is loud and clear: the rest of the world is catching up.
International football’s governing body revealed its candidates for the FIFA Best Women's Player award on Tuesday, the winner of which will be announced at the Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony in London in two months.
Here is FIFA’s list of the nominees up for the award:
In her post-game interview on July 7 after playing former club Sky Blue, Chicago Red Stars forward Sam Kerr did not want to talk about her hat-trick or the satisfaction of clinching three points on the road. Rather, Kerr used the mic in front of her to say this: “I wish things were better here [at Sky Blue]. I’m just going to say the girls deserve better and I’m just going to leave it at that. These girls are great girls. They give everything of themselves for this club and this league and they just deserve better.
HAO is coming home. This past week, the North Carolina Courage announced that they had made the move for Heather O'Reilly, who has been in England with Arsenal for the past year and a half.