NEW YORK - United States defender Naomi Girma completes her meteoric rise from national team debutant to the Women's World Cup stage next month and many are predicting she will be a key player for the four-times champions for many years.
The 23-year-old center back first played for the senior U.S. team last year and quickly settled in to earn a place in Vlatko Andonovski's World Cup squad.
NEW YORK - Nine months ago, Alyssa Thompson was playing youth soccer. In July, the 18-year-old forward will test herself against the best after being named in the four-time champions United States' squad for the Women's World Cup.
It has been a dizzying rise for Thompson, the second-youngest ever named in a U.S. World Cup squad.
When it comes to rookies in the National Women's Soccer League, most of the discussion has centered around No. 1 overall pick Alyssa Thompson. The headlines write themselves when you're talking about an 18-year-old who's already scored some spectacular goals for Angel City and is challenging for the USWNT World Cup squad.
But what about No. 2 overall pick Michelle Cooper, the forward who won the 2022 Hermann Trophy as the nation's best college player with 19 goals and 11 assists in 22 games during her sophomore season at Duke?
United States captain and veteran defender Becky Sauerbrunn will not be included in the squad for the Women's World Cup due to a foot injury she suffered in April, the Athletic reported on Friday.
Sauerbrunn is one of several injured American players to miss the tournament, which kicks off on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand, after attacker Mallory Swanson went down with a knee injury in April.
During Barcelona's recent Women's Champions League Final victory over Wolfsburg, nine Spanish players helped show why Barça are the preeminent force of the club game. It should logically follow that Spain are one of the pre-tournament favorites at this summer's World Cup, but on Monday their 30-player provisional roster was released with some big names already omitted before the squad is cut to 23.
Angel City forward Sydney Leroux was in tears Monday night after an emotional return to the field. Leroux had been sidelined for the past 11 months and scored in her first game back during Angel City’s 2-1 defeat to the Chicago Red Stars.
Leroux joined Angel City from the Orlando Pride last June and was only able to make three appearances for the Los Angeles club before a season-ending ankle injury that required surgery.
NJ/NY Gotham FC drew a record crowd of 15,058 to Red Bull Arena on Sunday night (including Sam Kerr, Eli Manning and Roger Bennett), but they fell to the visiting San Diego Wave 1-0 after Makenzy Doniak (a halftime substitute) scored just 44 seconds into the second half.
The 29-year-old's second goal of the season helped the Wave move level on points with the Portland Thorns at the top of the NWSL table. Gotham are two points back in fourth-place after 10 games.
After losing last year’s UEFA Women’s Champions League final to Lyon, Barcelona redeemed themselves with a thrilling 3-2 comeback victory vs. Wolfsburg on Saturday to claim their second-ever UWCL crown.
The Barcelona players must of thought they were having déjá vu of last year’s final when they once again conceded early goals. Last time against Lyon the Catalan club got scored on in the sixth and 23rd minute.
On Saturday Wolfsburg scored in the third and 37th minute.
The U.S. Women’s time at The Soccer Tournament (TST) wrapped up on Friday as they were defeated 7-1 by Como 1907 in their final group stage game.
Mia Hamm coached the team filled with household names, World Cup winners and Olympic gold medalists.
The Soccer Tournament (TST) kicked off on Thursday and saw the U.S. Women open their tournament with a 5-0 defeat to Say Word FC.
The U.S. Women team coached by Mia Hamm is the only team consisting of just women on the roster and features household names like Heather O’Reilly, Kristine Lilly and more.