The race for the NWSL’s Rookie of the Year is starting to narrow, with a few clear favorites emerging as the 2021 regular season winds down.

This year’s Olympic break offered the league’s younger players a rare opportunity to shine while NWSL veterans left for Tokyo, making way for new faces in several team’s starting lineups. Now, with international talent back from the Games and the playoff push well underway, some names have floated to the top of the league’s list of newbies poised to contend for Rookie of the Year honors.

Here are the top three:

1. Trinity Rodman

Trinity Rodman has been making headlines since before she took the pitch for the Washington Spirit. Originally set to play at Washington State University, Rodman opted to go pro after her freshman season was canceled due to COVID-19. Picked second overall in the 2021 draft, she became the youngest player ever to be drafted by the NWSL at 18 years old. Having a famous father also brought the teen even more attention.

Entering the league surrounded by hype, Rodman answered the call, scoring in her debut with the Spirit and quickly establishing herself as the team’s offensive target.

The first one is always special! Relive @trinity_rodman's first regular season NWSL goal 🔥🔥

Presented by @progressive pic.twitter.com/nId133quIR

— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) June 21, 2021

In her 16 matches with Washington, Rodman has scored four goals and notched three assists. She is currently tied for fourth in the league for goals and assists, alongside Ashley Hatch and Jess Fishlock.

Rodman is known to antagonize opponents’ backlines, beating defenders one-v-one with the confidence of a seasoned veteran. Her and teammate Ashley Sanchez have become one of the most formidable attacking duos in the NWSL, and as the Spirit fight for a spot in the league playoffs, expect Rodman to continue her break-out season, one that could be marked by a post-season run and which will likely be crowned with a Rookie of the Year award.

2. Ebony Salmon

Ebony Salmon came to the NWSL by way of Bristol City, with the English striker signing a two-year contract with Racing Louisville FC in May.

Though she was late to the party, Salmon made quite the entrance, scoring in her first minute on the pitch with Louisville.

We'll take any excuse to share @ebony_salmon's debut goal again. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/8al6SISk9f

— Racing Louisville FC (@RacingLouFC) August 29, 2021

The 20-year-old now has five goals in her 12 appearances with Racing Louisville. She is currently tied for 6^th on the goal-scoring list, only two goals behind Ashley Hatch, Ifeoma Onumonu and Sydney Leroux, who stand atop the leaderboard.

Salmon is also fourth in goals per 90 at .59, highlighting the rookie’s lethal efficiency on the field.

The danger in Salmon’s game lies in her ability to capitalize in the final third, pouncing on defensive miscues and converting them into points.

Ebony Salmon gives @RacingLouFC the lead 💥

That nutmeg though 👀 pic.twitter.com/BohgzoNpsO

— CBS Sports Soccer (@CBSSportsSoccer) August 19, 2021

In her debut NWSL season, Salmon has made her presence known, establishing herself as Louisville’s premier attacker and leading goal scorer. Not bad for someone who’s still just 20 years old.

3. Emily Fox

Why should forwards get all the glory? Emily Fox is proof positive that defenders can make an impact, too.

Picked first overall in the 2021 draft by Louisville, Fox had three caps with the senior USWNT before ever playing in the NWSL. The North Carolina Tar Heel has now made 16 appearances with Racing, anchoring the club’s defensive line.

Fox has completed 557 successful passes so far this season, with an 85.3 percent accuracy rate in her own half. The 23-year-old also has 40 clearances, 37 interceptions and five blocks to her name. As a defender, Fox isn’t afraid to get high up the pitch, notching two shots this year, with one landing on target.

Emily Fox is having a game! The Louisville defender gets a shot away, but Aubrey Bledsoe is there! #LOUvWAS pic.twitter.com/WlfJGnxf7O

— The Equalizer (@EqualizerSoccer) May 22, 2021

Fox has already been named to the NWSL’s May Team of the Month, quietly making a case for herself on the domestic and international stage. While she might not walk away with the ROTY award, her debut season should give Racing Louisville fans confidence that they’ve found their defensive cornerstone for years to come.

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

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The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

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"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.