When the U.S. Soccer Federation and U.S. women’s national team players announced a historic settlement on Tuesday after a six-year fight over equal pay, they briefly celebrated before zeroing in on the next obstacle: FIFA’s unequal prize bonuses at the men’s and women’s World Cups.

The settlement laid out U.S. Soccer’s commitment to equal pay rates in tournaments, including the FIFA World Cup. That is not U.S. Soccer’s money to give away, but with the resolution in writing, the Federation affirmed it will support USWNT players in bringing their concerns to FIFA.

Both sides realize the profound challenge of taking on the global soccer behemoth, but there’s also a lot of power in being the No. 1-ranked women’s soccer team on the planet.

“I think with the players and the Federation in a place where we’re working together, it’s going to be pretty formidable,” forward Megan Rapinoe said of their case to FIFA. “I think it’s going to take aggressive and persistent and constant action on our part.”

To Rapinoe, that pressure involves persuading World Cup sponsors to invest more, or forming a federation coalition to confront FIFA.

“Clearly, they’re not all that motivated on their own to do anything, so you have to be loud and constant and aggressive in this sort of pursuit of equality,” she said. “They’re certainly in a place to do it, and it’s just a matter of them either feeling that the pressure is too much or — I don’t anticipate this, but — a sudden change of heart and mind.”

USWNTPA statement re: equal pay lawsuit settlement contingent on ratifying a new CBA pic.twitter.com/e0fNlAqECP

— USWNT Players (@USWNTPlayers) February 22, 2022

The equal pay settlement is entirely contingent on the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement, which U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone expects the Federation and the USWNT Players Association to finalize by March 31. At that point, they hope to have a detailed plan in place for confronting FIFA.

“It’s a little thought exercise that we have to do to make sure that the men’s and the women’s teams are being paid equally until FIFA equalizes it themselves,” said defender Becky Sauerbrunn. “We have amazing lawyers that are thinking through that and have come up with proposals that’ll be presented to the Federation.”

The players also have the U.S. men’s team on their side.

“It’s a great sign that we will come to a solution,” Sauerbrunn said.

The players expressed gratitude for Cone, the former USWNT World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist who has spearheaded U.S. Soccer’s negotiations since succeeding Carlos Cordeiro as president in 2020 after his ignominious resignation.

“On a personal level, with being a former player, this is something I have tried to resolve since the day I became president,” Cone said. “It took me a lot longer than I was expecting it to take, but we got here today and I couldn’t be more excited.”

In her opening statements on Tuesday, Cone said that she’ll “be the first to admit” the Federation’s mistakes in the past and she understands the players’ frustrations regarding equal pay.

“I know there is still a lot of work to do in continuing to build the relationship with U.S. Soccer and I am fully committed to doing so,” she said.

The Federation and USWNTPA have held 35 negotiated sessions toward a new CBA, with Sam Mewis telling reporters Tuesday that Crystal Dunn was in talks at that very moment.

Once that agreement is finalized, U.S. Soccer and the players will turn their attention to FIFA as a unified front, something that was hard to imagine just a few months ago when tensions were running high. Even two weeks ago, nine USWNT stars criticized U.S. Soccer for “[standing] by as abuse continued to occur unchecked” in a letter addressed to Cone and Cordeiro following new accusations made against former Chicago Red Stars coach Rory Dames.

“I think there’s a multi-pronged pressure approach we can put on FIFA, ultimately to do what is the right thing, but also what is the best business practice,” Rapinoe said.

They’ll have plenty of evidence to show for women’s soccer being good business. While the USWNT continues to draw sold-out crowds, the Women’s Champions League match between Barcelona and Real Madrid scheduled at Camp Nou in March sold all 85,000 tickets in three days and Canada’s win in the gold-medal match last summer was the most-watched event of the Tokyo Olympics.

“At this point, we’re not wondering if the women’s game can make money. We’re not wondering if there’s star power. We’re not questioning the equality on the field,” Rapinoe said. “I think, at this point, it’s just a willful discrimination and a willful negligence.”

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

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."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

"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.