Christen Press has waited her entire career to play for a team in her hometown of Los Angeles. She’s waited just as long to compete for a club whose values are so synced with her own.

Since she turned professional out of Stanford in 2010, while living in Portland, the UK and many places in between, Press has been driven to elevate the women’s game. That’s what NWSL expansion club Angel City FC is all about, and finally, Press is home.

“To play at this point in my career for a club that’s trying to represent a new future for women’s soccer, and one with equity and inclusion at its core, one that’s working for progress, that’s truly meaningful to me,” she said.

Now, for the first time in franchise history, it’s match day for Press and Angel City. The team meets fellow expansion side San Diego Wave FC on Saturday in their Challenge Cup opener.

Angel City picked up just three rookies late into the 2022 NWSL draft, including Hope Breslin (No. 28), Lily Nabet (No. 36) and Miri Taylor (No. 39). With more players familiar with the pro landscape than a lot of other NWSL teams this season, Angel City is already living up to its culture of building through and around strong women.

“It’s really empowering to be led by successful women and women that want to see us succeed at the highest level, so I think having that behind us is one of the biggest differences that I have seen,” said defender Allyson Swaby.

Women athletes often spend their entire careers not only training to be elite at their sport, but also serving as advocates for the growth of the game. Angel City’s players have a club willing to fight that battle with them, allowing them more freedom to focus on soccer.

“I honestly can hardly believe that it’s a reality, and it’s a very unique thing for me to be able to be a part of and with where the game is today,” Press said.

Light work for @weareangelcity — this is just the start 💪⚽️ https://t.co/mrU9O15F97

— Alexis Ohanian 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣ (@alexisohanian) March 14, 2022

The staff, so far, has been able to strike an ideal balance of fun and hard work. Intelligence, talent, culture, diversity and inclusion are just a few words the players used to describe the community the club has created, which has helped them sell over 14,000 season tickets for the upcoming season. Savannah McCaskill says the wide range of supporters the club has recruited will be “really unique to this league and the U.S.”

“I think every person I meet around the team, their character is impeccable, and when you put that group together, we could do amazing things,” said defender Paige Nielsen.

Ali Riley and Simone Charley have never been a part of an expansion club, so they’ve been experiencing Angel City’s gorwth with fresh eyes.

“They’re dedicated to just giving back to the community, and I think that’s an amazing foundation to be built on, just bettering those around you,” Charley said. “I think just building a team and the staff around that is an awesome philosophy.”

“It’s pretty incredible to be [my first expansion] and to build our own culture and create the team environment we want to have, and be the first team now to be Angel City players and represent L.A. in the NWSL,” Riley said.

The players have built that chemistry in training, in the locker room and before practice during games of soccer tennis. Off the field, the club recently organized a visit to San Diego, where they played jeopardy, went to the beach and had 25 minutes to paint portraits of each other, which Nielsen jokingly described as hideous.

On the field, what stands out to midfielder Dani Weatherholt is the excitement they share, knowing they’re an underdog team.

“For me initially, seeing all the names and a lot of people were either on the brink of breaking out on their team, or are new to the NWSL, like maybe didn’t get drafted, I think there’s this chip on their shoulder of wanting to prove themselves, and I think that’s super exciting,” she said.

When Angel City plays their first match of the Challenge Cup on Saturday, fans can expect a strong defensive team with a flare on the attack.

“Dangerous,” Nielsen said. “Fast and furious,” according to Swaby.

Charley prefers to keep it a secret.

“You’ll just have to come to our first game and see,” she said with a smile.

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.

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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.