It’s been two months since Amy Rodriguez was sent to North Carolina Courage from Kansas City. Now that she’s had time to settle in with her new team, the forward has a large role to play heading into the last six matches of the season.

Rodriguez was traded along with $60,000 allocation money in exchange for Kristen Hamilton, Hailie Mace and Katelyn Rowland on July 22 after seven and a half seasons with her former team. Fast forward to Saturday and the Courage will be stepping onto the pitch following a 12-day break, looking to crack their three-game goal drought as they take on NJ/NY Gotham FC.

North Carolina head coach Paul Riley wasn’t satisfied with the creativity and the ball movement of the offense coming into the break, but Rodriguez could become a game-changing factor.

“I do feel like I’m slowly getting my footing here,” Rodriguez said. “I was just saying outside to some of the girls that I really had to come in here and hit the ground running, and on a team like North Carolina, where technically we are so complex and there’s a lot of detail that goes into our game plan and our style of play, that has proven to be a little bit difficult for me, but I’ve really enjoyed it and I love this challenge.”

[NEWS] The North Carolina Courage have acquired striker Amy Rodriguez and allocation money in a trade with Kansas City for Kristen Hamilton, Hailie Mace and Katelyn Rowland.

📰: https://t.co/jKHa6vL3TH#NoFinishLine pic.twitter.com/k8hV42icSS

— NC Courage (@TheNCCourage) July 22, 2021

This season, the 2015 FIFA World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist has started 16 of 18 matches for Kansas City and the Courage combined. With four goals — two with KC and two with North Carolina — she’s netted a total of 45 throughout her NWSL career.

Goals are what the Courage need, but Riley has other priorities to address first.

“People are waiting for super goal production, but I think the more important thing is we get some kind of chemistry between her, between her and Lynn [Williams], between her and Jess [McDonald], and I think that’s the most important part at this point,” he said.

This isn’t the first time Rodriguez and Riley have represented the same team. Riley coached Rodriguez 13 years ago when she was 21, straight out of University of Southern California and playing for the Philadelphia Independence of the Women’s Professional Soccer League.

“A-Rod is one of the top forwards I’ve coached in my 30-year coaching career,” Riley said in a statement following Rodriguez’s trade to North Carolina.

And it seems she’s only gotten better.

“I think she’s already five percent better than she was last week, five percent every week, and I think mid-October, you’ll see the best of her,” he said on Thursday.

According to Riley, Rodriguez is a more mature and intelligent player now, and that it took him five weeks to get used to her not still being the 21-year-old he once knew. Before, her playing style was more about pressuring the opponent’s last line, whereas now she’s better at taking advantage of space on and off the ball. Her fitness levels have also improved.

One aspect that’s taken more adjusting has been the Courage’s formation. Rodriguez has always played in a front three, but North Carolina has two forwards, sometimes with an attacking midfielder.

But it shouldn’t be a problem to get those wrinkles smoothed out by the time playoffs come around. Riley considers her sharper now than she was when she arrived on the team in July.

“I’m excited to see what the future brings for her and what the next month brings,” said Riley.

The 2025 New York City Marathon not only crowned its champion on Sunday, the race also saw a new course record as Kenya's Hellen Obiri crossed the Central Park finish line with a time of 2:19.51 — shattering fellow Kenyan Margaret Okayo's 2003 record by a full two minutes and 40 seconds.

Returning to the top of the New York marathon field after first winning the race in 2023, 2024 runner-up Obiri led a Kenyan contingent that swept the podium, as 2022 winner Sharon Lokedi trailed by a mere 16 seconds while 2024 champion Sheila Chepkirui claimed third with a time of 2:20:24 — all three blasting through the previous course record of 2:22.31.

"We had a very strong field," said Obiri following the race. "[I told myself] let me try to do my best, let me push."

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With her championship, Obiri claimed both the $100,000 winner's check as well as an additional $50,000 in prize money for breaking the course record.

Though the 2025 New York City Marathon marked the second straight year that Kenyan runners owned the podium, Fiona O'Keeffe also made history by setting a a new US course record with her fourth-place finish.

Finishing the five-borough race in 2:22.49, O'Keeffe shaved nearly two minutes off the previous US record of 2:24:42 — set in 2021 by Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel.

"I can't take too much credit for the time — that was all on the women ahead of me," O'Keeffe said, sharing the spotlight with the runners who pushed her on Sunday. "Grateful to be back in the marathon. Feels like coming home."

Europe's top soccer teams have started down their 2027 World Cup paths, with UEFA revealing the field of 2026 European Qualifiers in a Tuesday morning league-stage draw.

Reigning world champion and world No. 1 Spain headlines the results, with La Roja set to face 2023 World Cup runners-up — and newly minted back-to-back Euro champs — No. 4 England in Group A3, while Group A1 pits perennial titans No. 3 Sweden against rising stars No. 12 Italy.

Group A2 will see No. 6 France taking on the No. 11 Netherlands, with No. 5 Germany and No. 13 Norway headlining Group A4.

A total of 11 UEFA teams will clinch spots in the 2027 World Cup via the European Qualifiers, which kick off in March 2026, though one additional UEFA nation will earn the opportunity to try and punch a ticket to the Brazil-hosted tournament via an inter-continental playoff in February 2027.

Based on the 2025 Nations League results, UEFA teams fell into three leagues entering the 2026 qualifiers, with League A and B housing 16 squads each while League C holds 21.

The winners of League A's four groups will directly qualify for the World Cup, while the remaining League A teams along with top finishers from League B and C will move on to a series of playoffs to ultimately determine the seven other direct UEFA qualifiers, plus the inter-confederation play-off contender.

The 2026 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers League A Groups

• Group A1: No. 3 Sweden, No. 12 Italy, No. 14 Denmark, No. 35 Serbia

• Group A2: No. 6 France, No. 11 Netherlands, No. 26 Poland, No. 27 Republic of Ireland

• Group A3: No. 1 Spain, No. 4 England, No. 17 Iceland, No. 34 Ukraine

• Group A4: No. 5 Germany, No. 13 Norway, No. 19 Austria, No. 38 Slovenia

With the 64-team national tournament bracket dropping in less than four weeks, the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers remain the only undefeated squad in the 2025 NCAA volleyball season after back-to-back weekend losses snapped the previously unbeaten No. 4 Texas Longhorns' winning streak.

Downed in consecutive Top-10 matchups, Texas first fell to No. 6 Texas A&M in a tense five-set thriller on Friday before No. 2 Kentucky quickly handled the Longhorns in a Sunday sweep.

"We got to make sure that we are dialed in from the very first point. I thought our team fought pretty hard, but we didn't execute the level that we can," said Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott.

The weekend's volatile Top 10 results ultimately cemented Nebraska's standing as the team to beat, with the Huskers earning a unanimous No. 1 vote in the AVCA rankings for the third time this season on Monday.

Nebraska's dominance drives even deeper than the team's current 22-0 season record, with the Huskers only dropping six sets all year as they ride a 13-game sweep streak into their last eight regular-season clashes.

"I wouldn't say there's anything super unique or new that we're doing," said first-year Nebraska head coach Dani Busboom Kelly. "Putting our players in challenging situations in practice against other players has been pretty important."

How to watch Nebraska and Texas volleyball this week

Top-ranked Nebraska will next face unranked Illinois at 8 PM ET on Thursday, airing live on FS1.

Meanwhile, No. 4 Texas will look to bounce back when the Longhorns take on recently unranked Florida at 7 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on the SEC Network.

As Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball preps for its second season, the upstart league revealed newly designed jerseys for its expanded 2026 campaign on Monday — including branding for incoming teams Breeze BC and Hive BC.

In collaboration with sportswear giant Under Armour, the updated Unrivaled jerseys feature details like bottom hem stripes for untucked wearing, side-body detailing, and a first-ever championship patch for inaugural title-winners Rose BC.

All eight clubs will sport home and away sets, along with alternate uniforms and more elaborate spins for the popular midseason 1v1 tournament.

Unrivaled will also be revealing team rosters this week, with fans of particular teams bracing for change as the offseason league navigates both player pool adjustments and expansion.

Once again, the league's head coaches built team rosters via an internal draft, pulling from six player pods organized according to position.

Each of last year's four playoff teams — the Lunar Owls, Rose BC, the Laces, and Vinyl BC — were able to protect up to two returning players, with the two non-playoff teams (the Mist and Phantom BC) allowed to keep just one player each out of selection.

Expansion sides Breeze and Hive began the draft, choosing the first two players from the non-protected athletes available.

All eight team rosters for the 2026 Unrivaled season will drop in a live Bleacher Report YouTube broadcast at 7 PM ET on Wednesday.

How to buy the Unrivaled 2026 jerseys

Following Wednesday night's roster reveal, fans will be able to purchase a limited number of 2026 jerseys via the Unrivaled shop.