On Monday, the U.S. women’s national team will embark on its mission to qualify for the 2023 FIFA World Cup.

The Concacaf qualifying tournament takes place in Monterrey, Mexico from July 4-18. The top four teams qualify for the World Cup, and the champion automatically advances to the 2024 Olympics as well.

In the group stage, the USWNT faces Haiti (July 4), Jamaica (July 7) and Mexico (July 11), while the other group has Canada, Costa Rica, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. Jamaica and Haiti, ranked 51st and 60th in the world by FIFA, will both give the U.S. tough competition, but No. 26 Mexico is expected to be the USWNT’s most challenging opponent in the group stage.

All USWNT games can be streamed on Paramount+, where you can get free access until July 19 by using the offer code “GLORY.”

Last week, the U.S. played a two-game friendly series against Colombia in preparation for Concacaf, winning 3-0 on Saturday and 2-0 on Tuesday.

Here are three things to know heading into the tournament based on the USWNT’s most recent game action.

Starting lineup predictions

Head coach Vlatko Andonovski said after the second game against Colombia on Tuesday that the players already know what their starting lineup will look like in Mexico. 

And for everyone else, “It’s not hard to predict who it’s going to be,” he said.

Chances are good that the lineup throughout the group stage will look very similar to last Saturday’s: Casey Murphy (GK), Emily Fox (FB), Alana Cook (CB), Becky Sauerbrunn (CB), Kelley O’Hara (FB), Andi Sullivan (M), Lindsey Horan (M), Rose Lavelle (M), Mallory Pugh (F), Ashley Hatch (F) and Sophia Smith (F).

If NWSL form factors into these decisions, then the biggest surprise will be to see Alex Morgan on the bench. She leads the league with 11 goals, three ahead of second-place finisher Sophia Smith and already surpassing last year’s Golden Boot champion, Ashley Hatch.

Pugh and Smith are all but certain to feature as two of the three starting forwards. Dynamic, fast, and strong on the dribble, the young attackers have had their spots solidified for months.

After Andonovski’s postgame comments Saturday, Hatch seems assured to start in the nine position.

“Ashley is here in camp and even starting the first game for a reason,” Andonovski told reporters. “She has goal-scoring abilities, she has a very good feeling for a goal, to find herself in good moments to score a goal. We think she’s going to get to play a lot and help us in the upcoming games.”

In the midfield, Andonovski alluded to Horan and Lavelle as starters. Although they each missed penalty kicks on Tuesday, Andonovski said they will continue to be the designated penalty takers because of their starting spots.

Defender Carson Pickett started Tuesday’s game and played all 90 minutes, but she was only on the 26-player squad for June and won’t be traveling to Mexico. Other left fullback Emily Fox started Saturday’s game, but was playing limited minutes in the series.

“The situation with Emily is very clear that she is a starter in the left back position and she has been proving that every camp she comes into,” Andonovski said.

Kelley O’Hara’s leadership has been important to Andonovski, as well as that of Becky Sauerbrunn, who served as captain on Saturday. Their past experience with the national team will help set the competitive bar on the field. Also in the back, Alana Cook and Casey Murphy have had consistently strong performances ever since becoming regulars at camp over six months ago. They’ll likely get the start as well.

The six situation

The biggest question mark in the USWNT’s Concacaf roster is the No. 6 position. Andi Sullivan is the only defensive midfielder making the trip to Mexico, and she’s been dealing with a quad injury. She’ll be a starter in the tournament if healthy, but on Tuesday, she didn’t dress. 

Jaelin Howell and Sam Coffey play at the six for their clubs, but did not see the field on Tuesday when Sullivan was out. Instead, Kristie Mewis and Lindsey Horan split the responsibilities in front of the backline. As midfielders who usually play higher, they’ll both likely have a slight learning curve at the position. There’s no doubt they’ll be able to adapt, but it’s notable that Andonovski decided to go with them over Howell, who has been participating in camps and acclimating to the international environment for months.

Ability to score

The USWNT was clearly ironing out tactics and chemistry in the two friendlies, which weren’t the prettiest of results, but the players have the talent to find ways to win even when things aren’t going according to plan. Both goals in the second match came from defenders. Sofia Huerta forced an own goal to put the U.S. on the board, and then Kelley O’Hara knocked one in from the top of the box near the end of the match.

Andonovski wasn’t worried that the forwards weren’t the ones to get the job done. It was difficult to get them open with five Colombian players surrounding them at all times, but the games served as a good test for Concacaf competition.

“Biggest takeaway is that we do have a very good team,” he said. “We found a way to score goals in different ways. Even though today, I would say, was not our best performance, we still managed to score goals.”

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

Dani Weatherholt’s first-ever soccer team was with her imaginary friends in the backyard of her childhood home just outside of Los Angeles. She’d organize scrimmages on the lawn beside the chipped chimney that she pitched softballs against for hours before.

“I would say, ‘Who’s she talking to?’” laughs her mother, Gail.

One of Weatherholt’s softball friends had invited her to the SoCal Blues’ Friday night clinics, but Gail had missed the sign-up. So, Weatherholt spent an entire season initiating her own backyard training sessions before joining the Blues at the age of 9, getting a banana and a Snickers bar from her dad before every game.

Her older, baseball-playing brothers were her role models at the time. There was no Angel City FC, no women’s professional soccer nearby. She had no idea that she would go from her empty backyard in Capistrano Beach, Calif., to a sold-out Banc of California Stadium two decades later, when Angel City joined the NWSL.

“It’s a dream come true,” Weatherholt, 28, says now, two months into her first season with the expansion club. “I don’t think many people get the opportunity to play where they grew up.”

‘Bigger than soccer’

Weatherholt’s rise up the youth soccer ranks was far from a straight-line path.

Nursing a torn meniscus at 9 years old, Weatherholt was placed on the SoCals B team and ended up staying there until the age of 14. Other soccer parents would tell her to go to a different club, that she deserved to play at a higher level. Her dad, however, believed if she wanted a spot on an A team, she had to earn it.

Weatherholt was finally called up to the A team midway through one season in her early teenage years. But she didn’t go. There was no way she was leaving her B teammates and coach behind, so she remained with them until the end of the year.

“She cared more about the team than herself and that was unheard of. It still is unheard of,” says Weatherholt’s high school coach, Stacey Finnerty. “I think kids, especially with women’s soccer, girls’ soccer, the parents are like, ‘You’ve got to be on the best team, be with the best kids and leave everyone,’ and they leave their teammates. With Dani, she just doesn’t do that. She’s team first.”

Finnerty coached Weatherholt for four years at San Clemente High School, becoming one of Weatherholt’s first and most impactful female role models in soccer. As the only female coach in the league, Finnerty demonstrated the value of women leadership, years before Weatherholt joined Angel City, with a majority female ownership group and front office staff.

After Weatherholt made the A team, she peaked as a soccer player, becoming more aware of the field and better positioned to shut down dangerous opponents. Soon, she earned a call-up to the U17 and U18 national programs.

For all of her successes, Weatherholt remained an “old soul” who always put others above herself. The San Clemente Hall of Famer certainly had the normal teenage struggles, juggling school and life, but the way she carried herself made it hard for others to know that.

As Finnerty explains, she had a way of connecting with her teammates and making every one of them feel special. On and off the field, she brought out the best in both the star and bench players. When she was on the San Clemente bench with an injury, she was able to get the beginners more engaged in the game than they otherwise would have been.

“No one really played just for themselves, and she cultured that into our program, into our team. It’s easy to win with Dani because she was who she was — a super magical, special kid,” Finnerty says.

That Weatherholt could make time for soccer in the first place was as impressive as her contributions to her teams.

The only female athlete in San Clemente history with 12 varsity letters, Weatherholt, at times, played for eight teams at once. Heavily involved in golf and softball as well as soccer, she dropped everything else to be at practices, games and class, and whenever she missed something, she would find a way to catch up and make up for it.

“I don’t know how she did it,” says Finnerty.

Through it all, she ended up as the fifth-ranked high school soccer player in SoCal and the 19th nationally, leading her team to their first state regional championship and a top national ranking.

Her motto: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

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Being a good teammate has been central to Weatherholt's soccer career. (Jenny Chuang/Angel City FC)

Of all the sports Weatherholt played, soccer was her favorite because it allowed for more creativity than golf and softball.

She also found a sense of community in soccer, as it connected her with people from other parts of the world. When she was young, her family would visit her dad’s fishing friends in Mexico. Returning every Easter, Weatherholt would bring them soccer equipment and find commonalities through soccer.

With a love of travel and community, Weatherholt has continued to share the game with kids around the world. She traveled to Nicaragua with Soccer Without Borders, an organization that gives underprivileged youth an opportunity to receive coaching and equipment. They knocked on doors and invited young girls to come play for the first time.

“Soccer was always something where you put the ball down and it didn’t matter where you came from, it immediately broke barriers,” she says. “It became a pillar to why I play the game, and ever since then, it’s always had to be something bigger than soccer.”

The journey back to L.A.

Weatherholt left California in 2016 as a goal-driven 22-year-old, eager to get her first pro contract with the Orlando Pride, who selected her as the 31st overall pick in that year’s College Draft.

After going to school at Santa Clara, Weatherholt was living away from California for the first time and regularly moving to different apartments. In 2018, she even went overseas to Australia for 12 matches with the Melbourne Victory. Through the constant changes, she learned to create a home within herself, until she reached a point when she was ready to return to the West Coast and play closer to her physical home.

Ahead of the 2020 season, Weatherholt moved to Seattle to play for OL Reign, where she was able to train for two years with some of the best midfielders in the world, including 2021 NWSL MVP Jess Fishlock, World Cup champion Rose Lavelle and Olympic gold medalist Quinn. People asked her why she went to the Reign when other teams could have given her more playing time, and she said she wanted teammates who could take her under their wing.

“It was really a good experience for me to learn from them, so I’m really grateful I put myself in that situation,” she says.

While the Reign exemplified strong team culture, the Pride, where she played from 2016-19, matched her love of getting involved with the community. That’s how she met Zayne Burton, a young cancer patient whose family Weatherholt got to know after she brought him a signed Alex Morgan jersey when he was in the hospital. She has cited her friendship with Burton and his family as one of her favorite memories during her soccer career.

When asked how the Dani Weatherholt who returned to LA is different than the 22-year-old who left it, Weatherholt says she lives more in the moment now, as opposed to the goal-centric player she was as a rookie.

“It’s great to have goals, don’t get me wrong, but I think when they consume you, then it affects your play. It affects nearly everything,” she says.

By the time Angel City was scouting for its debut NWSL season, Weatherholt’s career experiences had made into just the type of player the expansion team was looking for in its leaders.

‘She is an angel at Angel City’

Weatherholt didn’t know she was going first overall in the 2022 NWSL expansion draft until Angel City head coach Freya Coombe called her minutes before her name was announced.

She did know that playing for the club would be a possibility. At the end of the 2021 season, NWSL players were asked if they would be interested in representing either of the expansion teams in Los Angeles or San Diego. Weatherholt gave her agent the go-ahead to submit her name.

“I loved my team in Seattle, like loved them,” she says. “But I was like, everyone is going to want to go to California, so if they want me and if it if it lines up, then I would love to go.”

Ahead of the draft, Coombe was drawn to the midfielder’s roots and her desire to fight for her home community. Coombe knew those qualities would be important not only to the culture Angel City wanted to build, but also to Weatherholt’s career.

Now two months into the regular season, Weatherholt is filled with pride for her new club, which has dedicated itself to expanding access to resources both on and off the pitch. With their Angel City Sponsorship Model, in which 10 percent of all sponsorship dollars go to community programs, the club has helped provide thousands of meals, soccer equipment and essentials kits to those in need around L.A.

“It just couldn’t align more with who I am and why I play and why I continue to play,” Weatherholt says.

Weatherholt’s steadiness in possession and her reading of pace and angles at the holding midfield position have been key for Angel City, who return to play Friday in sixth place in the NWSL standings with a 4-4-1 record. The way Weatherholt pushes her teammates to match their opponent’s level demonstrates the deeper understanding of the league that Coombe was looking for when building her roster.

“She’s been a fantastic leader for us,” Coombe says. “A great person to have around, and a key player for us as well.”

Training in L.A. has helped Weatherholt find a new level of freedom in her game. A veteran with ACFC, she’s taken what she learned from her two seasons with OL Reign’s world-class midfielders and helped set the tone.

She’s also regularly able to share her experiences with her family, including her dad ( who had only seen her play live once before she returned to L.A.) and her brother (who has never seen her play professionally). Weatherholt enjoys bringing her spunky, wide-eyed nephew onto the field after matches, and her dad still offers her a Snickers bar and banana before every game.

“Whenever my family comes to watch me play, I always play well because it’s like, you know your family loves you no matter what and they know who you are,” she says. “There’s something special about that and it definitely gives me this buzz.”

Finnerty can’t wait to show up to an Angel City game with the San Clemente girls’ soccer team and a big glittery sign for Weatherholt, just like Weatherholt did years ago for Finnerty’s 5-year-old daughter.

“I admire you so much. You’re not going to stop. You’re going to keep going and doing more and being more for others,” Finnerty once told Weatherholt. “She is an angel at Angel City.”

“It’s hard to find the words because it’s like a full-circle moment,” Weatherholt says. “All the people that supported you, loved you, and then life goes on and then all of a sudden to see that they’re still supporting you, and you get to fight for that community now.”

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

These days, Crystal Dunn splits her time between soccer, naps and bopping to old Disney songs in French with her smiling 5-week-old son, Marcel Soubrier.

The mother-athlete balance is a journey the Portland Thorns star was ready for after taking a month away from work to get used to her new identity as a parent. Still, there were many challenges she couldn’t prepare for until she gave birth to Marcel on May 20.

After catching about six hours of sleep, during which she and her husband, Pierre Soubrier, take turns calming down a crying Marcel, Dunn begins her day around 8 a.m. At 9:30, she leaves for the stadium to do physical therapy, catch up with teammates in the locker room, attend team meetings and watch their training sessions. In the afternoons, she returns home to look after Marcel, sometimes calling up Heather O’Reilly for parenting advice.

Dunn has been juggling parenting and soccer since June 15, as she works to return to NWSL action by late August or early September.

“It really gave me the full feel of, OK, I’m kind of back now. This is kind of cool,” Dunn told Just Women’s Sports. “I’m back as a new mother and as an athlete still. Getting into the rhythm has been really nice.”

Her return to play has been thoughtfully planned out by Portland’s high performance team, in conjunction with her doctor, pelvic floor specialists and physiotherapists.

“Crystal is, as she always does, blowing all expectations out of the water,” said Thorns head coach Rhian Wilkinson. “It’s exciting to watch. She can already outrun me and outlift me, which is just a testament to what an incredible athlete, but also professional, she is.”

Dunn knew this year was the right time to become a mother when she felt mental and emotional burnout in 2021. Her body needed rest in a different kind of way.

It didn’t mean the decision to become a parent was easy. She worried about the lack of support she’d get as she figured out how to find her way back to the pitch while also caring for a baby.

Women, in most fields of work, have a hard time envisioning successful careers and motherhood. For professional athletes, their body is their work, and for about a year during pregnancy and after giving birth, they’re unable to compete in top form. Being forgotten in the run of competition is a common fear.

Perhaps the most versatile player on the U.S. women’s national team, Dunn has been an instrumental part of their success in the past decade, most recently helping them win the 2019 FIFA World Cup title and 2020 Olympic bronze medal. A year from now, she hopes to play at the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The 2021 Concacaf Player of the Year won’t let the show go on without her.

The stigma around women athletes becoming mothers has motivated Dunn to partner with Modern Fertility, an organization that educates women on their bodies and their reproductive health, and provides them with resources to make the best decisions for their own journeys with motherhood.

Everybody’s path is different. To Dunn, that is the most important message for aspiring and current mothers.

“They’re understanding that you can be a parent. You can start thinking about being a mom and not sacrificing your career. You can do both. … Obviously Modern Fertility has been incredible because I just think everyone needs to be educated on their reproductive health. I think it’s something, especially as women, we’re not really taught a lot of that growing up.”

Dunn became affiliated with the organization to be a part of the conversations that will help normalize athlete pregnancy. Sydney Leroux, Kelley O’Hara, Candace Parker and other elite athletes have also partnered with the campaign.

In the NWSL, seven players have babies due this year, including Dunn’s USWNT teammates Julie Ertz, Allie Long and Casey Krueger.

“It needs to be celebrated more when women do take that journey to motherhood alongside being an elite athlete,” Dunn said. “Any way I can be involved to help push, help change that narrative that, ‘Oh, women should only kind of do this.’ Like, no, it’s 2022. Keep up, people.

“I’m not the first female athlete to be pregnant and give birth and have my career and be a mother at the same time, but I feel the more and more that we can speak out about our experiences and push for the next generation to feel like they have the option to do so as well is how you set up the future.”

Dunn didn’t think that, at nine months pregnant, she’d still be able to train with the Thorns. But there she was at practice, juggling and taking part in passing drills. The same week before she gave birth, she was doing volleys with Pierre, who’s also the Thorns’ head athletic trainer.

“My coaching staff was like, ‘Come as often as you want. We want you here.’ I think hearing that message really allowed me to feel valued,” Dunn said. “Once you’re pregnant, you know that you can’t play at the highest level anymore and so you start to feel left out. You start to feel like you’re not as valued anymore.

“I think my coaching staff and my teammates really did a good job of keeping me included. I was in the meetings, I was engaging with players all the time, and it really was exactly what I needed to step into now this new role that I’m in.”

As Dunn prepares to return to the pitch, she keeps in touch with members of the national team and has productive conversations with head coach Vlatko Andonovski every few weeks.

As the national team heads off to Mexico for the first game of World Cup Qualifying on Monday, Dunn will remain in Portland with her family.  Andonovski said in a press conference in early June that Dunn would have been on the squad had she been able to play, and there are certainly moments when Dunn wishes she could be at the Concacaf championship with her teammates.

But, as she reminds herself, being a mother is pretty darn cool, too.

“I’m exactly where I need to be right now,” she said.

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

June is coming to a close, which means it’s time for Just Women’s Sports‘ NWSL Best XI of the month.

The league released its Best XI on Monday, featuring players voted on by members of the NWSL Media Association. There is slight overlap in the JWS lineup, with four players earning the double spotlight and seven new players getting recognized.

Seven teams are represented in JWS’ lineup, including the top five in the league standings. Portland leads the way with three players, while San Diego and Houston each have two. The Wave, in fact, have two players making their second consecutive JWS Best XI appearance. (You can read our Best XI for May here.)

Forwards

Sophia Smith, Portland Thorns FC

The NWSL’s Player of the Month, Sophia Smith contributed a goal or an assist in each of Portland’s four games in June as her speed continues to be a nightmare for defenders. Most notably, she had two goals and one assist in a 4-0 win over the Houston Dash on June 12.

Nichelle Prince, Houston Dash

The Houston Dash forward scored four goals in June to move into fourth place in the Golden Boot race. Her biggest performance came on June 3, when she scored the first-ever hat trick in Dash history during a 5-0 win over the Orlando Pride. She also scored the game-winner in Houston’s thrilling 4-3 victory over the North Carolina Courage.

Alex Morgan, San Diego Wave FC

Alex Morgan added five goals in June, bringing her season tally to 11 and surpassing last year’s Golden Boot total in less than half the number of games. She was a menace in San Diego’s 3-0 win over NJ/NY Gotham FC on June 19, recording a brace and an assist.

Midfielders

Maria Sánchez, Houston Dash

Maria Sánchez has been an integral part of the Houston Dash’s attack, especially in their 4-3 win over the Courage when she contributed a goal and two assists. On June 3 against the Orlando Pride, she had arguably the best play of the month, connecting with Rachel Daly on a perfect long-ball assist from the middle of the park to the top of the box.

Lo’eau LaBonta, Kansas City Current

Lo’eau LaBonta played a key role as the Kansas City Current regained momentum in June. After going winless through May 30, the Current have been unbeaten since then, recording a win and two draws. LaBonta held the team steady with a 76 percent passing success rate and 60 percent tackle success rate.

Denise O’Sullivan, North Carolina Courage

Flying under the radar at times next to Debinha, Denise O’Sullivan has been a dominant presence in the Courage midfield with an 83.8 percent passing success rate and 60.7 percent success rate in tackles. On June 19 against the Dash, the Irish national team player scored a bullet of a goal from the top of Houston’s defense to open the scoring just five minutes into the match.

Defenders

Lauren Barnes, OL Reign

New teammate Tobin Heath describes Lu Barnes as the smoothest outside back in the league, and Barnes has certainly been showing it both on and off the ball. Hitting her targets 70 percent of the time and winning over half of her tackles, Barnes consistently creates big scoring chances and pushes up the field to make overlapping runs and give the Reign a dangerous passing option from the left fullback position. 

Naomi Girma, San Diego Wave FC

Making her second consecutive JWS Best XI appearance, the May Rookie of the Month has developed further into one of the most reliable players in the league. Playing every minute in June, she connected on her passes 84 percent of the time and won 70.8 percent of her duels.

Kelli Hubly, Portland Thorns FC

The most exciting part of Kelli Hubly’s month is that she scored her first NWSL career goal — a perfect header off of a Sophia Smith corner kick. Goals aside, Hubly’s composure and distribution have helped steady Portland’s backline as they’ve gone 3-0-1 in the month of June. With an 81 percent passing success rate, she is the only one on the team who’s played every minute of every game so far.

Natalia Kuikka, Portland Thorns FC

An NWSL June Best XI honoree as well, Natalia Kuikka has been one of the strongest defenders in the league this month. She played every minute for the Thorns in June, connecting on 77 percent of her passes while helping create chances and contributing to Portlands’ three shutouts. In a 6-0 win over the Orlando Pride, she also recorded her first goal of the season.

Goalkeeper

Alyssa Naeher, Chicago Red Stars

Coming into June without a shutout in 2022, Alyssa Naeher recorded three consecutive clean sheets to kick off the month. The only two goals the USWNT keeper conceded came in the fourth match, a 2-2 draw with the Current. 

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

The last time Sophia Smith played in her home state of Colorado was during college in the fall of 2019 — a 4-0 win for Stanford over the Colorado Buffs.

In the short two and a half years since then, she won the national title, got drafted first overall to the Portland Thorns, earned her first cap with the U.S. women’s national team and quickly rose as one of their star forwards.

On Saturday, she returns for her first game in Colorado with the USWNT. The match at DSG Park in Commerce City is the first of a two-game series that will end in Utah on Tuesday, serving as preparation for the Concacaf World Cup Qualifying in July.

Playing at home is a dream come true because that’s where it all started almost 22 years ago.

‘That’s how I fell in love with it’

With two sporty sisters who were four and five years older, Sophia was already on the sidelines of soccer fields and basketball courts at just two days old in Windsor, Colo.

She jumped right into athletic shenanigans as soon as she could walk. Literally. Her little legs would leap off the sixth step of the staircase when someone walked by, just to see if they would catch her. By two years old, she was in the backyard running around with her sisters, Gabrielle and Savannah, trying to compete at their level. She’d jump off the trampoline to dunk balls into basketball nets to prove she could be like them.

Watching her sisters play soccer and trying to keep up with them in the backyard became her first memories of the sport as she got older.

“I think that’s how I fell in love with it, or how I was even made aware of it,” she told Just Women’s Sports.

‘I just want to play soccer’

Sophia’s soccer career started in kindergarten, the same year she met future USWNT teammate Jaelin Howell.

In a class of 18 boys and four girls, Sophia was excited when her teacher told the class a new girl was coming from Florida. But then, a couple days later when the new student arrived, she stole Sophia’s nap-time square. It was Howell.

In a video for the U.S. national team, Howell jokes that at the time Sophia leaned over and whispered in her ear, “I’m never going to be your friend.”

But of course, they became friends.

The tomboys bonded over their love for sports when they hung out with the boys at recess. They realized their similarities when Martha and Rob Martin, the parents of another girl in their kindergarten class, started a rec soccer team they both joined.

The coaches watched a series of kids’ tapes, put together by German soccer player Franz Beckenbauer, with what Beckenbauer referred to as “fast forward” skills. From there the Martins created a technique curriculum that consisted of 20 to 30 skills to teach the new team, the Timnath Twisters. Before long, the players were doing Maradona turns in their little swirly pink socks they tie-dyed themselves.

“[Rob and Martha] taught the girls so much,” said Smith’s mother, Mollie. “They were amazing.”

There was an activity every practice where kids could demonstrate new techniques they learned. Patches were the reward that they got to iron onto their red-and-white reversible jerseys. Howell was hungry for patches and never came to practice without a new skill. For Sophia, games were more important than practices at the time. But even during games, she’d be playing just like any other kid — until her dad showed up.

“Any time her dad showed up, she’d pick the pace up 10 fold and got really fast and started scoring a million goals,” Rob said. “It was kind of funny. Kenny, her dad, was obviously a big motivation for her. When she saw him she just lit up. … It wasn’t like, ‘Ooh, dad’s here, I better get to work.’ It was more like, ‘Ooh, dad’s here!’ — big smile on her face — and got to work.”

Family has always been important to Sophia. These days, when she’s lucky enough to get a small window of time at home, she spends every minute with her family — and also at her favorite restaurant, Jim’s Wings.

The Smiths are a basketball family. Just like Kenny who played basketball for the University of Wyoming, Sophia’s older sisters became invested in the sport as well. Sophia would still go on to play basketball in her freshman year of high school. She loved all sports. But for her, soccer became the priority.

“She just said, ‘I love soccer, I just want to play soccer,’” Mollie said.

“Oh, that must be so hard for Kenny!” people told Mollie.

“But it wasn’t really that hard because we saw how much she loved playing soccer,” Mollie said.

As Sophia neared her preteen years with the Timnath Twisters, the club decided the team became too supreme and had to split up. Despite Rob and Martha’s objections, Sophia was among those pulled into a different group. The team’s dominance wasn’t because the Martins encouraged them to be that way — they had never coached to win. They always told the parents to cheer for good passes and impressive technique instead of goals.

It was just that Sophia and Howell had become too good.

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The Portland Thorns' Sophia Smith celebrates a goal against the Chicago Red Stars at Providence Park on May 16, 2021, in Portland, Oregon. (Craig Mitchelldyer/ISI Photos via Getty Images)

‘I love it here’

Sophia and Howell played a couple of years locally for Arsenal Colorado before they heard about Real Colorado. A young teenager at this point, Sophia and her mom got the car and made the hour-and-a-half drive to south Denver to meet with President Lorne Donaldson and see how the club was run. It was everything Sophia wanted.

“Oh my gosh, I love it here,” Sophia told her mom. “I will do anything to make it happen.”

So, Mollie quit her job of over 20 years. She found a different one that allowed her to get off earlier so she could drive Sophia to soccer four to five times a week. She told Sophia that if she ever grumbled about the drive or the time, they would stop going.

Sophia didn’t complain once.

“She was so grateful, thankful,” said Mollie.

Those car rides became the most productive part of Sophia’s day. It was her only time to do homework, and she had a lot of it. When she was finished, she would eat, nap and get dressed.

“It was kind of crazy,” said Mollie. “Looking back, I’m not sure how we did that or what we were thinking … We just saw her determination and her love.”

‘The two most exciting players to watch’

Immediately after Sophia joined Real, her coach Neil introduced her to a player famous among the club community: Mallory Pugh.

Everyone would tell her, “You have to go watch Mal play.”

Sophia started reading about Pugh, who was two years older, and asking her parents if the three of them could stick around after her games to watch Pugh’s. She would sit on the sideline and drop her jaw in awe of how fast Pugh moved, her finishing, every little thing she did.

“In so many ways that has helped me get to where I am today because I had someone who was doing exactly what I hoped to do, right in front of me, and could just kind of learn from her and, in some ways, follow in her footsteps,” Sophia said.

They began training together, too. Pugh would sometimes train with Sophia’s team to get extra touches in, and Sophia was invited to join some of Pugh’s practices. On the weekends, Donaldson would gather players who wanted additional sessions, including Pugh and Sophia, and help take their skills to another level.

Donaldson was hard on Sophia at times — a lot of times — but that’s what she needed to be pushed to new heights. He knew what to say, when to say it and how to get her fired up.

“He is probably the most important person when it comes to who has helped me get to where I am today,” she said. “He believed in me and saw potential in me and knew exactly how to make me be better and reach my potential, so absolutely Lorne Donaldson is someone from Colorado who has changed my life and helped me become the person and player that I am.”

In March 2017, Sophia was just 16 years old when she got her first call-up to the senior national team, with none other than Jaelin Howell. The two were now classmates at Fossil Ridge High.

“It’s obviously nice to go into an environment like that with a familiar face because obviously every other face is not familiar,” Sophia said. “It’s a pretty intimidating environment, and so having Jaelin in that camp was kind of a breath of fresh air and just knowing that if anything, we have each other and we’re not in this alone and we can talk to each other about things.”

After heading to college and truly parting ways for the first time in their soccer career, with Howell going to Florida State, they got their first caps together in late 2020 during a friendly against the Netherlands.

“To come full circle and be able to play together with the national team is just a really cool moment I think,” Sophia said.

In that game, Smith also became the first player born in the 2000s to make an appearance with the national team.

During her early days with Real she had wanted to follow in Pugh’s footsteps, and now she was a young prodigy just like Pugh, who started setting records as a teenager in 2016. At the age of 17, Pugh became the youngest player to be named to the USWNT in 15 years.

Coming into Saturday’s game in Colorado, Smith and Pugh, who plays in the NWSL for the Chicago Red Stars, are partners on the USWNT starting forward line. Head coach Vlatko Andonovski has spent the last half year evaluating their chemistry, and now, as they near Concacaf World Cup Qualifying, they’re the leading stars on the squad.

In just 15 appearances, Smith already has four goals and three assists with the national team. She’s the second-leading scorer in the NWSL this season with eight goals, just two ahead of third-place Pugh.

“They’re probably the two most exciting players to watch right now in the [NWSL],” Andonovski said. “I don’t think it will be a surprise if I say that it will be extremely difficult for a new player to come in and take their starting spots right now. … I’m excited for the form they’re in, I’m excited for the way they play, I’m excited they’re going to contribute not just for their team but also for their country.”

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The United States' Sophia Smith (11) celebrates with Catarina Macario (20) and Mallory Pugh during a game between Uzbekistan and USWNT at Lower.com Field on April 9, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos via Getty Images)

‘It’s super special’

Smith, Howell and Pugh have all been named to the roster for Saturday’s friendly in Commerce City, joining Lindsey Horan for a total of four Colorado natives on the team.

“It’s pretty great,” said Smith and Howell’s first coach, Martha. “We’re pretty proud of them and what they’ve accomplished.”

Smith’s home is about an hour drive from DSG Park. While a lot of her high school friends have moved away, most of her family will be there, including her niece and nephew and her grandparents, who have never seen her compete in a USWNT jersey.

“It’s super special to be able to play there because they’ll be able to come watch me play,” Smith said.

“We could not be more excited,” Mollie said.

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

Briana Scurry is ready to tell her story.

The former U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper’s new memoir, My Greatest Save, launches on Tuesday.

Scurry has left a legacy as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, setting the standard for what the U.S. women’s national team is today. After being named the country’s starting goalkeeper in 1994, she won her first gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where women’s soccer was played at the Olympics for the first time ever. She went on to lead the U.S. to their 1999 World Cup title with a game-winning save in the championship shootout. In 2004 she won her second Olympic gold.

Then a knee to the head left Scurry with severe trauma in 2010, putting a devastating end to her historic career. Unable to work, Scurry spiraled into debt and depression that almost led to suicide.

Scurry sat down with JWS for a Q and A ahead of the release of My Greatest Save, a story about resilience and redemption.

Your wife Chryssa inspired you to write this book. Can you talk a little bit about what those conversations looked like?

I think what’s interesting about my amazing wife Chryssa is that she has been so instrumental in the resurrection of my career as a whole. This book is literally a labor of love, and I was finally ready to write it. I decided in the beginning, when we started talking about potentially doing this, that I needed to sit with the idea for a while because I needed to feel like I could be authentic about all of my life, not just about the really cool stuff that’s happened, but also some of the really uncool and hurtful and painful and sad parts of it. Was I ready to really be authentic and telling that to folks? Because I’m an incredibly private person normally, so it’s a little ironic that I’m writing this book that is so in my mind, in my head basically, on a piece of paper.

So, I said to her, “I need to sit with it, the idea. I like it. I like the idea, but I need to make sure I’m far enough away from some of the stuff that’s happened to be able to look at it and go back to that feeling space of it to be able to tell it well.”

Was there a specific moment where it hit you that you were ready to write your book?

Yeah, actually, there was. I was really thinking about my parents and telling, essentially, the story about being in the room when my dad passed. I’ve told people that story, but I really had to be able to tell it greater, in the grander, get down to it. As I was thinking about it, I realized that, yeah, I felt I could do that and I could honor the time as opposed to just skimming over it or making reference to it but not really getting in the weeds on it. So, I realized that. As soon as I realized that I was ready to get in the weeds on these things. Then that’s when I said, “OK let’s do it. I’m ready.” Because if I wasn’t ready then I would have said, “No, maybe not now.”

What messages do you hope people take from your story?

My purpose in life has always been to create and to inspire. I’ve done a lot of creating through my journey to winning an Olympic gold medal and playing on the national team for Olympics and World Cups and inspiring millions of people doing that with my team. I wanted my book to be an inspiration, also, to people who read it, truly to have them see that success is not a straight line, that we can make gains and then sometimes lose them, but you can always rise up. You can really be in an absolute horrible situation and still find a way to make it better, to continue to take a step forward, even if it’s just the smallest thing of, “I’m going to make it till tomorrow.”

The reason you keep going is because you don’t know where help is going to come from. I think for me during the time of my concussion, I really learned that. You know, Naomi talking to Chryssa in a dinner meeting, and then literally changed my life, and I wasn’t even there. I think the message there is just keep going, keep believing that change can come. You really don’t know where it’s coming from, and all of a sudden there it is for you.

While you were writing the book, which part was your favorite to relive?

I think my favorite was probably the ‘96 Olympic Games because I literally went from being an eight-year-old girl who watched the Olympic Games and the ice hockey team in Lake Placid. [Goaltender] Jim Craig, all the guys just do the impossible made possible by beating the USSR. That was the beginning of that dream, and then ‘96 was the culmination of it becoming real for me.

So, I would say that was the greatest part to retell because it was so much fun and we were like kids — at least I know I was, like a little girl in getting my gear and getting to walk in the parade when we came into the field on the opening ceremonies. I mean, my heart exploded out of my chest, coming around the corner. Talking, reliving all of that pageantry, if you will, and the adventure of it. I was so young then. I was so hopeful, and I had everything right at my fingertips. My world was at my feet, and that was a really fun time to talk about.

Did reliving your story make you wish you had done anything differently?

You know, it did. I think the one thing that is so clear to me is I wish I had talked to my parents more about them. Not about me, or about what I was doing, or what I was feeling or what I was wanting, but to talk to them more about who they were.

For example, in the part of the book where we talk about how my parents met, obviously I wasn’t born at that point, so my brother Ronnie helped a lot in the retelling of how my parents met. Reading that and writing that just made me feel a little bit of regret that I didn’t — I don’t know, I just have a new outlook and a different perspective on things now that I have stepchildren and it’s like well, how would my mom and dad have handled this or that? It would have been neat to ask them what they thought and what they felt, so that’s one of the things I would say.

If little Bri read your book, which part would she be most excited to read about?

I would think that she would be excited about how I turned the tables and completely resurrected my career after 2000 going into 2004 and the way that I handled the situation with my dad and all of that. I would think that as me now, but I think little Briana would probably just love reading about the Olympics in general, like all the game stuff, the game commentary and retelling of how the game went and maybe watching that game for herself for the first time, similar to how I watched Lake Placid, the ice hockey team, just watching the games on TV over again. I think that’s the part she would like the best.

Knowing what you know now, what piece of advice would you have given the young Bri who was in the early chapters?

Advice is tricky because part of me wants to say be more present and be more open and absorb the present and everything around you, but as a high-level elite athlete, I think a lot of athletes would say that you really have to be focused on the task and you narrow your focus. And to be more the moment sometimes requires you to broaden your focus, and so that’s not necessarily advantageous. You know what I mean? You sometimes have to block things out in order to be able to do the thing well. So, I would say, just have more fun with it, I think would be what I would say, because you can’t have more fun with it and have a really narrow focus still.

Was there anything you learned throughout the process of writing your book?

I actually heard this this morning when I was listening to GMA that the author of a book said it was cathartic to write it. One of the ways I look at it is there’s all these rooms of memories that you have, or moments or a couple days or this or that or an Olympics, for example. There are situations in that room and the difficult times that are hard and hurt you or are sad, you put them in a room and you lock them away. You put them on the shelf. You often don’t ever go back to that room. What happens, I feel, somewhere in your body, you have unresolved emotional baggage in that room, and if you don’t go and resolve that baggage then it’ll always be there. And it could be something that’s holding you back from becoming better or moving on through something.

I think the book required me to pour sunlight in all the rooms that had darkness in them. Going through that with the light and being honest and truthful with myself, I was able to have forgiveness in a forgiveness space of all those rooms that needed it. Had I not done the book, I wouldn’t have had that to be necessary, it wouldn’t have been required to me for me to do that. I think it really enlightened me and also really made me more appreciative and grateful about the amazing life I do have now because when I went back to some of those things, I’m like, “Wow, Bri, you must have been really hurting at that time,” almost like I was looking at it like it wasn’t me. Then saying, “OK well, you can have forgiveness.” You can forgive yourself, you could forgive that person or that thing or whatever. You can be at peace with it.

I think with the book, with book writing, that’s what happens, but I wasn’t aware that was going to happen to me.

Was it difficult to get through writing about those tough times in your life?

It was, yeah. There are two in particular that were really difficult.

One was being back in the hospital room when my father passed. Having to really think about that and remember that moment and be able to describe it in the book and to get the reader to the feeling space of how I was then and how that felt to me, to have my father be there. He was also my first parent that passed. Everybody is aware that normally a child outlives a parent. The odds of me actually being in that room were astronomical. I found myself there and understanding all of that is a bit cosmic, really. It’s hard to comprehend it.

Then also getting into the feeling space of when I was suicidal. What would happen would be Wayne [Coffey, co-author] and I would talk about this, and I would tell him how it felt. And we would talk and talk and talk about it, and then afterwards when we were done talking about it, it was still on me, that heaviness. I would go through my next day or two wondering why I feel so glum, even though I’m incredibly optimistic. That was hard to almost have that weight and relive that, literally. I did believe that, in order to be able to tell it well in the book and have you understand and feel that way and at least get a glimpse into what that was like for me.

Were you able to relieve that weight that you carried after those conversations?

Yeah, I did. I would talk to my wife Chryssa quite a bit about it. I found that when I would tell her about what I talked to Wayne about that day, talking to her helped remind me that that was my past. Although that sounds very strange that I wouldn’t know that, it’s almost like she checked me back into my current life, my present. I felt like I was almost dishonoring, maybe to a level, if I stopped feeling that way about my dad dying or when I was suicidal. I realize that I’m just trying to help other people with it and that it’s OK to leave it there, because I can’t fix it. What I can do is I can fix myself on how I feel about it, and that’s exactly what I did. I would visualize myself opening the shades, opening the door, letting the sunlight into that space, and that was able to help me be able to move onto the next thing and be OK with that.

The title, My Greatest Save, is obviously a metaphor, so what’s your greatest or favorite save on the field?

It’s interesting because the PK save in ‘99 isn’t actually my greatest save, in my opinion. Looking at that, most people would obviously think that, but I feel like the save I made in the 2004 Olympic final against Brazil when Cristiane literally ripped one from 18 or 16 yards out to the corner and I literally just threw my body and fingertips, barely got that ball and spun it around the post. I remember not seeing it, I didn’t actually see the shot. I just went and that’s that being in the zone thing that Athens talk about a lot, and at that moment I felt like I was in the zone. My body, my mind was playing the game with my body. I wasn’t really conscious of everything going on in that game, and it just felt so instinctive. I would say that save was my greatest save on the pitch because if I don’t make that save and Brazil scores, the tide of the game can change quickly, especially with a team like Brazil. When they score, they often pour them on you — goal after goal after goal. Making that save made me know that I was ready.

Do you have any thoughts on the current USWNT roster that was recently announced?

Yeah I do, and I kind of have to because I’m actually on the studio team for the qualifiers with CBS and Paramount+. I’m actually going to be broadcasting that tournament. I thought it was interesting, Vlatko [Andonovski]’s press conference after the release. His answer about Christen Press, I thought was… I’m like, “Mmm?” I thought it was odd.

It made me wonder, and we talked about it on the call, about Vlatko. Vlatko’s going to be a topic of discussion, I believe, going forward with regards to his choices. He’s got a lot of pressure on him, and obviously he’s got a whole year until actually coaching the World Cup tournament itself. But this is going to be an indicator of his philosophies. I just didn’t think that was handled very well. You can make decisions that are really tough like that, but you can also handle it better, I thought. I was wondering why he answered the way he did.

Macario’s out, unfortunately, with her knee just like a minute ago, virtually, and so he was building that team around her essentially. Now, what does that mean? How do you take out a foundation, literally half of it, and then reconstruct it and then make it again? I feel like that’s a topic.

Then the idea of playing Mexico might end up being a real challenge because apparently from what I heard that the game is sold out, or on the verge of it — the third game against Mexico. That’s really intriguing.

I just feel like the current team is going to be fine with the qualifying, but I think it’s going to be interesting. It’s so funny because every time we have a cycle, a World Cup, we always have the same questions, and they always have the same answer: “Don’t worry about it.” Like we did when I played, all these people have all these questions and no power to make an impact on the outcome. I find that intriguing about being a talking head that if I were listening to me, I’d be like, “What do you know about it?” [Laughs] But it’s fun. I enjoy it. So that’s how I look at it. A lot of interesting points to the youth of the team. I mean, half the Washington Spirit team is on that roster, basically. That’s interesting because just two years ago there wasn’t any Washington Spirit players because we didn’t have O’Hara, we didn’t have Sonnett. Andi hadn’t come through yet. Now Aubrey’s on there, obviously Trin’s on there, Sanchez on there. I mean, half the lineup is in that camp now, so it’s going to be interesting.

In light of your book being released during Pride Month and as the only Black lesbian on your team, how do you hope soccer will continue to become a more inclusive space?

What’s interesting about change is it moves like an iceberg. A glacier is very slow, but you always have to keep pulling or pushing or asking and talking about it. You have to keep going and going.

I feel like we’re getting there because the 2015 World Cup, there is a real monumental image from there that was Abby and her wife at the time, Sarah, embracing each other and kissing each other after the game. That image was very reminiscent and replicative of the World Cup. In my time, in ’99, I was running to the stands to my girlfriend and the camera was following me and then it cut away as soon as they realized it was a girl. We’ve come a long way from that, from cutting away to being an iconic image of the World Cup in 16 years, but there’s still room to improve. There’s always going to be. Not only sexual orientation, more inclusion that way with the team, but also more Black girls on the team that are playing in the games that matter — World Cup rosters, Olympic rosters, this roster, for example — getting into the game and making an impact. Crystal Dunn is the only example I can think of that has had any real consistent impact on high-level, high-stakes rosters.

There is some improvement to do but it’s coming along. I was overjoyed to hear an interview that Abby did for my documentary, The Only, that’s coming out on July 12. CBS Paramount+ is doing that. She said that seeing me be out on the team helped her and Megan Rapinoe be who they are later on. That was really cool. I didn’t know that she felt that way about it, so that was really nice to hear.

So yeah, keep going, keep making an impact, keep talking, sharing your truth with people. You can really make inroads, you can make progress, you can help other people, for example. Equal pay is another great example. Thirty years it’s taken to get that done. The cool part is one of my former teammates is really instrumental. Cindy Parlow Cone is the president of the federation and getting that done, so we’re getting there, but we still have work to do.

How does it feel to see the progress with the equal pay settlement that was recently announced between the USWNT and U.S. Soccer, being one of the original players who started that when you and eight others sat out of the ’96 Olympic training camp?

I was absolutely thrilled when that news dropped. That was a fantastic day. It was a journey that was so long, alongside of my own journey to become me. Part of the national team, if you play for the women’s soccer team, part of your mandate is to raise the bar for equal pay, and the other part is obviously to play brilliant soccer and win everything. Those are two really high standards to hold. This current generation has done a phenomenal job of pushing that bar up and putting their necks on the line with the lawsuit a few years back that was a new iteration of that journey to get equal pay. That was just the next step that had to be done in order to get there.

Like I said earlier, you just have to keep pushing, pushing, pushing. They finally were able to do it, largely in part, I think, because one of us became president. Hats off to Cindy Parlow Cone, obviously hats off to the men’s team for being willing to come to the table. Walker Zimmerman was very instrumental in getting the guys on board with the idea of pooling the prize money.

And never mind about the revenue sharing. That’s brand new, that’s amazing. I feel like what you’re going to see in the next few years is that revenue from outside sponsors, partnerships, broadcasting rights is going to grow into enormous pie because, in part, a lot of companies are probably going to be like, “I don’t know if I want to be a part of U.S. Soccer because they’re not really being fair to their women’s team, and it doesn’t feel right, it seems weird, it doesn’t smell right,” but now we’re all on the same page, playing together, for each other, and I think that’s going to make a huge difference in the near future.

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

Two months down, five to go.

The NWSL just wrapped up Week 8, its last weekend of games before the two-week international break at the end of June. While players on international duty continue into other tournaments throughout July, including Euros and Concacaf, the NWSL will return to play on July 1. Teams have been starting to solidify their places in the standings, but the coming month might shake things up as key players remain absent from their clubs while on international duty.

For now, here are the final power rankings before June’s two-week international break begins. (Click here for the last edition of the power rankings.)

12. Orlando Pride (2-5-2) —

Frankly, the Pride are not having a good time. They’ve conceded 24 goals in nine games played, most recently suffering a 6-0 loss to the Thorns. Though acting head coach Seb Hines says they need to go over fundamentals at practice, like tackles and runs, it’s hard to believe the effort from the players is the problem, especially when they had a reasonably strong start to the season. They’ve been dealing with behind-the-scenes situations like the suspension of head coach Amanda Cromwell and assistant coach Sam Greene, and many NWSL players recently took to Twitter to express their feelings about the Pride buying out the contract of Amy Turner. The Orlando players’ on-field energy is on the decline, and they could probably benefit from some time to recharge.

11. Racing Louisville FC (2-4-3) —

No. 11 is a tough spot because no team in this league truly deserves it. But with a “meh” performance from Louisville on Friday, they don’t have any reason to be ranked higher or lower from where they were last week. One of the key takeaways coming out of this week for Racing is that Jess McDonald and Nadia Nadim have an undeniable connection. Nadim subbed into the game against Washington in the second half to score a brace and help Louisville come back from a 2-0 deficit, both her goals assisted by McDonald. The duo should give the team confidence that their attack is going to be okay after trading star forward Cece Kizer to Kansas City so she could play in her hometown.

10. NJ/NY Gotham FC (3-4-0) -2

Sunday saw the second loss in a row for Gotham FC, and the second straight loss to the Wave in which NJ/NY conceded three or more goals. They put up a reasonable fight and forced a lot of turnovers, but they still need to address the problem they’ve been having in the midfield when it comes to creating chances for the forwards, and, in general, getting shots on goal, an area in which they’re last in the league. Though Gotham outshot the Wave 13-12 and held over 55 percent of the possession, San Diego more than doubled their shots on goal, 7-3.

9. North Carolina Courage (2-4-1) -2

With just seven games played, the Courage are not yet proving themselves to be a playoff team. They can score goals, but defensively they’ve recorded just one shutout and 12 goals against. There is, however, a lot to be said about their mental strength with how they were able to come back from a 4-1 deficit to lose only 4-3 against the Dash, especially after three of Houston’s goals were scored in a 10-minute span. While they shouldn’t have let those four goals happen in the first place, it was more about what the Dash did than what the Courage didn’t. North Carolina had a bit of a slump at the beginning of the second half, like teams sometimes do, and Houston pounced on that, which most clubs aren’t often able to execute to the extent in which they did.

8. Washington Spirit (1-3-6) +2

The Spirit had the obviously stronger performance over Racing Louisville in a 2-2 draw on Friday. Washington held strong possession and made good service to their high numbers in the box before letting Racing gain more control in the second half. After two months in which the Spirit played a condensed schedule that included more games than every team, Washington finally — FINALLY — can catch a breather. Well, some of them, at least. Seven are on international duty.

7. Kansas City Current (2-4-3) +2

The Current had to battle hard to come out with a 2-2 draw against the dominant Chicago Red Stars. Giving up a lead and a penalty kick six minutes later, new addition Cece Kizer, from a trade with Racing Louisville, was the energy Kansas City needed when she took on a player down the flank and finished the game-tying goal to help extend the Current’s unbeaten streak to four games. According to head coach Matt Potter, the team did everything that was asked of them — a small but important step as they continue to find their stride this season. In two games with the club, Kizer is already making a noticeable impact, and the Current will likely only get stronger as they adjust to her presence.

6. Angel City FC (4-4-1) —

With an even split of four wins and four losses, Angel City is walking a fine line with their higher position in the power rankings. What’s good is they can keep up with the league’s top teams, like they did in the second half of a 1-0 loss to the OL Reign on Saturday. What’s not good is their inconsistent results have made it difficult to be confident they can hold a spot in the top half of the standings. They’ve only scored three goals in the last month, and their overall goal differential of minus-2 doesn’t help their case.

5. OL Reign (4-2-3) —

Will the OL Reign have a breakthrough? That remains the big question for the quality team that has been fairly quiet through the first part of the season. They’ve had just four goals in seven games and have never scored more than once in a game during that span. But at least scoring is their only problem. They dominated the first half of their 1-0 win over Angel City after putting on lots of high pressure. Star goalscorer Kim Little and Tobin Heath have yet to officially join the squad, but when they do, it’s safe to expect the Reign to only get stronger. And, announced this week is newly-signed Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Huitema also stepping into the forward line. 

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4. Houston Dash (4-2-3) —

The Dash like to keep their fans guessing with drastically different score lines every game. This past week was no different when they overtook the North Carolina Courage in a thrilling 4-3 victory, redeeming themselves from a 4-0 loss to the Thorns on June 12. Other than that recent loss to Portland, the Dash have proven a strong ability this season to quickly adjust to the way their opponents are playing and are particularly dangerous on the counterattack. When they have momentum they’ll go wild and score three goals in a 10-minute span, like they did against the Courage on Sunday. As mentioned, no one knows what their next move is, and that’s what makes them one of the most dangerous teams in the league right now.

3. Chicago Red Stars (4-1-4) -2

Chicago’s drop in the power rankings has nothing to do with their performance on the weekend and everything to do with the Thorns and Wave simply getting better results. Mal Pugh is, yet again, a force. She notched a goal and an assist on the weekend, bringing her goal count to six and giving the Red Stars more reason to worry about how they’ll match their current dominance without their star forward during the international break. The team hasn’t lost a match with Pugh on the field. But the success they found in Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Kansas City Current was largely thanks to defense. Even with steady defense alone, they should make it through the international break without throwing away how far they’ve come as a team since the Challenge Cup. A lot of credit for their progress goes to the young players, who get better with every game and could step up big when needed.

2. San Diego Wave FC (5-2-3) +1

It’s a good thing the Wave excel at capitalizing on their chances. Their possession against Gotham FC on Sunday wasn’t the tidiest, yet they still managed a 3-0 win. Two of those goals came from Alex Morgan. She now has 11 of the team’s season total of 16. Similar to the problem the Red Stars will have with the absence of Pugh, it remains unclear who will be able to step up big when Morgan’s at the Concacaf championships for two weeks in July. But there is certainly a lot to look forward to in giving players like Amirah Ali more time on the field to show the league what they can do.

1. Portland Thorns FC (4-1-4) +1

It’s simple: After a 6-0 win against the Orlando Pride, there’s no reason to keep the Thorns from moving into first this week. They’re on a five-game unbeaten streak, with multiple goals in each of those matches, suggesting they’ve solved their problem with finishing that they had earlier in the season. They lead the league in goals with 21 and have the best goal differential at 14. Dominance.

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

The NWSL is heading into its final week of action before an international break during the last week of June.

In Week 8, some teams are beginning to find a rhythm and others are still figuring things out. While top playoff contenders are in the early stages of making their case, match results remain unpredictable and, as always in the NWSL, anything can happen.

Below are this week’s power rankings, determined by teams’ recent performances and their cumulative results so far this season. (Click here for the last edition of the power rankings.)

12. Orlando Pride (2-4-2) -2

The Pride score a lot of goals (nine). They also allow a lot of goals (18). Orlando has work to do in shutting down dangerous attackers and coming into the first half of games with higher energy. Too often the Pride are playing catch-up, and in a league as competitive as the NWSL, that’s not a good habit to get into.

11. Racing Louisville FC (2-4-2) -4

For some time, it looked like Racing Louisville might be able to work their way up the standings throughout the season. They’ll still have that chance considering that a lot of the goals they’ve given up recently were the result of small mistakes in the box. After losses to the Kansas City Current and North Carolina Courage, Louisville has fallen and joined the Pride, Current and Spirit with eight points this season. Head coach Kim Björkegren will be tasked with implementing a better strategy when the team’s high press isn’t working. Playing forward Ebony Salmon more often could help.

10. Washington Spirit (1-3-5) -6

Sitting quietly in eighth place with eight points, the Spirit are coming off two losses and three draws in recent weeks. They haven’t won since their regular season opener. At least, most of their results since then have been draws and not losses, as the Spirit have logged the most ties (five) of any team in the league. They’ve dealt with injuries and the most compact schedule, having played five games in the span of two and a half weeks. Once they get healthier and back on a more normal schedule, Washington has the tools to rebound. One sign pointing in that direction is that the Spirit have registered the most shots in the NWSL this season at 96.

9. Kansas City Current (2-4-2) +3

A heavily talented squad featuring Elyse Bennett, Kristen Hamilton and Desiree Scott, the Current have a lot of potential and have been proving it recently, holding first-place San Diego to a 2-2 draw and defeating Racing Louisville 1-0. Forward Cece Kizer, acquired in a trade with Racing Louisville, might be just the game-changer Kansas City needs in close matches. She made an immediate difference in the team’s 1-0 win over Gotham on Saturday.

8. NJ/NY Gotham FC (3-3-0) +3

Two wins and two goals in these last three weeks give Gotham a little bit of hope, especially since their 1-0 loss to the Current could have easily been a tie as they registered four dangerous shots on goal. To turn their better play into wins, the midfielders and forwards will have to level up. Currently, Gotham is one of the worst teams in the league at creating scoring chances.

7. North Carolina Courage (2-3-1) -1

The Courage’s No. 7 ranking might be the most controversial part of this list. While they’re at the bottom of the NWSL standings, they’ve played only six games. Catching up in points won’t be a problem if they keep up their current pace, notching two wins and a draw during the most recent stretch. Since starting the season with three losses, North Carolina has rebounded from its mid-May COVID-19 issues and star forward Kerolin has returned for the first time since the season opener. And when Kerolin is on the field and the Courage’s foot is on the gas, the 2022 Challenge Cup champions are as dangerous as any team in the league.

6. Angel City FC (4-3-1) -1

Angel City has fallen into a bit of a rough patch, recording two losses, a draw and a win in the past three weeks. They’ve now lost Christen Press, who’s been a force in creating chances, for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. It’s up to other stars like Jun Endo, Simone Charley and Savannah McCaskill to lead the team’s attack. Angel City is more than capable of meeting the challenge, but the remaining players will have to double their shots on goal to get anywhere close to Press’ 10 this season.

5. OL Reign (2-2-4) -2

The Reign just can’t seem to score. They have some of the league’s best creative playmakers in the attacking third, and although they’re second in the league with 93 shots and 42 shots on goal, they have only six goals to show for it — the second-worst mark in the NWSL. Otherwise, the squad has weapons up and down the park and will be even more dangerous when recent signings — USWNT star Tobin Heath and Kim Little, once the league’s leading goal scorer — join them on the pitch.

4. Houston Dash (3-2-3) +5

With a draw, a 5-0 win, another draw and a 4-0 loss, the Dash have been to the highest of highs, the lowest of lows and everywhere in between in the last couple of weeks. They’ve gotten the job done so far by capitalizing on the counterattack. In the 4-0 loss to the Thorns, an early own goal quickly derailed their game plan. More than half their goals conceded across eight matches came in that game, a performance that was out of character and shouldn’t define their otherwise dominant season so far.

3. San Diego Wave FC (4-2-3) -2

Dominant at the beginning of the season, the Wave now haven’t won a game since May 22. Their 2-2 draw with the Portland Thorns last Wednesday was nearly a 3-2 victory, but a ball that appeared to cross Portland’s goal line on the broadcast was not seen by the referees. Regardless, the Wave’s loss to the Reign and draw with the 10th-place Current have them ranked lower than the Thorns in these power rankings.

2. Portland Thorns (3-1-4) —

Following a 2-0 loss to the Houston Dash, the Thorns woke up to record two draws and two (very dominant) shutout wins, most recently getting vengeance on the Dash with a 4-0 victory. Portland would seem to create more chances by getting numbers get up the field to support an often isolated Sophia Smith, but there’s also an advantage in having an attacker so fast that no one can catch them. Even scarier for their opponents, the Thorns are still in the process of realizing their full potential.

1. Chicago Red Stars (4-1-3) +7

Making the biggest jump in these power rankings, the Red Stars are starting to look like they could be finals contenders. Having lost just once to the first-place Wave, the club appears to be getting stronger every week. After notching their first shutout of the season in a 1-0 win over OL Reign on June 4, the Red Stars proceeded to go on a three-game shutout streak. They are one of the best teams at creating dangerous chances, and they are able to capitalize on them with the highest shot conversion rate in the league at 11.3 percent.

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

In the top left corner of the CBS Sports Network channel last Wednesday night, the score was 1-0 for the Portland Thorns in front of a packed stadium in San Diego on Pride Night.

In the 46th minute, Canadian national team star and Thorns captain Christine Sinclair brought a lobbed ball down to her feet at the top of the Wave’s 6-yard box and blasted it past Canadian goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan to double Portland’s score.

The thrilling play resulted in Sinclair’s 58th goal, making her the NWSL’s second all-time leading goal scorer in her 150th appearance. Previously, she was tied with U.S. national team forward Lynn Williams at 57.

The best part was that Canadians were able to see the milestone unfold in real time, because just over two weeks ago, most wouldn’t have been able to.

To watch live NWSL games, Canadians and other international viewers use Twitch. Previously, Canadians were geo-blocked from the platform during CBSSN matches. The expectation was that they watch on CBSSN, an American pay channel that most Canadian viewers can only access with a VPN connection, which can get detected and therefore shut down. Other international viewers have never been blocked from Twitch during CBSSN games.

But last Wednesday, for the second time in two weeks, Canadians could watch the CBSSN match on Twitch. The Washington Spirit vs. Orlando Pride match on May 27 was the first time ever that Canadians had access to Twitch for an NWSL game on CBSSN.

The resolution comes just over a month after first-year NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman took office on April 20.

“Whereas it seemed always before it was an afterthought, it appears that it’s been an issue that was elevated enough to bring about a resolution,” said Ontario’s Raquel Kerr, the mother of Spirit goalkeeper Devon Kerr. “That is so positive that what the old administration could not resolve, nor even address, has been remedied.”

Before it was revealed that Canadians would obtain better access to NWSL broadcasts, Just Women’s Sports spoke with Canadian viewers at the beginning of May about their experiences with Twitch.

Vanessa Gilles’ mother, Josie Castelli-Gilles of Ottawa, Ont., didn’t miss a beat when asked about her viewing experience in Canada.

“Oh god, with the Twitch, eh?” she said. “AGH!”

With various NWSL channels on Twitch, games on CBSSN were always shown on Channel 3 to international viewers outside of Canada. Before May 27, the channel was set up specifically to create a geo-block for CBSSN games in Canada, and then remained geo-blocked even for games that weren’t televised. CBS and the NWSL did not respond to multiple requests for comment about why this was the case.

Canada’s Vanessa Gilles went undrafted out of college and took the scenic route to the NWSL. On March 19, the Angel City FC defender played in her first NWSL game. Seeing that it was geo-blocked on Twitch, Gilles’ parents scrambled through their Twitter timeline as kickoff began, determined to watch their daughter and the 2022 expansion team make their league debuts.

“Oh, it’s terrible,” Castelli-Gilles said at the time. “It is terrible.”

Castelli-Gilles’ in-laws in France, meanwhile, were able watch every single one of Gilles’ games.

Nichelle Prince’s mother, Robin, who lives in Ajax, Ont., said she started getting streams ready an hour before kickoff because she couldn’t predict whether Twitch would work and where they would be able to find the game.

Robin missed Nichelle’s first goal of the season in the Houston Dash’s 2-1 win over Racing Louisville FC in their last match of the Challenge Cup because the game was on CBSSN. Raquel Kerr subscribed to CBSSN this year just to be able to watch the 11 matches scheduled on that channel and watch Devon play for the Spirit.

“I was just so tired of not being able to [watch],” she said, also at the beginning of May. “It was hit or miss.”

It was still hit or miss with the VPN viewers needed for CBSSN, which could get shut down. That’s what happened to Raquel during the Spirit’s thrilling shootout win over OL Reign in the Challenge Cup semifinal. She had to find a grainy YouTube feed to watch instead.

In desperate situations, Canadians turned to SpankysPlace. The Twitch channel became familiar ever since it streamed Angel City and San Diego Wave FC’s NWSL debut. Castelli-Gilles ended up watching Vanessa’s first-ever NWSL match after she discovered the channel on Twitter in her last-minute hunt for streams.

Spankysplace is run by Richard Welsh, also known as Spanky. During games, he can be seen in a small screen in the top corner of the stream, eating his Cool Ranch Doritos, adding humorous commentary and occasionally leaving the room to let out his two Miniature Yorkshire Terriers.

“The broadcast was great,” Castelli-Gilles laughed. “He’s one of my favorites on Twitch.”

A Gotham FC fan from Pennsylvania, Welsh became interested in the NWSL after hearing other soccer broadcasts mention the league. Instead of speaking anonymously to avoid risk of his channel getting banned, Welsh said he has other priorities.

“I try to go by the law,” he said. “Everybody tries to go by the law, but if everybody wants to watch the soccer game and we’re trying to grow the NWSL, then I’ll take the chance to get a ban. And if it costs me court or jail time, I’m up for it I guess.”

As the NWSL and CBS begin to improve broadcast accessibility for Canadians, they’ve started including Radio-Canada Sports in their social media promotion. The broadcast platform with French-only commentary was previously discovered only by viewers who went digging into the depths of the internet for streams when they were geo-blocked from Twitch. Now, the league advertises it for viewers who might not yet know it’s an option.

“We should be the leaders in this,” Robin said in May, noting that North America is at the forefront of women’s soccer after the U.S. dominated the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and Canada won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics last summer. “You have to tell people, ‘Listen, this game is going to be on CBS,’ or ‘This is what’s happening on this day. Sign up, subscribe.’ Whatever you need to do to watch those games.’”

Canadian viewers have made their concerns clear over the past couple of months, and the league, under new leadership this season, seems to be listening.

“It paints a picture that this swift action on matters of importance will be a transferable process to other matters that will see the league develop and evolve exponentially,” Raquel said on Thursday. “[It’s] exciting.”

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

When U.S. Soccer announced its 23-player U.S. women’s national team roster for the upcoming Concacaf championship in July, one name that didn’t appear on the list seemed to grab all the attention.

Christen Press hasn’t played for the USWNT since the Tokyo Olympics last summer, when she scored a goal in the team’s bronze medal-winning campaign. Since then, she’s headlined Angel City FC in the club’s debut NWSL season, scoring two goals (and forcing an own goal) in 686 minutes and eight starts. The forward has shown an ability to take on multiple defenders and create plays out of nothing, helping Angel City start the season near the top of the NWSL standings.

Press’ status for World Cup Qualifying was in question after she went down with a knee injury in Angel City’s win over Racing Louisville FC on Saturday. Amid the speculation that Press was left off the roster because of the injury, which ACFC confirmed Monday as a season-ending torn ACL, U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski set the record straight on Monday afternoon.

“Christen Press was not on the roster even before the injury,” Andonovski told reporters. “We’re very sorry for her injury and don’t have confirming information on the extension or the significance of the injury. We just hope that it is not too serious.”

Andonovski later said that Press’ top priority for inclusion on future USWNT rosters is good health. Then, it comes down to how she compares to other forwards on the team’s stacked depth chart. Before the Olympics last summer, Press had been on a tear with the USWNT, heavily contributing to the team’s goal-scoring opportunities. The two-time World Cup champion is ninth on the team’s all-time scoring list, with 64 goals in 155 caps since 2013.

“I think that she is performing well, but it’s not just her,” Andonovski said. “For Christen to be back on the field, it’s not just to do well or perform well in her club environment. It’s also outperform the players that she’s competing against … like Mal Pugh and Sophia Smith and Alex Morgan, Ashley Hatch, Trinity Rodman. It’s not easy to be a forward in the United States right now. Obviously it’s great, but it’s not easy because the competition just got bigger and bigger.”

Since Catarina Macario went down with a torn ACL, there was bound to be some flexibility on the USWNT’s frontline. Many speculated that Press would get the nod alongside Alex Morgan, the NWSL’s current leading scorer, because of their recent form with their club teams.

Instead, rejoining Morgan on the roster is Megan Rapinoe, who hasn’t appeared for the U.S. since the Tokyo Olympics. The OL Reign forward has played just 154 minutes in four of the team’s eight matches. After scoring two goals at the Olympics, she has yet to start or score a goal for the Reign this season.

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Megan Rapinoe is 10th on the USWNT's all-time scoring list. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

At the end of last season, Andonovski had a conversation with Rapinoe, in which he walked her through his process for evaluating younger talent for the future of the national team. He told Rapinoe that if she were still in good form by this point, she would be named to the Concacaf squad.

The 36-year-old will play the same position as Mallory Pugh at outside forward, though Pugh will keep the starting spot for now.

“You have to do something absolutely incredible, and I can’t see it right now, someone getting the starting spot from Mallory in these qualifiers,” Andonovski said.

Rapinoe has made it clear that she is up for the challenge of playing a behind-the-scenes role and using her experience to guide the younger players. One of the most decorated players in USWNT history, Rapinoe has scored 62 goals, won two World Cup titles and been named the 2019 Best FIFA Women’s Player of the Year during her 16-year career.

“She will do anything possible to push Mal to be even better, so to push her in her own way to be even better but also to be there for Mal when the tough time comes,” Andonovski said. “We all know every player at a certain time in a tournament will go through adversity, every team will go through adversity in a tournament time. Regardless of what it is, I think that Megan is going to be there for Mal, she’s going to be there for Soph [Smith] to help them. When we talked, we said her job is to enhance their performance by 20 percent, and that’s where we believe she’s going to be valuable.”

The young forwards will also benefit from playing alongside Morgan, who will make her first appearance at national team camp since September.

“The thing with Alex is she falls in the group with Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn, who are experienced players who have gone through some tough times — but some great times as well — who knows how to win and how to win under tough circumstances, how to go through adversity,” Andonovski said.

The USWNT will play two tune-up games against Colombia, in Colorado on June 25 and in Utah on June 28, before traveling to Mexico for the Concacaf World Cup Qualifying tournament starting July 4.

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