In a World Cup butterfly effect, Spain’s win against the U.S. women’s national team in an October friendly helped set the stage for its 2023 title.

La Roja bested the USWNT, 2-0, in an international friendly. In retrospect, the match provided a glimpse of each team’s World Cup trajectory. For Spain, the dispute between its players and its national federation had just begun, but the team played to its first-ever victory over the U.S. in spite of the tumult. For the U.S., head coach Vlatko Andonovski’s system sputtered to a disappointing finish.

The result also had a tangible impact on Spain’s World Cup path. La Roja jumped from No. 8 in the world to No. 6 after the October international window, becoming one of six seeded teams for the tournament.

By sneaking into the top tier of World Cup seeding, Spain avoided the other top seeds — the USWNT, Sweden, Germany, England or France — in its group. While Spain fell back to No. 7 in the ranking immediately following the World Cup draw in October, the brief stint in sixth place did the trick.

Spain ended up in Group C with Japan, Costa Rica and Zambia. Japan won the group, courtesy of a 4-0 win against Spain to close out the group stage, but runner-up Spain went on to win the World Cup title. La Roja’s path to the title included wins over Switzerland, Netherlands and Sweden, and then finally a 1-0 win over England in the championship match.

Jill Ellis, who coached the U.S. women’s national to the 2015 and 2019 World Cup titles, delivered the championship trophy to 2023 winner Spain after Sunday’s final.

The USWNT fell well short in its quest for a three-peat, suffering its earliest-ever World Cup exit with a shootout loss to Sweden in the Round of 16. Japan’s elimination in the following round ensured that a first-time champion would be crowned at the 2023 tournament.

Before 2023, the USWNT had won four titles, Germany had won two, and Japan and Norway had won one each. Either the USWNT or Germany had appeared in all eight of the previous championship matches.

“You’re getting two teams that have never been in this moment before. It’s going to be an extraordinary evening,” Ellis said ahead of the final. “I just can’t wait to watch the images back in Spain and in England, of what their home countries are doing and how they’re celebrating and how they’re watching – I always find that so inspiring.”

In the aftermath of the USWNT’s exit from the World Cup, Ellis’ successor Vlatko Andonovski stepped down as head coach, kicking off a search for the next leader of what has been the premier senior women’s national program. The turnover at the top of the USWNT comes as Spain and England underlined the new reality of the women’s game: The world has caught up with the U.S.

Spain’s World Cup quarterfinal win against the Netherlands lasted 120 minutes. Spain’s star midfielder Alexia Putellas played 21 of them.

The two-time reigning Ballon d’Or winner, who is still working her way back to fitness from an ACL injury sustained last July, has averaged just 35 minutes across six matches at the 2023 World Cup. The 29-year-old received her first start of the knockout stage in Tuesday’s 2-1 semifinal win against Sweden.

While Putellas had started two matches in the group stage, she had not started either of the first two knockout matches. Ahead of the semifinal, Spain head coach Jorge Vilda did not reveal how much she would play, though he ended up including her in his starting XI.

“We are very happy with the level Alexia has reached. Since the first day of training we have noticed this,” Vilda said. “It is true that she is in the process of a recovery of nine or 10 months. We’ve adapted… and Alexia is ready for everything.”

She played for 56 minutes before being subbed off in favor of Salma Paralluelo, who ended up scoring the first goal of the match. But Putellas appeared unhappy after the substitution, refusing handshakes from the coaching staff as she walked to the bench.

After tearing her ACL days before the start of the Euros in July 2022, Putellas made her comeback in April with FC Barcelona. But she has not played a full 90 minutes since her return for club or country.

She played 61 minutes and 57 minutes in two pre-World Cup friendlies against Panama and Denmark, respectively. During the World Cup, she played 61 minutes in a 4-0 loss to Japan to close out the group stage, but she played just 35 minutes total in Spain’s next two matches before her workload increased again in the semifinal. She has one assist but no goals so far in the tournament.

“It’s hard, especially because of the media pressure she is under,” teammate Irene Paredes said before the tournament. “It’s complicated to get back to her best and everything takes time. We have to give her that.”

Even with a limited Putellas, Spain leads all World Cup teams with 17 goals so far, including three each from Aitana Bonmati, Alba Redondo and Jenni Hermoso. Bonmati, in particular, has emerged as a leader in the midfield for Spain in the absence of Putellas, her Barcelona teammate, from the starting lineup.

The LPGA Tour is closing out the final major of the 2023 season with a bang.

The AIG Women’s Open, which teed off Thursday at the Walton Heath Old Course in Surrey, England, increased its purse for 2023 to $9 million — a 23% increase from 2022. In doing so, the LPGA Tour’s total prize fund for 2023 reached a record $108 million — a 15% increase from 2022.

The other four women’s golf majors have seen similar increases to their prize money in the last several years:

  • Chevron Championship
    • 2021: $3 million
    • 2022: $5 million
    • 2023: $5.1 million
  • KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
    • 2021: $4.5 million
    • 2022: $9 million
    • 2023: $10 million
  • U.S. Women’s Open
    • 2021: $5.5 million
    • 2022: $10 million
    • 2023: $11 million
  • Amundi Evian Championship
    • 2021: $4.5 million
    • 2022: $6.5 million
    • 2023: $6.5 million
  • AIG Women’s Open
    • 2021: $5.8 million
    • 2022: $7.3 million
    • 2023: $9 million

Viewership numbers also have set records in 2023, with July bringing the highest average monthly viewership ever for the LPGA Tour at more than 600,000. More than one million viewers tuned in for the third and final rounds of the U.S. Women’s Open, plus the final round of the Dana Open.

In the AIG Women’s Open, Ally Ewing, a 30-year-old from the United States, leads the field at 10-under par in the second round.

AIG Women’s Open: How to watch

  • Saturday, Aug. 12: Third round
    • 7 a.m.-2 p.m. ET — USA Network
  • Sunday, Aug. 13: Final round 
    • 7 a.m.-12 p.m. ET — USA Network
    • 12-2 p.m. ET — NBC and Peacock

After missing much of the last two seasons for UConn basketball, a “bigger, stronger” Paige Bueckers is ready to return to the court. And her presence will change “everything” for the Huskies, coach Geno Auriemma said Friday.

The 2021 National Player of the Year missed 19 games of the 2021-22 season with a knee injury, then missed the entire 2022-23 season with an ACL injury. Just this Wednesday, 369 days after her ACL tear, she announced herself “all clear and ready for takeoff.”

Even without Bueckers, UConn finished with a 31-6 record. But the injury-riddled Huskies failed to reach the Final Four for the first time since 2007 with their Sweet 16 exit from the NCAA tournament.

“Having Paige back is like a breath of fresh air like everything changes in the gym,” Auriemma said Friday during Bueckers’ first full-contact practice since her ACL injury. “You know, the minute she walks on the court, everything changes and you can see it in their faces.”

UConn will play four exhibition games in Europe next week. Bueckers’ comfort level over the next few days of practice will determine if, and how much, she will play during the international trip, Auriemma said. The head coach is trying to convince his star point guard not to push herself too hard, especially just after her return, CT Insider’s Maggie Vanoni reported Friday.

Still, he is impressed by Bueckers’ development. She spent last season rehabbing her injury and rebuilding her strength, and Auriemma can see that on the court.

“Paige is bigger, stronger. Paige doesn’t look like (the) skinny little freshmen that came in here three years ago,” Auriemma said. “She looks like a college player now.”

And if Bueckers could take the college basketball world by storm as a “skinny little freshman” in the 2020-21 season, what can she do as a redshirt junior in the 2023-24 season? The Huskies — and their opponents — will soon find out.

Caitlin Clark is known for her smooth-as-butter 3-point shots. So it is only fitting that the Iowa basketball star is being honored with a life-size butter sculpture at the Iowa State Fair.

Clark’s sculpture will be on display from Aug. 10-20 at the annual event, which draws upwards of one million visitors each year. The 21-year-old guard swept the national player of the year awards for the 2022-23 season, in which she led the Hawkeyes to the national championship game and became the first Division I women’s basketball player to record more than 1,000 points and 300 assists in a single season.

She is one of three legendary Iowa athletes honored with a butter likeness at the state fair, alongside Kurt Warner, a former Northern Iowa football star turned NFL Hall of Fame, and Jack Trice, who made history in the 1920s as Iowa State’s first Black athlete.

The trio will appear at the Agriculture Building with the famed Butter Cow, which is sculpted each year from 600 pounds of butter. Much of the butter used in the sculptures will be recycled for future sculptures and can be reused for up to 10 years.

Twin sisters Grace and Hannah Pratt are serving as apprentices to their mother Sarah Pratt, the head sculptor for state fair, and helped craft the statues in a 40-degree cooler.

“The thing I love about Hannah and Grace is they have that drive,” Sarah Pratt told the Des Moines Register. “They have this amazing internal force that makes the creative process just part of their souls, which is so invigorating.”

Creativity and drive? Sounds like Clark.

The U.S. women’s national team’s World Cup elimination still “hurts, and it will for a while,” Alex Morgan wrote Thursday in an Instagram caption. But the 34-year-old striker expects her squad to face its failure and to come back stronger.

In the immediate aftermath of the USWNT’s shootout loss to Sweden in the Round of 16, the 34-year-old striker had not committed to her future with the national team. But she later told ESPN that she plans to stick around.

“I’m not planning to hang up my boots anytime soon right now,” Morgan said. “So just one day at a time.”

Even with Morgan’s stated intention to return, the U.S. leaves the World Cup in a state of flux. With head coach Vlatko Andonovski facing an uncertain future, veteran stars Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz retiring and the 2024 Olympics just around the corner, the team could look very different at the Paris Games.

Whether Morgan will fit into the new plans likely depends on the head coach heading into the next World Cup cycle. The veteran star did not fit well into Andonovski’s system, which showed in her results in Australia and New Zealand — no goals and one assist for Morgan, and just four goals in four games for the USWNT as a whole.

In her Instagram post Thursday, Morgan took ownership of the disappointing World Cup performance, but she also expressed pride in her team and her optimism for the future.

“I’m so proud of the effort, the fight, and belief of this group,” she wrote. “I stand by each and every one of these players and reaffirm that we poured everything into this World Cup. This game shows you the highest of highs and lowest of lows. It can be brutal but this wound will not only heal but will serve as a defining moment in the history of USWNT — one we will grow and be stronger for.”

Noting that she will never take the opportunity to play on the national team “for granted,” Morgan seems ready to move forward with the USWNT.

“To carry scars is not a sign of weakness but a reminder that you fell and found a way to get back up,” she wrote. “There is a lot of work to do and I don’t expect it to be easy but nothing worth fighting for ever is.”

Netherlands forward Lineth Beerensteyn celebrated the U.S. women’s national team’s exit from the 2023 World Cup. After the Dutch squad’s elimination, former USWNT forward Sydney Leroux returned the favor.

Ahead of her team’s quarterfinal match against Spain, Beerensteyn chided the USWNT for its overconfidence entering the World Cup. When she heard about the two-time defending champions’ shootout loss to Sweden in the Round of 16, she had one thought: “Yes! Bye!”

“From the start of this tournament, they had really big mouths, they were talking already about the final,” Beerensteyn said. “I was just thinking, you first have to show it on the pitch before you’re talking.”

After the Netherlands’ 2-1 loss to Spain in the quarterfinal round, Leroux directed a similar message to the Dutch team.

“One thing we’ve learned is wait to talk shit until after you’re on the podium with a gold medal because now… you’re bye too,” said Leroux, who won the 2015 World Cup as a member of the USWNT.

The USWNT played the Netherlands to a 1-1 draw in the group stage at this World Cup, and Netherlands went on to win Group E. The teams also had faced off at the previous two major tournaments, with the U.S. beating the Dutch in the 2021 Olympic quarterfinals and in the 2019 World Cup final.

Beerensteyn insisted that she maintains “a lot of respect” for the USWNT players.

“But now they’re out of the tournament, and for me, it’s a relief,” she said. “For them, and it’s something they will have to take with them in the future: Don’t start to talk about something that is far away. I hope they will learn from that.”

Spain advances to the semifinals with its win over the Netherlands. La Roja will face Sweden at 4 a.m. ET Tuesday with a spot in the World Cup championship match on the line.

The Dallas Wings’ loss Sunday to the Chicago Sky featured two ejections and a fight during a chippy WNBA weekend, one which has resulted in one suspension and seven fines for players.

Wings star Arike Ogunbowale, one of the players ejected Sunday, gave voice afterward to a question that has echoed across the league this season: What is going on with the referees?

Ogunbowale received her second ejection of the season for making unnecessary contact with an official with 52 seconds left in the game. The 26-year-old guard’s shoulder knocked against the referee’s shoulder, which led to the technical foul and ejection.

“[The referee] was looking for something. I just watched it back a million times,” Ogunbowale said after the game. “I don’t know what’s going on this year with the refs but that was the worst call I’ve ever seen in my life.”

While Ogunbowale avoided a suspension, she did receive a fine for her contact with the official and for her postgame comments. Sky forward Ruthy Hebard received a one-game suspension and a fine for leaving the bench area during an on-court altercation earlier in the game, and her teammate Courtney Williams received a fine for doing the same.

The WNBA also handed out punishments for an altercation during Sunday’s game between the Los Angeles Sparks and Washington Mystics. Los Angeles’ Layshia Clarendon and Washington’s Ariel Atkins, Brittney Sykes and Shakira Austin all received fines.

Mystics players Elena Delle Donne and Natasha Cloud both have expressed frustration with WNBA officiating this season. In May, Delle Donne criticized the referees for treating her “like a rookie with calls.” In July, Cloud had even harsher words for the referees.

“I don’t care what pipeline refs we have coming through. I don’t care,” she said. “We have to do our job every single night. You need to do yours. This is bull—t. This is f–king bull–t.”

In June, Atlanta Dream coach Tanisha Wright questioned the officiating in one of her team’s games, particularly a flagrant-one call on New York Liberty guard Stefanie Dolson that Wright believes warranted a flagrant-two and an ejection.

“We’re expected to play at a high level every single night… The officials need to be able to rise to that same occasion. They should be held to that same standard,” Wright said. “They’re going to fine me for this, but I’m challenging them to raise their standards… Officiating needs to get better, period.”

Also in June, Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd — after scoring a career-high 41 points — took time to call out officiating issues.

“Protect the players,” Loyd said. “It’s not just us. Every single team has said something about the refs. That tells you that something is going wrong in that department. You expect high-level players, we expect high-level refs. We’re not getting that every single night.”

When Megan Rapinoe soared her penalty kick over the crossbar in the U.S. women’s national team’s World Cup elimination match Sunday against Sweden, her mouth twisted in a smile.

With the expression, the 38-year-old was not making light of the moment but ruing it. While the three more shootout rounds followed, the wayward shot ended up as the last of Rapinoe’s career, as the USWNT lost 5-4 on penalties to Sweden in the Round of 16.

“I mean, this is like a sick joke,” she said of the ending to her illustrious career. “For me personally, I’m just like, this is a dark comedy. I missed a penalty.”

Her miss, while not the final one for the USWNT, provided perhaps the cruelest twist of fate in the shootout. The USWNT had scored on its first three attempts — from Andi Sullivan, Lindsey Horan and Kristie Mewis — but Sweden missed its third, handing the ball to Rapinoe with a 3-2 advantage. But Rapinoe missed, and then so did Sophia Smith, and the first five penalty rounds ended in a 3-3 tie.

In the 2019 World Cup final, Rapinoe’s penalty kick in the 61st minute provided the decisive goal in the USWNT’s 2-0 win against the Netherlands. But in 2023, her miss helped seal the fate of the two-time defending champions.

“This is the balance to the beautiful side of the game,” she said. “I think it can be cruel.”

Rapinoe had announced her announced her retirement prior to her fourth career World Cup. She won the 2015 and 2019 titles with the USWNT, as well as the 2012 Olympic gold medal, the 2019 Ballon d’Or trophy and 63 international goals. And even in the immediate aftermath of the loss to Sweden, she could put the moment in perspective.

“I still just feel really grateful and joyful. And I know it’s the end and that’s sad,” she said, before emphasizing “just how much I’ve loved playing for this team and playing for this country. It’s been an honor.”