On Jan. 12, Lynn Williams was in camp with the U.S. women’s national team, an ocean away from the NWSL draft taking place in Philadelphia. Just two hours before she became the centerpiece of a trade from the Kansas City Current, she found out she might be on the move. She then learned she was on her way to Gotham FC in real time, hearing the announcement along with the public.

“It was a shock, it wasn’t on my radar,” she told the media in an introductory press conference with Gotham on Tuesday. “I’m in New Zealand at my first camp, and it just kind of threw me for a second.”

Williams saw her first game minutes in almost a year with the national team in January, following a long road back to playing after getting reconstructive surgery on her hamstring. She looked like her old self in limited minutes, notching a goal and an assist off the bench in two games against New Zealand.

Then she turned her attention to her new club situation at home.

“In this world and in soccer, you have to be able to compartmentalize and that’s exactly what I did at the time,” Williams said. “I was with the national team, so I focused on the national team. And now that that camp is over, I put all my energy into Gotham.”

TRADE 🚨

Gotham FC has traded their 2nd overall pick in the NWSL draft to Kansas City in exchange for forward Lynn Williams. pic.twitter.com/0ZjiApBCyR

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) January 12, 2023

Gotham is in the middle of a strategic rebuild, with a roster full of talent that underachieved in 2022. Despite finishing last in the NWSL standings last season, the club believes in its potential. So much so that the front office made a number of aggressive trades this offseason, including for Williams, a two-time NWSL champion and the 2016 NWSL MVP.

Williams described Gotham’s communication after the trade as “top-notch.” She said the club helped her immensely with the logistics of moving to New Jersey without much time to plan.

“That’s what I think any player would want,” she said. “Soccer is a business, I completely understand that, but there’s definitely a human side to things and Gotham so far has gone above and beyond to not only get Lynn the soccer player, but Lynn the human here as well. And I think that we’re building something really special here.”

The warm welcome is warranted. Williams brings a winning standard — she notes that she’s never missed the NWSL playoffs in her career — and an understanding of the kind of environment necessary to bring out the best of a team on the field. Gotham wants to play a high-press style of soccer, with players winning the ball back quickly and putting opponents on their heels. It’s just the style at which Williams has long excelled.

“I think I will always have an edge to me,” she said when asked whether she has something to prove in 2023. “I think that that’s just how I play, how I have grown up. I think that for my whole career, I’ve always been overseen a bit, and I don’t know if that plays a part in it, but I think I will continue to have that.”

As she joins a team looking for a competitive edge, Williams thinks it’s a perfect fit.

“After the shock, the initial shock wore off, I was able to just take a step back and say, you know what, I actually think this is going to be a good thing,” she said.

With a club career that has taken her from Western New York to North Carolina to Kansas City and now to New Jersey, Williams prides herself on being able to stay even-keeled off the pitch.

“You just have to find something that’s yours that you can keep consistent in your life,” she said. “And for me, that’s stuff that’s outside of soccer. So as long as that’s going well, then you can get comfortable with being uncomfortable in the soccer world.”

In the soccer world, Gotham isn’t shying away from big expectations: The goal is still championship or bust. With the additions of Yazmeen Ryan, Kelley O’Hara and Abby Smith, among others, last year’s basement dwellers believe they’re ready to take the next step and see out the original vision that general manager Yael Averbuch West introduced last offseason.

For Williams, it all begins with taking care of the human element first.

“At the end of the day, you want to be somewhere where a team wants you,” she said. “And I want to be at Gotham because they want me.”

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday that the USWNT will play their last home game on July 16th in the lead-up to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

The 2024 Send-Off Match against Costa Rica will take place at Washington, DC’s Audi Field — home to both the Washington Spirit and DC United — at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 16th. The friendly rounds out a four-game Olympic run-up campaign under incoming head coach Emma Hayes’ side, with the last two set to feature the finalized 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team roster.

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Hayes will appear on the USWNT sideline for the first time this June, helming the team as they embark on a two-game series against Korea Republic hosted by Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado on June 1st followed by Allianz Stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 4th. 

The team is then scheduled to meet a talented Mexico squad on July 13th at Gotham FC’s Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, where the Olympic-bound lineup will attempt to rewrite February’s shocking 2-0 loss to El Tri Femenil in the group stages of this year’s Concacaf W Gold Cup. And while clear roster favorites have emerged from both of this year’s Gold Cup and SheBelives Cup rosters, a spate of recent and recurring injuries means making it to the Olympics is still largely anyone’s game.

Broadcast and streaming channels for the USWNT's final July 16th friendly at Audi Field include TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, and Peacock.

The USA Basketball Women's National Team is still considering Caitlin Clark for a spot on the Paris Olympics squad, says selection committee chair Jennifer Rizzotti. 

On Monday, Rizzotti told the AP that the committee will be evaluating the college phenom’s Olympic prospects by keeping a close eye on her first few weeks of WNBA play with Indiana.

The move is somewhat unconventional. While Clark was invited to participate in the 14-player national team training camp held earlier this month — the last camp before Team USA’s roster drops — she was unable to attend due to it coinciding with Iowa’s trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

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Judging by the immense talent spread throughout the league in what might be their most hyped season to date, competition for a piece of the Olympic pie could be fiercer than ever before.

"You always want to introduce new players into the pool whether it's for now or the future," said Rizzotti. "We stick to our principles of talent, obviously, positional fit, loyalty and experience. It's got to be a combination of an entire body of work. It's still not going to be fair to some people."

Of course, Clark isn’t the first rookie the committee has made exceptions for. Coming off an exceptional college season that saw her averaging 19.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4 assists per game for UConn, Breanna Stewart was tapped to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil less than two weeks after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Seattle Storm. Eight years prior, fellow No. 1 pick Candace Parker punched her ticket to the 2008 Games in Beijing just two weeks after making her first appearance for the L.A. Sparks.

In the lead-up to Paris’ Opening Ceremony on July 26th, USA Basketball Women’s National Team is scheduled to play a pair of exhibition games. They'll first go up against the WNBA's finest at the July 20th WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix before facing Germany in London on July 23rd.

While an official roster announcement date hasn’t yet been issued, players won’t find out if they’ve made this year’s Olympic cut until at least June 1st.

For the first time in history, three different WNBA teams have completely sold out of season ticket plans well before the league's May 14th kick-off.

Call it the Caitlin Clark effect, attribute it to this year’s tenacious rookie class, or look to the skyrocketing visibility of veteran players across the board. But no matter the cause, facts are facts: Tickets to the 2024 WNBA season are selling like never before. 

On Monday, the Dallas Wings became the third team to sell out of season ticket memberships in the league’s 27-year history. The announcement from Arlington came shortly after the Atlanta Dream issued their own season ticket sell-out statement, also on Monday, and almost seven weeks after the back-to-back WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces made headlines by becoming the first-ever WNBA team to sell out their season ticket allotment.   

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According to the Wings, season ticket memberships will fill nearly 40% of the 6,251 seats inside their home arena, College Park Center. The club also said that their overall ticket revenue has ballooned to the tune of 220% this year, spanning not just season tickets but also a 1,200% increase in single ticket sales. There’s currently a waitlist to become a Dallas season ticket holder, a status that comes with extra incentives like playoff presale access and discounts on additional single-game tickets. 

In Atlanta, season tickets aren't the only thing flying off the shelves. The Dream also announced that they broke their own record for single-game ticket sales during a recent limited presale campaign. Sunday was reportedly their most lucrative day, with five different games totally selling out Gateway Center Arena. Individual tickets for all upcoming matchups will hit the market this Thursday at 8 a.m., while a waitlist for season ticket memberships will open up next Tuesday at 10 a.m.

"Excitement around women's sports, particularly basketball, is at an all-time high and nowhere is that felt more than here in Atlanta," Dream president and COO Morgan Shaw Parker said in the team’s statement. "We’ve continued a record-setting growth trajectory over the past three years under new ownership — both on and off the court — and 2024 is shaping up to be our best season yet."

As of Tuesday, season ticket sales revenue for Caitlin Clark’s hotly anticipated Indiana Fever debut haven’t yet been announced by the club. But if these numbers are any indication — not to mention the explosive demand for Fever away games felt by teams around the country — it won’t be long before we see some scale-tipping figures coming out of Indianapolis.

25-year-old American pro golfer Nelly Korda secured her spot in LPGA history on Sunday, notching her fifth-straight title at this weekend's Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas.

Ranked No. 1 in the world by Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2005) as just the third LPGA player to rack up five consecutive tour wins. She is also the third No. 1-ranked player to capture The Chevron Championship victory since the rankings debuted in 2006, accompanied by Lorena Ochoa and Lydia Ko.

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The Florida native shot three-under 69 in Sunday's final, besting Sweden's Maja Stark despite Stark's valiant come-from-behind attempt in the 18th. Korda finished with a four-day total of 13-under 275, celebrating her two-stroke win by cannonballing into Poppie's Pond, much to the crowd's delight. She left The Club at Carlton Woods with $1.2 million from an overall purse of $7.9 million.

It wasn't long ago that the two-time major champion's current winning streak seemed unimaginable. After maintaining her No. 1 position for 29 weeks, Korda underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm in 2022. She returned to the course not long after, but failed to win a single tournament in 2023 before seeing a surge in form during the first four months of 2024. As of today, she hasn't lost a tournament since January.

Korda will attempt a record sixth-straight win at next week's JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, where she'll vie for a cut of the $3.75 million purse.