Mexico women’s national team coach Monica Vergara maintains a tenuous hold on her job after the country’s soccer federation fired its sporting director and national teams director, the federation announced Wednesday.

ESPN initially reported that Vergara had been dismissed alongside general sporting director Gerardo Torrado and men’s U-20 team coach Luis Pérez.

Torrado, Pérez and national teams director Ignacio Hierro have been relieved of their duties, but Vergara’s future will be determined by new leadership, federation president Yon de Luisa said in a press conference.

Vergara was named head coach of the senior national team in January 2021 after stints with Mexico’s youth national teams.

“In the case of Monica Vergara, women’s national team head coach, it will be the new sports department that will evaluate and take decisions accordingly,” said de Luisa, who added that “new members of the sports department” will be announced “in the following days.”

"In the case of Mónica Vergara, #Women's National Team Head Coach, it will be the new Sports Department that will evaluate and take decisions accordingly."

🎙 Yon de Luisa.#FMFporNuestroFútbol

— Mexican National Team (@miseleccionmxEN) July 13, 2022

The dismissals of Torrado and Hierro make space for Mexico’s federation to restructure its women’s program in particular. Women’s teams will move to their own department, and the federation will hire two national team directors — one for the men’s side, another for the women’s side, The Athletic’s Felipe Cárdenas reported.

“These changes are made in order to avoid the results that we had in the past weeks,” de Luisa said.

The moves come after the women’s national team failed to qualify for the 2023 Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympics. Mexico lost all three of its group stage matches this month as hosts of the Concacaf W Championship, which leaves the country on the outside looking in for the premier international tournaments.

“I’m not a person that gives up on things. Evidently, I’m going to be evaluated,” Vergara said following the team’s loss to the USWNT. “If the cycle finishes here, it’s been a spectacular ride.”

Mexico had been viewed as a favorite for one of Concacaf’s four direct spots into next year’s World Cup, which will take place in New Zealand and Australia. Headed into the W Championship, the team had a 10-game undefeated streak under its belt, with 52 goals scored during that time.

The first two group-stage losses knocked Mexico out of contention for one of the direct berths. The team still could have reached an inter-confederation play-in tournament with a third-place finish in four-team Group A, but a 1-0 loss to the USWNT closed the door on Mexico’s World Cup chances.

Vergara took full responsibility for the team’s fourth-place finish, saying she considered it a “personal failure.”

“We must salvage the good things that are developing in our country,” she added. “This women’s soccer project in our country is growing and it’s taking many solid steps.”

The NWSL has made a decision, as the league officially moves forward with its new "High Impact Player" rule despite stated opposition from the players union.

Announced last week, the rule change allows clubs to exceed to the NWSL salary cap by up to $1 million to attract or retain players that meet one of eight qualifying metrics set by the league.

Those metrics include major media award rankings like the 30-player Ballon d'Or shortlist and ESPN FC's Top 50 Football Players, as well as marketing power, top USWNT minutes, and end-of-year NWSL awards.

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Developed with Washington Spirit superstar — and current free agent — Trinity Rodman and her potential contract in mind, the "High Impact Player" rule will not go into effect until July 1st, 2026.

Meanwhile, the NWSLPA has spoken out against the mechanism, proposing instead to up the salary cap by $1 million without league-imposed spending regulations.

"Under federal labor law, changes to compensation under the salary cap are a mandatory subject of bargaining — not a matter of unilateral discretion," the union wrote on Wednesday.

Additionally, per The Athletic, NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke expressed concerns that the rule ties top athlete pay, in part, to player valuations in third party publications — a move that externally defines who a club can consider "high impact."

Led by six Kansas City athletes and five from Gotham FC, just 27 current NWSL players across 10 of the 16 clubs in the expanded 2026 season meet the new HIP qualifying criteria — though all teams could use the mechanism to attract a new athlete to the league.

In a growing global market, the NWSL could be falling into a trap of half-measures, as the union pushes back with league parity potentially on the line.

The Kansas City Current have apparently found a new manager, with ESPN reporting last week that the 2025 NWSL Shield-winners will bring on former MLS head coach Chris Armas to lead the team in 2026.

Armas built his career in the MLS, coaching the New York Red Bulls from 2018 to 2020 before taking over Toronto FC in 2021, then spending the last three years heading up the Colorado Rapids.

The ex-USMNT player also has experience in the women's game at the college level, leading the Division II Adelphi University women's soccer team from 2011 to 2014.

Despite their many victories in 2025, the Current found themselves without a coach after third-year boss Vlatko Andonovski moved into a sporting director role with the club in November.

ESPN reported that Kansas City chose Armas over internal candidates like assistants Milan Ivanovic and ex-Angel City and Gotham manager Freya Coombe.

"I want my staff and people I've worked with to become successful coaches. These are things I'm very passionate about and want to be able to execute," Andonovski told ESPN last month.

Armas would be the first former MLS coach to make the leap to the NWSL, with the winds of change in Kansas City blowing stronger than anticipated.

With the 2026 Winter Olympics fast approaching, US skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin has started the 2025/26 FIS World Cup cycle in top form — particularly in her favored slalom event.

Closing out last season with a victory, Shiffrin is currently on a multi-event winning streak, earning her sixth straight slalom title in Semmering, Austria, on Sunday.

"It was a really hard day today, tough conditions, a really big fight, and the pressure's on… I did my best, best possible run," Shiffrin said afterwards.

Momentum is on her side, with Shiffrin set to enter the 2026 Winter Games in Italy as the winningest skier in World Cup history, surpassing Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark's 86 wins in March 2023 and becoming the first skier to reach 100 World Cup victories earlier this year.

Sunday's race marked the 30-year-old's 106th career World Cup title, with Shiffrin looking to add to her ever-growing historic record with three more slalom events scheduled before the Olympic women's Alpine skiing events kick off on February 8th.

The 2014 Olympic slalom champion and 2018 Winter Games giant slalom gold medalist is aiming to return to the podium after failing to medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Shiffrin will likely hit the slopes again next weekend, when the women's FIS World Cup lands in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, for a giant slalom and slalom competition.

South Carolina basketball is stocking up, as top-ranked high school senior Jerzy Robinson announced her commitment to join the head coach Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks last Tuesday.

"I chose South Carolina because I had a sense of peace when it came down to the decision for me," Robinson told ESPN. "When I visited South Carolina, I was already home. I was already valued there.... I felt like this was where I needed to be for the next four years."

A 6-foot-2 guard who averaged 27 points and 10.2 rebounds in her junior season at Los Angeles's Sierra Canyon High School, Robinson is now the highest-ranked Class of 2026 recruit heading to South Carolina — as well as the final Top 5 player to make a college decision after also visiting No. 1 UConn and No. 5 LSU.

Robinson first made a name for herself at the youth level, winning three gold medals and the 2025 U-19 FIBA World Cup with Team USA.

The young talent also inked one of the first-ever shoe sponsorships for a high school player, signing an NIL deal with Nike in November 2024.

"Basketball has always been my love and my passion," she said. "To see it pay off and the hard work and the hours pay off, in the sense of I get to play for one of the best universities in the country, I just have so much gratitude."