The international break is here, and with it comes a pause in NWSL action. As we near the halfway point of the season, three frontrunners for NWSL MVP have emerged: Portland Thorns forward Sophia Smith, Chicago Red Stars forward Mallory Pugh, and San Diego Wave FC forward Alex Morgan.

Smith, Pugh and Morgan were all recently named to the USWNT’s World Cup qualifying roster and are currently in camp with the national team.

Below, we break down each of their cases for NWSL MVP.

Sophia Smith, Portland Thorns

At just 21 years old, Sophia Smith has already cemented herself as one of the NWSL’s best players within just three seasons of playing. She finished second in the race for the Golden Boot last season with nine goals through 22 games and currently sits in second place once again, with eight goals through nine games. Alex Morgan sits in first with 11 goals.

“It’s always really exciting to have someone to chase after — and it’s Alex Morgan, of course,” Smith said. “It’s friendly competition. And obviously it’s great to score goals, but for my team to be doing well is even better. This league is just fun — it’s fun to have people scoring lots of goals.”

Two of Smith’s goals came this past weekend, when she notched her third career NWSL brace.

It's a bird! It's a plane!

No, it's a @beckysauerbrunn goal (‼️) and a @sophsssmith brace (‼️) pic.twitter.com/BME8xjZvcu

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) June 19, 2022

It marked back-to-back braces for Smith, who also had two goals earlier this season in Portland’s 4-0 win over Houston.

Smith has made such an impact in the NWSL that USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski, who has repeatedly cited NWSL play as a deciding factor in USWNT spots, said that both Smith and Mallory Pugh’s spots are decided for the foreseeable future.

“I don’t think it will be a surprise if I say that it will be extremely difficult for a player to come in and take their starting spots right now,” Andonovski said. “Those are two players that will enjoy a lot of minutes on the field — actually, will enjoy maximum minutes on the field.”

Of course, Smith has made an impact for the USWNT as well, with four goals and three assists through 15 appearances. Three of those have come this year, through multiple friendly appearances and the SheBelieves Cup — the second-most on the USWNT behind Pugh and Catarina Macario.

While Trinity Rodman topped ESPN’s list of best women’s players aged 21 or younger, Smith sat fourth and she’s slowly been making her case for higher on the list.

As the season goes on, Smith should only tally up more goals, as she currently ranks first in both shots and shots on goal, with 30 and 20, respectively. While she only has eight goals to show for it, as Portland continues to roll, having won three of their last five matches, so should Smith.

Mallory Pugh, Chicago Red Stars

Once again, Mallory Pugh has been putting on a show in Chicago. After finishing second in NWSL MVP voting last season with five goals and four assists, Pugh has already equalled her goals total this season. With five goals through seven games, Pugh is pretty much guaranteed to better her stats from last season.

She’s also been effective defensively, being named the NWSL Player of the Week by Just Women’s Sports for her performance against Orlando the week of June 5. Pugh has proven exceptional at creating chances, with an average of 2.1 per match, which ranks in the league’s top 10.

Pugh is also more effective in getting shots on goal, even if she doesn’t have the total to show for it. In just 22 shots this season, Pugh has put 19 of them on goal.

This past weekend, Pugh had a goal and an assist in the Red Stars’ draw with Kansas City, continuing her scoring streak to three straight games.

53' Assist 🅰️
59' Goal ⚽

Mallory Pugh is on fire 🔥 pic.twitter.com/xAqrrBeRWI

— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) June 19, 2022

Named to the NWSL’s Second XI last season, the forward has returned to form with a vengeance and is continuing to capitalize on the momentum. And her NWSL dominance is paying off at the international level — USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski recently said Pugh is all but locked into a starting role with the national team.

Alex Morgan, San Diego Wave FC

Prior to the start of the season, many thought Alex Morgan was entering the tail end of her career. But at 32 years old, and over 10 years into her professional career, Morgan is having a renaissance season, putting together her best NWSL campaign to date in her first year with San Diego Wave FC.

On Sunday, she once again posted a multi-goal game, bringing her goal total to a league-leading 11 through 10 appearances.

A brace and an assist for @alexmorgan13 😈 pic.twitter.com/ouR9cfe9wS

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) June 19, 2022

Not only does that beat last season’s Golden Boot winner, Ashley Hatch, who won the award with 10 goals on the season, but it is also a career best (her previous best was 9 in 2017).

Morgan is on pace to break the 20-goal threshold, something no NWSL player has ever done in a season (Sam Kerr was the closest with 18 in 2019). Even crazier, Morgan could finish the season with nearly as many goals as she did during her entire time with Orlando (2016-2021, 23 goals through 66 appearances). She’s also on track to beat her goal total from her time in Portland — three seasons from 2013 through 2015, during which she scored 15 goals through 36 appearances.

To add to her MVP resume, Morgan put together one of the best goal scoring performances in NWSL history earlier this season, putting up four goals in one game to tie the NWSL record.

It's FOUR for @alexmorgan13! 😱

The forward becomes just the fourth player to tally 4️⃣ in an NWSL match!@sandiegowavefc | #WaveFC pic.twitter.com/WmNzJA48nm

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) May 8, 2022

The fact that Morgan has led San Diego to the top of the table in the franchise’s first year of playing only adds to her MVP case. Morgan is no stranger to leading first-year teams to the NWSL title. She did so in 2013 with Portland, winning the inaugural NWSL title. As of right now, San Diego sits two points ahead of Portland in the table and often looks the part as the team to beat.

If Morgan can keep up the pace of her goal scoring — and if San Diego can continue to win — not only is she the leading candidate for league MVP, but she might just be adding another NWSL title to her resume.

That’s not all that’s at stake: throughout her career, Morgan has twice been named to the NWSL’s Second XI but never the Best XI. Regardless of what happens the rest of the season, or who ends up winning NWSL MVP, that seems almost certain to change this year.

The Chicago Sky showed up in a big way on Tuesday night, taking down 2023 WNBA Finals runners-up New York Liberty by an impressively wide margin. 

The Sky walked away with a 101-53 win, boasting a 48 point swing that still looms large despite the fact that it's only preseason. Perhaps the team felt extra pressure to perform — not only did WNBA League Pass follow through on their promise to stream the game for free, but Chicago Bears rookies Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze also happened to be watching on from the stands.

“I’m gonna just say — it’s about time," said Sky guard Dana Evans in response to the star-studded turnout at Wintrust Arena. "Everybody wants to watch women’s basketball. I feel like we’ve been doing a really good job of doing stuff on the court and off the court. So just having them support us is great — but keep bringing them out."

Chicago's Marina Mabrey was lights out with four threes and 20 points on the night, while training camp addition Chennedy Carter racked up 11 points and two steals. 

Sky rookie Angel Reese proved that she can do it all, putting up 13 points, five rebounds, and two steals in 19 minutes — all less than 24 hours after she walked the Met Gala red carpet in New York. The 6-foot-3 top draft pick out of LSU even knocked down a layup over 2023 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart in one of the night's many highlights.

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"So now yall can delete them drafts & tweets saying i shouldn’t have gone to the met gala & i can’t do both," she later wrote on social media. 

While some may chalk it up to preseason coaching choices and the fact that it was the Liberty’s first real game outside of training camp scrimmages, New York head coach Sandy Brondello still voiced disappointed in her team’s result.

"We just got our butts kicked, everywhere. I mean everything. It’s an embarrassing effort, I don’t care that it’s preseason," she said in a postgame press conference. "Our starters didn't get us off to a good start. We missed a lot of layups early, but they just took us out of everything."

On a lighter note, the third-year Liberty coach had some kind words for undrafted rookie Jaylyn Sherrod, who showed real effort on defense.

"She has speed," remarked Brondello. "She could guard Dana Evans. No one else could."

As the WNBA plans to implement league-wide charter flights, the NWSL is struggling with some travel issues of its own. 

Missed flights, inclement weather, and a stretch of midweek games have spurred workload and logistical concerns for a number of NWSL teams. Last week, three games were played Wednesday night, while another three games are set to be played tonight. 

"You can't play your best XI right now because of the amount of games you have," said Red Stars head coach Lorne Donaldson after last Wednesday's 4-2 loss to Washington. Donaldson emphasized the importance of rotating through the team’s depth so as to avoid injury.

"You have to get to about 16 deep where you can," he continued. "Or else your best XI is going to be injured or walk off the field and they can’t finish the season."

Kansas City has faced some of the league's most extreme turnaround times this season. On Sunday, the Current missed an evening flight to Seattle due to a multi-hour rain delay in Houston, throwing off their training schedule ahead of their midweek match against the Reign. The NWSL eventually gave them the green light to charter a plane, but not before frustration spread throughout the team.

"We lost the whole day of the opportunity to recover," said Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski after the Current's weekend draw against the Dash. "So the schedule, it's already challenging to begin with. We have by far the worst schedule in the league, and this just made it even worse.

"We don't have a hotel, we got to figure out a hotel. We don't have flights for tomorrow, we got to figure out flights. We had trainings for some players that we believe needed training time to be able to perform on Wednesday.”

While the team was given permission to charter a plane, navigating such approvals has proven difficult in the past. This past July, the NWSL fined Kansas City $55,000 over the unauthorized use of a charter flight.

Recently retired WNBA superstar Candace Parker has her next gig lined up: president of women’s basketball at Adidas.

Parker announced her retirement at the end of April, bringing a close to a 16-year professional career spanning three WNBA championship titles with three different teams. And now, she’s stepping into a slightly different role — this time off the court — with longtime sponsor Adidas.

"The brand and I have grown together, and we’ve done some amazing things," she told Fast Company in an exclusive interview published Wednesday morning. "I’m excited about what the future holds on this side of things, because I’m so passionate about growing the game of basketball."

Parker initially signed with Adidas at the end of her first professional season in 2008, going on to spend the vast majority of her illustrious WNBA career linked to the German athletic brand. In 2010, she became the first woman to receive a signature Adidas shoe: the ACE Commander.

Her most recent Adidas collaborations include basketball sneakers Exhibit B (2022) and Exhibit Select (2023) in a variety of different colorways, as well as limited edition off-court apparel.

In 2022, Parker led a mentorship program for the brand’s first class of NIL-sponsored college athletes, a stacked roster that involved the likes of rising star Hailey Van Lith, among others. In her new position, she’ll be "overseeing pretty much everything" when it comes to the brand’s women’s basketball operations.

That "everything" includes weighing in on shoe and clothing design, navigating new and existing athlete partnerships, and taking control of Adidas' grassroots growth strategies. She’ll also help with "how we actually speak to the women’s basketball consumer," Eric Wise, who leads the brand’s global basketball business, told Fast Company.

According to Parker, the decision to accept the offer hinged on her desire to be more than just "the face" of Adidas women’s basketball.

"I said to [Adidas], 'I don’t want to be a mascot,'" Parker said. "'I really want to be in the meetings, and I want to be a part of making decisions.'"

Charter flights are on the horizon for the WNBA, with commissioner Cathy Engelbert saying on Tuesday that the league will provide teams with full-time private travel services beginning as soon as this season. 

The move is set to address years of player safety concerns, among other issues. Engelbert told AP Sports Editors that the league aims to launch the program "as soon as we can logistically get planes in place."

The initiative is projected to cost around $25 million per year over the next two seasons.

The WNBA has previously provided charter flights on a limited basis, including during the postseason and when teams were scheduled to play back-to-back regular season games. Individual owners seeking to independently provide their teams with private travel — such as the New York Liberty’s Joe and Clara Wu Tsai back in 2022 — faced significant fines for using unauthorized charters.

While players and team staff have been calling for league-wide charters even before Caitlin Clark and other high profile rookies joined the league, Engelbert has routinely cited steep year-to-year costs as the reasoning behind sticking to commercial flights. 

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However, the WNBA's surging popularity means increased visibility, and a subsequent uptick in security concerns — especially when it comes to big name newcomers like Clark — has Englebert reconsidering her previous decision. 

WNBA Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike called the move "transformational," and credited the WNBPA as well as the league for its implementation. 

"Our league is growing, the demand for women's basketball is growing," Ogwumike told ESPN. "That means more eyes on us, which is what we want, but that means more protection from the organization that we play for, the whole W that we play for.

"Chartering flights not only is a safety measure, the biggest thing, and then obviously what it means to be able to play a game and go home and rest and recover and be the elite athletes that we try to be every single night when we step out onto this court."

Aces coach Becky Hammon called the immediate response to the charter announcement "great" but noted that there are still kinks to be worked out. 

"What it all looks like, we’re still gathering information, we don’t know," she said Tuesday.

Several players emphasized the importance of safety, highlighting how last season the Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner was harassed in an airport while traveling commercial.

"All these players and these faces are becoming so popular that it really is about that as much as it as about recovery," Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier said.

"Above everything else, I think it's the safety of our players," Mercury player Natasha Cloud added. "We have a prime example with BG on our team that needs to be safe. At airports, it's like a madhouse. You see Caitlin Clark walking through airports, people following her, people trying to touch her, get pictures with her. It's just a safety measure, through and through. You would never have an NBA team walk through an airport."

Prior to Tuesday's announcement, the league had said it would charter flights for the playoffs and back-to-back games via a program introduced last year. The latest news, however, promises that teams will also be provided charters to and from all regular season games.

"Our safety is being taken seriously now, finally. In no world should our security not be a priority," Griner told ESPN. "If we want to be the league that we want to be and have the respect that we have, it comes with some risks. Sometimes people want to get close to you and it's not people you want, so I'm just glad that we don't have to deal with that anymore."