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Behind the NWSL’s gameday fits and the power of self-expression

Estelle Johnson (Ashley Intile/Gotham FC)

As the long winter of the 2021 NWSL preseason turned toward spring, one fact at Gotham FC was already clear: Things were about to look very different in New Jersey. The club had just announced a full-team rebrand, tossing the Sky Blue moniker aside as they moved to a permanent home at Red Bull Arena and played their way to the Challenge Cup final.

But while all of those factors set a new tone for a club on the upswing, none of them quite compare to the image of defender Mandy Freeman walking into the team’s May 2 match in head-to-toe Alexander Wang.

A sense of personal expression has been growing within Gotham in the months before and after the official rebrand, driven by a core group of players with a distinct sense of style. And by the time the team christened Red Bull Arena in their regular season home opener, the floodgates had opened. Players showed up in basketball jerseys, WNBA apparel, bright coats and full looks accessorized with assorted hats and sunglasses. It felt, in short, like the dawning of a new era, and part of a fashion wave that’s rippled across the NWSL in recent months.

Gotham defender Estelle Johnson can’t quite remember exactly how she and her teammates became icons of gameday fashion, but she does recall the team walking into 2021 ready to express themselves.

“I think one of our first home games we all just randomly decided to dress up, like we didn’t coordinate it at all,” Johnson says. “And we’re each other’s biggest hype women, so as people came in, we’re like, ‘Oh, hey, girl!’ Like, ‘I see you!’ I think in that one moment, we just decided like, maybe we should actually not show up as slobs. We have so many quarantine buys that we need to wear, so we might as well show out.”

Across the country, OL Reign also went through a club rebrand in 2020, and forward Bethany Balcer remembers the team’s fashion sense developing in a similarly collaborative spirit. Recently, Reign players have rocked looks that range from the textured layering of Megan Rapinoe, to the patterned shirts of Jess Fishlock, to clean silhouettes from Tziarra King.

“My rookie year, we never did anything like this. I would show up with sweats on, like nothing poppin’ or anything like that,” Balcer said. “There’s been some girls on our team who have been catalysts for it, and you’re like, ‘Oh, they look so good. I want to match that energy.’ And then lots of girls even go shopping together to pick out stuff.”

Gameday fits are a long-standing tradition in American professional sports, but the NWSL has lagged behind, with players expected to wear team gear on away trips. The festivities of home matches in 2021, however, have brought out a side of the players and their clubs that fans haven’t necessarily seen before.

While the looks across the league are distinct — Balcer has been getting into blazers, Chicago Red Stars defender Sarah Gorden swears by her sneakers and Johnson cites Tracee Ellis Ross as her style icon — the players share a desire to make their teammates feel as confident in their own personal styles as possible.

“We have a saying: ‘If you feel good, we’re gonna hype you up,’” Balcer says. “There’s no (having) to dress up. Even if you dress down, if you walk in feeling good, we’re gonna bring the energy all the time.”

Johnson feels similarly: “Just going out of our way to show support to each other and what we stand for has definitely helped build chemistry, but also just straight up respecting each other’s style. We all just are so unique in so many different ways that nobody would wear the same thing.”

For some players, having personal flair means adding custom elements to an outfit to create the perfect look.

Balcer recalls feeling inspired earlier in the season by King, who showed up before a game looking sharp in an outfit her mother tailored to fit the style King wanted. Gotham midfielder Jennifer Cudjoe rocked a custom suit made by a friend from her home country of Ghana for the club’s Juneteenth celebration. Johnson put a hard-earned quarantine skill to the test for her Juneteenth look, embroidering onto her skirt the outline of Africa and a lion meant to symbolize Cameroon, the team she represents internationally.

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Johnson shows off her outfit for Juneteenth before a Gotham match. (Ashley Intile/Gotham FC)

While other teams might have one or two players who raise their fashion level before matches (Gorden admitted before Chicago’s own Juneteenth game that she’s the only “crazy dresser” on the Red Stars), Gotham FC and OL Reign treat gameday entrances as full-team affairs. Team staffers capture the players on camera as they strut toward the locker room, and the photoshoots often show up on social media afterward. And in Tacoma, the good vibes make it all the way into the tunnel.

“We get in the locker room, and we literally do a little fashion show,” Balcer says. “Everyone does a little runway walk before we all get changed into our uniforms. … We do have so many new faces (this season), so when everyone just puts themselves out there, I think it makes for good on-field and off-field chemistry.”

As the profile of the league grows, and athletes in women’s sports drive a higher percentage of social media engagement every year, gameday fashion also presents a sponsorship opportunity.

Johnson has a number of favorite Black-owned brands she supports, like Heron Preston and Off-White, along with some other well-known names (“Gucci, call your girl!”). Balcer, known affectionately as “Boats,” was eager to collaborate with Crocs last year — she personally likes their shoes and recognizes they’re a staple at training among women’s soccer players. But after her correspondence with the company went unanswered, she’s now abandoned the brand entirely, preferring similar shoes Adidas recently released. “I’ve got like ten pairs (of Crocs),” she said, “and they’re just sitting there collecting dust.”

Beyond the business opportunities and the “look good, feel good, play good” mentality, gameday fashion has become a vehicle for the players’ growing understanding that a unified visual message carries weight. Throughout the season, NWSL players have used pregame entrances to wear slogans they want to be seen, whether general (“more self love”) or specific (“protect trans kids”).

After Chicago’s Challenge Cup opener against the Houston Dash, Gorden spoke up about her experience of racial profiling and harassment. While NWSL officials took no disciplinary action following an investigation into the incident, Red Stars supporters group Chicago Local 134 provided the team with shirts that said “Believe, Support, Protect Black People.” Gorden and her teammates wore the shirts before the Red Stars’ subsequent home match, and the message spread rapidly throughout the league, both in banners from fans and in other teams’ pregame apparel.

In many ways, NWSL players seem to be taking small cues from their counterparts in the WNBA, a league that has long been at the forefront of advocating for social justice. In 2020, WNBA players famously wore “Vote Warnock” shirts, publicly endorsing the opponent of former Atlanta Dream owner Kelly Loeffler and influencing that year’s Senate race in Georgia.

“Especially over the last year, just with everything that’s going around in the world, we feel responsible for using our platforms, and I think a lot of us are taking that role a little more seriously,” Balcer says. “Now we’re not just here to play soccer. We all have a platform, we all have a following, and we can use that for good or be silent through it.”

To Johnson, the collective opening up about social justice issues over the past year has played a role in NWSL athletes being more vocal about their beliefs.

“I think we’re just at a point in our lives in the United States where we are being encouraged to support our differences, and encouraged to stand up and say what we’ve been wanting to say or whatever it is,” she says. “So I definitely think the times are aiding us in the fact of, we’re here to make a statement. And we’re not just here to shut up and dribble.”

The Reign’s Pride celebration match took on a specifically celebratory tone after Reign midfielder Quinn came out as trans before the 2021 season. For the players, fashion has functioned as an in-road for more personal conversations and as a medium for showing support.

“Our team is very diverse in terms of ethnicity and sexuality, so it’s just such an open and safe space and we just all support one another as human beings,” Balcer says. “And that is reflected in what we wear and who we’re buying clothes from, things like that. So it’s been cool to engage in those conversations and really just be more empathetic towards what other people are going through and what they’ve experienced. I think it helps me just be a better teammate and shows me how to love them better.”

In many ways, gameday fashion — as lighthearted as it is — represents a possible future for the NWSL, one in which players are unconditionally celebrated for being true to themselves.

“I think it’s a great upswing of us as players having voices in this league. It didn’t always feel that way,” Johnson says. “And granted, times were different. It just felt like we very much felt like we had to play within the lines. Now it’s kind of like, ask for forgiveness later.”

‘Sports Are Fun!’ Talks Dust-Up Between WNBA Rivals Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark

Cover image for Sports Are Fun with Kelley O'Hara featuring WNBA rivals Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.
The 'Sports Are Fun!' crew spotlights the WNBA rivalry between stars Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. (JWS)

Welcome to another episode of Sports Are Fun!

Every week on Sports Are Fun! presented by Amazon Business, co-hosts soccer legend Kelley O'Hara, sports journalist Greydy Diaz, and JWS intern BJ serve up their hottest takes on the biggest women's sports headlines.

This week, the Sports Are Fun! crew is joined by retired NWSL star Darian Jenkins. And with the WNBA season tipping off last weekend, women's basketball naturally dominated conversation.

Firstly? The Caitlin Clark flagrant foul heard around the league — and the fallout that subsequently followed it.

"First game that we want to go over is Fever vs. Sky," O'Hara introduced. "Caitlin Clark had a triple-double. Angel Reese had a double-double. And the Fever won. But what everyone's been talking about is the foul that Caitlin Clark committed on Angel."

"The flagrant," corrected BJ.

"Excuse me," O'Hara said. "So Caitlin Clark had a foul on Angel Reese under the basket. It got upgraded to a flagrant one. Aliyah Boston came to her defense, because Reese got up and was kind of going for Caitlin. A lot of chatter around this, and I liked the spice."

"It's the game," Diaz said, jumping in. "It was a basketball play, as they both said. However, it was flagrant. It happens in basketball. I think it was the reaction that we saw on social media that really elevated it."

"This is a rivalry, everyone," quipped BJ. "This rivalry feeds families. We love it."

"She's a spicy player. I love seeing the passion," Jenkins said of Reese. "We should be excited about that, especially in women's sports."

"I feel like it's always, 'We'll play nice, be proper, don't swear,'" she continued. "You never see that in the men's game. They're heated all the time."

"At the end of the day, these are physical players," echoed Diaz. "Caitlin Clark is physical. She was physical last year, she's physical this year. It's a grown woman's game."

Along with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the Sports Are Fun! hosts additionally cover WNBA tip-off, the surging San Diego Wave, the PHWL Finals, and so much more!

'Sports Are Fun!' condemns allegedly hateful remarks from Indiana fans

The rivalry between second-year WNBA stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese was on full display at the Indiana Fever's opening weekend game against the Chicago Sky. But it was the crowd's response to it that hit a nerve with the Sports Are Fun! hosts.

"It was a foul, flagrant foul, obviously," BJ said. "But I would be remiss if I didn't say that what is unacceptable is the Fever [fans'] behavior — bad statements, bad sportsmanship, bad slandering on Angel."

"There's no space for that sort of behavior," Diaz agreed. "There are kids at that game... It's unacceptable."

"You can you can heckle, we're all for that," O'Hara chimed in. "But if there's somebody saying hateful things, racist things, it's got to be reported."

"Just on a human level. You can be a fan of the game, but you see something wrong, check it," Jenkins said. "These women worked so hard to get where they are. If you're stooping that low, you should not be allowed at a game."

Sports Are Fun! podcast graphic featuring Kelley O'Hara.
'Sports Are Fun!' places Kelley O'Hara at the intersection of women's sports and fun. (Just Women's Sports)

About 'Sports Are Fun!' with Kelley O'Hara

'Sports Are Fun!' is a show that’ll remind you why you fell in love with women's sports in the first place.

Join World Cup champ, Olympic gold medalist, and aspiring barista Kelley O'Hara as she sits down with sports journalist Greydy Diaz and a revolving cast of co-hosts and friends. Together, they're talking the biggest, funnest, and most need-to-know stories in the world of women’s sports.

From on-court drama to off-field shenanigans, to candid (and silly) chats with the most important personalities in the space, this show screams "Sports Are Fun!"

Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.

USWNT Roster Strikes a Balance Ahead of Summer Friendlies

USWNT players including Sam Coffey and Crystal Dunn line up before a 2025 friendly.
This week's 24-player USWNT roster will face China PR and Jamaica in upcoming friendlies. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)

Another USWNT roster arrived on Tuesday, with head coach Emma Hayes tapping 24 players for the world No. 1 team's upcoming early summer friendlies against No. 17 China PR and No. 40 Jamaica.

Featuring both mainstays and prospects, the lineup showcases Hayes's interest in developing young standouts while also highlighting returning regulars — and one unexpected favorite.

USWNT staples like Crystal Dunn, Emily Sonnett, Lindsey Heaps, and Lynn Biyendolo are back, balancing out less experienced players like forwards Michelle Cooper and Emma Sears, midfielder Claire Hutton, and defender and first-time call-up Kerry Abello.

One uncapped invitee doesn't fit the US's ongoing youth movement mold, with 32-year-old Kansas City captain and celly queen Lo'eau LaBonta earning her first national team nod.

"First of all, she's deserving of the call-up," Hayes told reporters on Tuesday morning, praising the midfielder's NWSL play. "She’s being consistent in everything that she has done. And with the volume of young players or less experienced players we're bringing in, I think we have to get that balance right."

Angel City sister duo Alyssa and Gisele Thompson also made the cut, with Hayes shifting Gisele from defender to forward ahead of the younger Thompson's possible fourth senior cap.

European club players also returned to the spotlight, with Ajax's Lily Yohannes, Chelsea's Naomi Girma and Catarina Macario, Arsenal's Emily Fox, and Manchester United's Phallon Tullis-Joyce heading to camp alongside Dunn (PSG) and Heaps (OL Lyonnes).

Hayes also noted that former call-ups Jaedyn Shaw (North Carolina), Mia Fishel (Chelsea), and Korbin Albert (PSG) will spend the break with the USWNT U-23 squad, calling time with the youth team "what I felt has been really missing for a lot of players."

Seattle goalkeeper Claudia Dickey makes a save during a 2025 NWSL match.
Stellar NWSL play has Seattle's Claudia Dickey in the mix for the USWNT goalie gig. (Soobum Im/NWSL via Getty Images)

USWNT goalkeeper competition continues

Tullis-Joyce as well as Utah's Mandy McGlynn and Seattle’s uncapped Claudia Dickey will feature in goal, as the search to replace retired USWNT legend Alyssa Naeher continues.

"The data don't lie — Claudia Dickey's probably the best performing goalkeeper in the NWSL this season," Hayes said of the US newcomer.

Notably, Houston's Jane Campbell will not be joining the team, despite the longtime reserve keeper's 10 caps and six clean sheets for the USWNT.

All in all, Tuesday's roster marks one of Hayes's more diverse lineups, with this window's friendly opponents allowing her the freedom to test out new configurations.

Expect the US boss's next roster to be a bit less experimental, as the stakes will raise with late June's three-match slate against No. 26 Ireland and No. 7 Canada.

The May/June 2025 USWNT roster

  • Goalkeepers: Claudia Dickey (Seattle Reign FC) Mandy McGlynn (Utah Royals), Phallon Tullis-Joyce (Manchester United)
  • Defenders: Kerry Abello (Orlando Pride), Crystal Dunn (Paris Saint-Germain), Emily Fox (Arsenal FC), Naomi Girma (Chelsea FC), Tara McKeown (Washington Spirit), Avery Patterson (Houston Dash), Emily Sams (Orlando Pride), Emily Sonnett (Gotham FC)
  • Midfielders: Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns FC), Lindsey Heaps (OL Lyonnes), Claire Hutton (Kansas City Current), Lo’eau LaBonta (Kansas City Current), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorns FC), Lily Yohannes (Ajax)
  • Forwards: Lynn Biyendolo (Seattle Reign FC), Michelle Cooper (Kansas City Current), Catarina Macario (Chelsea FC), Emma Sears (Racing Louisville), Ally Sentnor (Utah Royals), Alyssa Thompson (Angel City FC), Gisele Thompson (Angel City FC)

How to watch the upcoming USWNT friendlies

The 24-player USWNT roster will kick off their upcoming friendlies by taking on China PR at 5:30 PM ET on Saturday, May 31st, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Live coverage of the match will air on TBS.

Then on Tuesday, June 3rd, the US will face Jamaica in St. Louis, Missouri, with the 8 PM ET match airing live on TNT.

WNBA Rookie Paige Bueckers Balls Out in Dallas Home-Opener

Dallas rookie Paige Bueckers sets up a pass during the Wings' Monday loss to Seattle.
Bueckers tied the current season-high WNBA rookie single-game scoring mark with 19 points on Monday. (Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images)

Dallas rookie Paige Bueckers took charge on Monday, with the 2025 WNBA Draft's No. 1 overall pick proving her worth in the Wings' 79-71 loss to Seattle.

The only Wing to log more than 29 minutes in Monday night's home-opener, Bueckers spent 37 minutes on the Dallas court, tallying a team-leading 19 points, eight assists, five rebounds, and two steals in just her second pro game.

She also joined Mystics newcomer Sonia Citron as the only 2025 rookies to score more than 18 points in a single game so far this season.

On the flip side, 2025's No. 2 pick Dominique Malonga did not feature in the Storm's starting lineup, finishing her night with just one minute of playing time.

The 19-year-old French phenom made the most of her brief appearance with a speedy two points, despite Seattle head coach Noelle Quinn taking a conservative approach to integrating the WNBA's youngest player into the league.

While rookies make headlines, veterans still run the WNBA, with Quinn relying heavily on her experienced starting core to notch Seattle's first victory of 2025.

Leading the Storm was 2016 MVP Nneka Ogwumike with a 23-point, 18-rebound performance — her 110th career double-double — while Skylar Diggins (21 points, nine assists) and Gabby Williams (17 points, five assists, five rebounds) followed closely behind.

"I love how our vets showed up and willed us through possessions," Quinn said after the win. "I think that there's a lot to build and grow from this game."

How to watch WNBA games on Tuesday

The 2025 WNBA season continues at 7 PM ET on Tuesday, when the Atlanta Dream take on the Indiana Fever while the Las Vegas Aces visit the Connecticut Sun.

Both game will stream live on WNBA League Pass.

Ottawa, Minnesota Chase History as Puck Drops on PWHL Finals

Minnesota's Denisa Krizova and Claire Thompson chase Ottawa's Ronja Savolainen, who controls the puck, during a 2025 PWHL game.
Ottawa is the first Canadian team to ever make the PWHL Finals. (Troy Parla/Getty Images)

For the second straight year, the 2025 PWHL Finals are down to the postseason's underdogs, with the No. 3 seed Ottawa Charge and the No. 4 seed Minnesota Frost facing off in the best-of-five championship series after ousting the league's top teams.

Minnesota booked their Finals spot with a 3-1 series victory over No. 2 seed Toronto last Wednesday, before Ottawa ousted top-seeded Montréal by the same series margin on Friday.

While the Frost gear up to defend their 2024 Walter Cup title this week, first-time playoff team Ottawa will aim to make even more history by securing Canada’s first-ever PWHL trophy.

This year's PWHL Finals pits Minnesota's red-hot offense, which netted 18 goals across four semifinal games, against Ottawa's shutdown defense.

Led by rookie goaltender Gwyneth Philips — a 2025 Goaltender of the Year finalist — the Charge allowed just six pucks into the net through four playoff games.

Philips's top save percentage and low 1.14 goals-against average will be put to the test by the Frost, who claim seven of the PWHL's Top-8 postseason players, led by forward Taylor Heise and her seven playoff points.

Ottawa's Jincy Roese and Minnesota's Liz Schepers skate during a 2025 PWHL game.
Either Ottawa or Minnesota will earn the Walter Cup in the 2025 PWHL Finals. (Troy Parla/Getty Images)

How to watch the 2025 PWHL Finals

The puck drops on the 2025 PWHL Finals tonight at 7 PM ET, as Minnesota hits the ice against Ottawa live on YouTube.

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