Alyssa Thompson played a full 90 minutes Tuesday for the U.S. women’s national team. Starting Saturday, she has three games in nine days for Angel City FC.

As NWSL players confront the schedule crunch created by the international break, teams are taking extra care to avoid overworking their stars.

Player fatigue is a real possibility, as many have dealt with increased workloads – and will continue to do so as the NWSL begins Challenge Cup games in the middle of next week. Several teams, including Angel City FC and the Portland Thorns, will play three games in a span of eight or nine days.

“I think we have to be naive not to have player safety in mind. What that looks like for each is slightly different,” Thorns coach Mike Norris said. “For some of them it’ll be five games in 15 days, if you take the two international games in three days, and we’ve also got three games in eight days coming up.

“We’re trying to use today to see how people have come out of the travel, how they’re getting through the season, then we’ll see where they’re at.”

The Thorns feature a trio of USWNT players in Sophia Smith, Crystal Dunn and Becky Sauerbrunn.

Angel City coach Freya Coombe pointed out that her team is “dealing with a lot of fatigue, as other teams I’m sure are.”

“The majority of our players were off in Europe. So obviously the time difference, but we’re looking forward to having them back in. We’ll just make sure that they’re reintegrated slowly and making sure that recovery and regeneration is the top priority,” she said.

Some national team players, such as Sauerbrunn, were on minute restrictions during the team’s last game against Ireland. Others, including Thompson, played the full 90 minutes.

“I was a little surprised to be honest because she hasn’t got that many 90-minute blocks with us,” Coombe said of USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski’s decision to play Thompson for the whole game. “But I guess it’s a good opportunity for Vlatko to look at her throughout the duration of the game. So we’ll just need to be mindful in terms of managing minutes for her as she returns.

“She did play with us in a scrimmage, the day she flew. So we’ve got to be mindful of the accumulation of minutes as well.”

Unrivaled fans are bidding on pieces of basketball history, as the 3×3 league pushes its auction partnership with memorabilia retailer The Realest ahead of its second season tip-off on January 5th.

First launched in July, Unrivaled doubled down on the auction offerings this week, stocking game-worn jerseys, balls, and other inaugural season exclusives for collectors to bid on.

Even more, sales continue to mount, with a jersey worn by Lunar Owls star and Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier topping all items with a $2,222 price tag last month.

Not far behind Collier's game-worn jersey was Rose BC's Angel Reese and Mist BC's Breanna Stewart — the league's other co-founder — whose jerseys sold for $1,605 and $950, respectively.

The auction and its ongoing series of memorabilia drops are a result of last February's breakthrough group licensing agreement between Unrivaled and the WNBPA, which allowed the upstart 3x3 league to use player branding on merchandise — benefitting both the offseason venture and its athletes as they monetized their names, images, and likenesses.

How to buy Unrivaled memorabilia on The Realest

Fans can now browse inventory and place bids to secure memorabilia from Unrivaled's debut season online at The Realest.

For those hoping for a guaranteed outcome, Unrivaled also added a game-worn mystery jersey to its offerings, with a limited 50 surprise jerseys currently available outside of the auction as a direct sale.

The LPGA is hitting the green in teams on Wednesday night, as some of the top golfers on Tour link up to represent their countries at the 2025 International Crown in South Korea.

This fifth edition of the match-play tournament will see seven teams from the USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Sweden, and China, as well as a mixed World Team taking on the reigning champion squad out of Thailand this week.

Comprised of the four top-ranked LPGA players from each nation, countries earn a team spot in the biennial International Crown based on the combined rankings of their best quartet of golfers — with those overall aggregates also determining tournament seeding.

The US topped all teams to snag this year's No. 1 seed, though the squad suffered a significant availability blow earlier this month when world No. 2 Nelly Korda withdrew from the 2025 International Crown due to injury.

No. 28 Yealimi Noh will compete in Korda's place, with the 24-year-old joining No. 10 Angel Yin, No. 16 Lauren Coughlin, and No. 33 Lilia Vu on Team USA.

Led by another 24-year-old, LPGA Tour debutant No. 6 Miyu Yamashita, No. 2 seed Japan appears to be the team to beat, with the World Team's fourth-ranked Lydia Ko (New Zeland) and fifth-ranked Charley Hull (England) upping the stakes for the No. 7 seed squad.

How to watch the 2025 International Crown

The four-day 2025 International Crown will tee off at 10 PM ET on Wednesday night, with live coverage of each day of competition airing on the Golf Channel.

With the first-ever eight-team PWHL season fast approaching next month, the pro women’s hockey league unveiled the inaugural jerseys for incoming 2025/26 expansion sides Seattle and Vancouver on Tuesday.

The new teams will wear jerseys displaying their city names across the front, following suit after the six founding PWHL franchises debuted without original names or branding during their inaugural 2023/24 campaign.

Per this week's press release, Seattle's colors are "deep slate green and cream with a river blue accent," while Vancouver will sport "pacific blue and cream with an earthy bronze accent."

In addition to "allowing fans to immediately identify with their hometown's newest professional team," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer explained in a Tuesday statement that "These designs also connect our expansion teams to the league's foundation while they continue building their own traditions and ties to the community."

While the PWHL will reveal the full team identities — complete with names and logos — before the puck drops on the 2025/26 season on November 21st, Seattle and Vancouver will play in their generic branding until next season.

How to purchase PWHL Seattle and Vancouver jerseys

The dark-colored replica home jerseys for both Seattle and Vancouver are currently available for purchase alongside all PWHL merch at the league's online shop.

Women's professional baseball will soon be a reality, with the incoming WPBL announcing its four inaugural teams on Tuesday ahead of the league's November draft.

Kicking off with a coast-to-coast imprint, major sports hubs Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco will house the founding WPBL teams, with the quartet of cities tapped "because of their fan support, market size, media presence, and rich baseball histories."

"We are so excited to finally announce the WPBL's first four teams," WPBL co-founder Justine Siegal said in the league's Tuesday press release. "Each of these cities are storied sports cities and we can't wait to connect with the fans who live there and baseball fans across the country."

Originally developed as a six-team venture, the 2026 debut of the WPBL will mark the first pro women's league in the US since the legendary World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954.

Each of the four inaugural team will feature 15 players, with next month's WPBL draft drawing from the top 100 players coming out of August's open tryouts.

The league's first competitive cycle will include a regular season, a postseason, and an all-star competition held at a neutral venue.