The NWSL opens the weekend with a Friday night match between the Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit, but the most anticipated contests come Sunday.

Three storylines to watch

North Carolina Courage still searching for first win

After a loss to San Diego last weekend, the Courage are 0-0-3 to start the season after winning the Challenge Cup. In that time frame, they’ve scored just two goals, while their opponents have scored five.

This is a Courage team that can score goals – that much was proven during the Challenge Cup. But health and safety protocols combined with a level of fatigue from winning the preseason tournament has hindered their play thus far. As a result, they sit at the bottom of the standings with no points.

At some point, though, something has to give. Could North Carolina break through Sunday against the Houston Dash?

While Kerolin remains out with a sprained ankle suffered during the Challenge Cup final, other scorers like Debinha and Diana Ordoñez have the ability to step up and give the team a boost.

Houston, meanwhile, sits fourth in the NWSL standings with a record of 2-1-1 and seven points. The Dash are coming off of a 2-0 win over the Portland Thorns and could prove another tall test for the Courage.

Will San Diego continue to ride the wave?

Let’s be honest: Nobody expected San Diego and Angel City to top the table five weeks into the regular season. Except, maybe, for Jessa Braun.

San Diego has stood atop the standings for four weeks in a row and leads the league in goals with eight (Alex Morgan leads the individual race with six). The Wave are just the sixth NWSL team to win four of their first five games of the season and the previous five all advanced to the NWSL Championship. Foreshadowing?

While the season is long and a lot can happen between now and then, the strategy that Casey Stoney & Co. implemented ahead of the season appears to be paying off.

The Wave will face off against OL Reign this week, a team that just won its first game Wednesday. But despite the Reign’s early-season struggles, they’re not a team to count out. These two teams have already faced off twice, both in the group stage of the Challenge Cup. OL Reign won the first match 3-1 while the two split the second 1-1.

Expansion team: Minnesota?

As the talk around NWSL expansion continues to grow, so does the list of cities that could become hosts as soon as 2024.

While Salt Lake City is a possible destination, Grant Wahl also has reported that Atlanta, Austin, Cincinnati, Toronto, Columbus and San Francisco are interested.

There’s also an answer that could be right in front of the NWSL’s eyes: Minnesota.

Minnesota Aurora FC began play in the USL W League last night in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,219 fans at TCO Stadium. Before they even began play, the team had generated $650,000 in combined ticket, merchandise and sponsorship revenue and had to upgrade its budget. A publicly-owned team, the Aurora raised $1 million in funding ahead of their formation as a club.

Just watching Minnesota's new second-division women's soccer team play in front of a wildly enthusiastic sellout crowd bigger than what several NWSL teams draw. (Their jerseys are also much better!) https://t.co/F3RsguY6RA

— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@mollyhc) May 27, 2022

There’s also local support, if the fact that the team sold out its season tickets – all 3,000 of them – means anything.

“It was incredible,” head coach Nicole Lukic said of the support. “During warmups, you could just slowly kind of see everybody start trickling in. It was just becoming more and more packed, and then to hear the supporters’ groups and the chants and the drums, it was such a professional atmosphere, and I know our players just absolutely loved it.”

While there are a lot of logistics involved in bringing a semi-professional club up to the pro level, there is a blueprint for an NWSL club fielding a USL team: Racing Louisville, which is fielding its own USL club starting this season and is the first NWSL franchise to do so.

Week 5 Schedule

• Orlando Pride vs. Washington Spirit, Friday @ 7 p.m. ET
• Chicago Red Stars vs. Portland Thorns, Saturday @ 8 p.m. ET
• OL Reign vs. San Diego Wave, Sunday @ 3 p.m. ET
• Houston Dash vs. North Carolina Courage, Sunday @ 7 p.m. ET
• Angel City FC vs. NJ/NY Gotham FC, Sunday @ 8 p.m. ET
• Kansas City Current vs. Racing Louisville FC, Monday @ 3 p.m. ET

The signature Nike logo for Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark has arrived, with the sportswear giant revealing the WNBA star's branding on Monday ahead of a planned collection drop in October.

According to Nike's press release, the logo's interwoven letter Cs "reflect Caitlin's magnetic connection with fans around the globe."

Meanwhile, a smaller, central C represents how Clark developed her game "from the inside out."

"To me, this is more than just a logo, it's a dream come true," Clark said in a statement. "People always talk about leaving your mark on the game — and this is another way I can do that."

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After signing a record $28 million deal with the sportswear company in 2024, Clark joins other WNBA superstars like Las Vegas Aces forward A'ja Wilson and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu in getting the Nike signature treatment.

Following an initial logo collection that includes T-shirts, hoodies, shorts, and pants, Clark will drop a signature Nike collection with both apparel and her debut signature shoe sometime next year.

"At Nike, we've always drawn inspiration not only from the world's greatest athletes but also from those who elevate the spirit of sport itself," said Ann Miller, Nike's Global Sports Marketing EVP. "Caitlin exemplifies both."

How to buy the Nike x Caitlin Clark logo collection

A navy blue and yellow Clark logo T-shirt will hit North American shelves on September 1st, with the rest of the line following on October 1st.

All items will be available to purchase online.

The LPGA Tour is taking over New England, as the second iteration of the FM Championship tees off from Norton, Massachusetts, on Thursday.

The four-day tournament will feature 35 of the world's Top 40-ranked players, all shooting for a piece of the $4.1 million total purse — the 2025 LPGA Tour's largest non-major payday.

Big names in search of a bounce-back performance headline the field, led by former No. 1 Nelly Korda, with the now-No. 2 US star still in pursuit of her first win of the 2025 season.

"Some of my stats are maybe better than even last year — it's just crazy," Korda said last week, commenting on her recent struggles. "That's just golf. By this time last year, I had six wins under my belt and [now] my stats are better, and I have zero wins."

Newly minted No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul will also make an appearance, as will 2024 FM Championship winner No. 10 Haeran Ryu.

Rookie phenom Lottie Woad is also in the mix, with the No. 18 English golfer determined to reclaim her winnings ways and shake off a missed cut at last week's 2025 CPKC Women's Open.

How to watch LPGA stars at the FM Championship

The 2025 FM Championship tees off at 7 AM ET on Thursday, and coverage of the four-day competition will air daily at 3 PM ET on the Golf Channel.

The UNC Tar Heels are having a rough start to the 2025 NCAA soccer season, logging two upset losses in the first two weeks of competition to plummet from their No. 1 spot in the preseason rankings.

North Carolina stumbled right out of the gate, becoming the first reigning national champs to drop their season opener in 23 years with their 2-0 fall to Tennessee, before the Tar Heels added a second 2-0 loss to Georgia last Thursday.

As a result, a precipitous poll drop have the once top-ranked Tar Heels now sitting at No. 22 in the nation, with Stanford rising behind four straight wins to take the UNC-vacated No. 1 spot.

Meanwhile, North Carolina's SEC conquerers earned big boosts: Georgia made their season rankings debut at No. 13 this week, and a four-match opening winning streak saw Tennessee skyrocket to No. 2.

Tennessee's early-season success also includes a second massive win, as the preseason-unranked Vols defeated 2022 champion and then-No. 4 UCLA 1-0 last Wednesday to prove that their shocking opening upset was far from a fluke.

Redshirt junior forward Shae O'Rourke is leading Tennessee's charge, netting five goals across their four games — including scoring all three against the two recent NCAA champs.

As for UNC, the Tar Heels have time to right the ship under newly permanent head coach Damon Nahas, with the team looking to log some wins over lopsided opponents before their next ranked matchup against fellow ACC foe No. 24 Virginia Tech on September 11th.

Global seven-a-side soccer venture World Sevens Football (W7F) is on its way Stateside, announcing Tuesday that the second-ever W7F tournament will kick off in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, later this year.

After a successful debut in Portugal last May, the eight-team competition will put another $5 million purse on the line when it takes over Beyond Bancard Field, the home of the USL Super League's Fort Lauderdale United FC from December 5th through the 7th.

While European clubs — including eventual champions Bayern Munich — dominated the inaugural W7F field, the tournament is now looking to platform teams based in North and South America for its US edition.

Like the first iteration, W7F will again team up with media partner DAZN for live match coverage from Florida.

W7F boasts a Player Advisory Council that includes the USWNT's two-time World Cup champions Tobin Heath and Kelley O'Hara, plus a trio of former international stars — England defender Anita Asante, longtime Sweden captain and midfielder Caroline Seger, and France defender Laura Georges — all of whom are also shareholders in the upstart.

"We saw undeniable proof of concept [in Portugal]. Now, we're building on that momentum," W7F head of football Adrian Jacob said in Tuesday's press release. "This isn't just a tournament — it's a movement, this time in America, where women's soccer has unprecedented momentum."