Almost exactly a year ago, France’s top goal scorer, Eugénie Le Sommer of Olympique Lyonnais, was in Tacoma, Wash., blasting past the Houston Dash midfield and into the center of the park where she passed to Reign midfielder Jess Fishlock. The Wales national team player took the meters of free space in front of her, unleashed a shot from the top of the 18-yard box and sent the ball flying into the top left corner of the net to contribute to a dominant 5-1 win for OL Reign.

A play like that is nothing new to Fishlock and Le Sommer, who together and apart, have helped build two of the most dominant clubs in the world.

TAKE A BOW, @JessFishlock ⚽️💥#RGNvHOU | https://t.co/iecT7II54a | #NWSL21 pic.twitter.com/yUj4vZWDtn

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 8, 2021

Le Sommer was on loan with the Reign in the NWSL at the time, burying eight goals during the 2021 season. With her were Lyon teammates Dzsenifer Marozsán and Sarah Bouhaddi.

On Friday, with the rest of their Lyon teammates from Division 1 Féminine, they’ll return to the state of Washington, where the Reign will host them at halftime of their match Sunday against Gotham FC. Lyon will then head to Portland, Ore. to play Chelsea FC in the first round of the Women’s International Champions Cup on Wednesday, while the Reign will go to Louisville, Ky. to compete in The Women’s Cup.

Players and coaches for both teams took time to reflect on the clubs’ intercontinental relationship before they come together in person this weekend, sitting down for interviews with Just Women’s Sports and for a three-part video series on OL Reign’s website.

“We miss you, Eug,” Reign midfielder Jess Fishlock told Le Sommer on one of those calls. “When you come over, when I see you, I’m going to steal you.”

Fishlock is a big reason why Le Sommer went to play for the Reign in 2021. They first met when Fishlock joined Lyon on loan from 2018-19.

“We had a really great time together,” said Le Sommer.

The friendship represents a bigger sisterhood between the two teams. The clubs are connected by the same owner, OL Groupe, who acquired the Reign in 2019. The visit on Sunday will be an opportunity not only for players like Fishlock and Le Sommer to reconnect with friends, but also for the athletes and coaches who have yet to meet their sister club counterparts.

“It’s important,” Lyon assistant coach Camille Abily said of the visit. “We can meet each other, and I think we can learn about the OL Reign team.”

Due to their busy schedules, Reign head coach Laura Harvey and Lyon coach Sonia Bompastor had never spoken before our three-way phone call, a mere two weeks ahead of Lyon’s visit to Lumen Field. But simply watching each other’s success has helped them grow in their own roles.

“The support is there from both sides, but I think there’s just always an appreciation and respect,” said Harvey. “I can only speak for me, but from my side, just who Sonia is and what she’s done in the game as a player and obviously now what she’s achieving as a coach speaks for itself, really.”

Before Sunday, members of the Reign and Lyon spent time discussing the three primary values that keep them connected and motivating each other from across the ocean: competitiveness, women’s empowerment and sustainability.

Both clubs have featured some of the most decorated players in women’s soccer. That includes Fishlock, the reigning NWSL MVP who joined the Reign in 2013, and Le Sommer, who has 178 goals in 213 appearances with Lyon since 2010. Reign midfielder Megan Rapinoe won the Ballon d’Or in 2019, the year after it was awarded to Lyon’s Ada Hegerberg.

Olympique Lyonnais could be considered the best women’s soccer club in the world, having won all 14 Division 1 Féminine championships between 2006 and 2020, seven Champions League titles and 11 Coupe de France Féminine trophies. Across the pond, the Reign have consistently been one of the strongest teams in the NWSL, with back-to-back NWSL Shields in 2014 and ’15 and five semifinal appearances in eight seasons.

Harvey and Bompastor partnered for a conversation about women empowerment in the video series. While Harvey won NWSL Coach of the Year in 2014, 2015 and 2021, Bompastor is the only woman to have won the UEFA Women’s Champions League as both a player (2011, 2012) and a coach (2022).

For her sake, Harvey said the Reign’s standard of success can be attributed in part to Fishlock, Rapinoe and Lauren Barnes sticking with the club since its inception in 2013.

“They’ve been able to enable us to build a culture of what’s expected,” she said. “And then new faces and standards that we set in training and around games every day, those three who’ve been here the whole time understand what that means. They can then help the new ones implement that.”

Retaining multiple talented players for years on end is difficult in the U.S. pro league because of salary caps and player movement via trades. The system isn’t necessarily set up to keep winning since the NWSL seeks parity.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas, who is also chairman of the Reign, will often use branding from the men’s side to elevate the women’s club. That relationship is not as common in the U.S., where the NWSL is separate from Major League Soccer (MLS), the men’s professional league.

“We can take everything that’s good with the men’s part and try to do the same with the girls,” Bompastor said of Lyon.

The relationship between the clubs only gets stronger as they take advantage of loan and training opportunities. OL Reign’s Bethany Balcer and Sofia Huerta trained with Lyon in 2020, and Rapinoe played for Lyon in 2013 and ’14 before the partnership was even established.

Reign goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce said acquiring Le Sommer, Marozsán and Boudhaddi on loan last season was “that little spark” the Reign needed to get into playoffs.

“I think that’s the interesting thing that you have now with this collaboration between the two teams, is that you could just keep increasing your forces with each side and flipping back and forth,” Tullis-Joyce said.

Fishlock and Le Sommer said the loans helped them learn new styles of soccer and broaden their skill sets.

“Also a different level of understanding your teammates, because Lyon works like a machine,” Fishlock said. “They’re just like a cog, and they really helped me have more awareness of how can I help my teammates.”

“It was really different than my time in Lyon,” Le Sommer said of playing for the Reign and the physicality of American soccer. “But it was something also, to me, to be more open and to see another [style of] football and another way to play and how you can also win in another way of thinking … It was amazing for me.”

The unity the Reign and OL are forging between American and European football also helps grow women’s soccer as a whole, even as the media and fans continue to debate which league is better.

“There are different ways to play, different ways to understand football,” said Le Sommer.

“The only thing that matters at the end of the day is, are you affected and do you win at what you do? That’s the most important thing,” Fishlock said. “I think that’s why it’s really good to have to keep this kind of relationship because it will kind of solidify the actual approach and allow us to be in the same space at the same time, which is what women’s football should be able to do and take up space.”

They’re also pushing each other to take up space off the field, using their platforms to fight for environmental sustainability. Tullis-Joyce and Camille Abily teamed up for a video last week. on that exact subject.

Last year, Lyon named an organization they’ve been working with for over a decade, Veolia, their official “environmental partner.” The sides meet every month to discuss environmental issues around the club and drive initiatives like using reusable water bottles instead of plastic ones. Signing MG as their transportation partner last year, Lyon has also started using electric cars and installing charging stations at their training facility.

On the other side of the ocean, the Reign are striving to become one of the most sustainable clubs in America. With Barnes leading the way, they’re giving careful consideration to the everyday products they use, the merchandise they sell and the food they eat.

The Reign’s commitment to the environment made the decision to join the club a no-brainer for Tullis-Joyce, who scuba dives in her spare time.

“I just thought it was absolutely incredible, how forward this team was in their thinking of respecting the environment,” she said. “I wanted to be all about that. And now I’m kind of trying to wiggle my way into being like a little ocean girl. We’re saving the planet, and then I’ll just be like, ‘And the ocean, too.’”

While both teams are focused on the present and the future, the partnership doesn’t come without some nostalgia for the club that used to be: Seattle Reign. In 2019, the team relocated to Tacoma and was rebranded as Reign FC. In 2020, they changed their name to OL Reign.

“It was tough,” Fishlock said of the rebrand. “But it was something that we needed to do for our club.”

She fondly remembers the old footage and the crest on the jersey that the team and fans were so fond of.

“I don’t think we’ll ever forget about Seattle Reign and the badge and the history, and I don’t think you can because we had such a good history,” Fishlock said. “But obviously, we want to bring that kind of side of who we are into our new kind of brand, which I think is super important because you cannot forget our history.”

Harvey coached the Reign from 2013-17 before returning to the team in 2021. While she appreciates the club’s Seattle origins, she knows the rebrand hasn’t changed their identity. They’ve continued to foster the same competitive, empowering, sustainable and inclusive environment, just like their European sister club.

“What comes with OL,” Harvey said, “has elevated who the Reign wanted to be.”

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

Looking back, UCLA coach Cori Close has mixed emotions about her team’s 2024/25 campaign.

Featuring one of the most talented starting fives in the sport, the team made historic strides all the way to a program-first Final Four appearance. But last season also served up a bittersweet ending.

The Bruins saw their dream postseason unceremoniously ended by eventual national champions UConn in an 85-51 rout. Highly touted but inexperienced on the big stage, UCLA nearly reached the mountaintop before a rough tumble, stirring up questions about the team’s ability to hang with the NCAA’s blue chip establishment.

“There’s nothing like having a historic season, and falling a little bit short,” head coach Cori Close told JWS in October. “The hunger to do it better, but also the attention to detail that it really takes.”

“It’s one thing to know things in your head, it’s a whole other thing to have them in your heart,” she continued. “And I think our team has a higher degree of these things in our heart.”

With renewed focus and deepened experience — plus an even more complete roster that can run the court against just about anyone — the Bruins just might reach the mountaintop again in 2026.

Following another strong offseason recruiting cycle, UCLA currently sits fourth in the AP Top 25 Poll after ranked wins over No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 19 Ohio State, and No. 23 Tennessee. And now the reigning Big Ten Tournament champions are setting their sights on conference play — with Saturday’s showdown with Southern California rivals No. 17 USC front of mind.

From here on out, attention to detail could make all the difference in how this season’s story ends.

UCLA is on a mission to reduce turnovers and own the glass

Before the 2024/25 season even began, coach Close already knew exactly where her team needed to improve.

The Bruins played a fast-paced style last year, facilitating ball movement inside and out with skill players at every position. This year, Close believed her squad could excel in terms of discipline, rather than sheer talent.

“We went back and studied the last five national championship teams and talked about trends that we see that they all have, that maybe we’ve fallen short in,” she said. “We figured that we need to turn the ball over three fewer times a game.”

Defense also plays a factor. “When you really trace championship teams, they have to be dominant in their rebounding,” she added. “We have a goal to get 70 to 75% of the misses.”

13 games into the season, UCLA hasn’t quite achieved all their goals. But they are showing potential. They’re slightly up in average rebounds with 44.1 per game, while lowering average turnovers by more than three per game.

But the team’s limitations against top talent reared its head in their November 26th loss to No. 2 Texas. UCLA grabbed only 32 rebounds while committing 20 turnovers — nearly double their season average.

“I was really honest with [the players],” Close said after the 76-65 defeat. “There’s some things we’ve been talking about that haven’t gotten enough change. Maybe this will get us to change some things that led to this.”

The threat of not sizing up against the best of the best fresh in their minds, UCLA has subsequently looked stronger. They reduced their turnovers even more against then-No. 14 Tennessee in late November, before dominating the boards against No. 19 Ohio State last Sunday.

“We have an abundance of growth opportunities, we have an abundance of opportunities to invest in each other,” Close told JWS.

“We have an abundance of ways in which we can improve week by week. We’re going to just stay focused on those.”

The Lauren Betts blueprint: Efficiency over minutes

Reaching UCLA’s goals relies on team-wide commitment — and figuring out the best way to utilize the team’s biggest star.

The Bruins have a wealth of elite guards, with upperclassmen like Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez running the backcourt. But it’s no secret that the team’s attack and defense runs through 6-foot-8 All-American center Lauren Betts.

The senior is a global talent. She made her USA Basketball debut in December, and is shortlisted to become the 2026 WNBA Draft No. 1 pick once her decorated college career comes to an end.

One of the most dominant two-way bigs in the college game, Betts averaged a near-20-point, 10-rebound double-double last season. She’s an attention magnet on the court, disrupting play at the rim with the motor needed to finish the work back up the court.

Ironically, though, to get the most out of Betts, Close has found she has to actually limit her time on the floor.

“When Lauren and I had our exit evaluation meetings last year, we both agreed that she needs to have less minutes,” said Close. “And honestly maybe even less shots, but more efficiency.”

“As a 6-foot-8 player, you get beat up so much before she even touches the ball,” Close continued. “I think it’s important that we protect her wherever we can.”

Betts is aware that physicality can sometimes throw her off her game. She’s now pushing to hone her tenacity at the rim while leveraging her size through double- or triple-teams.

“Just playing the game, making the right read, is something that’s really important for me, trusting that I know what to do on the floor,” Betts at reporters from USA Basketball training camp last month.

“Also aggressiveness, I think that’s something that I can always grow into.”

UCLA enters 2026 with fresh faces — and family ties

Close sees Betts at her best with nothing to prove individually and a little extra help under the basket. And they worked hard over the offseason to get her that support, shaking things up via both traditional recruiting and the transfer portal.

Take senior transfer Gianna Kneepkins, for example. The former Utah standout is giving the Bruins a scoring boost with 14.3 points per game while carrying minutes alongside more established starters.

“She’s been a pivotal puzzle piece for us in terms of having a 50/40/90 player that’s really able to stretch the floor. She’s making everybody better around her,” Close said of Kneepkins, as the newcomer provides a tall outside presence in the paint.

Close also credits second-year transfer Charlisse Leger-Walker. She’s bolstered the team off the bench after sitting out last season to rehab her ACL.

Betts’s biggest supporter, however, stems from a little closer to home. Lauren’s little sister Sienna, the No. 2 recruit in her class, joined the Bruins this season. And she shares many of her older sister’s attributes on the court.

Listed at 6-foot-4, the freshman can stretch defenses even without her big sister on the court, strengthening UCLA’s reach through negative runs while forcing opponents to game-plan for even more frontcourt power

“[I’m] just trying to help her as much as I can,” Lauren said of her sister prior to the season start. “Especially because we’re playing kind of the same position. Just trying to help her with the plays, help her with tough practices, kind of helping her move on.”

Unfortunately, a lower leg injury delayed Sienna’s college debut by 10 games. The younger Betts missed the loss to Texas, slowing down some of the flow Close is looking to build against a big-heavy lineup. But the plan for the Betts sisters is still very much in motion, even with limited playing time.

Reverse engineering success, one UCLA game at a time

Entering the new year with a healthy roster, UCLA will now have to balance expectations both inside and outside the locker room. Because regardless of how the season ends, significant change looms on the horizon.

“I think it’s really tempting to be championship or bust, and that could not be further from our mission,” Close explained.

“I am such a big believer that you talk about your end goal one time. And then you reverse engineer the process and habits it’s going to take to get there.”

“Just staying present, recognizing that this is also a new team,” senior Kiki Rice told JWS in October. “After what happened last year, there’s lessons in the past. [But we] really just focus on being our best versions of ourselves every day.”

UCLA might have fallen short against Texas last month. But they maintain faith that increased depth, veteran leadership, and a refreshed detail-oriented outlook can guide them all the way through the postseason.

“There were certain levels of preparation, certain ways that we needed to minimize distractions, certain ways we needed to handle all of the ways that are going to be pulling on our attention,” Close said of the team’s Final Four journey, noting that she also learned some major lessons herself.

For now, UCLA is enjoying the moment — and the process — with the hope that the wins keep coming this spring.

“This is probably the most complete team I’ve ever coached,” Close added. “If we can stay healthy and stay focused, we’re going to have big things ahead.”

As the world of women’s soccer approaches 2026, the last year may well be remembered for its dynasties.

Chelsea won a sixth straight WSL title, Euros champion England and Copa winner Brazil retained their continental crowns, and Gotham FC lifted a second NWSL trophy in three years.

The winds of change also began to blow in new directions, with Arsenal upsetting Barcelona to win the Champions League final, top NWSL talent departing the US for opportunities overseas, and Kansas City reminding everyone what happens when regular-season dominance meets playoff vulnerability.

Through it all the game continued to grow, with increasingly interesting results on both sides of the pond, as the ramp-up to the 2027 World Cup and a new slate of regional competitions coincide with an ever-shifting economic landscape

So instead of looking back, we’re keeping the spirit of progress alive by presenting five bold predictions for women’s soccer in 2026.

Sophia Wilson’s return: A top contender for 2026 NWSL MVP

News of USWNT Sophia Wilson’s impending return to the Portland Thorns gave NWSL fans a boost earlier this month, with the Triple Espresso forward signing a single-year extension with her original club team.

Expect Wilson to hit the ground running as she comes back from pregnancy. The 2022 NWSL MVP has been very consistent throughout her career, and she’ll be joined by other returning Thorns attackers to bolster her opportunities in front of goal.

Fellow extended Portland star Olivia Moultrie will be paramount to the 25-year-old’s MVP campaign, especially as Wilson looks to challenge two-time reigning MVP Temwa Chawinga.

Don’t bet against Wilson showing shades of Alex Morgan’s 2023 Golden Boot run. That's when the USWNT legend blew past expectations for what new mothers could achieve in their first season back on the pitch.

No repeat champs: Why the women's soccer guards are changing in 2026

Reigning WSL winner Chelsea’s repeat bid is already shaky, with Everton snapping their 34-game unbeaten streak earlier this month. And they’re preparing to enter the new year six points behind Manchester City in the league table.

Blues manager Sonia Bompastor has seemed to prefer a static roster rotation. Of course, she’s charged with managing players from two eras: ex-coach Emma Hayes’s success and the team’s modern iteration. If there was a time for a changing of the WSL guard, 2026 is the year.

Stateside, 2025 NWSL Shield winners Kansas City continue to navigate offseason changes. The Current will start 2026 under brand new leadership, after former head coach Vlatko Andonovski announced he’ll move to a Sporting Director role.

ESPN recently reported Kansas City’s plan to hire former MLS head coach Chris Armas in 2026. But without a formal announcement and the offseason clock ticking, the Current might run out of runway to set up a repeat bid.

2025 NWSL champion Gotham has both FIFA and Concacaf Champions Cup commitments this year, complicating their quest as they maneuver a jam-packed season. The club landed one major re-signing in Midge Purce, but forward Ella Stevens departed for expansion side Boston. Thus, the team is left relying on a title-winning core with an average age over 28.

Arsenal hasn’t looked too terribly far off their Champions League game yet. But the subsequent resurgence of Barcelona and OL Lyonnes could see the WSL on the outside looking in once the tournament reaches May's final.

Despite having a few worthy clubs — including strong newcomers Manchester United — the UK league’s chances of claiming another UWCL title appear overshadowed by mainland Europe’s renewed dominance.

Emma Hayes's USWNT: Expect major roster overhauls in 2026

USWNT coach Emma Hayes embraced change in 2025, giving 43 players their first national team cap this year — the most since 2001.

Though the approach came with some speed bumps. The US matching the single-year total loss record with three dropped matches.

Considering Hayes’s approach, it seems that the future of the USWNT has arrived much sooner than expected. And looking back, those losses actually made an emphatic argument for more lineup overhauls — not less.

The team’s November loss to Portugal showcased a veteran midfield trio in Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Heaps, and Sam Coffey. The lineup exposed the old guard’s weaknesses as the team looks to hold ground among the world’s elite.

Remember — Hayes made the call to leave Alex Morgan off the gold medal-winning 2024 Olympic roster. In doing so, she laid the groundwork for even bigger calls as the US gears up for a tough World Cup qualifying run in 2026.

The global talent war: NWSL salary cap faces European threats

The NWSL closes 2025 with flashy off-field headlines and waning on-field enthusiasm, as it attempts to grapple with a rash of overseas departures.

They’ve even gone so far as to institute a new “High Impact Player” rule allowing teams to exceed the salary cap for top talent. The move comes after rejecting the Washington Spirit’s blockbuster play for superstar striker Trinity Rodman.

Viewed as a half-measure to circumvent larger salary cap issues, the NWSL Players Association has come out against the newly approved mechanism.

The union is advocating for the league to raise the base salary cap across the board. This will help clubs keep up in an increasingly competitive global market without destroying parity.

Whether or not the two parties will reach a compromise remains to be seen. Meantime, it leaves NWSL fans to hope for a solution as wealthy European clubs continue to draw top free agents away from the US league.

Of course, money isn’t everything. Raising the salary cap won’t guarantee NWSL favorites remain Stateside, as another league’s pull features more than just a pay bump. Thoughugh should the NWSL figure things out in time, US clubs might bring in a few big names themselves.

Regardless, expect more players to test their abilities in new environments when the transfer window opens back up in January. And it's especially pressing considering the looming World Cup and its national team implications.

The 2026 Men’s World Cup will transform women’s soccer

International soccer’s largest event lands in the US next year, as the 2026 Men’s World Cup promises to reshape football fandom in this country and beyond.

The NWSL remains bullish on the tournament’s ability to convert soccer fans across gender lines. Though the competition itself is subsequently bound to have a serious and immediate impact on the women’s game.

The NWSL plans to pause for the duration of next summer’s World Cup. This is in part due to infrastructural strains, as the tournament takes over venues shared between men’s and women’s club teams. The USWNT’s World Cup qualifying campaign will also hit the breaks, rendering the team’s summer international windows largely meaningless.

And with Concacaf qualifiers kicking off immediately after the 2026 NWSL Championship, top players will have to balance commitments at the end of a long year.

No matter how the 2026 World Cup ends up influencing US soccer culture, it will inevitably present some challenges as the domestic women’s game pushes to be more than an afterthought alongside the sport’s biggest stage.

No. 3 South Carolina basketball suffered a blow this week, as top transfer Ta'Niya Latson exited the Gamecocks' 96-55 win over Providence with a lower leg injury on Sunday.

"She's smiling," South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said of Latson immediately following the game, offering an optimistic injury update. "She got treatment all through the second half."

The star senior guard, who turned 22 years old last Friday, joined South Carolina after leading Division I in scoring with Florida State last season.

This year, Latson's 16.9 points per game trails only sophomore forward Joyce Edwards's 21.4-point average on the Gamecocks' scoresheet.

While the full extent to Latson's injury and her potential time off the court is still unknown, any absence exacerbates the team's injury woes, as South Carolina lost standout forward Chloe Kitts to a season-ending injury before the 2025/26 campaign tipped off — with the Gamecocks battling additional availability limits throughout their roster all month.

That said, with the recent returns of forward Madina Okot and guard Agot Makeer from concussion protocol, the Gamecock bench is significantly less sparse, with both returnees impacting Sunday's South Carolina victory with a double-double.

Even more, Staley's squad will see additional roster relief when 18-year-old French center Alicia Tournebize joins the team midseason.

How to watch South Carolina basketball this week

The No. 3 Gamecocks will open the new year by tipping off their SEC slate on Thursday, when South Carolina hosts unranked Alabama at 2 PM ET.

The clash with the Crimson Tide will air live on SEC+.

The world's tennis stars are preparing to open 2026 play in Australia this weekend, with top WTA and ATP leaders on Team USA gearing up to defend their United Cup title starting this Friday.

The two-time champion US enters as the No. 1 seed in the fourth edition of the hard-court tournament, bolstered by the return of world No. 3 Coco Gauff to lead Team USA's six-player United Cup contingent.

With each tournament bout consisting of one WTA singles match, one ATP singles clash, and one mixed-doubles competition, Gauff notably claimed a straight-sets victory over Polish phenom No. 2 Iga Świątek to secure the 2025 title for the US.

"I'm super excited," the 21-year-old star said prior to this year's United Cup. "I had such a good time in my first year playing with the team, and I'm looking forward to going back."

With the 2026 Australian Open beginning in less than two weeks, the United Cup pits 18 national teams against each other as players from both the women's and men's tours tune up for next year's Slams.

Fellow WTA Top-10 stars Świątek and Italy's No. 8 Jasmine Paolini will join Gauff on the 2026 United Cup court, while fan favorite No. 16 Naomi Osaka will feature for tournament debutant Japan.

Also battling for national pride will be two winners of last season's WTA awards, with 2025 Newcomer of the Year No. 18 Vicky Mboko joining Team Canada and 2025 Comeback Player of the Year No. 11 Belinda Bencic competing for Switzerland.

How to watch the 2026 United Cup

The 2026 United Cup runs January 2nd through 11th, with live coverage airing on the Tennis Channel.