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USWNT at Concacaf: Takeaways and top priorities for 2023 World Cup

The USWNT celebrates Alex Morgan’s game-winning goal in the Concacaf W Championship final. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Everyone can take a deep breath: The U.S. women’s national team got the job done at the Concacaf W tournament. With a roster full of fresh faces, the team qualified for the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics while holding off a full-strength Canada squad that some thought may have leapfrogged the reigning World Champions in the past year.

Throughout the month of July, the awkwardness of trying to do two things at once has been apparent in USWNT camp. If the team’s youth movement seems a little abrupt and all-encompassing, it’s because the USWNT is running late.

After the World Cup victory in 2019, it stood to reason that the players who got the U.S. their fourth star would be relied upon for stability during the coaching change from Jill Ellis to Vlatko Andonovski. After the pandemic delayed the Olympics by a year, that approach all but determined the process we’re seeing now.

Threading the needle between incorporating new players and winning games is a challenging task, made only more complicated by the program’s own expectations. Many national teams go through periods of growing pains, but it’s rare for them to not be allowed to lose a few games in the process. Due to the truncated international calendar and the stakes of a World Cup berth and a spot in the Olympics on the line in Concacaf qualifying, Andonovski was balancing on a high-wire not many are forced to stand on, with both successes and frustrations.

Learning to loosen up

Andonovski has only ever lost two games as the head coach of the USWNT, but within the positive results exists a team that at times looks both a little overworked and underprepared. In the team’s infamous 3-0 loss to Sweden at the Tokyo Olympics, they were never able to adjust to the eventual silver medalists’ intensity in the midfield, instead sending hopeful long balls forward in an attempt to bypass that area and regain control of the match.

During the Concacaf W final win against Canada, the same feeling washed over USWNT fans as a few missed chances kept the game closer than it needed to be. Andonovski also delayed making substitutes until the dying minutes as the U.S. began to run on fumes. The Jill Ellis era was similarly criticized for tactical rigidity and an overly placed faith in her starting XI (we all remember the great substitute discourse of the 2019 Round of 16). But as opponents present tougher tactical tests every game, Andonovski doesn’t always make the right call in the moment.

There were glimpses throughout the Concacaf W tournament, however, that Andonovski had learned some important things from the USWNT’s experience in Japan.

While aided by the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions worldwide, the USWNT went through the tournament in Monterrey with a decidedly looser feel than we saw in 2021. Instead of the grueling fitness testing and stark quarantining of the U.S.’s pre-Olympic prep, players came in from their NWSL clubs, played a few sendoff friendlies, and then hit the road. They got to spend time with friends and family throughout their time in Mexico, and they kept the crushing weight of the public’s expectations at arm’s length.

It might seem flippant to say that getting coffee from a local shop in the morning and time by the pool is the key to a strong team mentality, but it’s a notable enough difference in approach that it’s worth mentioning. Andonovski cited the presence of Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn, Alyssa Naeher and Alex Morgan as helpful to keeping the young roster focused on the task at hand. This group might have simply been given more freedom to have fun, with the understanding that levity builds chemistry, too.

Letting players be themselves

The off-field chemistry only shined through on the field in fits and starts. One of the costs of keeping Morgan off prior USWNT rosters as they worked in younger players was that Morgan had to re-acclimate herself to the team in big games. Sophia Smith and Mallory Pugh missed a few sitters even when the forward motion was effective, but too often a pass came a little too late or a run just a step behind as they adapted to new looks.

Morgan explained to reporters the nuances of how Andonovski would like the team to adjust their play to combat different opponents, which raises red flags while also possibly paying dividends. Gone are the days where the USWNT meets for six weeks before heading to a major tournament, as many players will be in the thick of their NWSL campaigns immediately before the 2023 World Cup. While it’s important to have ideas for what an opponent might throw at you, clear communication in short-term training environments is critical to those ideas not becoming muddy and then possibly abandoned in the moment.

A few scuffed shots and mistakes in the attacking third have gotten the majority of the attention. But one of the team’s greater overall issues lies in a position that still does not look settled: the defensive midfield. Andonovksi brought Andi Sullivan to Monterrey to hold down the No. 6 role in bigger games, and she appears to be in the team’s long-term plans for 2023 and 2024 as long as she stays healthy. The U.S. somewhat controversially left Sullivan at home during the Tokyo Olympics, asking Lindsey Horan to moonlight at the position and then rushing Julie Ertz back from injury. From there, the team’s midfield possession has never fully recovered.

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Defining Andi Sullivan's role in the midfield should be a top priority for the USWNT. (Jaime Lopez/Jam Media/Getty Images)

Sullivan is a smart, savvy player who is best with the ball at her feet, breaking lines and setting the tempo. For the Washington Spirit, she’s an endless source of distribution and her field vision is an asset. Ertz, while a legend in the role for club and country, was never used as a passing No. 6; she was a defensive wrecking ball, disrupting play in a wide area to allow her teammates to repossess and distribute.

Despite Ertz’s prolonged absence, the U.S. has not changed the way they distribute the ball — that is the job of the center backs. When young Naomi Girma had her shot at sending probing diagonal passes up to Sophia Smith against Jamaica, the approach worked perfectly. Against Haiti, Alana Cook and Becky Sauerbrunn mostly passed between themselves before sending hopeful long balls forward, and it didn’t work as well.

Bypassing midfield passing channels to let an explosively talented front five run at a back line might not be the worst approach in a Concacaf tournament, but despite their talent advantage, it renders the USWNT too predictable at the wrong moments. It also requires Sullivan to focus on defending like Ertz while the attacking midfield pushes forward, a Herculean task for even the best player that leaves gaps for opponents to exploit.

Stepping away from the panic button

Despite a healthy list of concerns, the work of becoming a World Cup contender really starts now, and there is also a lot to like about what we’ve seen from the U.S. in this shortened incubation period. One of the hallmarks of Andonovski’s USWNT is a willingness by every single player to defend off the ball, and there is no better team in Concacaf at quickly regaining possession.

While the U.S. had tepid finishing performances at times, the greatest doubt of a result never really came from danger at the other end. Smith’s adjustment to help Sofia Huerta nullify Nichelle Prince’s attacking threat on the right wing in the second half against Canada is a good example of the small defensive changes the U.S has available to them to sway a game. The Cook/Sauerbrunn partnership also showed significant improvement from Game 1 to Game 5.

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Becky Sauerbrunn continues to anchor the backline as the USWNT's most experienced defender. (Jaime Lopez/Jam Media/Getty Images)

There were also glimpses of what the right personality mix, while still incomplete, can bring to a USWNT that is changing. Morgan became the galvanizing force the team needed when shots weren’t falling against Canada, instilling the team with confidence and icing the game with her penalty kick. Andonovski put out the closest thing to his strongest XI in the final, and they did everything necessary to win the game.

If the USWNT does travel to Australia and New Zealand in 2023 with the deepest squad in the world, it will be in large part due to this tournament. Many other teams would have been sunk by the absences the U.S. faced going into Concacaf W, but they made their way through as the clear No. 1 team in the region, with the result rarely in doubt. Re-integrating more familiar faces into the squad is exactly the type of challenge the U.S. wants at this point in the calendar.

The kids were sent down to Mexico to sink or swim, and they found their way through. That Smith and Pugh can still improve at the international level should be exciting, as is the emergence of Ashley Sanchez as a scintillating attacking midfielder and Girma as a rookie with the mind of a seasoned veteran.

This qualifying group isn’t the team we’re going to see at the World Cup, but therein lies the point of this process. The team tested its strengths and weaknesses, got critical minutes for the next generation and, per the eternal USWNT mandate, did not lose.

Claire Watkins is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering soccer and the NWSL. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

Ottawa Upsets No. 1 Seed Montréal in Game 1 of 2025 PWHL Playoffs

Ottawa's Jocelyne Larocque, Emily Clark, and Alexa Vasko celebrate a 2025 PWHL regular-season win.
The Charge defeated No. 1-seed Montréal 3-2 in Thursday's Game 1. (Michael Chisholm/Getty Images)

Top-seeded Montréal suffered a surprising loss in their first 2025 PWHL Playoffs game on Thursday, falling 3-2 to postseason debutant No. 3-seed Ottawa.

Despite a tense back-and-forth battle, Ottawa forward Shiann Darkangelo broke through with a third-period game-winning goal, pushing the Charge to an early lead in the best-of-five semifinal series.

The Victoire, who notably used their No. 1-seed advantage to handpick the Charge as their semis opponent, have yet to log a playoff win, adding Thursday's defeat to last season's first-round sweep by Boston.

Even so, Montréal is already viewing the loss as fuel to even the score this weekend.

"We outshot them, we had a lot of great opportunities. We were right there," said Victoire forward Laura Stacey. "If we can put that game together for a whole 60 minutes, it'll look scary I think."

Toronto's Julia Gosling celebrates a goal with the Sceptres' bench during a 2025 PWHL regular-season game.
Toronto rookie Julia Gosling's brace secured the Game 1 win for the Sceptres. (Rich Graessle/Getty Images)

Toronto takes Game 1 from defending champs Minnesota

In the PWHL's other semifinal matchup, No. 2-seed Toronto claimed a one-win advantage over No. 4-seed Minnesota on Wednesday, halting the defending champion Frost's late-season surge with a 3-2 Sceptres victory.

Captain Blayre Turnbull opened scoring in the first period, giving Toronto a lead that they never relinquished, while rookie Julia Gosling netted a second-period brace to secure the Sceptres' win.

Minnesota, acknowledging the tough road they face to return to the championship ice, has already set their eyes on Game 2.

"It's going to be a hard-fought series," said Frost head coach Ken Klee after the Frost's Game 1 loss. "We didn't get one tonight…[so now] we're looking forward to Friday."

How to watch the 2025 PWHL Playoffs this weekend

Toronto and Minnesota are back in action for Game 2 of their series at 7 PM ET on Friday, before traveling to St. Paul for Game 3 at 6 PM ET on Sunday.

Sunday will also see Montréal’s attempt to even their series with Ottawa, with the puck dropping on their Game 2 matchup at 2 PM ET.

All games will stream live on the PWHL YouTube channel.

Chelsea Chases History as 2024/25 WSL Season Ends

Chelsea's Lucy Bronze celebrates a 2024/25 WSL goal with her teammates.
2024/25 WSL champions Chelsea aims to finish the season undefeated on Saturday. (Molly Darlington - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

The 2024/25 Women's Super League (WSL) season officially wraps on Saturday, with Chelsea preparing to claim even more history on the heels of their sixth-straight league title.

The still-undefeated Blues will face sixth-place Liverpool in their final outing, with Chelsea on the cusp of becoming the fourth-ever team to finish a WSL season unbeaten.

Should they do so, Chelsea will join 2012's Arsenal, 2016's Manchester City, and their own 2018 squad in achieving perfection — those this year's Blues would be the first to accomplish the feat in the expanded 22-match campaign.

While the team only needs a draw to remain undefeated, a win would secure Chelsea another record, becoming the first club to tally 60 points in a single campaign — two more than the current mark the Blues claimed in 2022/23.

Despite their astounding WSL record, the Blues have fought hard for their dominance this season, with first-year head coach Sonia Bompastor strategically using her entire roster to maintain the winning legacy left by now-USWNT boss Emma Hayes.

"Don't think it's easy. It's never easy," said Bompastor after Chelsea's 2024/25 title win. "It's a great achievement and a lot of work every day — I don't let my players breathe."

Arsenal's Alessia Russo and Manchester United's Millie Turner battle for the ball during a 2024/25 WSL match.
Arsenal and Manchester United will play for second-place in the WSL on Saturday. (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)

Battle for second-place continues on final WSL matchday

While Chelsea chases records, other top WSL clubs are still jockeying for positions on the league's final 2024/25 table.

Along with the Blues, Arsenal and Manchester United are locked into Champions League qualifying positions for next season — but United could leapfrog Arsenal for a second-place WSL finish on Saturday.

Separated by just one point, the Red Devils and the Gunners will face off against each other in the season's final blockbuster matchup.

Arsenal has extra incentive for a good showing, as the Gunners try to snap their two-game WSL losing streak and gain momentum before battling Barcelona in the May 24th Champions League final.

Chelsea also has a shot at another trophy looming, with the Blues chasing a second domestic treble — winning the league, FA Cup, and League Cup.

However, a tough Manchester United stands in the way of Chelsea's third and final treble title, with the pair facing off in the FA Cup's May 18th championship match.

How to watch WSL matches this weekend

All 12 WSL teams will kick off their season's last matches at 7:30 AM ET on Saturday.

Both Chelsea's game against Liverpool and Manchester United's visit to Arsenal will stream live on ESPN+.

Naomi Osaka Continues Comeback Tour at the 2025 Italian Open

Naomi Osaka serves the ball at the 2025 Italian Open.
Naomi Osaka advanced to the Round of 32 at the 2025 Italian Open. (Robert Prange/Getty Images)

As tune-up tournaments like this week's 2025 Italian Open dominate tennis ahead of the 2025 French Open, one familiar name is back in the headlines, with world No. 48 Naomi Osaka making significant strides on the clay court.

Coming off her first tournament win since 2021 at L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo — a WTA 125 event — last weekend, Osaka immediately advanced to the Italian Open's third round this week.

The four-time Grand Slam winner has shown glimpses of brilliance after returning from her 2023 pregnancy, with Osaka now aiming to keep up momentum on her historically weakest surface.

"Kinda ironic to win my first trophy back on the surface that I thought was my worst," Osaka posted after her May 4th victory. "That's one of my favorite things about life though, there's always room to grow and evolve."

Osaka isn't the only tennis star cooking in Europe, as heavy-hitters like world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 Iga Świątek, and No. 3 Coco Gauff also moved ahead in Rome as they look to hone their Roland-Garros form.

Not usually a clay court specialist, Sabalenka has looked particularly formidable, defeating Gauff to take the 2025 Madrid Open title just last week.

How to watch the 2025 Italian Open

The 2025 Italian Open's Round of 32 kicks off early Saturday morning, with continuing coverage on The Tennis Channel.

Short-Staffed WNBA Champs NY Liberty Tip Off Preseason Play

The New York Liberty huddle during a 2024 WNBA Finals game.
Defending champ New York enters the 2025 season short-handed due to injuries. (David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)

Fresh off winning their first-ever WNBA title, the New York Liberty will kick off their 2025 preseason slate with in a Friday night clash against the Connecticut Sun — despite the reigning champs looking a little worse for wear.

Two-time WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart has been slowly recovering from offseason knee surgery, with the 30-year-old watching from the bench on Friday in an effort to return to full fitness for next week's season opener.

Similarly, star guard Betnijah Laney-Hamilton is likely out for the entirety of the 2025 WNBA season with a knee injury of her own, exiting the offseason 3×3 league Unrivaled with a meniscus injury in early March.

Meanwhile, starting sharpshooter Leonie Fiebich has yet to join the Liberty in training camp as the European standout finishes her overseas season with Spain's Valencia Basket.

Liberty additions to make New York debut on Friday

That said, New York did manage to make a few savvy pick-ups ahead of the 2025 campaign, with the newly configured team eyeing a strong Friday showing to avoid rumors of a slow season start.

The Liberty traded for point guard Natasha Cloud and signed forward Izzy Harrison over the offseason, while also welcoming back guards Marine Johannes and Rebekah Gardner.

Given New York's lengthy availability report, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello noted that the team's markedly late preseason start was not strategic, but merely a scheduling solution.

"Sometimes it's just out of our hands," Brondello told reporters. "This is the first home game that we've had because we've never been able to get the arena availability, so that's it. Ideally, we would have liked to play the game by now, but it is what it is."

How to watch the New York Liberty in the 2025 WNBA preseason

New York will tip off against Connecticut at 7 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on WNBA League Pass.

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