One of the longer projects for the U.S. women’s national team in its preparation for the 2023 World Cup comes in the midfield, a group looking to reestablish its cohesion.

In recent months, reports of the team’s progress have come back inconclusive, but the project will continue as the team plays two matches against Germany, the first at 7 p.m. ET Thursday in Florida and the second at 5 p.m. ET Sunday in New Jersey.

The USWNT held just 31% possession against England in October, with 70% passing accuracy. Against a depleted Spain, the team fared better, retaining 48% on a slightly improved 73% passing accuracy.

Still, both matches ended in defeat, the USWNT’s first two-game losing streak in over five years, in part due to waves of opposition pressure caused by turnovers in the middle of the pitch.

With gaps exploited by top teams, the U.S. could try a more consolidated shape, with a double-pivot containing two purely defensive-minded midfielders. The team, though, has been reluctant to make wholesale changes to the midfield personnel or formation, choosing to trust the process with a more settled roster.

“I’ve talked about this, how hard it has been for Rose [Lavelle] and Lindsey [Horan] as midfielders to click with their forwards,” USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski told the media Wednesday. “Because of injuries, they had to change the players that they played around, whether it was forwards or … fullbacks that were constantly changing, or the personnel was changing. They constantly had to adjust to the players, or players’ abilities or characteristics.”

A final tweak to the attack added to the team’s struggles against England and Spain, as Alex Morgan had to withdraw from availability with a lingering knee injury. Sophia Smith took on a more central role in her absence, a shift Andonovski said cut into chemistry on the right side of the pitch, where midfielder Lavelle feeds to Smith on the forward line.

“Soph and Rose, they started getting a good understanding, they were on the same page and they were doing well, and then again for an unfortunate reason we had to switch Soph out to use her in a different role [in October],” he said.

Andonovski confirmed Smith will be back out on the right wing against Germany, with Morgan presumably slotting back into a starting role at center forward.

Smith told the media Wednesday that she’s becoming more comfortable playing wide despite starting in a central role for Portland this year.

“I think it just depends what players are around me, what team I’m playing with, the system, the style of play,” she said. “But I’m very comfortable in both positions.”

That comfort can be seen on the pitch, especially when she links up with Lavelle.

“We can see already in training that it was almost like [Smith and Lavelle] were missing each other in the last two games,” Andonovski said.

A greater sense of connectivity will be key to combating Germany’s midfield, which is one of the Euros runner-up’s greatest strengths. Defensive midfielder Lena Oberdorf won Young Player of the Tournament this summer and will present yet another challenge to a USWNT midfield that hasn’t looked secure under pressure.

While injuries upset the balance of the roster, the midfield has stylistic issues as well, and the U.S. coaching staff is constantly honing in on specific challenges of adapting to tactical changes.

“We see the new trend in the game, in terms of marking the midfielders or man-to-man marking in that middle zone,” Andonovski said.

Non-zonal marking is more popular outside of the U.S. than in the NWSL, meaning that USWNT players might be more used to choosing passing lanes and don’t always get a chance to practice progressing the ball under that much individual pressure.

“They understand that with the new trends, midfielders are not going to be able to get the ball as much as they have in the past,” Andonovski said, noting that his players are excited for the additional challenge. “And now the thing that we want to do is keep the success rate the same with the lesser opportunities to get on the ball.”

It’s certainly possible to achieve success while seeing less of the ball, but it requires an incredibly slim margin of error. If the USWNT midfield can pull off the high-wire act against Germany, the picture for the 2023 World Cup will become much clearer.

The Chicago Sky showed up in a big way on Tuesday night, taking down 2023 WNBA Finals runners-up New York Liberty by an impressively wide margin. 

The Sky walked away with a 101-53 win, boasting a 48 point swing that still looms large despite the fact that it's only preseason. Perhaps the team felt extra pressure to perform — not only did WNBA League Pass follow through on their promise to stream the game for free, but Chicago Bears rookies Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze also happened to be watching on from the stands.

“I’m gonna just say — it’s about time," said Sky guard Dana Evans in response to the star-studded turnout at Wintrust Arena. "Everybody wants to watch women’s basketball. I feel like we’ve been doing a really good job of doing stuff on the court and off the court. So just having them support us is great — but keep bringing them out."

Chicago's Marina Mabrey was lights out with four threes and 20 points on the night, while training camp addition Chennedy Carter racked up 11 points and two steals. 

Sky rookie Angel Reese proved that she can do it all, putting up 13 points, five rebounds, and two steals in 19 minutes — all less than 24 hours after she walked the Met Gala red carpet in New York. The 6-foot-3 top draft pick out of LSU even knocked down a layup over 2023 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart in one of the night's many highlights.

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"So now yall can delete them drafts & tweets saying i shouldn’t have gone to the met gala & i can’t do both," she later wrote on social media. 

While some may chalk it up to preseason coaching choices and the fact that it was the Liberty’s first real game outside of training camp scrimmages, New York head coach Sandy Brondello still voiced disappointed in her team’s result.

"We just got our butts kicked, everywhere. I mean everything. It’s an embarrassing effort, I don’t care that it’s preseason," she said in a postgame press conference. "Our starters didn't get us off to a good start. We missed a lot of layups early, but they just took us out of everything."

On a lighter note, the third-year Liberty coach had some kind words for undrafted rookie Jaylyn Sherrod, who showed real effort on defense.

"She has speed," remarked Brondello. "She could guard Dana Evans. No one else could."

As the WNBA plans to implement league-wide charter flights, the NWSL is struggling with some travel issues of its own. 

Missed flights, inclement weather, and a stretch of midweek games have spurred workload and logistical concerns for a number of NWSL teams. Last week, three games were played Wednesday night, while another three games are set to be played tonight. 

"You can't play your best XI right now because of the amount of games you have," said Red Stars head coach Lorne Donaldson after last Wednesday's 4-2 loss to Washington. Donaldson emphasized the importance of rotating through the team’s depth so as to avoid injury.

"You have to get to about 16 deep where you can," he continued. "Or else your best XI is going to be injured or walk off the field and they can’t finish the season."

Kansas City has faced some of the league's most extreme turnaround times this season. On Sunday, the Current missed an evening flight to Seattle due to a multi-hour rain delay in Houston, throwing off their training schedule ahead of their midweek match against the Reign. The NWSL eventually gave them the green light to charter a plane, but not before frustration spread throughout the team.

"We lost the whole day of the opportunity to recover," said Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski after the Current's weekend draw against the Dash. "So the schedule, it's already challenging to begin with. We have by far the worst schedule in the league, and this just made it even worse.

"We don't have a hotel, we got to figure out a hotel. We don't have flights for tomorrow, we got to figure out flights. We had trainings for some players that we believe needed training time to be able to perform on Wednesday.”

While the team was given permission to charter a plane, navigating such approvals has proven difficult in the past. This past July, the NWSL fined Kansas City $55,000 over the unauthorized use of a charter flight.

Recently retired WNBA superstar Candace Parker has her next gig lined up: president of women’s basketball at Adidas.

Parker announced her retirement at the end of April, bringing a close to a 16-year professional career spanning three WNBA championship titles with three different teams. And now, she’s stepping into a slightly different role — this time off the court — with longtime sponsor Adidas.

"The brand and I have grown together, and we’ve done some amazing things," she told Fast Company in an exclusive interview published Wednesday morning. "I’m excited about what the future holds on this side of things, because I’m so passionate about growing the game of basketball."

Parker initially signed with Adidas at the end of her first professional season in 2008, going on to spend the vast majority of her illustrious WNBA career linked to the German athletic brand. In 2010, she became the first woman to receive a signature Adidas shoe: the ACE Commander.

Her most recent Adidas collaborations include basketball sneakers Exhibit B (2022) and Exhibit Select (2023) in a variety of different colorways, as well as limited edition off-court apparel.

In 2022, Parker led a mentorship program for the brand’s first class of NIL-sponsored college athletes, a stacked roster that involved the likes of rising star Hailey Van Lith, among others. In her new position, she’ll be "overseeing pretty much everything" when it comes to the brand’s women’s basketball operations.

That "everything" includes weighing in on shoe and clothing design, navigating new and existing athlete partnerships, and taking control of Adidas' grassroots growth strategies. She’ll also help with "how we actually speak to the women’s basketball consumer," Eric Wise, who leads the brand’s global basketball business, told Fast Company.

According to Parker, the decision to accept the offer hinged on her desire to be more than just "the face" of Adidas women’s basketball.

"I said to [Adidas], 'I don’t want to be a mascot,'" Parker said. "'I really want to be in the meetings, and I want to be a part of making decisions.'"

Charter flights are on the horizon for the WNBA, with commissioner Cathy Engelbert saying on Tuesday that the league will provide teams with full-time private travel services beginning as soon as this season. 

The move is set to address years of player safety concerns, among other issues. Engelbert told AP Sports Editors that the league aims to launch the program "as soon as we can logistically get planes in place."

The initiative is projected to cost around $25 million per year over the next two seasons.

The WNBA has previously provided charter flights on a limited basis, including during the postseason and when teams were scheduled to play back-to-back regular season games. Individual owners seeking to independently provide their teams with private travel — such as the New York Liberty’s Joe and Clara Wu Tsai back in 2022 — faced significant fines for using unauthorized charters.

While players and team staff have been calling for league-wide charters even before Caitlin Clark and other high profile rookies joined the league, Engelbert has routinely cited steep year-to-year costs as the reasoning behind sticking to commercial flights. 

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However, the WNBA's surging popularity means increased visibility, and a subsequent uptick in security concerns — especially when it comes to big name newcomers like Clark — has Englebert reconsidering her previous decision. 

WNBA Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike called the move "transformational," and credited the WNBPA as well as the league for its implementation. 

"Our league is growing, the demand for women's basketball is growing," Ogwumike told ESPN. "That means more eyes on us, which is what we want, but that means more protection from the organization that we play for, the whole W that we play for.

"Chartering flights not only is a safety measure, the biggest thing, and then obviously what it means to be able to play a game and go home and rest and recover and be the elite athletes that we try to be every single night when we step out onto this court."

Aces coach Becky Hammon called the immediate response to the charter announcement "great" but noted that there are still kinks to be worked out. 

"What it all looks like, we’re still gathering information, we don’t know," she said Tuesday.

Several players emphasized the importance of safety, highlighting how last season the Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner was harassed in an airport while traveling commercial.

"All these players and these faces are becoming so popular that it really is about that as much as it as about recovery," Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier said.

"Above everything else, I think it's the safety of our players," Mercury player Natasha Cloud added. "We have a prime example with BG on our team that needs to be safe. At airports, it's like a madhouse. You see Caitlin Clark walking through airports, people following her, people trying to touch her, get pictures with her. It's just a safety measure, through and through. You would never have an NBA team walk through an airport."

Prior to Tuesday's announcement, the league had said it would charter flights for the playoffs and back-to-back games via a program introduced last year. The latest news, however, promises that teams will also be provided charters to and from all regular season games.

"Our safety is being taken seriously now, finally. In no world should our security not be a priority," Griner told ESPN. "If we want to be the league that we want to be and have the respect that we have, it comes with some risks. Sometimes people want to get close to you and it's not people you want, so I'm just glad that we don't have to deal with that anymore."