Mallory Swanson made her NWSL return on Saturday, after having missed the majority of last season with a knee injury. 

It was her first game with the Red Stars in 349 days, after she tore her patella tendon playing with the USWNT last April. She made her return to the USWNT earlier this year, coming in as a training camp player ahead of the Concacaf W Gold Cup. Interim head coach Twila Kilgore said that Swanson looked “phenomenal” in training. 

On Saturday, Swanson got to showcase just how far she’s come in her recovery, being named to the Red Stars’ starting lineup. 

Chicago got the 2-0 road win over Utah, and perhaps more importantly, Swanson looked like she hadn’t missed a beat. She wound up playing 80 minutes, which included two shots (one on target), passing accuracy of 81%, four crosses, four possession wins and two clearances. 

All in a day's work for the USWNT and Chicago striker.

Lorne Donaldson, who coached Swanson during her time with youth club team Real Colorado, took over as the Red Stars coach in the offseason. 

‘‘I haven’t seen the toughness in any player that I have seen in Mal,’’ Donaldson told the Chicago Sun-Times  ahead of the match. 

The fact that Swanson played 80 minutes means that she could be back to a full 90 sooner rather than later, which itself could lead to a full USWNT call-up and cap.

The Seattle Reign have officially been sold, with OL Groupe announcing on Monday the team has signed an agreement with a group that includes the Seattle Sounders ownership group.

The transaction still needs to be approved by the NWSL and MLS Board of Governors. Global investment firm Carlyle joins the Sounders ownership group in the purchasing of the club.

OL Groupe’s entire stake in the club will be sold, which amounts to 97% of the club’s share capital. They originally purchased the club in 2019 for approximately $3.5 million. 

“The sale price is $58 million for 100% of the shares,” they said in a statement. Last October, Sportico had valued the club at $49 million.

According to OL Groupe, the sale is part of their strategy to refocus on men’s soccer. Recently, the group sold the women's side of Olympique Lyonnais to Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang.

"OL Groupe is delighted with this transaction as it ensures a locally-led group will continue OL Groupe's successful development of the Seattle franchise," the holding company said.

The Reign aren’t the first club to be sold this year, with the sale of the San Diego Wave for $113 million being announced last week. In August of last year, the Red Stars were sold to a group led by Laura Ricketts for $35.5 million and in January the Portland Thorns sold for $63 million, which was at the time the highest price ever paid for an NWSL team. 

Angel City, the league’s most valuable team, is also reportedly exploring a sale of a controlling number of shares.

Angel City is seeking a new owner, according to Sportico, having hired a bank to start the process. 

According to Sportico's report, Moelis & Company has been hired to explore the sale of equity to a new owner that would give them board control. Permission has reportedly been granted from all four primary owners – Alexis Ohanian, Kara Nortman, Natalie Portman and Julie Uhrman – to look for someone who would buy a stake that includes board control. 

Currently, Ohanian is the team’s largest shareholder, but he does not control the board. 

In addition to four primary owners, the team has a number of smaller investors, many of them celebrities. 

The group has reportedly already had interest from some potential buyers, including former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, according to Sportico. He is looking to make investments via Avenue Capital’s new sports fund. 

In an email, Ohanian said that he wasn’t selling his equity. He, as well as representatives for Moelis, Angel City and the NWSL declined to comment on the report. 

The club is currently valued at $180 million, which is the highest in the league, but Sportico also reports that the club is not profitable: "Angel City has by far the most revenue in NWSL, but it also spends the most."

Last week, Ron Burkle agreed to sell the San Diego Wave in a deal with the club valued at $113 million, nearly doubling the previous NWSL record. 

Megan Rapinoe will become just the second NWSL player in history to have her jersey retired, the Seattle Reign announced Thursday. 

Rapinoe played every single season of her NWSL career, from 2013 through 2023, with the Reign. The club is set to retire her No. 15 jersey during their match against the North Carolina Courage on Aug. 25 at Lumen Field. 

The only other player to have their jersey retired was Lauren Holiday, whose jersey was retired by FC Kansas City in 2015. 

"I have lived so much life in this jersey and I'm humbled to see it retire alongside me. It represents so much more than myself -- a team, a city, and a lifetime of memories," Rapinoe said in the team's news release. "Thank you to the Reign and to my teammates for the love, the support and the opportunity to leave a piece of my heart on the field."

Rapinoe made 115 regular season appearances with the Reign, as well as 11 playoff appearances. She had 54 goals across her career as well as 28 assists, winning the NWSL Shield three times. 

She was also a member of the USWNT, winning World Cups in 2015 and 2019, and making 203 total international appearances. Throughout her international career, Rapinoe had 63 goals and 73 assists.

She also was a key part in the team’s fight for equal pay, being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022. 

"It's nearly impossible to put into words the impact Pinoe has had in this sport, the league, this city and especially our club," Seattle Reign coach Laura Harvey said in the release.

"She cemented herself as one of the greatest and we're proud to celebrate all that she has accomplished on the field while wearing the number 15. She made an everlasting impact in our locker room through her loyalty, leadership, courage and commitment. We can't wait to celebrate P later this season.”

The 2024 NWSL season kicks off on Friday with the Challenge Cup between reigning Shield winners San Diego and and reigning Champions Gotham FC. 

Gotham will be without two of its star players, as both Lynn Williams and Rose Lavelle have injuries that will keep them out of the game. Williams reportedly has a thigh injury, while Lavelle is nursing a lower-leg injury. 

San Diego, meanwhile, doesn’t have any significant injuries heading into their matchup, though they do have a number of players returning from the USWNT's Gold Cup run, who may be on a load restriction.

San Diego has won all four of the team's previous matchups.

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Makenzy Doniak will be one to watch for the Wave, having scored against Gotham in each of their last two matchups. Alex Morgan, meanwhile, has a club-record 10 goals scored against Gotham. 

The reigning NWSL champions reloaded in the off-season, having added Crystal Dunn, Emily Sonnett and Tierna Davidson, as well as Lavelle.

The U.S. women’s national team (USWNT) has fallen to fourth in the latest FIFA rankings. It's the lowest ranking ever for the storied national program.

It comes after the team lost 2-0 to Mexico in the group stage of the Concacaf W Gold Cup. The team rebounded, beating both Canada and Brazil to win the W Gold Cup title.

The team’s previous low had been third in the rankings, which came after their historic round of 16 exit in last summer’s World Cup. The most recent FIFA rankings, released in December, had the USWNT back up to No. 2. 

World Cup champion Spain remains atop the rankings, having recently won the Nations League, while England moved up two spots to second. France held steady in third, having recently lost 2-0 to Spain in the Nations League final. 

Brazil is back into the top 10, while Canada also moved up a spot in the rankings. Korea Republic, which the USWNT will play in a pair of June friendlies, has dropped out of the top 10.

San Diego Wave FC is being sold at a record-breaking $113 million valuation, as Sportico first reported on Thursday. 

Billionaire owner Ron Burkle is selling the club to the Levine Lichtman family in a two-part deal, which could later result in the transaction sitting at $120 million. It nearly doubles the previous NWSL high of $63 million paid by the Bhathal family for the Portland Thorns in 2023. 

It’s also higher than the $90 million valuation that Sportico valued the team at in October of last year, and is second-highest in the league behind Angel City’s reported $180 million valuation. 

According to The Athletic, part of the deal includes Burkle remaining as the club’s principal owner through the end of this season. 

"We are proud of the unprecedented success we have had as an expansion team and I am confident that [the Levine Leichtman] family's investment will contribute to the growth of our team and the San Diego community," Burkle told Sportico in a statement that confirmed the family coming in as a minority investor. 

The number is a massive turnaround for Burkle, who paid a $2 million expansion fee for the club, which began NWSL play in 2022. Burkle had backed out of a bid to bring an MLS club to Sacramento in 2021, instead opting to back San Diego’s NWSL bid. 

Since beginning play, San Diego has been a NWSL powerhouse, winning the NWSL shield in 2023 – the fastest that an expansion side has ever earned a top trophy in the league. They also hold the most recent record for NWSL championship attendance, with 25,011 fans showing up in November 2023.

“We are excited to join forces with San Diego Wave FC and help build upon the impressive foundation established by Ron Burkle,” Lauren Leichtman said in a statement. “This investment aligns with our values and vision for supporting initiatives that empower women and foster opportunities for aspiring female athletes.”

The deal has already been approved by league owners. San Diego begins its season on Friday, playing defending NWSL champion Gotham FC in the Challenge Cup.

Chelsea manager Emma Hayes called relationships amongst players on the same team “inappropriate” on Thursday due to the challenges that come with managing such relationships. 

She also acknowledged, however, that “we’re dealing with human beings.” 

The comments came after Hayes was asked about player safeguards following reports in British media that Leicester women’s manager Willie Kirk is being investigated for a player-coach relationship. 

"We have to have safeguarding, make sure that's it's accessible for each and every club to protect players," Hayes said. "Player-coach relationships, they're inappropriate, player-to-player relationships are inappropriate.

"But we have to look at it in the context of where the game has come from and say, 'Look, we're in a professional era now' where the expectations in place for players and coaches is such that all of our focus and attention has got to be on having the top standards."

Hayes noted that relationships between players can be difficult to navigate for a coach. 

"One player's in the team, one's not in the team, one might be in the last year of their contract, one might not be," Hayes said. "We all know, those of us that have been in the women's game for a long period of time, those things have been happening in dressing rooms. Longer term, it would be ideal ... where you don't have to deal with that.

"We're dealing with human beings. We do talk about it internally."

It’s also important to consider the historical context of the women’s game, with Hayes saying that it can be challenging to move to a more professional game. 

"Women's football as we know has been a very amateur game for a long period of time, so -- and I say this around player-to-player relationships as well -- there's challenges that we're moving to a point where we should be moving past those places," Hayes said.

Vlatko Andonovski will return to the NWSL sidelines this weekend for the first time since 2019 when Kansas City takes on Portland. 

Ahead of that, Andonovski spoke with ESPN about his return to the league and his first time coaching since departing the USWNT last August. Andonovski coached the USWNT from 2019 up through the 2023 World Cup. He led the team to a Round of 16 exit, which was the team’s worst-ever finish at the tournament. 

To Andonovski, a return to the NWSL has meant a return to his element, as he’s found that the club game “suits him” more than the international game.

"It's something that is continuous -- that's the difference," Andonovski told ESPN. "Like, it's not, 'Oh, now let's take a break for two months. We'll see you in May.' Now we keep going. 'All right, we check this box but you got to check the next box.'”

It’s a return to Kansas City for Andonovski, who has lived there since 2000. He was the original coach of FC Kansas City, helping the team to two NWSL championships before it folded in 2017. He then coached Reign FC from 2018 until 2019 before taking the helm of the USWNT. 

Twice, Andonovski was named NWSL Coach of the Year, winning it in the league’s inaugural season in 2013 and again in 2019. 

He took a break from soccer following the World Cup, evaluating what he wanted to do next. It was during that time he says he realized “how much I cannot live without this game.” Andonovski says he entertained other offers, from head coaching in the USL to being an assistant coach in MLS, to other NWSL opportunities. 

But the opportunity to stay home was too good to pass up.

"It's almost like they're so proud of what I've done or the successes that I've had for the city that they're not just supporting but they're also protective," Andonovski said of local fans supporting him after the World Cup.

Now, he’ll take on another challenge in a league that has changed dramatically since he was last on its sidelines, with a surge of investment and international talent. But his coaching, he says, has evolved as well. And he’s excited to showcase what he can do.

"I don't need to prove anything to anyone except myself," he said. "I can do this. I want to do well for certain people or groups of people, but I have nothing to prove. I was in the league [and I was] fairly successful. I got the job with the national team not because I was doing poorly -- it's because I was doing well. I'm here again because somebody believes that I can do it well. Nothing to prove. I'm just looking forward to doing anything possible to repay the trust that people put in me.”

Read the full article on ESPN.

Concacaf is launching a new club championship, which will be called the Concacaf W Champions Cup. 

It’s the region’s first official women’s continental club championship. Similar to the UEFA Champions League, the Champions Cup will be an annual competition featuring the best clubs of the region, from North and Central America and the Caribbean. 

A total of 11 clubs will qualify for the Cup, including three clubs each from the United States and Mexico. Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica and Panama will each be allotted one spot.

Leagues eligible to be involved include the NWSL, Liga MX Femenil, USL W Super League and more. 

The preliminary round and group stage matches are scheduled for August, September and October of this year, with semifinals and a final in May 2025. The winner of the tournament will qualify for the new FIFA women’s Club World Cup, which has yet to be announced. 

“Launching the Concacaf W Champions Cup is a very exciting next step on our journey of developing all aspects of women’s football in our region”, said Concacaf President and FIFA Vice President, Victor Montagliani.

“The W Champions Cup will provide a tremendous sporting opportunity for clubs in Concacaf, and we look forward to the first edition commencing in August this year, to crowning a first champion in May 2025, and to delivering an exciting pathway to the new FIFA Women’s Club World Cup.”

An August start date could be challenging for teams with a number of national and international stars, particularly this year with scheduling conflicts like the 2024 Paris Olympics. The NWSL is set to hold a small tournament during the Olympics, which will include international competition.