Megan Rapinoe was so determined to give OL Reign teammate Bethany Balcer an epic goal celebration that she got a yellow card for it.

After Balcer scored a brace in the 20th minute of Saturday’s match between the Reign and the Chicago Red Stars, Rapinoe entered the pitch from the sidelines to give Balcer headphones for a DJ celebration — earning her a yellow card. (Balcer’s celebration can be seen at the end of the video embedded below.)

Rapinoe subbed in at the start of the second half and went on to contribute a goal — and celebration — of her own in the Reign’s 5-2 win over the Red Stars.

Two days after Leah Williamson was ruled out of the 2023 Women’s World Cup with an ACL tear, England dealt with another injury scare on Saturday when Lucy Bronze went down in the 65th minute of Barcelona’s Champions League semifinal versus Chelsea.

Bronze clutched her knee and then hopped off the field, a concerning sight. But she returned to the pitch at the conclusion of the game, which Barcelona won 1-0, to shake hands with Chelsea players.

In his post-match comments, Barcelona manager Jonatan Giraldez said Bronze was “feeling much better.”

“Initially Lucy was a bit worried about her injury, she felt her pain in her knee, but now she’s feeling much better about it,” Giraldez said, per SkySports.

“She felt pain in the knee but I think she’s fine right now. I was talking to her immediately after the game. It was scary at first but right now I think she’s fine.”

Bronze, 31, has a long history of knee injuries and subsequent surgeries, resulting in lingering pain.

“I’ve just got to play through it,” Bronze said last year. “There are plenty of players who are having to play through pain in their career and I’m now one of them.”

England has seen multiple players go down with injury in the last year, dampening the squad’s World Cup prospects. Beth Mead’s World Cup chances are doubtful after the 27-year-old ruptured her ACL in November, while Millie Bright’s status is also up-in-the-air.

NWSL fans were unable to watch significant chunks of two league games Saturday night due to technical difficulties.

The Paramount+ streams for the NWSL games that started at 7pm ET — North Carolina Courage vs. Washington Spirit and Orlando Pride vs. Gotham FC — featured never-ending Paramount+ interstitials and music instead of game action for more than 30 minutes.

“My nightmares will have this as background music forever,” NWSLPA president Tori Huster tweeted.

It is unclear what caused the technical difficulties. Just Women’s Sports reached out to the NWSL, Paramount+, and Vista WorldLink (the company that handles production services) and is awaiting responses.

While the Paramount+ feeds were completely down, international viewers watching on the NWSL website didn’t have it much better. Fans took to Twitter to post photos of the glitchy game coverage.

In addition to fans being unable to watch competition, the technical difficulties also appear to have affected game stats. The play-by-play stats for the impacted games feature only the most major plays (goals and cards) prior to the feeds coming back online. The missing stats are also reflected in the chalkboard diagrams on the NWSL website, which typically track everything from goals to completed passes to tackles lost.

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The "distribution" chalkboard diagram from Saturday's NC Courage vs. Washington Spirit NWSL game
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The "distribution" chalkboard diagram from Saturday's Chicago Red Stars vs. Kansas City Current NWSL game

Broadcast issues have long plagued the NWSL. The league announced last July that it was making near immediate upgrades to improve coverage, including adding higher-quality cameras and more robust infrastructure and staff. The NWSL’s current broadcast rights deal with CBS (which includes the streamed games on Paramount+) runs through this season. In January, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman confirmed that the league’s broadcast rights are on the market after the exclusive negotiating window with CBS ended.

During Saturday night’s outage, fans — and players — took to social media to complain and commiserate. The Washington Spirit’s social media admin won the night with a series of cheeky tweets.

Goalkeeper Casey Dumont helped Melbourne Victory secure a dramatic A-League semifinal win against Melbourne City on Saturday.

With the two teams tied 3-3 at the conclusion of extra time, Dumont scored the opening goal of the shootout, beating City goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri. Dumont, who also works as a nurse, then took her spot in goal and saved a penalty from City’s Katie Bowen (video embedded below).

“I knew where I was going and picked the spot out and went, and then it was the same with having a stop on the penalty as well. I just pick a side and go,” Dumont told Paramount+.

“The girls asked [if would take the first shot] and I was like, ‘Yeah, no worries, I’ll do it.'”

Melbourne Victory won the shootout, 4-1, with Dumont making two saves in addition to her improbable goal. Victory will play in next weekend’s preliminary final against the loser of Sunday’s qualifying final between No. 1 Sydney FC and No. 2 Western United.

Melissa Ayres scored all three regulation goals for Victory, which led 3-1 with 12 minutes remaining to play. But Melbourne City staged a dramatic comeback; after Rhianna Pollicina made it 3-2 in the 79th minute, Hannah Wilkinson scored the equalizer in the 97th minute to send the match to extra time (video embedded below).

Melbourne Victory is eyeing a third straight women’s A-League title. But after an up-and-down season, the team almost didn’t qualify for the postseason, squeaking into the top four based on goal difference.

Serious knee injuries have been an unfortunate theme in the lead-up to the 2023 Women’s World Cup, most recently with Mallory Swanson tearing her left patella tendon in the USWNT’s friendly vs. Ireland on Saturday.

While Swanson’s recovery is just beginning, Catarina Macario is nearing her return to the pitch after tearing her ACL last June. But how close is that return? And will it happen in time for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which kicks off in just three months?

U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski previously said Macario, 23, was expected to resume playing games for club team Lyon in March, but that return was delayed. Last week, it was announced that she was set to resume training with the club.

Because of where she is in her recovery, she wasn’t named to the U.S. roster for this month’s camp — the USWNT’s final camp ahead of this summer’s Women’s World Cup.

“First, we need to see performance,” Andonovski said on Friday when asked about her World Cup roster chances. “We have to see her on the field… Cat has to get back in a professional environment, play professional games, competitive games, games that matter.”

That could be tough, given Lyon’s schedule. The club is out of Champions League contention, but still has some matches left in its domestic season. Macario’s contract will be up after that and negotiations for a new contract are still ongoing.

Still, given Macario’s high ceiling — and the long list of USWNT injuries — she certainly shouldn’t be counted out of World Cup roster contention.

“We all know that Cat has potential to be one of the best players in the world. We have all seen that, a year ago,” Andonovski said.

“If she proves that she deserves to be in this environment, and we believe that she can help us win the World Cup, then she’s going to be here.”

With three months until the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Mallory Swanson’s status is unclear. The USWNT star suffered a torn patella tendon in her left knee during during Saturday’s friendly against the Republic of Ireland, U.S. Soccer announced on Sunday.

As the first half of Saturday’s friendly was nearing a close, Swanson collided with Ireland’s Aoife Mannion. She grabbed her left knee as she fell to the ground and immediately signaled for assistance. As she was stretchered off the field, she clapped her hands several times as the crowd chanted her name.

Earlier in the first half, Swanson was briefly taken off the pitch after she collided with the knee of Irish keeper Courtney Brosnan.

Per U.S. Soccer, Swanson has returned to Chicago for further evaluation. Alyssa Thompson was named to the USWNT roster in Swanson’s place ahead of Tuesday’s second friendly against Ireland.

Swanson’s recovery timeline is currently unclear, but the injury could be devastating for the USWNT’s hopes of winning a fifth World Cup title this summer. Swanson leads the USWNT in scoring in 2023, with seven goals so far this year. Alex Morgan and Rose Lavelle are next on the list, with two goals each.

Also in Saturday’s friendly, Julie Ertz made her competitive return after 611 days away from the USWNT. After the Tokyo Olympics, Ertz took time away due to injury, and then gave birth to her son in August 2022. Andonovski has said that Ertz needs to sign with a club team in order to be considered for the World Cup roster.

Sinead Farrelly made her international debut for Ireland on Saturday, playing 60 minutes in a friendly against the USWNT.

It marked the latest chapter in Farrelly’s impressive comeback after she was essentially focused into an early retirement in 2016.

“I am so overwhelmed,” the 33-year-old Farrelly told the Athletic after the friendly in Austin, Texas, which Ireland lost 0-2. “Very happy, excited — obviously we wanted to win — but I am just really proud of the team. I am also very tired.”

Members of the USWNT also expressed their excitement at seeing Farrelly compete in Saturday’s match, which was played in front of a sellout crowd of 20,593 fans.

“It was so good to see her on the field,” said U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski, who coached Farrelly when she was a member of the NWSL’s FC Kansas City in 2013.

“Obviously it’s a good opportunity for her to earn a spot for a team that will compete in the World Cup. But also just to see her back on the field because we know she’s a tremendous player. She’s really skillful, total footballer. So when I saw her after the game, I could see that joy in her eyes too.”

USWNT star forward Alex Morgan, who was teammates with Farrelly on the Portland Thorns and helped support her in the process of telling her story, was also ecstatic to play against her.

“She’s the Sinead I remember playing with on the Thorns,” Morgan told the Athletic. “I’m just so impressed with her.”

In September 2021, Farrelly went public with her experience of sexual abuse at the hands of former Thorns coach Paul Riley in a story published by the Athletic.

The allegations made by Farrelly and by her former Thorns teammate Mana Shim prompted the firing of Riley by the North Carolina Courage and the opening of wider abuse investigations by the NWSL and its players association as well as U.S. Soccer.

Farrelly, who retired from soccer in 2016, only resumed training in July 2022. She joined the NWSL’s Gotham FC as a non-roster invitee for preseason in February before signing a contract for the 2023 season. She played in her first NWSL game in nearly eight years last weekend.

While Farrelly’s NWSL comeback was impressive on its own, her debut for Ireland — which was announced just this week — is an even more stunning development.

Farrelly has dual U.S.-Irish citizenship. Her father is from Ireland and she spent part of her childhood there.

“Ireland’s always been really interwoven into our life and my family life,” she said Friday. “And so it feels a little surreal, but I feel really honored and proud to be wearing this badge.”

Still, she had to receive official approval from FIFA to compete for Ireland, as she previously represented the United States in international competition at the youth level.

Ireland will make its first ever appearance at the Women’s World Cup at this summer’s tournament in Australia and New Zealand, but Farrelly isn’t planning that far ahead — yet.

“I don’t want to lose sight of why I came back to play,” she said Saturday when asked whether she wanted to compete for a World Cup roster spot. “It was just to have the game back in my life, and feel that joy and passion again, and I don’t want to attach (myself) to any outcomes.”

Ahead of Saturday’s friendly between Ireland and the USWNT, Ireland head coach Vera Pauw appeared in front of U.S. reporters for the first time since the NWSL-NWSLPA joint investigation was released in December. The report found that Pauw, who was the head coach of the NWSL’s Houston Dash in 2018,  had “shamed players for their weight and attempted to exert excessive control over their eating habits.”

Pauw has staunchly denied the allegations, including in Friday’s media availability.

“These allegations in the report are absolutely ridiculous and false. There is no truth in it, and I know I find a lot of safety in the truth,” said Pauw, who has been head coach of the Irish women since 2019.

“In that report, there’s things said like body shaming, which is absolutely false. If there’s one thing that I don’t do, it is body shaming. There is no scale in my dressing room, there’s no fat percentages taken.”

Pauw also claimed a double standard existed in the investigation. “If I would have been a man, who would even care about something like that?” she said. “People would say, ‘It it is you task to prepare the players to be the best on the pitch. It’s your task as a coach to educate yourself, to study and bring over your knowledge to your players.’”

Body shaming was a major topic in the NWSL-NWSLPA joint investigation and Pauw was not the only person accused. Other former NWSL coaches, including Farid Benstiti, Paul Riley, Craig Harrington, Rory Dames, and Amanda Cromwell were also alleged to have made comments to players about their weight and/or body image.

Also on Friday, Pauw addressed the impact of being named in the report given her own experience in the sport. Last year, the former Dutch national accused multiple Dutch football officials of sexual abuse.

“Can you imagine what it does to a person? Can you feel what that does to a person? … I have been raped. I have been sexually assaulted,” she said Friday. “I have perceived power abuse, intimidation, isolation, everything, the worst thing that a woman can get in an organization. I am absolutely aware of the power that I have as a coach.”

The NWSL and NWSLPA joint investigation began in October 2021 after a report in The Athletic detailed allegations of sexual harassment and coercion made then-Portland Thorns head coach Paul Riley. Following the release of the joint investigation, the NWSL in January permanently banned four coaches (Riley, Christy Holly, Rory Dames, and Richie Burke), suspended two others (Craig Harrington and Alyse LaHue), and said that six individuals (Pauw, Benstiti, Clarkson, Cromwell, Sam Greene, and Alise Reis) would only be eligible for future employment in the NWSL if they acknowledged responsibility for their wrongdoing, participated in training, and demonstrated a commitment to correcting their behavior.

Janine Beckie will miss the 2023 NWSL season and World Cup with a torn ACL in her right knee. The Portland Thorns and Canadian women’s national team forward announced the news Friday.

“Heartbroken is an understatement,” Beckie wrote on Instagram.

“Having worked so hard during off-season for what was set to be one of the biggest seasons of my career, defending the title for @thornsfc and of course playing in the World Cup for Canada, being out for an extended period of time is a difficult pill to swallow.”

Beckie suffered the injury in a Thorns preseason game Wednesday night against the USWNT U-23 team.

The 28-year-old is one of many women’s soccer players to tear an ACL in the last year, joining a list that includes the USWNT’s Tierna Davidson, Catarina Macario and Christen Press; France’s Dzsenifer Marozsán and Marie-Antionette Katoto; Spain’s Alexia Putellas; England’s Beth Mead; Australia’s Ellie Carpenter; Brazil’s Marta; and Denmark’s Nadia Nadim.

Beckie, who helped Canada win its first Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer in 2021, said she is committed to returning to the pitch, writing, “I’ll be supporting my teammates for both club and country this season and it goes without saying I’ll be back better and stronger than ever!”

Since its inception, Angel City FC have strived to be one of the more special places to play in the NWSL. And while some teams may talk about wanting to have a family atmosphere, the Los Angeles-based club is one of the places where those wishes have become reality.

From sold-out stadiums to programs meant to help players in their careers and beyond, Angel City FC have set a standard off the field while being one of the better-faring expansion teams on it. The club finished eighth in last year’s standings, just outside of a playoff spot in their first season.

“There are so many reasons why I think Angel City is special but for me I think it’s just given me a platform to talk about what’s important to me,” captain Ali Riley told Just Women’s Sports. “It’s given me so many resources, I’ve been able to connect with a community that’s given me so much. I’m just really proud to represent my city of LA and give back to the community.”

Such a stellar first year could be tough to beat – but not impossible.

“It’s really hard because last year exceeded all expectations, it was just one of the best years of my life,” Riley said. “But I really want to start to play even better soccer, score more goals and to make the playoffs.”

Sydney Leroux, who was traded to Angel City halfway through last season from the Orlando Pride, has enjoyed getting to experience her first preseason with the club. She adds that the family environment has been “amazing.”

The 32-year-old forward is focused on staying healthy this year after dealing with an ankle injury last season. She hopes to play a full season in Angel City’s frequently sold-out home stadium, she said.

“The moment that I stepped on the field for the first time, it was unbelievable. I’ll remember that for the rest of my life,” she said of her first game with Angel City. “It’s such a family environment, I love being part of this team, part of the club…

“The family vibe we have here, I think it’s amazing to be a part of. Our stadiums are full, and our fans really love us and we love them back.”

As the team looks the game from its debut campaign, it will be able to lean on new additions such as No. 1 overall pick Alyssa Thompson, who already made waves in her professional debut despite being just 18 years old. Other rookies also have been making an impact, Riley said, and she has noticed a higher level of play compared to last year.

“The rookies are great, Alyssa [Thompson] is a sensational player scoring her first goal in our first game back at BMO. And I think they’re just gonna push the level even higher, set the standard higher so that we can compete, and again have a better season this year,” she said.

Leroux concurred with Riley’s assessment.

“I think we stepped our game up a little bit, and I’m really excited to see what we put together on the field,” she said.

This year also likely will include some time away for the World Cup for Riley, who plays for the New Zealand women’s national team, and for other players. But Riley notes that her club team has been instrumental in helping with preparations for the upcoming tournament.

“It is a privilege to be splitting time because I am so excited for this World Cup, especially being at home [in New Zealand],” Riley said. “And I have the benefit of having such amazing Angel City teammates, so when I’m here training it’s preparing me for when I go away with the national team.”