A competition for the starting goalkeeper spot appears to be brewing on the U.S. women’s national soccer team.

Casey Murphy, keeper for the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage, got the starting nod in the Concacaf W Championship opener against Haiti, while veteran USWNT goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher was in net for the team’s Thursday match against Jamaica.

The rotation in goal led to much speculation about who owns the starting goalkeeper spot for the USWNT and who will start in the squad’s final Group A game against Mexico at 10 p.m. ET Monday.

USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski declined to name a starter for the Mexico match when asked about Naeher and Murphy following Thursday’s game against Jamaica.

Who will get the start against Mexico?

Case for Alyssa Naeher:

Naeher is an experienced goalkeeper with 81 USWNT caps and two World Cup titles to her name. The 34-year-old spent much of her national team career quietly making a name for herself as a backup to Hope Solo. Before 2015, Naeher had just one international appearance with the United States, and Solo played every minute of the 2015 World Cup run.

The 2019 World Cup served as Naeher’s breakout tournament on the world stage, with the Red Stars keeper owning the starting spot ahead of the team’s trip to France. Naeher quieted any speculation about her readiness for the bright lights of a World Cup, coming up clutch multiple times to help the USWNT clinch the championship.

Naeher again proved her poise in big moments in the Tokyo Olympics, saving three penalty kicks to seal a quarterfinal final win against the Netherlands and advance to the semifinals against Canada. The star goalkeeper’s Olympic run, however, ended in heartbreak, as she injured her knee in the team’s 1-0 semifinal loss to Canada.

HUGE save from Alyssa Naeher to deny Netherlands from the spot 👊

(🎥 @NBCOlympics)pic.twitter.com/qKMWe5Jpd4

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) July 30, 2021

Returning to the pitch in January after rehabilitation, Naeher is looking to solidify her starting spot again.

For Andonovski, Naeher offers a proven ability to make stops in high-stress situations and a veteran presence in the back. Naeher is a known quantity with the confidence to communicate with the backline.

Case for Casey Murphy:

Murphy exploded onto the scene in November with a magnificent USWNT debut, notching eight saves during the squad’s friendly against Australia.

The Courage star denied Sam Kerr multiple times, including with a stunning fingertip stop to clinch a clean sheet. The last player to log a shutout in their debut was Naeher in 2014.

.@CaseyMurph looking like a vet in her first cap 🧤 pic.twitter.com/2A6NIopzy5

— U.S. Soccer WNT (@USWNT) November 27, 2021

At 26 years old, Murphy has tremendous upside that may be hard for Andonovski to ignore. She may not have the international experience Naeher does, but she has shown her ability to make difficult world-class-level saves.

Standing at 6-foot-1, four inches taller than the 5-foot-9 Naeher, her towering height in goal doesn’t hurt either.

The USWNT will finish their Group A play against Mexico at 10 p.m. ET Monday on Paramount+.

The grass court chaos of Wimbledon didn't disappoint this week, as the unpredictable surface claimed more than one surprise victim in the 2025 Grand Slam's first round.

A full 10 of the London tournament's 32 seeded players fell in the competition's first round, including four of the WTA's Top 10: World No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 6 Qinwen Zheng, and No. 9 Paula Badosa.

"I should just play no tournaments, get no wins, then roll into Wimbledon, and maybe I'll have better results," US star Pegula joked after her two-set Tuesday loss to Italy's No. 116 Elisabetta Cocciaretto, referencing her recent wins.

Gauff's short Wimbledon outing also represented a new challenge for the 21-year-old standout, as the top-ranked US tennis player struggled to bounce back after winning the 2025 French Open last month.

"I feel like mentally I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards," Gauff told ESPN. "So I didn’t feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it."

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The upsets continued as Wimbledon entered its second round on Wednesday morning, claiming several more seeded players like world No. 5 Jasmine Paolini and No. 15 Diana Shnaider, though both No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and unseeded fan favorite Naomi Osaka cruised into the Slam's third round on two-set wins.

No. 8 Madison Keys now leads the US contingent, with fellow US contender No. 12 Amanda Anisimova joining the 2025 Australian Open champion in snagging their own two-set, second-round victories on Wednesday.

How to watch the 2025 Wimbledon Championships

Second-round play at the 2025 Wimbledon women's singles tournament continues on Thursday, as seven US players — including No. 10 Emma Navarro and No. 28 Sofia Kenin — look to advance to the competition's third round.

Live continuous coverage of the London Grand Slam airs on ESPN.

The world No. 1 USWNT will close out their summer international break against a familiar foe on Wednesday night, facing North American rival No. 8 Canada for the first time this year.

"It's never friendly, you know? It's always like a final," US midfielder Sam Coffey told media earlier this week. "We all know each other super well."

"I'm really excited to be a part of it again for our younger, newer players," she continued. "I think it's going to be a huge learning opportunity on what representing this crest means."

The Northern neighbors are the USWNT's most frequent opponent, with the US entering the pair's 67th meeting with a 53-4-9 all-time record against Canada.

Wednesday's matchup will also mark Canada's first US clash under new head coach Casey Stoney, who joined the team in January following her abrupt June 2024 dismissal by the NWSL's San Diego Wave FC.

As for US boss Emma Hayes, she'll be looking for yet another refreshed set of starters on Wednesday after swapping out all 11 players between the team's two friendlies against Ireland last week.

"It's a testament to players and staff alike that we can rotate to different groups like we did last game, and everybody's understanding [the tactics] to varying degrees," Hayes said on Tuesday.

With months to go before the next USWNT camp in October, Wednesday's showdown serves as the last chance for bubble players to prove their worth, all while the team aims to cap the summer window with a big win over their longtime rivals.

How to watch the USWNT vs. Canada on Wednesday

The USWNT will cap their three-friendly summer break against Canada at 7:30 PM ET in Washington, DC.

Live coverage of the clash will air on TNT.

The Indiana Fever lifted their first trophy since 2012 on Tuesday night, winning the 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup with a 74-59 upset victory over reigning Cup champs Minnesota — all while injured star guard Caitlin Clark watched from the sidelines.

To snag the win, Indiana leaned on balanced scoring, with forward Natasha Howard's 16-point, 12-rebound double-double leading the Fever's five double-digit shooters.

At the same time, the Fever employed a shutdown defense, limiting the Lynx to their lowest point total of the season.

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Beyond the $500,000 payout, Tuesday's win gives the 8-8 Fever a momentum boost as the team continues contending with both high-profile departures and the limited availability of their floor general.

"We have a resilient group, you know?" Indiana head coach Stephanie White said after the game. "They're tough, mentally and physically, they pull for one another. I'm just really proud."

"It felt good to get a win under gut-check circumstances," echoed guard Kelsey Mitchell. "To have so much going on and still stay consistently for each other, it was beautiful. It felt really amazing."

As for the league-leading Lynx, the Commissioner's Cup loss won't impact Minnesota's regular-season WNBA standings — and they’ll hope to build on the learnings from last night's ego blow.

Minnesota also has a bit of history one their side, as the last two Commissioner's Cup runners-up went on to win the WNBA Championship in the same year.

"We have to take this game to heart and learn from the mistakes we made, the way we showed up, the way we prepared, and make sure we don't do it again," said Lynx center Alanna Smith.

How to watch the Indiana Fever, Minnesota Lynx this week

Neither 2025 Commissioner's Cup contender will have much time to reflect on Tuesday's game, as both Indiana and Minnesota will dive back into regular-season WNBA play on Thursday.

The Fever will host the Las Vegas Aces at 7 PM ET, airing on Prime, before the Washington Mystics visit the Lynx at 8 PM ET, with live coverage on WNBA League Pass.

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham turned heads on Tuesday, criticizing the latest WNBA expansion plans in light of ongoing WNBPA CBA negotiations.

Cunningham drew ire from some fans after expressing skepticism about the WNBA awarding expansion teams to Detroit and Cleveland over other possible cities, while also suggesting that the league might be growing too quickly.

"You want to listen to your players, too. Where do they want to play?" she told reporters ahead of Indiana's Commissioner's Cup win. "I'm not so sure what the thought process is there, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you're not expanding our league too fast."

"It's kind of a hard decision-making situation. But man, I don't know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland]."

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Elsewhere, Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally also voiced her expansion concerns on Tuesday, calling on the WNBA to keep player support at the forefront when adding expansion teams.

"We really have to put an emphasis on the players that are in our league right now," she told reporters. "Maybe focus on the teams that find excuses continuously to lack investment in their players before we focus on adding more to the grain of people that can't really be sustained."