Each month in the leadup to the World Cup, Just Women’s Sports will make the case for one player as most essential to the success of the USWNT in 2023.

Rose Lavelle burst onto the scene in spectacular fashion at the 2019 World Cup.

The midfielder’s low shot in the World Cup final served as a critical insurance goal for the U.S. women’s national team, helping the squad to a 2-0 win over the Netherlands and its second straight World Cup title.

Lavelle has remained a USWNT mainstay since her breakthrough run in France, evolving into a critical piece of the squad’s midfield.

Rose Lavelle's goal in the World Cup final was fun to watch again. Thanks FS1. pic.twitter.com/K5oMIPPess

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) March 21, 2020

The 27-year-old OL Reign star acts as the lever for the USWNT’s attack, injecting the squad with an offensive creativity unique to Lavelle.

World-class on the ball, she is known for her ability to take defenders one-on-one and create space with her talent in possession. She is particularly gifted in tight spaces, linking up with the frontline in the final third with ease.

Former USWNT coach Jill Ellis, who led Lavelle and the group to their 2019 World Cup trophy, praised Lavelle’s singular skillset.

“She’s an incredibly technical player, and we have very players to play off her,” Ellis told reporters in 2018. “But just her sense of awareness, of space…I think she just sees and reads the game very well, and she solves pressure exceptionally well.

“Her timing and just her cleanness on the ball is really special.”

The backheel assist from Rose Lavelle 🤤

(via @AttackingThird)pic.twitter.com/2EGgupB7Al

— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 15, 2022

What makes Lavelle so essential to the USWNT, however, is her ability to impact a game. When Lavelle is firing on all cylinders, the USWNT is on. When she isn’t finding touches or her place in a match, chances are the U.S. squad is struggling.

As a formidable presence down the spine of the pitch, Lavelle acts as the team’s connective tissue, often serving in dangerous passes to the forwards.

On the other side of the ball, Lavelle acts as a necessary defensive authority, winning the ball high up the pitch.

“Rose Lavelle is the best at defending in transition in the world,” USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski said in 2021. “There’s not a player that transitions as well as she does.

“And I know because of her creativity and because of how good she is on the ball or in possession, we don’t talk much (about) how good she is out of possession. But she’s not just world-class, she’s the best in the world in that situation of the game.”

So far in 2022 for the USWNT, Lavelle has four goals and six assists. Her assists mark puts her one back of team leader Mallory Pugh, who has seven.

As the United States midfield continues to develop without anchor Julie Ertz, who is out after giving birth to her first child in August, Lavelle has shown herself as an increasingly irreplaceable link on the field.

Who is the most essential USWNT player?

• The case for… Mallory Swanson
• The case for… Sophia Smith
• The case for… Catarina Macario
• The case for… Alex Morgan
• The case for… Becky Sauerbrunn
• The case for… Lynn Williams
• The case for… Julie Ertz
• The case for… Naomi Girma
• The case for… Crystal Dunn

The Women's Super League (WSL) is growing, with the UK league's top two flights deciding in a Monday expansion vote to enlarge its top tier from 12 to 14 teams ahead of the 2026/27 season.

The number of matches played each season will also balloon from 22 to 26 games to accommodate the incoming clubs, as will established cup competitions.

Monday also saw the WSL vote down a prior proposal to temporarily suspend the relegation and promotion process to accommodate this expansion, deciding instead to adopt a "two up, one down" model for the second-tier WSL2 next season.

As such, the top two finishers of the 2025/26 WSL2 season will automatically join the higher-tier WSL, while the WSL's last-place team will battle the WSL2's third-place club in "a high-profile, high stakes match" for the final spot in the top flight.

After reaching 14 teams, both leagues will return to relegating the last-place WSL finisher while promoting the WSL2's top team for the following season.

Along with the increased investment in club infrastructure, a 14-team WSL keeps pace with the global women's game — most notably, the NWSL, which will become a 16-team league in 2026.

"Our priority was to find a route that would benefit the whole women's game pyramid, and we believe this next evolution of women's professional football will raise minimum standards, create distinction, and incentivize investment across the board," said WSL Football CEO Nikki Doucet.

With EuroBasket set to tip off on Wednesday and injuries mounting league-wide, WNBA teams are filling out dwindling rosters with more short-term contracts — and calling back some familiar faces along the way.

While some European standouts withdrew from EuroBasket consideration — including Phoenix's Satou Sabally and Seattle's Gabby Williams — others, like New York's Leonie Fiebich and Golden State's Temi Fagbenle, will join their national teams for the regional FIBA tournament through the end of June.

Due to these planned absences, WNBA teams temporarily suspend their EuroBasket players' contracts, allowing squads to add others to their rosters.

Players signed due to temporary absences are technically on rest-of-season deals, though the agreements can end whenever the missing athletes return.

In contrast, the league requires that teams release any hardship signings due to injury once squads tally enough healthy original players to satisfy the WNBA's 10-athlete roster minimum.

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Featuring a lineup stacked with international talent, Golden State made the most transactions this week, temporarily suspending four regular contracts as 2025 EuroBasket stars departed for the annual competition.

To bolster their depleted bench, the Valkyries brought back 2025 WNBA Draft Cinderella pick Kaitlyn Chen and recent training camp participant Laeticia Amihere on short-term contracts, in addition to guard Aerial Powers and forward Chloe Bibby.

Elsewhere, after losing forward Maddy Siegrist to injury and temporarily suspending the contracts of centers Teaira McCowan and Luisa Geiselsöder, Dallas acquired center Li Yueru from Seattle — with the Wings possibly needing additional hardship signings in the coming days.

The Storm snagged two future draft picks in the Saturday deal — a second-round selection in 2026 and a third-round pick in 2027.

Ultimately, teams are striving to find a balance between stocking up and maintaining consistency, all while operating under the WNBA's roster constraints — with further league expansion fast approaching.

The 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup will wrap up its conference play on Tuesday, as both Eastern and Western teams battle for a ticket to the in-season competition's championship game — and a cut of the $500,000 prize pool.

With 12 of the league's 13 teams facing off across Tuesday's WNBA courts, the results will set the stage by minting the two squads who will battle in the July 1st final showdown.

Reigning Commissioner's Cup champs Minnesota have the West's easiest path, as a win over the Las Vegas Aces will send the Lynx to a second straight final.

Should the Lynx fall to the Aces, however, Seattle can grab the Western Conference berth by beating the Los Angeles Sparks.

Meanwhile in the East, a surging Atlanta could land a trip to the final by topping New York, while the Liberty need both a win over the Dream plus a loss by the Indiana Fever to clinch their own return ticket to the Cup's grand finale.

If New York does take down Atlanta, the Fever could advance to the team's first-ever Commissioner's Cup final by beating the struggling Connecticut Sun.

How to watch Tuesday's 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup games

All of Tuesday's six WNBA games count toward the 2025 Commissioner's Cup tally.

The action begins with the Atlanta Dream tipping off against the New York Liberty while the Indiana Fever battles the Connecticut Sun at 7 PM ET, live on WNBA League Pass.

Chicago Sky star Angel Reese made headlines this week, with the second-year WNBA forward announcing that she has trademarked word "mebounds" — a slang term opposing fans use to describe Reese rebounding her own missed shots.

"Whoever came up with the 'mebounds' thing, y’all ate that up, because mebounds, rebounds, keybounds...anything that comes off that board, it's mine," Reese said in a TikTok video on Saturday.

"And a brand? That's six figures right there," she continued, referencing her trademark application. "The trolling — I love when y'all do it because the ideas be good!"

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Currently averaging 11.9 boards per matchup, Reese is leading the WNBA in rebounds for the second straight season.

Her rookie campaign saw Reese average 13.1 boards per game, a rate that set a single-season league record. She also blasted through the WNBA's consecutive double-double record last season, claiming it with 10 straight before extending it to an impressive 15 games.

Along with the average rebounds record, Reese also broke the single-season total rebounds record previously held by retired Minnesota Lynx legend Sylvia Fowles — a mark that was later surpassed by 2024 MVP A'ja Wilson following Reese's season-ending wrist injury.

"Statistically, all the rebounds that I get aren't always just mine," Reese added in her Saturday social media post. "They're the defense's, too, or somebody else on my team."