The 2023 World Cup is fast approaching, with just six months to go until the tournament kicks off in Australia and New Zealand.

The U.S. women’s national team has spent the last six months already ramping up its preparation. And former USWNT stars have not been shy in offering their thoughts on the current roster, including Mia Hamm, Carli Lloyd and more.

Just Women’s Sports rounds up what former USWNT World Cup champions have said about the 2023 squad, which will continue to ratchet up its intensity level this month with a trip to New Zealand to face the Football Ferns.

Julie Foudy

The USWNT lost three games in a row in October and November before rebounding with a win against Germany to close out the year. While the losing streak sounded alarm bells, Foudy saw them as just part of the process for a developing roster.

“You’re playing against three of the best teams in the world who could easily win this next World Cup, and that’s what you want to see at that level,” she told Just Women’s Sports in December. “And they’re still so young. I mean, that’s the thing we often forget when people start to panic about what is happening with this team.

“This is a rebuild. That’s going to take some time.”

Foudy — who played with the USWNT from 1988 until 2004 and won the 1991 and 1999 World Cups with the squad — pointed to forwards Mallory Pugh and Sophia Smith as bright spots. And while she acknowledged the team’s many injuries, she said there had been “too much discussion” about the missing players.

“Guess what? That’s part of soccer,” she said. “Yes, the U.S. has a ton of injuries right now. But that’s part of it. It’s the next person up.”

Even with the injuries, Foudy likes the USWNT’s chances in Group E, which also includes the Netherlands, Vietnam and a winner from the intercontinental playoff.

“It’s a very winnable group,” Foudy said on CBS Sports’ “Attacking Third” podcast in November. “I think with the expanded field of 32 teams, you have a pretty clear delineation of those top two teams in the groups. I think it’s a good group. It’s a good matchup.”

Mia Hamm

Two young stars in particular have stood out to Hamm in the USWNT’s World Cup warm-ups, she told Bleacher Report in December: 24-year-old Mallory Pugh Swanson and 23-year-old Catarina Macario.

Pugh was snubbed from the U.S. Olympic roster in 2021 but since then has undergone a career renaissance.

“When I see her play, the joy on her face is what excites me about her future,” said Hamm, who played for the USWNT from 1987-2004. “I’m really excited to watch her play next summer.”

Macario is nearing her return from an ACL injury she suffered in June, and Hamm praised her “savvy and understanding.”

Carli Lloyd

Not all the discussion of the current iteration of the USWNT has been positive. After the team fell 2-1 to Germany in November for its third loss in a row, Lloyd called out the team on Twitter.

“The winning culture and mentality that has carried on from generation to generation within the USWNT has been fizzling away,” she wrote. “I said it when I retired. I saw it slipping away. Players have to embody that. That’s been our DNA since the ’80s, but not so much anymore.”

Lloyd spent 17 years on the national team before her retirement in 2021, and she played an integral role in the 2015 and 2019 World Cup runs. But the 40-year-old believes the 2023 World Cup will be “the hardest one to win yet,” she said on the “Attacking Third” podcast in November.

Heather O’Reilly

The November loss to Germany also prompted O’Reilly to question the USWNT’s urgency. The three-game losing streak marked the national team’s longest since 1993.

Briana Scurry

Ahead of last summer’s World Cup qualifying tournament, the former USWNT goalkeeper talked about the growing scrutiny USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski would come under. Andonovski took the helm after the 2019 World Cup win, then led the team to the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

“Vlatko’s going to be a topic of discussion, I believe, going forward with regards to his choices,” Scurry told Just Women’s Sports in June. “He’s got a lot of pressure on him, and obviously he’s got a whole year until actually coaching the World Cup tournament itself. But this is going to be an indicator of his philosophies.”

In particular, she pointed out Andonovski’s “odd” answer to a question on Christen Press.

The veteran USWNT forward did not make the qualifying roster. While her absence was not a surprise, as she had just torn her ACL while playing for Angel City FC, Andonovski said the injury did not factor into his roster decision.

“Christen Press was not on the roster even before the injury,” Andonovski said.

The 2025 NCAA volleyball season is down to four top teams, as the Division I national championship tournament's Final Four takes the court in Kansas City on Thursday night.

No. 1 seeds Pitt and Kentucky survived a series of high-profile tournament upsets to punch their tickets to Thursday's semifinals, where No. 3 seeds Texas A&M and Wisconsin will join the Panthers and Wildcats.

"The Final Four is just so special, it is so incredible," Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield said ahead of Thursday's action. "You want as many of your players that are committed, that decide to come here, you want them to experience that."

Two teams will look to make history this weekend, with Pitt and Texas A&M both in pursuit of a program-first national championship.

While the Aggies are in uncharted territory, booking their first-ever semifinals berth last weekend, the Panthers are hunting a breakthrough, hoping to claim a first-ever championship final appearance in their fifth consecutive trip to the Final Four.

As for Kentucky and Wisconsin, the Wildcats and Badgers will be looking to add a second trophy to their cases after booking their first program titles in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA volleyball Final Four

The 2025 NCAA volleyball semifinals begin at 6:30 PM ET on Thursday, when No. 3 Texas A&M takes on No. 1 Pitt before No. 3 Wisconsin faces No. 1 Kentucky at 9 PM ET.

Both Final Four clashes will air live on ESPN.

As the 2028 LA Olympics come into focus, the FIFA Council unveiled the regional allocations for the Summer Games' first-ever 16-team women's soccer tournament this week.

According to the Council's Wednesday report, 2.5 slots will go to AFC (Asia), 2 to CAF (Africa), 3 to Concacaf (North and Central America), 2.5 to Conmebol (South America), 1 to OFC (Oceania), and 4 to UEFA (Europe), with one additional slot reserved, as always, for the host nation — the reigning Olympic gold medalist USWNT.

While the expanded competition allows for greater depth, one AFC and one Conmebol team will ostensibly have to face an inter-continental playoff to determine which region can send an additional team to the 2028 Olympics.

One the other hand, Concacaf's representation will double from 2024, growing from two to four teams given the automatic berth of the USWNT.

Similarly, after host nation France's autobid boosted UEFA'a 2024 allocation to three teams, this week's new distribution doubles the European confederation's previous non-host two-team max for the LA Games — meaning all four of the 2027 UEFA Nations League semifinalists will qualify to compete for gold in 2028.

Notably, CAF and OFC are the only confederations to not see an increase on their previous allocation from the FIFA Council.

The puck dropped on the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour on Wednesday, when the No. 2 Montréal Victoire took down the No. 5 Toronto Sceptres 2-1 in an overtime shootout in front of a sold-out crowd in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Packed into Scotiabank Centre, 10,438 fans watched Team Canada and Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin score the shootout's lone goal, handing Montréal their third straight win.

"It was amazing to see the young girls and boys in the crowd wearing our jerseys, saying our names, and wanting our autographs," said Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie. "It's just extremely special."

The PWHL's 16-stop Takeover Tour is just beginning, with nine games planned for Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Washington DC, Denver, and more before the league pauses for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

"We hope that the impact is a positive one. Everywhere we go, that's the impression we want to leave — for little girls to know that they have a dream and that their dream can become a reality," said Sceptres captain and Nova Scotia product Blayre Turnbull following Wednesday's Tour stop.

Halifax marks the third-year league's fourth sold-out stop, joining fellow Canadian cities Edmonton, Québec City, and Vancouver.

How to attend the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour

The PWHL will next pull into Chicago's Allstate Arena for a Takeover Tour stop on Sunday, when the No. 8 Ottawa Charge will take on the No. 6 Minnesota Frost on at 2 PM ET.

Tickets are currently available for purchase via Ticketmaster.

Months after Napheesa Collier set the WNBA ablaze with her viral exit interview criticizing league leadership, the Minnesota Lynx star said "nothing has changed" at the front office level as CBA negotiations stall.

"The conversation has been had now [and] people are seeing that changes need to be made," Collier said this week from Miami, where Unrivaled 3×3 is gearing up for its second campaign.

"I feel confident in the [union] and where we are internally with our players and the future," she continued.

In her October press conference, Collier publicly called the WNBA front office "the worst leadership in the world," putting commissioner Cathy Engelbert in the hot seat amid tense CBA negotiations with serious implications on next season's play.

The league and the WNBPA are currently sparring over revenue sharing, with diverging compensation expectations further distancing the two sides.

"Obviously, there's frustration in that both sides are trying to get what they want, but we still have that fire within us that we're willing to do what it takes," Collier said. "We're going to do whatever it takes to get what we think we deserve."

As talks drag on, Collier sees Unrivaled — the offseason 3×3 league she co-founded with New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart — as fueling the players' fight.

"Us being here in December and January until March, it's a crucial time in the CBA," Collier acknowledged.

"Having us all in one place is beneficial," she explained. "To have players congregate in that way, where you can have those in-person conversations and updates like that, that does help to get things moving more quickly."