Women's Soccer

March 4 (Reuters) - New Zealand Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell has thrown his support behind coach Jitka Klimková to turn around the fortunes of her underperforming team with less than five months before the Women's World Cup begins.

New Zealand, who will co-host the World Cup with neighbors Australia from July 20 to Aug. 20, lost all their friendlies last month, suffering a 5-0 hammering by Portugal before falling 2-0 and 1-0 to Argentina.

It didn't make much sense when EA Sports announced that women's club soccer was coming to FIFA 23 before launching with only the Women's Super League (England) and Division 1 Féminine (France) while omitting the National Women's Soccer League, but that's reportedly about to be remedied with a free March update ahead of the league's new season.

FIFA's appointment of supermodel Adriana Lima as its global fan ambassador in a Women's World Cup year is "baffling" and sends the wrong message to players and fans, former FIFA Council member Moya Dodd said.

Brazilian Lima will "develop, promote and participate in several global initiatives" in her role as FIFA's first global fan ambassador, the governing body said in a statement on Monday.

France captain Wendie Renard said on Friday that she will not play at this year's Women's World Cup to preserve her mental health, with fellow internationals Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani following suit.

Renard, who is widely considered to be one of the best defenders in women's football, played for France in international games against Norway, Denmark and Uruguay earlier this month.

She has 142 caps for France and plays for French side Olympique Lyonnais.

Panama became the final team to book their ticket for the upcoming Women's World Cup after they defeated Paraguay 1-0 in the final qualifying playoff at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton on Thursday.

Panama, who will play at the World Cup for the first time, will be in Group F with France, Jamaica and Brazil.

No sé quienes son, pero mándenles el pasaporte y háganlos ciudadanos honorarios de Panamá pic.twitter.com/bGZ1xb8Yhl

The USWNT defeated Brazil 2-1 in the SheBelieves Cup on Wednesday to win the tournament going a perfect three wins from three games.

Questions were raised when the news broke that 2022 U.S. Female Player of the Year Sophia Smith would miss the 2023 SheBelieves Cup. Would the USWNT attack still be as lethal? Who will step up?

“Hold my beer,” Mallory Swanson says.

With a 2-1 victory over Chile on Wednesday in Auckland, Haiti made history by securing qualification for their first-ever Women's World Cup finals. It's a remarkable achievement that highlights the growth of the team after not even reaching the final stage of Concacaf qualifying during the previous cycle, although there's one clear star of the show: 19-year-old phenom Melchie Dumornay.

The noise is unrelenting. From the moment we wake until our day's complete, we're exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 ads that enter our consciousness and demand consideration. The market around the game of soccer is no different, where footwear brands promise innovations that can make you stronger, faster and more powerful than you'd ever imagined — only to declare them obsolete just months later as the newest product is rolled out. We get swept away by technological "advances" and spend hundreds of dollars wrapping our feet in unforgiving synthetic plastic.