With Women’s World Cup qualifying three weeks away, USWNT players are peaking at the right time. Alex Morgan is unstoppable, Sophia Smith and Mal Pugh are lighting up the scoreboards and Rose Lavelle is literally flying.
A highly anticipated meeting between league-leading San Diego Wave and perennial NWSL Championship contender OL Reign delivered on Sunday afternoon at Torero Stadium in SoCal.
The home crowd was on its feet in the eighth-minute as Alex Morgan got on the end of goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan's long ball forward before cooly collecting her ninth goal of the season in just nine appearances.
The 2022 Concacaf W Championship is just 26 days away, so USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski has to be close to knowing the final 23-player squad he'll name for the tournament in Mexico — which serves as qualifying for both the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympic Games.
But he's not showing his hand yet.
On Monday, Concacaf revealed the provisional rosters for the W Championship, so while the final 23 will have to be selected from this list, the provisional roster for the USWNT includes an all-encompassing 59 names.
The San Diego Wave twice came from a goal down thanks to an Alex Morgan brace, including a 90th-minute equalizer, to snatch a 2-2 draw with Kansas City on Saturday to stay atop the early NWSL standings with 13 points from seven games.
The Wave is undefeated at home (2-0), but they've been exceptionally good on the road for an expansion side (2-2-1). They just wouldn't quit on Sunday at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City.
Kristen Hamilton had given the Current the lead in the 11th-minute, but Morgan brought the Wave level from the spot in the 37th.
After fielding the oldest squad at both the 2019 World Cup and 2020 Summer Olympics, a changing of the guard was inevitable for the USWNT ahead of building toward the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Carli Lloyd, the team's most capped player and leading scorer, retired last year, but is Alex Morgan still on the USWNT?
Morgan is now the team's leading active goalscorer with 115 in 190 appearances (0.61 per game), and the 32-year-old figures to play a huge role at both this summer's Concacaf W Championship in Mexico and next summer's World Cup.
The 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup isn’t over yet, but the 2022 NWSL regular season is upon us. While four teams still compete for the first trophy of the season, expansion club Angel City FC hosts the N.C. Courage at 10:30 p.m. ET on Friday night (live on CBSSN) to open what is sure to be an enthralling campaign. That means it’s time for some NWSL predictions.
To say 2021 was a bad year for women’s soccer in the U.S. would be an understatement of epic proportions. In October, The Athletic detailed horrifying allegations of verbal abuse and sexual coercion by N.C. Courage coach Paul Riley, sending shockwaves through the NWSL.
The United States women’s national team is quickly turning into team Mom as another player has announced her pregnancy. It was revealed on Friday that two-time NWSL and 2019 World Cup champion Allie Long is having twins.
In September, the USWNT crushed Paraguay in back-to-back friendlies by a 17-0 aggregate score. This past week, the USWNT crushed Uzbekistan in back-to-back friendlies by an 18-1 aggregate score. While the September matches felt mostly a waste of time, the April matches felt instructive and useful, for both Vlatko Andonovski’s plans moving forward and U.S. fans trying to figure out those plans.
CBS broadcast the Challenge Cup match between expansion clubs San Diego Wave FC and Angel City FC on Saturday, putting the NWSL front and center. The fans followed, with nearly half a million viewers tuning in for the first Challenge Cup match on TV in 2022. The latest NWSL TV ratings, when the games are put on CBS and not hidden on Paramount+, are impressive, far more so than MLS TV ratings in 2022.