NWSL

The 10th annual NWSL Draft was held on Saturday evening, and with the No. 1 overall pick, expansion side San Diego Wave FC selected Stanford defender Naomi Girma, who was U.S. Soccer's 2020 Young Female Player of the Year.

Girma joins a San Diego backline anchored by USWNT veteran Abby Dahlkemper and former Stanford teammate Tegan McGrady. The 21-year-old can also play in midfield, where she may be needed after the club selected a forward, German international Marleen Schimmer out of Grand Canyon University, with its ninth pick in the first round.  

Carli Lloyd passed the torch to Lindsey Horan this year. Lloyd, who won two Women’s World Cups wearing the vaunted No. 10 jersey, bequeathed the number to Horan after retiring. On Thursday night, it was Horan who honored the jersey by being named U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year. 

San Diego Wave FC can do no wrong. One month after the new NWSL club revealed its name, San Diego unveiled the club’s crest on Wednesday and hot damn is it a crest. I gave the name an 8/10 rating. This crest is a straight 10/10.

San Diego Wave Crest

San Diego, our crest has risen. pic.twitter.com/iSbmhMVOsx

As if the recent NWSL trading spree hasn’t been enough to keep track of — Krashlyn off to New York, Julie Ertz to LA and now Alex Morgan going to San Diego — two major financial news stories dropped for the U.S. women’s national team on Monday.

It’s a busy time in the NWSL. Players are coming and going across the league, from big-name stars to lesser-known role players ahead of next week’s NWSL Expansion Draft and NWSL Draft. But that doesn’t excuse what Racing Louisville did this week.

U.S. Soccer announced the nominees for its wide range of 2021 Player of the Year awards, and voting is open now for fans until Dec. 12. The finalists for the awards highlight where the men’s and women’s national teams are right now, and they’re clearly not in the same place.