The NWSL would’ve started its eighth season last weekend, but like everything else in the sports world, the preeminent women’s soccer league has been forced into hiatus amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
It’s been nearly six full months since we last saw the NSWL in action, when the NC Courage hammered Chicago 4-0 to claim a second straight title. It’s been six weeks since we saw the USWNT on the pitch, the world champs having last taken the field to win the SheBelieves Cup in early March.
If you miss seeing your favorite women’s soccer players in action, you’re not alone; we feel you. Fortunately, there’s a way to show off your support for USWNT and NWSL players in Nintendo’s hit social simulation Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
New Horizons, the latest installment in the beloved Animal Crossing series, came out on March 20 on the Nintendo Switch, just as we were all settling in for a nice, long quarantine. The game has you control a customizable character on your own island to do chores like picking fruit, catching fish, crafting furniture and terraforming the land, all to pay off student loan debt a mortgage to Tom Nook. The game plays out in real time, and you can invite friends onto your island or visit the islands of friends. You can even design your own clothing.
The game has been an incredible success. With people around the world staying at home under shelter-in-place orders, the game sold more than five million digital copies in its first month, breaking a record set by Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Switch consoles themselves have become impossible to find, available only at absurdly high prices thanks to bots buying up every last console available at MSRP. (Yes, I’m bitter, because it’s kept me from purchasing a Switch.)
So while soccer is on pause, Animal Crossing is soaring. And of course folks are looking to put soccer into AC.
Fortunately, thanks to the hard work of devoted fans like Reddit’s u/zearbearz, adding women’s soccer to your island is super easy.
Zearbearz has painstakingly recreated a number of women’s soccer jerseys into Animal Crossing, shirts that you can proudly wear to support the most successful footballers in the world.
Among the jerseys available at Bearz’s shop are Tobin Heath, Christen Press, Alyssa Naeher, Rachel Daly and Kelley O’Hara. Just look at the level of detail, down to the Nike swoosh and the fourth star on O’Hara’s USWNT shirt.
Animal Crossing Soccer Jerseys
Photos courtesy u/zearbearz.
And if you want to go one step further, you can import a soccer pitch onto your island too, also designed by Zearbearz.
How To Wear Animal Crossing Soccer Jerseys
To get these Animal Crossing soccer jerseys into your own game, you must unlock the Able Sisters Tailor Shop and search for either the Creator ID or Design ID, download the design you want then choose to wear it via your Nook Phone. This guide explains each step in more detail. Note: You need internet access and a paid Nintendo Online subscription.
To check out all of these designs from Zearbearz, you can use the Creator ID MA-1725-9053-5744.
And who knows, maybe if the USMNT ever makes it back to a World Cup, they’ll get their own custom jerseys in Animal Crossing.
