Ellen Fokkema found herself in an unfamiliar position when she came off the bench for Dutch side VV Foarut a few weekends ago. Not because she was the only woman on the pitch playing alongside 21 men, but because of the horde of cameras following her every move that September afternoon.
Fokkema has played for men's club VV Foarut since she was five, progressing all the way up to the club's U-19 side.
The USMNT played one of its worst opening 45 minutes in the modern era on Wednesday night in Honduras, and then followed that up with one of the greatest second halfs we've ever seen. Both were largely down to the choices of Gregg Berhalter, and while we should ultimately value and treasure the second 45, we shouldn't immediately forget about the first half.
The USMNT is only two matches into its 14-game CONCACAF World Cup qualifying odyssey, but one look at the early table shows you why Wednesday’s meeting between the U.S. and Honduras in San Pedro Sula is feeling like a must-win.
While qualification obviously doesn’t hinge on the result, there’s a sense that if the tournament successes of the past summer are to have any real meaning, then the U.S. needs to end this September window with its first win of the Octagonal.
After 419 appearances and 140 goals for Watford, Troy Deeney is announcing his departure from the club. His playing career is not over though, as he joined Birmingham on a free transfer — a fitting move since Deeney has a Blues badge tattooed on his calf, a tribute to his favorite club in the city in which he grew up.
As the holder of the Nations League, Gold Cup and a new world ranking of 10th, the USMNT approaches World Cup qualifying at its highest level of confidence in five years — since John Brooks destroyed the house that Ecuador built at the Copa América.
But the formula for success in CONCACAF never changes: try to win at home, try to draw away. Get that done and you’re going to Qatar; experiment with the formula like Jürgen Klinsmann and you’ll kill Taylor Twellman.
When Gregg Berhalter announced his 26-man roster for the upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifiers in September, there were a lot of people wondering where strikers like Matthew Hoppe and Daryl Dike were. A few were also wondering: Who is Ricardo Pepi, the teenager who was one of three strikers chosen to the squad.
There is nothing more important to a household than the family pets. Well, maybe the humans, but Alex Morgan knows even that is pushing it.
“Dog — cats — alpacas — people,” Morgan said in her latest tier-ranking of animals, obtained exclusively by The18 thanks to an interview set up by Stella & Chewy’s, which makes food for the top two animals on the USWNT star’s ranking.
With the Premier League kicking off this past weekend, soccer is almost back in full form around the world. As some top clubs had unreal losses, others shocked us with a win. There were numerous winners and losers from the first week of action back in the Premier League.
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So good to have fans back in #PL grounds pic.twitter.com/yfnWG1nuVk
If you had to name the current Galácticos of women's club football, the answer is pretty easy: Olympique Lyon. The French side won a record 14 consecutive Ligue 1 titles and five Champions League titles in a row before both streaks were ended by PSG this year.
But 20 years ago, there was an unexpected forerunner in women's soccer, a team full of Galácticos that spawned at a time when the original Galácticos side at Real Madrid was still in its infancy.
In 1999, the USWNT was on top of the world. Americans fell in love with the 99ers who won the Women’s World Cup on home soil, with Brandi Chastain’s shirtless celebration becoming one of the first soccer moments to transcend into mainstream culture in the U.S.
Twenty years later, the USWNT was back on top of the world. Megan Rapinoe led the USWNT to a fourth Women’s World Cup, but the love didn’t necessarily follow. Half of the country hated the team for reasons having little to do with soccer.