Women's National Teams

After a disappointing SheBelieves Cup that saw Alex Morgan fail to score while totaling just over 90 minutes across three matches, the USWNT striker returned to Lyon, where she is on loan from Orlando Pride until the conclusion of the European season, and completed her first 90-minute match in six months and scored a hat trick.

Lyon were playing Rodez in the quarterfinals of the French Cup, and Morgan contributed three goals in their 6-0 victory. The second goal is definitely the pick of the bunch, a phenomenal finish from the international legend.

Ooh. Yikes.

The USWNT's worst home defeat ever, worst defeat overall since 2007, first time losing back to back matches since 2000, everything's the worst, is what we're trying to say.

The good news: the SheBelieves Cup is a made up friendly tournament and objectively does not matter. 

This fall, when USWNT defender Megan Rapinoe began kneeling during the national anthem to support other athletes in protesting racial inequality in the United States, it touched off a chain of events that revealed US Soccer to be very clueless about its fanbase. That chain of events has added another very silly link:

The USWNT won their first game of 2016 with a 1-0 win over a tough German side. Lynn Williams scored the lone goal, but the real story of the match was USWNT manager Jill Ellis continuing to experiment with a back three.

While the entire 2017 calendar for the USWNT is still unknown, it’s fair to say that the SheBelieves Cup will serve as their biggest and toughest competition of the year. With all four participating nations ranked in the top five of the FIFA Women’s World Rankings, the tournament will prove to be a marquee event. 

UWSNT coach Jill Ellis released the 23-player roster for the Cup that will kick off on Wednesday, March 1 at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania.

No new CBA deal? No problem, apparently. On Thursday, US Soccer announced a two-match trip to Europe for the USWNT this coming summer. The squad will travel to Norway for a friendly on June 11 at the Komplett Arena in Sandefjord. Norway are one of the few nations in the world to have won the World Cup and Olympic gold. 

Without a World Cup, Olympics or a qualifying campaign, all the uSWNT's matches in 2017 matches will be friendlies. However, the collective bargaining agreement that is still to be agreed to with US Soccer remains the main talking point. 

For the players, they will likely take the chance to focus instead on the game itself, especially the young players hoping to stand out in 2017. The USWNT’s next action comes in March against England, Germany and France in the SheBelieves Cup, a friendly tournament hosted by the USA and featuring top-10 FIFA-ranked teams.