ESPN announcers Julie Foudy and Sebastian Salazar talked a lot about the fact the pitch-side mics were clearly picking up everything USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski was saying during his team’s friendly against France on Tuesday. The audio was certainly interesting, but more so because of a faulty output from ESPN than any tidbits gleaned from a coach yelling at his players.
The USWNT is so dominant in world soccer, some games feel like they’re over before they begin. But that’s never the case when Sweden lines up against the U.S., and we saw Saturday as the USWNT narrowly escaped defeat, salvaging a 1-1 draw with a late Megan Rapinoe penalty in a friendly in Stockholm.
Carli Lloyd made history on Saturday, becoming just the third player to record 300 caps for the USWNT, captaining her side on the landmark day in a friendly against Sweden. Only Kristine Lilly and Christie Rampone have appeared for the U.S. more.
Congratulations, @CarliLloyd! pic.twitter.com/SbtKFNWk0U
France was missing a number of key players for a variety of reasons, from injuries to Covid-19. England was playing the same day Prince Philip died at age 99. It was a mismatch.
France showed impressive depth to dispatch England 3-1 in a matchup of two of the world’s best national teams in a friendly on Friday in Caen, France. Next up for France? The best team in the world on Tuesday.
After four World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals, "failure" isn't a word often associated with the U.S. women's national soccer team — unless, of course, the topic is the 2016 Rio Olympics.
After winning gold at the 2012 London Games and triumphing at the 2015 World Cup, the Stars and Stripes flew into Rio under enormous expectations but lost to Sweden in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals.
For all of the gains LGBTQ people have made over the past few decades, sports remain a highly visible reminder that homophobia and transphobia persist.
Over the years FIFA has been opposed to players, teams and fans engaging in protests or sloganeering but it seems global soccer's governing body is perhaps now prepared to tolerate a blurring of the line it once drew between politics and sport.
On Wednesday, Norway's national team players wore T-shirts declaring "Human rights - on and off the pitch" as they lined up before their World Cup qualifier against Gibraltar, and the following day Germany made a similar protest before its qualifier against Iceland in Duisburg.
United States women's head coach Vlatko Andonovski said on Tuesday he plans to name his squad for the Tokyo Olympics in mid-June as he waits to see how several players recover from injuries.
"We have roughly set the middle of June when we're going to know the (Olympic) roster," Andonovski told reporters after announcing a 23-player, veteran-heavy squad for April when the four-times World Cup winners have friendlies against Sweden and France.
23 strong to take on and !
The USWNT is no stranger to inequality fights, so it was no surprise to see some of the team’s biggest stars weighing in on the shocking inequality on display at the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments this week.
As much as we at The18 love women’s soccer, it’s a sad fact that the men’s game receives far more attention, whether it’s from FIFA, other media companies, potential sponsors or the fans themselves. (We could spend hours debating why this is the case, but that’s for another story.) Despite this, there are still a large number of women’s footballers who are far more famous than their partners, who are themselves professional soccer players.