Women's Soccer

The USWNT hadn’t suffered a defeat since last July’s Tournament of Nations match against Australia, so with the clock striking 90 in tonight's rematch and the Matildas holding a 1-0 lead thanks to Chloe Logarzo’s 22nd minute strike, it looked like time was indeed a flat circle. But Lindsey Horan’s header at the death pushed the USWNT’s unbeaten streak to 18 games and kept the host nation in the running for the 2018 Tournament of Nations trophy. 

The USWNT defeated Japan 4-2 to begin Tournament of Nations play (essentially the warmup for October’s World Cup qualifying event) with Alex Morgan registering a hat-trick inside 56 minutes and The Best FIFA Women’s Player finalist Megan Rapinoe adding the fourth in the 66th.   

International football’s governing body revealed its candidates for the FIFA Best Women's Player award on Tuesday, the winner of which will be announced at the Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony in London in two months.

Here is FIFA’s list of the nominees up for the award:

In her post-game interview on July 7 after playing former club Sky Blue, Chicago Red Stars forward Sam Kerr did not want to talk about her hat-trick or the satisfaction of clinching three points on the road. Rather, Kerr used the mic in front of her to say this: “I wish things were better here [at Sky Blue]. I’m just going to say the girls deserve better and I’m just going to leave it at that. These girls are great girls. They give everything of themselves for this club and this league and they just deserve better.

The 2018 Tournament of Nations is set to get under way on July 26. The competition consists of a series of friendly games between four of the world’s top women’s national teams. Like last summer, this year’s edition will feature the national teams of Australia (ranked 8th by FIFA), Brazil (7th), Japan (6th) and the hosts, the United States (1st).

Yesterday, USWNT coach Jill Ellis released her preliminary list of 25 players for the tournament.

HAO is coming home. This past week, the North Carolina Courage announced that they had made the move for Heather O'Reilly, who has been in England with Arsenal for the past year and a half. 

USWNT fans rejoice, Christen Press is back plying her trade on American soil. New kids on the block Utah Royals FC traded away Brooke Elby and five draft picks (including the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft) for the former Chicago Red Star forward’s rights. 

Tobin Heath missed the start of the 2018 NWSL season with an ankle injury and hadn’t played for her country since September. She returned in style, scoring the winner for the USWNT vs China as the U.S. won 2-1 on Tuesday in Cleveland. 

The U.S. women have now gone 16 matches without a loss, last tasting defeat on July 27, 2017. China gave the USWNT a run for its money, especially in the second half, and scored an equalizer in the 72nd minute. But Heath scored three minutes later and order was restored. 

Heath’s goal itself was a bit goofy.