Women's Soccer

The NWSL could use a positive headline in the next few weeks. First, the NWSL lost its biggest star in Alex Morgan, who is moving to play at Lyon through the summer. Her parent club, the Orlando Pride, will open their brand new stadium without their biggest attraction. 

Crystal Dunn is one of the most explosive players in the USWNT player pool and has been one of the best players in the NWSL in the past few seasons.

Now she's heading to England to play for Chelsea, following USWNT teammate Alex Morgan (at Lyon in France) to Europe.

2016 was a great year for the NWSL as the league marked a record fourth season for professional women’s soccer in America. Meanwhile, the US Women’s National Team had a disappointing year, finishing medal-less in Rio following the high of winning the World Cup in 2015. 

Here is a look at the key dates throughout 2017 for both the league and the national team: 

January 1st - Collective Bargaining Agreement Ended

In the weeks around the holidays the NWSL has been fairly quiet in player movement or league news. However, the league office made a big addition last week, and one that cost the USL a successful leader.

Last week the NWSL announced the Amanda Duffy would become the new managing director of operations for the league. Duffy joins the NWSL leaving a great position at a rising USL franchise, Louisville City FC.

For the past few years Alex Morgan has been the face of the women’s game. Not just the United States Women’s National Team, or the NWSL, but the entire sport. Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe have all been major stars for past two World Cup cycles, as well as newsworthy, but Morgan is the most marketable star on the USWNT, the player advertisers want, young players are admiring and the face of the league. 

In the ever-evolving world that is US Soccer expansion, attraction to the game is just as important as on the field product at the moment. Sure, everyone wants to see two teams playing the beautiful game on great pitches and new soccer-specific stadiums. But for the NWSL, national media attention, television coverage and the need to connect to the general public are far more important for the young league. 

The 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations, the biennial tournament contested by the women’s national teams of Africa to decide the continent’s champion, ended on December 3 — the date of the final in Yaounde, Cameroon.

The tournament was won by Nigeria for a record-setting 10th time. The Super Falcons finished the tournament undefeated, scoring 13 goals and only conceding one in five matches. Players like Asisat Oshoala, Desire Oparanozie and Osinachi Ohale were national heroes, and they’d accomplished this all without having ever been paid.

The FA, in its infinite wisdom, has decided there needs to be more girls playing the beautiful game in England. This in and of itself is a reasonable thing to want. Gender equality is good and the FA should want that. 

What is not reasonable or good is the document they made full of suggestions on how to get more females playing soccer.

Specifically, these suggestions were clearly not written by women, or girls, or anyone who has ever met a woman or girl.

Crystal Dunn, Tobin Heath, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, and Becky Sauerbrunn were all nominees for 2016 Female Player of the Year. Tobin Heath beat out all of her USWNT teammates and took home the title.