Women's Soccer

ESPN has just officially secured the exclusive worldwide broadcasting rights to the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). The deal, which gives ESPN the rights to both the regular season and playoffs, allows ESPN Player subscribers to broadcast NWSL matches in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia.

It’s that time of year again: FIFA has announced the 10 finalists for the annual Puskás Award, the trophy given to the player, male or female, “judged to have scored the most aesthetically significant, or ‘most beautiful,’ goal of the calendar year.”

This most certainly wasn’t the case last year when Mohamed Salah scooped the award after Liverpool and Egypt supporters spammed the fan vote. The goal Salah scored against Everton back in December of 2018 hadn’t even won the Premier League’s Goal of the Month, so it was an awful joke to see it given the prestigious Puskás Award.

The Women’s International Champions Cup kicks off Thursday — and it’s kind of a big deal. 

While the men’s International Champions Cup is just a glorified list of preseason exhibitions, the women’s version actually means something. Aside from the UEFA Women’s Champions League, it’s rare for women’s clubs to face off against clubs from other countries, let alone continents. There is no Club World Cup for women, so the Women’s International Champions Cup fills the gaps left by FIFA’s lack of commitment to the women’s game.

The USWNT’s search for equal pay and equality looks to be heading back to the courts.

The U.S. women’s national team sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for gender discrimination earlier this year. The two sides decided to meet for mediation to come to an agreement before going to court.

Those talks appear to have broken down on Wednesday.

On the heels of the announcement of Kate Markgraf as the first general manager of the USWNT, the USSF has stated it will be preparing a bid to host the 2027 Women's World Cup. The 2027 bid has been hinted at over the past year, with president Carlos Cordeiro mentioning a potential bid at a USSF meeting in February.

U.S. Soccer also reaffirmed they intend to bid for the 2027 Women's World Cup in the final section.

Frank de Boer, manager of Atlanta United, has become the talk of the town after calling equal pay “ridiculous.” 

In an interview with the Guardian he said:

There’s no more convenient way to earn a surfboard than by winning at the Teen Choice Awards, so Lionel Messi and Tobin Heath will be disappointed to have lost out on Choice Male Athlete and Choice Female Athlete, respectively, at the 2019 award show in Hermosa Beach, California, on Sunday night.

But soccer still got its moment in the spotlight when Taylor Swift was presented with the inaugural Icon Award at the show — presenting her surfboard was USWNT star Alex Morgan.