Category: NWSL

Olivia Moultrie, 16, becomes youngest goalscorer in NWSL history

The Thorns teenager made history with a 74th-minute goal in Houston

Olivia Moultrie made history on Sunday night by becoming the youngest NWSL goalscorer ever.

The 16-year-old scored the third on the night for the Portland Thorns against the Houston Dash, the first goal in her burgeoning professional career.

Sophia Smith took advantage of a bad turnover from the Dash in their own box and squared the ball for Moultrie, who was left with a simple task for her history-making strike.

Moultrie made headlines when she signed with an agent and landed a deal with Nike at age 13. After training with the Thorns for two years, Moultrie successfully sued the NWSL last year for the right to turn professional.

The NWSL had a rule in place prohibiting any player younger than 18 from playing in the league, but after her legal victory, Moultrie became the youngest player in league history when she signed with the Thorns at age 15.

Earlier this year, Moultrie was the youngest player on the U.S. Under-20 national team squad that won the CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship.

Watch Moultrie’s historic goal

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Christen Press leaves Angel City FC game with knee injury

The prognosis is unclear after Press appeared to twist her knee

Christen Press was forced out of Angel City FC’s game Saturday night against Racing Louisville with an apparent knee injury.

Press twisted her knee and, after receiving some treatment on the field, was helped off the field by a team trainer and teammate Megan Reid. Angel City ended up substituting her shortly thereafter, bringing in Clarisse Le Bihan in the 66th minute.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Angel City head coach Freya Coombe said the prognosis was uncertain. “I haven’t had that update,” said Coombe. “I need to go in with (our medical team) and see how she’s doing.”

Midfielder Savannah McCaskill added that as a team, Angel City are “hoping and praying that she’s going to be okay, and (the injury) is nothing major.”

The injury comes at a crucial moment for both Press and the U.S. women’s national team. Press was named to the USWNT’s preliminary roster for the CONCACAF W Championship earlier this week, and Vlatko Andonovski is poised to announce the roster for this month’s national team camp, which leads right into the tournament.

The W Championship, which serves as qualifying for both the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics, runs from July 4-18 in Mexico.

Press’ contract with Manchester United ended in June 2021, and after Louisville traded her NWSL rights to Angel City two months later, she was effectively without a club to play for until Angel City’s expansion season began this year.

Press didn’t receive call-ups for the USWNT during that spell, but as a regular 90-minute player with Angel City this year, she figured to be back in the picture for Andonovski, and has been consistently at the heart of most of the LA-based club’s goals in NWSL. In Saturday’s 3-2 win over Louisville, Press scored one before setting up another for McCaskill, who would go on to net the game-winner with a stoppage-time penalty kick.

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Following Amanda Cromwell suspension, Orlando Pride keeping focus short-term

For the moment, interim coach Seb Hines and captain Gunnhildur Jónsdottir just want to win on Sunday.

Just one day after NWSL announced that Orlando Pride head coach Amanda Cromwell and assistant Sam Greene would both be placed on temporary administrative leave amid an investigation into alleged retaliation, interim coach Seb Hines and team captain Gunnhildur Jónsdóttir said the team is narrowing their focus for the time being to simply winning their next game.

With Cromwell and Greene suspended, the Pride coaching staff consists of Hines, USWNT legend Michelle Akers, and goalkeeper coach Aline Villares Reis. Cromwell is the second NWSL head coach to be suspended this year, following James Clarkson with the Houston Dash. Clarkson’s situation remains unresolved at this point.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a road game against the Chicago Red Stars this Sunday, both Hines and Jónsdóttir offered little comment on the internal situation involving Cromwell and Greene beyond saying that they were informed on Tuesday.

“I know that I have to come here and do a job, and prepare the team for Sunday,” said Hines. “We want to go out there and compete against Chicago, and that’s my job at hand right now, is to make sure the players are prepared for that.”

Hines didn’t specify how long he expects to be the interim coach, saying “I take it every day as it comes” before breaking down Orlando’s schedule through Sunday’s game. “I focused on the field. I can control what’s happening on the field at this present moment,” he added.

Jónsdóttir struck a similar chord, saying she had no particular reaction to the news and that her thoughts at the moment are on improving on the 5-0 loss to the Houston Dash this past Friday. “You’re never going to be happy after losing 5-0,” said Jónsdóttir. “I think the group is just hungry, wanting to do better.”

For Jónsdóttir, the message for the rest of the team was simple. “We want to win games. And that’s what we’re going to focus on: come to training, take it day by day, and try to get results in the games that we have,” said the Iceland international. “I think the team knows what they need to do.”

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After suspending their head coach, Houston Dash are now on a club-best unbeaten run

The Dash have used a stingy defense and the attacking duo of Rachel Daly and Nichelle Prince to put together a record run

The Houston Dash drew 0-0 at Angel City FC on Tuesday night, moving up to second place in the NWSL standings.

Aside from seeing them move to within just a point off the top of the table, the draw was also the Dash’s sixth game in a row without defeat – a new club record.

That streak is especially notable, given that all six games have come under acting head coach Sarah Lowdon following the suspension of head coach James Clarkson at the end of April.

Clarkson is currently away from the team as the NWSL investigates allegations of “discrimination, harassment, abuse, and bullying.” If Clarkson’s return was highly unlikely at the time of his suspension, it’s looking even more impossible now that his team is thriving in his absence.

“It was a very difficult role for her to step into, but she stepped up to the plate and she’s been brilliant,” Dash forward Rachel Daly told Just Women’s Sports of Lowdon.

“We couldn’t have asked for any more from her and the staff.”

Under Lowdon, the Dash have moved to a three-back system that, combined with some stellar displays from goalkeeper Jane Campbell, have turned them into the league’s stingiest defense. Houston has conceded a league-low three goals in seven matches thus far in 2022.

Further up the pitch, the team’s attack is led by Daly and Nichelle Prince, who are both tied for second in the league in goals with four apiece.

The Dash will now face a major test as Daly departs for Euro 2022 duty with England. Houston has at times been overly reliant on Daly for goals in the past, but a new coach, a stingy defense and help from the likes of Prince and Shea Groom has this side looking well equipped to keep its record run going.

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Orlando Pride head coach Amanda Cromwell placed on leave amid investigation into alleged retaliation

The Pride accepted a recommendation from the NWSL and NWSLPA Joint Investigative Team

The Orlando Pride have placed head coach Amanda Cromwell on leave amid an investigation into alleged retaliation, the NWSL announced on Tuesday.

The NWSL and NWSLPA Joint Investigative Team recommended that Cromwell and assistant coach Sam Greene be placed on temporary administrative leave while the investigation continues, a recommendation that the Pride accepted.

Pride assistant coach Seb Hines will serve as interim coach while the investigation is ongoing. The Pride will make a decision on the future of Cromwell and Greene following the conclusion of the investigation.

Cromwell was named Pride head coach in December after a successful nine-year run as head coach at UCLA.

The Pride currently sit ninth out of 12 teams in the NWSL standings.

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Chicago Red Stars forward Kealia Watt and her husband, a football player, are expecting

The pair are due to welcome their first child in October

Chicago Red Stars forward Kealia Watt has announced that she and her husband, Arizona Cardinals star J.J. Watt, are expecting their first child.

The couple made the announcement on social media, saying that the baby is due in October.

“Could not be more excited,” J.J. Watt said in his post, while Kealia Watt simply captioned her post with the due date.

The couple has been together since 2016 and got married in February 2020.

Kealia Watt (formerly Ohai) was selected as the second overall pick in the 2014 NWSL College Draft by the Houston Dash. In 2020, she was traded to the Red Stars. She has been capped three times by the U.S. women’s national team, with all three coming in 2016.

J.J. Watt, meanwhile, is considered one of the greatest players in Houston Texans history, winning Defensive Player of the Year awards in 2012, 2014 and 2015. He is currently getting ready for his second season with the Cardinals.

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Megan Rapinoe says ex-OL Reign coach Farid Benstiti ‘fat-shamed’ players

The coach resigned last July, but the team’s CEO later admitted it was a forced resignation

Megan Rapinoe has said that former OL Reign head Farid Benstiti fat-shamed players before he was asked to resign last season.

Benstiti resigned as head coach in July without mention of any incident, but months later, OL Reign CEO Bill Predmore admitted that he had been asked to resign after an incident at training.

According to the Washington Post, Benstiti made “inappropriate comments to players regarding their fitness and nutrition.”

In an appearance on NPR this week, Rapinoe said the former Reign head coach had indeed made comments to players about their weight and diet.

“Our coach got fired last year, from the Reign,” she said. “He made some — it was basically like a fat-shaming comment. He was talking about — he’s going to, like, take people’s food away. And I’m like, oh my god, grow up. You just got yourself fired; you’re so stupid.

“But, like, just little stuff like that, where if you’re making $25,000 and you have no autonomy over your rights, you have — you’re not a free agent. You’re barely scraping by. You just came out of college. Like, you’re not going to say anything. You’re just not. It’s too difficult to put someone in that position.”

Horan’s similar experience with Benstiti

Benstiti has a documented history of similar behavior, which was notably shared by Rapinoe’s USWNT teammate Lindsey Horan last year.

Horan played under Benstiti at PSG and said the body-shaming she experienced at the French club made her nearly quit the sport entirely.

“In France, that was the number one time that I felt like I wanted to quit soccer. I was not enjoying myself and there was just so much wrong being done, that I lost the love for the game,” Horan said on the Butterfly Road podcast, which is hosted by North Carolina Courage defender Cari Roccaro.

“One of my team-mates, after an away game she had chocolate and the coach heard it in the front [of the team bus] and came back and basically took the chocolate from her, and said, ‘You can’t have this around Lindsey,’ because I was sitting a seat ahead of her.”

Horan said that even after she got her weight down significantly, that was not enough for her coach.

“[Benstiti] then announced to the team: ‘Lindsey, your weight is not good enough, your body fat is still too high, You’re not going to play in a game until that’s done.’

“[He] said that to the team. I started shaking I was so mad.”

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Racing Louisville goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer was injured by a falling goal at training

Head coach Kim Björkegren was not happy, saying “these kind of things can’t be a part of a professional league”

Racing Louisville goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer was injured by a falling goal on a substandard training pitch in Kansas City, according to the club’s head coach Kim Björkegren.

Björkegren saw his side fall 1-0 to the Kansas City Current on Monday, but he was more concerned after the game with some of the conditions his team faced in the build-up to the match at Children’s Mercy Park.

“We [were] trying to do a training here in Kansas but we couldn’t do it because of the quality of the pitch that they gave us,” Björkegren told reporters.

“We had a goal that was not a normal goal that was falling down on Bloomer, our goalkeeper, so she needed to stop.”

Emergency goalkeeper Hillary Beall had to quickly be summoned to take Bloomer’s normal role as backup.

“Hillary needed to take a flight here,” Björkegren added. “It has been a mess with many things and I think these kind of things can’t be a part of a professional league to be honest.”

A spokesman for Racing Louisville told Pro Soccer Wire that the goal blew over on Bloomer during the club’s walkthrough, and the extent of her injury is not yet known. He added that the club is not planning on taking any action against Kansas City.

In an exchange on Twitter, Racing Louisville forward Nadia Nadim said: “We’re speaking about an accident that happen due to a broken goal that was clearly not visible.”

Nadim added: “You expect the provided fields to hold a certain and safe standard, as per stated in the new CBA.”

KSHB 41 Sports in Kansas City reached out to the Current and was provided with the following statement:

“We take this matter very seriously. The field Louisville was provided is the same field that all teams have been provided when traveling to KC, without incident. We will look into any issues that occurred during yesterday’s training session.”

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Kim Little is back with OL Reign – at least for a little bit

One of the greatest players in franchise history is back for the summer

OL Reign have announced the return of Kim Little on a short-term loan from Arsenal.

Little will join up with OL Reign on June 1 and her stint will last until the start of Arsenal’s 2022-23 season, which will likely see the midfielder stay between 2-3 months.

The 31-year-old marked herself as one of the greatest players in franchise history during a three-year stint between 2014 and 2016, winning the 2014 NWSL MVP with the then Seattle Reign FC.

“Bringing Kim back to the Pacific Northwest is huge, Kim will go down in history as one of the best players to ever play in the NWSL and to have the chance to work with her again is exciting,” said OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey, who coached Little during her previous stint with the team.

“I’d like to thank Arsenal for helping make this happen. This is a unique opportunity for us and one that we felt could be a huge impact on our squad in a crazy summer schedule. Kim’s ability and experience will be crucial for us to help continue to push our performances forward and help continue the growth of our young squad.”

Little has been an ever-present for Arsenal after leaving the Reign, starting 69 of 73 possible Women’s Super League games and helping the club win a league title in 2018-19.

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Orlando Pride, down 2-0, strike twice in stoppage time to get draw vs Washington Spirit

A staggering late comeback for Orlando got them a point, and into the NWSL history books.

Darian Jenkins scored the latest regular season goal in NWSL history, helping the Orlando Pride snatch a 2-2 draw against the Washington Spirit on Friday night after entering second half stoppage time down by two.

The Spirit held a 2-0 lead as six minutes of stoppage time were signaled by the fourth official, with Trinity Rodman scoring yet another highlight reel goal in the first half, and Ashley Hatch adding her seventh goal against Orlando in her last eight appearances against the Pride.

However, just as the game appeared over and done with, Orlando fought back. Rookie midfielder Mikayla Cluff played a crucial pass before arriving late to head in a cross from Jordyn Listro in the fifth minute of stoppage time, giving the Pride a lifeline.

Then, with the Spirit not able to fully clear the ball into the Orlando half, the Pride stunningly struck again. Multiple Washington blocks ended up going directly to an Orlando player, and late sub Julie Doyle played a pass to Jenkins at the back post. From there, Jenkins made some NWSL history, burying a low shot 7:47 into stoppage time to somehow give Orlando a share of the points.

That stands as an NWSL record for the latest goal scored in a regular season game.

Watch Orlando’s dramatic late goals