Tag: NWSL

‘Unbelievable’ Croix Bethune emerging as Washington Spirit star

The Spirit say they’re “just scratching the surface” with the rookie playmaker after another golazo in NWSL play

It’s far too early to call the 2024 NWSL Rookie of the Year race, but Washington Spirit playmaker Croix Bethune has emerged as a clear frontrunner.

The Georgia native was pivotal as the Spirit claimed an impressive 2-0 home win over NJ/NY Gotham FC before 15,004 at Audi Field. Bethune scored a highlight-reel goal to give Washington a deserved first-half lead, and then an attempted audacious volley ended up winning a penalty kick that Ashley Hatch converted to seal the win.

“She did an amazing job today, again, a really good performance,” Spirit coach Adrián González told reporters after the match. “I think she’s very intelligent, she can identify [dangerous] spaces.”

Bethune added three successful dribbles and won four fouls, giving Gotham fits throughout the match. The 23-year-old has scored three times in five games to start her professional career, developing obvious on-field chemistry with U.S. women’s national team star Trinity Rodman in the process.

Bethune is now the team’s leading goalscorer, but there’s an added “wow” factor in her play that sets her current trajectory beyond being a name that reliably appears in box scores.

Her goal against Gotham involved the finer points of modern soccer, as she found a pocket early against an organized Bats side, showing the field sense and technique to dodge a collapsing defense.

Pair that with the precision and power to beat Cassie Miller from 24 yards, and you have the ingredients for a place on an NWSL Best 11, not to mention the USWNT.

Bethune’s other goals were just as impressive: a perfectly-timed run to get wide open and cap off a 3-1 triumph over the Houston Dash on April 12, and an audacious bit of improv to juggle and juke through Bay FC’s defense and bag a last-gasp winner on March 23.

Washington’s veterans see Bethune every day, and they’re just as impressed as everyone else.

“I mean, right away, you could just tell she’s a special player, technically very gifted,” Spirit and USWNT defender Casey Krueger told reporters in a mixed zone interview. “I think as time has gone on, she’s just continuing to find the dangerous spaces. And then her confidence I think is just really through the roof. She’s been unbelievable.”

“She’s hit the ground running, which is pretty impressive,” added Andi Sullivan. “I think what I love about Croix is, she’s so creative, but she’s so strong, and she’s so smart. And she knows when to play simple, and she knows when to just do her own thing.”

Bethune, meanwhile, pivoted quickly away from what she did on the goal to highlight the sequence that came before it, which saw the Spirit methodically maneuver through Gotham’s midfield.

“It really started off of Andi’s pickup from defense,” said Bethune in a post-match press conference. “From her to pick it up and us switching it, and Hal [Hershfelt] finding me just to beat the player, and then…” — the rookie allowed herself just the slightest grin — “Strike it, back of the net.”

It’s telling how quickly the tone has changed in Washington, where a draft-day trade of the club’s previous playmaker Ashley Sanchez went down like a lead balloon with fans. 2024 figured to be a season of uncertainty with an influx of rookies and newcomers, and an unorthodox coaching situation with González hired from Espanyol to lead the side until Barcelona coach Jonatan Giráldez can join the side in June.

Just over three months later, Washington is not just (for the moment) top of the table after the win, but is rejuvenated, playing stylish soccer and getting the results to go with it. Thus far, Bethune is at the center of the show.

Despite all that, if you ask anyone with the Spirit, this is just the start for the team’s new young star.

“I’m so excited for her, because it’s early on, like we’re just scratching the surface with her,” summed up Krueger. “I think as the season goes on, she’s gonna continue to be an even bigger piece of the team.”

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USWNT’s Tierna Davidson injured during Gotham FC match

Davidson’s status could become another injury worry for Emma Hayes

The U.S. women’s national team’s potential list of injuries is growing at an alarming rate.

Tierna Davidson exited NJ/NY Gotham FC’s NWSL clash on Saturday with the Washington Spirit after just 21 minutes with a potential hamstring strain.

“She had to come off, which is never a good sign,” Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amorós told reporters after the match. “We will have to evaluate, wait for the testing and whatever medical tests we have to do, and go from there.”

Davidson is a strong contender to emerge as Naomi Girma’s partner at center back for Emma Hayes at this summer’s Olympics. However, after losing 2022 to a torn ACL and then suffering a facial fracture at the end of last season, the 25-year-old’s USWNT resume in recent times is not as long as some of her competitors.

Davidson appeared to pick up her injury in an attempt to race back and prevent a Trinity Rodman shot from getting over the line midway through the first half at Audi Field. Davidson stayed down, and after receiving brief treatment, slowly walked back to the Gotham bench. The Bats replaced her with Sam Hiatt in the 21st minute.

The injury comes less than 24 hours after Alex Morgan left the San Diego Wave’s loss to the Orlando Pride after suffering an ankle injury. Another potential USWNT starter, Rose Lavelle, has been out for weeks with a lower-leg injury.

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USWNT striker Morgan limps off for San Diego with ankle injury

The Wave and USWNT will face a nervous wait on the striker’s injury

Alex Morgan limped out of the San Diego Wave’s match at the Orlando Pride on Friday after suffering an apparent ankle injury.

The forward was involved in a goal-mouth scramble late in the match, and appeared to roll her left ankle while fighting for the ball with Pride defender Emily Sams and goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse.

Morgan was down for several minutes and recieved treatment on the pitch before slowly limping off. The Wave were out of substitutions at the time of the injury, and were forced to play out the final minutes of the match with 10 players.

Orlando would win the game 1-0 at Inter&Co Stadium thanks to a 26th-minute goal from Summer Yates.

After the game, Wave head coach Casey Stoney said that she didn’t have much information other than the location of the injury.

“Just briefed on it, something to do with her ankle,” Stoney said in her press conference. “I’ve not heard anything more than that at the moment.”

The Wave and the U.S. women’s national team will now face a nervous wait to learn the extent of Morgan’s injury.

The 2024 Olympics kick off in three months, with Morgan recently playing her way back into a prominent role for the USWNT after being initially left off the roster for the W Gold Cup.

Morgan played in all six Gold Cup games, scoring two goals, before she started both SheBelieves Cup matches for the U.S. earlier this month.

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Sources: San Diego Wave lands Sanchez in trade from Houston Dash

The Mexico international requested a trade and has now been dealt to the Wave

Houston Dash forward Maria Sánchez has been traded to the San Diego Wave, multiple sources have confirmed to Pro Soccer Wire. 

Houston will receive $300,000 in a transfer fee and $200,000 in allocation money from San Diego, plus two years of an international roster spot in exchange.

The $500,000 total makes it the largest fee paid for an intra-NWSL transfer.

Last weekend, ESPN reported that Sánchez had handed in a transfer request, sending shockwaves through the league. On Saturday, San Diego confirmed the terms of the deal.

Sánchez confirmed on Thursday that she had requested a trade, after only signing a new contract worth up to $1.5 million in December. The 28-year-old was a restricted free agent and at the time, her deal was the richest in the NWSL.

The Wave were understood to be one of the teams interested in Sánchez during the offseason, but the winger would ultimately re-sign with the Dash.

In a statement on social media announcing her trade request, Sánchez said that the affair had “taken a toll” on her and she wanted to be traded in a “timely manner.”

Friday’s trade came just hours before the league’s midnight ET transfer deadline. If that deadline passed, Sánchez wouldn’t have been able to be traded until August 1.

Sources familiar with the situation said that the Mexico international took a meeting with Houston general manager Alex Singer and head coach Fran Alonso on March 27 to air her frustrations with the club.

Multiple clubs were in contact with the Dash over sealing a trade for Sánchez, but the Wave were able to get the deal over the line early on Friday afternoon.

After a chaotic few seasons in Houston where she played under five coaches including interims, Sánchez is heading to a more stable environment. After winning the 2023 NWSL Shield, San Diego extended head coach Casey Stoney’s contract through the 2027 season.

The Englishwoman won the NWSL’s Coach of the Year award in 2022 and has made the playoff semifinal in both of her two seasons so far. The Wave began the 2024 season by lifting another piece of silverware, the Challenge Cup. In regular season play, it has been a more level start (1W-1D-1L) for the California club.

Houston has gone 1W-1D-2L over the first four weeks of the NWSL season with many fans and pundits questioning Alonso’s deployment of Sánchez as a wingback. At the best times in her career, Sánchez has been a pure winger and will be expected to assume the role at her new club.

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Maria Sanchez confirms she wants ‘immediate trade’ away from Houston Dash

Sánchez wants out, and the clock is ticking ahead of Friday’s NWSL trade deadline

María Sánchez on Thursday night confirmed reports that she has requested a trade away from the Houston Dash, adding that she wants to leave the club with “immediate” effect.

ESPN initially reported on Sunday that Sánchez, just five months after signing a three-year contract with Houston valued around roughly $1.5 million, had submitted a formal trade request.

The Mexico star took to social media on Thursday to confirm that report, reiterating her desire to leave the Dash in short order. Teams must complete trades within the NWSL by midnight Eastern on Friday, or wait until August 1 to proceed.

“This has all taken a toll and isn’t an easy thing to talk about, but I want to confirm that I’ve requested an immediate trade,” Sánchez posted on X.

“The club has been aware of this since late March and my expectations and reasons have been clear. I trust that my current club’s management will honor my decision in a timely manner and proceed with accepting a trade.”

Upon signing her deal with the Dash in December, Sánchez — who entered last winter’s offseason as a restricted free agent — was at the time the highest-paid player in the entire NWSL.

However, per the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement signed by the NWSL and NWSL Players Association, the Dash were allowed to match any offer another team in the league tendered to Sánchez. A Houston side that struggled for goals throughout 2023 could scarcely afford to lose the Mexico winger, widely considered the club’s best attacking player.

Sánchez has started all four games this season for the Dash, posting one assist. Houston is in 11th place on four points, and is tied with the Portland Thorns (who just announced a coaching change) for the league’s worst defensive record.

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Rapinoe and Bird’s production company announces first scripted series

The legendary ex-pro athletes will serve as executive producers on ‘Cleat Cute’

Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe’s production company, A Touch More, has announced it is developing its first scripted TV series.

Bird and Rapinoe will serve as executive producers on an adaptation of the best-selling novel “Cleat Cute” from author Meryl Wilsner.

According to a press release, the novel “follows a young soccer player as she juggles being the new rookie player, her goals of making the national team, and a budding romance with her team captain.”

Bird and Rapinoe added: “We are thrilled to be working with Future Shack [Entertainment] to bring Meryl Wilsner’s wonderful book to life. Having spent most of our lives on teams, we want to celebrate the ways in which relationships, both romantic and platonic, are organically created through sports.

“‘Cleat Cute’ will not shy away from the messiness, occasional frustration, and undeniable beauty that come with loving the game and the players within it.”

“Cleat Cute” will be the first foray into scripted TV for A Touch More, which Bird and Rapinoe founded in 2022.

A Touch More was also part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 Podcast “Pink Card,” a series that followed women in Iran fighting for the right to watch soccer.

The company was founded with the aim of amplifying stories from  underrepresented communities, including LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and women.

Rapinoe retired last year at the end of a decorated career in which she became one of the all-time greats for the U.S. women’s national team. Similarly, Bird retired in 2022 after becoming one of the WNBA’s greatest ever players.

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Lavelle provides injury update as USWNT star awaits Gotham FC debut

The USWNT star has now been sidelined more than a month with a leg injury

Rose Lavelle was one of several U.S. women’s national team stars who joined Gotham FC as marquee offseason additions.

But unlike Tierna Davidson, Emily Sonnett and Crystal Dunn, the playmaker has not yet stepped on the field wearing the Gotham crest.

Lavelle hasn’t played since the W Gold Cup, where she featured in all six of the USWNT’s matches as it lifted the regional title.

The 28-year-old has been sidelined with what the NWSL availability report calls a lower leg injury, missing the Challenge Cup and all three of Gotham’s regular season games thus far.

As her absence stretches past a month, Lavelle gave an update on her progress during a media event in New York marking 100 days until the Olympics begin.

“I’m doing good — I’m hoping I’ll be back in the next couple weeks,” Lavelle said in quotes published on the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“It’s frustrating to start the year off with an injury, just because I feel like you come off preseason and you’re revving to go, so it’s so annoying.”

Last month, interim USWNT coach Twila Kilgore called Lavelle’s absence from the SheBelieves Cup roster “mostly a preventative measure in terms of taking care of her health.”

Kilgore has coached her final game for the USWNT, as she moves back to an assistant role ahead of Emma Hayes’ arrival next month.

With the Olympics kicking off soon and Hayes facing some tough decisions to cut her roster down to just 18 players, Lavelle knows time is of the essence.

“The strength of our team is there in so much depth, so unfortunately that means really good players are going to get left off too,” she said.  “And I think for all of us, it’s just about being ready for whatever role is given to us, embracing that, and looking to put it into a collective picture so that we can go into the Olympics ready to go.”

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Press on comeback: The only promise I’ll make is that I’ll try

The forward continues to work her way back after missing nearly two years

Christen Press doesn’t know if her comeback will ultimately prove successful, but she is giving it her best shot.

The U.S. women’s national team and Angel City FC forward hasn’t played in nearly two years, having suffered a torn ACL in June 2022. That injury has been followed by a number of setbacks, as the 35-year-old revealed last summer that she was forced to undergo a fourth surgery on the problem.

Press has been gradually working toward returning to the field, and posted a series of photos on Wednesday of herself on the training pitch.

“The comeback is coming along,” Press wrote on Instagram, before offering an optimistic and realistic assessment on her progress.

“The only promise I’ll make to you is that I’ll try. And what a beautiful, giving thing it is to try.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5mMgfMSzbf/?hl=en&img_index=1

Press played in eight games with Angel City in 2022, the club’s inaugural season, scoring two goals. She most recently played for the USWNT in the Olympics in 2021. Overall, Press has has made 155 appearances for the USWNT and is ninth all-time with 64 goals scored.

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Chicago Red Stars to play June match at Wrigley Field

The Red Stars said playing at the Friendly Confines is an effort to make the team more accessible

The Chicago Red Stars have announced that they will face Bay FC in a NWSL match at Wrigley Field on June 8.

It will be the first NWSL game held at the iconic home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks.

The Red Stars were sold last fall to an ownership group led by Laura Ricketts, who is also a co-owner of the Cubs.

In a press release, the Red Stars said the game was part of an effort to make the team “more accessible to sports fans in Chicago.” The team’s home games typically take place at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL, 15 miles outside of downtown Chicago.

“Wrigley Field is one of the most iconic sports venues in the country. This is a unique opportunity for us to bring further visibility to our team and women’s soccer,” Red Stars captain Alyssa Naeher said in a club release.

“Chicago has always been an incredible sports town with such a rich history; I can’t wait to compete on the field, under the lights, in front of our dedicated Chicago fans from every part of the city!”

Wrigley Field was home to the Chicago Sting of the NASL in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The last top-level soccer match it hosted came back in 2012, when Roma beat Polish side Zaglebie Lubin in a friendly.

CHICAGO, IL – JULY 22: A general view during the first half of a international friendly match between Roma and Zaglebie Lubin on July 22, 2012 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)

“Playing at Wrigley Field will be the event that fans of the Red Stars, Cubs and Chicago sports won’t want to miss,” said Chicago Red Stars president Karen Leetzow.

“On behalf of the Red Stars, I’d like to thank the Cubs for inviting us to Wrigley Field and giving these elite athletes the stage they deserve. We look forward to representing our great city and showing Chicago fans and the country how talented this club is and the intense level of competition that exists on the pitch every week in the NWSL and in Chicago’s backyard.”

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USWNT coach Kilgore offers positive Girma injury update

It appears Girma has avoided the worst-case scenarios when it comes to her thigh injury

It appears U.S. women’s national team defender Naomi Girma has avoided the worst-case scenarios when it comes to her thigh injury.

Girma was removed from Saturday’s SheBelieves Cup win over Japan in the first half, as she pulled up while running and was unable to continue after receiving treatment on the pitch.

Speaking to the media ahead of the SheBelieves Cup final against Canada on Tuesday, interim head coach Twila Kilgore indicated that the 23-year-old hadn’t suffered a serious injury.

“Naomi had a thigh strain and is day to day right now,” Kilgore said, without offering an indication whether Girma would be available for the Canada game.

Even if she is unavailable for the match against the Reds in Columbus, it appears that Girma won’t miss an extended period — a major relief for club and country.

The San Diego Wave star has become one of the first names on the team sheet for the USWNT, winning the 2023 U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year after a standout year for the national team.

Girma has also been named the NWSL Defender of the Year in both of her pro seasons thus far, helping the Wave win the NWSL Shield last season.

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