Caitlin Clark will have a lot of eyes on her this month, including some big names from the world of women’s soccer.
The University of Iowa basketball sensation began her final NCAA tournament on Saturday, leading the top-seeded Hawkeyes to a 91-65 victory over Holy Cross in the first round.
After the game, San Diego Wave and U.S. women’s national team star Alex Morgan showed up for her side’s match wearing Clark’s No. 22 jersey.
Morgan posted a picture of herself on social media repping the all-time record holder for career points in Division I college basketball, with the striker doing Clark’s famous “you can’t see me” celebration.
The San Diego striker went on to play 82 minutes as the Wave began their regular-season campaign with a 2-1 defeat to the KC Current.
Morgan wasn’t the only player from the NWSL to wear Clark’s jersey on Saturday, with Chicago Red Stars pair Ally Schlegel and Sophie Jones doing the same.
Morgan said focusing on her craft in an unusually long offseason helped her get the winner for the San Diego Wave
HARRISON, N.J. â Even at this point in a glittering career dating back over a decade, Alex Morgan is preaching the values of good old-fashioned practice.
Before a crowd of 14,000 at Red Bull Arena on Friday, Morgan’s late header gave the San Diego Wave a smash-and-grab 1-0 win over NJ/NY Gotham FC in the 2024 NWSL Challenge Cup.
The U.S. women’s national team star was part of the side that won the inaugural Concacaf W Gold Cup just five days before the Challenge Cup, which is now a one-off curtain-raiser between the defending league champions (Gotham) and the NWSL Shield winner (San Diego) held a day before the NWSL regular season commences.
Between some early-season imprecision and the heavy legs of national team players on both sides (Morgan was one of nine USWNT players to suit up on the day), it was a game long on defensive organization and grit, and short on attacking threats at either end of the pitch.
San Diego ended up being credited with just seven shot attempts, but Morgan used a combination of strength and veteran savvy to shed her markers on an 88th minute corner, heading home the game’s only goal.
— National Womenâs Soccer League (@NWSL) March 16, 2024
Speaking to reporters in a post-game mixed zone, Morgan insisted that one could draw a direct line between her game-winner and what she called “probably the longest offseason that I’ve had.”
“Just personally, I feel like I worked really hard this offseason,” said the 34-year-old striker. “Took the rest I needed, and then really built from that, worked on the things I wanted to â I needed to â work on, that I don’t get to throughout the season. So it feels good, being able to execute the things that I wanted to, and go out and help my team.”
Morgan was open about focusing on a lifting program designed for injury prevention after missing time in 2023. That was followed by position-specific work that came even as she was left off of the USWNT’s December roster and was only a late call-up for the W Gold Cup after Mia Fishel suffered a torn ACL.
“It was a lot of back-to-goal stuff, quick release, in and around the box,” said Morgan. “Things like a fake shot, or getting a couple inches in the box and and taking advantage of that.
“And then, a lot of crosses. I trained a lot with Kristen McNabb and some other [Wave] teammates in the offseason, they were whipping in a lot of crosses. And so, on the corner, the goal tonight, [it] was just a result of a lot of the heading that I was doing in the offseason.”
If you ask Morgan, all that work sharpened her in front of goal, but also kept her ready for the surprise U.S. recall.
“Going into the [W Gold Cup] last minute definitely put a little bit of a kink in things, but I felt really ready. I felt game-fit and ready to play,” explained Morgan.
“As much as it seemed like a whirlwind from the outside, I just felt like it was just something that I needed to kind of expect. You know, expect the unexpected. So, just having an opportunity to win two championships and being able to accomplish that in one week? I mean, it’s pretty wild.”
The 2024 NWSL season kicks off at Red Bull Arena on Friday night
The NWSL season’s official kickoff comes on Friday night, when NJ/NY Gotham FC hosts the San Diego Wave in the 2024 Challenge Cup.
While the Challenge Cup used to be an in-season tournament, it is now a one-off match that will kick off the campaign.
Gotham FC, the defending NWSL champion will host the Wave, the defending NWSL Shield winner, before the NWSL regular season starts on Saturday.
The home side added a host of U.S. national team stars over the offseason, with Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle, Tierna Davidson, and Emily Sonnett all joining. Lavelle, along with fellow USWNT attacker Lynn Williams, will miss this match for the Bats with injury.
Featuring USWNT talent like Alex Morgan, Naomi Girma and Jaedyn Shaw, the Wave will one again be expected to be near the top of the table in 2024.
Here is everything you need to know ahead of the match.
NJ/NY Gotham FC vs. San Diego Wave (NWSL Challenge Cup)
When: Friday, March 15
Where: Red Bull Arena (Harrison, N.J.)
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Channel/streaming: Prime Video
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The USWNT striker had gone 15 games overall without a goal
Alex Morgan is once again among the goals.
The San Diego Wave striker broke a drought for club and country that spanned more than four months, scoring her side’s second in a 2-0 win over the Portland Thorns on Saturday night.
After Kyra Carusa had given the Wave a 20th-minute lead, Morgan got on the end of Christen Westphal’s long cross and saw her header barely trickle past the outstretched Bella Bixby in Portland’s goal.
Morgan’s 38th-minute header would be the final goal on the night, as the Wave earned a 2-0 away win that saw them become the first NWSL team this season to clinch a playoff berth.
Prior to Saturday night, the last time Morgan scored came all the way back on May 20, as San Diego beat the Houston Dash 3-0. The eight-game NWSL drought marked the longest streak of the striker’s NWSL career.
8 – Alex Morgan's goal against Portland ended a run of eight straight regular-season matches without scoring, the longest streak of her @NWSL career. Back. pic.twitter.com/6uPFACSyTj
When factoring in U.S. women’s national team matches, Morgan’s header at Portland snapped a run of 15 games overall without a goal.
Morgan has gone nine games in a row without a goal for the USWNT, last scoring in February’s 2-1 SheBelieves Cup win over Brazil. Since then, she’s gone scoreless in two friendlies against Ireland, five World Cup games, and then two more friendlies against South Africa last month.
First place is on the line in NWSL as the defending champs host high-flying San Diego
The NWSL standings are arguably more condensed that they ever have been, making Saturday night’s top-of-the-table clash between the Portland Thorns and San Diego Wave all the more enticing.
With three rounds of games left in the regular season, the league has already passed a milestone in terms of a tight race for playoff spots. For the first time ever, every team in the league has at least 20 points, with a gap of just 11 points separating first-place Portland from the Chicago Red Stars, who sit at the bottom of the table.
While the Thorns have largely looked like the NWSL’s best team in most underlying data points, the defending champions have quietly gone just 2W-1D-3L in their last six league matches. A more immediate concern? The continued absence of forward Sophia Smith, who remains out with an MCL sprain.
The Wave have been at or near the top of the table for most of the season, and feature huge names like Alex Morgan and Naomi Girma. However, Casey Stoney’s side has also peppered in just enough head-scratching results â most recently, a 2-1 home loss to the Kansas City Current â that the club remains a bit of an enigma.
Both teams could clinch a playoff spot with the right results this weekend. The Thorns are in with a win, and could also claim a postseason place with a draw and some help elsewhere. For San Diego, sealing a return to the playoffs this early will require a win, plus the right combination of results around the league.
Here is everything you need to know to watch Portland and San Diego duke it out.
How to watch Portland Thorns vs. San Diego Wave
When: Saturday, September 30
Time: 10:30 p.m. ET
Where: Providence Park
Channel/streaming:Paramount+ (USA), NWSLsoccer.com (rest of world)
Morgan and her husband Servando Carrasco have joined the ownership group of Los Angeles Golf Club
Alex Morgan has announced she and her husband Servando Carrasco have joined the ownership group of Los Angeles Golf Club (LAGC), a franchise in TGL, the new golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Billed as a “tech-infused golf league,” TGL will begin in January 2024 in conjunction with the PGA Tour, with matches to take place in prime time on Monday nights.
LAGC was confirmed as the league’s inaugural team, and features an ownership group that includes Alexis Ohanian, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
That franchise has since been joined by teams in New York, Boston and Atlanta, each with high-profile owners (Steve Cohen, Fenway Sports Group and Arthur Blank, respectively). Two more franchises are set to be announced before the TGL begins.
Morgan has taken up golf in recent years, and even starred in a golf-themed Super Bowl commercial this year for Michelob Ultra.
TGL is aiming to attract younger audiences to golf, and will feature players hitting shots into a virtual screen before moving to “a data-rich, virtual course complete with a tech-infused, short-game complex.”
The matches will take place at a custom-built venue in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
“We all know what itâs like to be in a football stadium or a basketball arena where you can watch every play, every minute of action unfold right in front of you,” Woods said in a release when TGL launched. “Itâs something that inherently isnât possible in traditional golf â and an aspect of TGL that will set it apart and appeal to a new generation of fans.â
TGL will feature six teams with three-player rosters, with 12 pros already confirmed: Woods, McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Xander Schauffele and Matt Fitzpatrick.
The inaugural season will feature a 15-match schedule followed by semifinals and a championship game.
The NWSL fined Morgan on Wednesday for “comments detrimental to the league made on social media”
Sophia Smith has said the NWSL’s “priorities are all messed up” after the league issued a fine to Alex Morgan for her criticism of referees.
Morgan took to social media on Monday to protest a rough challenge that went uncalled during the San Diego Wave’s defeat to the Kansas City Current over the weekend.
The striker was taken out in the box by a tackle from defender Stine Ballisager, which was deemed to be clean after a VAR review.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Morgan said Ballisager’s tackle could have left her seriously injured.
âIn what world is this not a penalty and red card, or even foul? Completely reckless and the leg going in for the tackle doesnât even get a ball when I cut her?â Morgan said. âJust glad I saw her coming and didnât plant on that leg or Iâd 100% not be walking today.â
In response to Morgan’s criticism, the league issued Morgan a fine on Wednesday for “comments detrimental to the league made on social media.”
That fine didn’t sit well with Portland Thorns star Smith, who stuck up for her teammate on the U.S. women’s national team.
According to Smith, Morgan’s fine was “backwards” and showed the NWSL’s priorities were not where they should be.
The NWSL has long been criticized for failing to better protect players on the field, with a lack of adequate training and pay for referees among the issues hampering player safety.
Regardless, it seems like Smith could now be the next player to get fined.
Does anyone want to win the NWSL Shield this season?
That’s the question at this point, after first place exchanged hands yet again. In the last 11 rounds of games, we’ve woken up on Monday with a new team atop the table eight different times. The Portland Thorns’ triumph over Cascadia rivals OL Reign, coupled with the San Diego Wave stumbling against a Kansas City Current side that kicked off in last place, gave us yet another change in the race for the Shield.
Let’s take a quick look at this insightful video that explains how this entire season has felt.
The Thorns do appear to be this season’s “best” team, whether you approach it from the eyeball test, data, or results. Portland can hit heights no one else can hit, and have shaken off Sophia Smith’s injury thanks to Best XI candidate Morgan Weaver.
However, as impressive as the Thorns can be, there are only 11 points separating Portland from the Chicago Red Stars in 12th. A team that hasn’t won a regular season game since June has nonetheless stayed above the playoff line all season. There are three rounds of games to go, and no one has been eliminated or clinched a postseason berth.
Morgan said if she had planted her leg, she wouldn’t be walking today
San Diego Wave star Alex Morgan was furious over a no-call in her side’s 2-1 defeat to the Kansas City Current on Saturday, saying she wouldn’t be walking if she’d planted her leg on a challenge from defender Stine Ballisager.
With the Current up in first-half stoppage time, Morgan took the ball in on goal and attempted a cutback. Ballisager, sensing her chance to win the ball, slid in hard and took the ball and Morgan simultaneously. After a VAR check, the officials deemed the Danish international’s challenge to be clean.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Morgan vehemently disagreed.
âIn what world is this not a penalty and red card, or even foul? Completely reckless and the leg going in for the tackle doesnât even get a ball when I cut her?â she wrote. âJust glad I saw her coming and didnât plant on that leg or Iâd 100% not be walking today.â
In what world is this not a penalty and red card, or even foul? Completely reckless and the leg going in for the tackle doesn't even get a ball when I cut her? Just glad I saw her coming and didn't plant on that leg or I'd 100% not be walking today. pic.twitter.com/ruQ2rXtcK3
Morgan would stay in the game but limped off the pitch at full time, with Wave manager Casey Stoney saying after the game she had no update on the star forward’s status.
The match also represented the latest scoreless outing for Morgan, who has now failed to find the net since May. Speaking to reporters, Stoney backed the U.S. women’s national team forward to turn things around.
âYou donât go from being a world-class striker to being a poor player overnight,” Stoney said. “Sheâs a fantastic player. Sheâs still a world-class striker and the goals will come. Her contributions this season for us have been magnificent even when sheâs not scoring goals, so keeping her in a good space is important.â
Morgan won the NWSL Golden Boot last season by scoring 15 goals. This season, the 34-year-old has scored five times in NWSL play.
“It’s important that while she’s trying to get to the top, she enjoys the journey to the top”
Jaedyn Shaw’s first U.S. women’s national team camp is, per the San Diego Wave attacker herself, all about learning as much as possible.
The 18-year-old is one of the new names on USWNT interim coach Twila Kilgore’s first roster for an upcoming pair of friendlies against South Africa on September 21 and 24. According to Shaw, the objective is to ease in, gain her footing in a new environment, and take plenty of lessons from her first senior-level camp.
“I’ve always loved high pressures moments,” Shaw told reporters on Thursday. “I have been told that this is a no-pressure camp, just getting my feet in the water and kind of enjoying the experience, and that’s something that I’m really taking to heart. I’m just trying to go and learn as much as I can, gain as much as I can from this experience.”
Shaw added that getting the call was “an amazing, happy moment for me,” but noted that she can’t afford to lose focus between now and when she steps on the plane to Cincinnati.
“I kind of had to bring it down a bit, to make sure that I’m still focusing on what I have going on in front of me with [San Diego] and the game coming up on Saturday,” said Shaw.
Still, there was time for a little excitement, especially from her family.
“First person I called was my mother,” said a laughing Shaw, “She was practically crying through the phone, per usual.”
San Diego manager Casey Stoney called Shaw “a quality player with huge potential and a huge amount of talent,” and added that the call-up was “deserved” in her eyes.
“It’s a great opportunity for her to go in without any pressure,” said Stoney, whose own international career spanning 130 caps began with a first cap at the same age as Shaw. “Being in a senior environment is very different than being in a youth environment. I think she’ll go in and she’ll show her quality. It’s just for her, going in and soaking it all up, soaking in the experience.”
While much of that will of course pertain to improving her craft as a player, Shaw said she’s also had plenty of more practical questions for her Wave teammate Naomi Girma.
“I feel like I’ve already like bombarded [Girma] with a bunch of questions,” said Shaw. “One of them was seating arrangements, on the bus, in the meetings. That was something that I know a lot of teams, you kind of have [assigned seats]. I know we do, like I have my front row seat…I was like, ‘Where do I sit?’
“I think another thing was, how do the training kits fit, so I know what size to get? And then there was like, if I need to bring a notebook, what do you pack? Like that kind of stuff. Literally not even soccer-based. It’s just stuff off the field.”
Shaw highlighted the World Cup stretch as a particular moment of growth as a player, with the Wave leaning more heavily on her with international attacking players like Alex Morgan and Sofia Jakobsson heading off to the World Cup.
“I think, for me this season, at least when all of our international girls left, I had to kind of take a different role and be okay with playing different positions, or taking more of, I guess a leadership role,” explained Shaw. “Kind of â not putting the team on my back â but allowing myself to carry more of the weight than just coming in as a young player and doing whatever.”
Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
Per Stoney, helping Shaw take that next step has been “an absolute dream” because the youngster’s focus level is so high.
“Jae’s unbelievable,” said Stoney. “She has nothing in her mind other than being the best player in the world: ‘What am I going to do to make myself better?’ You know, she’s a dream to manage, in that sense, an absolute dream. She’s very coachable, she wants to be the best.”
The Wave head coach noted that after last season’s emphasis was on “building [Shaw’s] physical capacity” as she adjusted to the exhausting speed of play in the NWSL, the focus has shifted to the technical side.
“She’s been utilized in [all] top four positions: wide left, wide right, [No. 9] and also as a [No. 10],” explained Stoney. “I think now, she’s played more of a 10 role, it’s how she can position herself between the lines, how she can face forward. Because once she gets to faced forward with the body position, her ability to play a through ball is some of the best I’ve ever seen. She sees things other people don’t see.”
Still, despite Shaw’s rapid rise, Stoney says it’s important that the Texas native maintains a process-oriented focus rather than only concerning herself with results.
“She’s got a lot of maturity in certain ways, in terms of wanting to be the best, but also remembering she’s still 18,” said Stoney. “I think it’s important that while she’s trying to get to the top, she enjoys the journey to the top.”
