RD Welch

NWSL News of Note: Beckie-Turner Trade, Maycee Bell to Courage, KC and Wave Signings

Since the super-sized News of Note was published on Tuesday, there have been two big intra-league trades as well as a pair of notable signings. Topping the trade headlines is another player swap involving Racing Louisville that will see a veteran forward head to the Bluegrass state from Cascadia.

The big news of the day, the unveiling of the new collective bargaining agreement by the NWSL Players Association, will be discussed in a separate article.

U-17 WYNT: 24 Players Called In For Last Camp Before U-17 WWC Roster Selection

From August 18th to the 23rd, the United States Under-17 Women’s Youth National team is holding their final training camp before head coach Katie Schoepfer selects the USA’s roster for the 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in the Dominican Republic, which runs from October 16th to November 3rd.

For this camp, which is being held in Chula Vista, California, 24 players were called in, of which 20 have 2007 birth years, while the remaining 4 players were born in 2008.

NWSL News of Note: Olympics Break Catch-Up: Balcer-Howell Swap, Katie Zelem to Angel City, Jess Carter to Gotham, and Lots More

After a seven week break for the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the USWNT once again won gold, the second-half of the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League season gets underway on Friday, August 23rd.

During the Olympic break, most of the teams were involved in player trades, signings, and other roster moves. The most notable (and shocking) trade during the break, just happened on Monday, when the Seattle Reign and Racing Louisville swapped forward Bethany Balcer for Racing’s captain, midfielder Jaelin Howell. Meanwhile, the most surprising signing was not a player, but an interim head coach: Landon Donovan, with the San Diego Wave.

Updates:

August 20th: Racing signs Colombian defender Ángela Barón, NC Courage loan defender Talia Staude to USL Super League side Tampa Bay Sun…

For player-related moves, as well as other developments involving all fourteen NWSL teams, including Angel City FC’s sale to Willow Bay and Bob Iger, keep reading…

Good Morning. The USWNT is Back At #1 in the FIFA Women’s World Rankings

The United States Women’s National Team once again has bragging rights to the top spot in the FIFA Women’s World Ranking, thanks in large part to its golden performance at this year’s Paris Olympics.

The USA’s climb would also not be possible without some of the other teams stumbling off of their previous perches:

France (-91.12) had the biggest points drop since the last update on June 14th, primarily due to its 2 losses on home soil at the Olympics as well as a loss during Euro 2025 qualifying against the Republic of Ireland.

Spain also had a large points drop (-78.80), as it also lost twice during the Olympics, against Brazil in the semifinals and Germany in the bronze medal match, and fell to the Czech Republic during a Euro 2025 qualifying match.

Here’s the permalink to the full rankings table.

U-15 WYNT: A Statistical Look at the USA’s Performance at the 2024 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship

The following is a brief look at individual and team statistics for the USA at the 2024 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship.

Tables showing each player’s offensive performance, minutes played, and starter/substitute status for each match are included and discussed.

Also included are tables comparing the USA’s overall offensive and defensive performances per match.

For summaries of the USA’s matches during the tournament, see these two earlier articles:

U-15 WYNT: The USA Defeats Jamaica 11-nil and Costa Rica 3-nil at the 2024 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship, which covers the USA’s first two group stages matches of the tournament, and
U-15 WYNT: The USA Wins the 2024 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship, which covers the final group stage match against Haiti as well as the semifinal against Canada and the final against Mexico.

U-15 WYNT: The USA Wins the 2024 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship

For the fourth time out of four tries, the USA are champions of the Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship. In this year’s edition of the tournament, the U.S. Under-15 Women’s Youth National Team defeated Mexico 3-nil in the championship match after advancing from the semifinals by besting Canada 4:2 in a penalty shootout following a 1:1 draw in regulation.

USA midfielder Caroline Swann was named the Best Player of the tournament, while forward Carolina Reyna was the high scorer, with 6 goals.

Read on for recaps of the championship match, the USA’s semifinal against Canada, and the USA’s final group match, a 13-nil victory over Haiti. (The USA’s first two group stage matches, a 11-nill win over Jamaica and a 3-nil victory over the host Costa Rica, were recapped in an early post.)

U-20 WYNT: Midfielder Sam Courtwright Is Out Due to Knee Injury, Will Be Replaced By Addison Halpern

On Thursday, August 15th, U.S. Soccer announced, through their @USYNT x.com account that midfielder Sam Courtwright, who had 8 youth international caps with the United States Under-20 Women’s Youth National Team will not be representing the USA at the upcoming FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia due to an ACL injury.

Halpern’s replacement will be midfielder Addison Halpern from New Jersey. Halpern, who plays for PDA, was one of the alternates named in last week’s roster announcement.

That announcement came a couple hours after Courtwright’s collegiate team, Texas Tech, posted on social media that Courtwright had suffered a season-ending knee injury (post on team’s X.com account). Courtwright’s injury came during a Texas Tech training session.

2024 Concacaf W Champions Cup: Group Stage Schedule for NWSL Teams with TV and Streaming Details

The inaugural edition of the Concacaf W Champions Cup, the confederation’s first international tournament for professional women’s soccer teams (mostly), gets underway tonight with a play-in match between the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Elite of Canada and Alianza of El Salvador.

With less than four hours to go before the kick-off of the play-in match, CBS Sports released its television and streaming schedule for the group phase on the website formerly known as Twitter.

Three NWSL teams are in the competition: The 2023 champions, Gotham FC; 2023 Shield winners, San Diego Wave; and the Shield runners-up, Portland Thorns. Gotham is in Group A, while the Wave and the Thorns are in Group B.

NCAA: Former USWNT Head Coach Anson Dorrance Announces Retirement from UNC Women’s Soccer

On Sunday, August 11th, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s athletics department announced that Anson Dorrance, long-time head coach of the women’s soccer program at UNC and a former head coach of the United States Women’s National Team, has retired, effective immediately.

Dorrance, as most fans of women’s soccer should be well aware, is the most successful coach in NCAA Division I women’s soccer, winning 21 national titles.

While not the first head coach of the USWNT, in many ways, Dorrance was the team’s founding father. He helped to establish the team’s identity and brought in young players such as Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, and Kristine Lilly. As head coach, Dorrance lead the USWNT to its first FIFA Women’s World Cup title, though at the time, the tournament did not use the “World Cup” moniker.

The press release (goheels.com) stated that Dorrance informed UNC’s Director of Athletics on Friday (August 9th) and notified the women’s soccer team on Sunday.

Assistant head coach Damon Nahas, who is the brother of North Carolina Courage head coach, Sean Nahas, will be the interim head coach.

Olympics 2024: The USWNT’s Gold Medal Ceremony

The USWNT receives their gold medals (Telemundo Deportes)

The playing of the national anthem (Telemundo Deportes)