women’s soccer – Page 15 – Women's Soccer Express

U-17 WWC 2024: Match Day 2A — Highlights and Group Standings Plus Advancement Scenarios

On the third day of group stage matches as the 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, the USA defeated Colombia 2-nil via goals from Micayla Johnson and Kennedy Fuller. Two teams, Spain and Nigeria, secured their spots in the quarterfinals round. In Group A, the hosts, Dominican Republic, kept their hopes alive with a salvaged draw against New Zealand.

Spain will be without two players for their third group stage match. In Spain’s 5-nil victory over Korea Republci, forward Alba Cerrato earned a straight red card in the final minutes of the match, after a video support review. Meanwhile, defender Irune Dorado, who was carrying a yellow card from her match against the USA, was given another yellow card just before halftime.

NWSL News of Note: Merritt Mathias and Desiree Scott announces retirement, Alexa Spaanstra and Shae Holmes extend, Wave sale completed, Expansion update

This week, two long-time NWSL players, who both played in the NWSL’s inaugural season, Angel City defender Merritt Mathias and Kansas City Current midfielder Desiree Scott, announced their retirements.

Meanwhile, three players —Portland Thorns forward Alexa Spaanstra, Seattle Reign center-back Shae Holmes, and Orlando Pride forward Summer Yates — are set to stay in the NWSL through the 2026 season.

Also, Racing Louisville back-up goalkeeper Olivia Sekany has been loaned to the Brisbane Roar of the A-League until early March 2025.

In team news, the sale of the San Diego Wave from Ron Burkle to the family of Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine has been completed.

Regarding expansion, an article from Sports Business Journal has added Nashville and Philadelphia to the list of known bids in the hunt for the second 2026 expansion franchise.

Finally, the Red Stars are not the only professional soccer team in Chicago looking to build a new soccer-specific stadium.

NWSL: Angel City FC’s statement on disciplinary sanctions

On Monday, Angel City FC posted a statement via social media regarding the three-point standings deduction and other disciplinary sanctions imposed by the league in response to the club violating the salary cap and other league rules.

Angel City’s statement includes two major notables:

First, it appeared that childcare benefits were the (or at least one of the) “undisclosed benefits” which caused Angel City to exceed the salary cap.
Second, Angel City “formally requested a reconsideration of the three-point deduction” by the NWSL. However, the league “confirmed that, based on the totality of their findings, the sanctions stand as is.”

Additionally, Angel City claims to have had the understanding that “childcare payments [did] not count against the salary cap”, which is hard to square with the text of the NWSL Competition Manual.

Regarding the first notable, on Friday, a The 19th article revealed that only one of the undisclosed supplemental agreements covered childcare payments:

A league source told The 19th that child care payments were only part of the reason Angel City was over the cap and got sanctioned. Only one of the five side letters addressed additional child care payments; the rest of that side letter and the other four letters were for additional amounts covering other terms.

U-17 WWC 2024: Match Day 1B — Highlights and Group Standings

On the second day of matches at the 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, the most eye-opening result was the nil-nil draw between Japan and debutantes Poland, while the least surprising one was Korea DPR’s 4:1 victory over Mexico. Meanwhile, Brazil and England both earned wins against their African opponents.

As with the opening day, three USA-based players found the back of the net: Mexico’s Citlalli Reyes, Brazil’s Juju Harris, and England’s Lauryn Thompson.

USWNT: Roster Announced for October 2024 Friendlies — 6 Uncapped Players, No Trinity Rodman — Plus Match Schedule and TV/Streaming Details

Update (25-Oct-2024): Jane Campbell has been withdrawn due to a “muscle injury during training” and is replaced by Utah Royals goalkeeper Mandy Haught, who has U-20 USWYNT experience. (U.S. Soccer)

On Thursday, U.S. Soccer announced the United States Women’s National Team roster for its upcoming domestic friendlies against #13 Iceland and #33 Argentina. For the three matches, head coach Emma Hayes has called up 26 players, including six who are uncapped at the senior international level.

Among the players not called in are Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman, who is rehabilitating a back injury, and Catarina Macario, who was a late scratch from the USWNT’s Olympic roster. The reason given for Macario’s absence is that she is not back to being a regular starter at Chelsea (x.com post quoting Emma Hayes).

The six uncapped players include Olympic alternates Hal Hirshfelt and Emily Sams, defenders Alyssa Malonson and Eva Gaetino, plus forwards Yazmeen Ryan and Emma Sears.

Notable returnees include Kansas City Current outside-back Hailie Mace, who was last in camp with the USWNT back in January 2023, plus two members of the USWNT’s 2023 WWC roster: Angel City forward Alyssa Thompson and North Carolina Courage midfielder Ashley Sanchez.

U-17 WWC 2024: Match Day 1A — Highlights and Group Standings

On Wednesday, October 16th, the 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup kicked off in the Dominican Republic with four group stage matches.

In Group B, the USA lost 1:3 to the defending champions, Spain, but are in good shape to advance as the other Group B match, between Colombia and Korea Republic, ended in a draw, which eliminated the possibility of three teams each finishing on six points.

The hosts, Dominican Republic, which has 10 USA-based players, opened its campaign with a respectable 0:2 loss to Ecuador.

In all, three USA-based players scored on Wednesday, including two NWSL professionals: Mel Barcenas of the San Diego Wave for the USA and Casey Phair of Angel City for Korea Republic. The third goal-scorer was Colombia’s Ella Martinez, who is an academy player for USL Super League side Tampa Bay Sun and is a verbal commit for Duke University.

NWSL Referee Assignments: October 18 to 20, 2024

Friday, October 18th:

Reign vs. Dash: Brad Jensen (VAR: Alexandra Billeter)

Saturday, October 19th:

Current vs. Wave: Iryna Petrunok (VAR: Shawn Tehini)
Racing vs. Thorns: Calin Radosav (VAR: Kevin Broadley)
Bay FC vs. Courage: Elijio Arreguin (VAR: Corbyn May)

Sunday, October 20th:

Spirit vs. Red Stars: Adam Kilpatrick (VAR: Greg Dopka)
Gotham vs. Pride: Ricardo Fierro (VAR: Brad Jensen)
Angel City vs. Royals: Sergii Demianchuk (VAR: Abdou Ndiaye)

Source: PRO

U-17 WWC 2024: Official Squad Lists for All 16 Teams — Plus Superlatives and Known NCAA Verbal Commits for USA-Based Players

Edit (22-Oct-2024): Added verbal commit details for Caprice Chiuchiolo (Ecuador).

Last week, FIFA released the official squad lists for all sixteen teams participating in the 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup.

I have converted those lists into a Google Sheets spreadsheets, adding columns for a player’s age and a player’s height in inches. Also, for USA-based players that are not currently a professional or not already playing collegiately, their announced verbal commits have been added.

Downloads:

Official FIFA Document: FU17WWC-2024-Squad-Lists-English.pdf
Google Sheets version: U-17 WWC 2024 – Squad Lists

At least five non-USA players have attended U.S. Soccer youth camps. Among those is England’s Lauryn Thompson, who is a Florida State verbal commit.

Three players from the recently concluded U-20 WWC have been named to their country’s rosters for this tournament. Most notably, Choe Il Son, who won the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot in Colombia, is set to play for Korea DPR in this tournament.

NWSL News of Note: Dash sign U-18 midfielder Zoe Matthews, Olivia Wade-Katoa on SEI List, Bay FC sign midfielder Catherine Paulson

Friday’s notables all involve midfielders:

The Houston Dash signed 6’2″ midfielder Zoe Matthews under the U18 Entry Mechanism. Matthews is eligible to play for both Jamaica and the USA.
The Portland Thorns placed rookie midfielder Olivia Wade-Katoa is out for the rest of the season and will undergo knee surgery.
Bay FC signed Catherine Paulson for the remainder of the season. Paulson had been a National Team Replacement Player during Savy King’s absence.

NWSL: San Diego Wave organization sued by five former employees, League also named as defendant [Updated]

Update (9-January-2025): On October 31st, a sixth former employee joined the lawsuit. She is designated as “Jane Doe 2”, with the first anonymous plaintiff now designated as “Jane Doe 1”. See the “Update” section below for a summary of Doe 2’s allegations.

This week, five former employees of the San Diego Wave filed a joint lawsuit in California state court against the Wave organization, asserting fifteen different causes of action. The National Women’s Soccer League was also named as a defendant on an additional claim of negligence.

The sports news website Defector was the first to report on the lawsuit and has an article, written by Diana Moskovitz and Lesley Ryder, that comprehensively summarizes the complaint: “San Diego Wave, NWSL Sued For Team’s ‘Abusive And Hostile Work Environment'”. Additionally, Jeff Kassouf has a brief article about the lawsuit on ESPN.com: “San Diego Wave, NWSL sued by five former employees”. The original complaint can be viewed and downloaded using the following link: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25196836/sd-wave-complaint.pdf (via Defector).