The National Women’s Soccer League embarked on its fourth season this weekend. If you have been following the NWSL, you are awesome and we should be friends. If you haven’t been following, you totally should! Here are some important things you might wanna know.
+ There are 10 teams: Seattle Reign FC, Portland Thorns KC, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Boston Breakers, Western New York Flash, Washington Spirit, Sky Blue FC, Houston Dash and Orlando Pride.
+ This is the Orlando Pride’s first season in the NWSL, which is awesome because it hopefully means the league is sustainable and expanding. This being the fourth season is a pretty big deal considering the last professional league in the United States, Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), folded in 2012 after its third season. Before that, there was the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA), which was formed after the United States won the 1999 World Cup. That league also folded after its third season. So, good job NWSL!
+ Teams have one to four (lookin’ at you, Portland) players who also have steady spots on the USWNT. Those players’ schedules are crazy since it’s an Olympic year, but if you have a favorite, watching them play in the NWSL is a cool way to see them shine!
+ Most of the NWSL games are streamed live on the NWSL YouTube channel for free. So, show them some love this season. Fox Sports will also be broadcasting six NWSL games this year, but the broadcasts won’t begin until September, leading up to the playoffs.
+ There are lots of openly lesbian and bisexual players in the NWSL! Here are some of the lovely gay faces you can see around the NWSL this season.
Twitter: @KeelinWinters
Instagram: @winters11
Winters is a midfielder and has been on the Reign since 2013. In 2014 and 2015, Winters captained the Reign to the team’s winningest seasons, which earned them the NWSL Shield. Winters married her girlfriend in October 2015 and their wedding looked super cute on Instagram.
Twitter: @JessFishlock
Instagram: @jessfishlock
Fishlock is also a midfielder for the Reign. In fact, she and Winters make up arguably one of the best midfields in the NWSL. Last year she spoke with BBC Sport about the difficulties that come with being a high-profile gay athlete. She also works with Athlete Ally, which aims to combat homophobia and transphobia in American sports.
Twitter: @mPinoe
Instagram: @mrapinoe
Rapinoe has been recovering from an ACL injury since December, but if her Instagram is any indicator, she’s working her tail off to get healthy. (Hopefully for the Olympics, too!) Pinoe has been on the Reign since 2013, where she plays forward. She came out before the 2012 Olympics in London and is engaged to musician Sera Cahoone.
Twitter: @MeleanaShim
Instagram: @MeleanaShim
Shim, who is a midfielder, came out publicly in 2013, a day before the Portland Thorns entered the inaugural season of the NWSL. She actually went undrafted in the 2013 NWSL College Draft and joined the Thorns after open tryouts. She also grew up in Honolulu!
Twitter: @NatashaKai
Instagram: @NatashaKai_32
Kai, who also grew up in Hawaii (I guess this is a thing with women’s soccer stars?), is a forward. She actually also played for Sky Blue FC when the team was part of the WPS and won the 2009 WPS Championship. She’s also known for her tattoos and has been in ESPN’s Body Issue.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD86qucodQ0/?taken-by=natashakai_32
Twitter: @JoannaLohman
Instagram: @joannalohman15
Lohman is a midfielder who has really cool hair. She also helped relaunch an organization called GO! Athletes, which aims to help high schools and colleges to embrace LGBTQ athletes. She also used to be vice president of a commercial real estate company and has said that her dream job is to be GM of Washington’s NFL team, so she seems pretty well-rounded, if you ask me.
Twitter: @liannesanderson
Instagram: @liannesanderson10
Sanderson is a forward and has been signed by the NWSL’s newest team, Orlando Pride. The Lewisham, England native signed with the Arsenal youth program when she was nine years old. She also said in an NWSL Q&A that she loves interacting with fans on Twitter, so follow her if you’re into that.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDegcv7j4-a/?taken-by=liannesanderson10
Did we miss anyone? Let us know in the comments! (We know there are other players who may be LGBT, but this list only includes players who have come out publicly.) Here’s to spending the next six months watching amazingly athletic women do really cool things.
Remember in July when the U.S. Women’s National Team won its third Women’s World Cup? Man, that was the best. I’m still not over it. It was all just so great. Since then, some big names have announced their retirement, including Lori Chalupny, Lauren Holiday, Shannon Boxx and some person named Abby Wambach.
2o16 will be another exciting year as the team gears up for the Olympics in Rio this summer. Plus, we’re not even a month into it and we have big awards, new captains and at least seven games scheduled between now and mid-March.
So let’s talk about it!
The U.S. came home with two distinguished awards from the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala in Zurich earlier this month. Jill Ellis, the USWNT manager who led the team to its third World Cup, was named FIFA Women’s World Coach of the Year. Ellis was officially named the USWNT manager in 2014 after spending several years as an assistant coach and interim head coach for the team.
Carli Lloyd, a midfielder for the USWNT, won the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year. As a brief reminder, Lloyd scored that hat trick within the first 16 minutes of the Women’s World Cup final against Japan. (That’s the only time any player — male or female — has scored a hat trick in a World Cup final.)
Ellis named Lloyd and defender Becky Sauerbrunn the new USWNT co-captains. They became the 13th and 14th team captains in the team’s history. The former team captain, Christie Rampone, has been on the USWNT since 1997 and has been captain since 2008. Rampone, currently sidelined while she recover from knee surgery, has been to five World Cups and four Olympics during her time with the team.
The leadership should come easy for both Lloyd and Sauerbrunn. Lloyd, who has been a member of the USWNT since 2005, captained four games during the World Cup, including the final against Japan; Sauerbrunn, who has been on the team since 2008, is captain of her club team, FC Kansas City. When Lloyd and Sauerbrunn are both on the field, Lloyd will wear the captain’s armband.
The team just finished its January training camp at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Carson, California. They’ll take on Ireland in an international friendly this Saturday, January 23rd. The last time the USWNT faced Ireland was on May 10, 2015 when the U.S. won 3-0. The team is 11-0-0 all-time against Ireland.
And great news, guys. Even though we’re all sad that Megan Rapinoe tore her ACL in December, Fox Sports announced Pinoe will join the team as a guest analyst for Saturday’s game. Obviously, it’ll be the best.
Saturday, January 23rd
United States vs. Ireland
Qualcomm Stadium
San Diego, California
2 p.m. Pacific
FS1
So, the short version is that the USWNT will play several games in Texas between February 10 to 21 as the team tries to qualify for another Olympic berth. The CONCACAF (which stands for Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, which is why we just call it CONCACAF, which is still a mouthful) consists of Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago and the U.S.
The group stage games will take place at Toyota Stadium in Frisco and BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston with the semifinals and finals taking place Friday, February 19th and Sunday, February 21st in Houston. The top two teams will qualify for the Olympics this summer in Rio de Janeiro, and the U.S. is expected to be one of the qualifying teams.
The U.S. games are listed below, but a full schedule can be found here.
Wednesday, February 10th
United States vs. Costa Rica
Toyota Stadium
Frisco, Texas
5 p.m. Central
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Mexico vs. United States
Toyota Stadium
Frisco, Texas
3 p.m. Central
Monday, February 15, 2016
United States vs. Puerto Rico
Toyota Stadium
Frisco, Texas
7:30 p.m. Central
The United States will host the inaugural SheBelieves Cup in March, giving fans the opportunity to watch four of the world’s top five teams play against one another. The teams invited include Germany, France and England. Each venue will host a double-header allowing fans to see all four teams play.
The whole SheBelieves thing is actually pretty cool. Leading up to the 2015 Women’s World Cup, the USWNT players coined the #SheBelieves idea, which was created as a means to inspire and empower young girls to accomplish their goals, whatever those may be.
Thursday, March 3
United States vs. England
Raymond James Stadium
Tampa, Florida
7:30 p.m. Eastern
FS1
Sunday, March 6
United States vs. France
Nissan Stadium
Nashville, Tennessee
2 p.m. Central
ESPN3
Wednesday, March 9
United States vs. Germany
FAU Stadium
Boca Raton, Florida
7:30 p.m. Eastern
ESPN3
And finally, arguably the best news of all: No turf.
U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati announced that no USWNT games leading up to the Olympics will be played on turf. This is huge news. Basically, turf is known to cause more injuries and makes it longer for the body to recover after playing on it. In 2015, the USWNT played 15 games on turf. (Meanwhile, the U.S. men’s national team didn’t play on turf once in the past two years.) The turf vs. grass debate came to a boiling point in December when the USWNT cancelled its Victory Tour game in Hawaii citing turf conditions. According to an article in The Player’s Tribune, there were rocks in the turf, so the team decided it had to back out for players’ safety.
So, new co-captains, more grass playing fields, Pinoe as a guest analyst and seven USWNT games between now and mid-March. I hope you’re as excited as I am because my entire goal in life right now is for you to be as excited as I am.