Pro Women’s Soccer Is (Finally) Coming to SoCal

An impressive investor group across the business, sports, and entertainment industries announced that professional women’s soccer is coming to Los Angeles. What will the team name be? We don’t know the team name yet. It will be announced later. Where will the team play? We don’t know that yet, either. Two huge possibilities, of course, […]
Alumni Corner: Leslie Osborne, Peak Soccer

Welcome to Week three of Alumni Corner! In Week One, we met Leslie Osborne and learned all about her youth soccer years in Wisconsin. In Week Two, we ventured through her high school years. ODP, Youth National Teams, College Recruiting. All of that led to where we are now: Week 3 and “Peak Soccer.” Santa […]
Alumni Corner: Leslie Osborne, the high school years

Welcome to Week 2 of Leslie Osborne’s Alumni Corner: the high school and recruiting years Thank you to the team at ECNL for partnering with SoccerNation for this series! Last week, we met Leslie Osborne. She grew up in Wisconsin, where she played her youth club soccer and got her biggest growth opportunities through the ODP program. […]
US Women’s Victory Tour: a Photo Album

On the heels of their fourth Women’s World Cup championship, the USA Women’s National team has embarked on a nation-wide Victory Tour. The first tour stop was the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on August 3rd. View this post on Instagram saturday night lights ? A post shared by Rose Lavelle (@lavellerose) on Aug 5, 2019 […]
Abby Wambach on the Importance of High School Soccer

Abby Wambach is a soccer legend. Olympic Gold Medalist. World Cup Champion. NCAA D1 Champion. And, back in the day, she got to play soccer for her high school. Today’s soccer players have a new and difficult choice to make. Like most of her soccer peers, and the “99ers” who paved the way, she played […]
USA Wins the Women’s World Cup, with Huge TV Ratings

Women’s soccer remains the most-watched soccer match in TV history The 2015 Women’s World Cup final against Japan racked up 25.4 million domestic viewers. No other soccer game, women’s or men’s, has had more domestic viewers. Ever. The TV viewership numbers are still coming in for the 2019 Women’s World Cup Final. The broadcast has […]
Women’s World Cup Final: Preview from the Expert

There may not be a better person in the world to preview the 2019 Women’s World Cup Final. From 2009 until late 2017, Mirelle van Rijbroek was the director of all things girls’ youth soccer in the Netherlands. She trained, coached, and was an important part of the Dutch girls’ youth system that eventually became […]
Hope who? Naeher comes up big for the USA

Since before the 2019 Women’s World Cup even began, the question has been asked over and over. Could Alyssa Naeher come out of Hope Solo’s shadow? Through the group round and first two knock-out games, Naeher was tested. But only slightly. The questions still lingered. After all, Hope Solo had won the “Golden Glove” (best […]
Women’s World Cup OPINION: VAR is Ruining the Beautiful Game

New Rule for PK Shootouts during the Women’s World Cup FIFA recently announced a rule change for the highly contentious VAR procedure during the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Beginning with the knockout stage, no cautions will be handed out for goalkeeper encroachment during penalty kick shootouts. Imagine a keeper getting a second yellow thanks to […]
Put me in, Coach!

Jill Ellis, spreading the playing time love around. No Alex Morgan.No Megan Rapinoe.To Tobin Heath.All three women had what seemed like iron grips on a starting spot on Jill Ellis’s Women’s World Cup roster. But none of the three started, or even played in, the USA’s second group-round game. In fact, only four of the […]
Women’s World Cup | Fun Facts: Alex Morgan Edition

Did you miss the previous Fun Facts? No worries! Here they are: Keepers edition (Naeher, Harris & Franch) Defenders edition, Part 1 (O’Hara, Sauerbrunn & Krieger) Defenders edition, Part 2 (Dunn, Sonnett, Davidson & Dahlkemper) Midfielders edition, Part 1 (Ertz, Horan, & Lavelle) Midfielders edition, Part 2 (Brian, Mewis & Long) Forwards edition, Part 1 (Rapinoe, Pugh, & Press) Forwards edition, […]
13-0. What do you think?

France opened the 2019 Women’s World Cup with a 4-0 win over Korea Republic. Spain, Norway, and Brazil also scored three goals each in their opening matches. The USA wanted to make a statement in their opening match against Thailand. With their 13-0 win, the American women didn’t just make a statement. They closed the […]
Meet Nike’s newest young star, and her Slammers FC team. #DREAMFURTHER

During the 2019 Champions League final, Nike debuted their big-budget ad, Dream Further. During today’s marquee Women’s World Cup match (USA! USA! USA!), the ad is sure to run again. The cinematic action-packed film features a young girl being brought along to be a part of some pretty big soccer moments. Nike’s emphasis is to […]
American Soccer: Using Our Strengths and Addressing Our Challenges (Part 1)

A conversation with the Director of Talent Identification for US Soccer, Mirelle van Rijbroek The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup has kicked off in France. Leading up to this Women’s World Cup, I asked van Rijbroek the hard question: Who does she think will win the championship? She answered, “Well, I hope we do, of […]
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP | FUN FACTS: FORWARDS EDITION PART 2

Did you miss the previous Fun Facts? No worries! Here they are: Keepers edition (Naeher, Harris & Franch) Defenders edition, Part 1 (O’Hara, Sauerbrunn & Krieger) Defenders edition, Part 2 (Dunn, Sonnett, Davidson & Dahlkemper) Midfielders edition, Part 1 (Ertz, Horan, & Lavelle) Midfielders edition, Part 2 (Brian, Mewis & Long) Forwards edition, Part 1 […]
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP | FUN FACTS: FORWARDS EDITION PART 1

Did you miss the previous Fun Facts? No worries! Here they are: Keepers edition (Naeher, Harris & Franch) Defenders edition, Part 1 (O’Hara, Sauerbrunn & Krieger) Defenders edition, Part 2 (Dunn, Sonnett, Davidson & Dahlkemper) Midfielders edition, Part 1 (Ertz, Horan, & Lavelle) Midfielders edition, Part 2 (Brian, Mewis & Long) Forwards edition, Part 2 […]