nwsl Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Ashlyn Harris Somehow Didn’t Get A Foul For This Draw-Preserving Takedown
There were seconds left in the game. Elizabeth Eddy got the pass. She was one-on-one with the goalkeeper. And Ashlyn Harris did all she could to preserve a draw for the Orlando Pride against Sky Blue FC, sprawling out to make the save. ...

NWSL Bans Utah Royals Fan Who Yelled Racist Slurs At Portland Goalkeeper
The NWSL announced Saturday that a Utah Royals fan has been banned from all games at Utah’s Rio Tinto Stadium and all National Women’s Soccer League games, after the fan yelled racist taunts at the Portland Thorns’ black goalkeeper Adrianna Franch during a Thorns-Royals game earlier this month....

The Biggest Thing Holding Back Women's Soccer Is The Same Old Thing
PORTLAND, Ore. — The crowd decked out in red and black sways between elation and disappointment as the seconds tick away. Voices rise when the hometown Portland Thorns take possession of the ball, and heavy sighs spread through the crowd of close to 19,000 when they turn it over. The Thorns have mos...

Hair-Pulling Considered Rude In Every Sport But Football
In the midst of play a few weeks ago, WNBA player Liz Cambage’s arm got all wrapped up in her opponent Kalani Brown’s hair. At first the tangle seemed to be an accident, but soon there was pushing and shoving and intentional hair-pulling, and Cambage walked away from the encounter with a flagrant fo...

The NWSL's Worst Club Is Losing Top Draft Picks Because Of Garbage Management
Last season, the NWSL’s Sky Blue FC limped its way to a 1-17-6 record, landing at the bottom of the league table with a whopping -31 goal difference. Despite having USWNT star Carli Lloyd, the 2018 Sky Blue season was the worst in league history: nine total points, “beating” the previous record of 1...

One Month After Promised Solutions, Women's Pro Soccer Team Still Doesn't Have Running Water
Over the last month, a series of reports have detailed the squalid living and practicing conditions that players for the NWSL’s Sky Blue FC—including USWNT legend Carli Lloyd—have had to endure. As The Equalizer and Once A Metro reported in July, and Deadspin reported earlier this month, the team’s ...

The NWSL's Sky Blue FC Is Falling Apart, On The Field And Off
Sky Blue FC is the longest operating women’s professional soccer club in the United States. It has survived the collapse of Women’s Professional Soccer, the predecessor to the National Women’s Soccer League, and made it through some tumultuous recent years in the NWSL, too. But six seasons into the ...

Sydney Leroux Dwyer Delivers A Loving Slide Tackle To Her Own Son<em></em>
Cassius Dwyer, son of USWNT and Orlando Pride soccer player Sydney Leroux Dwyer, learned a valuable lesson from his mom at Sunday’s match: Okay, the lesson is unclear, but maybe it was the experience of getting tackled that was beneficial. This top-tier sports baby was delicately but absolutely wrec...

The NWSL Hasn't Had A Commissioner For Over A Year, And It's Getting Left Behind
On March 2, 2017, Jeff Plush stepped down as commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League....

World Cup Hero Carli Lloyd Is Back Home In New Jersey To Build A Fanbase For Sky Blue FC<em></em>
In the weeks leading up to Carli Lloyd’s home debut with Sky Blue FC, the ticket requests came fast and furious from her friends and family. But by the time the Delran, N.J. native and women’s soccer icon stepped on Yurcak Field Sunday afternoon, the headcount had diminished greatly. The prospect of...

Let Us Cringe Together At A Truly Butchered Pre-Game National Anthem
Rachel Platten is a well-known pop singer. I am a crusty old shitbag, and so I have heard of roughly no one, but I understand she’s had some chart-topping hits and may have performed on, like, Good Morning America or something. At any rate, here she is performing, well, some of the national anthem a...

Lindsey Horan's Goal Gives Portland The NWSL Championship
An emphatic Lindsey Horan finish off a long Emily Sonnett free kick proved to be the decisive blow in Saturday’s NWSL Championship Game, as the Portland Thorns defeated the North Carolina Courage 1-0....

Rachel Daly Collapses, Is Taken Off On Stretcher At End Of Match
Houston Dash and English national team forward Rachel Daly collapsed just after taking a shot on goal in the final minute of her team’s match today against Seattle....

18-Year-Old Soccer Star Mallory Pugh Is Leaving UCLA To Turn Pro
Mallory Pugh, the blazingly fast and wildly skilled winger who played with the U.S. women’s team in the 2016 Olympics, is leaving UCLA to turn pro, according to a statement released by the school. The 18-year-old enrolled at UCLA in January and would have begun her freshman season in the fall. Inst...

Rachel Daly Curls Brilliant Goal Into Corner Of The Net
Rachel Daly put the Houston Dash up 2-0 over the Chicago Red Stars today with a simply beautiful goal that curved into the corner of the net at juuuust the right angle:...

An NWSL Strike Might Be The USWNT's Best Leverage
The U.S. women’s national team is in the middle of the 2017 SheBelieves Cup, a three-game tournament held in the U.S., and the team’s only major international competition of the year. They beat Germany 1-0 on Wednesday in Pennsylvania, play England on Saturday in New Jersey, and face France in Tuesd...

Western New York Win NWSL Championship In A Shootout After Stoppage Time Equalizer
The Western New York Flash defeated the Washington Spirit in a shootout to win the NWSL title. The Spirit took the lead early into extra time, with Crystal Dunn scoring in the 92nd minute, her second of the night. But Western New York’s Lynn Williams headed in a Jessica McDonald cross four minutes i...
![Grandstanding NWSL Owner Plays National Anthem Early To Avoid Megan Rapinoe's Protest [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/dzkm70a8bprf1tkspuop.jpg)
Grandstanding NWSL Owner Plays National Anthem Early To Avoid Megan Rapinoe's Protest [Update]
Megan Rapinoe’s Seattle Reign traveled to Washington D.C. to play the Washington Spirit tonight. It’s the Reign’s first game since Rapinoe knelt in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick last weekend. She expected to kneel again tonight, but she didn’t get a chance to, as Washington played the national an...

Megan Rapinoe Joins Colin Kaepernick, Kneels During National Anthem
Sunday night in Chicago, U.S. Women’s National Team star Megan Rapinoe kneeled during the national anthem before a NWSL game between her Seattle Reign and the host Red Stars. It was, she confirmed after the game, exactly what it appeared to be: a show of solidarity with San Francisco 49ers quarterba...
![TLC Concert Forces Top-Division Soccer Match To Be Played On Ridiculously Tiny Pitch [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/mzcdd0kstvqvrw61bmpr.jpg)
TLC Concert Forces Top-Division Soccer Match To Be Played On Ridiculously Tiny Pitch [UPDATE]
Tonight’s match between the Western New York Flash and Seattle Reign took place on a ridiculously-configured pitch at the home of the AAA Rochester Red Wings due to a previously-scheduled concert by TLC at the Flash’s home stadium....