Midfielder is looking towards the World Cup in France while her husband, Zach, has his eyes on a repeat Super BowlAlmost a year ago the United States women’s team kicked off what would become an undefeated year with a 5-1 win over the Euro 2017 runners-up, Denmark.Having fallen behind to a Nadia Nadim goal, the USA equalised through Alex Morgan before the midfielder Julie Ertz put the 2015 World Cup champions ahead to accelerate the turnaround. Related: Women’s Super League: talking points from the weekend’s action Related: Sheffield United Women player faces sack if racism claims are proved Continue reading...
Arsenal are back on top of the table but victory over West Ham papered over defensive issues while Chelsea are back in formArsenal shot back to the top of the league with a 4-2 win over West Ham, but this was a far from perfect performance. The teams went into half-time at 2-2, and the leaders were then given what their usually mild-mannered manager, Joe Montemurro, described as their biggest telling-off of the season. He spent much of the last two weeks training against long balls and set pieces, only to watch his side twice fail to deal with long kicks from the West Ham goalkeeper, Becky Spencer, which released the Swiss forward Alisha Lehmann to set up Scotland’s Jane...
Signing for Juventus was among the personal highlights but racism against Kalidou Koulibaly was a sad way to end the yearThe turn of the year left behind 12 months to remember personally on and off the field but also from a wider perspective in football.On the pitch if I could summarise 2018 in one word it would be progress. Progress for the England men’s team who, perhaps unexpectedly, reached the semi-finals of the World Cup. They continued that momentum by qualifying for the Nations League finals beating top nations such as Spain with the exciting, fearless brand of football we have all been craving to see from England. I was fortunate to be at many of England’s games in Russia...
Backing by Visa indicates women’s game has value and is the biggest sign of its potential to be self-sustaining to dateSponsorship deals are routinely mocked, from Manchester United’s mattress partners to Everton’s Angry Birds sleeves, with some companies all too keen to get themselves associated with Premier League clubs. And we roll our eyes at the latest madcap scenarios players find themselves in at launch events.However Uefa’s announcement that it has agreed a seven-year deal with Visa as the first sponsor of Uefa women’s football deserves the celebratory tone with which it was unveiled. Because, for a change, it actually is a groundbreaking deal. Why? Because as Nadine Kessler, Uefa’s head of women’s football, said, the aim is “to assign...
The Norwegian’s powerful, inspiring speech gave me goose bumps and the award’s worthy winner dealt with Martin Solveig’s casual sexism magnificentlyWhen I was a young girl I had to deal with people calling me weird and strange because I spent so much time around boys playing football. However I am not alone – that seems to be a regular theme when you speak to many of the great female professional footballers in the world about their journey to where they are now. It is not free of adversity and it is challenging having to justify your talent in what has been considered a man’s sport for centuries.I think the quicker we tell young girls who dream of playing professionally that...