It was 25 years this week (yesterday!) that the world's first fully professional women's league kicked off. Woso history nerds will enjoy the presentation I did recently for the Society of American Soccer Historians (@SASH): www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDV0...

running for president purely on a "banning gambling ads and promotions from sports broadcasts" platform

this is going to keep top talent out of the league

probably the thing about the match that surprised me the most was how tolerable the US kits were. Please note that this is not me saying they are GOOD, just that I expected matches with them to be potentially unwatchable.

for the most part I don't think this changed too much for the USWNT heading into the WWC except that Dickey might be the goalkeeping frontrunner for good

it's a great goal AND you get the shot of Melissa Ortiz in her fortified rainjacket

The Japan and USWNT Series is Tied at 1-1. We go to a pivotal game three next.

lmao owned

Tanaka definitely my player of the match so far, though plenty of time for someone to take that

butch haircut in the rain Tierna Davidson threatening to make me turn patriotic

ally don't listen to the haters. that was a good shot and you should keep doing it

I feel like Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who played for Seattle Reign and also Manchester United, should be somewhat more comfortable with rainy conditions

Sears on the right giving width there, Shaw or Moultrie as a left-sided creator and the other in the center. I think that makes more room for Patterson and the Baby 10s

Put Emma Sears in the middle, I want to see something

What we're seeing today so far is mostly Japan actually looking Japan again after napping through the first match

outside with the girls cooking up a new Discourse

clapping like a seal for that entire sequence from Japan and Hamano, terrific soccer

lmao Melissa Ortiz dressing like she's on an Arctic expedition

okay so BOTH sides did full rotation. this should be fun

Rapinoe has joined Substack??!? WTF is going on? It’s one thing to have joined up a while back. But it’s wild the day after Substack promoted Andrew Tate to be announcing you've joined the platform.

outside with the girls cooking up a new Discourse

rendering me irrelevant....interesting...appealing

delighted that the greater sports world has been introduced to priscila chinchilla, and eagerly await the discoveries of atlanta primus, gift monday, and skye bacon

If you enjoy names like Priscilla Chinchilla, may I also recommend women's football for names like: Gift Monday Croix Bethune Brecken Mozingo Jess Fishlock Hal Hershfeldt ....and that's just the NWSL!

Or what about this angle??

had a dream that I was avoiding submitting my timesheet to Emma Hayes because I'd been sick that week and had no idea how much pay she thought I deserved. but she was giving big cash to Trin and friends

surprised it was this even but apparently Ueki's goal was basically a penalty

Going to be hard to top this female coach in the German men's fifth tier

can i get a hell yes, this is a proper club in a proper league, this is huge

while the broadcast and much the timeline are focused on the US for obvious reasons, I think the story of that match was just how off their game Japan was for 75% of that match. Some of that comes down to US defending for sure but I think travel/friendly/coaching change was a huge part of it

I think what we're seeing with these substitution patterns is that Japan are playing one team, as best as they can with it, and Hayes has the US playing two teams, with the vets in match 1 and the kids being set for match 2

boy this really started looking like a friendly in the last ten minutes huh. just a lot of oddly casual play

"a second Utah Royals player has hit the pitch"

MY TIMELINE: Lindsey Heaps is garbage...this is the worst midfield in history....she'll be executed tomorrow if she can't perform THE ACTUAL MATCH: the US plays well with 60% possession and Heaps is fine

maybe the least confident I've ever seen manaka on the ball

these are strong long shots from japan but I question the "take long shots of any quality against Claudia Dickey" strategy

The crowd seems to enjoy the football stylings of Sophia Wilson

Japan's set piece defending there was tactically naive. Not gonna win a World Cup that way. fire the coach

definitely interested to see Momoko and Matsukubo starting at the same time and how that works

#NadeshikoJapan USWNT - Nadeshiko Japan #USAJPN 🔥谷川萌々子選手スタメン🔥 Starting 11 Yamashita Takahashi Koga Minami Kitagawa Miyazawa Nagano Hasegawa Fujino Tanikawa Matsukubo #woso #女子サッカー #谷川萌々子

my hope for the three-game set with Japan is that things get competitive enough that someone invents a Pacifica Trophy by the third match

I am really excited for this 3-game series against Japan. Even with the coaching change, I think they are serious contenders for the World Cup and arguably one of the top squads in the world. I’d like to see the US face some adversity and have to do some real problem solving in this window.

omg Priscila Chinchilla has a FotMob 10 right now

I was too exhausted to finish my newsletter this week but it had three main points: 1. I'm excited about USA-Japan three times 2. Both teams are overflowing with options at the 10, watch those slots 3. Toko Koga rules and the USWNT fans may see how much she rules this window

when will women's football return from the wars........

I get why it's Miami but a true 30th anniversary match is against the KC Wiz

Kerstin Casparij - I don't need to use my own words, go read hers in the Guardian www.theguardian.com/football/202....

A bit of why the players were chosen [thread]

In his weekly chat, Alex Straus said that Jun Endo could be available for minutes in the first game after the break, April 26 v. Portland #AngelCityFC #NWSL