It’s here. Finally.

The National Women’s Soccer League released its 2023 regular season and 2023 Challenge Cup schedules. New for 2023 is the Challenge Cup running concurrently, somewhat, with the regular season.

The NWSL has also, finally, given us a true Decision Day, with all teams in action at the same time on the final day of the regular season. Now all that’s missing is a whip-around show to bring it all together.

The opening weekend of March 25–26 sees all teams in action, and includes home openers for Angel City FC, Portland Thorns FC, and San Diego Wave FC, all teams that consistently draw large home crowds.

Tasty Matchups

Such is the talent level in the NWSL that the entire league is a tasty matchup with every team capable of beating one another — making a proper Decision Day so enticing. Still, the April 1 rematch of the 2022 NWSL Championship match between the Kansas City Current and the Portland Thorns is circle-the-date viewing. The Current host the Thorns and feature a reloaded roster that includes Debinha, Morgan Gautrat, Vanessa DiBernardo, No. 2 overall draft pick Michelle Cooper, and international Hanna Glas.

(Speaking of Debinha, she returns to North Carolina to face her former team on opening weekend.)

Challenge Cup…

Michelle Cooper is one of the rising stars of U.S. Soccer. A star-studded spell at Duke University culminated in an array of individual awards for the striker, including the illustrious MAC Hermann Trophy, previously won by the likes of Catarina Macario, Crystal Dunn, Christine Sinclair, Christen Press, and many others.

On the international scene, Cooper represented her nation at the Under-20 World Cup, and at the U-20 CONCACAF Championships; her eight goals saw her win both the Golden Boot and Golden Ball as her reputation continued to increase throughout the year.

All that led to Thursday night’s NWSL Draft ahead of the 2023 domestic season, with Cooper all set to be the overall second pick behind 17-year-old Alyssa Thompson, her U.S. youth teammate who skipped college completely to become the youngest draftee in the league’s history with Angel City FC.

“I’m excited,” Cooper said to Our Game Magazine hours before the draft. “Of course, I’m nervous, it’s a big deal, my life is basically about to do a 180 right now, but I’m okay with it and I’m going what happens by the reins. So yeah, I’m excited.”

Cooper was speaking from the draft host city of Philadelphia, where she was with her mum, sister, agent, and she also admitted…

 

“Do you think I’d be sat here if this club didn’t have ambition?” laughed Martin Ho, assistant manager of Manchester United Women.

It’s the final question of an interview that spans across an hour of Ho’s busy schedule, as he discusses the club’s positive start to the new season, reflects on his first campaign working with head coach Marc Skinner, summer recruitment, the club’s youth system, and a whole lot more.

His question, though, reflects the tone of the interview throughout: Ho is unequivocal in his belief United is only going one way, while supporters are angsty over another near-miss that saw the team miss out on a debut Champions League campaign on the final day of last season.

“We’re in a healthy position in this moment,” he said, speaking of the club’s 100 percent start to the season, with nary a goal conceded through their opening five games.

“It’s still early in the season. Are we happy with where we are? Yes. Will the players be happy with where we are? Yes. We had a good preseason which has put us in good stead for the…

“Last season during a press conference I said, ‘We are a five-year-old child that goes to a primary school and we are playing against people at university.’”

The words of from the man at the helm of Italian giants Juventus, their women’s team sporting director, Stefano Braghin.

It may seem strange terminology for one of the most recognizable names in world football, but that is how Braghin views, potentially fairly, a side that was only created, as referenced, five years ago.

This week they will take on European champions Lyon in the Champions League and following that a double-header with Arsenal, one of the pioneers of the women’s game, and they want to compete, as they did last season during their first run to the quarterfinals, but it’s here where Braghin expands on his initial point.

“It was a joke, but the current situation is we are very young in the game. There are three things we are really focused on for the future to grow up and compete with these teams.

“The recruitment of young players in Italy overall, because we are struggling with numbers. What I have noticed in Lyon and Arsenal is the average player is stronger than our average player. So forget the Champions League for now because that is a matter of money. If I…

Andy Spence is sat at home, taking in what he has witnessed in the opening weekend of the Barclays Women’s Super League, but with different motivations to when he would religiously follow the league as the manager of one of the teams in it.

The former Everton manager’s new role as assistant head coach of the Canada Women’s National Team mean his Monday mornings are now more about sitting in front of a laptop screen then marching out onto the training pitch.

Having been at Manchester United versus Reading and Liverpool versus Chelsea, both close to where he still calls home on Merseyside, to watch several Canadian internationals, Spence is embracing his new challenge less than a year after taking the job.

“I know the landscape here fairly well,” he said with a laugh, referring of course to his lengthy stint as not just manager, but assistant manager to Mo Marley at Everton, a stint that lasted over a decade.

“It’s good to get out to games and see our players. It keeps me connected to the game here and it’s always nice to be able to have that contact with the players between camps.”

Spence only travels to Canada for national team camps, a combination of being able to stay closely connected to a growing number of Canadian players in…

Naomi Girma believes Friday night’s defeat to England was a great test for her and her U.S. teammates in an enthralling match that saw the European and world champions go toe to toe in front of 76,893 at Wembley Stadium.

After Lauren Hemp put the Lionesses ahead early on, Sophia Smith equalized but ultimately Georgia Stanway’s penalty after a VAR check decided things, with all the goals coming during a fast and frenetic first 45 minutes.

Twenty-two-year-old Girma was one of the standout performers on the night for Vlatko Andonovski’s side and continued her good form after a promising first National Women’s Soccer League season with the San Diego Wave FC, and the center back enjoyed the test of going against England.

“I think there are always areas I think we feel like we can improve in, especially after a loss,” she said, post-match. “I think we feel like as a team this is a game we can win, so it’s great preparation for the World Cup and it’s something we want to feel and we want to go through the test and the battle. There is stuff we can clean up, all the way through the team, including at the back.”

There’s a common belief the U.S. is in somewhat of a transition at the moment, with young players such as Girma becoming more…

Sophia Smith says she is in a “happy place” as her own personal good form continued with a tenth goal of 2022 for the U.S. in a narrow 1–2 defeat to England at Wembley on Friday night.

The Portland Thorns star, who has enjoyed a superb domestic season in the National Women’s Soccer League, was a constant threat to the Lionesses back line and equalized after Lauren Hemp’s early goal when she hammered home an effort from the edge of the box after a high press from teammate Lindsey Horan.

Despite defeat, Smith continued to show at 22 years of age her ability to be one of the top players in the world, and is pleased with how things are going for her at the moment ahead of a trip to Spain on Tuesday.

“I think just confidence,” she said, when asked about her more consistent form throughout 2022. “I think I’ve really grown into the league, found my place in Portland and within the team, so I think for sure it’s a confidence thing.

“I feel every time I step on the field I can be myself and play free and just not like put a lot of pressure on myself. I’m in a happy place and yeah, that’s the biggest thing.”

Smith laughed when asked if she was on a “revenge tour” against those who wanted to see more from her at the back end of…

Seventeen-year-old Alyssa Thompson described making her senior U.S. debut at Wembley Stadium on Friday night as “super cool,” as she became one of the youngest women to represent the current double world champions.

A member of one of Total Futbol Academy boys’ teams where she plays with players looking to make the grade into Major League Soccer, Thompson was a first-time pick by head coach Vlatko Andonovski, and he had no issue throwing Thompson on for the final 10 minutes in front of more than 76,000 fans at Wembley, the biggest crowd the U.S. has played in front of in a friendly match, only beaten by the 1999 World Cup final.

“I was very nervous, but I knew my capabilities and what I could do so and the coaching staff and everyone believed in me, so I was prepared to go on, but I was still super nervous,” said Thompson in the mixed zone after the match.

Speaking about what the feeling was like when Andonovski told her she would be coming on, as she did alongside Ashley Sanchez and Becky Sauerbrunn, the forward added: “Well, first of all, I was like, ‘Gosh, okay.’ And then I was like, ‘Okay, just don’t get in your head too much and you can do it. Just remember what we’ve been talking about in practice.’ I know my team has my…

It has felt like a lifetime since England lifted the European Championship trophy at Wembley, a mere two and a bit months ago, but suddenly walking into the national stadium, breathing the memories of that warm July evening, it felt like no time at all.

A rendition of “God Save The King” pre-match reminded everyone inside the stadium of how much can change in so little time, as once again a close-to-capacity crowd crammed into Wembley to watch the new champions of Europe take on the number one team in the world and the current world champions.

And it was befitting of the tag too. Some games get hyped and fail to deliver, this one didn’t. There was no “friendly” about it, as Emily Fox sadly found out when she got introduced to Georgia Stanway midway through the first half and had to be replaced by Hailie Mace.

Mace. Stanway. Everyone. All of them in the thick of the action during a pulsating 90 minutes under the lights at Wembley.

Sarina Wiegman is very rarely a woman to throw in a curve ball, but there was much discussion leading up to the game as to who would lead the Lionesses in the absence of Euro starter Ellen White and the injured Alessia Russo.

Could it be Rachel Daly? Finally? Would it be the young gun Ebony Salmon, who knows the…

When talking with coaches who have worked with Sophia Smith throughout her career, the same characteristics keep coming up in discussions about the 22-year-old:  her drive, her determination, her willingness to learn.

Smith grew up in Windsor, Colorado, with two older sisters, Gabrielle and Savannah, both of whom played basketball, and dad Kenny who was a basketball player at the University of Wyoming. At one point it looked like basketball would be the sport Smith would succeed at given she also played at a high level through high school.

But it was soccer that was Smith’s true love and passion. She met future U.S. teammate Jaelin Howell in kindergarten where they were two of just four girls in a class of 22. The parents of one of the other girls, Martha and Rob Martin, began a recreational team called the Timnath Twisters, which both Smith and Howell became a part of, and her journey toward where she is today began.

After becoming two of the standout players on the team, both were picked up by a local club called Arsenal Colorado, and it was there Smith and Howell were noticed by Lorne Donaldson, now the Jamaica national team coach, but at the time was both president and a coach at Real Colorado, one of the top clubs in the country.

“When we…