Twenty-five years ago Wednesday, the 1999 US women’s national soccer team captured international attention and acclaim en route to its World Cup victory on home soil. In celebration of the team’s iconic championship moment, Nike is bringing back the beloved kit style with its U.S. Women’s National Team Reissue Collection.

Wearing their crisp white jerseys with the since-retired three-star shield emblem, the 1999 U.S. women steamrolled through their group stage with three victories and a plus-12 goal differential, then topped Germany in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, played in front of 73,123 fans at Stanford Stadium on the Fourth of July, Team USA cruised to a 2-0 win over Brazil.

Then came the final.

At its peak, the broadcast was seen by over 40 million viewers. Over 90,000 fans packed the Rose Bowl stands to watch the high-stakes U.S. and China rematch, three years after their clash in the 1996 Olympics gold medal match in which the U.S. defeated China 2-1 to win the first women’s soccer gold in Olympics history.

In the final, both regulation time and extra time came to a close with the game at a scoreless deadlock, sending the teams into a penalty shootout. Successful conversions from Carla Overbeck, Joy Fawcett, Kristine Lilly and Mia Hamm gave the Americans…

Defending Olympic champions Canada have named their women’s soccer roster for Paris 2024, with 13 of the 18 players selected part of the squad that won gold in Tokyo three years ago.

Bev Priestman has included six players — Janine Beckie, Kadeisha Buchanan, Jessie Fleming, Ashley Lawrence, Nichelle Prince, and Quinn — who will compete in a third successive Games, having also won bronze at Rio 2016.

Kailen Sheridan, Vanessa Gilles, Jayde Riviere, Julia Grosso, Jordyn Huitema, Adriana Leon, and Evelyne Viens were also all part of the gold-medal winning roster in Tokyo.

Three Olympic debutants have been included in midfielder Simi Awujo, 20, defender Sydney Collins, 24, and forward Cloe Lacasse, 30.

Goalkeeper Lysianne Proulx, defenders Gabrielle Carle and Shelina Zadorsky and forward Deanne Rose have been named as the four ‘alternates’ who will travel and train with the squad and can be made available in case of injury.

It marks the first Olympics that Canada will compete at without talisman Christine Sinclair following her retirement from international soccer in 2023. Sinclair, whose 190 goals in 331 appearances for her country make her international soccer’s all-time leading goalscorer, represented Canada at four Games. Canada did not qualify for the Olympic women’s…

In 1971, tens of thousands of fans filled Estadio Azteca in Mexico City to watch soccer. It was two decades before the U.S. women took home the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup championship title after defeating Norway 2-1 but the players that fans were filling the seats to see were women.

“This is unbelievable,” says 1999 World Cup hero Brandi Chastain in the opening scene of a new documentary, ‘Copa 71’. “Why didn’t I know about this?”

If Chastain didn’t know about the tournament, it’s likely the average fan didn’t either. That’s what the new documentary hopes to change.

The film, which is out in the U.S. on Friday, tells the story of the unofficial women’s World Cup held in Mexico in 1971. The tournament featured players from six countries, drawing massive crowds to Latin America and unprecedented coverage of women’s football. Yet, all the footage from the pioneering event was lost to history… until now.

The film is as entertaining as it is infuriating. It outlines how Copa 71 came to be, retelling how those governing soccer explicitly kept women out of the world’s favorite game. While the success of the tournament is one to marvel at 53 years later, it also demonstrates how the women’s game was robbed of 20 years’ worth of potential…

Ajax midfielder Lily Yohannes became the third-youngest goalscorer ever for the U.S. Women’s National Team, slotting home in the 82nd minute in a friendly against South Korea on Tuesday night.

Yohannes has already made history just by being on the field for the match. When she entered the field, the 16-year-old became the youngest player to make an appearance for the national team since 2001, and just the eighth to make her debut before turning 17. By scoring, she followed only Kristine Lilly and Tiffany Roberts as the youngest USWNT goalscorers.

“It’s a dream come true, really,” Yohannes told TNT Sports after the USWNT won 3-0. “I played the scenario out in my head I don’t know how many times before. The support from my teammates all running up to me just made it that much more special.”

How did Yohannes score?

While a friendly cap doesn’t cap-tie a player, seeing Lily Yohannes enter the game in the 72′ was another step in the team’s ongoing post-World Cup refresh. She was given some freedom to drift off of Sam Coffey, looking to play in the wingers, which she looked comfortable doing right off the bat. At points she was also asked to navigate around the venerable Ji So-yun, a big ask…

FIFA has approved a new women’s international match calendar for 2026-2029. While the calendar is still not optimized for maximum player rest and recovery, it does show some compromise from FIFA in acknowledging player workloads — specifically, reducing the number of overall international windows from six to five.

However, FIFA is also adding to the women’s calendar with the confirmation of the Women’s Club World Cup — the inaugural tournament to take place in January and February 2026 — and the CONCACAF W Champions Cup starting in August this year (Gotham FC, San Diego Wave, and Portland Thorns FC will feature in this edition). These events will add heavily to elite players’ loads when those players are already highly in demand between club and country.

While there was compromise, one group felt particularly left out of conversations. The Women’s Leagues Forum, which includes representatives from 16 women’s national leagues, expressed dissatisfaction in a letter to FIFA before the calendar’s release, requesting they be allowed to have input into the calendar due to its impact on global league schedules.

What are the main changes to the international match calendar?

There are three big logistical takeaways from the new calendar approach. FIFA removed an…

The first Women’s Club World Cup will take place in January and February of 2026, FIFA has confirmed.

A 16-team tournament will take place every four years with the first edition set to take place in 20 months’ time in a host country that has not yet been announced.

The scheduling will see the competition played during the domestic season in European leagues and between the group stage and knockout rounds of the Champions League.

North America’s National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) season typically starts in March.

The decision was made at a meeting of the FIFA Council in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday.

The 37-member council replaced the executive committee (ExCo) as FIFA’s main decision-making body in 2016, following the corruption scandals that tarnished the ExCo’s reputation.

A new global competition within the women’s game has been discussed for more than a decade with FIFA president Gianni Infantino saying he wanted to stage one “as soon as possible” as far back as 2019.

It remains to be seen how teams will qualify for the new Club World Cup with FIFA keen that all of the game’s regions are represented but mindful that the best teams all come from Europe, North America and South America.

Barcelona are reigning European champions with NJ/NY Gotham FC the…

Brazil’s bid to stage the 2027 Women’s World Cup has been rated higher than the rival joint-bid from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany (BNG) in a new FIFA report evaluating the options.

Football’s world governing body delivered the assessment as part of a World Cup bid evaluation report published on Tuesday.

Brazil scored higher on a number of key technical scores, including stadiums, accommodation, fan zones and transport infrastructure.

A summary from the report said: “The Brazilian Football Association and the Brazilian government have shown support for the bid and a commitment to hosting the event, which is particularly important given that certain investments in infrastructure and services would be required to ensure the success of the tournament.

“Lastly, with respect to hosting opportunities, it is worth noting that, if the bid were successful, South America would be hosting the competition for the first time, which could have a tremendous impact on women’s football in the region.”

Each component — given a different weighting depending on how important they are for a tournament host — is scored on a scale of 0 to 5 where 0 represents “does not meet the requirements” and 5 represents “very good”.

The BNG bid was given an overall score of 3.7 in…

Arsenal midfielder Frida Maanum is in a stable condition after appearing to collapse during Sunday’s Continental Cup final against Chelsea.

The Norway international appeared to go down off the ball in second-half stoppage time at Molineux before medical staff entered the field of play to treat her.

Play was stopped for seven minutes while the 24-year-old was attended to before she left the field on a stretcher while receiving oxygen.

Arsenal confirmed a short time later that Maanum was “conscious, talking and in a stable condition”.

The club also confirmed that she would continue to be closely monitored by their medical team.

We’re all thinking of you, Frida

— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) March 31, 2024

Maanum has made 28 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal this season, including seven in the Continental Cup.

She joined from Swedish side Linkoping in 2021 after spells with Lyn and Stabaek in her home country.

Arsenal are next in action against Bristol City in the Women’s Super League following the international break.

More to follow

(Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

Spanish prosecutors are seeking a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for former Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales.

The prosecutors are seeking a one-year sentence for a charge of alleged sexual assault, with a further one and a half years for alleged coercion.

The second charge also applies to former Spain Women head coach Jorge Vilda, former RFEF marketing manager Ruben Rivera and former RFEF men’s national team director Albert Luque — the ex-Newcastle United striker.

Following the request for imprisonment by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, RFEF have suspended Rivera and Luque as a precautionary measure until the judicial matter is clarified. 

Spanish prosecutors filed the lawsuit against Rubiales for alleged sexual assault and coercion of Spain Women player Jenni Hermoso in September, with the judge investigating recommending the case go to trial in January.

Rubiales grabbed Hermoso by the head and kissed her on the lips after Spain’s World Cup final win over England on August 20 in Sydney, Australia, as she received her winner’s medal.

Rubiales kisses Hermoso following the 2023 World Cup final (Noemi Llamas/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty…

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The German national team is ending its long-standing partnership with Adidas and has signed a deal that will see Nike make its kits from 2027. Adidas last signed an eight-year contract with the Germany Football Federation (DFB) in 2018, meaning the men’s 2026 men’s World Cup will be one of the last times the German […]

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The German national team is ending its long-standing partnership with Adidas and has signed a deal that will see Nike make its kits from 2027.

Adidas last signed an eight-year contract with the Germany Football Federation (DFB) in 2018, meaning the men’s 2026 men’s World Cup will be one of the last times the German team’s kit is manufactured by the country’s most famous sportswear company.

During Adidas’ partnership with Germany, which has spanned more than seven decades, the team has won four men’s World Cups, three men’s Euros, two women’s World Cups and eight women’s Euros with the collaboration responsible for many iconic shirts during the 1980s and 1990s.

The DFB’s contract with Nike will run until 2034. “We are grateful to be able to look forward to an economically stable future again as an association thanks to Nike’s commitment,” DFB treasurer Stephan Grunwald said.

“The award to the future supplier partner Nike is the result of a transparent and non-discriminatory tender,” DFB chairman Holger Blask added.

“Nike made by far the best economic offer and also convinced with its content vision, which also represents a clear commitment to the promotion of amateur and popular sports as well as the sustainable development of women’s football in…

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