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Which team got the better of the big NWSL trade? – Equalizer Soccer

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Ray Acevedo, Daniel Bartel, EM Dash – USA TODAY Sports

A big trade was announced on Monday to kick off the reopening of the NWSL trade window. Racing Louisville sent fullback Emily Fox to the North Carolina Courage in exchange for center back Abby Erceg and fullback Carson Pickett.

All three players are key starters for both teams, so here’s a breakdown of the upsides and the downsides of the trade, and what it means for both teams.

Racing Louisville’s downside

It was practically inevitable that one of two scenarios would play out with Emily Fox and Racing Louisville this offseason: One, she’d sign an extension, or, two, she’d be traded.

She’s a U.S. national team player who is virtually guaranteed a slot on the 2023 World Cup roster and her contract only runs through 2023. If she wasn’t going to extend, it makes the most sense to trade her now when she’s arguably at her most valuable.

The fact that she has been traded strongly implies that she wasn’t going to extend with Racing. Fox was the No. 1 pick of the 2021 college draft and an extremely popular player in Louisville. She’s one of the most dynamic fullbacks in the league with a good deal of positional versatility, and is only going to get better over time. Already,Fox is a regular with the United States national team. She’s also been a quiet leader who had been integral to locker room chemistry behind the scenes on Louisville.

In short, losing Fox after only two years is definitely painful for Racing Louisville. It could have even been catastrophic without a solid return. Luckily for Racing, a solid return is exactly what they got, although it is arguably a short-term solution.

Racing Louisville’s upside

Even before Gemma Bonner departed Louisville to return to Liverpool this offseason, Racing was in desperate need of defensive support. They gave up 35 goals last season and as talented as Fox is, she’s not able to cover the entire defense on her own, so Racing needed to add solid defenders. So, as painful as it is to lose Fox, getting two experienced veteran starters in exchange for one can be seen as a positive.

If Fox is an up-and-coming star, Pickett and Erceg are already established ones. Erceg has 160 NWSL regular-season and Challenge Cup appearances and won three NWSL Shields and three NWSL Championships with the Western New York Flash and the Courage. She’s a tough, experienced center back who’s also good in the air on set pieces. Pickett has 130 NWSL appearances, was a back-to-back Best XI selection the past two seasons, and was the 2022 assist leader. On a team that is extremely thin on players with NWSL experience, this is even more important to Racing Louisville.

Even better, they’ve played together on the same team for the last couple of years so they have built-in chemistry already. Chemistry along the back line is something Racing lacked through much of last year, so this is important. They also both have experience playing with Jessica McDonald, which may translate to better chemistry across the lines as well. Pickett has even played for Racing head coach Kim Björkegren before, during a 2020 loan to Apollon Ladies in Cyprus.

What’s more, Fox will likely be gone for a large duration of the season to play in the World Cup. Although Pickett has received recent call-ups to the U.S., she’s more of a long shot to make the 23-player roster. Erceg is a legend of the New Zealand national team, but recently announced her retirement from international play. This means both will likely be available for the whole season for Racing.

North Carolina’s upside

With the recent departures of Debhina and Diana Ordóñez this offseason, in addition to Erceg and Pickett, North Carolina will need to rebuild their team. Luckily for them, Fox is exactly the kind of player teams would like to build around.

At only 24, she’s likely only going to get better over time. She was a runner-up for rookie of the year in 2021 when she led the entire league in interceptions with 115. Her ability to play both sides of the field with an equal level of skill, and also move into the midfield, provides a level of versatility that is extremely desirable.

Fox also comes with some strong ties to North Carolina. As a past star of the University of North Carolina, she’s spent a lot of time in the region and likely has ties to Courage head coach Sean Nahas, whose brother Damon Nahas is an assistant at UNC. The UNC connection also spreads to midfielder Brianna Pinto, who was Fox’s teammate for all four years in college.

North Carolina’s downside

Just as Fox was popular in Louisville, Erceg and Pickett were extremely popular in North Carolina. Erceg had been part of this franchise in one form or another for the last seven years. In 2015, she was part of the Western New York Flash who then became the Courage when they were sold and moved to North Carolina.

On Twitter, Erceg said she intended “to see [her] career out” with the Courage and was “shocked and disappointed” by the trade. Even though she said she’s looking forward to starting in Louisville, this is not a comforting sentiment from a player departing North Carolina after they’ve already lost or traded more than five players in the offseason.

North Carolina still has some solid defenders on their squad with Kaleigh Kurtz and Ryan Williams recently re-signed, but it’ll be hard to lose Pickett and Erceg, who have become such staples of the club’s starting lineup.

Final assessment

Overall, this is a fairly even trade for both teams. Racing needed veteran defenders with NWSL experience and got them. North Carolina needed a dynamic young player to help rebuild around and got her.

It can be argued that Racing got the better deal because they desperately needed both a center back and a fullback and got two excellent ones for just one player. It can also be argued that North Carolina got the better deal because they got a young talent with a great deal of potential.

The real question that might tip the scale in the favor of one team over the other is contract length. As it stands, no contract extensions were announced with this trade. This means Emily Fox will be a restricted free agent at the end of the 2023 season. Carson Pickett is in the same boat and will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of 2023 when her contract expires. While Erceg’s contract ends in 2023, her contract has an option for 2024.

Both teams have the chance to work out extensions with players now that their trades are final. If Fox doesn’t stay in North Carolina and both Erceg and Pickett do stay in Louisville, that would be a clear win for Racing because it’s fairly clear that Fox wasn’t going to extend anyway and stay for the long-term. And the Courage will have given up at least one player who had planned on staying in North Carolina in Erceg.

If Erceg and Pickett don’t extend, however, Racing will be the loser because they’d be back in the same boat they started in.

No matter how it pans out, however, this is a bombshell trade that drastically alters the look of both teams’ defenses. With preseason just beginning, there are undoubtedly more shakeups to come.







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Royals maiden win had it all – Equalizer Soccer

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Utah rookie forward Ally Sentnor hugs a teammate after scoring her first professional goal.


Photo Copyright Rob Gray for USA TODAY Sports

Utah Royals FC head coach Amy Rodriguez said her players had a sour taste in their mouths on the heels of the franchise-christening, 2-0 loss to the Chicago Red Stars in Week 1.

“These guys had something to prove and they did that,” Rodriguez said following a much more fulfilling result last Friday, a 2-1 victory over the North Carolina Courage.

Any first win is special, but there was much to remember about this one. From Kate Del Fava’s first goal for the new Royals to the bizarre back-to-back penalties, and the debut goal of No. 1 overall pick Ally Sentnor, no one who witnessed the Royals win will soon forget it.

Sentnor, who turned 20 last month, was handed an acre of space by the Courage defense and took full advantage, racing to the top of the 18-yard box and uncorking a left-footed missile that found the far, upper 90. To say it beat Courage keeper Casey Murphy would be unfair considering the degree of difficulty of Sentnor’s shot. When it rattled the netting to give the Royals the 2-1 lead, Sentnor calmly turned around and looked at her teammates like she had already made that kind of magic hundreds of times.

“So I didn’t see Ally’s reaction but that does not surprise me at all,” Rodriguez said, later acknowledging she didn’t see it because she was busy celebrating herself. “It is rare to find someone as humble and hardworking as she is. And to score one of the best goals I have seen in a long time, it’s no surprise that she shrugged it off.

“I was elated obviously. There was no humbleness in that moment for me.”

“Honestly,” Sentnor said through laughs, “I’m not a big celebration person. I’m so happy though. I promise I’m so happy. All my teammates knew it was coming from a couple of shots in practices, and they were so happy for me and celebrating with me. Just to put us up in the game is such a great feeling. I’m just so proud of is and ready to score some more games hopefully.”

Sentnor’s contributions were not limited to the scoresheet. As the Royals absorbed late pressure from the Courage, Sentnor was a vital part of seeing out the game, fighting for loose balls in midfield and helping to hold possession.

Asked about the pressure of being not only the top pick in her draft class but the first for a new club, Sentnor deferred back to the team.


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“For me, it was mostly a pressure to help the team and a pressure to help perform for the team to win. I try not to put too much pressure on myself because I don’t play very well if I do. I’m really just trying to enjoy every moment and at the end of the day, I’m doing everything I can on the field to help my team excel.”

Sentnor’s goal may have led the highlight reels, but the second half-penalty sequence was the most unusual part of the night. It started in the 56th minute when the Courage press forced a turnover from Royals keeper Mandy Haught. Nirumi Miura fed Denise O’Sullivan, who in turn was taken down by Agnes Nyberg for a penalty. Malia Berkely, who scored from the spot in Week 1, stepped up again but hit the left post. The ball ricocheted wide where Ashley Sanchez and Addisyn Merrick went for it. Merrick fouled Sanchez and the Courage were right back at the spot. Berkely tried again, went the other way, and Haught made a clean save. The total elapsed time from the first foul, until Haught saved the second penalty, was about 3:05.

The only downside for the Royals was the injury to Imani Dorsey late in the 1st half. The former National Women’s Soccer League Rookie of the Year missed all of 2023 with Gotham while battling mental health issues. Now her 2024 season appears over due to a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Around the league

Red Stars 2, Reign 1

The Red Stars are 2-0-0 for the first time after knocking off the Reign in front of a likely opening-day crowd at SeatGeek Stadium. Mallory Swanson looked much sharper than in the opener though it was her teammates who again carried the scoring load. Julia Bianchi and Maximiliane Rall accounted for the goals, sandwiching Ji So-Yun’s sensational finish for the Reign.

Rall got on the end of a Taylor Malham cross, but it is fair to ask where the Reign defense was on the play. It looked more like confusion than organization and several players had palms up questioning teammates as Rall made her finish. Left-back Lily Woodham left her original mark to a center back but did not account for the space behind her and Rall ran in free where she scored her first NWSL goal.

The confusion was real but Reign coach Laura Harvey did have a point about the referee inadvertently running a pick for the Red Stars and blocking Angharad James-Turner from closing down Malham.

“How the refs allowed that second goal to happen when she literally ran straight into Haz (James-Turner) who then can’t stop the cross is mind-blowing,” Harvey said. “But we live and learn.”

The three-time NWSL Coach of the Year also said: “We took our foot off the gas again on the second goal.”

Pride 1, Angel City 1 

Marta hit her first non-penalty goal for the Pride since September 2021 to give the Pride a second consecutive come-from-behind draw. Angel City went ahead on Claire Emslie’s penalty early in the second half but literally did not mark Marta on an 88th-minute corner kick and she volleyed it home to secure the draw.

“I had good memories from when I was younger, like 20, 22,” Marta told Amazon’s Lianne Sanderson after the match. “I said ‘God let me have that feeling again.’ And we never give up. That was a hard game.” Marta missed the 2022 season with a torn ACL and all 4 of her goals last year were from the spot.

Last weekend in Louisville, the Pride fell behind 2-0 and equalized through Summer Yates in the 86th minute while playing with 10. Angel City, who have yet to score in the run of play, are winless through two regular season matches for the first time.

One moment I noticed came late in the first half. See above where Meggie Dougherty Howard (#8) loses the ball and then only halfheartedly tracks back as Marta runs into space and eventually distributes to the flank. The Pride did not get anything out of this sequence but that is a leak Angel City will want to clean up.

Dash 0, Louisville 0

The first scoreless draw of the season was not without its talking points, starting with Louisville’s lineup which saw Savannah DeMelo miss the match as a late scratch. Even without her, Racing had the better of the play. Jane Campbell made the best of her nine saves on Emma Sears, from point-blank range in the 73rd minute. In stoppage time, Campbell was beaten by Kayla Fischer and bailed out by Sarah Puntigam. The goal-line clearance was particularly difficult because Puntigam had to get her foot behind the ball since it was right on the edge of the goal line.

“I just saw I needed to get there somehow, it (didn’t) matter how,” Puntigam said. “It went so fast I had no time thinking. I just did something. I’m glad it worked out.”

The major talking point was in the 1st half when Campbell came out of her box to challenge Reiylln Turner. Turner stayed down after the contact, and with no defenders in site, a whistle would have resulted in a red card to Campbell. But nothing was called and the match continued.

Spirit 2, Bay 1

It was Draft Night at Audi Field. Croix Bethune, the No. 3 overall pick, scored in the 95th minute to give the Spirit their first win of the season. No. 5 pick Hal Hershfelt scored the equalizer. Bay had gone ahead through former Spirit defender Dorian Bailey.

Bethune enjoyed a strong match that had her in the crowd’s back pocket, including a chance to score late in the game that hit the crossbar. The winner was a thing of beauty as she turned on a flicked ball to evade Caprice Dydasco and Emily Menges. Ashley Hatch was nearby and shielded off Savannah King while tapping it back to Bethune for the finish. The flick was put on by Courtney Brown, the No. 49 pick.

King was selected No. 2 by Bay FC and made her second start at left-back. King struggled with Trinity Rodman which hardly makes her unusual. Rodman laid the ball off to Hershfelt for the first Spirit goal.

Wave 1, Current 2

The Vlatko Andonovski era in Kansas City is underway with victories against the two top-finishing teams from a year ago. This one was VAR-assisted after Christen Westphal clearly took down Bia entering the box but the call was missed in real time. Lo’eau LaBonta stepped up and drilled the tiebreaking penalty. LaBonta has been 7-for-9 from the spot in all competitions but one of the misses was a save by Wave keeper Kailen Sheridan in 2022. On the day, LaBonta went left and Sheridan dove to her right to save it. This time LaBonta went right and Sheridan went right again, leaving her helpless.

The Current saw the game out by keeping things packed defensively and held off the Wave. It was a far cry from Week 1 when they saw a 5-1 lead against the Thorns turn into a 5-4 nailbiter.

“Obviously, the end does turn into whoever can get a touch on the ball,” Izzy Rodriguez, who also scored for the Current, said. “But we knew who was going out for the ball, we were covering for each other. We were going hard into 50/50 battles. But all of us knew our jobs so that was the most important part.”

Sofia Jakobsson tallied for the Wave.

Thorns 0, Gotham 1

One of the more impressive NWSL streaks was snapped as the Thorns lost their home opener for the first time after winning their first 10. They also dropped to 0-2-0 for the first time while the NWSL champions opened their regular season with a win. Esther scored the goal with a clever run that saw her pull up inside the 18 while two Thorns defenders continued to move toward the goal line. Yazmeen Ryan evaded a double team and found the Spaniard in the pocket where she easily finished it. Twice it appeared Sophia Smith had given the Thorns a lead only have each celebration cut short for offside.

Talking points

  • After CPKC Stadium opened, Current coach Vlatko Andonovski said a member of his staff asked him how many NWSL venues he had coached in. We decided to look it up, and Saturday night Snapdragon Stadium became the 25th. Of those 25, there is only one where Andonovski has coached more than one game without a win. Children’s Mercy Park where FC Kansas City played one-off matches in 2015 and 2016, losing both.
  • Seattle Reign FC are being purchased by a group that includes the Carlyle Group and MLS’ Seattle Sounders FC. OL Groupe will sell its 97% stake for $58 million. The transaction is pending approval by both MLS and NWSL. OL Groupe majority owner John Textor remains the Reign’s Board of Governors representation.
  • NWSL and LIGA MX Feminil announced details of a Summer Cup that will pit all 14 NWSL clubs against six Mexican sides. Most of the competitions will happen in July and August during the Olympic break. The final will be held during a FIFA window at the end of October. See additional details and my thoughts on the event here.

Free kicks

  • Samantha Staab made her 92nd consecutive start on Saturday. If she appears for the Red Stars this weekend in Orlando, she will tie Amber Brooks’ league record for consecutive appearances at 93. Brooks held the mark for consecutive starts at 72 until Staab, then with the Spirit, broke it.
  • The NWSL has amended its yellow card rules to avoid double jeopardy when a player is shown two in the same game. Last season, Racing Louisville’s Savannah DeMelo was suspended for being sent off with two yellows and was later given an accumulation suspension with the first of those yellows included. Fortunately, that will never happen again.
  • Marta was highlighted above but it should be noted that at 38, she is still pretty good at this sport.
  • Kate Del Fava’s historic Royals goal was her second in the NWSL. Her first was for the Kansas City Current in the 2022 quarterfinals to beat the Houston Dash in the 10th minute of stoppage time. She sure makes them count!
  • Sydney Leroux stayed back in Los Angeles due to illness but was not listed on the league’s Availability Report. It kind of feels like there is no rhyme or reason to how teams use the report. A text to a league spokesperson seeking clarification was not returned.
  • Esther Gonzalez’s goal for Gotham was the 3,000th regular season goal in NWSL history.
  • The promotion of the ION Saturday night games is a bit odd to me as most of the buildup to this weekend focused on the early match between the Spirit and Bay FC. For some reason, it was rarely promoted as a doubleheader, which concluded with the Wave-Current match. We’ll see if this changes moving forward.
  • It has come to our attention that NWSL now recognizes the two forfeit games from 2021 on the official coaching records. That means Laura Harvey now has 98 wins and is in line to become the first coach to reach the century mark. Mark Parsons also has an extra win. They both come at the expense of Kris Ward who was Spirit coach at the time when they forfeited two games due to violations of COVID-19 protocols.
  • This past week, The Equalizer published this story about former Houston Dash assistant coach Matt Lampson and the reasons behind his firing. Unfortunately, the statement from the club, or lack thereof, shows that the lessons supposedly learned following the scandal-ridden fall of 2021 have not been heeded as much as we were led to believe. The club is under no obligation to mention any names or details but certainly could have confirmed (or denied for that matter) the reasons in Theo’s report for Lampson’s departure. And in fact, they should have gotten ahead of the story and put out a statement immediately upon parting ways.





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What to like, and not like, about the new NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup – Equalizer Soccer

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Graphic on a yellow backgrounds that reads 2024 NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Sumer Cup. There are also logos for each league.


Photo Copyright LIGA MX Femenil

The National Women’s Soccer League will not play regular season games during this summer’s Olympic break, but the league will not go completely dark either thanks to the announcement of the Summer Cup (formally the NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup). The 33-match event will include all 14 NWSL sides and the six top point-getters across Mexico’s Clausura and Apertura.

The five groups of four announced Wednesday will conduct a round-robin format between July 19 and Aug. 2 with the top four group winners advancing to the semifinals. The championship match will be held the weekend of Oct. 25-27 when both leagues are on another break for a standard FIFA window.

The tournament will mostly be held at NWSL venues in the United States. Angel City will host two matches at Titan Stadium and the Wave will host one at Torero Stadium. All three Washington Spirit matches are listed as TBD and the one all-Mexico match will be played south of the border. Information about the semifinals and final have not been announced.

Broadcast arrangements have not been announced either, which paints the Summer Cup in stark contrast to the Leagues Cup. In 2023, the first year of MLS’ Apple TV deal, the Leagues Cup was considered a major drawing card.

What to like

Getting American and Mexican teams together is always good for business as the Leagues Cup on the men’s side showed last year. Outside of a few token friendlies, this has not really happened yet, and with LIGA MX Femenil becoming established, it is a good time to start pushing the narrative.

Furthermore, it helps solve the forever debate about what to do with American soccer leagues and their summer schedules while the world—and many of the best players—are focused elsewhere. Some of the rosters, particularly on the NWSL side, will look a lot like they did in the summer of 2016, but at least it won’t be for games that count toward the regular season table.

Additionally, evening start times will not conflict with matches taking place in Paris, or any other live sports for that matter. (Conflicts with primetime Olympic programming, live or otherwise, is another story but also unavoidable.)


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What not to like

For one, the format is unacceptable. We can probably agree that no tournament or playoff format is without flaws, but there is a reasonable level of competitive integrity expected as a bare minimum. Playing a Cup competition with five groups and only advancing four teams to the semifinals does not meet that bare minimum. It means a team can literally win every match it plays and be sent packing without the opportunity to advance to the knockouts. That should never happen.

Sources have told The Equalizer that an earlier proposal for the Summer Cup included all LIGA MX Feminil clubs playing in smaller groups with a quarterfinal stage. It is unclear why that changed but it would have been a far more compelling tournament that way.

The tournament is also so top-heavy that 13 of the 30 group matches will be intra-league. Sixteen matches will be NWSL vs LIGA MX Femenil with one all-Mexican match between Tigres UANL and Pachuca.

Writer’s note: I’m probably in the minority but find the constant Reign-Thorns and Angel City-Wave “rivalry” games to be a bit much. Inclusive of all competitions the Reign and Thorns have played 38 times over 11 seasons. The next most common Thorns opponent is the Red Stars at 30 (31 for the Flash/Courage combo). The second most for the Reign is the Spirit with 30.

Finally, it may be a rite of passage into the big time, but we are now actually talking about fixture congestion for NWSL teams. With the W Concacaf Cup coming, three teams are likely to have two additional August matches stuffed into the calendar with trips to Central America a possibility. If the Wave and Gotham are among those teams as expected, it would take them each 36 matches to win the Summer Cup and NWSL Championship. It would take 35 for everyone else. Similar issues will apply to the Mexican clubs.

Fixture congestion will also hinder the event itself. It probably could not be helped but only two of nine match days will not have overlapping matches. July 20 features six matches, none of which have their own window.





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Matt Lampson fired from Houston Dash for alleged player relationship – Equalizer Soccer

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Houston Dash goalkeeping coach Matt Lampson before the match


Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports

Houston Dash goalkeeping coach Matt Lampson was removed from his duties due to an alleged relationship with a player at the club, multiple sources familiar tell The Equalizer.

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Dash responded via email: “Houston Dash goalkeeper coach Matt Lampson was terminated on March 18. We respect the privacy and confidentiality of our players and employees and will not comment on specific details of Club employment matters.”

The NWSL and NWSLPA have not immediate responded to requests for comment.

The relationship between Lampson and the player began at the end of 2023, before coming to light with the club’s front office at the beginning of 2024.

A source familiar tells The Equalizer that one of Lampson’s last official actions on staff with the Dash was the 2024 NWSL Draft in Anaheim, Calif., which he attended on Jan. 12. He did not report for preseason on Jan. 29. The Dash declined to comment on Lampson’s reported absence from club duties between Jan. 29 and March 17.

Houston Dynamo academy goalkeeping coach, Eric Klenofsky, has been with the team during preseason and traveled with the Dash to take on the North Carolina Courage last Saturday.

Lampson first joined the Dash at the start of the 2022 NWSL regular season. Prior to Houston, he played for 10 years in Major League Soccer. In that time, the 34-year-old won MLS Cup while also being lauded for his off-field community work. He is the three-time recipient of MLS’ ‘Humanitarian of the Year’ award.

League policy for player-coach relationships

In the NWSL’s rules and policies, relationships between players and coaches are prohibited. In the league manual, this breach of policy is referred to as “Power Imbalance.”

The full explanation of the prohibited relationship is written by the league as so:

“Power Imbalance: Where one person is in a “Position of Power” such that, based on the totality of the circumstances, there is a Power Imbalance. Whether someone occupies a “Position of Power” depends on several factors, including: the nature and extent of the supervisory authority over the person; the actual relationship between the parties; the parties’ respective roles; the nature and duration of the relationship; and the age of the people involved, both presently and at time of the relationship’s conception. Once a coach-player relationship is established, a Power Imbalance is presumed regardless of age.

There is a caveat written into the policy that absolves intimate relationships that were already established before two people become player and coach.

“A Power Imbalance may exist, but is not presumed, where an intimate relationship that did not contain a Power Imbalance existed before the coach-player relationship (e.g., a relationship between two spouses or committed partners that preceded the sports relationship).”

These policies were last updated ahead of the 2023 season, which followed the signing of the NWSL’s first collective bargaining agreement in April 2022.

NWSL history regarding player-coach relationships

The NWSL is less than two years removed from the publication of a U.S. Soccer report into Allegations of Abusive Behavior and Sexual Misconduct in Women’s Professional Soccer by Sally Yates. This action, that readdressed the lack of protections for players in the NWSL, was ignited by Meg Linehan’s reporting on the experiences of players Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly under coach Paul Riley.

The Yates report was a more generalized and overarching investigation that looked to highlight a few cases in order to explain the vast improper conduct from coaches and staff across the U.S. soccer landscape.

“To illustrate the gravity and the breadth of the misconduct issue, and the institutional failures that perpetuated it, we address three coaches in depth in our report,” Yates said in October 2022.

In December 2022, the league and NWSL Players Association published its own report into the “widespread misconduct” that occurred across multiple teams from 2013 to 2022. One of those acts of misconduct being “crossed professional boundaries with players.” That independent investigation came with new league sanctions for several coaches and staff named in it.

In that joint investigation, it was reported that general manager of NJ/NY Gotham FC, Alyse LaHue, allegedly made “unwanted sexual advances” towards a player at the club in 2021.

Most recently, in December 2022, current Wales head coach Rhian Wilkinson resigned from her position as the head coach of the Portland Thorns following an investigation into a relationship with a player on the team.

The Canadian coach self-reported to the league after she felt she had become too close to a player during the season. Although the NWSL carried out a three-week investigation and cleared Wilkinson of misconduct, she felt she had lost the confidence of the Thorns players and decided to resign.

Relationships elsewhere in women’s soccer

Over the past few weeks there has been an uptick in the conversation surrounding player-coach relationships in English soccer.

In February, former Sheffield United head coach Jonathan Morgan was dismissed for a relationship with a player at his former club, Leicester City. In March, current Leicester City head coach Willie Kirk was suspended for an alleged relationship with a player in his squad.

A report by Tom Garry in The Daily Telegraph claimed that there were at least 36 known player-coach relationships across English women’s soccer. This number does include the top six divisions, and over 200 teams, in the country.

Kirk is the former assistant of San Diego Wave FC head coach Casey Stoney, who has been vocal about how player-coach relationships were not to be permitted under any circumstance. “This should not even be a debate!! Player-coach relationships should NEVER happen. THE END,” the NWSL coach said on Twitter last week.

Stoney was also previously outspoken about the topic during the NWSL investigations in 2022.

“I don’t agree with staff having relationships with players on any level,” Stoney said during a press conference in October 2022. “It’s a power dynamic that should not happen. But this isn’t just an NWSL problem, it’s a women’s sport problem, it’s a women’s football problem.”

She added: “I’ve seen it in so many clubs I’ve been a part of and I don’t agree with it. I’ve moved staff away from my environments in previous jobs because there’s been boundaries crossed, I will not have it at all. I don’t agree with it on any level.”

Last week, Chelsea FC head coach Emma Hayes, who will soon be in charge of the U.S. women’s national team, also spoke on the matter. She called player-coach relationships “inappropriate” while calling for more policies to be implemented into the English Women’s Super League.

“The challenges of coming from an amateur game to a pro game means women’s sport has largely been social, she said. “In almost all areas of our game, we have to make sure there is a minimum standard in place. We have to have safeguarding, to make sure that it’s accessible for each and every club to protect players.”







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