The pool of athletes included such talents as Tierna Davidson, the USA National Team defender from Stanford. She was recently U.S. Soccer’s Young Female Player of the Year. Also in contention is Davidson’s teammate from the national team, Hailie Mace. Mace plays for UCLA when she isn’t representing the stars and stripes.

As predicted, these two women became the top two draft picks in round one. Davidson was picked first to the Chicago Red Stars. She only registered for the draft in the final few days, and her inclusion represented the leagues easing of restrictions around allowing underclassmen to enter.

Mace was then selected by Sky Blue FC, which kicked off the controversy for the night. Mace had made it clear in pre-draft interviews that she had no intention of playing for Sky Blue FC if they selected her. Her declaration comes after reports from the club’s players that state they had suffered in substandard living and playing conditions throughout the season. This included living in homes with cardboard boxes for windows and practicing at a facility without running water. On top of poor management, Sky Blue FC won one game last season. Sky Blue FC also selected Paige Monaghan and Julie James in Round Two. They have not commented on the player conditions at the club.

Several top prospects did not enter the draft, including Natalia Kuikka, Bunny Shaw and Stanford’s star defender, Alana Cook. They are expected to pursue playing abroad, and the league has restrictions on international rosters.

The NWSL is the professional women’s soccer league run by the United States Soccer Federation. It is the highest level of soccer in the USA. Only established in 2012, the league now has nine teams across the country. The 2019 season will begin with preseason training camp on March 4^th, with the regular season kicking off the weekend of April 13 and 14.

The full results of the draft are below from http://www.nwslsoccer.com/collegedraft:

ROUND ONE

1. Tierna Davidson, Stanford (Chicago Red Stars)
2. Hailie Mace | UCLA (Sky Blue FC)
3. Jordan DiBiasi | Stanford (Washington Spirit)
4. Sam Staab | Clemson (Washington Spirit)
5. Leah Pruitt | University of Southern California (North Carolina Courage)
6. Julia Ashley | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Sky Blue FC) 
7. Tegan McGrady | Stanford (Washington Spirit) 
8. Dorian Bailey |University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Washington Spirit) 
9. Hailey Harbison | Pepperdine University (North Carolina Courage) 

ROUND TWO

1. Paige Monaghan | Butler University (Sky Blue FC)
2. Julie James | Baylor University (Sky Blue FC) 
3. Ally Prisock | University of Southern California (Houston Dash) 
4. CeCe Kizer | University of Mississippi (Houston Dash)
5. Lauren Milliet | Colorado College (North Carolina Courage) 
6. Maria Sanchez | Santa Clara University (Chicago Red Stars)
7. Betsy Brandon | University of Virginia (Houston Dash) 
8. Bayley Feist | Wake Forest University (Washington Spirit)
9. Kayla McCoy | Duke University (Houston Dash) 

ROUND THREE

1. Kyra Carusa | Georgetown University (Sky Blue FC)
2. Bianca St. Georges | West Virginia University (Chicago Red Stars) 
3. Jazmin Jackmon | University of Oregon (Houston Dash) 
4. Grace Cutler | West Virginia University (Houston Dash)
5. Michelle Maemone | Pepperdine University (Utah Royals FC)
6. Emily Ogle | Penn State University (Portland Thorns FC) 
7. Erin Greening | University of Colorado Boulder (Orlando Pride) 
8. Kayla Sharples | Northwestern University (Chicago Red Stars) 
9. Madeline Nolf | Penn State University (Utah Royals FC) 

ROUND FOUR

1. Kaylan Marckese | University of Florida (Sky Blue FC)
2. Kenie Wright | Rutgers University (Sky Blue FC)
3. Marisa Viggiano | Northwestern University (Orlando Pride)
4. April Bockin | University of Minnesota (Chicago Red Stars)
5. Alex Kimball | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Utah Royals FC)
6. Hannah Davison | Northwestern University (Chicago Red Stars)
7. Sabrina Flores | University of Notre Dame (Sky Blue FC)
8. Jenna Szczesny | Loyola University Chicago (Chicago Red Stars) 
9. Kaycie Tillman | Florida State University (North Carolina Courage)

The U.S. women’s national team dominated two friendlies this month in preview to FIFA 2019.

USA vs Portugal

Jessica McDonald’s first ever international goal was scored during the U.S. vs Portugal match. She scored during the 42nd minute of play to give the U.S. a 1-0 victory and their 500th win.

As her Courage teammate Crystal Dunn passed her the ball in Portugal’s box, McDonald’s first shot was blocked but she continued to persist for the rebound.

The play was sloppy as a whole, but in the end the U.S. did what it needed to do to get its country its 17th win of the year.

The starting lineup was different than usual, with not only McDonald starting, but also Mallory Pugh and Andi Sullivan.

USA vs Scotland

The USA finished their November friendlies with a 1-0 win over Scotland, marking the end of an undefeated year (18-0-2). Both Scotland and the U.S. have qualified for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Mallory Pugh sent a beautiful cross to Pride forward Alex Morgan, as she taps it into the net passed Scotland’s keeper. Like the previous match, there were many chances for both sides. The U.S had the chance to double the score in the 63rd minute but the shot from Lloyd hit the crossbar.

Coach Jill Ellis made changes to the starting lineup from the one she had for the game against Portugal. Megan Rapinoe and Jess McDonald were replaced with Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd.

The 2018 CONCACAF champion will have to miss the US national team’s November trip to Portugal and Scotland for a pair of friendlies.

O’Hara underwent an arthroscopic procedure and had the loose bodies in her right ankle removed.

The 30-year old didn’t waste any time after claiming the CONCACAF title.

“This is just the best time to get the procedure done so I’m one hundred percent heading into 2019 and physically ready to perform at the level and I want to and need to,” O’Hara said in a press release. “It’s a bummer that I won’t get to Europe, but the most important thing is to be healthy for next year.”

The friendlies against Portugal and Scotland will be the USA’s first road games since June 2017 when they went to Sweden and Norway.

The Portugal game is on Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and the Scotland game is on Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. on FS1.

North Carolina Courage won the National Women’s Soccer League Championship 3-0 against the Portland Thorns on Saturday.

The Courage are now the first team to win both the NWSL Shield (most regular season wins) and NWSL Championship in a single season.

Providence Park held an attendance of 21,144 to watch the battle of the season go down.
While the Thorns’ Lindsey Horan was given the 2018 NWSL MVP title, Jessica McDonald was named Championship MVP after scoring twice against Portland in the final.

“I don’t know if you can write a better script,” Paul Riley, North Carolina’s head coach and 2018 NWSL Coach of the Year, told NWSL reporters. “She leads the league in assists, and I think that was the tenth goal this season. That’s unbelievable… I think Jess Mac’s getting better with age.”

Débora Cristiane de Oliveira also scored for the Courage.

Watch the highlights from the final here.

Along with the season winding down, Orlando Pride star Marta was voted 2018 FIFA The Best Women’s Player award. This is Marta’s sixth time being titled the best in the world. No one has won the award more times than her.

Throughout this season and in international play Marta has been giving it her all. The period being looked at is August 7, 2017 to May 24, 2018. During this time, she has finished second in the Golden Boot race with 13 goals. She also led Brazil to qualify for the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

Read more about Marta’s accomplishments here.

The Portland Thorns will be playing, for the second year in a row, in the National Women’s Soccer League Championship on September 22.

In an exciting 2-1 game win over Seattle Reign, this will be the defending champions’ third trip to the final game.

The first 30 minutes of the game was back and forth, with multiple close chances for both teams.
It wasn’t until the 29th minute of play that Jasmyne Spencer scored the first goal of the game and her second of the season for the Reign.

Minutes later Jodie Taylor got another good shot on net but couldn’t get her volley around Adrianna Franch. For another half an hour it went back and forth.

“We exploited some weaknesses and managed to create a lot of chances,” Taylor told NWSL reporters, “but AD’s [Adrianna Franch] such a good goalkeeper. … I had two really great chances that I hit well, but not good enough to beat AD.”

Finally, in the 43rd minute Tobin Heath scored the equalizer for the Thorns, with assistance from Lindsey Horan.

There was a second goal in the mid moments of the second half but Heath was flagged offside and it didn’t count.

Horan scored with a header in the 77th minute of play to put the Thorns in the lead. Christine Sinclair sent the ball sent the ball into the Reign’s box for Horan to redirect into the net.
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Shortly after the lead was taken from them, Seattle used all their substitutes. The match ended with a 2-1 win for the Thorns.

In 2017 Kerr had scored 17 goals for the Sky-Blue FC. This year, while playing with the Chicago Red Stars, she didn’t beat her record, but has 33 goals over the last two years.

Kerr started the season late. She missed five games with the Red Stars due to international duty for Australia, her home country.
Her first goal was on May 6 against North Carolina. During the last four games she scored six goals.

Kerr was the first person to score a hat trick in the 2018 season, which was on the road against the Sky Blue FC. She played 1704 minutes this season with only one sub off. She started and played all 19 games.

Kerr has been playing in the NWSL since 2015. She is the first player to score 50 goals in NWSL history. She is also the first NWSL player to be the top scorer in two different seasons.

Lynn Williams, of the North Carolina Courage, finished in second for the Golden Boot race with 14 goals.

Portland Thorns FC will host Seattle Reign FC for the first semifinal game of the NWSL playoffs.

The game will take place at Providence Park at 3:00pm ET. Portland won the hometown advantage in an exciting 3-1 victory over Seattle on Friday.

Seattle came into the game missing two key players (Allie Long and Megan Rapinoe) due to injury. Despite that, they started off strong and captured the first goal in the early moments of the game. Jessica Fishlock took top left corner just outside the box. In the 21st minute of play, defender Steph Catley had a close call as a ball chipped in from Portland bounced off her foot towards her own net.

It wasn’t until the 30th minute that Lindsey Horan received a rebound and got the first goal for the Thorns. In the early minutes of the second half, a poorly executed back pass is where Tobin Heath snuck in and scored Portland’s second goal.

In the 49th minute, Tobin Heath scored the Thorn’s second goal with a long-range strike.
A corner kick for the Portland Thorns was where Horan put in Portland’s third goal of the game. Heath gave a curved corner kick and Horan was just able deflect the ball off her head into the net.

Zerboni landed on her left elbow only minutes into the US national team’s game against Chile. She immediately left the stadium and it was confirmed after that she has broken her elbow.

Zerboni has been a huge asset to the Courage as she has played 20 games this season and scored three of the goals. In all 20 games she has never been subbed off.

As a midfielder she has a 68.5% success rate on her tackles and has created 991 passes this year alone. She has had 71 interceptions throughout this season and is a key component to creating plays.

It is uncertain at this point who will be replacing Zerboni in the upcoming games.

Many players on the women’s US national team have played before thousands of fans in many different countries. On top of playing soccer nationally and internationally, they keep another job in order to sustain their families.

However, recent statistics from the NWSL show fan support is growing and more owners are investing in facilities and operations.

“It’s not charity work where you’re making an altruistic gesture for gender equity,” said Meritt Paulson, owner of NWSL’s Portland Thorns. “It’s something that there’s a real market for.”

The Portland Thorns have one of the highest attendance records with 16,000 fans supporting them every game. When the Thorns won the NWSL title last year, the owners gave them specialty rings like the Portland Timbers got when they won the 2015 Major League Soccer title.

Paulson is now making profit from the Portland Thorns where some of the other NWSL teams are still trying to break even.

Dell Loy Hansen, owner of the Utah Royals FC, gave his team a $1.2 million new locker room and hired Arsenal women’s coach Laura Harvey.

“The women don’t fall down on the ground and roll around like Neymar,” observed Hansen. “Men whine. Women just take the bump and get up and go.”

The average NWSL player makes $15,750-$44,000 per year, which is steadily improving. After 2017, the salary for players more than doubled as the NWSL worked out a contract with A+E, who broadcasts the Saturday game of the week on the Lifetime channel.

Still, even with more investing, many thriving NWSL teams must share facilities with a men’s pro franchise to keep costs down.

“I have a strong belief that this league is going to be the equivalent to the English Premier League in terms of the women’s game,” said Steve Malik who owns NWSL’s North Carolina Courage and North Carolina FC.

It was her second goal of the game that upped her goal count to 50, but the record setting didn’t end there. Thanks to her third goal of the game, Kerr is now also the first player to have scored three hat tricks in the NWSL. Overall it is the 14th hat trick in the six-year old league.
It could be considered destiny that Kerr’s hat trick would happen on July 7, because exactly a year ago, on the same field, she did the same thing. However, last year, she was wearing the Sky Blue jersey.

The 24-year old finished the 2017 season with Sky Blue FC as the NWSL’s leading scorer. She is currently sitting in first again this year with eight goals. Christine Sinclair (Portland Thorns FC), Crystal Dunn (North Carolina Courage) and Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC) follow close behind with seven goals each.

This year the Sky Blue FC are struggling without their star. The team now holds the record for longest winless streak in NWSL history. Going into the match against the Red Stars, Sky Blue was tied with 2013 Washington Spirit for longest winless streak.

The Red Stars currently sit in fourth place with 25 points.