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Enjoy this moment, because the American soccer season is coming. We can feel it in the air.
In today’s Full Time:
❓ What’s next for a USWNT goal scorer?
📺 More women’s sports on TV
👕 A football fashion faux pas
But first, we check in with USWNT players in Europe …
Americans Abroad: First goals, clean sheets and speaking up
The SheBelieves Cup marks a key moment in the American soccer calendar in 2026. World Cup qualifying begins in November for the U.S. women’s national team, but preparations really start now.
While NWSL-based USWNT players have finally begun preseason (we are quickly approaching that March 13 kickoff), those in Europe are hitting midseason form. Let’s check in again with key players taking the field abroad:
- Naomi Girma scored Chelsea’s winning goal in a 2-1 FA Cup victory over Manchester United this weekend. The defender’s first goal since joining the team came during a scramble after a corner kick in the 99th minute, sending Chelsea through to the quarterfinals. Fellow American Alyssa Thompson played 72 minutes, eventually making way for the Australian Sam Kerr, who broke the goal drought in the 78th minute. The goals weren’t pretty, but they got the job done. As for the third USWNT player on Chelsea, Catarina Macario …we’ll get to her shortly.
- Despite the loss to Chelsea, Manchester United and U.S. goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce are having a great run of form. United continued its push to the UEFA Women’s Champions League final last Thursday, securing a quarterfinal spot after an emphatic 5-0 series win over Atletico Madrid. Sure, Jess Park’s command of the field was unmatched, but keeping two clean sheets in back-to-back Champions League matches is no small feat for Tullis-Joyce. The goalkeeper also put in work off the field, condemning the alleged racial abuse toward Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr.
- In other FA Cup action, defender Emily Fox played 90 minutes in Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Bristol City and assisted Frida Maanum on the team’s third goal. Of note, Canadian international and Arsenal forward Olivia Smith had to be stretchered off the pitch with what looked like a head injury. Her status for the SheBelieves Cup is now in question.
- Elsewhere, defensive midfielder Sam Coffey also put in a 90-minute performance for Manchester City as the league leaders cruised to a 4-0 win over Sheffield United in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Coffey spoke to the BBC last week about taking a page from former USWNT players and using her platform for good.
- OL Lyonnes continued widening its gap at the top in France with a 6-2 win over Marseille on Saturday. The eight-time Champions League winners are now 16 points clear of Nantes and Paris FC, who are tied with 30 points apiece. Lindsey Heaps and Lily Yohannes, who are both headed to the SheBelieves Cup later this week, each started and played 45 minutes. Meanwhile, some other familiar faces made their way to the scoresheet. Korbin Shrader (neé Albert) scored Lyonnes’ opening goal while Tabitha Chawinga, sister to reigning NWSL MVP Temwa, recorded two goals.
While it was mostly sunshine for many Americans in Europe, there is still a cloud of uncertainty around the USWNT’s 2025 leading goal scorer …
What’s next for Macario?
Very little could slow U.S. striker Catarina Macario down the stretch last year. She ended the year with eight goals in 10 appearances, plus two assists. Three of those goals came in the last two months in a pair of friendlies against Italy.
Despite being a spark for the U.S. attack, the 26-year-old has yet to feature in a major tournament for the team, mostly due to injuries. It’s a priority for both the U.S. and the Brazilian-American forward that she make the squad for next year’s World Cup in Brazil.
After the Italy matches, Macario said she was happy to find some consistency, but a few weeks later, she was sidelined again with a heel injury and hasn’t featured for Chelsea since Dec. 10 — and was left off the Champions League squad for the next round in March. Last week, U.S. coach Emma Hayes said she was following the club’s injury assessment and left Macario off the SheBelieves Cup roster as well. Hayes did say if Macario were fit, she would have been selected as one of the team’s strikers.
Macario reportedly rejected a contract extension offer from Chelsea last month. Her current deal is set to end in June. NWSL is a possible landing spot for the Stanford grad, with the San Diego Wave making a strong case for Macario to return to her Southern California ties.
It’s a layered situation. You should definitely read Tamerra Griffin’s explainer.
More News
Women’s sports taking over prime time?
A new weekly women’s sports show is coming to your television for nine weeks this summer. ESPN is launching “Women’s Sports Sundays,” a recurring prime-time broadcast on cable and streaming networks focused on WNBA and NWSL games.
The show fills a hole left by “Sunday Night Baseball,” which ESPN opted out of nearly a year ago because it was overpriced, per The Athletic’s media columnist Andrew Marchand. ESPN already has rights to both women’s leagues, which have seen strong returns.
There are already a couple other women’s sports “game of the week”-type programming models:
- The WNBA has a long-standing “Friday Night Spotlight” deal on the ION network (which averaged nearly 630,000 viewers per game during the 2025 WNBA season).
- NWSL has a pair of notable weekly prime-time deals: Friday nights on Amazon Prime Video, which launch March 13 for the 2026 season, and Saturday nights on ION. The league’s TV ratings were up 22 percent from 2024 to 2025, and its 2025 championship game set an NWSL TV record with nearly 1.2 million viewers.
ESPN is a for-profit business, as Marchand notes, and women’s sports aren’t a charity case. This move is another example of how corporations are finally coming around to the idea that everyone does, in fact, watch women’s sports.
Another kit fiasco for Man Utd
Manchester United had to make a game day switch to their uniforms against Atletico Madrid last week. The home team had to wear its black third kits instead of its traditional red home strip in its Champions League quarterfinal playoff second leg.
The change was requested just five hours before kickoff after match officials said the away side’s orange goalkeeper shirt clashed with the hosts’ red outfield shirts. The issue boiled down to conflicting stories about whether a yellow or orange shirt had been pre-approved by both sides.
It isn’t even the first time United has experienced kit trouble during this Champions League campaign. Read Megan Feringa’s story for more on the football faux pas.
🖤 Black History Month: Did you remember this iconic moment?
This month, we’ve tested your knowledge of some iconic women who’ve made a mark on the sport. Last week, we asked: Which player did Briana Scurry (pictured above) make a crucial save on before Brandi Chastain’s famous final shot of the 1999 Women’s World Cup final?
Scurry, who is now a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame, made a crucial save on China’s third kicker, Liu Ying, in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final in Los Angeles. Her save helped set up Chastain’s winning penalty kick.
Scurry told FIFA last year she didn’t watch her opponents approach the spot. However, for some reason, she changed that up for the third Chinese kicker — and the rest is history.
“I looked at her,” Scurry said, “and I could see that that was the one I was going to save.” Chills.
It’s worth watching the full interview with Scurry, now 54, as she also talks about the importance of her identity both as a Black woman and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
I want to give the last trivia question of the month to “Full Time” podcast listener Liz W.: Which NWSL OG (!) has not only played for six NWSL teams but also was on the team that won Canada’s inaugural National Soccer League championship? Come back next week for the answer.
First Looks
Don’t lose the magic: Launched in 1970, the Women’s FA Cup involves seven tiers of English women’s soccer and is the only competition available to lower-tier clubs that offers prize money. The Football Association is toying with the idea of eliminating the draw used to determine late-stage matchups and kicking out the seventh tier completely. Harriet Drudge, our social media lead, plays for one such club and paints an important picture of what exactly would be lost if the FA follows through.
The growth conundrum: The term “family-friendly” gets used to describe professional women’s soccer game atmospheres, but is that really the aim of these clubs? Megan spoke to Aston Villa executive Maggie Murphy about how she overcomes the fear of alienating anyone to make meaningful connections that grow attendance.
What’s it like to play past 40? We spoke to several athletes who push the limits of time.
Weird memories: The torch has officially been passed from the hills of Northern Italy to Los Angeles. But before we switch our skis for cleats, why not re-live the wackier moments of the 2026 Winter Olympics?