Spain’s 2–0 victory in Washington exposed the fine margins separating the world’s best teams. With the 2027 Women’s World Cup approaching, Emma Hayes believes the United States has what it takes to compete. But belief alone won’t be enough.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to say when this moment finally came, and I keep coming back to where all of this started. In 2019, I began covering women’s sports because I couldn’t understand why so many extraordinary athletes and stories received so little attention. I didn’t come from sports media. I wasn’t a professional photographer. I taught myself photography and cinematography because I wanted to contribute in whatever small way I could to changing what I was seeing. I believed that if more people could see these athletes, hear their stories, and experience the emotion surrounding women’s sports, more people would care.

Alex Morgan and TOGETHXR, the fastest-growing and most engaging women’s sports media company, today announced they are teaming up with the Bet on Her app, one of the fastest growing and highest rated women’s sports apps, to bring fans closer to the teams, leagues, athletes and communities all on one connected platform. 

As part of the partnership, TOGETHXR and Alex Morgan’s Trybe Ventures have acquired an equity stake in Bet on Her, Inc. ​​The investment further aligns both organizations around a unified goal: expanding access, coverage, and community for women's sports worldwide.

As I walked out into the Los Angeles night alongside tens of thousands of other fans, I noticed something that would have seemed unusual only a few years ago. Nobody was talking about whether soccer could ever matter in America. Nobody was debating television ratings or participation trends or federation politics. Nobody was arguing about whether the men's program deserved attention or whether the women's program deserved more. They were simply joyously singing and chanting USA, USA, USA in total collective euphoria. Talking about the goals they had just witnessed. Talking about what might happen next. Talking about the possibility that this team could make a run. Talking about the feeling of being part of one of the greatest sporting moments ever in the US.

For one night, at least, American soccer felt united. For one night, the sport stopped defending itself and simply existed as a source of joy. The United States needed that feeling.

From San Jose to Seattle, the USWNT looked like more than a national team. It looked like a platform. A testing ground. A cultural engine. The old power of the badge is still there, but now it is being paired with something more modern and, frankly, more important: an all-in attempt to build lasting infrastructure around women’s soccer at every level.

There’s a weird irony at the center of women’s sports right now: the thing we spent the last decade begging for—more coverage, more creators, more platforms taking it seriously—has finally arrived, and it’s created a new kind of problem. Not a lack of attention, but an abundance of it. A constant flood of content across every surface where sports can exist: Instagram and Threads, athlete-led podcasts, brand activations, Bluesky feeds, newsletters, YouTube cuts, highlight accounts, traditional outlets stepping further in, and new ones that didn’t exist a few years ago. It’s loud in the best way. It’s also messy. Don’t get me wrong, we have actively contributed to this here at Bet on Her.

Bet on Her is our attempt to make women’s sports feel as navigable as it deserves to be, even when the internet still isn’t built to represent it cleanly. But the bigger point isn’t that we managed to stitch it together. It’s that we had to. If the next decade of women’s sports is going to be as large as everyone says—and it can be—the data layer can’t remain an afterthought. Infrastructure is what lets momentum compound. Without it, growth keeps getting spent on re-solving the same basic problems instead of building what comes next.

In the span of a week, Trinity Rodman went from “unattached” to undeniable. What began as a roster label that invited speculation ended as something far more concrete: the captain’s armband, handed to her in Carson as both responsibility and recognition. In a January camp shaped as much by who couldn’t be here as who could, the U.S. wasn’t just asking its most electric available attacker to tilt the field—it was asking her to steer the moment, and to step into the kind of prominence that doesn’t wait for permission.

Alex Morgan’s jersey retirement framed the evening in nostalgia, but the match itself was a lesson in the present. The U.S. is learning to win differently, to trust a system over a single star, to build composure where chaos once lived. The faces are younger now, the tactics sharper, and the leadership quieter — but the ambition hasn’t changed.

Step back, and the questions stretch wider to the league itself. Is the NWSL becoming a feeder system for the WSL? If English clubs, backed by men’s-team revenues, can drop seven figures without blinking, how can NWSL teams resist? How can the league ever build a global brand if its brightest stars are exported the moment they break through? Should fans demand that clubs be accountable to keeping US talent here? Should the league loosen salary caps to make staying stateside a competitive option?

It’s hard to overstate the promise around the Sparks when the 2025 season tipped off. Cameron Brink’s return, Kelsey Plum’s arrival — a WNBA champion and perennial All-Star — it all pointed to a revival of the championship DNA that once defined Los Angeles. But the reality was far messier. Before the All-Star break, the Sparks were plagued by disconnected play, a vague offensive identity, and poor late-game execution that let winnable games slip away.

The win against Canada didn’t just cap off an undefeated summer—it clarified the direction this team is heading. Hayes has built a system rooted in clarity, trust, and adaptability. Players come in and look ready. Moments happen because they’re prepared, not improvised. And as a new generation emerges in real time, one thing is becoming clear: Emma Hayes isn’t just preparing the USWNT for Brazil. She’s building a new standard that may be the bar we need to expect for the US Soccer program as a whole.

Women have been conditioned to consume sport within the contexts and frameworks used for men’s leagues whether it’s the coverage and analysis, gambling, or talk shows that drive 24/7 coverage on network programming. Our fandom has been contained to men’s teams because we’ve taken all of the air out of the narratives of women’s teams. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

On a sweltering afternoon in Pasadena, Paris Saint-Germain opened their FIFA Club World Cup campaign with a dominant 4–0 victory over Atletico Madrid in front of a crowd of 80,619 at the Rose Bowl. It was the kind of attendance that would make most event organizers breathe a sigh of relief, especially for a mid-June match scheduled at midday. But for all the excitement that should have surrounded the reigning Champions League winners playing on American soil, the experience left more questions than answers.

“There’s multiple shots at the end of the game, either going into the third, into the fourth, where they’re just coming in, just f—— swinging, and they just don’t call anything. And I don’t understand how that’s six free throws, playing 40 minutes, touching the paint.”

Becky Sauerbrunn stood on the sidelines with a quiet grace, honored for a career that spans over 200 caps, a World Cup title, Olympic gold, and a legacy as one of the most respected defenders in USWNT history. But as one chapter was celebrated, another was being written—this time by names that are quickly becoming must-know.

From the start, the U.S. looked eager to test China’s mid-block, and the gaps were there. In the 12th minute, Michelle Cooper nearly connected with Alyssa Thompson on a brilliant through ball, but China’s backline barely cleared it in time. Thompson was everywhere as has been the case all year—making hard runs, stretching the field, and forcing China to scramble.

From the outset, the Sparks demonstrated how their new lineup, featuring Plum seamlessly transitioning between shooting guard and point guard from possession to possession, can create challenging pick-and-roll scenarios for even the most seasoned defenses. Early combinations involving Azura Stevens, benefiting from clean looks generated through dribble handoff actions between Plum, Dearica Hamby, and Rickea Jackson, proved that the Sparks can orchestrate meaningful runs, especially in the open floor during transition play.

Fresh off a two-game road-winning streak, the Wave returned home to face their California rivals from the Bay Area. Under new head coach Jonas Eidevall, San Diego has looked formidable all season, and they wasted no time setting the tone. From the opening whistle, the Wave came out with the kind of high-intensity press that has defined their play since the start of the year.

For ACFC the positives not only heading into the season with new ownership powered by Bob Iger and Willow Bay’s record breaking investment making the club the most valuable women’s franchise in the world, but also the promise of a side that welcomed the return of Christen Press from injury and has continued to see an ascendence from talents like Alyssa Thompson and sister Gisele, have fostered a sense of inertia that has been backed by an undefeated streak heading into the Gotham matchup. However, without the services of Alyssa Thompson the offense would face a challenging Gotham defense anchored by USWNT veteran Emily Sonnet.

Alyssa Thompson’s ascendancy on the USWNT can be summarized by a single indomitable trait: hustle. Her relentless and utterly world-class speed is at full throttle with every U.S. possession. For Brazil, that reality hit sooner than expected—a first-minute burst of brilliance saw Thompson running the entire Brazilian backline into the box. She was stopped just short, but not before creating chaos, allowing Macario to clean up the broken play and score the first goal of the match in San Jose.

It didn’t take long for the Trinity effect to take hold of the USWNT in their faceoff with Brazil at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in what would be the first rematch of the two sides since the final of the Paris Olympic Games. Trinity Rodman scored an emphatic goal within the first five minutes of the game bringing SoFi into a frenzy off of a brilliant through ball from the ascending Alyssa Thompson who has continued to impress this year for the USWNT.

In a season home opener that looked to re-inspire a San Diego that had gone through a difficult last season the Wave looked to build on the momentum gained from the last weekend facing their SoCal rivals ACFC. Wave had experienced a season many are ready to forget with shakeups at every level of the organization including the coaching staff, a sudden retirement from their star player Alex Morgan, and the loss of two USWNT stars Jaedyn Shaw and Naomi Girma. The tumult left many questions open heading into the season about the prospects of this iteration of the team this NWSL season especially amidst all the changes.

With a tenuous draw between the USWNT and Japan heading into the SheBelieves Cup Final in San Diego on Wednesday, it was clear that Emma Hayes was relishing the opportunity to put her squad through a unique challenge. There would be no way forward except to win. As obvious as that might sound, the reality of the fixture was that although both teams were tied on points, Japan held the advantage on goal differential. This meant that if the game ended in a draw, Japan would win the SheBelieves Cup, ending the USWNT’s six-year reign as champions.

The proceedings in the decade long tradition of the SheBelieves cup final match day began with Australia facing Columbia in a fixture that faced the two sides tied in terms of total points, goals, and separated only by fair play points with Columbia responsible for 4 yellow cards in the tournament.

For Australia this continues to be a team that looks to find its transition with the average age of the squad at 28 years old. For Columbian coach Ángelo Marsiglia who has been navigating a squad with an average age of 23 it is a very different story as this SheBelieves cup has created a needed opportunity to build confidence in his young side through the experience of an international tournament.

For the USWNT the tradition of the SheBelieves Cup is one of winning, having won every single edition of the home grown tournament. However, for Emma Hayes the tournament represents a fresh opportunity to establish younger players into the rotation and create momentum and muscle memory for tournament football that can only come from focusing on the details and preparation in situations with real stakes. In front of 22,000 fans setting a record for the USWNT in Arizona, the table was set for stakes that would reverberate into Wednesday’s final against Japan.

The tension leading into Sunday’s NCAA Women’s National Championship was palpable as the city of Louisville collectively held their breath looking for their hometown team to win their first title. In a season that has defied all expectations and culminated in a berth in the final four, for Louisville the loss of Anna DeBeer didn’t diminish the overwhelming support for the Cardinals in the sellout and record crowds at Yum! Center with 21,860 in attendance. However, Penn State led by Katie Schumacher-Cawley entered into this final with determination coming out of the momentum of having defeated Nebraska and as a number 1 seed.

It was impossible to ignore the overwhelming sense of momentum that Nebraska had coming into the final four as you walked around downtown Louisville mid day the night of the NCAA National Championship semifinals. As co-Big Ten Champions with a 33-3 record coming into the weekend and confidence riding high for the potential to undo the heartbreak of last year’s loss to Texas, all eyes were on Nebraska as they looked to close out the fourth set leading 2-1. Penn State had different plans as they dug deep and rallied confidence from their 11 win streak this season and put together an incredible stand to force a fifth set. That grit has only been further elevated as coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley has had to battle cancer throughout the season testing every aspect of their resilience as a team. In a reverse sweep that will be remembered as one of the most memorable in NCAA tournament history Penn rallied to take the 5th set and make history in the tournament cementing an all women’s head coach final for the first time ever, facing favored Louisville in the final on Sunday.

On a beautiful fall evening in Nashville, the USWNT hosted Iceland for a friendly, and also honored Kelley O’Hara as she announced her retirement weeks ago from professional soccer. Kelley scored one of the most memorable goals in USWNT history in the semifinal against Germany, coming off the bench to clinch the USWNT’s entry into the 2015 World Cup final. Among her many achievements, O’Hara was part of the USWNT for three Olympics and four World Cup campaigns winning both multiple times. However, the night wasn’t solely for celebrating O’Hara’s achievements; Mallory Swanson was also honored for reaching 100 caps with the USWNT and for her unforgettable goal this past summer at the Olympics, which clinched the gold medal for Team USA.