Courage host Reign, Thorns visit Red Stars in NWSL semis

Don't be so quick to hand the North Carolina Courage the National Women's Soccer League championship, Megan Rapinoe says. Rapinoe's Reign FC visit the Courage on Sunday in one NWSL semifinal match, while the Portland Thorns play at the Chicago Red Stars in the other. The Courage, who finished atop the league...

Megan Rapinoe enjoys whirlwind, focuses on soccer pay fight

NEW YORK (AP) — Megan Rapinoe is enjoying the whirlwind of a two-time World Cup winner. She picked up the FIFA Player of the Year award in Milan rocking a deeper shade of lavender hair, sent off retiring U.S. coach Jill Ellis with an undefeated victory tour and kept up the fight for pay equity against the...

Korean derby drawn in women's Olympic soccer qualifying

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — There will be another Korean derby game in international soccer in qualifying for the 2020 Olympic women's tournament. The Asian Football Confederation says North Korea and South Korea will play in a qualifying match on Feb. 9 in South Korea. Two qualifying groups were drawn...

Soccer star Rapinoe, boxer Shields win sportswomen of year

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe and boxer Claressa Shields have been honored as Sportswomen of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation. They won in the team and individual categories, the awards coming at the foundation's 40th annual Salute to Women in Sports. Rapinoe led the U.S. to victory at the World Cup in...

Iran women attend FIFA soccer game for first time in decades

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — They had to sit well apart from the men, and the stadium was practically empty, but thousands of Iranian women in merry jester hats and face paint blew horns and cheered Thursday at the first FIFA soccer match they were allowed to freely attend in decades. In what many considered a...

Iranian women watch a FIFA soccer match kickoff after being freely allowed into a stadium for the first time in decades

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian women watch a FIFA soccer match kickoff after being freely allowed into a stadium for the first time in decades.

US women counter soccer federation's assertions on pay

U.S. Soccer was misleading when it asserted some players for the women's national team made more money than their male counterparts, the women's team players said in court documents filed Monday. The players say in the documents that the men's pay would have been far greater if they'd had the same success on the...

US plays to 1-1 draw in final game for retiring coach Ellis

CHICAGO (AP) — Megan Rapinoe will miss Jill Ellis running the U.S. women's national team. "A lot, I think," star forward Rapinoe said after the U.S. tied South Korea 1-1 on Sunday in the final game for Ellis on the exhibition tour of the two-time Women's World Cup champions. "It's such an intimate...

US women's soccer coach Jill Ellis preps for last game

CHICAGO (AP) — Retiring U.S. Soccer women's national team coach Jill Ellis already knows she'll be emotional on Sunday at Soldier Field. The two-time FIFA women's coach of the year will lead the World Cup champions in the finale of their six-game victory tour when the U.S. team faces South Korea. "We built...

US national women’s team beats South Korea 2-0

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Megan Rapinoe had two assists in her first national team game since the World Cup and the United States beat South Korea 2-0 on Thursday night for its 17th straight victory. Coach Jill Ellis earned her 106th victory as coach of the United States, passing Tony DiCicco for most wins...