mel & dale talk about babes who kick balls

and who better to embody this dichotomy than the fiancée of sue bird, megan ‘is this thing on?’ rapinoe, pictured here at the actual white house. i love my twitter algorithm for letting me know that men i don’t follow who cover boys soccer look at pinoe discussing equal pay on a global stage and go, ‘this is excessive’, and then a second later break out their best ‘participation trophy at the youth tournament’ pep talk and go, ‘wow, what an effort, real progress, exciting stuff ahead!!!!’ about the usmnt who once, and i cannot stress this enough, lost to czechoslovakia (a country which no longer exists) by four goals. ~*equality*~

the national women’s hockey league continues to be chaotic af. not only does one have to account for opponents looking to take you out, but also… your own teammates, as these members of the boston pride found out real quick! don’t feel too bad for the pride, they won their second isobel cup saturday night 4-3 over the minnesota whitecaps. but also, hockey is a sport in which you get knocked down and quite literally get right back up. kudos.

it’s march madness and freshman phenom paige bueckers of uconn (casual alma mater of sue bird, diana taurasi, rebecca lobo and breanna stewart) was struck by the realization that her team was advancing to the elite eight round and in turn, struck her coach on the ass. commentators were undecided if geno auriemma would’ve let dt3 get away with that but young bueckers plays with the same game-reading-floor-stretching-no-look-pass energy of taurasi and if you start watching her now, when she’s a number one draft pick you can say, ‘i remember her first ncaa tournament because this blog on tumblr wouldn’t shut up about it’ and absolutely no one will know what you mean.

i am starting to believe vivianne miedema and lisa evans are the entire business model for the we play strong brand. this week they gave each other haircuts and, in a moment of panic, after seeing the results viv declared, “THAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED.” to which lisa, in horror, asked, “BY ME????” please watch this.

huge news for fawsl and woso lovers alike. for the next three (!) years you will be able to turn on an actual television and see women’s football on a channel other than your laptop connected via a wad of chewing gum and an old shoelace to a live stream!!! file this under evidence #23701 why this is the best league in the world. nwsl catch tf up!

leah williamson, for one, seems ready to welcome this new television audience. / beth mead seems ready in spirit.

others who stay ready in the wo-spo cinematic universe include sabrina ionescu, whose next season will be nothing short of monumental, and maybe a little scary. / and sam kerr whose social media activity screams, ‘look at me living my best life at the start of a new relationship i will break this lil app with another post’.

meanwhile, i am so proud of midge purce who in the last three years has gone from answering interview questions before thorns games with, “whoa, huge question,” (my favorite answer to anything ever) to being the executive director of the black players collective discussing the importance of investing in women at the white house. / pinoe was there, too.

the way lindsey horan lifted this pup up by the harness like she was on rep 19 with the kettlebell has affected me personally. on the one hand i would like the thorns to embrace the digital age and understand that no matter how many puns you pack into a photoshoot, it will not count as content. on the other hand, if lindsey posts this on main i WOULD take it as a cultural reset for that, uh, announcement.