Four Words for Week Two

Home: North Carolina Courage defender Kiki Pickett played her first professional game in front of her family when the Courage traveled to San Diego to play the Wave last Saturday. It was a tough 3-1 road loss, but Pickett played a solid 82 minutes.

Before traveling to California, I asked Pickett—who played at Stanford—about her thoughts about the NWSL awarding a team to the Bay Area.

"I think it would be perfect because I know that there's a lot of talent up there and have a good base, especially coming from Stanford...I'm really excited and I just love playing up there."

On the potential for a NorCal-SoCal rivalry in the NWSL: "If they can make a team and create the environment, that would also create a lot of energy between...NorCal/SoCal, so I'm excited."

It turns out our conversation was rather timely. On Tuesday, the NWSL announced that the Bay Area is home to the league's next club. They are expected to take the field for the 2024 season.

Triumph: For the first time since 2015, Sinead Farrelly appeared in an NWSL game. Farrelly signed a one-year contract with NJ/NY Gotham FC with an option for the 2024 season after retiring from soccer at the end of 2016. She came on for Bruninha in the 70th minute of Gotham's game against OL Reign last Saturday.

Here's hoping that this is indicative of a huge next step in her healing process and that she has a productive—and fun!—2023 NWSL season.

VAR: You either love it or you hate it (and often swing between the two within the same game). The NWSL has implemented VAR— that's Video Assistant Referee — this year.

As with any new (or new-ish) technology, there will be a learning curve. That was painfully clear during Saturday's San Diego/North Carolina match.

In the 67th minute, Emily van Egmond swung a free kick into the Courage box. There was a scramble in front of the goal with a shot from Alex Morgan going off the post. When there was a stoppage in play, VAR signaled that there may have been a handball in the penalty area.

I watched the replays, and I will say that was a very harsh penalty call, no matter which team it was called against. But that's not the problem I have with how it all went down.

The problem as I see it is that it took more than five minutes for the center official to overturn his decision on the field (no penalty) and award a penalty kick.

To use video to overturn a decision, the replays have to show that a clear and obvious error was made. If it takes several minutes to come to such a conclusion, then it cannot possibly have been CLEAR or OBVIOUS.

10,000,000: Okay, so it's more like three words and a number this week. And this number actually pertains to the Women's NCAA Basketball National Championship game. The game between Louisiana State University and the University of Iowa drew nearly 10 million viewers. That's a 103% year-over-year increase.

Last November, the NWSL Championship game between Portland and Kansas City also drew record viewership on CBS. The game averaged 915,000 viewers and, according to Paramount+, was the most-streamed match.

Likewise, the WNBA has shown growth in playoff viewership with a 22% increase in playoff viewership from 2021.

And while more fans are tuning in and turning up at stadiums and arenas, merchandise is selling like hotcakes as well.

Gee, it's almost like there's been a huge, untapped demand for women's sports. Glad to see networks and the media are starting to catch on. Hopefully, women athletes will finally get the payday they’ve earned. Especially now, with college athletes signing NIL contracts. Pay the lady…pay the lady…pay the lady.