Fútnotes, Volume 8

A lot to pack in from last week, with friendlies played and announced, a club making a comeback, and International Women’s Day.

México

México is doing a MexTourW, holding friendlies in the United States in April. The first will be against the Chicago Red Stars in Bridgeview, Illinois on April 8, with the second in Houston, Texas against an as-of-yet unnamed opponent on April 11.

Angel City FC hosted Club América, downing Las Águilas 3-0 on goals from Alyssa Thompson, Paige Nielsen, and Simone Charley. (AngelCity.com)

Monterrey hosted the North Carolina Courage in a friendly, winning 2-1 on goals from Rebeca Bernal and Diana Evangelista, while Olivia Wingate scored the Courage’s lone goal. (Rayados.com) The Courage will host Rayadas later this year at a date still to be determined. (NCCourage.com)

Chivas announced a live show in English that will be hosted on their YouTube channel. Hosted by Robert Amorelli, Jr., Gabriela Silva, and Alfredo Rodríguez, they cover the men’s and women’s team. It’s absolutely crazy seeing how far the community of English-speaking Mexican soccer fans has come since the advent of social media.

Speaking of Chivas, Licha Cervantes used her platform to call out clubs that don’t invest in their women’s teams. (Récord.com.mx)

I really liked this vlog from Tigres that documented their win over León. Very well done in Spanish and English.

Santos Femenil took in a Toros Laguna basketball game, and it turns out some of them can hoop!

Rest of the World

To the surprise of no one, the NWSL announced the return of the Utah Royals FC to the league in 2024.

The WoSo Collective laid out a list of issues that players and fans of teams in Utah have faced, and asked what safeguards are going to be put in place around the new team to protect players and fans from racism, homophobia, anti-trans legislation, and restrictive abortion practices in the state, among other things. (WoSoCollective.com)

Corinne Diacre was officially relieved of her duties at the FFF. (FFF.fr)

A purported new Portland Thorns jersey leaked, and was instantly skewered online.

The Concacaf W Gold Cup format is set, with the preliminary round starting in February 2024 and the knockout stage and final taking place from March 2-10, 2024. (Concacaf.com)

Jenna Tonelli spoke with NWSL Commissioner Meghann Burke and NWSLPA President Tori Huster in an interview for The Equalizer.

International Women’s Day was on Wednesday, and I particularly enjoyed learning this fact from a fan account of Colo-Colo, one of the biggest clubs in Chile.

I also enjoyed Sydney Leroux’s annual International Women’s Day post, which is now part of the fabric of soccer in the United States.

My friend André Carlisle and Matt Ellentuck put together a great list of some of the best times this year you can catch an NWSL and WNBA game in the same city in the same weekend. (TheGamingSociety.com)

The USL W League is getting set to start in May and teams are starting to sign players for the upcoming campaign. The San Francisco Glens signed UCLA and México U20s forward América Frías, giving her (and so many other players) a chance to play more games than just the 20 regular season games in the college season in the fall.

The messiness of the fight between Canada Soccer and its players over a new collective bargaining agreement and pay issues is apparently determined to play out in public, with Canada Soccer publishing an update of some of the key points of what they’re offering the players on Thursday. (CanadaSoccer.com)

In contrast to that, England has committed to providing equal access to all sports for all boys and girls after the Lionesses wrote an open letter to the Tory government. (TheGuardian.com)

Don’t ever let them tell you no one pays attention to women’s soccer.

If you have something that should be included in this segment, please reach out to me via twitter or email me at [email protected].