2024 UEFA Champions League Final Confirmed: Barcelona vs Lyon 🇪🇸🇫🇷

It’s April 29, 2024. Give us four minutes, we give you everything The Women’s Game.

Good morning TWG readers! I’m writing to you Monday morning after a wholesome, family filled weekend of bike rides, farmers markets, flower planting, and dog walks. The weather was mostly beautiful in the northeast and my parents were staying with me, so I am feeling refreshed and really grateful!

As far as the soccer went, as Rose Lavelle would say, “It’s wild but it’s fun!” The NWSL games were exciting as usual — with Becky’s Thorns pulling off another win and Lynn’s Gotham tying 1–1. I also watched some WSL and obviously the Champions League semi-final second legs, both of which require full breakdowns that are coming up later in the newsletter.

Bunny Shaw (Manchester City’s renowned Jamaican striker and the leading goalscorer in WSL) was our Friendlies guest last week, which we dropped just as we learned the extent of her injury that will likely keep her out the remainder of this WSL season. If you haven’t heard it yet, have a listen and send Bunny some love as she recovers. Coming up tomorrow, we’ll have an episode of Good Vibes breaking down everything from this weekend with Lynn Williams. Then on Thursday, we have another Man City wonder, Alex Greenwood, who scored a goal this weekend in the team win over Bristol City.

I’m heading to the New York/New Jersey/Gotham/Bats region on Friday to spend some time with my Gotham friends (list too long to be included in this newsletter) and watch them play my other Courage friends on Saturday! I’m REALLY excited to see my friends and see the game. If anyone has ideas on what I should wear to try and support multiple teams and multiple friends, let me know by sending me an email at [email protected].

Enjoy the newsletter!

Love,

Sam

I. 2024 Champions League Final Confirmed: Barcelona vs Lyon rematch of 2022 now official, after riveting round of semis this weekend 🇪🇸🇫🇷

i. Soon-to-be-USWNT manager Emma Hayes will arrive without winning the one trophy that has eluded her, as Chelsea exited the Champions League at the semi-final stage, ceding 2 goals to Barcelona after controversially being reduced to 10 players and falling 2-1 on aggregate before a sold-out stadium with 39,398 fans packing Stamford Bridge. 2023 Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí opened the scoring to draw level on aggregate before Buchanan’s red card. In the 75th minute, Sweden’s veteran forward Fridolina Rolfö killed off the game from the penalty spot. Post-game Emma Hayes did not hold back claiming “I think that is probably the worst decision in UEFA Women’s Champions League history.”  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇪🇸

More: ‘Emma Hayes blames refs for Champions League loss’

ii. In Paris, the creative wonder of French left-back Selma Bacha and Haiti’s midfield dynamo Melchie Dumornay powered eight-time UWCL champions Lyon to a 2-1 win over PSG, ending the series 5-3 in favor of the French juggernauts. PSG fought back from an early deficit to claim a goal of their own (via Malawian forward Tabitha Chawinga), but were no match for the experienced UWCL champions in the end. US co-captain and Lyon midfielder from Golden, Co. Lindsey Horan said in the post-match that this victory, “shows who we are, and the belief we have in this team.”

iii. Two giants of the European game now meet once more in the Champions League Final, set for May 25 in Bilbao, Spain. A game that will also here by be known as the Michele Kang derby... She owns Lyon. The Barcelona manager Jonatan Giráldez is incoming to the Washington Spirit... she controls it all. In the last great clash of Barcelona vs Lyon in the UWCL Final in 2022, Lyon won their eighth trophy after beating the Catalans 3-1. 🇪🇸🇫🇷

And more: ‘Get up and go again: Carter turns focus to league after Champions League loss’

🥤 Get ready for the Final and stock up on OLIPOP. You can use code TWG20 for 20% off your first order at drinkolipop.com/TWG20.

II. NWSL WEEK 6: Thorns 🌹 get second straight win, Rose Lavelle returns and Barbra Banda 🇿🇲 gets first NWSL goal in first NWSL start 

i. Portland Thorns continue to catch steam after a coaching shake-up this April, collecting their second straight win of the year with a 2-0 over Chicago Red Stars as Sophia Smith bagged a brace, now leading the 2024 golden boot race with five goals. 

ii. After debuting in Week 5, Zambian goalscoring wonder Barba Banda (whose March signing marked the second highest transfer fee in women’s football history) notched her first start and first goal for Orlando Pride Friday evening in the capital, where the visitors collected a back-and-forth 3-2 win over a formidable Washington Spirit. Orlando Pride remains one of just three undefeated teams in the league alongside Racing Louisville and Kansas City Current. 

iii. 19-year-old USWNT rising star Jaedyn Shaw has made yet more history in a blossoming career, this time at club level. As San Diego Wave overcame California expansion side Bay FC 2-1 in SoCal this Saturday, Shaw scored her first club goal of ‘24, becoming the first NWSL player to score 10 regular season goals as a teenager. 

iv. Lavelle, at last: the long awaited sight of Rose Lavelle running onto the field for new club Gotham FC finally came to fruition this Sunday. Subbing in at the 74th minute, it took just 24 minutes for the midfield phenom from Cincinnati to find Gotham’s equalizing goal in a 1-1 battle with Louisville. The football world feels better when Rose Lavelle is back, fit and doing her singular thing. 

More: A look at Houston Dash’s big trade moves ahead of April’s deadline

Also: ‘NWSL MVP Tracker: who are the best players this season?”

III. 16-year-old Issy Hobson makes English football history, Man City cruising and Crystal Palace clinch promotion 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

As the English WSL season nears its end, the epic human battles of promotion and relegation are heating up, and the title race is going down to the last. In the Championship, Crystal Palace clinched promotion to the Women’s Super League for the first time in club history before a record crowd of 6,796 at Selhurst Park. In the WSL, Manchester City cruised to a 0-4 win over Bristol City, sending Bristol back to the Championship as the Mancunians stay top of the table, though Chelsea challenges from second-place with two games in hand. (Worth watching: this rocket from Aussie striker Mary Fowler, one of two goals Fowler scored). The Blues kick-off the next match in their title race with City against Liverpool, this Wednesday, 2 PM ET, on Paramount+. Sam Kerr won’t be with them but good news: she’s back training. Elsewhere, Everton’s Isabella “Issy” Hobson made history as her stoppage time equalizer from the bench against Arsenal makes her the youngest-ever goalscorer in WSL at 16 years and 180 days old. 

More: ‘Why has relegated Bristol City had such a bad season?’

Also: Fourth-place Manchester United battled Leicester City to a 1-0 victory in league play this week. Is there anything more enjoyable, predictable, and formidable than bangers like this from Ella Toone?

IV. News and Notes 📰🗞️

i. Brazilian legend Marta has announced her retirement from international football at the end of this year. The 38 year old from Dois Riachos, Eastern Brazil has scored a remarkable 116 goals in 175 appearances for the South American giants. Should the veteran legend be selected for As Canarinhas’ Olympic squad this summer, the event would be the last major appearance for one of the game’s greatest-ever on a major tournament stage. 🇧🇷

ii. The US Women’s National Team announced their final Olympic sendoff match will go down in the nation’s capital, where they’ll face Costa Rica on July 16 at Audi Field. The match comes just a few days after the squad plays Mexico in New Jersey, and will mark the fourth friendly under Emma Hayes’ official tutelage before the team sets sail for Paris. 🇺🇲🥇

iii. Roma were crowned back-to-back champions of Serie A on Friday without kicking a ball, as Inter Milan beat second-place Juventus 2-0. Worth a watch: their reaction when they found out. 🏆🇮🇹 

iv. Concacaf W Champions Cup confirms competition criteria and 7 of 11 participating clubs. 🌎

V. Parting Shots 🥃

As yet more evidence of the infectious growth of women’s sport fandom worldwide, more than 12,000 fans showed up to a German third tier game this past weekend, ready to watch a Berlin Derby. Union Berlin put 5 past intracity rival Hertha BSC before a raucous crowd. 

VI. Good Reads

i. From Lindsay Rittenhouse in Ad Age, 5 Takeaways from Deep Blue’s Business of Women’s Sport Summit in NYC this past week

ii. From E.B. Boyd in Fast Company, Alexis Ohanian invests in popular women’s sports bar, Sports Bra

iii. From Emillia Hawkins in The Guardian, ‘The harsh realities of ACL injuries outside elite women’s football’