USWNT news: W Gold Cup group revealed, Female POY nominees announced, WWC abuse report

USWNT news: CONCACAF W Gold Cup groups released, U.S. draw Mexico, Argentina, and Guyana or Dominican Republic

The friendlies against China just concluded, yet we already have something to look forward to in the near future. In preparation for the Paris Olympics, the USWNT is slated to compete for the first-ever CONCACAF W Gold Cup.

In late February and early March, eight nations from CONCACAF and the top four countries from CONMEBOL begin what is being dubbed as the "Road to Concacaf W Gold Cup". The first match of the competition begins on February 20 with the final scheduled for March 10 at the home of San Diego Wave.

Yesterday night in Miami, the current world No. 3 learned what its path to the knockout stages looks like. The quest begins against the winner of Guyana vs. Dominican Republic followed by Argentina, and its neighbors to the south, Mexico to close out group play. The top two nations from this pack with advance into the next round while the third-place winner will have its fate determined by what happens elsewhere.

While it may not be the "group of death" that Group B looks to be, Pedro López's Mexican side cannot be overlooked. The North American outfit has not lost in 2023 under the guidance of the ex-Spain U19 leader, most recently taking home the gold at the 2023 Pan American Games held in Chile. Don't sleep on the Argentines either, they hung with powerhouse Sweden for over 65 minutes at the World Cup.

USWNT news: Smith and Girma highlight five player list nominated for U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year

The end of a calendar year in sports usually means award season. That is the case for U.S. Soccer. Every year since 1985, the United States has handed out an award to the country's "Female Player of the Year". The winner is usually considered to be the team's most important or biggest standout over the span of a year.

The winners of the last two awards make up 2/5 of the nominees for the 2023 iteration. You've maybe already taken a glance at the list and asked yourself, where's Trinity Rodman? Well, that's a great question. I have asked the same thing. The five players that are in fact up for this prestigious honor are Crystal Dunn, Emily Fox, Sophia Smith, Lindsey Horan, and Naomi Girma. The voting began at noon EST yesterday and comes to a close on Monday, Dec. 18 at noon EST. According to the statement, the winner will be announced sometime in January 2024.

With all due respect to every one of these players, there feels to be a pretty straightforward winner. Girma, the heart and soul of the USWNT's sensational defense all year long has to be considered the frontrunner. San Diego's star defender is the future of this team, continuously putting on a clinic against the best of the best around the world on how to distribute and clean up messes in the backline.

USWNT news: FIFA/FIFPRO reports that the USWNT sustained the most online hate during the 2023 Women's World Cup

To most of us, this did not come as a shock. A little less than 115 days have passed since Spain lifted the World Cup title, and FIFA/FIFPRO released an online abuse report from the time of the tournament. According to these two organizations, the USWNT received double the amount of abusive social media posts compared to the next highest abused country.

This is the eighth time that FIFA has completed something like this, continuing to take steps forward to try to protect the players at major tournaments. 23.3 percent of the posts were found to be listed under "General Abuse", but the most jarring fact is that homophobia was the next highest, making up 20.4 percent of the abuse pie. In the summary, it expressed that politicians' posts or comments, even those that were positive sparked a "large section of abuse." Out of the 657 "active players monitored", 150 of them were targeted by some sort of online mistreatment during the tournament. 67 percent of the reported posts came from North or Central America.

Though some of the numbers make our jaws drop to the floor, the fact that the U.S. sits on top does not. All over the world, this has to be addressed. At the end of the day, these are human beings. Leicy Santos of Colombia said it best, "We are people." A line needs to be set, especially when it comes to women's athletes because this does have a real effect. It is not time to just throw this to the side. Action needs to be taken.

FIFPRO president David Aganzo expressed how we all feel after learning about these finding.

“The abuse that persists online impacts football players all over the world and it cannot be ignored. This toxic online environment is a risky place to be in for players and it affects their mental health and wellbeing.”

Here's a link to the full report, if you are inclined.