Happy Prideteenth To All, And To All A Good Night

Where to begin. This is a double edition, since, well, everything has happened in life in the past few weeks. I got to go to a graduation and celebrate my niece, and I came back to an occupied (not well) Los Angeles, and saw her citizens fight back against ICE. I’d be remiss if I didn’t speak on what is happening in the city where I dwell. It is both business as usual, and a resistance. ICE is here, as it is in many places, kidnapping people of all citizenship statuses, simply because they are brown. As Black Americans, several of who are immigrants themselves, we know that terror all too well. We at SBFC will always stand with the people. Immigration is good, and immigrants from all over built Los Angeles and this country. We are better when we are diverse. We are better when we allow people in. One day, we will collectively choose better. Until then, resist.

Additionally, while this edition will contain NWSL goals and recaps from multiple matchdays, this newsletter will honor Juneteenth. Please also check out our social media pages to see what else we have going on for Juneteenth and Pride month. Our Blackness and our queerness intersect, and we want to celebrate all of who we are. But mostly, we hope that this newsletter is a reminder that:

We have merch!

We’ve launched new SBFC shirts in honor of Juneteenth. The squares are blue and red, in honor of the Juneteenth flag. Check out our newest shirts here, and look fly af while celebrating Juneteenth all year long!

It’s still Pride month (go gays!), and we at Shea Butter want to honor Pride with our first ever kit. Shea Butter Pride 25 is now on sale, in two colors (teal is the goal keeper kit). This kit was done in collaboration with Olive & York (highly recommend), and tells the story of our show and what Pride means to us. We hope this kit honors all of the ways that Shea Butter FC and the LGBTQ+ community matter to you. We think it does. Don’t delay, get yours now!

Don’t forget to check out our newest line of Don’t Play Out The Back shirts, now in tie dye. These are still fresh of the presses, so you can get our most popular shirt in even more colors! We hope you like having even more ways to tell your favorite team Don’t Play Out The Back. Available in multiple color options at the link below (minty rainbow is one of 5 color options)

Match Recaps, News, and Notable Goal Scorers

*_{note, all names listed in italics are players that scored, the number beside their name indicates the minute they scored their goal. (P) = goal scored was a penalty kick}

USL Super League Champions

I wanted to have a stand alone section to celebrate the first champions of the USL Super League, the Tampa Bay Sun. A team that finished 2nd in the standings, they defeated Dallas Trinity 2-1 in the semis, and in-state rival Ft. Laurderdale 1-0 in extra time, with the winning goal scored by Carlee Giammona. Shoutout to our Shea Butter Ballers Domi Richardson and Wasila Diwura Soale for bringing home the hardware.

Additionally, Tampa Bay announced this week plans to build a new, 15,000 seat stadium on the riverfront, with additional building space being used to house the USL headquarters. It’s a fantastic time for soccer in Tampa Bay, and we look forward to seeing their visions realized in the coming years. Congrats against to the Tampa Bay Sun, USL Super League champions!

Now, let’s get into the past few weeks of NWSL action. There were lots of Shea Butter Bombs and Booms (and Dimes) over the past two matchdays. Check out the goal scorers below.

National Women’s Soccer League, Match Day 11

Racing Louisville 2, Utah Royals 2 - Ellie Jean 26

Seattle Reign FC 2, San Diego Wave 1 - Delphine Cascarino 75

Kansas City Current 2, Gotham FC 1 - Michelle Cooper 3, Temwa Chawinga 11

Bay FC 1, Portland Thorns 0 - Alyssa Malonson

Angel City FC 2, Chicago Stars 2 - Nadia Gomes 58, M.A Vignola 80

Washington Spirit 3, North Carolina Courage 1 - Gift Monday 58

National Women’s Soccer League, Match Day 12

San Diego Wave 3, Houston Dash 2 - Yazmeen Ryan 68

Orlando Pride 1, Bay FC 0 - Barbra Banda 58

Chicago Stars 2, Seattle Reigh FC 2 - Ludmilla 11, 13, Lynn Biyendolo 87, Jordyn Bugg 89

Kansas City Current 4, Racing Louisville 2 - Michelle Cooper 15, Uchenna Kanu 88, Temwa Chawinga 90+5

North Carolina Courage 2, Angel City 1 - Brianna Pinto 90+5

Portland Thorns 2, Washington Spirit 0 - Reilyn Turner 39

Notable Goals

All four goals in the Seattle vs Chicago match were scored within two minutes of the other, and all four goals were scored by Shea Butter ballers. It’s rare we have that stat, so I thought it’d be cool to share with you all.

WOSO News Dump

The two biggest pieces of news in the world of women’s soccer were the NWSL announcing the location of its 2025 final. The game will take place at PayPal Park in San Jose, home of Bay FC. The match will take place on November 22, 2025 at 5 pm pst/8 pm est. It’s a shorter trip for some of the SBFC family. We plan to be there, and we hope we get to see you and say hi.

The other big news in the world of WOSO is the expansion of the Barclay’s Women’s Super League in England. The league, currently at twelve teams with newly promoted London City, will expand to fourteen total teams in the 2026-2027 season, with a relegation playoff between the 3rd place WSL2 team, and the 12 (last) place WSL team. The winner stays, or gets promoted to, the WSL. This will add more excitement to the league, but it is also adding at least four (4) more matches for every team, during a World Cup year. It’s a good idea, but the timing is a bit iffy. We shall see how this works. We’re rooting for it to make the league even more competitive.

Black In Action: Ludmilla

There’s something about a player being snubbed that can often bring out the dawg in them. Ludmilla may be the first encapsulation of that, having recently been left off of the Brazil roster for the Copa America Femenina, taking place this summer in Ecuador. Chicago has gotten two points from their last two matches, both at a scoreline of 2-2, thanks, in part, to Ludmilla’s work rate. She has four (4) goals this year off of two (2) braces, the second brace coming in this match. Both of her goals are about individual brilliance, but I wanted to post her first goal to show the incredible run she made covering almost the entire pitch. Chicago has improved slightly in the past few matches, but most of the joy they’ve had this season comes from their big summer signing last season. Hopefully lightening strikes twice for them, but for now, Ludmilla will continue to carry the goal scoring load for the Stars.

Anatomy of a Goal: Jordyn Bugg

Listen, I’m gonna be real with you, there’s not really a way to analyze this goal, lol. Truly, this should not have gone in, and may have been a schross (that’s the term for an ball put into the box that is truly a combination cross and shot), but I write this newsletter and I just want to keep looking at this goal on a loop. The ball takes a deflection off the Chicago player, pops back to Dahlien, who lays it off to Bugg. There’s no world where the defender thinks she’s shooting the ball from that angle, though she maybe should step a bit to keep Bugg from getting off a cross, but that’s a minor defensive detail. The truth is, the shot is just too good. It looks as if Bugg hits the ball with the front outside of her boot, causing it to bend in towards the far post. Add to that the traffic in front of goal, this becomes one of the slickest goals scored in a while. I think the most fascinating part of this goal is that it came from a young center back. We haven’t had a CB that can shoot like a striker in a long time. She obviously will not be tasked with doing that much, but it is a wonderful weapon that Seattle has that most other teams do not. If she’s gonna put them on frame like that, Jordyn Bugg will have the green light to pick her shot out for a long time to come.

Cultural Cuts: Washington Spirit Recaps

Match Day 11 Recap

by Riss Willett

Its Week 11 in the NWSL and I am happy to say that this week's recap is a little more joyful after last week's breaking news of head coach Jona Giraldez departing the team to OL Lyonnes at the end of the month. The team had a less then stellar pre match press conference to address the news by only taking 3-4 questions about this move. And, we did learn Ashley Hatch picked up a knock during practice which played into the game on Sunday. The Spirit took on the North Carolina Courage for their Juneteenth game. With Hatch on the listed on the availability report as out with a back injury the lineup was different for this game. The team had several players returning from international duty, meaning we saw McKeown and Kouassi get a break from the starting lineup, as well as Ricketts getting a break by not dressing for this game as well. Bernal also had international duty but still got the start, along with Courtney Brown and Brittany Ratcliffe. This turned out to be great for the Spirit. It was a match full of reunions, with Ratcliffe and Narumi both formerly playing for the Courage and Sanchez formerly playing for the Spirit. The Spirit struck first with a sequence started by Gift Monday who passed to Croix centrally, who then passed to the right to, you guessed it, Brittany Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe battled 2 defenders in the box and slipped a pass to Courtney Brown who shot it right past Murphy for her first goal of the season for Washington.  That wouldn’t be the last time Brown and Ratcliffe had another build up in this game, in the 27th minute the Spirit did it again! Naurmi started it off on the left side sending it to Brown who passed it to Krueger. Krueger put in a magical cross Ahem Emma Hayes. The cross makes it to Ratcliffe and she whips her body to head the ball into goal from a distance making that her first goal of the season.  The Courage did get one back shortly after Ratcliffe’s goal against som silly defending from the Spirit, which is clearly still a work in progress. Courage did themselves no favors they played out of the back giving Washington plenty of opportunities to take shots on goal and Brittany had another chance to rip one in only for it to hit the post. That 3rd and final goal came from Gift Monday which was her 4th goal in 8 matches for the team. Washington did have some good spells of defending from Kingsbury and a number of teammates in the last half of the match, a positive for the team. Washington came out victorious in the end winning 3-1 against the Courage making this their first win at home since March 28th when they played Bay FC at home winning 2-1.

This match really had a different feel to it and seemingly an important win for morale with a coaching change midseason and finally breaking the curse of losing at home. Don’t think I forgot to mention Trinity Rodman was in the house at Audi and it seemed interesting to see her finally back at Audi considering this was Giraldez’s last game coaching at home. All in all this was a great game for Brittany Ratcliffe and Courtney Brown maybe we will see a little more of them in future starting lineups.

Match Day 12 Recap: All streaks must come to an end

by Riss Willett

Spirit fam, we rode the high of winning at home last week and travelled to Portland where unfortunately the Thorns promptly ended their road winning streak with a 2-0 score. Some things happened off the pitch before this game. The Comms team informed the media prior to the match that Jona Giraldez did not travel due to the impending birth of he and his wife’s second child. This meant that this was our first look at Adrian Gonzalez coaching the team before he fully takes over in July. Needless to say the Spirit did not have a great game in Portland. They couldn’t get out of their own half for a solid 15 minutes. The Thorns came right out of the gate and were on the attack. Hiatt and Turner both made shots on goal within minutes of each other and Washington truly struggled trying to get passes together or just stood around and waited for the ball. It just seemed like the Spirit, for a lack of better phrase, just forgot how to play soccer, and it hurts to say that and see it They lacked a certain calmness in the midfield when it came to building those passes to get on the attack. I think they absolutely miss this ability from midfielder Andi Sullivan who is out on maternity leave. She brought both patience and calmness to the team and I think they are lacking someone who can do that now. Portland did score on twice and the first goal came as a result of the Spirit playing out of the back.. you know the Shea Butter saying “ don’t play out of the back!” Makenna Morris subbed on and did bring some life to the team placing multiple shot on goal. But in the end the away streak was ended and the Spirit, and now they move on to San Diego Wave to to a hopeful bounce back game.

The Current Moment with Thom Persley

Welcome to Episode 5 of The Current Moment, keeping you current on all things Kansas City Current. In this episode, Thombomb welcomes in Treb Tracy of Angels on Parade. The two dive into the Current’s next opponent in Angel City, breaking down their recent form against mid and lower table teams. Then they pivot to the importance of Savy King (we still hope you are getting better!) on the pitch and what that means against the Current attack. The two spend a healthy amount of time talking about Angel City’s new coach, Alex Strauss, and how he plans to attack KC Current. They close the episode talking about expectations for both squads in Friday’s upcoming match.

Be sure to tap in with Treb on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/trebtracy.bsky.social

Also check at his site: https://angelsonparade.com/ 

Quick Musings on a Roster

The June/July roster dropped on Wednesday, and with the exception of Naomi Girma, it is a roster full of domestic players. Emma Hayes announced the all domestic roster last week on ESPN with Jeff Kassouff. This gives the staff as chance to look at players that may have been on the bubble, and it gives the European based players their only chance to rest before reporting for their preseason duties. Much of the roster is the same, but there are four first time callups in Jordyn Bugg, Sam Meza, Lily Reale, and Izzy Rodriguez. Gisele Thompson is once again listed as a defender, while no new forwards were called into this camp, though Yazmeen Ryan is returning after missing last window. A few notable things for me. One, the four new callups have earned their look, through both league and YNT play. Hayes is also obviously looking for a sound left footed defender, as she has called in Abello, Reale, and Rodriguez, all of whom are left footed. I’m personally excited to see and Jordyn Bugg/Naomi Girma center back pairing, because I think Jordyn Bugg may actually be better at a skill than Girma (I’m sorry Nay, it can change). I think she’s a better passer and shooter of the ball. She is allowed this freedom with club in ways Naomi often is not, but the two could combine to start the attack from deep, a desire Emma Hayes has had for a while.

The forward line seems pretty set and as if it is waiting for the return of Triple Espresso before more decisions are made. It feels like a battle for the 3 or 4 other spots up top that will be available in 2027. Ireland, and particularly Canada, will be a great test in physicality for these younger players. I’m excited to see if they can get a result against a rival before going into the league break.

Final Thoughts: Juneteenth

Teams around the league, though not all, are celebrating Juneteenth and the beauty, strength, and resilience of Black Americans the past few weekends. Angel City FC, Bay FC, Chicago Stars FC, Gotham FC, Kansas City Current, and Racing Louisville will all host a Juneteenth themed night (Racing will have Ali Night, in honor of Louisville native Muhammad Ali). Teams have commemorated Juneteenth to various degrees of success over the past few years, and it still seems to be something everyone is figuring out as they go. As a Black women in WOSO, and a fan of the sport and my own culture, I feel like most teams try, but fail, to capture all that Black culture is in their own markets and the country at large. There is underrepresentation of Black people in American soccer, and it often shows in how Juneteenth is handled. Multiple other events are usually added to this theme night, and that can make Black fans feel neglected or unwanted. One of the most beautiful things about soccer is the uplifting of our diverse communities. We understand that inclusiveness makes us better (I’m talking to you Alexi. Shut up Alex!). We produce better teams and people when we embrace what makes us different, in all ways. We produce better teams when people feel their identities are celebrated and wanted.

Below are a few bits of Juneteenth that SBFC wants to give to you all. In addition to our new merch, we have a summary of the Juneteenth Spirit match from Riss Willett, and a link to a playlist and menu for the holiday, including a few selections from some famous names you know.

Spirit Juneteenth recap: 

The Spirit held their Juneteenth festivities this weekend for their match against the North Carolina Courage. They had some activations around the stadium for this game. In Spiritville they had the Too Much Talent band, which a music group that was founded here in the DMV. The band Blends elements of funk, hip-hop, jazz, pop, R&B and soul to create their unique sound. They played popular songs that most would recognize. The team also celebrated Juneteenth by having the Black national anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” sung by Baltimore based singer and songwriter Black Assests.

*^{We will share more from the NWSL’s celebration of Juneteenth in next week’s edition, because Juneteenth is more than one day.}

SBFC Cookout Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3o7ToePGHdZQsuOoW0dzVF?si=c7979c567ef84460

SBFC Juneteenth Menu

Thought it would be kind of fun to see what foods the culture eats for the Juneteenth cookout. All menu items provided by the Shea Butter community, with an assist from Christen Press and Alyssa Thompson. Hope you all enjoy!