The Transformation of a Soccer Club, and the Ways We Value Women’s Sports

Nearly three years ago, in New Jersey, late in a National Women’s Soccer League game between Sky Blue F.C. and the Chicago Red Stars, the Red Stars’ striker Sam Kerr flew past the defense, gathered the ball, and unleashed a shot into the low left corner of the goal—her third score of the day. But, instead of celebrating the hat trick, she hung her head. Kerr had been traded from Sky Blue to the Red Stars the previous winter; after the game, she said that she’d felt no pleasure in returning to Yurcak Field, at Rutgers University, and beating her former teammates. She nodded toward the opposing bench and said that she wished she could have taken the others with her when she left. “I’m just going to say the girls deserve better,” she added, “and leave it at that.” Read More