Australia beat England in the 2022 World Cup final and are bidding for a record-extending eighth title.
Healy faces a race against time to recover for the semi-finals with the first scheduled for 29 October in Guwahati or Colombo and the second due to take place the following day in Mumbai.
The 35-year-old, who made her Australia debut in 2010, has endured a difficult time with injuries in recent years.
She missed the final group game of the T20 World Cup in 2024 and was unavailable for their semi-final loss to South Africa with a plantar fascia issue.
Healy also missed large periods during the 2024-25 season with knee and foot problems keeping her sidelined for the majority of the Sydney Sixers’ WBBL campaign, an ODI series against India, the T20 leg of the Ashes and a T20 tour of New Zealand.
She returned from injury in August to play six white-ball matches for Australia A against India A in Queensland, before being named in the World Cup squad.
Chelsea’s dominant victory over Paris FC was lit up by the newest member of their attack, Alyssa Thompson, who traversed the Stamford Bridge pitch with agile runs and eventually got the rewards her efforts deserved.
Thompson may be just 20 years old, but her arrival at Chelsea was accompanied by lofty expectations arising from the club record price tag. Now, in her seventh appearance, she has finally got off the mark.
She darted down the wings and led her side’s counter-attacks, showing expert positioning to put herself in the right place to be able to set up Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s goal, and tapped home an excellent Keira Walsh delivery to get her first goal for the club.
It was an impressive display, but, says manager Sonia Bompastor, the best of her is still to come.
“A young player, a lot of talent, but I think we haven’t seen yet the best of her, but hopefully we will see that soon,” said Bompastor.
“She is coming from abroad, she speaks the language, which helps, but again, it’s a new environment, a new club, she needs to learn to connect with new players on the pitch, new team-mates, so hopefully, even sooner, we will see an even better version.”
Thompson’s first goal is one which will put her at “ease”, says Brighton forward Fran Kirby, who previously spent nine years at Chelsea.
Former Scotland captain Rachel Corsie added that now Thompson has scored, she imagines the “floodgates will open”.
“She’s been a real bright spark,” Kirby said on BBC Radio 5 Live. “I think against Tottenham she looked really sharp, it was probably that final product.
“Today, getting that assist and goal will make her feel a little bit more at ease going into the next game. A little bit of pressure off.”
That it took until Sunday’s three-wicket win over India for them to complete their first ODI chase over 300, taking back their record for the highest in the women’s 50-over format, is, in truth, a compliment to the bowlers that have worn canary yellow (OK, Australia gold) over the past 50 years.
It is hard for their batters to hold a record if never given the chance.
Ultimately, the result of Australia conceding 330 was captain Alyssa Healy being given an opportunity to produce her latest masterpiece.
Then best known as the 19-year-old niece of renowned former Aussie wicketkeeper Ian, she debuted in 2010 after her nation failed to win either of the 20 or 50-over World Cups held the previous year and has seen it all through 15 trophy-laden years since.
A T20 World Cup win came three months after her bow and seven world titles have followed from 10 attempts across formats.
The gritty keeper was also there in Derby in 2017 when a semi-final defeat by India briefly halted the run of success.
That loss “drove us to rethink our standards,” Healy said this week.
At the next 50-over World Cup in New Zealand, Healy made 170 against England in the final and was named player of the tournament. She ensured her country would not fall short again.
Whether this latest epic knock topped that previous effort can be debated.
Some will argue the case for the pressure of a final. Others can counter with the challenge that comes when facing a record target and a raucous India-supporting crowd of 20,000.
What is certain is this century was far harder to see coming.
The Christchurch carnage in 2022 came as she topped the run-scoring charts, but this knock followed six innings in India since the start of last month in which she had failed to pass 30.
“If you’ve been watching me in the nets, it’s been a frustrating experience because I feel like I’ve had no rhythm whatsoever,” said Healy.
“But once you step out on the field, your competitive instincts kick in and you just lock into the contest.”
It was a moment that should have been celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. What could prove to be the most expensive transfer in women’s soccer history — and already is the largest outgoing transfer in NWSL history — had sent Alyssa Thompson from Angel City and the NWSL to Chelsea of England’s Women’s Super League.
It was a monumental deal, one that could come to define Thompson’s career and help repair Angel City’s brand as a rich club that has mostly bumbled its way through its first four seasons.
It was a massive win for the player and both clubs.
Yet before the ink on the agreement had dried Angel City was already tarnishing what it should have been cheering. Coach Alexander Straus refused to even say Thompson’s name, opening a conference call with reporters Thursday by insisting he would not answer questions about “a certain player” or “a certain transfer.”
It was the second time in four days Straus refused to acknowledge his team’s best player.
Thompson, of course, has never been “a certain player” or “a certain transfer.” She’s a player Angel City moved heaven and earth to draft and sign in 2023, giving her a contract worth an estimated $1 million, then one of the richest in the NWSL. She’s a player who went on to become the club’s all-time leader in goals and rank sixth in appearances.
The least the coach could do is say her name.
Then three hours after that conference call, and about an hour after Thompson’s transfer became official, the club muddled things even further by reaching out to anyone who would listen to say it had done everything it could to keep Thompson, who had professed her desire to stay with Angel City when she signed a long-term contract extension just nine months earlier.
Thompson has the right to change her mind when a better opportunity comes along, of course, and Chelsea offered exactly that. Just 20, Thompson has already proven to be one of the most dynamic players in the world but she hasn’t come close to realizing her full potential and it’s unlikely she would have stayed in the NWSL.
The transfer was necessary for Thompson to find out how good she can be. And just as important is the fact that Thompson, who lived with her parents for the first year of her professional career, will now be on her own for the first time. How she adapts will no doubt have a major influence on her career as well.
But the club’s admission it did everything it could to keep her — a message aimed at fans angry at seeing the team’s best player go — simply confirmed what many in Thompson’s camp had thought since Chelsea first approached Angel City with a transfer offer last month: the club was more interested in blocking the deal than facilitating it.
“She wants to go to Chelsea and made it very clear,” a Thompson confidant said late in the process. “ACFC has to respect her.”
Angel City forward Alyssa Thompson competes against the San Diego Wave on March 16.
(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
For the club to suggest it had tried to hold up the transfer was the exact wrong message to send and one that — along with Straus’ lack of respect — won’t soon be forgotten by ambitious young players Angel City may approach in the future.
Thompson was one of eight players on the Angel City roster aged 20 or younger. Many, if not all, of those young women must be confident the club won’t stand in their way if they have a chance to move on and develop their talent on a bigger stage.
That’s the way soccer works. It’s why clubs allow players to leave in the middle of a season to play for their national teams despite the risk of injury. It’s unfortunate the transfer happened now, hampering Angel City’s final push for a playoff berth. But as long as the NWSL plays on a different calendar from the rest of the world, the transfer windows will always be awkward.
Yes, Angel City should — and it did — fight hard for every last penny in the transfer talks. The team recruited Thompson, signed her, paid her good money and gave her an opportunity and a platform to play both professionally and in a World Cup.
By all accounts, the team was masterful in its negotiations with Chelsea and it was rewarded with a record-breaking transfer fee. They deserve a huge pat on the back for that.
Just which records the deal broke depends on how you look at it. Multiple sources involved in the talks confirmed the transfer’s value at $1.65 million, which would make it the most expensive transfer in women’s soccer history.
Yet that’s not what Angel City deposited in the bank last week. Whether Chelsea will pay the full amount will be determined by non-disclosed escalators, mainly based on Thompson’s performance, that were included in the deal. For the time being, however, Angel City will have to get by with about half a million less, putting the initial value of the transfer somewhere between the nearly $1.1 million Chelsea paid the San Diego Wave last January for defender Naomi Girma and the $1.5 million the Orlando Pride paid Mexico’s Tigres for Lizbeth Ovalle last month.
Either way it’s the largest fee for an outgoing player in NWSL history and probably enough for Angel City to keep the lights on. So on Friday morning the club sent out a tepid three-paragraph statement announcing a transfer everyone else knew was done.
“We thank Alyssa for her contributions to Angel City and are grateful for the mark she has left on our team and the city of Los Angeles,” it read.
At least they said her name.
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
Angel City winger Alyssa Thompson left for London on Wednesday afternoon as negotiations continued on a transfer that would send her from the NWSL to Chelsea of the Women’s Super League. But she might be running out of time since the WSL transfer window closes at 3 p.m. PDT Thursday, less than 24 hours after she boarded her flight.
“She wants to go to Chelsea and made it very clear she wants to leave,” said a person close to Thompson, who would speak only on condition of anonymity for fear of disrupting the delicate negotiations. “The rest is out of our hands.”
Thompson’s agent, Takumi Jeannin, declined to speak about the negotiations on the record while Angel City did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The speedy Thompson, 20, has already said goodbye to her Angel City teammates and did not suit up for the team’s win over Bay FC on Monday. She reportedly spent two days waiting to fly to London, where the transfer would be announced, only to repeatedly be told the deal had hit a snag.
If the transfer is agreed to, the fee for the U.S. international and World Cup veteran is expected to top $1 million and could smash the record $1.5 million the Orlando Pride paid Mexico’s Tigres for Lizbeth Ovalle last month.
USWNT defender Naomi Girma was the first $1-million transfer in women’s soccer history when she went from the San Diego Wave to Chelsea last January. Canadian Olivia Smith broke that record in July, going from Liverpool to Arsenal for $1.3 million.
Thompson was still an 18-year-old senior at Harvard-Westlake High when she became the youngest player taken in the NWSL draft, going to Angel City with the No. 1 pick in January 2023. That summer she became the second-youngest player to appear in a World Cup game for the U.S.
Thompson signed a three-year contract worth an estimated $1 million after the draft in 2023, then agreed to a three-year extension in January. She is the club’s all-time scoring leader with 21 goals in all competitions and she ranks sixth in appearances with 74. Her six goals in 16 games this season ranks second behind Riley Tiernan’s eight and she also has three goals and three assists in 22 games with the national team.
Thompson leaving Angel City would also mean leaving her sister and roommate Gisele, 19, a national team defender who was signed by Angel City in December 2023.
For Angel City, meanwhile, losing Thompson would strike a significant blow to the team’s playoff hopes. The club, which has won two straight and is unbeaten in its last four, is a point out of the league’s eighth and final postseason berth with eight games to play. But Angel City already lost two players — midfielders Alanna Kennedy and Katie Zelem — on transfers to London City of the WSL for undisclosed fees last month. And the week before that it traded forward Julie Dufour to the Portland Thorns for $40,000 in intra-league transfer funds and an international roster spot.
In addition, the club is without Scottish international Claire Emslie, who is on maternity leave, defender Savy King, who is on medical leave, and U.S. World Cup champion Sydney Leroux, who has stepped away from soccer to deal with her mental health.
After Monday’s win over Bay FC, Angel City coach Alexander Straus said the uncertainty over Thompson’s future with the team has been distracting.
“If I’m being honest, the last couple of days, it’s been difficult,” he said.
Straus said he learned Thompson would not be available just a day before the game.
“It’s been hard for me in my position when things change,” he said. “It changes our plans and changes the plans for the players.”
“But none of us is bigger than the club,” he added. “We focus on that, what is our value together. And if somebody leaves at some point — or somebody has left a couple of weeks ago — I think it does something to a group. It’s not easy, but it’s how you manage it.”
While the loss of a player like Thompson would hurt Angel City on the field, the likely seven-figure transfer fee would help ameliorate that. The same might not be true for NWSL, whose success and its marketing has long been built around the personalities playing in the league.
Yet in recent years it has lost Alex Morgan to retirement while national team stars including Girma, Crystal Dunn, Emily Fox, Lindsey Heaps (nee Horan), Catarina Macario and Korbin Shrader (nee Albert) have left to play in Europe.
Losing Thompson would be another blow.
As for Chelsea, it is the most successful club in the WSL, having won a domestic treble last season in Sonia Bompastor’s first season as coach. Bompastor replaced Emma Hayes, who left to take over the U.S. national team.
Chelsea will open its WSL season on Friday against Manchester City.
Maiara Niehues scored the go-ahead goal on a header in the 77th minute to give Angel City a 2-1 victory over Bay FC at BMO Stadium on Monday.
Riley Tiernan also scored for Angel City (6-7-5), which won its second straight after an eight-game winless streak.
Angel City’s Alyssa Thompson was an excused absence for the game as rumors swirled that Chelsea was in talks to acquire the 20-year-old winger. The transfer deadline in the English Women’s Super League is Thursday.
Any fee for Thompson is likely to exceed $1 million. The Orlando Pride recently paid an international record $1.5 million transfer fee for forward Lizbeth Ovalle from Mexico’s Tigres.
Bay (4-9-5) is winless in its last seven matches.
Tiernan took a pass from M.A. Vignola and ran it down field before cutting inside and dancing around Bay defenders before firing a shot past Bay goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz in the 12th minute.
It was Tiernan’s team-leading eighth goal. She moved into second for most goals ever by an NWSL rookie.
Rachel Hill scored the equalizer for Bay, scoring on the rebound off her own shot on Angel City goalkeeper Hannah Seabert in the 37th minute.
Niehues broke the stalemate on a header off a corner kick.
On Bay FC’s side, Asisat Oshoala was also an excused absence amid numerous reports of a move to Al Hilal Saudi Women’s Premier League.
Alyssa Thompson scored in the 86th minute and Angel City snapped an eight-game winless streak with a 1-0 victory over the Orlando Pride on Thursday night at BMO Stadium.
Angel City (5-7-5) had not won a match since May 9. Thompson’s goal was her sixth of the season, second most on the team.
It was Alex Straus’ first win as Angel City coach and the franchise’s first win against the Pride since 2023.
“It felt really good. I feel like I haven’t had a goal in a while,” Thompson said. “So being able to get those goals that I’ve been working on, and just the positions that I’ve been in, in training. It was really nice.”
Orlando (8-5-4) is winless in its last five matches. The Pride were without top scorer Barbra Banda, who injured her hip in the team’s scoreless draw with the Kansas City Current last week. Banda has eight goals this season.
Orlando announced earlier Thursday that they had signed Lizbeth Ovalle from Mexico’s Tigres UANL for a record transfer fee. Ovalle, known as Jacquie, is set to play in the Liga MX Femenil All-Star game this weekend before joining the Pride.
Angel City welcomed back defender Ali Riley, who was available on the bench for the match. Riley was placed on the season-ending injury list midway through the 2024 season because of a chronic leg injury that threatened her career.
Brazilian international Lorena stopped a penalty kick and countrywoman Bia Zaneratto scored to keep the Current perfect at home on Friday night.
The 1-0 victory secured a sixth consecutive win for Kansas City, which remained atop the NWSL standings. The Current (11-2-0) have won all six of their games at CPKC Stadium. Kansas City hasn’t dropped a game at home since a July 2024 loss to Orlando.
With the score tied 0-0, Lorena leapt to her right to parry a spot kick by Angel City forward Alyssa Thompson in the 56th minute. The ball was tipped onto the crossbar before bobbling out for a corner kick.
It was Lorena’s first penalty save and Thompson’s first failed conversion in the NWSL.
Reigning NWSL MVP Temwa Chawinga broke away on a dribble and had her low shot saved by Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson, only for Zaneratto to scoop up the rebound and the tuck the ball away in the 69th minute.
Zaneratto has five goals, tied for the second-most of any Current player behind Chawinga with eight.
Angel City (5-5-3) is winless in its last five games, and has secured one tie and two losses since Alex Straus took over as coach three weeks ago.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Christen Press was helping the national team to consecutive World Cup titles. She was unstoppable then, a key cog in the greatest women’s soccer team in history.
Yet she played her 155th and final match for the U.S. in the Tokyo Olympics.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Press, just 18 days removed from those Olympics, became the first player signed by expansion club Angel City. She was bringing the NWSL to her hometown and was being rewarded with what was then the richest contract in league history.
Yet she’s started just 10 games since then, losing most of the last three seasons to a stubborn anterior cruciate ligament injury that took four surgeries to repair.
Press eventually will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, but she isn’t ready for that trip just yet. If her body isn’t always willing, her mind and her heart are still keen on the sport, so Press makes her most valuable contributions now in the quiet of the locker room.
At 36, she has completed the transition from wunderkind to elder stateswoman. And on a Angel City team with 13 players under the age of 25, her presence is being felt.
“It’s a different role. I wasn’t that type of person,” said Press, who admits she has grown into the job.
“When I was 20 I didn’t have a relationship with a senior player like they have with me. I’m enjoying the presence that I have with these young players.”
Press has paid special attention to Alyssa Thompson, the 20-year-old Angel City player whose early career may be most reminiscent of her own, taking the locker next to Thompson in the team’s spacious dressing room.
Both are Southern California natives who played soccer and ran track in high school, led their teams to CIF titles and won national player of the year awards. Both committed to play for Stanford — Press went, Thompson didn’t.
Angel City forward Alyssa Thompson controls the ball during a match against Seattle in October.
(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
But Thompson’s career is just starting while Press is winding hers down. So the most valuable thing she can offer now is advice.
“The thing that I’m good at is scoring goals. It is an art and I love it,” Press said. “I’m now kind of showing Alyssa how I trained to become a goal scorer. How you can think about goal-scoring in a very nuanced and methodical way.
“I’m learning as I teach her. I’m seeing the ways that she approaches it differently. It’s just kind of a spirit of collaboration I see as a win-win for everybody.”
Thompson agrees, saying she appreciates the chance to learn from a master.
“She’s definitely my mentor,” Thompson said. “She’s entering a new era of her career and she still wants to continue to play and stuff like that. But when she’s not playing, she’s able to [offer] her guidance and support.”
Goalkeeper Angelina Anderson, the team’s vice captain and, at 24, a key member of Angel City’s youth movement, isn’t sure Press fully appreciates the impact she’s having. The extra work Press puts in with Thompson, for example, has also made Anderson better.
“After training she’ll pull me aside and say ‘Hey, Ang, can you stay? I’m going to play a few balls through for Alyssa.’ That alone, dealing with such an elite finisher, is making me better obviously,” said Anderson, who was recently called up to the national team for the first time.
“She’s probably had to change a lot; just her mindset and mentality going through her injury and being older. I think she’s embraced her role and she seems like she’s in a really healthy spot.”
Listen to Press for a moment and the depth of her wisdom, experience and intelligence is obvious. But that doesn’t exactly make her rare in the Angel City locker room. Ali Riley, Press’ former Stanford teammate, and Scottish international Claire Emslie also have played on multiple continents and in multiple international championships and have become mentors to the team’s younger players.
“I enjoy that,” Emslie said. “I definitely find myself saying things to the younger players that I remember getting told and I think it’s important to pass on that information and have those relationships.
“I want to help them as much as I can because they’re going to go on and have even better and more successful careers. If I can help them along the way, it’s rewarding.”
That approach seems to be working. Angel City (4-4-2) is in playoff position through 10 games despite starting six players younger than 25.
“It’s important to have experienced players like Christen around. Especially when you’ve got so many players that are so young and exciting and dynamic,” interim manager Sam Laity said.
How long Press continues to do that in person is uncertain. The one-year contract extension she signed in January ends when the season does and she has a budding business empire to manage, one that includes a wildly entertaining podcast and a social entrepreneurship company founded with former USWNT teammates Megan Rapinoe, Meghan Klingenberg and Tobin Heath.
But if her playing days are indeed numbered, she’s enjoying those she has left. And that may be the most important lesson Professor Press passes on to her young students.
“There’s only one thing I haven’t done in soccer and that’s enjoy it,” she said. “All of my peers retired and I’m still here. I’m still given this gift of being able to appreciate it, play with gratitude, be a role model. And when I think about Angel City and my legacy, I think about ‘wow, what an opportunity to show the next generation that this can — and should be — fun and rewarding and it’s a gift that we get to chase greatness.
“The truth is the other things that I’m doing, from a career standpoint, are more lucrative than playing for Angel City this season. [But] there’s no better job in the world. We get so wrapped up in winning and greatness and titles and trophies that sometimes we don’t just get to be there. Like, I run around for my job. And I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to do so.”
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
Alyssa Lee of El Camino Real has achieved something few volleyball coaches can claim.
With El Camino Real’s boys team winning the City Section Open Division championship on Saturday after an upset over No. 1-seeded Venice, Lee has won City titles coaching El Camino Real’s boys, girls and beach volleyball teams, the Triple Crown of volleyball coaching.
“That’s very impressive,” said Granada Hills coach Tom Harp, who had Lee on his girls’ team when she graduated in 2009.
Harp, a future Hall of Fame coach in the City Section, said Lee is calm and comfortable on the bench and knows strategy well.
The CIF Southern California tennis championships will be held Friday and Saturday at Claremont Club. Here’s the bracket…
Southern Section golf team championships are set for Monday and Tuesday. The individual championship will be Thursday. The City Section championships are Wednesday at Harding Golf Course.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
