It was a granola bar company that stepped up and closed the gap. LUNA Bar is directly giving all 23 players over $31 thousand each.

“When LUNA Bar approached us in January to support and recognize the USWNT players in this way, I was speechless,” said Becca Roux, USWNTPA executive director. “Many brands raising awareness for equal pay use the USWNT’s fight as an example, but don’t go the extra step to offer a solution to the problem.”

The three-time World Cup-winning team has been fighting to equal pay since 2016. Earlier last month, the USWNT sued US Soccer for gender discrimination. Despite never winning a World Cup, the men’s team receives better pay, better field conditions and better travel accommodations.

Jill Ellis, USWNT head coach, also gets paid significantly less than the coaches for the men’s teams.

Adidas announced they will pay their female World Cup champions the same performance bonus they pay their male champions.

The pledge came the same day the U.S. women’s national team sued U.S. Soccer for gender discrimination. The USWNT claimed they get less pay, unequal benefits, less practice time and more dangerous playing conditions.

“We believe in inspiring and enabling the next generation of female athletes, creators and leaders through breaking barriers,” Eric Liedtke, Adidas’ head of global brands, said in a statement about the bonuses. “Today we are announcing that all Adidas athletes on the winning 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup team will receive the same performance bonus payout as their male peers.”

It is unclear how much the bonuses are worth.

FIFA’s prize pool money remains the same. The men’s tournament gets $400 million for 32 teams and the women get $30 million for 24 teams.

For playing exhibition games, the U.S. women’s national team still makes less than half the amount their male counterparts earn, despite dominating the international stage for the past couple decades. The women won the World Cup in 1991, 1999 and 2015. Within that span, they’ve never done worse than third. The men’s team has never won the tournament and did not qualify for the World Cup in 2018.

The World Cup took a big step forward to its arrival with the teams being drawn into their respective groups on Saturday. The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four, which, as always, leads to a few interesting matchups to look forward to.

With just under six months to go there is lots of time to get deep into the tactical battles, so let’s take a quick look at the one big match in each group. Some of these will be based on national rivalries, historic significance between the teams, or simply a game with two big teams that should create a fun match-up.

Group A

The opening match of the tournament is the most obvious must-watch game, with France facing off against South Korea on June 7 in Paris. The French will face another test in Norway in their second match. Nigeria will be in for a challenge to advance and will be looking to upset either the Koreans or the Norwegians to get a third-place spot.

Group B

The powerhouse Germans shouldn’t be overly worried about China or South Africa, but their opponent could provide quite the test. Spain has been quickly building a strong program and has a deceiving ranking of only 12, but will give Germany all they can handle on June 12 in the second set of games.

Group C

Australia and Brazil continue to meet each other for the fifth major tournament in a row. Australia won in the round of six at the last World Cup, while Brazil won their match in the Olympics to knock out Australia. The Aussies will be looking to get past Italy while Brazil faces Jamaica in their opening matches. Australia and Brazil will meet on the 13^th.

Group D

A rematch of a semi-final game from four years ago should be fun between England and Japan, with Japan winning four years ago in the final set of matches. England can’t look to far ahead, though, as they start with a game against their rivals in Scotland who are making their debut before a game against Argentina in the middle.

Group E

For the second consecutive World Cup, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands find themselves all squaring off again in the same group, this time joined by Cameroon instead of China (Group A). Number five (Canada) and seven (Netherlands) having a match at this stage is exciting, especially if they reach the final game with six points each. It was a draw last World Cup but the Dutch won the European championships in 2017 and have improved since 2015.

Group F

At this point the most predictable game of any World Cup is the United States vs Sweden. They have met five times — the most of any two teams — including now a fourth straight tournament. In other words, these teams know each other well. The other match on the last day in this group could decide a potential knockout round team: Thailand and Chile will be looking for an important three points if you like underdogs.

After finishing with silver in 2014, and bronze in 2016, Spain collected an elusive gold medal in Uruguay on Saturday.

A pair of goals in their exciting 2-1 win over Mexico clinched the golden ball award for Claudia Pina. Pina finished with seven goals in the tournament, including four in the knockout round.

Pina was one of many stars for Spain as they finished with a goal differential of +1 thanks to the goaltending of Catalina Coll. Coll only allowed three goals all tournament, including two in the knockout round.

This year’s tournament was full of surprises in the final four as Mexico, New Zealand and Canada were all making their debut appearances in the medal round. In the bronze medal game, two quick goals from Grace Wisnewski in the opening 13 minutes helped the Kiwis hold on to a 2-1 win over Canada for their first medal at the U-17 level.

The quarterfinals were full of dramatic upsets with North Korea, Japan and Ghana all losing in penalties, while a late goal knocked Germany out. Spain knocked out North Korea, the defending champions and three-time medallists, in penalties 3-1 without having to rely on Pina, who was being saved for last.

The reigning silver medalists, Japan, were knocked out in penalties by Australia after a 1-1 tie in which the Kiwis gave up the tying goal via an own goal. Japan entered tied for most medals with North Korea and Spain with all three having won three medals entering this year’s tournament.

The other side of the bracket saw Mexico tying Ghana twice before winning 4-2 in penalties after scoring on all their shots. While Canada got a goal from Jordyn Huitema in the 83rd minute to win 1-0 over Germany.

Spain controlled 67 per cent of the possession against New Zealand in a 2-0 win while a penalty from Nicole Perez gave Mexico a 1-0 win to set up the final with Spain.

The two remaining spots in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be decided this week.

On Tuesday, both Nigeria and South Africa had semi-final wins at the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations. This placed them both in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Nigeria beat Cameroon in a penalty shootout. Washington Spirit forward Francisca Ordega started the game.

South Africa beat Mali 2-0 to earn their first-ever spot in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Linda Motlhalo, Houston Dash forward, scored the first goal and is leading the tournament with five goals. She was also named Woman of the Match.

This Friday, Cameroon and Mali will meet for the third-place game of the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations. This will decide the second-last spot for the World Cup.

The winner of the 2018 OFC Women’s Nations Cup will take the final spot on Saturday. The teams playing are New Zealand vs. New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea vs. Fiji.

Canada Soccer announced the 2018 women’s U-17 roster for the FIFA World Cup in Uruguay.

The prestigious tournament will run from Nov. 13 to Dec. 1. Four of the 21 athletes named to the roster have already been called up to the Women’s National Team, including Jordyn Huitema, Jayde Riviere, Maya Antoine and Ariel Young. The four are expected to lead the U-17 team as seniors.

Olympic Bronze Medalist Rhian Wilkinson will be coaching the girls.

“I just need them to play the game that’s gotten them senior team experience — that joy and that love of living on the ball,” she told Toronto Star.

Wilkinson is a retired international player for Team Canada. She started coaching with the Canada Soccer women’s program in 2014 while she was still playing.

Canada is one of six countries who have qualified for every U-17 World Cup since its launch in 2008. In 2008, 2012 and 2014 Canada reached the quarterfinals.

They will face off in group D against Colombia, South Korea and Spain at Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo. Their first game will be against Colombia on Nov. 14.

“I really believe in this U-17 team and I am looking forward to working with them to help them both perform on the pitch and learn from the experience to better prepare them for a career with Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team,” Wilkinson told Canada Soccer.
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Canada Soccer Roster for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Uruguay 2018 (By number, position, name, year born, hometown, club):

#1 Goalkeeper Anna Karpenko, 2002, Richmond Hill, ON/Ontario REX
#2 Forward Jayde Riviere, 2001, Markham, ON/Ontario REX
#3 Defender Julianne Vallerand, 2001, Terrebonne, QC /Quebec REX & AS Varennes
#4 Defender Sonia Walk, 2002, Toronto, ON/Ontario REX
#5 Defender Maya Antoine, 2001, Vaughan, ON/Ontario REX
#6 Defender Ariel Young, 2001, Ottawa, ON/Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX
#7 Forward Serita Thurton, 2002, Ajax, ON/Ontario REX
#8 Midfielder Caitlin Shaw, 2001, Vancouver, BC/Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX
#9 Forward Jordyn Huitema, 2001, Chilliwack, BC/Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX
#10 Forward Oluwateniola (Teni) Akindoju, 2001, Halifax, NS/Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX
#11 Forward Kaila Novak, 2002, St. Thomas, ON/Ontario REX
#12 Midfielder Lara Kazandjian, 2002, Kirkland, QC/Quebec REX & Lakeshore SC
#13 Defender Léonie Portelance, 2001, Brossard, QC/ Quebec REX & AS Varennes
#14 Midfielder Wayny-Natasha Balata Nguenign, 2001, Montreal, QC/ Quebec REX & Lakeshore SC
#15 Midfielder Jazmine Wilkinson, 2002, Nanaimo, BC /Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX
#16 Defender Jade Rose, 2003, Markham, ON/Ontario REX
#17 Forward Andersen Williams, 2002, Calgary, AB/Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX
#18 Goalkeeper Sophie Guilmette 2001, Montréal, QC /Quebec REX & Lakeshore SC
#19 Defender Isabella Hanisch, 2002, Ottawa, ON/ Ontario REX
#20 Forward Jessica De Filippo, 2001, Montréal, QC /Quebec REX & Lakeshore SC
#21 Goalkeeper Kayza Massey, 2001, Ottawa, ON/Ontario REX