From June 7 to July 7 2019, 24 teams from around the world will gather in France for the FIFA Women's World Cup. This official guide provides an insightful, comprehensive preview to get you excited for women's soccer's biggest and greatest tournament. Written by former professional player Jen O'Neill, features include a review of the qualifying campaign, an in-depth analysis of all the participating teams and their star players, a retrospective look at the first seven Women's World Cups, and much more.

This book examines the most prolific international women’s football tournament—the FIFA Women’s World Cup—through media, fandom and how mediated women’s soccer can improve on a global scale. Women’s soccer has exploded in terms of media exposure, television audiences and live spectatorship. This book explores those macro-level issues, while also digging into micro-level topics such as Megan Rapinoe’s celebrations and political activism, VAR reviews, LGBTQ imagery, and cultural obstacles for women’s football in Central-Eastern Europe and Nigeria. Using an interdisciplinary approach, scholars look at issues through the lenses of feminist theory, cultural studies, rhetorical criticism, political economy, performative sport fandom, autoethnography, and more. Thus, the book is important reading for students, researchers and media practitioners with interests in women’s soccer, gender in sports media, coverage of women’s sport, and sport fandom.

With a foreword by England legend Kelly Smith, the country's all-time record goalscorer and a player widely considered one of the best to have played the game. The exciting story of one of the fastest growing sports in the world, played by over 30 million girls and women. Over 25 million people tuned in for the Americans' 2015 Women's World Cup final victory - the most-watched football match in United States history. The Making of the Women's World Cup details the most incredible tales from previous Women's World Cups, including: Carli Lloyd's 13-minute hat trick and the worldwide movement set off by 2015 How Japan made their country smile for the first time since the devastating tsunami The USA's World Cup triumph on home soil in 1999 Germany's back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2007 Marta's magic: The birth of a Brazilian icon How Kelly Smith announced her arrival with the kiss of a boot The beginnings of Australia's golden generation The 122nd-minute USA equalizer against Brazil: the quarterfinal that changed everything The dawn of the Lionesses: England joins world elite through tears of joy and despair

This volume unpicks mega-events as gendered entities and showcases how they both position athletes in relation to one of two binary sex positions and also push the boundaries of what we see and accept as a recognisably gendered male or female body.

Under the Lights and in the Dark: Untold Stories of Women's Soccer takes an unprecedented look inside the lives of professional football players around the world – from precarious positions in underfunded teams and leagues, to sold-out stadiums and bright lights. Award-winning filmmaker and journalist Gwendolyn Oxenham tells the stories of the phenoms, underdogs, and nobodies – players willing to follow the game wherever it takes them. Under the Lights and in the Dark takes us inside the world of women's soccer, following players across the globe, from Portland Thorns star Allie Long, who trains in an underground men's league in New York City; to English national Fara Williams, who hid her homelessness from her teammates while playing for the English national team. Oxenham takes us to Voronezh, Russia, where players battle more than just snowy pitches in pursuing their dream of playing pro, and to a refugee camp in Denmark, where Nadia Nadim, now a Danish international star, honed her skills after her family fled from the Taliban. Whether you're a newcomer to the sport or a die-hard fan, this is an inspiring book about stars' beginnings and adventures, struggles and hardship, and, above all, the time-honored romance of the game.

October 10, 2017. The U.S. men’s soccer team loses in Trinidad and Tobago, and fails to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Winning soccer’s greatest prize never seemed more distant. Immediate fixes—a new coach, a revamped professional league, a commitment to coaching education—won’t put the USA in the global elite. The nation is too fractious, too litigious, too wrapped up in other sports, and too late to the game. In Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup: A Historical and Cultural Reality Check, Beau Dure shows what American soccer is really up against. Using hundreds of sources to trace more than 100 years of history, Dure delves into the culture that only recently lost its disdain for the global game and still doesn’t have the depth of soccer insight and passion that much of the world has had for generations. The difficulty isn’t any single thing—the mismanagement of failed leagues, the inability to agree on a path forward, the lawsuits that stem from an inability to agree, or the unique American culture that treasures its homegrown sports. It’s everything. And yet, Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup is ultimately optimistic. Dure argues that with the right long-term changes, the U.S. can build a soccer environment that consistently produces quality players, strong results, and a lot more fun on the international stage. Soccer fans and skeptics alike will find this a fascinating examination of America’s past, present, and future in the beautiful game.

Rocky takes over! A struggling student and brilliant footballer, Rocky Race is many things, but to most people she's just Roy Race's little sister. It's not much fun – especially as Melchester Rovers head to the League Cup Final. Rocky's sick of everyone knowing her through Roy, she's had enough of school, and she's even started having panic attacks. Now it's up to Rocky to find her own way – as a person and a player – and she's going to need all her grit and determination to do it...