USA Women win first game of FIFA World Cup

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The United States women’s national team won its first round of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Saturday, shutting out Vietnam 3-0.

With veteran Alex Morgan providing an assist, Sophia Smith, 22, of Colorado, scored a first-half goal, then another. Smith is a forward for the Portland, Ore. Thorns FC and is playing in her first World Cup. Smith received the Player of the Match trophy, which was presented by her father at the stadium in Auckland. Her fellow Colorado native, captain Lindsey Horan, 29, added another goal in the second half. When she’s not playing in the World Cup, Horan is a midfielder for the French club Olympique Lyon.

Unlike in 2019, when the Americans defeated Thailand 13-0, Saturday’s victory followed a series of missteps, missed opportunities, mistakes and miscommunication among players who until now had never played together. The U.S. shot advantage was 28-0, but their conversion rate was dismal, with too many shots sailing high over the crossbar and wide of each post.

None of Vietnam’s players identifies as LGBTQ+, but reports say there are almost 100 out players in this Women’s World Cup, which would be a record. Kristie Mewis, Kelley O’Hara and two-time champion Megan Rapinoe are out athletes on the USWNT.

Rapinoe, 38, playing in her fourth and final World Cup, entered Saturday’s match in the 63rd minute. After the victory, she told Fox Sports she felt anxious going into the match, but was glad to get into the game.

“Obviously, great to get a win, a shutout,” said the out gay icon, who is engaged to former WNBA star Sue Bird. This is Rapinoe’s 200th appearance for Team USA. “It was a very special day, and obviously being able to celebrate 200 in a really meaningful game in a World Cup, which will be my last, is the best. What other way would you want to do it?”

As the Los Angeles Blade reported earlier this month, Rapinoe announced her retirement from soccer following this World Cup and her final season with the OL Reign in Seattle, Wash.

The Americans arrived at Eden Park dressed to the nines in matching business suits.

A fun fact: It’s been 16 years and 364 days since Rapinoe’s first appearance for the USWNT on July 23, 2006, marking the longest gap between first and 200th appearance in the team’s history, according to OptaJack.

Next up for Rapinoe and the USWNT is Wednesday’s rematch of their 2019 final with the Netherlands in Wellington, New Zealand.

Maxen is first out gay male coach in the NFL

JACKSONVILLE, FL. - The NFL has an out gay player, has had out gay women coaches come out, and now has its first out male coach: Kevin Maxen, an associate strength coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars team.

His coming out makes Maxen the first publicly out male coach in any major American men’s pro sports league.

The owner of the Jaguars, Shad Khan, told ESPN that he “appreciated reading Kevin’s story,” which first appeared on one of SB Nation s websites.

“Kevin is a Jacksonville Jaguar through and through, and a key member of our football team and community,” Khan told ESPN in a statement Thursday. “I look forward to seeing Kevin next week at training camp, and hope that he comes to work each day during camp and through the season feeling confident, free and at peace. I know our players and staff feel the same.”

Khan has been a key supporter of a Jacksonville city ordinance that expanded protections for sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

“I don’t want to feel like I have to think about it anymore,” Maxen said in the interview. “I don’t want to feel like I have to lie about who I am seeing or why I am living with someone else. I want to be vocal in support of people living how they want to live, but I also want to just live and not feel fear about how people will react.”

As the Los Angeles Blade has reported, the NFL has free agent Carl Nassib, who came out in 2020 as the first active gay player.

Former free agent R.K. Russell came out as bisexual in 2019. As far as coaches go, the league has had female assistant coaches who are publicly out, including former San Francisco 49ers assistant coach Katie Sowers.

In the WNBA, the Los Angeles Sparks coach, Curt Miller, is an out gay man in a league with many out gay women on the court and coaching on the sidelines. The same is true for U.S. Women’s Soccer. Although there are several active out gay men playing soccer around the world, as PinkNews has reported, professional soccer in the U.S. has but one gay man playing: Collin Martin but there are currently no other active gay male players or coaches in the league nor in the NBA or MLB.

DAWN ENNIS

WNBA teammates Alyssa Thomas & DeWanna Bonner engaged

LAS VEGAS — Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas and guard DeWanna Bonner are engaged to get married, the couple and their team announced on social media Friday. Surrounded by about a dozen candles, Thomas, 31, got down on one knee and, with a ring in her hand, popped the question to Bonner, 35. They each shared a black and white photo of their special moment in posts on Instagram Friday. Bonner can be seen clasping her hands to her face as the couple stood amid palm trees. Thomas captioned the image with one word: “FOREVER.”

The team shared a color version of the photo on Twitter with the caption, “Best. News. Ever.”

Thomas and Bonner have been dating since the COVID lockdowns of 2020, when they spent time together in the WNBA “bubble,” according tothe Associated Press.

A spokesperson for the Sun told the AP that the couple got engaged the weekend of July 15 in Las Vegas, where both players appeared in the WNBA All-Star game and walked the orange carpet in traffic-stopping outfits styled by Bonner’s childhood friend Jazmine Motley-Maddox

While not every LGBTQ+ player in the league is out, some of the WNBA’s other publicly-acknowledged off-the-court relationships include New York Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot and former Chicago Sky teammate Allie Quigley, and Liberty star Breanna Stewart and former player Marta Xargay, who met when they played together in Russia. Bonner and Thomas publicly confirmed their relationship on Valentine’s Day 2021, CBS Sports reported, about a year after the Phoenix Mercury traded Bonner to the Sun. The Fairfield, Ala. native was the Mercury’s No. 5 overall pick in the 2009 WNBA Draft, and spent the first decade of her career with Phoenix, earning three All-Star appearances and three Sixth Woman of the Year awards. This season, Bonner is averaging 18.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. She has added two more All-Star appearances and her second-team All-WNBA honors since being traded to the Sun.

Bonner is raising two daughters with her ex-wife, former WNBA star Candice Dupree: six-year-old twins Cali and Demi. Thomas is a native of Harrisburg, Penn. who has spent her entire ten-year WNBA career with the Sun, after being drafted No. 4 overall out of Maryland in 2014. She is averaging 14.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game this season, and like Bonner is a key to the team’s success. Thomas just earned her fourth All-Star appearance and is the WNBA’s career triple-double leader.

“There’s just no one like her in the world,” Bonner told reporters following Thomas’s fourth triple-double on June 25th. The teammates have been outspoken about their love for the team as well as for each other.

“I just love this organization so much,” Bonner told reporters prior to theSun’s victory over the Las Vegas Aceson June 8. “Literally, like it just changed my life as far as you know, off the court, meeting Alyssa.”

Following a pair of victories at home and on the road against the Atlanta Dream, Bonner, Thomas and the Sun take their 2-game winning streak to Dallas Tuesday to face the Wings before returning home to Uncasville, Conn. next weekend to host the Minnesota Lynx.