ALSO IN TODAY’S ROUNDUP, PUGH’S FUTURE DESTINATION CONTINUES TO REMAIN IN FLUX
Wembley Stadium will be the stage for the FA Cup final next weekend for the second consecutive year.
On Saturday, May 13, Birmingham City and Manchester City will face off in the FA Cup Final at Wembley stadium, which is set for a new competition-record crowd. With eight days to go, there have already been 34,500 tickets sold according to BBC Sport.
This is the second year in which Wembley will be the stage for the women’s FA Cup final. In 2016, Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Chelsea drew 32,912 people. Right now, this year’s final is set to surpass that number based on total tickets sold to date.
Birmingham City returns to the FA Cup final for the first time since 2012 where they won the championship. This year, they knocked out Chelsea, who won the title in 2015, in penalty kicks to secure their spot in the final. On the other hand, Manchester City has yet to win a FA Cup title. They reached next weekend’s final after defeating Liverpool in the semifinals.
The FA Cup appears to be Carli Lloyd’s final chance at a trophy after Man City was dumped out of the Champions League by Lyon over the weekend.
SPIRIT STILL IN THE MIX, DASH ADDED IN CASE FOR PUGH
Pugh’s professional future is still in question as all wait to hear where she will play club ball (photo: Chelsey Bush for The Equalizer)
The waiting game to hear where Mallory Pugh will go continues–she has a contract offer from Paris-Saint Germain and could end up with a number of NWSL clubs, and that number continues to grow.
Today, Stephen Goff of the Washington Post reported that head coach Jim Gabarra has been in contact with Pugh and has made his case to her for Washington. Previously, it was revealed that a recent meeting between Pugh and the Washington Spirit, who hold the top position in the Distribution Ranking Order (DRO.), had taken place. It does not appear though that the meeting did enough to persuade Pugh to accept a contract with U.S. Soccer to play in Washington. If she does sign with U.S. Soccer without completing her college degree, she would enter into NWSL through the DRO.
On Wednesday night, Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl reported that the Dash are one of the teams interested in acquiring Pugh. The Houston Chronicle revealed that the Dash are not in a position to be serious about that yet. Randy Waldrum, Houston Dash head coach, and president Chris Canetti have had conversations about it, but none of which have been serious at this point.
