TribalFooball.com also talks exclusively with Carolina Ascent midfielder Eli Beard, who grew up in the U.S. but played for the last six seasons in Europe—in Kazakhstan, Israel and Iceland—and is an Israeli international. Beard talks about the Israeli women’s league, the national team and why she decided to come home to play in Charlotte and the new Super League.
USL Super League News Ahead of the Launch Later This Month
This week, we review news as the first season of the USL Super League, which starts in the middle of August. See our last review of the Super League in: The Week in Women's Football: USL Super League shenanigans; breaking down the 8 teams - TribalFootball.com.
Brooklyn FC
Long Island native and former NWSL draftee Jessica Garziano signed with the club from the USL W League’s Long Island Rough Riders, where she recorded seven goals and two assists in eight matches this summer. Garziano also played five years at St. John’s University, where she is the all-time assists leader (33) and seventh in career goals (22).
Forward Hope Breslin (25) is another New York area native joining Brooklyn. She played in the 2023/24 A-League Women loop with Wellington Phoenix FC, where she made 22 appearances and scored two goals. Breslin spent her collegiate career at the University of Illinois.
Defender Leah Scarpelli (22) is a New Jersey native and returns to the Tri-State area after time with Sporting Lisbon in Portugal and most recently at Brisbane Roar in Australia’s A-League Women during the 2023/24 season. In the States, she competed in college for Pennsylvania State University and Florida Gulf Coast University and was also called up to the U-17 United States youth national team in 2017.
Carolina Ascent
Midfielder Eli Beard (28) is an Israeli international who played for Marquette University from 2014-2017. Beard is returning to the United States to join the Ascent from Iceland, where she was most recently played for Keflavík ÍF in the Besta Deild Kvenna, the premier Icelandic women’s soccer league, appearing in eight games this season. She also won a championship in Kazakhstan with BIIK in 2018-19 and played in the historic Round of 32 matchup versus Barcelona, when BIIK won at home 3-1 in the first leg before a record crowd but lost 3-0 to Barcelona in the return leg in Spain and lost the tie 4-3 on aggregate.
The tie was controversial because Barcelona alleged that many of their players came down with food poisoning on the trip to Kazakhstan, even though they had special meals prepared for them and the President of Kazakhstan was staying at the same hotel for business at the time and he didn’t fall ill.
Beard talked to TribalFootball.com on July 31 and said about those matches: “Playing Barcelona was one of the highlights of my career so far, especially beating them when we hosted them, but definitely a cool experience playing against their top players.”
This is the first time that Beard has played in the States since joining BIIK and she talked about why she joined the Carolina Ascent to continue her career back home in the U.S.: “I wanted to play back in the States, close to friends and family. When the S (Super) league came about, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to be able to play back home. I recently got engaged; my fiancé is now a four hour drive away instead of a long flight away. So just being Stateside has been great.”
When asked what she and her teammates thought about joining a brand new Division I Women’s professional league, she said: “There is a lot of excitement about this opportunity. It has opened up a lot of spots for a lot of American players to come back home and then also new talent to be able to play here instead of going overseas. There is definitely a learning curve, all these things are new; we are starting from the ground up. There’s patience that goes along with that but, at the end of the day, we are all just excited for this opportunity.”
The Ascent started training on July 7 with their first game set for August 17 at home against the Washington Power.
After Kazakhstan, Beard went to play in Israel’s women’s league: “I went to Israel and got my olah (Israeli Law of Return for those with Jewish heritage) and unfortunately, I had to wait the five years after getting my passport (to play with the national team, under FIFA rules) so I played there (in the league) the whole time. I just became eligible to play with the national team this last September and made my debut in the (UEFA) League of Nations Tournament and then I was able to play in the EURO Qualifiers (this spring and summer) as well.”
In the EURO Qualifiers League B, Israel finished bottom of their group with one point from a final game tie with Slovakia 2-2, but were disadvantaged by having to play all of their three home matches away because of the conflict in Gaza, staging them in Hungary—two in Budaors and one in Gyor. The match against Slovakia on July 16 (2-2) only had an attendance of 33. Scotland won the group by winning five and tying one match for 16 points and made the playoffs this fall while also gaining promotion to League A for the 2024-25 Nations League, followed by Serbia, which finished second on 13 points and also qualified for the EURO playoffs, and Slovakia on 4 points—which also made the EURO playoffs but was relegated to League C.
Beard explained: “Definitely playing on the road is hard. We don’t have that true home field advantage with the fans and with all that traveling also, that’s tough and being in different environments. We handled it well; we had a tough group (as) Serbia is a very strong team and had some very talented players. I felt we had a few good games but weren’t able to get many points unfortunately. Overall, it was a good experience, even playing against Scotland (losing 4-1 in Glasgow and 5-0 in Budaors). I know the scores don’t show it but I think we had some really good moments and really good moments of growth and it is just matter of time before we really start completing in those tournaments and being able to get points.”
Israel, which was promoted to League B from League C at the end of the first Nations League Tournament for the EURO Qualifiers, will return to League C for the next Nations League, but this is a side that definitely is more of a League B caliber side than League C, so they should see a rapid return to League B.
Beard has played for three clubs in Israel’s top league: WFC Ramat Hasharon, Maccabi Holon and FC Kiryat Gat, winning league titles in 2021/22 and 2022/23 for Kiryat Gat that has won the last four Israel titles—their six all-time championships leave them tied for second with Maccabi Holon and two behind ASA Tel Aviv’s eight titles in the Premier League, which first started in 1998-99. When asked about the quality of play in the league, she said: “Looking back at my time there, when I started there in 2019, it has come a long way from a professional standpoint… They do attract a lot of good players, a lot of good individual talent. Each team can have up to five foreigners. Now a lot of teams will get some Jewish-Americans that will come over and get their olah, get their citizenship, so that technically we could have more if they are citizens.
"That’s what I count as—I’m a foreign player but not really (due to her dual citizenship). (The league has) come a long way—I think there is still a drop off; you will have a team with nine solid players and a few younger ones… That is the next step for over there, being able to field teams that are a strong eleven and have that bench as well. But the level has gone up over the years. A lot of players come over, play and come back to the States and play or go to other leagues. I still don’t think it has the respect it deserves. It has been growing and the level really has gone up.”
Note: This column will look more at Israel’s Women’s Football top and second tier leagues in an upcoming column.
When asked what her and her teammates hopes are for the historic first season in the USL Super League, she said: “I’m just excited to play, to play in Charlotte in front of our fans. I’m hoping to continue to grow women’s soccer and get the community out and behind us; we want a championship and we want to win—those are our goals.”
Eli Beard is an example of top quality talent with experience playing professionally in Europe that is coming home to play in the new Super League, with a number of them also bringing to the Super League international experience from national teams in other countries. This was one of the reasons that league President Amanda Vandervort was so adamant that the Super League be awarded Division I status by U.S. Soccer, to provide a home to many Americans that wanted to play domestically after years abroad.
Carolinian defenders Renée Guion (24) and Josie Studer (23) are recent signees for the back line. Guion spent two seasons with Denmark’s Fortuna Hjørring, where she scored four goals in 21 appearances. Guion spent her collegiate career as a team captain at Clemson University and then began her professional career with Lithuania’s FC Gintra, which she helped win the Lithuanian A-League title. Studor played collegiately at Louisiana Tech University and is signing her first professional contract.
Midfielder Sarah Troccoli (27) is joining the Ascent after spending three seasons as a team captain for Finland’s Åland United. During her time in Finland’s premier division, she won two Finnish Cups, scoring 12 goals in 48 matches. She spent her collegiate career at the University of Florida, where she guided the Gators to two SEC Tournament championships.
Forward Audrey Harding (26) has played in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan (Division 1) with KIF Örebro DFF, scoring two goals in 25 games during the 2023 season. She spent her collegiate career at UNC-Wilmington, where she made program history by being one of only three players to hit 20 career goals and 20 career assists. Harding began her professional career with the Washington Spirit as the 38th pick in the 2022 NWSL Draft. She played nine regular season games for the Spirit in 2022.
Goalkeeper Molly Vapensky (17) signed a USL Academy contract for the 2024/25 season. She has been with the U.S. youth national teams since the U-15 level and helped the team clinch a spot in the 2024 U-17 FIFA World Cup with their 2024 CONCACAF U-17 Championship win. Most recently, Vapensky played in the USL W League with Chicago City SC.
Midfielder Kathrynn González (24) is a Dominican Republic international who joins from Denmark’s FC Thy-Thisted Q. She has scored five international goals in ten matches, including the game-winning goal against Guyana in a playoff in February, to send the Dominican Republic to the inaugural CONCACAF W Gold Cup (see: The Week in Women's Football: Chatting with stars of Gold Cup Finals; Tyrone Mears joins USL trailblazers - Tribal Football). She played collegiately at East Carolina and Marshall Universities in West Virginia.
Defender Annika Creel (27) last year helped Indy Eleven win the 2023 USL W League Championship title. Creel began her collegiate career with a season at the University of Connecticut before moving to Butler University in Indiana, where she was an assistant coach during the 2023 season. She has played for Sweden’s Göteborg FC and Sunnanå SK. She has yet to play in a regular season game in the NWSL across multiple seasons in Houston and with Gotham FC.
Defender Kelly Anne Livingstone (25) played with Gotham FC of the NWSL after being the 24th pick overall in the 2022 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) College Draft. She later spent a season with Denmark’s Fortuna Hjørring, and then signed with Seattle Reign as a national team replacement player in late June of 2023; she played collegiately at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.
Goalkeeper Charlotte Burge (18) is a native of Virginia and began her career in 2023 with Germany’s FFC Kaiserslautern; she previously trained with USL League Two’s Virginia Beach United men’s side.
Dallas Trinity FC
Forward Rachel McCarthy played at Brigham Young University, appearing in 59 games and recording 14 goals and 14 assists in three seasons from 2019-22, and was part of the team that made the College Cup Final in 2021, falling to Florida State on penalties (4-3) following a goalless draw. In 2021 at BYU, she scored four goals with five assists. McCarthy played in the USL W League during its inaugural season with Indy Eleven, where she scored the first ever goal in W League history.
Texas native midfielder Gracie Brian is returning to her hometown to join the Trinity. She spent five seasons at Texas Christian University where she started in all 101 matches she played in while scoring 35 goals and adding 28 assists. Brian most recently attended preseason training camp with the NWSL’s San Diego Wave.
Finland international midfielder Jenny-Julia Danielsson (29) is a major signing for the Trinity. She has earned 38 caps for Finland, scoring eight times, and won the Finnish Women’s Cup in 2014 and 2015 with FC Honka. Danielsson has also previously played in Sweden, including at Kristianstads DFF, Kungsbacka, AIK of Stockholm, KIF Orebro and this season with Växjö DFF. She also spent a year in Spain with Sporting de Huelva in 2016-17 and with Rangers in Scotland in 2022-23, scoring five times in 23 matches for the Glasgow giant.
Another Scandinavian joining the Trinity is Swedish defender Maja Henricksson. She played at Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was a United Soccer Coaches Player of the Year for the 2020-21 season. She finished her college career at Nova Southeastern, scoring four goals and four assists in 10 matches.
Defender Hannah Davison (27) began her professional career with the Chicago Red Stars of the NWSL from 2019-2021, but only played in two regular season matches in 2020. She spent two seasons with Sweden’s AIK in Stockholm and Scotland’s Rangers in Glasgow. Her last club was KIF Orebro in Sweden, where she played in nine matches in the second half of the 2023 season. She previously played at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Texas native Cyera Hintzen (26) has spent one year in the NWSL with NJ/NY Gotham FC and abroad with Iceland’s Valur and Australia’s Perth Glory, scoring six goals in 18 matches in South Australia. She played in 72 games at the University of Texas, scoring 27 goals with 18 assists.
Forward Enzi Broussard (23) is another hometown signing after starting her professional career with Korea’s Changnyeong WFC. Broussard began her collegiate career with West Virginia University and then spent a single season at Washington State University where she made 12 starts, scoring three goals with five assists. She has also played for the U.S. at the U-17 level.
Forward Lucy Shepherd (25) hails from the United Kingdom, joining from England’s Blackburn Rovers of the English Women’s Championship (second tier), where she scored four goals in 22 matches. She played collegiately for Hofstra University in New York, where she made program history as tenth all-time in career points (75) and sixth all-time in career assists (25). She began her professional career at home with the London City Lionesses, also in the Championship. Shepherd was drafted with the 23rd pick in the 2022 NWSL Draft by the defending champions Washington Spirit.
Dallas acquired goalkeeper Madison White (23) from Racing Louisville of the NWSL in exchange for an undisclosed fee. She signed a two year contract with Racing in June, who selected her 54th overall (fourth round) in the 2024 NWSL draft. She did participate in spring training with Racing. White was a first-team All-American at Texas Tech and is the school’s all-time leader in goalkeeper wins (52) and shutouts (39).
Fort Lauderdale United
Defender Delaney Lindahl (25) previously played for Romania’s traditional powerhouse FCU Olimpia Cluj and Australia’s Preston Lions Football Club in the Victoria State League (second tier), where she made 18 appearances and scored four goals. She played collegiately at Cal State-Fullerton.
Midfielder Anele Komani (23) is a native of England and played last season with Turkey’s Karadeniz Eregli. Komani also played with England’s Chelsea FC and Portugal’s Clube de Albergaria. Prior to Konami’s professional experience, she starred at the University of West Alabama. She also qualifies to play internationally for South Africa.
Brazilian forward Erica Gomes (27) most recently played for Cruz Azul in Mexico City in Liga MX Femenil. She played with multiple clubs in Brazil and with Albergaria in Portugal during the 2022-23 season, scoring five goals in 23 games.
Forward Jasmine Hamid (22) played with Sweden’s BK Häcken after finishing her collegiate career at Towson University in Maryland.
Defender Adrienne Jordan (30) joins the Super League after 10 seasons in Europe, including the last two with Turbine Potsdam, who won promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga in 2023-24 after being relegated in 2022-23. She also played with SC Sand in Germany, Tenerife in Spain, Birmingham City of England’s WSL, Atalanta of Italy, IBV of Iceland and Ostersunds DFF in Sweden. She played collegiately at the University of Northern Colorado.
Forward Sh’nia Gordon (27) played briefly for Racing Louisville in the NWSL in 2022, after time with France’s FC Metz and Dijon FCO, as well as with Russia’s CSKA Moscow. Gordon was in Turkey for preseason training with CSKA Moscow in late February of 2022 when the war in Ukraine started—she stayed with the team through training camp there but did not return to Russia as FIFA allowed players who wanted to leave clubs in Russia or Ukraine to have their contracts cancelled and sign with clubs abroad.
She joined Louisville but only played in four games before being released. She returned to France where she has played the last two seasons at LeHavre and then Montpellier. Gordon spent her collegiate career at West Virginia University (see: The Week in Women's Football: Sh'Nia Gordon interview; Ukraine update; NWSL Challenge Cup - Tribal Football).
Reese Klein is 17-year-old defender and Fort Lauderdale native who represented the U.S. at youth national team levels; she helped the U.S. U-19 team to its first Pan American Games appearance since 2007. Klein is currently committed to play at Clemson University.
Fort Lauderdale signed another young local player in midfielder Taylor Smith. Smith made history as the first high schooler to join Fort Lauderdale’s inaugural season. The 16-year-old began playing for NSU University School’s varsity team in eighth grade and became a team captain in her freshman year, making school history by leading her team to the state championship for the first time. Smith holds multiple titles, including Miami Herald’s Broward 4A-2A Girls Soccer Player of the Year, and she also holds the top spot in her district for points (81) and is ranked fourth nationally in assists.
Lexington FC
An important signing for Lexington was New Zealand international Grace Wisnewski (22); she scored three goals during the 2018 U-17 Women’s World Cup to help the host nation win the Bronze Medal for their best ever finish in a women’s global tournament. She has played all three seasons of Wellington Phoenix’s tenure in Australia’s A-League Women. She played in a total of 28 games with the Nix and scored two goals, but in 2023/24, she tore an ACL in Wellington’s third game of the season and only played those three games while recuperating.
Norwegian youth international forward Madelen Holme (22) played six seasons in Norway’s Toppserien, including at Arna-Bjørnar; abroad she played for Spanish club Levante UD in the Liga F and most recently for SV Meppen in the 2. Frauen Bundesliga in Germany. In her youth, Holme also featured for the Norwegian Women’s U-15 to U-19 national teams from 2017-20.
NaYeong Shin has played for the U-17, U-19, and U-20 Korean Republic Women’s National Teams; she is joining Lexington after four years in the K League (top flight league) with Amazones FC, Changnyeong WFC and Hwacheon KSPO FC.
Marykate McGuire (24) has recently played five seasons at Duke University, recording 19 goals and 16 assists in 80 matches; she scored seven goals with four assists in her last season (2022) at Ole Miss (University of Mississippi). She has participated in multiple U.S. youth national teams. Kimberly Mendez joins Lexington from ŽFK Mašinac PZP Niš of Serbia and played collegiately at Cal State-Los Angeles.
Midfielder Alyssa Frazier (25) played multiple seasons with the Samford University Bulldogs (Homewood, Alabama) from 2018-21, scoring 17 goals and notching 26 assists. The midfielder is coming to the Super League with professional experience in Czech Republic, Poland and Sweden.
Midfielder Natalie Higgins spent her collegiate career at Oregon State University, where she started all 74 matches she played. Higgins has professional experience in Italy, Australia and most recently in Finland with Helsingin Palloseura in Helsinki.
Lexington signed former Stanford University goalkeeper Sarah Cox, who is anticipated to be their starting goalkeeper this season. Cox also played for Miss Kick FC—which plays as part of a British umbrella brand by the same name begun by former Liverpool and Manchester City player Grace Vella; their summer league team was based in Southern California—and Fresno Freeze FC, both teams of the WPSL.
Another goalkeeper came from the W League, with Taina Tolleson (a native of Hawaii) joining after two seasons with Tennessee SC, which has won two consecutive South Central Division titles and made the league national semifinals in 2024 (see more in last week’s column: The Week in Women's Football: Angeline Kieh exclusive; reviewing USL, WPSL & UWS finals - TribalFootball.com). A native of Hawaii, she played at Vanderbilt University and was the first Hawaiian soccer student-athlete in Vanderbilt history. In her senior year at Vandy, she had 10 shutouts in 21 matches and had a stellar 0.64 goals-against-average.
Forward Madison Parsons played four seasons with California State University-Chico, Parsons also played for Yuba FC and CDA in California in the United Premier Soccer League (division three amateur soccer), captaining both teams during the last two years. UPSL had 56 teams in 2024, with divisions in Alaska, California, Florida, New York, Texas, Minnesota, and a few other regions.
Natalie Turner-Wyatt played four seasons at Division III Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In 2023, she joined Downtown United Soccer Club (New York City) of the WPSL and helped the squad win back-to-back conference championships.
Emmi Dunn came from Nurmijärven Jalkapalloseura (NJS) in Finland after playing four seasons at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, where she scored 24 goals. Dunn played with the Charlotte Eagles of the WPSL for three seasons, helping the team to the national championship in 2023.
Lexington signed a duo from American-owned Danish club HB Koge: Bridgette Skiba (24) and forward Hannah Richardson (24). Skiba, a goalkeeper, played 66 games for Oregon State University and then for the Chicago Red Starts of the NWSL prior to her move to Denmark. Richardson, a forward, is a graduate of the University of Kentucky where she recorded 22 goals and 14 assists in 62 matches as a Wildcat.
Lexington signed American midfielder Shea Moyer (25) to their roster. Moyer, who is originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, played collegiately at Penn State University and has professional experience for clubs in Iceland (Throttur), Israel (ASA Tel Aviv University) and Turkey (Ankara BB Forget).
Defender Madison Perez (22) had 58 appearances at California State-Long Beach. Perez also has youth national team experience for the U.S. at the U-18 and U-20 levels.
Defender Trinity Watson (24) played as a defender and forward for Pepperdine University, totaling 14 goals and 16 assists in 86 appearances. In the United States, she played for the 2023 USL W League champions Indy Eleven and was also a member of the U-14 and U-17 U.S. women’s national teams from 2013-16. Like the new Tampa Bay signee Sydny Nasello (see Part 2 next week), she recently played in Cyprus with Apollon Limassol Ladies, winning a league title, the Cup and FA Super Cup in 2023-24.
Forward Kailey Utley is from St. Louis, Missouri and played for Lexington SC’s USL W League team for the past two seasons. In college at West Virginia University, she scored 17 goals and 11 assists in 45 appearances. She also played in the WPSL for Fire & Ice SC in Greenwood, South Carolina and Pacific Northwest SC in Tukwila (suburban Seattle), Washington. Her status with the military also saw her participate in the CISM Military Women’s Military World Cup in 2022 in Spokane, in which the U.S. finished in fourth place as she scored four goals and added three assists in five games. She is also a practicing Optometrist.
Two other players have moved up from Lexington’s USL W League team. Defender Autumn Weeks joined LSC this summer after playing two years with Valley Division rival Racing Louisville FC. She also played in the WPSL for the Chicago Red Star Reserves, contributing to a Lake Michigan Conference Championship.
She played collegiate soccer at Indiana University-Indianapolis and the University of Louisville. Midfielder/forward JJ Aalbue played with Lexington this summer in the W League after finishing her career at Montreat College, an NAIA school in North Carolina, scoring 12 goals with seven assists in 17 games in 2023. She also played at Grace College and Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana, also in the NAIA, where she scored 44 goals with 20 assists in four seasons. Grace won two NCCAA titles in 2021 and 2022. She also played with Charlotte Eagles in the WPSL.
- Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey