A new beginning for Sky Blue FC

Sky Blue FC opens the season on Saturday against the Washington Spirit looking for a win — and a chance to turn the page.

The latter appears to be coming together. President and general manager Tony Novo is out and the team’s former vice president, Alyse LeHue, has taken over his role on an interim basis. Novo faced scrutiny after defending club executives, who appeared to turn a blind-eye to the substandard working conditions Sky Blue players dealt with last season.

In fact, the situation was so bad that it forced Sky Blue’s top draft pick — New Jersey native Hallie Mace — to skip signing in the NWSL and instead get a contract with Melbourne FC in Australia (she has since signed with Sweden’s FC Rosengard). Sky Blue was pretty much the antiNorth Carolina last year, as it had a bottom-dwelling 1-17-6 record. Its defense was far and away the worst: Sky Blue conceded 52 goals.

Twenty years after 1999, American women’s soccer is at an inflection point

The 1999 world champion USWNT and its players are widely seen as pioneers and trailblazers, and it’s been almost 20 years since their iconic shootout victory over China in the World Cup final in Pasadena that helped put a face on women’s issues and gender equality.

Off the field, this current crop of players is fighting many of the same battles.

In March, the women’s national team filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation seeking equal pay as the senior men’s national team. The federation and the players have been in discussions since, but the level of progress has been questionable at best — depending on who you ask, that is.

The fact that the U.S. women’s national team is still a worldwide power on the field 20 years later is a sign of how far soccer has come in America.

Unfortunately, the same can’t for gender equity. be said