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Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver are NWSL expansion finalists, says league commissioner Jessica Berman

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Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver are NWSL expansion finalists, says league commissioner Jessica Berman


On the eve of the NWSL championship in Kansas City, commissioner Jessica Berman addressed a wide range of issues facing the league. She reflected on a historic 2024 season with record viewership after the first year of the league’s new media rights deal and hinted at some of what lies ahead for NWSL expansion.

She also announced a new partnership with the formula company Bobbie, intending to increase the spotlight on parents in the league.

“It’s important for us all to be reminded that this league is really young and our growth is in front of us,” Berman said, after quickly acknowledging the league’s belated birthday. “Although it’s our 12th-year birthday, it’s actually only been the third season that the league has been independent, so imagine the growth that’s in front of us, given how short our runway has been to date.”

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In her remarks, Berman narrowed the list of potential expansion cities to three — Cincinnati, Cleveland and Denver — and shared her thoughts on Caitlin Clark’s participation in the Cincinnati bid. While infrastructure remains a hot topic in the league, Berman remains adamant that top training facilities for teams will “become the norm.”

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from Berman’s state of the league address.

NWSL expansion

On Friday, Berman confirmed three finalists in the expansion race to likely join Boston in 2026, following a surprise announcement Thursday night that WNBA star Caitlin Clark had joined the ownership group hoping to bring a team to Cincinnati.

“The process is ongoing, and we’re really enthusiastic about the final three prospects that we have in the process,” Berman said. “We’ll have news to share in the coming weeks as we move to close with one of those three markets.”

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The ownership group in Cincinnati has strong ties to Major League Soccer’s FC Cincinnati, suggesting that an NWSL club in the city would share facilities with the men’s team. The ownership group in Cleveland, meanwhile, has plans to build a new stadium for an NWSL team to share with an MLS Next club in the city’s downtown.

When asked about Denver, Berman kept its proposals under wraps.

“Not a lot of details to share here,” Berman said. “We’re just excited about being at the stage of the process where we are, particularly given all the interest leading up to this point.”

Berman also made clear that going beyond 16 teams is not off the table.

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“As we think about the geographic footprint of our country, we know that a 14-team league is not where we will end up. All of the men’s leagues are 30-plus teams for a reason,” she said. “In order to build the kind of national exposure and visibility and media deals that we think this league deserves, and our fans deserve, we know we need to be in more markets.”

NWSL youth development

Amid NWSL expansion, and with the elimination of the NWSL college draft earlier this year, conversations have been ongoing about how teams can better develop players.

Unlike MLS, the NWSL has yet to establish an academy system to develop players or better identify talent, even as younger players become professionals following the league’s establishment of the Under-18 Entry Mechanism.

“I think what you’ll see in the NWSL beginning as soon as 2025 is a stake in the ground around the pathway to pro and an iterative process year over year where we’ll be really intentional about the place in the ecosystem where our investment will make the biggest impact,” Berman said. “It may or may not look exactly the same in every market, and it may or may not look exactly the way it has been done in the men’s game.”

On Tuesday, U.S. Soccer announced that Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang was donating $30 million to the federation for women’s soccer. The funds, distributed over the next five years, will go toward women’s youth national team camps, talent identification and scouting, and female coach and referee education and mentorship.

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“One of the things that we think is really important as we’re building this league, and have the benefit of doing that in 2024, is that we can learn from the past and make sure, again, when we think about resources, that we’re investing our resources in the places that will have the biggest impact and make the biggest difference,” Berman said.

“I sit on the board of U.S. Soccer. They’re going to be doing a lot in the youth space. … We’re going to work really hard to ensure that we’re working in lockstep with U.S. Soccer, making sure to complement and not compete in any places.”

Last month, five former Wave employees filed a lawsuit against the club in the San Diego Superior Court, following allegations first raised in July by Brittany Alvarado, a former video and creative manager for the club. She accused San Diego and its president, Jill Ellis, of creating a hostile work environment. Ellis was not named as a defendant in the employees’ lawsuit.

During a limited media availability ahead of the Washington Spirit and NJ/NY Gotham’s semifinal match, Berman said that the club is under relatively new ownership and that she had “a high degree of confidence that the club is going to be healthy and strong.” Berman described Ellis as “an icon in our industry” whose career “speaks for itself” when asked about Ellis’ role in the litigation.

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Jill Ellis is not named as a defendant in the former employees’ lawsuit but was alleged to have created a hostile work environment by Brittany Alvarado. (Ira L. Black / Getty Images)

The commissioner was pressed again about the matter Friday.

“Across our ecosystem, our policies and our procedures are available to everyone, players, technical staff and employees, and through our processes, we investigate and take action on any complaints that are brought to our attention,” Berman said. “We remain committed to ensuring that those policies are enforced and education exists for everyone to make sure that they know that we are here to support them in all ways that they need.”

When asked if she stood by the prior investigation, and whether that cleared the team of any wrongdoing, Berman responded, “The investigations that we’ve done in the past, universally, to the extent there was any misconduct identified, it was actioned.”

Former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry has been in negotiations to acquire the North Carolina Courage. Per Sportico’s September report, Lasry has been seeking a 60 percent stake in the team. Lasry has also recently brought on board former USWNT and NWSL player Lauren Holiday as an advisor for the sports arm of his investment group, Avenue Sports Group.

Lasry is involved in a lawsuit against a former employee, alleging she attempted to blackmail him over harassment claims. That employee has filed her own suit against Lasry, alleging that he sexually harassed her and retaliated professionally against her.

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When asked if there had been any movement in Lasry’s bid to acquire the Courage or what discussions the league is having about the allegations against Lasry, Berman said, “Any new ownership that comes into the league is vetted through our robust process and due diligence, and that would be no different for that circumstance. We don’t have any news to report about that transaction.”

Global growth of club women’s soccer

This season was filled with more competitive international games than ever before, thanks to the formation of tournaments like the Summer Cup between the NWSL and Liga MX Femenil, as well as the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, which is regional clubs’ sole pathway to the Club World Cup in 2026.

“We’re really excited for the beginnings of what we have done together, and we think the future is bright for us to be able to continue working together,” Berman said about the NWSL’s partnership with Liga MX. “We are the foundational drivers of the professional game in this region, and we collectively take that responsibility very seriously. We continue to work closely with them on the ways in which we can continue to build on the momentum that we began this year, which was a first of its kind in the women’s game.”


Kansas City Current forward Temwa Chawinga carries the Summer Cup trophy after winning the final. (Aaron Meullion / Imagn Images)

Berman alluded to even more collaborations with another North American neighbor, saying the NWSL has had “regular conversations” with the Northern Super League, which is set to begin competition in the spring of 2025 in Canada.

“I’ll give a shoutout to (NSL co-founder) Diana Matheson, who’s a former NWSL player, who we support and are excited to see be successful,” Berman said. “It’s not easy to launch a league, so we will be here to make sure that we do everything we can to create the environment that she can create a league that will allow for our entire region to continue to rise as we think about the international game.

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“We have been spending a lot of time with international leagues and really beginning to unpack and understand the ways in which we can collaborate, share best practices and work together and find interesting and innovative ways to engage with each other and grow the global fan base,” Berman said. “We think the introduction of the women’s Club World Cup is going to be a moment that is going to really lift the game internationally, and I think a lot of us are thinking about the ways in which we can lean into that space in the years to come.”

(Top photo: Kylie Graham / Imagn Images)



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Colorado chef transforms pozole from an ancient dish tied to family traditions — to a culinary passion

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Colorado chef transforms pozole from an ancient dish tied to family traditions — to a culinary passion


DENVER — Christmas just isn’t Christmas without the festive foods we grew up with, and for many Mexican Americans in Colorado, that means a steaming pot of pozole.

“These are the foods that I grew up craving,” said Chef Jose Avila Vilchez, who runs La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal in Denver’s Ballpark District.

Chef Vilchez grew up eating pozole in Mexico City. Every Thursday, he went with his mom and brother to enjoy two-for-one specials on the traditional soup.

But when he moved to Denver more than a decade ago, the pozolerias of his childhood were nowhere to be found.

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Adam Hillberry, Denver7

Chef Vilchez has served up traditional Mexican dishes at his other Denver restaurants Machete Tequila + Tacos and El Borrego Negro. La Diabla is his chance to share another meal close to his heart: pozole.

“Red posole is a thing. So, in 100% of the Mexican restaurants here, that’s what you would find, a red pozole, but it was more for as a filler than as a main dish,” he said.

So, he opened La Diabla to serve up flavors many Coloradans haven’t tasted before.

While red pozole is a still a favorite, Chef Vilchez also studied recipes from across Mexico to make green, white and even black pozole.

“Our pozole negro, it’s a unique thing. That’s something that we invented,” said Chef Vilchez, who drew inspiration from a mole recipe popular in Yucatan. The black color comes from chilmole paste and charred rocoto chiles.

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Chef Jose Vilchez Avila of La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal | Denver

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Pozole negro is a unique dish created by Chef Vilchez for La Diabla.

“The flavor is just amazing, even just the broth,” he said.

But even with these innovative and varied broths, at the heart of each dish is pozole’s ancient history.

“Pozole is a ceremonial dish,” Chef Vilchez said.

The Aztecs prepared pozole from corn — which they considered sacred — and human flesh sacrificed in religious ceremonies. After Spanish colonizers came to the Americas, the Mexica people stopped practicing cannibalism and replaced the meat in pozole with pigs and chickens.

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Aztecs eating human sacrifice pozole

Florentine Codex

Before the arrival of Spanish colonizers, the Aztecs ate pozole as a ceremonial dish made from sacred corn and human sacrifices offered to their god Xipe.

As the pot boiled, the foam bubbling to the top gave the dish its name – the Nahuatl word for foam is “pozolli.”

“Even though we lost a lot of dishes that they used to make back in the day, the Mexica’s pozole still is like… a celebration,” Chef Vilchez said.

Hundreds of years later, the star ingredient in pozole remains the same: Corn. And Chef Vilchez uses the traditional process of nixtamalization to soften the kernels.

He sources high-quality corn and puts it in a pot of boiling water and cal (calcium hydroxide), which creates an alkaline solution that partially dissolves the corn’s hard skin and transforms the corn’s taste and texture.

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corn nixtamalization

Adam Hillberry, Denver7

The Aztecs created the process of nixtamalization, which comes from the Nahuatl words nextli, meaning ashes and tamali meaning cooked corn dough.

“Once you have, like a mother pozole, per se, like a white broth, then you can add the salsa,” Chef Vilchez said.

He also adds in vegetables like thinly sliced radishes, cabbage, onion and lettuce, as well as meat like chicken or pork.

While Chef Vilchez serves pozole year-round, many people associate it with holidays.

In Mexico City, he grew up eating pozole on Mexican Independence Day, “especially if you have the red, the white and the green, just like the Mexican flag,” he said.

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But here in Colorado, and in much of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, pozole is most popular around Christmastime.

As a homemade family meal, “you make the pozole, and that pot stays in the kitchen. It never leaves. You make it there. You let it do its thing, and once it’s ready, you start serving from the pot,” Chef Vilchez said.

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For Cristóbal Garcia — who was born in Valparaíso, Zacatecas, and then grew up in Colorado where his mother’s family has lived for eleven generations — pozole is very much tied to Christmas.

“During the holidays leading up to Nochebuena, or what we know here as Christmas Eve,” Garcia said his family celebrated Las Posadas with pozole and tamales.

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“It’s about connecting with your family, connecting with your friends, connecting with your neighbors,” he said.

Since his father immigrated from central Mexico, his mother grew up in Colorado and his wife’s family is from coastal Sinaloa and northern Chihuahua, he’s enjoyed tasting many different recipes for pozole.

“My mother-in-law makes it with a green chile base, and she makes it with chicken sometimes instead of with pork,” he said.

While his sisters cook their Abuelita’s recipe for red pozole passed down for generations, and now shared with you in the recipe below:

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For Garcia, who directs the Metropolitan State University of Denver’s First-Generation Initiatives, celebrating with these traditional foods is a chance for Coloradans to reflect on culture, identity and the state’s history.

“Sometimes people say, ‘ni de aquí, ni de allá [not from here nor from there]. And I say, ‘soy de aquí y de allá [I’m from here and from there],” he said.

Whether you cook your own pozole or savor a bowl from a restaurant like La Diabla, both Garcia and Chef Vilchez hope Coloradans will spend time communing over a flavorful meal.

Chef Vilchez said he’s been “blessed and super humbled” to receive awards like the James Beard and the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand awards. But it means even more to him when customers say the food brings back warm memories of meals shared with their families.

“When you touch someone’s soul like that… it’s just a different connection on a personal level,” he said.

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Recap: Denver Nuggets win big against the Phoenix Suns – Denver Stiffs

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Recap: Denver Nuggets win big against the Phoenix Suns – Denver Stiffs


The Denver Nuggets started the first half of their home and home with the Phoenix Suns at Ball Arena on Monday night. Both teams were shorthanded with the Nuggets missing Jamal Murray and the Suns missing Devin Booker. The other stars for both teams did their parts but the Nuggets had far more support, including a very solid night from their group of young reserves. Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. did most of the heavy lifting and that pair plus the young bench was a formula for a blowout as Denver wins 117-90.

Phoenix got an early lead through sharing the ball among their starters while Denver didn’t get a ton of easy shots but hit their threes to keep it close. Porter had a hot start to keep Denver afloat in the middle of the first but their collective defense was lacking. MPJ was relentless, an and-one put him up to twelve points in the quarter and tied the game at seventeen. Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson got minutes down the stretch of the first to leave Denver’s lineup as Jokic + the bench. There wasn’t a ton of offense outside of Joker but the defense was strong and that got the Nuggets a lead. After one quarter it was 27-26 Denver.

There wasn’t much offense to speak of to start the second quarter but the bench unit’s defense continued to be impressive. They kept Phoenix from getting a point for over two minutes and made everything difficult. Pickett had a solid shift in particular for the reserve group and helped grow the lead to five before Russell Westbrook and Jokic checked back in (Jokic immediately buried a three). Shortly after they checked back in Jokic got stepped on by Jusuf Nurkic and looked to be in pain but stayed in the game. After that, Durant started getting to the free throw line to spark an 11-0 Phoenix run to get the lead back for the Suns briefly. Denver’s starters responded, Jokic started giving Nurkic want some refer to as “the business” and the Nuggets took back the lead. After two quarters they were up 55-51.

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Jokic and Porter got right back to it to start the second half. After a Westbrook jam pushed the lead to eleven the Suns were forced to take an early timeout. Phoenix stopped the bleeding after that but weren’t able to make much headway on Denver’s lead either. Westbrook came alive and led an energetic shift for the starters that could have blown the game wide open if not for Bradley Beal. Aaron Gordon got in on the action by knocking down threes and suddenly the lead was up above twenty. Denver’s defense got a little bit lazy after that and Phoenix was able to work the lead back down for a little bit. They trimmed it back under fifteen but a strong close in the final minute put Denver back up big. After three they led 100-79.

Michael Malone opened the fourth with a DeAndre Jordan plus the kids lineup (Pickett, Julian Strawther, Tyson, Peyton Watson) and they struggled to score but once again had enough defense to hold the Suns at bay. Strawther knocked down some threes and was essentially the only one getting any points until Tyson, who was as energetic as ever, hustled up a rebound and then went coast to coast with a huge jam. The DJ + bench group continued to play solid minutes and eventually made time a factor as they held the twenty plus lead through the middle of the fourth. Malone emptied the bench and gave the two-way contract guys some game time with just under four minutes to go. They kept up the energy and Denver wins big, 117-90.

Jokic and Porter was a two headed monster

Dec 23, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. (1) calls out in the second quarter against the Phoenix Suns at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Without Murray the Nuggets needed Porter to step up tonight and he did exactly that. He came out aggressive and wasn’t afraid to go shot for shot with an all-time great in Durant. He carried Denver through big chunks of the game and when he wasn’t, it was Nikola instead. Joker was in a bit of a scoring slump coming into tonight but that didn’t last. He led all scorers with thirty-two points and went four of six from the three point line. Nurkic looked completely helpless at times and got into foul trouble quickly trying to contain the three-time MVP. Denver got on runs with the help of some other guys too but Porter and Jokic were the players they could rely on consistently to get buckets when they needed them. It goes to show how valuable a guy like MPJ can be when he’s a focal point of the offense and playing off an all time great like Nikola.

The young bench gets it done

Malone leaned on his young reserves heavily tonight, comprising his bench group entirely out of his steady veteran in Jordan, and players with less than three full seasons of NBA experience. It wasn’t always pretty on the offensive end but that group brought consistent energy and focus on defense to keep Phoenix from cutting into the lead. Denver’s pair of 2023 second round draft picks, Pickett and Tyson, both had nice games. You could see Pickett’s confidence grow as the game went on and he looked every bit of an NBA backup point guard tonight. Tyson didn’t score a ton but brought a ton of energy to the floor and helped shore up one of Denver’s biggest weaknesses: defensive rebounding. If those two guys can continue to put together solid rotation minutes it’s going to be an absolute boon for Denver.





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Michael Malone on trade rumors involving Nuggets: “There’s nothing to that”

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Michael Malone on trade rumors involving Nuggets: “There’s nothing to that”


The Nuggets are at the center of trade rumor season in the NBA, but coach Michael Malone says there’s no fire accompanying the smoke for now.

Asked on Monday how he manages the locker room when trade talks involving specific players become public, Malone highlighted how early in the season it is and referred to his conversations with general manager Calvin Booth.

“A lot of it is noise. I mean, I don’t know where it comes from,” Malone said. “You see different things that are out there, and you never want that stuff getting out there. But I’ve talked to Calvin, and Calvin’s had a good pulse on that stuff. And whenever that stuff is happening, he’s in touch with the guys and their agents to let them know what is real and what is not real. And as of right now as we are 25 games into the season, there’s nothing to that.”

The Athletic was first to report last week that Denver is interested in Zach LaVine, whose contract would require the Nuggets to include Michael Porter Jr. in a hypothetical trade for salary-matching purposes. The Nuggets have discussed the possibility of acquiring the two-time All-Star from Chicago this season, sources confirmed to The Denver Post, but they won’t be in any rush to move the 26-year-old Porter if the team is firmly in contention closer to the Feb. 6, 2025, trade deadline.

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Entering a two-game Christmas week series with the Suns, the Nuggets (15-11) had won four of their last five, good for fifth place in the competitive Western Conference.

Porter had a quiet three-game road trip, averaging 11.7 points and not appearing in Malone’s closing lineup Sunday against the Pelicans. But he’s still averaging 18 points and seven rebounds this season, and shooting 38.5% from the 3-point line.

Nuggets backup big man Zeke Nnaji has been the other player most commonly associated with potential trades. His $8.9 million salary could also be an essential part of a potential trade for LaVine, who’s making $43 million this season. Under current collective bargaining agreement restrictions, Denver cannot take back more salary than it sends out in a trade. Porter’s current cap figure is $35.9 million.

“That’s where you worry about guys worrying about the wrong thing,” Malone said. “Just focus on what you can control, go out there and play your game, and help this team to the best of your ability. All of the other stuff takes care of itself. I think for years, our front office has done a great job of communicating with players if there is something so (that) there’s never a surprise. There’s never our guys being caught off guard. But that’s something that I think our front office has done an outstanding job of.”

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