What The Heart Wants

Are. You. Ready?!

The extended holiday weekend having come and gone, the NWSL kicked into high gear with each team making roster decisions prior to Monday's Noon deadline. A flurry of activity in the morning had several teams making announcements just after the lunch hour of moves made (the trades from the end of last week weren't made official until now, and any movement to one of the injury lists was also saved for today).

North Carolina Courage - Traded defender Jaelene Hinkle to Washington for defender Samantha Johnson.

Chicago Red Stars - Traded defender Katie Naughton and forward Martha Thomas to Sky Blue FC for midfielder Sarah Killion and forward Alexis Kiehl.

Portland Thorns - Placed defender Bianca Sierra (torn left ACL/MCL/meniscus) on the Season-Ending Injury list.

Washington Spirit - Placed goalkeeper Didi Haracic (broken right collarbone) and forward Cheyna Williams (pregnancy) on the Season-Ending Injury list.

With all rosters now at 20 players, general managers continued their shopping expedition ahead of Saturday's opening matches. Again, the Red Stars were the busiest, putting together two trades that went about finishing the re-shape of their defensive corps and bringing in the sought-for offensive piece to complement the trio of Christen Press, Sofia Huerta, and Vanessa DiBernardo. In the first deal, Chicago and North Carolina agreed to a 2-for-2 swap, with the Courage sending Makenzy Doniak, Schuyler Debree, and a second-round pick in next year's draft to the Windy City for Casey Short and Summer Green, a UNC alum. The second transaction was with Seattle and would bring Maddie Bauer to the Red Stars for Sarah Gorden. The Reign also swapped forwards with Vancouver, re-acquiring Beverly Yanez from the the Legacy for recent signing Jodie Taylor.

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A/N: Most of the outfits described will be in the event scrapbook that will be posted.

An early practice at Urban Outfitters Stadium, the first of two this week in preparation for Saturday's game in Boston, allowed the Hearts players and staff the rest of the day to primp, preen, and relax ahead of Heart-to-Heart. Danny left Sky Blue's training grounds immediately after practice and drove straight to Philadelphia International Airport to pick up Katie Naughton when her flight arrived at 2:30. Following that, they went to the Keystone House (Jen, Frannie, and Nikki Driesse's place) to get ready for the night ahead of them. Danny brought with her a black form-fitting dress and black wedges, while Katie's outfit was a two-piece dress with a slight gap at the stomach and buckle-up heeled sandals. Jen teased Katie for copying her, as she would be wearing a purple two-piece with a larger split at the abdomen and tan lace-up sandals.

Meanwhile, at the Goalie Pad, all the women except for Morgan were lounging about as their getting-ready process would take a lot less time than their housemate's. Running back-and-forth between her closet and the living room, she ran several possibilities past the other three, but got pretty much no help as Sammy Jo told her anything she had would look good on her and neither Becca nor EJ were necessarily on Morgan's wavelength when it came to fashion. In the end, the midfielder settled on a sepia sheath and coat with nude pumps. EJ then went to put her outfit on (a gold shift with black ankle boots) before Sammy Jo and Becca took care of their attiring (the goalkeeper in a mottled grey long-sleeve shift with black tights and ankle boots, the other in a button-down shirt, slacks, and a light blazer with the sleeves pushed up).

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The veterans (Steph Labbe, Diana, and Ali) were all pros at the public event circuit and their selections were easy to pull together. Diana went with a striped two-tone teal dress with a scooping neckline and sand-colored pumps, with the other two in grey dresses with black shoes (Steph a short-sleeve medium grey shift with open-toed ankle booties, Ali a ruffled light grey midi and stilettos with ankle straps). On the way to the African-American Museum, the captain and her deputy talked.