{"id":831166,"date":"2025-03-03T10:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T16:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/03\/uswnts-girma-injured-in-wsl-debut-for-chelsea\/"},"modified":"2025-03-03T10:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T16:12:12","slug":"uswnts-girma-injured-in-wsl-debut-for-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/03\/uswnts-girma-injured-in-wsl-debut-for-chelsea\/","title":{"rendered":"USWNT&#8217;s Girma injured in WSL debut for Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer <\/p>\n<section id=\"article-feed\" data-behavior=\"author_overlay article_header_news_feed_item_meta article_legal_footer\">\n<article data-id=\"44082521\" data-behavior=\"story_scroll story_progress\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/44082521\/naomi-girma-injured-chelsea-debut-record-transfer\">\n<div>\n<header>\n<h2>Soccer Naomi Girma injured in Chelsea debut after record transfer<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<figure data-video=\"watch,640,360,44083019,whitelist-AI|BR|GY|BS|KN|GP|AS|MP|BQ|BZ|SX|AW|PR|GU|LC|BB|MS|GF|SR|TC|BM|JM|TT|UM|GD|VI|HT|US|VG|AG|MQ|KY|CA|VC|\" data-cerebro-id=\"67c4b639c9212317d4dffaff\" data-title=\"Naomi Girma injured in Chelsea debut\" data-source=\"espn\">\n<div><picture><source  media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source  media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><\/picture>\n<p><span data-id=\"44083019\">play<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p><span>Naomi Girma injured in Chelsea debut (0:43)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Naomi Girma, Women&#8217;s soccer&#8217;s first million-dollar player, goes off injured in her Chelsea debut vs. Brighton. (0:43)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Associated Press<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>Mar 2, 2025, 02:14 PM ET<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a data-player-guid=\"750c098a-ca12-3bdb-a0d3-0103d251fd85\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/283720\/naomi-girma\">Naomi Girma<\/a>, women&#8217;s soccer&#8217;s first million-dollar player, was injured and replaced in her <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"f6c1de4b-73c3-ba7f-207e-ec5927d015c5\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=19970\">Chelsea<\/a> debut on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"cb9be884-d621-f46a-952e-7f9ef155cad5\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=2765\">United States<\/a> defender was taken off after 59 minutes of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/matchstats\/_\/gameId\/716719\">2-2<\/a> draw against Brighton and it was not immediately clear how serious the unspecified injury was.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll need to assess her tomorrow, but it doesn&#8217;t look too bad, but we will see,&#8221; Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor said.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old Girma joined Chelsea from the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"3d1f002c-e61d-3381-841e-d97ba9500733\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=21423\">San Diego Wave FC<\/a> in January <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/43517176\/naomi-girma-uswnt-star-completes-record-chelsea-transfer\" target=\"_blank\">for a reported fee of \u00a3900,000<\/a> ($1.1 million). That deal surpassed the previous world-record fee of $788,000 that <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"9ae7c32e-031a-3a69-bba5-c69b721d5529\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=22187\">Bay FC<\/a> paid to sign <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"c6a866d5-f185-3777-9738-a52443bca298\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=20795\">Zambia<\/a> striker Racheal Kundananji from <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"244da9c6-59ed-37cc-8f5f-747b8b236c3a\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=21425\">Madrid CFF<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n<p>Girma was replaced by <a data-player-guid=\"90bc2c10-6dc6-50a6-8ba6-d1279ab6a1ab\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/255181\/nathalie-bjorn\">Nathalie Bj\u00f6rn<\/a> in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/league\/_\/name\/ENG.W.1\">Women&#8217;s Super League<\/a> game at Brighton&#8217;s Broadfield Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s learning about the league, the team and her teammates. As you could see, the first game is never easy because it&#8217;s a competitive league,&#8221; Bompastor said. &#8220;It was good for us to have her start this game, building minutes and being able to play with the team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Five-time defending WSL champion Chelsea secured a point through <a data-player-guid=\"2e9eabcb-2aaf-154d-486a-3625da84c2e7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/294253\/lauren-james\">Lauren James<\/a>&#8216; equalizer in the 61st minute.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea led through <a data-player-guid=\"f71ba2ce-81f1-20b4-7dde-a343987abcee\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/295673\/sandy-baltimore\">Sandy Baltimore<\/a>&#8216;s opener in the 16th, but Brighton went into half-time up 2-1 after goals from Marisa Olislagers in the 22nd and <a data-player-guid=\"22af138b-10ca-e741-be4b-dd4139db65c5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/219990\/vicky-losada\">Vicky Losada<\/a> in the 42nd.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea are five points ahead of <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"5d1de908-8705-f172-5351-5271a4f2e5a7\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=20061\">Manchester United<\/a> at the top of the standings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/44082521\/naomi-girma-injured-chelsea-debut-record-transfer\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a>Thomas Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer Soccer Naomi Girma injured in Chelsea debut after record transfer play Naomi Girma injured in Chelsea debut (0:43) Naomi Girma, Women&#8217;s soccer&#8217;s first million-dollar player, goes off injured in her Chelsea debut vs. Brighton. (0:43) Associated Press Mar 2, 2025, 02:14 PM ET Naomi Girma, women&#8217;s soccer&#8217;s first million-dollar player, was injured and replaced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":831167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131530,2005,105779],"tags":[131529,105776],"class_list":["post-831166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-girma","category-soccer","category-uswnts","tag-girma","tag-uswnts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}