Wrexham Women Look Forward to U.S. Tour, 2024-2025 Season
After their appearance in the inaugural women's competition at The Soccer Tournament in Cary, two of Wrexham AFC's best-known women's players talk with Soccer Sheet about TST and their summer tour.
The Soccer Tournament’s second year demonstrated - yet again - the explosive growth of football culture in the United States, and once again a top draw was the Wrexham Red Dragons from Wales.
For the uninitiated, TST is a celebration of soccer. With a festival atmosphere and a competition that lasts almost a week, the Tournament showcases 7v7 matches with half-size fields, smaller goals, and rules designed to make the matches fun and exciting; for example, there are no draws, and every match has to end on a goal.
This year, over 40,000 fans traveled to WakeMed soccer park in Cary, N.C. to watch teams ranging from famous to unknown take the field with only seven players per side. In the year since the first edition, TST’s credibility has increased as well, with the promise of $1 million to the winning clubs almost being secondary to the publicity, fun, and bragging rights.
The major difference between the first and second year was the inclusion of a women’s tournament. 48 men’s teams and eight women’s teams competed in their respective divisions this year, while in 2023 the US Women - the only women’s team in the tournament that year - competed in a group against men’s teams.
This year, the US Women - again featuring former USWNT stars like Ali Krieger - prevailed in the women’s final against a team fielded by home team NC Courage to win the tournament.
On the men’s side, La Bombonera of New Castle, Del. - a team described as a mix of “[Major Arena Soccer League] champion players, Mexico FUT7 World Champion National Team Players and some former Liga MX pro players” - won their final against Nani FC, the team led by Manchester United legend Luis Nani that knocked out defending TST champions Newtown Pride FC.
Both of the winning teams went home with a $1 million cash prize.
Welcome to America, Wrexham
Note: If you’re watching the docuseries “Welcome to Wrexham” and not following the men’s and women’s sides in real time, there may be “spoilers” below.
In both editions of the tournament, one of the most compelling storylines involved the Wrexham Red Dragons, fielded by Wrexham AFC. Despite featuring few current players, the Wrexham men brought out thousands of fans to TST in 2023, a little over a month before the club’s first team and star striker Paul Mullin would draw a crowd of over 50,000 next door in Chapel Hill. It was not uncommon to see sections full of Wrexham red in the stands.
This year, Wrexham fielded teams in both the women’s and men’s tournaments, with the women’s roster populated by many current Wrexham players.
The addition of the women’s team mirrors the second season of Welcome to Wrexham, which aired since last year’s tournament and introduced viewers to women’s team players including Lili Jones, Del Morgan, and Rosie Hughes. All three played for Wrexham at TST, and Soccer Sheet had the opportunity to speak with Jones and Morgan in between the women’s and men’s finals.
“We learned so much about ourselves,” said Morgan, the team’s goalkeeper. “It was a fantastic experience to play with some top-class footballers.”
Bonus Content: Listen to our interview with Del Morgan on the Queen City Soccer Show Podcast
When I asked the 18-year-old Jones what it was like to play against women’s football legends like Ali Krieger, she was still in awe of the experience.
“It was a dream to play against them,” said Jones, the team’s star midfielder. “Something I’ll always remember.”
“It was unbelievable,” said Morgan. “Especially for someone like me who never played at the professional level. Just to share the playing field with them is unreal.”
After winning promotion to Wales’ top league last year, both Morgan and Jones are now semi-professional players. Despite that change, and featuring in a successful TV series, both Jones and Morgan are humble, generous with their time (to fans and media alike), and focused on making it to the next level.
“My life hasn’t changed, but more people recognize me,” said Jones. “I still work, I still study.”
“Every game’s a text, every game’s a challenge,” said Morgan. “I work full time so I have to manage my working life … we hold ourselves more accountable for stuff.”
Jones’ humility was especially impressive given her recent end-of-year accolades. She was named Young Player of the Season for the Genero Adran Premier League, as well as being named to the league’s Team of the Season. She made it clear that her success belonged to the team as well.
Though they’re used to getting messages on social media from fans on this side of the pond, both Jones and Morgan were surprised by the fan presence at TST, albeit in different ways. Jones was impressed by how many fans turned up in person to see the Wrexham women play. Morgan expected a good showing, but was touched that a mother and daughter were wearing her name on a shirt that read “Lili & Del & Phoebe [Davies] & Rosie.”
“It was really nice to finally meet [the fans in the United States],” said Morgan. “I’ve never had that before, someone putting my name on their top.”
The North Carolina visit was Morgan’s first time in the States, but she and the team will be back in July when Wrexham’s women and men’s squads play three games each on the west coast.
“No one’s done anything like we’re about to [do],” said Morgan. “We’re all really excited for the preseason tour, but also know that it’s preseason so we have to work hard.”
After braving the July heat in southern California, Lili and Del hope to go back to Wales, win the league in their second year in the top flight, and make it to the UEFA Women’s Champions League. It won’t be easy; in Wales, only the champion qualifies for international play.
Wrexham finished third in the 2023-2024 season to Cardiff City and Swansea City, but only secured one point in eight league matches against the top two teams (out of a possible 24).
“When you play the top teams like Cardiff and Swansea, you can’t just relax, you’ve got to be on it for the full 90 minutes,” said Morgan. “But the next thing on the checklist is winning the Champions League.”
If you’re on the West Coast, you can see Wrexham play throughout July. Visit WrexCoastTour.com for details.