American defender Lauren Barnes is an eighth-year veteran of the NWSL’s OL Reign, but in six of those years she has also played during the NWSL offseason on loan in the Australian W League. On March 21, in one of the few remaining pro sporting events on the planet due to the coronavirus, her Melbourne City team beat Sydney FC 1-0 to win the league title—and the setting in an empty stadium was only one of the strange aspects of a memorable weekend for the Southern California native.
“It was two different worlds for me,” Barnes said on the latest Planet Fútbol Podcast, “because I had family in L.