Rose Lavelle has 'no idea' who will win the Women's Champions League — but she knows who she's rooting for
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- US Women's National Team star Rose Lavelle has "no idea" who will win Saturday's Champions League final.
- Spanish reigning champion Barcelona and French powerhouse Lyon will face off for Europe's top prize.
- Lavelle told Insider she's rooting for her USWNT teammates, Catarina Macario and Lindsey Horan, on Lyon.
Two of European soccer's most fearsome dynasties are set to clash in this weekend's highly anticipated finale of the Women's Champions League.
And even though US Women's National Team and OL Reign superstar Rose Lavelle has absolutely "no idea" whether Spanish reigning champion FC Barcelona or French powerhouse Olympique Lyonnais will take home the continent's most coveted prize, she's confident that the game will be one worth watching.
"Barcelona is sick, obviously, but Lyon has some really, really good players too," Lavelle told Insider. "So I don't know. I think it's gonna be such a good game. I'm so interested."
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Olympique Lyonnais, better known as Lyon, has long been the class of the women's soccer world. The club has attracted top-tier talent from around the globe and, as such, made 10 Champions League finals appearances and won seven titles over the past 13 years.
Lavelle is deeply familiar with some of the players on Lyon's side of the ball. Two of her USWNT teammates, Catarina Macario and Lindsey Horan, play in the midfield for the French side.
She's not sure she'll be able to watch — which she's "actually so sad" about — as Reign has a training session that conflicts with the game. But if she catches part of the contest, she knows who she'll root for.
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"It's so cool," Lavelle said. "If I'm able to watch the whole game, maybe I'll re-watch it back, but I think it'll be so cool to watch Cat and Lindsey. I'll be cheering for them."
"I'm excited to watch them," she added. "I think I'm feeling some goals from the girls."
Plenty of other people are excited to watch them, too. Lyon's last match — a 2-1 win against Paris Saint-Germain — set an attendance record for a women's club game with 43,255 fans at Le Parc des Princes.
And Barcelona — a squad full of stars in its own right — sold out each of its last two Champions League home contests at Camp Nou. Barca set the world record with 91,553 people on hand to watch the women's club trounce rival Real Madrid 5-2 in the second leg of the quarterfinal.
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A month later, Barcelona broke its own record, as 91,648 people packed Camp Nou for the first leg of the semifinal against German club Wolfsburg. And now, an impressive 35,000 fans are expected to make their way to Turin for the grand finale, with tens of thousands traveling to Italy from both teams' home markets.
"When you invest in women's sports, you're going to get a good end product," Lavelle said. "That's what we're starting to see across the globe, not just here, but everywhere. It's incredible. It's so cool seeing Barca sell out its stadium game after game.
"Hopefully it sends a message and [sets] a precedent for everybody else that women's sports, women's soccer is here to stay," she added. "Get on board with it [and] invest because there's value, and there's interest."
The 2022 Women's Champions League final will kick off Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. Fans can watch the action unfold for free on DAZN's YouTube channel.