On June 18, 2026, three American women walked onto the pitch in Atlanta and quietly rewrote the history of the world’s most-watched sporting event. Tori Penso served as referee, with Brooke Mayo and Kathryn Nesbitt as assistant referees, forming the first all-American, all-women officiating crew ever assigned to a men’s World Cup match.
The game itself was a Group A contest between Czechia and South Africa.
A second act, not a first impression
Penso, Mayo, and Nesbitt previously officiated the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup final together. Penso became only the second woman in history to referee a men’s World Cup match. She’s also the first American woman to do so.
FIFA appointed a record eight US Soccer referees for the 2026 World Cup, the second-most of any nation. The all-women configuration was a deliberate choice, not a mathematical inevitability.
