By now every team has released their initial preseason squad lists (even if begrudgingly) and have begun preparations for the 2024 season. Players can still be signed, and trades can still be made, but since now is the time when hope springs eternal for every most club’s supporters, I decided to do a preseason vibe check for each team.

Let’s get it.

angel city

They had me in the first half. I didn’t necessarily think losing Savannah McCaskill was a horrible decision, but then Angel City also lost Scarlett Camberos, Dani Weatherholt and Simone Charley. But late deals for Rocky Rodriguez and Messiah Bright made things a lot better.

Rodriguez is the type of midfielder they needed. She’s tough in duels, good at carrying the ball forward, and has a long range shot that must be respected. At the moment there isn’t an elite attacking midfielder on the team, but that might be ok.

Having a central striker who’s a menace, which they now have in Messiah Bright, flanked by lot of talent on the wing certainly works well for Manchester City. Alyssa Thompson, Jun Endo, Claire Emslie, Sydney Leroux plus maybe hopefully eventually please baby Jesus I’ll never ask you for anything again Christen Press, and attacking fullbacks like M.A. Vignola, Jasmyne Spencer, Ali Riley and Gisele Thompson, ACFC could get downright evil on the wings.

bay fc

When Angel City burst into the league they did so with a major move to bring USWNT great Christen Press back home. San Diego made a splash by securing Alex Morgan. Bay FC didn’t go the USWNT route but still brought in two incredible international talent in Deyna Castellanos and Asisat Oshoala.

Castellanos was announced first and I loved the move. She was awesome for Atletico Madrid but didn’t shine as much for Manchester City, in part because they choose to rely on their wingers for playmaking. Now Castellanos gets to be the center of an attack, and pairing her with Oshoala feels like a perfect, if not dream, combination already.

They also made savvy moves to secure Alex Loera, who was turning into a solid defensive midfielder with clever passing range at Kansas City, and drafted Stanford star Maya Doms and teenage star defender Savy King from UNC. It’s a squad with a strong starting XI that should entertain from day one.

chicago red stars

A week or so ago the good folks at Gal Pal Sports had me on their podcast Football is Wife to relive the draft and talk about what the Chicago Red Stars are building. Long story short, it may not have appeared so initially, but new coach Lorne Donaldson had a plan. And that plan included raising the dawg coefficient and my god he did.

It remains to be seen just how different of a season the Red Stars will have, but I can already say with confidence that teams won’t enjoy playing them in 2024 nearly as much as they did in 2023 when they gave up fifty (50!) goals in 22 games. Losing midfield starters who, in various combinations, powered the team to multiple NWSL Championship games (2019 & 2021) will do that.

But former Florida State midfielder LeiLanni Nesbeth was a perfect draft selection, as was 5’10 midfielder Bea Franklin. Securing Mallory Swanson was necessary, and the new front office got that done in historic fashion. In true Uncle Lorne style, I expect the Red Stars to be one of the toughest teams in the league to play against, which would represent a full turn from where they were last season.

houston dash

Last season the Dash allowed the fewest goals in the league but were somehow boring to watch in attack, which is why Sam Laity is out and Fran Alonso is in. Not gonna act like I’m a keen observer of the Scottish Women’s Premier League, so I have no idea of the formation, style or profile of players he prefers. All I do know is that his team scored a lot of goals. Like a whole lot.

That’s great, but it’s a Washington Spirit-ian level task to complete a 180 in an offseason. Of course the benefit for the Dash is that their head coach is already with the team. However, there hasn’t been a massive squad overhaul to aid a probable and likely drastic change.

Andressa Alves will be fun to have in the league, and CeCe Kizer is a proven vertical threat while Yuki Nagasato can find clever ways to get the ball behind the defense, so there are pieces that could be fun together. But I can’t predict much of anything other than I will be intrigued to see if/how the team develops throughout the season.

kc current

On paper this is a squad. On paper, they were a squad last year too. But talent needs good vibes, and we’re seeing quite frequently that the shine of headlines around KC can hide unfortunate mismanagement. This offseason the front office has continued courting bad vibes.

It’s a shame for several reasons. First, stop being silly, please. But second, players on the team deserve better, and deserve a chance to shine (and not in spite of their front office). As a fan of the league, I want to see this collection of players at their potential, but aren’t sure what to expect from a coaching staff with Vlatko Andonovski and Freya Coombe.

Andonovski grew his status as a coach with FCKC and is back to familiar surroundings, where he was at his best. While club coaching suits him in a way national team coaching didn’t, a lot has changed. He has the pieces to recoup some of the positive reputation he had prior to the USWNT job, and for the player’s sake I hope he’s able to adapt while turning the back the clock vibe-wise. If not, well, we’ve all watched the USWNT the past handful of years.

nj/ny gotham fc

There are plenty of hilarious-in-hindsight Sports Illustrated (r.i.p.) covers to suggest superteams don’t always work, but this ain’t the NBA. Gotham took tasks that were vital to their championship run and said ‘we can’t help but wonder what it would look like if we got the best player available to do those things, what then?’

The only real questions I have are where Sam Hiatt fits in their defense and whether Emily Sonnett is a true enough upgrade to everything Nealy Martin was doing in defensive midfield.

Sonnett is more #versatile, and Amorós loves his team to be ultra fluid in possession, so maybe a player used to popping up at DM/RB/CB is worth a slight dropoff in some defensive metrics. Still, Gotham surprised everyone last season and, thanks to an absurd offseason, certainly won’t have that same ability in 2024. But I’m certain this squad is ready.

north carolina courage

Despite the rumors it seems the Courage were able to hold onto Denise O’Sullivan, which allowed them to continue being smart in finding ways to elevate the starting squad. As someone who covers the Spirit locally, the loss of Ashley Sanchez stings. However, if I was forced to choose another team to plug her into it would’ve been this Courage squad.

Sanchez should absolutely cook in Nahas’ scheme, even without Kerolin. But if/when Kerolin comes back, the Courage will have two of the most difficult players to mark and a style that prioritizes patience and off ball movement to find and construct mismatches.

The Courage also added German fullback Felicitas Rauch as a replacement for Emily Fox who moved to Arsenal. Rauch is a super attacking nightmare who will likely stay wider than Fox, which should create even more space in the center of the pitch. Smart additions, a unique style of play, proof of concept in last season’s performances and results – yeah, this team is ready to start the season now.

orlando pride

Losing Messiah Bright lowers the projection for the Pride a bit, even though they should be commended for listening to their player and doing the right thing by them. Also, I will once again dust of my ‘#AbolishAllDrafts’ soapbox and say that this likely wouldn’t have happened if Bright had the opportunity to weigh offers and select her first professional club.

Anyway, Adriana had an MVP-caliber season but didn’t make the official shortlist for some reason.

If Simone Charley is fully recovered she’ll be a fun fit in the attack, but I’d still like to see the Pride secure another central striker. Between Luana, Morgan Gautrat and Ally Lemos the Pride should be capable of having more control of matches, which should translate to more opportunities to get Adriana on the ball.

The Pride finished 2023 with the same number of points as eventual NWSL Champions Gotham FC, but missed out on snagging that final playoff spot through goal differential. Another smart offseason of squad building (with hopefully more moves to come) might help the Pride go on a revenge tour of their own.

portland thorns

Not sure why midfielders fled the Pacific Northwest this offseason but the Thorns were afflicted with it too, as they lost Crystal Dunn and Rocky Rodriguez. There is no replacement for Dunn, but the hope is that Jessie Fleming returns to her college form and Sugita grabs more of a starring role.

Not gonna lie to y’all though, I like the way Portland play primarily because it gives Sophia Smith the freedom to go tf off. She’s one of my favorite players to watch because she can turn a three yard pass near the center circle into an assist, no matter how many defenders she has to bully along the way.

As of right now, especially looking at a fairly thin defense, Portland’s approach is gonna be ‘we have Sophia Smith and you don’t’.

rahsing louisville

Replacing Thembi Kgatlana’s goals and ability to stretch defenses isn’t going to be easy, but we should also anticipate a different style of play under Bev Yanez. Still, Kgatlana and Nadia Nadim averaged the most shots per game in the team, and scoring goals is still important. Uchenna Kanu should have more of a chance to shine, but will need rookie Reilyn Turner to have a good year or Kirsten (Davis) Wright to step up from her 2.6 shots per game.

My biggest question is the midfield. They signed Taylor (Kornieck) Flint to reportedly play as a holding midfielder. Jaelin Howell, Savannah DeMelo and Ary Borges was a midfield that worked well last season, but it seems Yanez might shake things up. A 442/4222 could be in play, or Borges could join the forward line. The latter would be less than ideal from an on-pitch relationship standpoint, where Borges’ game allowed Howell to do the wrecking ball things she does best.

Either way, I’m still excited to see what Yanez does. Last year’s squad massively underperformed their talent level and as a result lost talents like Kgatlana and Wang Shuang. But there’s still enough in camp to be intrigued about, it just may take some time.

san diego wavé

StoneyBall™ is intensifying. The Wavé made a lot of very good moves to get the kind of players who will let Casey Stoney lean further into her style of football. Savannah McCaskill is a high usage ball carrying attacking midfielder who will allow Stoney to defend with numbers and still pose a threat. Elyse Bennett is also quite good at being difficult to knock off the ball, which should help Alex Morgan be able to do Alex Morgan things instead of drifting wide to do wingery things.

The midfield obviously stands out as an extremely light unit for a preseason camp. I’d expect a couple signings to trickle in at some point. Still, last season the Wavé had the second best defense in the league in terms of goals against and top in terms of xG conceded per 90 (.92). I expect that trend to continue, especially with a lot of first year coaches around the league attempting to implement new styles of play.

seattle reign

The Reign had a weird offseason. They lost two midfield mainstays in Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett, Sam Hiatt was traded to Gotham, and their coach Laura Harvey spent a chunk of the offseason on the super short shortlist of candidates to replace Emma Hayes at Chelsea.

While Harvey will be sticking around, the team still left with a lot to recover in midfield and oh yeah they’re still waiting for an official completion of the team sale as they consciously uncouple from Olympique Lyon. A savvy draft helped, where they came away with UNC’s Sam Meza and Notre Dame goalscorer Madi Mercado. Then they dipped into the international market for playmaker Ji So-Yun and the defensively solid Angharad James. Also, Olivia Van der Jagt showed a lot of growth last season and could be ready to step into a larger role.

I really like the Meza pickup. Replacing Rose Lavelle is impossible given how uniquely skilled she is, but Meza is in a similar mold. She has really quick feet and is quite clever on and off the ball in the final third. The Reign may have been wounded during the offseason and will undoubtedly look quite different in midfield in 2024, but they made enough moves to still be a dangerous side.

utah royals

We have no idea what coach Amy Rodriguez will be like but we can hope and pray that she is one of those coaches who imprints their identity on their team. If so, I will be seated.

Utah haven’t landed superstar international names like Bay FC, but this is still a squad that could do some work. They leaned on some Utah connections to secure some veterans, but also drafted multiple players who were electric in college. Ally Sentnor and Brecken Mozingo are very fun attacking talents, and Lauren Flynn and Olivia Smith-Griffiths could grow into pillars of the defense.

Still, the key to all of it coming together is ARod. If she injects her trademark intensity into this squad, then the vibes will be ornery but in the best possible way. For now, I’m betting on her.

washington spirit

The Spirit are endeavoring to do two ultra ambitious things. The first is to drastically alter their style of play, and the second is to drastically alter their style of play with quite a few rookies in key roles. They drafted some absolute ballers, but it’s asking a lot.

While I’ve been waiting a while for Croix Bethune to cook on the professional stage, the Spirit still don’t have a super obvious replacement for Sam Staab or her left foot, which was key to their ball progression and buildup play. Now, with the new style, it will all be on the midfield. I’m excited about the possession style showcasing an underrated side of Andi Sullivan’s game, but can’t shake the feeling that they need to add one more experienced midfielder to the group.

Each day that goes by without Barcelona extending Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas’ contract is one day closer to ‘Putellas to the Spirit’ coming true. If she’s prepared to leave and, like her current Spirit-bound coach, Putellas can’t envision ever facing Barcelona, then Audi Field is eager to be her new home. I kind of kid (and hope), but it’s also true that when Michele Kang makes a move it’s often the most ambitious one available (see: Dawn Scott, Jonatan Giráldez). Whether it’s Putellas or someone else though, it’s hard to project a much improved Spirit season without one more important player coming in.

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