2025 nwsl championship: xG race charts & g+ pass networks

The NWSL Championship was a proverbial tactical chess match and physical grudge match rolled into one. A lot was going on out there, just not much of the stuff that registers as expected goals. Still, it was a fascinating and intense game that could have tipped either way.

The data viz stuff is below, but I also discuss Gotham’s outrageous playoff run, Jaelin Howell’s throwback performance, and the player I am delulu enough to believe actually might’ve made a difference for the Spirit. We in #thebiz call that a #tease. Scroll on down you rascal you.

I should’ve done this a while ago. Lol. Lmao. My bad. Anyway, it’s here.

All playoffs Gotham continued to gamble that they’d be the ones to find the crucial goal in low xG games, and three straight times — against KC, Orlando and Washington — they were right. I dunno if I buy into a team’s innate ability to win close games or deliver in “clutch” moments, but if it’s a strand of DNA that does indeed exist, Gotham’s ‘23 & ‘25 championship runs prove they have it.

From a Spirit perspective: oof. After halftime they started to look a lot more like themselves, then the Hal Hershfelt injury happened and they lost all momentum, conceded, and flatlined in xG. Even the Trinity Rodman sub didn’t come close to saving them (and then she was down with intense back pain again, which deflated them further; oof again).

The Spirit did their overload thing to work space for Rose Kouassi to get behind the line. It worked straightaway — like, before the second minute of the game had been completed — but then Gotham said ‘aht, not again’ and turned Jaelin Howell up to eleventy billion (with an assist from Sarah Schupansky, who didn’t play at all in the semifinal for some reason).

While Cantore sliding over to the right to help break the press led to some positive moments, overall she seemed a bit overwhelmed by it all. Same with Croix Bethune, who was missing her usually sharp instincts to sense and evade pressure, which impacted her ability to connect with teammates.

In fact, Croix and Leicy struggled. Bethune managed just one more pass into the final third (3) than the number of times she was dispossessed (2), and Santos put up a rather stinky 67% pass completion. Credit to Gotham’s press (especially the Midfield Murder Machine, whomst we shall discuss later), but I wonder if Adrián González could have chose to go machine for machine by bringing on Deb Abiodun earlier.

(I also can’t shake the thought that Brittany Ratcliffe might’ve helped the Spirit do the ‘two wingers constantly making wide runs’ thing that North Carolina did to wreck them in the final match of the regular season. It led to Meredith Speck having her best game in years, scoring a goal and delivering a hockey assist that led to an OG. Sometimes championship games have unexpected heroes, and though it may seem like dangerous amounts of copium to position Ratcliffe as a potential savior, hear me out tho.)

Gotham did their thing. It wasn’t a pretty thing, but that was by design. They first and foremost make sure that their opposition are having a Very Bad Time™, and that’s exactly what the Spirit endured. Crucial to providing the worst ever tour of PayPal Park was Jaelin Howell, who became FSU Jaelin Howell once again.

In addition to all the above, Opta also dropped the stat that her 15 duels won equaled the record in NWSL Championship games, which was set by prime Sam Mewis. Any midfielder being in the same conversation as Prime Sam Mewis is doing some outrageous shit (complimentary).

It’s also kind of funny that Gotham trolled the Spirit by turning a victory in a key on-pitch battle into something that helped Gotham win the metaphorical war. Everyone was waiting for the matchup between Rookie of the Year, Lilly Reale, and devastating attacking winger Rose Kouassi. Reale was doing fine, until she wasn’t. She got a yellow after being turned by Kouassi and pulling her down from behind, and was slightly fortunate to escape a second yellow early in the second half.

Juan Carlos Amorós had to get her off the pitch, and did, by subbing in Bruninha. At the time this seemed like a massive dub for the Spirit, since the last time they played Bruninha struggled to mark Trinity Rodman and eventually got the second yellow Reale had narrowly escaped. Except Bruninha then assisted Rose Lavelle for the game’s only goal.

Damn. Brutal. Wicked. And so very Gotham.

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