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

The semifinal round featured two fascinating games but for very different reasons. Portland’s midfield was scattered, smothered and covered by the Spirit — which never happens. While Orlando and Gotham make art. Diabolical art that makes you weep for humanity and afraid of the horrors that can live inside an artist’s head, but art nonetheless.

Let’s get to it.

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

Sweet Mother Mary Josephine Baker.

Spirit folks will tell you that a performance like this had been coming all season, but wild that it happened in an NWSL semifinal. Portland were given a sum total of exactly nothing, while the Spirit frolicked about Audi Field at will.

Depending on your perspective though, it’s either scary or encouraging that, despite the dominance, the Spirit could only get the ball in the net (or a great shot value) from a 70-yard one player counter from an opposition corner and a poor back pass from a center back. For as much as they toyed with Portland, the final pass or shot still wasn’t there.

All season Portland had been packing their midfield and trying desperately to win that battle, many times to the detriment and sacrifice of other areas of the pitch. The Spirit said ‘Ok cool but what if everyone was a midfielder? What then?’

Portland were straight up swamped. They struggled to find the connections in midfield to progress the ball, and sending it out wide only saw their forwards pounced on by Kate Wiesner (Weezy) & Tara McKeown or Esme Morgan & Rose Kouassi.

Portland’s pass networks throughout the season often feature their midfielders (and some attackers) huddled together in the center circle. The Spirit were able to separate them, which disrupted their buildup and broke their typical connections.

*walking up to this hanging on the wall at The Louvre*

This next piece is disturbing but I challenge you to sit with it. There’s pain, agony, and despair. Art is emotional, it’s ok to feel unsettled by it. Provocative art is just as poignant and necessary as the beautiful and the romantic. Clearly the artist wants to evoke a specific sensation, and I bet most of us are feeling it right now. In this way, it too is beautiful.

The Pride cooked a little, or tried to. This match was quite the slog, with both teams being sloppy. Orlando found a couple chances to be threatening, particularly through Jacquie Ovalle. Joining a club midseason then hopping into the playoffs is tough, and the good news is that she was in position to take the game’s two best chances. The bad news is that neither ended up in the net. Oof.

This is one of those optical illusions. Possibly even AI. This looks rather fine, bit of a gap in midfield but it didn’t prevent strong progressive connections. Yet somehow this all ended up resulting in absolutely nothing from an xG perspective. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist, second is this damn pass network.

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