2025 nwsl week 13: xG race charts & g+ pass networks

The summer break is here and I’m already missing the NWSL. Thankfully, the league left us craving more, but also with plenty to dive into from the first half of the season. Before all that though, it’s time to take a look at the last regular season matches we’ll have to savor until August.

Louisville made me bring out a boxing analogy for some reason, it’s time to ask The Question about Bay, Houston FAFO’d, and the Spirit got their first clean sheet since, I believe, the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here’s a bit on each game through xG race charts and goals added (g+) passing/receiving networks:

but first, an explainer

Realized I’ve only explained these charts at the start of the season, which was silly. The xG charts are straightforward, but the pass networks include custom data from American Soccer Analysis in order to spotlight passing and receiving impact. These are measured using ASA’s goals added (g+) metric, which calculates how much each touch—in this case passing & receiving—changes their team’s chances of scoring and conceding across two possessions.

(If you want to fully nerd out, here’s a deep dive into the methodology of g+.)

• Player bubble position: Average passing position

• Player bubble size: Passes attempted

• Player bubble color: Passing g+ rating

  • Passing g+: Pass value added (according to xPass)

• Ring color: Receiving g+ rating

  • Receiving g+: Pass value added through reception

• Lines: Pass volume between players

I don’t know if Angel City will view a fourth L in their last five games as positive, but it was a mightily exhausting defensive performance that came so close to getting them a point against the unstoppable force + immovable object that is Kansas City. The Current’s 1.84 xG is hefty, but .9 of their total was the combined initial shot form Temwa Chawinga and follow-up strike from Bia that was the game’s only goal.

The key not so great part was Angel City’s attack flatlining well into the second half. I’m not sure a team as talented in attack should ever start a match refusing to use it, but understand new head coach Alexander Straus needing to refocus the team defensively. It almost worked perfectly, too. Alyssa Thompson’s penalty was saved by Lorena, and twelve minutes later the Current got their lead.

Don’t say it don’t say it don’t say it: Welcome, again, to the NWSL, Mr. Straus.

kansas city current

Kansas City had a lot of the ball and when they didn’t have it they swarmed Angel City players until they swiftly got it back. As a result all but two outfield starters posted average or slightly below average passing g+, while Temwa, Zaneratto and Cooper all put quality receiving g+.

angel city

When you defend for your lives and don’t take a shot for more than fifty minutes this is what ya get. The Current can do this to a lot of teams, but it seemed like Angel City’s three primary focuses from the first kick were 1) defend, 2) defend some more, 3) actually just keep defending.

This was the shock of the weekend and exactly the kind of chaos this league should leave us with before a break. The result is shocking on its own, but even more shocking is the xG, which shows this was no fluke smash and grab. Rahsing straight up took it to the champs, and won—comfortably.

rahsing louisville

For a team that has struggled to pass to each other all season, this straight up came out of nowhere. I’d been giggling about their comically low pass numbers and completion percentages—which, tbf, weren’t exactly high at just 71% completion on 279 passes attempted—but they somehow maximized their ability to threaten Orlando’s defense.

They only had 36% possession yet managed 13 shots (just two on target tho). One of the main things from this pass network is the bionic leg of goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer. Look at her repeated boots to Janine Sonis, it’s bonkers the goalkeeper has such an established connection to the right forward in the attacking half.

orlando pride

Oh dear. Nobody really cares about boxing anymore, especially since the Paul brothers decided to stage farcical bouts and somehow make millions (our society is doing great, super healthy everything’s fine why do you ask?), but it used to be said that you can’t let a fight with the champs go to the scorecards—ya gotta knock them out. TKO.

Utah have had a first half of the season to not only forget but to strap onto one of Elon Musk’s rockets to be blown up, since that’s all they do anyway. Anywhomst, the Royals have essentially been a scrimmage partner for their opponents. We get to see most clearly what a team wants to do when they face Utah. This game was yet another example,

Bianca St. Georges’ .7 xG shot for a goal accounts for well over half the Royals’ total. While Seattle, who’d only scored 13 goals before this match, racked up close to 2.0 xG—by far their highest total of the season.

utah royals

This time it was Brecken Mozingo’s turn to do the Temwa Chawinga impression since it seems head coach Jimmy Coenraets is out of ideas. Mozingo was effective at receiving long passes in isolation, but decision making let her down a few times and led to negative passing g+. Bianca St. Georges posted positive receiving g+ too, and managed to have better passing g+.

Thing is, Ally Sentnor should probably be more involved. She only had two shots, and posted below average passing and receiving g+. She also had more touches in the middle third than the attacking third, which feels like hustlin backwards. She’s a good all around player, but for a team that needs to find ways to score I’m not sure dropping her into midfield to let Mozingo and St. Georges carry the attack is the best idea.

seattle reign

Remember what I said about Utah being a scrimmage team? Yeah, well, if the Reign had their way in every game this is probably what they’d do.

Their two most creative passers, Ji and Jordyn Bugg, would spray passes around and post high passing g+; Lynn Biyendolo would add verticality, and Maddie Dahlien would add width + verticality too; and Emeri Adames and Madison Curry would combine on the opposite flank to generate crosses and shots. Thank you Utah, what a tremendously valuable service you provide.

A sizable chunk of Bay’s 2.41 xG was Hocking’s .82 chance that was their only goal but still, Bay, pls. There’s a truly terrifying team to be compiled from Bay’s variety of talents but we’ve yet to see it. Instead, they tend to rely on individual brilliance, which is how you put up 2.41 xG, only score one goal, and concede twice from .98 xG.

I never want to Stephen A. Smith-ify (or even Stevie A. Smith-ify) my conclusions, but it feels like Albertin Montoya has had enough time, and has always had enough talent. Bay shouldn’t still be this.

gotham fc

A weird one from Gotham that kinda had to be considering they were missing Jaelin Howell and Jess Carter due to red cards. Better news was Rose Lavelle’s first start and her looking like the Rose we all know. She was the only midfielder to put up positive receiving g+, and only Gotham starter to do so other than Nealy Martin, who was filling in at center back.

Martin has now played defensive midfield, center midfield, right back, center back and goalkeeper for Gotham. Whatever they’re paying her, triple it.

bay fc

Soooo remember my rant from like a paragraph ago about how Bay is super individualistic in attack? Yeah, that’s how you end up with four attacking players with above average receiving g+ and only one of them with positive passing g+.

Montoya is a wild boi for the Conti-Huff-Bebar midfield but I kinda liked it. Bit harsh on Kiki Pickett, who was a revelation in midfield. But to be honest this indecision from Montoya is also likely responsible for a chunk of his team’s lack of cohesion. It’s good to give players opportunities but without firmly embedded structures it can be difficult for a team to consistently play as one.

Houston was so close to getting away with it, then Sarah Puntigam picked up a second yellow, Shaw equalized two minutes later, and Hannah Betfort took the lead ten minutes after that.

On xG, it was well deserved. North Carolina woke up in the second half and went a bit bonkers creating chances, but had to be patient to get their goals. Houston, hopefully, learned the valuable lesson of ‘scoring too early’ to be trying to cling to a narrow advantage for 90+ minutes.

north carolina courage

I don’t really understand starting a game without Ashley Sanchez or Jaedyn Shaw when both are fit enough to start. The attacking duo eventually entered the match in the 66th minute and weird North Carolina got better in attack and scored two goals. Well I never.

Anyway, the addition of Cortnee Vine has been super clutch. Her receiving g+ was yet again stratospheric and when a defense has to stretch to cope with that threat, space opens up in dangerous areas. Matsukubo yet again hooped with high passing and receiving g+ as a result.

houston dash

Avery Patterson’s first minute goal ended up being one of only three shots the Dash took in the first half. Knowing Patterson could only play 45, that was less than ideal. Bárbara Olivieri had above average receiving g+, but no one in the attacking half put up even average passing or receiving g+.

Puttering around then going down to ten players twenty-five minutes in the second half then losing the game in the final twenty minutes is some artisanal, organic, farm-to-table FAFO’ing.

I’ve been on Chicago pretty harshly and with good reason, especially after GM Richard Feuz’s interview full of dunkable quotes. I’m also still me, so I’m never going to say that a team putting up just .38 xG is fine, dandy or commendable. They were without homerun threats Ludmila and Jameese Joseph, but managed to force Portland into their lowest xG of the season the week after the Thorns moonwalked all over the Spirit.

portland thorns

It was a bit of a curious one from the Thorns. They definitely felt the loss of Caiya Hanks’ ability to break defenses down 1v1, but still should’ve been able to create more in the attacking third. Tordin’s goal was only one of two chances at or above the average xG per shot in the league (.10).

Portland hit the woodwork twice, but with all that delicious above average passing and/or receiving g+ in the attacking half you’d hope for better than seven of twelve shots being blocked or off target.

chicago tsars

Ally Schlegel wasn’t able to create a ton of danger but her ultra high (scientific term) receiving g+ meant that Portland had to constantly react to her finding space to receive passes. She also added above average passing g+, which kept Portland on their toes too. Not a bad showing against a team that could have won by 3+ goals and everyone would’ve been like ‘yeah well obvs’.

Not exactly the fireworks or #NWSLAfterDark we expected for a 10pm ET kickoff on a Sunday night. From a Spirit perspective, that was fine. They hadn’t kept a clean sheet since April 19(!), but managed to hold the league’s second highest scorers to just .7 xG.

san diego wavé

San Diego tormented the left side of Washington’s defense, routinely getting Hanna Lundkvist in space to eat up yardage before passing the ball off to Delphine Cascarino in the attacking third. It seemed ominous every single time, but in the end didn’t amount to much.

The pass volume lines show a deeply concerted effort to funnel play to Kenza Dali and Cascarino on the right side, but things sort of stop there. Gia Corley, Adriana Leon and María Sánchez didn’t see much of the ball, and didn’t do much with it in terms of passing. Corley’s moderately above average passing g+ was the only positive passing or receiving metric put up by the trio.

washington spirit

Preserving the clean sheet meant a lot of this wasn’t gonna be pretty, and it most certainly was not. According to FBref, to pull it off the Spirit needed six saves from Aubrey Kingsbury, twelve blocks, nine interceptions, nineteen tackles (11 won), and fifty-seven clearances. FIFTY! SEVEN!

This isn’t the way the Spirit want to play, or will likely play again. But after a run in late April-to-May of conceding twelve goals in four games, then the toothless performance against Portland last week, a clean sheet before the break was desperately needed.

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