2025 nwsl week 14: xG race charts & g+ pass networks

The NWSL is back and so are your weekly handy dandy xG race charts and goals added (g+) passing/receiving maps. As expected after a lengthy break and multiple international tournaments, there were some varied performances. Some teams looked like they used the break well, while others might need more time, a player or two, or a hug.

In the end, we got Louisville putting in a shift and a half against Kansas City, Alexander Straus getting Harv’d, Houston looking like Midwest North Carolina Courage, the Spirit’s near flawless first half (+ storybook ending), and a lot more. So let’s get to it.

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

week 14

The last time Kansas City Current got restarted after a summer break they were blown out 4-1 by the Spirit. Louisville didn’t put up the goals, but made it to halftime with a 0-0 scoreline and didn’t seem entirely incapable of holding that to deliver a shock result.

Then Temwa Chawinga said “Lol. Lmao. No.”

rahsing louisville

This is basically what you have to do to limit service to Chawinga, or at least keep her from combining with other attackers when she does get the ball. This plus some, erm, ultra aggressive play, made the game the tough stop/start contest Louisville needed it to be.

Taylor Flint had some Clash of the Titans style battles with Bia Zaneratto, while Janine Sonis was a bit of a surprise at right back. Both fullbacks and every midfielder (bar a bang average g+ passing rating for Flint) had negative pass g+, which shows the conundrum Kansas City puts you in whenever they walk onto the pitch. You can try to keep up with them (good luck), or you can defend them (good luck), but you very rarely get to do both.

(I also want to give a shoutout to Taylor Flint, especially in the first half. I’ve been somewhat wary of her as a pure lone DM, but this was one of her best ever performances. If you’re a game rewatcher, it’s worth checking out the first half to see how extremely in the way she was every time Kansas City tried something.)

kansas city current

It wasn’t a perfect game for the Current though. In addition to coping with a super physical Louisville team, they were also having to figure out what life without Vanessa DiBernardo would look like. Claire Hutton ended up being their most advanced midfielder, but dropped a double negative passing & receiving g+ game. It’s not her most natural position, and this was a Louisville defense and midfield very determined to break things, even if by force (read: fouls and yellow cards). But I would’ve liked to see LaBonta and Hutton swap positions.

None of that matters now because they signed Ally Sentnor, and my guess is she will tuck nicely into that spot (so long as she can resists the thirty-yard shot and pass to Temwa Chawinga, or Bia Zaneratto, or Michelle Cooper). In better news, the right side was truly cookin’, and Cooper putting up sky high passing g+ from such an advanced position is some defense-breaking stuff. I remain completely flummoxed, flabbergasted, bewildered and bewitched at her transformation from Duke (shoot-first central striker) to now (elite wide forward with pinpoint crossing ability).

This ain’t yer five-week old nephew’s Chicago Tsars? Not only did they win the xG battle over Gotham, they held the Bats to just six total shots. Their response to going down a goal was to rightly turn tf up. That may have been aided by the game state favoring Gotham, but it the Stars did well to pin them back and make them uncomfortable the rest of the match. Gotham going without a shot from the 39th minute until the 88th certainly was not part of the plan.

chicago tsars

Chicago players have been put in an awful position by their front office’s lack of an actual plan. We’ve seen this in the league far too many times, and one thing that can happen is a galvanization of the players behind someone willing to show empathy and channel their anger and intensity through performances on the pitch.

It’s one game, but as a former player Ell Masar could be playing that role. I don’t expect Chicago to shoot up the table (there’s far too many points to make up), but I expect their performances to improve through sheer force of will and frustration. Let’s hope the front office does not draw the wrong conclusion.

gotham fc

Khyah Harper did a decent Esther impression, and even got a headed goal as a not very tall player, but something was still missing. I tend to believe part of this is because they’re still trying to shake some creativity out of a Midfield Murder Machine (and flagrant gum re-chewer). I didn’t hate the attempted experiment, and thought it might get better once Rose Lavelle returned. But against Chicago, Rose was dropping deeper to receive the ball than Howell and that shouldn’t be happening in anyone’s America.

Shoutout to Sarah Schupansky though, she’s a legit chance creator and dropped yet another assist, tying her with Delphine Cascarino (5) for the most in the league.

Starting to feel bad for Alexander Straus, who the entire league simply refuses to stop welcoming in the most aggressive of ways. He and Angel City got straight up Harv’d and couldn’t find a way to more than .19 xG, even with new signing Sveindís Jónsdóttir debuting and Jun Endo returning from war. There’s a very dangerous team in there, but it may require even more than a summer break to put it all together.

seattle reign

Laura Harvey also had a new player to unveil in Mia Fishel, but decided to not call on her until the 81st minute. This was because Harvs had diabolical soccer on her mind. Curry’s advanced positioning is a lie, this was a straight up back five with her as the team’s only outlet. She did well to get on the ball from those positions, but was isolated and often left with no option other than passing backwards.

The match was all gummed up and then Harvey brought on a rambunctious Jess Fishlock to win it in the second half, which is exactly what happened. Welcome, again again, again, to the league, Mr. Straus.

angel city

Straus ended up playing into Harvey’s hands by ignoring the need for width, which is a bit of a wild boi decision with Alyssa Thompson, Sveindís Jónsdóttir and Jun Endo on the same pitch. I didn’t mind the unique use of Endo as a #10, especially with Thompson and Sveindís as wide players, but it didn’t really work and might’ve been a bit too galaxy brain.

*sigh*

north carolina courage

*deep sigh*

san diego wavé

San Diego tried, but .06 xG per shot from 18 shots is stinky. Their two best xG chances cam in the final minutes of the game, and were only .16 and .14. This sort of game is probs why they signed Laurina Fazer. When San Diego is slowed down they find it harder to manipulate defenses and create the dynamics they feast on when in transition.

As a result, nearly half their shots came from outside the box, and they only completed one more pass (225) in North Carolina’s half than their own (224).

No one in the league is doing that ‘and I took that personally’ Jordan meme more than Penelope Hocking. Ever since this article was published, May 12, in which Chicago’s GM explained trading her away by saying ‘…but you know the numbers’ and ‘…you know better than I do how many times she’s started since she left’, Hocking has been on one.

She’s gone from .12 non-penalty xG (npxG), .1 expected assists (xA), one goal and zero assists in six games to 2.5 npxG, .5 xA, four goals and one assist in the six since.

bay fc

Bay did a bit of a weird one here. Houston was able to wrestle the majority of possession, which forced them to play long balls and be more direct, and by xG it worked. They put up the highest xG of the weekend, had the lead twice, but fumbled it away with wonky defending.

They could chalk this result up to ‘sometimes soccer is evil’, but chances are we’ll see less of this Bay next weekend.

houston dash

The possession was great, solid even. Impressive at times. But while I like to let coaches be themselves and show us who they are—especially when they’re stepping out on their own after being an assistant under a coach with a defined style—this is some Sean Nahas North Carolina Courage ass shit.

The xG was solid, but for all their possession they were still outshot, out-xG’d (not a thing but I just made it a thing so), and out-big chance’d (another thing I just made up).

The Official Adrián González Era is off to an impressive start. That’s about as dominant a first half as you’ll see from one team over a fellow (then) top-5 opponent. Portland ended the half with first half with just four shots, with just one from inside the box. But Olivia Moultrie’s strike just before halftime spoiled the half for the Spirit and sent them into halftime 1-1, which wouldn’t have even been predicted by the guy who tells Rob Gale his suits look good.

Anyway, the Spirit had a lot more defensive work to do in the second half, and faced shots of .32, .28 and .14, but it was of course Trinity Rodman tearing the net off with a .17 chance in stoppage time that gave the Spirit what felt like a much deserved win.

washington spirit

Sheesh.

I’ve been very curious about what González’s version of the Spirit would look like and well damn. There are some negative and less than great passing and receiving performances in there but overall the passing connections were solid and covered the width of the pitch. Fotmob has the Spirit as completing 418 passes, with 232 of those being completed in the attacking half.

Again I must say, sheesh.

portland thorns

Portland were just hanging on. Before the game, players who returned from the EUROS were introduced to the crowd, including Denmark’s Isabella Obaze. That was the last kind thing the Spirit (Rose Kouassi, specifically) would do for her. Kouassi spent the majority of her time on the pitch being an absolute menace and trying various blender settings in 1v1s with Portland defenders, primarily Obaze.

Apart from that, Portland tried to connect through the middle but the Spirit were not allowing it. Thee are very few connections to anyone in their attacking half, while the strongest connections are just triangles between defenders and/or goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold.

The weekend ended with a shock result, that could have even been more shocking had Orlando not found a way to equalize in the second half. Personally, I find it funny that Utah’s first goal after trading Ally Sentnor was a forty yard banger. The Soccer Gods are evil, but also like to giggle.

Anyway, Orlando had a bit of time to create the chances to turn the draw into a win, but credit to Utah for only allowing one above average chance (.25, Simone Jackson) until the end of the game.

orlando pride

The Great Pyramid of Orlando, which is actually just a Bass Pro Shops. I’m not sure if it’s rust or a trend but a few teams this weekend forgot that width in attack is sort of important when it comes to stretching defenses and creating spaces to attack. It made cutting off service to Banda a bit easier than it should have been.

She’s still an elite player, so she managed five shots from what little service she had, but only one was above average and three were .05 or below.

utah royals

It was a fantastic result for Utah, and they came ten or so minutes away from their lone goal standing and claiming all three points. Tactically though, I’m not sure there was a ton different. The attack is a bit more varied without Ally Sentnor, but in they still only created on above average xG shot, which was just .13 and taken by right back Imani Dorsey. Every other shot was .05 xG or below, and they took zero shots registering xG after the 74th minute.

In partnership with