2025 nwsl week 23: xG race charts & g+ pass networks

It was a fun week of NWSL’ing that continues to setup the chase for the playoffs nicely. #DatPurp forced North Carolina to play soccer and they couldn’t, Olivia Moultrie rescued a poor performance from Portland, Chicago and Utah somehow played the banger of the week, and Mr. Straus has managed to turn Angel City’s biggest strength into a weakness.

All that and more below.

but first, a g+ passing/receiving networks explainer

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+.)

Week 23

Orlando keep barely hanging on. It took pretty much all match but they finally crafted a good chance and managed to score it to rescue a point. Not the most convincing thing, but I will never not be happy about a Simone Charley goal.

houston dash

Houston allowed double digit shots inside the box for the fifth time in the last six matches. You’d assume they must be picking up points in chaotic 3-4 or 5-4 games, but they’ve only scored more than one goal once since August 24th. That they’ve only lost twice since the break feels like an accounting error more than well executed gameplans.

orlando pride

Seb Hines’ solution to losing Barbra Banda has seemed to be to ask Ally Watt to do her very best Banda impression. No disrespect to Watt, but Banda is a one of a kind player. I had belief in Hines being able to restructure the team to let the attack develop without resorting to the ‘one neat trick’ that Banda allows him to lean on, but we’re several games in now and this seems to be the most consistent attacking tweak. Oof.

GET PURP’D RIGHT IN THE MF’N FACE.

I’m loving #DatPurp. Just relentless, direct soccer that scoffed, laughed and dismissed North Carolina’s desire for control, organization, patience, all that side-to-side passing and whatnot.

north carolina courage

Overloads are one thing but this is a group hug. To be fair though, given what Louisville were doing to them I get wanting the comfort of a hug.

rahsing louisville

Hilarious. So good. #DatPurp finished the match with 33% possession and just 154 passes completed. Ain’t gotta bother with the football when you can soccer teams right in the face.

Portland needed this game and thankfully for them Bay FC are typically happy to make way for the needs of their opponents. They’re just thoughtful like that you know.

Not having Racheal Kundananji available should have made it even easier for the Thorns. But Rob Gale enjoys ‘raise my rent’ football so his team struggled their way to just .45 xG, and needed two exceptional finishes from Olivia Moultrie to accept Bay’s offer of three points.

portland thorns

Rob Gale tried to play with wide players but doesn’t really know what to do with them so they were both deep, with Reilyn Turner also being isolated and without service. Everyone else huddled in midfield to chat about why he has them playing this way. I hope they came up with answers.

bay fc

Without Kundananji, Bay tucked in a lot more narrow than we’re used to seeing them. This was also likely a reaction to facing the Thorns, who pack players into midfield. Direct play to Karlie Lema saw her put up high receiving g+ and take the game’s only high quality shot.

This game was wild. On pretty much any other day, or on this day across a million alternate timelines, the Spirit win by a villainous amount of goals in 999,999 of them.

The late game heroics are becoming a routine for the Spirit, but if you were to pull out your crystal ball, you can sorta see exactly how this team could be bounced out of the playoffs by a lesser opponent, even through an inferior performance. What I’m trying to say is that the Spirit should avoid #DatPurp at all costs.

washington spirit

Not sure I’ve seen a g+ passing network with this much green. High passing g+ for nearly every starter, and high receiving + for just about every attacker. It was pure uncut dominance.

san diego wavé

Add another midfielder, that should do the trick.

The only way to stop footballing terrorism is to refuse to negotiate. Unfortunately, Gotham missed all the good/great shots they created, and in the end settled for a handshake and a share of the points.

gotham fc

This is actually really funny but also kinda cool. Laura Harvey’s disinterest in doing much of anything with the ball (36% possession, 54 passes in the opposition’s half) means that this represents Gotham’s full buildup structure, 3-1-6.

seattle reign

Terrorism. I’m calling the FBI. Not our FBI though, a different one.

Didn’t really have these two teams going machine for machine to the tune of at least 15 shots each averaging .15 xG per shot. Only three of the eight good/great chances came in the first half, so if you missed it you may want to check out the second half of this one.

And stick around after the final whistle for European men being extremely emotional for some reason.

chicago tsars

Well, at least Chicago are trying things. The tightness of that back three is probably not something they want, and how Utah were able to get through their lines and take 14 of 16 shots from inside the box.

utah royals

Whereas Chicago got compact, Utah decided to spread themselves out. Elongating passing distances is usually a risky thing to do (unless you’re #DatPurp), but Utah still managed 49% of the possession and only completely 22 fewer accurate passes than Chicago. Is this, range?

Temwa Chawinga was out with a knee injury, then Vlatko started three rookies (including the owners’ child), and named an XI without Debinha, Michelle Cooper, or Bia Zaneratto. And yet they still managed to only allow .83 xG, keep a clean sheet, and score with their only shot on target.

Angel City gotta feel disgusted.

angel city

Going pretty much full strength, plus the addition of Hina Sugita making her first start, against a brand new and majorly inexperienced Kansas City Current XI should have resulted in more than one good chance and average of .06 xG per shot. It doesn’t feel like new coach Alexander Straus has figured out how to create good shooting opportunities in this league, which is a deep concern given the attacking talent on the squad.

For instance, Riley Tiernan has regressed in her shot selection and placement. Here’s her shot chart against Kansas City.

This is not what you want from any attacker, let alone one who’s already proved she can be a menace in the box. xPlace tracks the difference between pre-shot xG and post-shot xG (essentially measuring the quality of the shot taken versus the shooting chance that was created).

In the first half of the season Tiernan was maximizing her shooting opportunities. She took 27 shots that gave her an xPlace difference of .56 in her favor, but since the break she’s dropped into the negatives, with -.59 on 16 shots. A large part of this is Angel City not getting shots inside the box anymore.

kansas city current

Wasn’t pretty, but still got the job done. This team is scary af.

In partnership with