2025 nwsl week 3: xG race charts & g+ pass networks

This is much later than I wanted but the 9-5 has been more like 24/7 so please forgive me. But it’s an international break, so all domestic leagues are on pause. Fun fact, I’ll be at the USWNT’s match in Los Angeles, and am extremely hype about that fact* (*terms & conditions apply).

Before all that though, we need to look back on week 3 of the NWSL regular season. Some teams are starting to show who they intend to become, others feel like they’re already there, and a few are stumbling around in the dark. Here’s what each match from week 3 looked like in xG race charts and g+ pass networks.

washington spirit 2-0 bay fc

Ol’ tale of two halves ass game. Polite ass soccer. After you ass football.

Anyway, Bay should be feel a little disappointed that after bringing on Racheal Kundananji and Karlie Lema at halftime they still couldn’t manage to put up 1.0 xG. Ten shots, with nine coming in the second half, averaging .07 xG per shot is not the business. Especially given how much of the ball they had, and with the Spirit in defensive panic mode for the last half hour, plus eleven (11!) minutes of stoppage time.

Rodman getting her first start seemed ordained since she was somewhat surprisingly called into USWNT camp to face Brazil. Still, it was good to see, as was the way she was deployed. One of my longstanding beliefs is that while Rodman is a generational talent, she could stand to be a little more selfish and score some more dang goals. She had half the Spirit’s shots prior to Hatch’s 24th minute first goal. Yes, yes, more of that. But didn’t record a shot during the forty minutes she played after that. Unsubscribe, no thx.

Still, it was good to see her drift into pockets closer to goal as the Spirit trotted out a 3421 in attack. Rodman and Makenna Morris also swapped flanks throughout the first half, and used those pockets of space well. Hatch’s first goal comes from brilliant central holdup play from Morris after Bernal picked her out with a lofted pass from the center circle.

Also, erm, it’s early, and it’s a long season, but Rebeca Bernal has already been one of the best signings of this offseason.

Quick note on these pass networks, you’re seeing Kundananji and Lema in there because the map represents the period of play in the top right hand corner. This is another fun change to the pass networks this year. I like this better than only tracking the starting XI, because looking at a more representative period of a game we can see more clearly what a team is trying to do in possession. Bay’s starting XI pass network would have been funny, but without Kundananji and Lema it wouldn’t have told us much that we didn’t already know.

Here we see quite a terrifying team, and how they were able to put the Spirit under so much pressure. Taylor Huff routinely got into the perfect space for a CAM (she cooked), while Malonson tucked in to free up wide space for Kundananji to receive the ball to feet with Karlie Lema on the other side always threatening to run in behind. Tbf it was more than a threat, as evidenced by her ultra high receiving g+.

Thing is, all this should have resulted in more and higher quality chances for Bay. Chances are, 60+ minutes of that against anyone is going to net them a goal, but they’ll need to be a lot more clinical if they want to step into the next tier of NWSL teams.

houston dash 0-0 gotham fc

I was looking forward to this match. I thought it would be an intriguing game of soccer. I was interested to see if Houston’s new slick style of play could cope with the pressing intensity of Gotham. I really wanted to see how each team would adjust throughout the match.

Instead, they decided to have a cage match.

Gotham’s press packed Houston in so they weren’t able to have the spacing they had in previous games. It showed, with only two attacking players having positive passing g+ (Avery Patterson) or receiving g+ (Yazmeen Ryan).

Gotham just kinda octopus’d Houston into the middle of the pitch/cage/octagon and squabbled up. We all witnessed Gotham’s offseason exodus, and it seems the result of that has been a team that scraps, but doesn’t really know what to do with the ball when they get it.

I was super intrigued by Jaelin Howell’s potential fit in this system, and if it could make her a USWNT option again as a true destroyer DM. Instead, Juan Carlos Amorós has essentially deployed her as a middle linebacker. Alright.

orlando pride 2-1 san diego wavé

This game was kinda frustrating if you wanted to see Orlando tested. I mean, well, they were, but a couple kind calls helped them escape what could have been at least a draw. But we’re squarely in the ‘if you come at the king, you best not miss’ territory with Orlando, and managing just .17 xG is how you miss.

(Though it will still take me a while before I forgive Kyra Carusa for messing up a highlight reel would-be assist from Chiamaka Okuchukwu, who did that and also scored on her debut. Heavens.)

Good defensive structure and spacing, as is typical of Orlando Pride under Seb Hines. San Diego’s press was effective at keeping Ally Watt closer to the halfway line than the final third, which is a win when playing Orlando. But here’s where Orlando are true supervillains. It didn’t matter lol, Banda just drifted over and wreaked havoc in that space anyway. She won the penalty Marta scored from (on a retake) that put them up 2-1 by attacking that side of the defense.

San Diego were probably pressed back farther than they wanted to be, which is another thing the Pride can do to you. So though the match appeared a lot more even than anyone expected, Orlando still made sure they had the advantage by tilting the pitch in their favor. That’s how a press-happy team with María Sánchez and Delphine Cascarino on the wings only manages .17 xG. The Pride are so very mean.

kc current 3-0 utah royals

Sweet Cracker Barrel biscuits.

Kansas City just did whatever they wanted to do out there. Vanessa DiBernardo and Michelle Cooper’s passing g+ is outrageous, while Temwa Chawinga’s receiving g+ is similarly stratospheric.

I’m glad Vanessa DiBernardo is on this team and cookin, she’s been so damn good for years but because she spent the last five years being ignored by the national team she’s flown under the national radar. That’s a damn shame, and in a more just world we’d at least get to see what she could do in a USWNT midfield.

I was hoping last week’s second half performance would be indicative of what to expect from the Royals from then on, twasn’t! The opponent definitely matters, but Utah barely looked like they belonged on the same pitch. Part of that was an insistence on playing into Kansas City’s hands by trying to tic-tac-toe passes up the pitch against a high press plus Temwa Chawinga.

Ideally, yes, that is the beautiful game and would be great and all that. But when you’re being pressed high and aggressively, and every error springs Temwa Chawinga, Michelle Cooper and/or Debinha, you should probably have a plan B. Or C. Perhaps D, E, F, and G. H, and possibly even I. Just in case.

portland thorns 0-0 nc courage

I remain deeply annoyed at both teams.

Rob, sir, what is this. Explain it to me like I’m 5.

This was a bit better from North Carolina, but still not great. Ashley Sanchez is not getting close enough to the areas in which she’s most dangerous, but Jaedyn Shaw saw a decent amount of the ball and in good positions.

However, I’m afraid the reason this looked like an improvement was the introduction of Hannah Betfort as a true number 9. She helped provide a central target which helped focus the attack, and allowed Shaw to find pockets to try her magic.

There’s just one small problem: Betfort isn’t really a known goalscorer. She hit the post (maybe twice) in this game, but scored just two for the Royals all last year, and has five total goals since entering the league in 2021. I’m not sure what the Courage can do about this newfound revelation that an actual #9 might help them get the best out of their on-ball creators, but well live and learn I guess.

chicago tsars 0-1 rahsing louisville

I want Chicago’s GM and at least one member of their ownership group forced to do postgame pressers in lieu of the players and Lorne Donaldson.

Seeing Sam Staab back so soon is genuinely wild. The phrase ‘built different’ was made for such an occasion, cause what the hell.

With all the nonsense happening in Chicago, we got to see what Bev Yanez wants her team to do. Often they aren’t organized enough to control matches or show any repeatable patterns outside of ‘sure hope Emma Sears gets to the ball first.’ This was still a bit wonky, particularly the backline, but there was attacking structure and pretty decent spacing.

Rookie Katie O’Kane got her first start and went a bit bonkers on the ball, with her progressive passing and dribbling through Chicago’s midfield. She hit a beautiful throughball that would have been up for assist of the week had it been finished.

In this game I discovered why Yanez’s team often looks flustered in possession. It seems she doesn’t really set them up to progress the ball via passing, but instead to carry the ball through lines. That is a very hard thing to consistently do in this league, which is why it rarely works.

angel city 2-1 seattle reign

You know how I was like ‘wow, this is a new Laura Harvey, this team isn’t afraid to push players high and stretch a defense, what fun we will all have very soon’? Yeah well nah.

The penalty meant Angel City had to scrap to find a winner, but in truth they dominated this match and with better chance creation could have scored one or two more.

I loved that Katie Zelem finally started, but am very confused about why it was for Macey Hodge. The whole thing with Zelem is that she’s an effective forward passer. Putting a solid defensive mid behind her (Hodge) and attacking options around her (Fuller, Emslie, both Thompsons) seems like a pretty standard fitting of the puzzle pieces to me.

Also, Laity could help himself out by remembering that Christen Press exists, and can score goals.

Laura, pls.

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