2026 nwsl matchday 19: g+ pass networks & shot charts

It was an absolutely bonkers weekend in the NWSL. We had two seven goal games, two stoppage time winners, several bangers, a player scoring their first hatty, five games with at least three goals, and Chicago vs. Bay finishing 0-0—wait, ignore that last one.

Onto the nerd stuff…

a brief explainer

If you want some deeper info on the nerdery that’s about to follow, I got you. Read and reference this explainer for a breakdown of all the elements on the shot charts and goals added (g+) passing networks I’ll be dropping all season. The good Cata Bush helped bring these to life, and there’s a lot of data captured across the two visualizations.

Goodness gracious.

It’s time to play ‘who are Orlando’s backup keepers?’, because…

The answer to the question is McKinley Crone, Cara Martin, and Cosette Morché. Martin has zero minutes of NWSL match time, and Crone has just 130 minutes from two appearances last year. Morché is 6’2 and has some experience in Sweden and France’s Première Ligue, but hasn’t been a regular starter since 21/22 with Issy, a team that finished 11th in the division, conceded 57 goals and finished the season with a -38 goal differential.

No one stands out as an elite second options, but things can’t get much worse. Something has to be done, and if that doesn’t do it, well the next person to look at is head coach Seb Hines. At least Kerry Abello did this though.

Tough to score a goal of the season contender late in a game that you’re losing 0-3 to the second worst team in the league but I appreciated it.

Here’s the Emma Sears that we know.

She was an outright menace to Orlando’s entire backline but Rafaelle especially. This is Sha’Carri Richardson pulling away in the final thirty meters. Absurd stuff. And if you check the shot chart, Sears scored the same goal from the same position with her right and her left.

Both shots were struck low and hard, and placed so well that, according to Fotmob, exploded the difference between the chance (xG) and shot (xGOT; xG on target)— left foot, .05 xG to .55 xGOT; right foot, .10 xG to .53 xGOT. Filthy stuff.

One thing you get to do when you assemble a roster full of star attacking talent is rely on that star attacking talent to win games.

Jaedyn Shaw did that.

Gotham have steamed to the top of the league and now have a four point gap. A big part of the reason is because their defense is downright suffocating, especially when they have a lead.

[nerd voice] Gahyuck but my supercomputer sai— [nerd is shoved in a locker, again]

The reason for the variance in data land and reality is that Gotham keep winning 1-0 games. So far this season they’ve won 7, and three of those have come in their last three matches. Winning by the narrowest of margins seems like an unsustainable thing for most teams, but in many ways Gotham are assembled to do just that, it’s basically Juan Carlos Amorós’ entire game model.

Can it eventually come back to bite them? Maybe, but so far seven teams have tried and failed.

San Diego were absolutely strangled by Gotham’s defense. Those small player bubbles with lots of yellow and orange passing g+ is not what we’ve come to expect from the Wavé this season. Neither is nine shots for just .74 xG (an average of .08 xG per shot). Sheesh.

Ashley Sanchez has become ungovernable.

I’m currently working on a thing about this Ashley Sanchez season. Goal-wise it seems to be a complete anomaly of a season given her previous scoring record. But I think new head coach Mak Lind may have found a way to consistently provide the two things that make her level up the most. (That’s what we in #TheBiz call a tease!)

Squished.

The Spirit are finally feeling the effects of having lots of midfield and attacking options away at WAFCON—vets and new signings. In this game head coach Adrián González got his lineup and gameplan wrong, and the Courage attacked.

They did well to fight back after halftime, but by design the Spirit don’t have the Chaos Mode™️ that several NWSL teams have (many by necessity). Instead they eschew that for control, and have assembled a squad and methodology that can execute that vision frequently.

But this is the NWSL, and every now and then things are gonna require chaos. The Spirit were gassed after scrapping all the way back from 0-3 down to 3-3, and, as a final gut punch, ended up conceding a stoppage time winner.

Japan might have another one in Shinomi Koyama. That deep green passing g+ from the deepest midfield position against the Spirit is some ‘sit up and take notice’ type stuff. From Fotmob’s numbers, she connected with 24 of her 28 passes, created one big chance (the assist to Sanchez), had three passes into the final third, was dispossessed zero times and had five ball recoveries. Hooper.

While Temwa Chawinga is out here leading Malawi to the semifinals of WAFCON in their first ever appearance and qualification for next year’s World Cup for the first time in the country’s history, the Current are squabblin to a draw with Houston Dash. Oof.

Houston’s attacking gameplan is confusing, but they were able to ride some luck (and important saves from Jane Campbell) to stick around long enough to earn a penalty, draw, and point.

All those green bubbles, all those shots in the box right along the top line of the six-yard box, and somehow the Current only put three shots on target and find the back of the net once from 2.43 xG. This is what throwing away three points looks like.

I love it when teams trade bangers.

Remember midweek when Lindsey Heaps wasn’t in the matchday squad and Denver didn’t really say anything about it? Well she was on the availability report this week, listed as out with a knee problem. Heaps’ knee swelling is something that was so common during her time with Lyon/Lyonnes that her teammates nicknamed her ‘Potato’ after what her knee resembled when it swelled.

In a vacuum Denver is right to build their attack around Heaps, she is their marquee signing and, despite her mobility issues, is still a unique talent who can facilitate attacks from various areas of the pitch.

In reality she will miss games due to the persistent knee issue, and the gameplan required to take full advantage of her talents is so specific that a secondary option requires a completely different scheme.

However, thanks to Janine Sonis they have three points and another week to figure it out.

Utah created four of the five quality chances in the game and only managed to score their lowest value chance. They’ll be annoyed, sure, but oh my god what a goal it was.

Outrageous skill.

Back in the Olden Twitter Days there was lots of antagonizing by Europeans over an assumed lack of technical ability in American women’s soccer players. They weren’t regular watchers of the NWSL—the style of play isn’t Grey Poupon enough for them—so this complaint largely hinged on their hate watches of the USWNT. Obviously, it’s silly, but it became so pervasive that it was held as true.

This is a clip I would post with a extremely snarky caption about technique. Milazzo is a former four-year South Carolina player and longtime NWSL vet who never got a sniff at the USWNT, yet she deftly plucked this ball out of the air with her left and smashed a half volley with her right, and all in one motion. As they say with a mouthful of beans: tekkers.

Somehow we have another seven goal scoreline except this time a team conceded three goals even faster, with Boston beating the Spirit’s three concessions in 15 minutes by a whole five minutes Not only did Boston only need ten minutes to concede three goals, Pietra Tordin scored her very first hat trick as a professional in just 37 minutes. Congrats?

Boston pushed up to establish their positioning and possession and Portland said ‘nice height and width between your center back there, be a real shame if Sophia Wilson and Pietra Tordin ran into it unimpeded.’

No words, just Pietra Tordin Appreciation Hours.

Tordin’s creativity and variety of ways to be devastating at attacking the final third made her one of my players to watch this season. She currently leads the league in goal contributions with seven goals and eight assists, and might get herself to the 10g/10a mark that I’ve been expecting Trinity Rodman to claim first. It helps to be able to pass the ball to Sophia Wilson, but Tordin is also finding ways to bag goals directly.

Two games featured seven goals, all but one other game this weekend featured multiple goals, and yet Chicago and Bay hit us with:

Yawn.

/stretches

/blinks slowly

/is confused but decides it doesn’t matter

/falls asleep

Ok I’m awake.

Sally Menti is leveling up and this is the Big Fish that I know.

This was probably Mia Fishel’s best game since returning from her ACL injury last year. The goal helps, but her receiving and passing g+ were both of a high level. At her best this is what makes Fishel a fun forward. She has the physicality, deft touch and clever passing to be able to hold up the ball and keep it moving, then to arrive in the box as an option to receive or make a key pass.

I love her movement in the box after this turnover. She didn’t run to a spot and hold position, she kept moving. Initially she offered herself as a passing option at the top of the D, then as the space narrowed she drifted wide to create a second passing angle. She didn’t get the ball, but was ready to strike with her left when Menti touches the ball into space.

Hopefully this was a boost to her confidence in her injury recovery and belief that her ability is still there. Let’s hope we get this Big Fish back every week.

The penalty spot was lava but Angel City managed to squeak out two goals from 1.02 xG. The first was a nasty 1v1 dribble into the box and lefty strike from Gisele Thompson, and the other was Prisca Chilufya returning from WAFCON and immediately deciding to drop a goal of the year contender.

I yelped. ◼︎

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