2026 nwsl week 7.5 & 8: g+ pass networks & shot charts

Erm, I’m officially adding Houston, Angel City and Orlando to the ‘I’m Concerned About You’ list, while Utah, Gotham and Washington (yes, even in a loss) exit the weekend still looking legit. Also, Boston picked up a four point week despite playing one of their four halves of soccer a player down (/barks).

That and more, let’s nerd…

a somewhat 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.

Week 7.5 (tues., march 12)

Boston pushing the Pride this deep and forcing negative passing g+ from just about everyone in the XI is not a thing anyone had on their bingo card.

Week 8

It’s time to worry about Houston again. One shot inside the box and a total xG of .32 is #concerning.

Chris Armas might be the luckiest boy in the league. Not only did Temwa Chawinga come back fit and firing, but Debinha being out has forced him into more balanced lineups, and suddenly the team doesn’t look a galaxy away from last year’s version.

Croix no longer playing as a deep 8, fullbacks holding width, Chawinga running the inside channel and Cooper pushing high and wide on the right. This is what we expected to see, it just took Chris Armas multiple embarrassments and an injury to figure out that this is how the team should be playing.

Struggling to build through the middle and wide players being kept deep to deal with wide threats meant Fabrice Gautrat was fresh out of options, and this is the result.

Laura Harvey isn’t quite ready to give up on her ‘drag the game in the mud and whatever happens happens’ approach against teams like Washington and Gotham. The Spirit got a late goal to take three points, Gotham turned three quality shots into two goals and a comfortable win. There’s a message in there somewhere.

Trying to go around Gotham’s press makes sense, but without Jess Fishlock no one had the vision or timing to do something Gotham couldn’t anticipate.

The scary thing is that I don’t think Gotham is cooking anywhere near the peak of their powers just yet.

They’re unbeaten in their last five (with four wins) pretty much solely because Jaedyn Shaw has return from injury and Jordynn Dudley has gotten more comfortable on the pitch. (Also because they’ve played bay, Chicago, Louisville and Boston, but whatevs.) If Gotham can level up in possession, it’ll unlock alternate ways to control games.

A red card has featured in four of Bay’s eight games lol (and they’ve only received one). I dunno what they’re doing the opponents that makes them wanna foul them, but going up a player has helped them pick up wins over Denver and San Diego. They should be ultra frustrated that Boston went down a player in the 42nd minute, and all they could muster was a 1-1 draw.

When the opposition is down a player you can afford to let Dorian Bailey be your deep-lying defensive midfielder while Claire Hutton and Hannah Bebar roam higher up as central midfielders. There is, however, a lack of width that might have helped stretch Boston’s backline to create more gaps to exploit.

This is Boston until the red card. That’s a bunch of space between the central defenders and midfield line, but the pressure higher up made it work. Amanda Gutierres drifted wide to get involved, and put up positive passing and receiving g+, which is an interesting wrinkle, as long as someone fills central spaces when she has the ball wide.

This match looks about as even as matches get, but two defensive lapses cost the Spirit two goals. A draw was still possible given that they created the only three quality chances in the match, but managed to only get one across the line.

Also, give admin a raise for this one:

This is not the San Diego that I know.

The scoreline and points are on the board and can’t be taken away, but San Diego struggled for the majority of this match. Washington’s control in possession and smart counterpressing out of possession stopped them from playing their normal game. I’m not sure I remember a game where the Wavé were 1) pushed this deep, and 2) had so much negative passing g+ throughout their XI, and 3) were held to just over 40% possession and under 300 accurate passes.

But again, it didn’t really matter. The next time they face the Spirit, they’ll already have three points, and are unlikely to have the same struggles.

The Spirit focused a lot of energy on disrupting San Diego’s possession game, which came a bit at the expense of their own. Adrián González opted to start Claudia Martínez over Rose Kouassi, which was an unexpected move for an early season top of the table clash. I’m not sure it worked out the way he would have hoped. Martímez grows every minute she’s one the pitch and has earned more starts, but the threat of Rose Kouassi and Trinity Rodman running in behind would have opened up more spaces.

Curiously, it took North Carolina a minute, but one they remembered who they were (and who Chicago is right now) they dominated the match as expected.

I repeat,

We might have to add Orlando to the ‘Officially Worried About’ pile. A Seb Hines-coached team giving up over 3.0 xG to an expansion team (albeit a solid expansion team) is one of those ‘look yourselves in the mirror’ type of results.

Janine Sonis’ penalty inflates Denver’s xG by .76, but that’s still a mighty number to put up against a team that prides (pun absolutely intended) itself on defense. This is a legit passing network too.

I’m also quite #intrigued by Eva Gaetino being the most advanced center back and putting up the highest passing g+ among the starting XI. If she can keep that up while developing as a defender to use her 5’11 frame in both boxes, another shot at the national team could come sooner rather than later for the 23-year-old.

ESPN spent most of the weekend hyping up this clash in every other ad break only for both teams to infomercial stumble their way around the pitch for 90 minutes. I’m embarrassed, we invited company over and that’s how y’all act?

Please be serious.

Go to your room.

Nadeshiko Royals & The Exciting Whites might really be legit this time around.

I’m committed to waiting until the second half of the season to be completely sold, but this run and the way they’re controlling games is impressive.

Thing that’s scary here is all the small green bubbles. No one is the central focus of their passing game, and instead a lot of off-ball movement is helping make the connections easy for whoever happens to be in possession.

That’s not only hard to defend, it allows a player like Mina Tanaka to constantly be moving to find give teammates passing lanes. Tanaka and Narumi Miura put up elite receiving g+ numbers in midfield as a result.

Chasing shadows. ◼︎

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