beyond the best XI: five underrated players who deserve attention, too

Spring has sprung, random thunderstorms are an every other day occurrence, and the first Best XI of the NWSL season has dropped. I don’t have too many complaints (beyond Denise O’Sullivan deserving the midfield nod over Taylor Flint imo). Anyway, I’m not here to argue, it’s a solid collection of pure hoopers.

But it got me thinking about other players who’ve been ballin under the proverbial radar. Maybe not enough to supplant any of the Best XI, but enough that they deserve recognition too.

To find five such players, I dropped a few coins into the stat machine, told it what I was looking for, and after shaking, sputtering and sparking a bit it delivered some dope performances that deserve to be shared.