Song: ‘Don’t You Wait’ -Solange | Find something with some bass to catch the full vibe of this one, trust and thank me later.

Heya,

Competitions are getting to the serious business portions of their programming. Liga MX Femenil semifinals are underway, the FA Cup semifinals are this weekend, and Manchester City celebrated their first league title in ten years and then the front office immediately pooped on themselves (explanation below).

The end of the NWSL season is still, approximately, 900,000 days away, but this league is always intense so there’s another interesting slate of games this weekend. Some of the matchups look like they should be predictable by now—Thorns v. Rahsing, Gotham v. Legacy, Current v. Stars—but I’m banking on at least one upset.

Before all that though, you have a new edition of Neat Sh!t (which finally shows some love to defensive plays), my thoughts on some woso news (including which NWSL clubs should be calling Ebony Salmon), woso to watch this week, and a link to a throwback-style soccer ad that I can’t stop watching.

To the woso…

In this edition of Neat Sh!t, we did some #seeing, #hearing, #listening, and #learning. Attackers dicing defenders has dominated past editions, but in this issue defenders fight back.

Last weekend’s games had three red cards (including a coach red card), two games featuring at least five goals, five games decided by a one goal margin, and expansion team on expansion team violence that resulted that ended with two stoppage time goals flipping a result. It was dramatic, and peak NWSLing.

Arsenal’s midweek draw against Brighton gave the WSL its first new champion since 2018/19, and City’s first league titles since 2016. Apparently, the blue side of Manchester decided to celebrate this accomplishment by refusing to re-sign the most prolific goalscorer in the league, Bunny Shaw, and having an article drop about her being close to joining Chelsea.

Obviously, there’s still the signature and pics of shirt holding and hand shaking to confirm any movement, but the article is quite damning from a City perspective. Apparently, the argument is solely about money. And the same Manchester City that’s controlled Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group, an investment company for the Abu Dhabi royal family—with an estimated net worth of £20-billion.

According to Transfermarkt, City spent €95-million on two men’s players just this January, and €206-million last summer. Evidently, Chelsea are very close to securing Shaw’s services for a contract worth £1-million per year. I don’t have a degree in math, and I don’t control a multi-billion dollar fund, but this all seems very unnecessary and stupid by Manchester City.

Liga MX Femenil’s Clausura playoffs are underway with some interesting semifinals. I urge you to check out Eugene Rupiński’s newsletter, Golazo del Gringo, for up-to-date info on what storylines to follow and how to watch upcoming games.

The first leg of the semifinals kicked off Wednesday, with some bonkers results. Club América beat Toluca 7-1, with Geyse and Abby Erceg both scoring goals. The tie between Pachuca and Monterrey is a bit closer, with Pachuca up 2-0. Monterrey catching up to do, but with Lucia Garcia and Christina Burkenroad—who’ve scored 19 and 16 goals respectively—they’re well-equipped to fight back.

I dunno what Aston Villa are up to, but these are three players who a lot of NWSL clubs should be looking at. Especially Salmon, if she’s not completely done with the league (which, I wouldn’t blame her), she would boost the attack of quite a few clubs. Bay FC, how much money do you have left? North Carolina, you just got a bucket of money, wanna use some?

~ PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ~

Annie & I review the Washington Spirit's comfortable midweek win over Rahsing #Loovull, then dive into the goalfest against Orlando Pride, which the Spirit won 4-2. We get into Mama Andi bringing the calm, Trinity Rodman not being Greenland, Sofia Cantore scoring a normal goal (and why her winger skillset is working in central spaces in the NWSL), Claudia Martínez's elite skills, and more.

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