it's vroom vroom time

I don’t know why the Lord did this to me. The return of the NWSL is being accompanied by a new series called For The Win: NWSL which is precisely my kinda content, and also a new season of Drive to Survive and another F1 season. What I’m saying is that while temperatures may begin rising and the piercing cold of winter winds may dissipate, I won’t be seeing or feeling the sun until I’ve consumed all that’s waiting for me.

I’ll get into the woso and NWSL’ing soon (in fact I’ve been working on a team-by-team preview series that’s going to drop next week). But I also want to talk about a little F1. I’ve always been aware of Lewis Hamilton, but wasn’t introduced to following the series on a race-by-race basis until Drive to Survive pulled me in. That means I missed Hamilton’s prime, and a large portion of his dominant run. Now he’s moved teams, to Ferrari, and it has been one of the most iconic things in sports — in large part due to who Hamilton is, and what he means to F1 and fans like me.

This dude has been fighting the good fights in F1 all by his damn self, for decades. From LGBTQ+ rights to Black Lives Matter to Palestine, to trying to increase racial and gender diversity in all aspects of racing (drivers, engineers, team principals, etc.), he’s been a primary force trying to push the sport away from its crusty old whiteness. I love that about him. Also, they’ve only been forced to keep listening to him because of how much he won. Now, at Ferrari, he might have a chance to win again, and I am so locked in.

Now lets get to the woso’ing, which includes the return of the vroomiest league in the game…

upcoming matches for your eyeballs

today, march 7

It’s been 84 years but the NWSL is back. Kinda. Sorta. The Challenge Cup has been whittled down to a single game competition to start the season, which is supposed to be between the NWSL Shield (league) winners and NWSL Championship (playoffs) winners. Well Orlando won both last year lol, so the Spirit, who finished second on the table and lost to the Pride in the championship game, are up.

You would think this would be a perfect opportunity for a bit of revenge, but the Spirit could field a whole XI from players listed as out on their availability report. Hopefully this is just precautionary, otherwise I need to update my season previews asaptually.

Liga MX Femenil got a lot of deserved love and eyeballs this week thanks to Jacquie Ovalle’s absolutely absurd goal (more on that later). It can be tough to find consistent access to the games, but if you can, you should watch. Players’ xAudacity has to be on a hundred million to find success in the league, which is what makes it so fun. Tigres and América are two of its best teams, and have squads full of highly technical and fun players.

saturday, march 8

My love for the title race in Frauen Bundesliga has subsided since normal order has been restored. But Wolfsburg can’t afford to slip up again, the last time they did they found themselves looking up to not just Bayern Munich, but Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen too. Leipzig floated just outside of that early scrap but made life very difficult for Bayern Munich just a month ago, only losing 1-0.

sunday, march 9

It’s FA Cup time in England and the usual teams remain, and have coincidentally been kept from facing each other in this round. As long as each avoid defeat, the next round will feature the top 4 on the WSL table, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Manchester City. According to league tables and whatnot, Man City and Arsenal have the toughest games this round. Now would be a very funny but embarrassing time for some Peak Gareth Tayloring, but they did just draw with West Ham, so it’s in the air.

friday, march 14

Annnnnnd NOW the NWSL is back! The actual regular season gets started and I am hype about this year of NWSL’ing. Chicago Tsar’s offseason has not sparked much joy and their very first match being against Barbra Banda and Orlando Pride could see an early mashing of the panic button. The Houston Dash cooked this offseason but still have a long way to go. If the Washington Spirit’s injured list remains as it is for the Challenge Cup this could be an early opportunity for last year’s bottom table side to make a statement.

saturday, march 15

A day full of bangers, we are so hashtag blessed. In every other NWSL season but one Kansas City Current’s 2024 point total would have guaranteed them a trophy, instead they were fourth. Heavens. This will likely make them one of the hungriest and most pissed off teams this season, and they get to start the season against a Sophia Wilson-less (née Smith) Portland Thorns squad that is very much rebuilding.

I dunno what Louisville has been up to this offseason but I don’t think it’s gonna go well for them unless they change something drastic. The North Carolina Courage will be unveiling several new signings, and we might finally get to see how Sean Nahas plans on fitting Ashley Sanchez and new signing Jaedyn Shaw into the XI.

Utah Royals cooked this offseason too and Bay FC were in more refinement mode than overhaul mode (though this investigation into Bay FC head coach Albertin Montoya seems concerning). Bay looked much better toward the end of last season, but both teams’ extremely poor starts to last season put them in difficult holes to climb out of. It’d be wise to avoid leaping into such pits again. Seattle Reign added lots of vroom, which they sorely lacked last year, and Gotham FC had an offseason from hell but are still quite talented. This game will be a good test to see where both teams are in comparison to last season.

sunday, march 16

Jonas Eidevall vs. Sam Laity, not what everyone feared when these two teams burst into the league and everyone thought they would scoop up all the talent and dominate forevermore. Turns out players care about a lot more than good weather, and front offices can’t rely on location to make up for inadequacies and silly and/or evil decisions. /end rant

stuff to read…

jacquie ovalle scored a goal so good it made jenni hermoso faint

Here I was, sitting in my living room on a quiet Monday night in early March when Jacquie Ovalle decided, with mere hours left in the day, to score in an unforgettable and never-before-seen way. Why? As far as I can tell, simply because she can.

Nothing about this makes sense. Not only is it difficult to comprehend given the assumptions we all have about the natural laws of our world, but in hundreds of thousands—potentially millions—of minutes watching soccer, I’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t know how you think to do something like this, let alone coordinate your body to pull it off. So I wrote about it.

things to know…

This is very much an ongoing situation but NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman’s insistence on downplaying, or straight up ignoring, issues within clubs is becoming a serious problem. Expansion is great and I get wanting to focus on that and only talking about growth and investment and positivity — which coincidentally is how valuations keep going up — but she can’t just be Girlboss Lisa Baird. There’s still a real and important job to do to protect players and staff across the league.

Thanks to the NWSLPA and multiple Attorneys General she may have no choice. But, again, why must it always be up to the players to protect themselves?

more #content you might be into

Hey Spirits: Spirit Fest Podcast Turducken [Coach & Players Interviews, Challenge Cup, Candy Corn, & More]
🍎Apple | 🟢Spotify

Still wild that this happened, and I am delighted with how well it all turned out. We hosted two live podcast recording sessions at Spirit Fest, and got to chat with Jona, Adrián, Barnie, Tara, Kate, Hal and Esme about everything from the Challenge Cup to candy corn! (If you know some of my history with European woso, me on stage with Jona Giráldez almost made me miss Twitter for the first time lmao.)

DRS FC: Lewis Hamilton: From chosen on, to icon, to activist
🍎Apple | 🟢Spotify

Eboni, Donald & I review the on and off track career of Lewis Hamilton. From chosen one status to becoming an icon, and using his platform for good, we discuss what it all means to us.

happy gifmas

I’ll never grow tired of watching any angle of this goal, but this is my favorite. Jenni Hermoso has shared the pitch with some of the most absurd and audacious talents in woso, but Jacquie Ovalle is the only one to bring her to her knees.

What an honor, what a goal.