mea culpa

Hi. Hello there. It’s me.

I tend to pack most of my free time with writing, podcasting, editing, or diving into data visualizations to understand some players and the game better. Thankfully I have a very flexible 9-5, so in normal situations I can handle it. But if this balance shifts even a couple of degrees, things get hectic and overwhelming.

This week my job had one of its two events of the year that require me to be fully present for multiple days. That’s why this is late, and also I am late in finishing pieces I’ve started and had hoped to drop in your inboxes by now.

Now that it’s over I will get to finishing those pieces, and try not overwhelm your inbox. Below are the xG race charts & passing networks from last weekend, and coming soon will be a piece about Jessica Berman, Jaedyn Shaw’s fit at Gotham, and a look at some of the top goals added (g+) performers across the various categories (shooting, receiving, fouling, interrupting, and dribbling).

Stay tuned, it’ll be fun. Now onto the woso…

upcoming matches for your eyeballs

yesterday, september 12

At one point both Arsenal and Manchester City were behind. They both recovered, obvs one more impressively than the other. Chelsea will be without Mayra Ramírez until 2026, and Naomi Girma has yet to make her 25/26 season debut, so either team dropping points now would be less than ideal. They acted like it.

Regression to the mean is beatin Jonas Eidevall’s ass right now. San Diego Wavé have now been shutout in their fourth consecutive game (plus six out of their last eight). To make things even worse, it looked as if Delphine Cascarino had to be subbed off after an injury. Jonas is trapped in a Yikea.

saturday, september 13

Angel City may have a bit of gripe with them having to fly across the country then play at 12:30pm local time (9:30am per their body clocks) on CBS. Those caveats aside, things were quite poor for pretty much 80 of the 90 minutes. Especially given that Jaedyn Shaw is now with Gotham, and Denise O’Sullivan and Ashley Sanchez were out with injuries. The one positive was that the lone goal they scored, late in the second half, was scored by the one player who needed it most, Sveindís.

Orlando Pride are straight up spiraling and Bay FC have been the team several down-on-their-luck teams have wanted to see. Bay will create chances but probably won’t score many of them, meanwhile they’ll be easy enough to catch in transition or move around in possession. If Orlando can’t stop their skid and get a result against Bay it’ll be big red panic button mashing time.

The last match of the day is #1 vs. #2. Not much selling needed there. Washington Spirit just dismantled a usually organized and defensively frustrating Seattle team, while Kansas City haven’t lost a game since May 2nd.

sunday, september 14

If you had something planned for this day lol no you didn’t.

monday, september 15

London City had a tough opening match, and this one won’t be all that easy too. But if there’s a top-4’ish team they can sneak a result from, it’s probably Marc Skinner’s Manchester United.

Union Berlin were promoted after winning 2. Frauen-Bundesliga with a 19-5-2 record, scoring 71 goals and conceding just 17. The step up in competition won’t allow them to come anywhere close to that, but they are an interesting, and extremely young, team. They don’t have a single player at 30-years-old or above (though Steinert will be their first when she turns 30 Sept. 25).

thursday, september 18

Angel City will get a chance to reverse travel misfortune with a random ass Thursday match against Washington Spirit, who will be just days away from a trip to Kansas City to scrap with Chawinga n’ them.

thing to read

2025 nwsl week 19: xG race charts & g+ passing/receiving networks

more #content you might be into

Hey Spirits
Sorry to that Reign
[Spirits v. Seattle Review]
🍎 Apple | 🟢 Spotify

Annie & I review a complete performance in a 2-0 win over Seattle. We discuss tactical fluidity, DEB ABIODUN, a brace from New Trin, and a lot more because I absolutely would not shutup!!

farewell fun

Down goes #1, courtesy of a mf’n rocket.

ESPN+ has tons of college woso matches, and you can scroll through them by day here.