nwsl quarter season surprises: the hell yeahs to the what's going on heres

I’m not good at math but the calculator on my phone tells me that we’re somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter of the way through the 2025 NWSL season. I know, I couldn’t believe it either. Thankfully calculators don’t (yet) really rely on AI, so it’s unlikely this answer was completely made up. Word to Google.

Anyway, it’s early enough for us to have gathered a fairly clear idea of what’s going on with most teams and players. It’s also early enough for things to change. So before we settle in the for the next bit of the season, let’s take a minute to identify early season trends, good and bad.

hell yeahs

In an effort to be more radical optimistic given the f*ckery going on around the world, and specifically in the United States, let’s start with the good.

Esther Es Her

We’ve known Esther to be a crafty forward for some time, but I don’t think anyone expected her to be leading a golden boot race with a league that still features Barbra Banda and Temwa Chawinga. With so many changes to Juan Carlos Amorós’ Gotham FC, several voids have been created. Jaelin Howell is trying to make up for the loss of Delanie Sheehan in midfield, while rookie Sarah Schupansky is trying to fill-in for Yazmeen Ryan (especially with Rose Lavelle still out with an ankle injury).

Making their lives much easier has been the burden of goalscoring that Esther has so far grabbed with both hands (and, somehow, her head). It’s always been remarkable to me that a 5’3 player can be dominant in the air, but she is. Gotham are also doing a lot to utilize that weapon.

She has seven goals in her last four games, including three braces. Only one of her goals has been a penalty, and out of the other six, three have been headers (1 open play, 2 from set pieces). I doubt seven goals every four games is sustainable (she’s currently doubling her non-penalty xG; 3.02), but given her crafty movement and precision in the air, there’s no reason to think she won’t keep nodding in a few more throughout the season.

Espresso Mode Alyssa Thompson

I’ve mentioned this before when reviewing Thompson’s performances with the USWNT, but she’s been the same menace for club and country. It’s been a while since all of Triple Espresso—Trinity Rodman, Mal Swanson, Sophia Wilson (née Smith)—were hoopin week to week in the NWSL. What glorious times those were.

Without the OG trio, Alyssa has started to consistently show why she made her USWNT debut at 17-years-old. This season she’s been carrying a weirdly arrange Angel City side that’s had high highs and low lows under interim head coach Sam Laity. This math doesn’t always work, but the one match Thompson has missed due to injury was a 0-4 wrecking by Gotham, with Angel City matching their lowest xG total of the season (.05).

Thompson has three goals from 1.4 non-penalty xG and an assist, making her responsible for 44% of Angel City’s goal production this season.

This is extremely Espresso Territory.

Kiki Pickett is the Truth

Kiki Pickett started her Bay FC career playing eight minutes as a forward. Then, after an ACL tear ended Alex Loera’s one-game tenure in defensive midfield, Pickett played 23 minutes at fullback the following game. After, she was given her shot in defensive midfield, and she has refused to let it go.

I love stories like this because they show us how fluid this sport is, and that player development can look a number of ways. Pickett has always been a baller, and was a fourth overall pick out of Stanford in the 2021 NWSL draft. But her skillset then seemed to place her squarely in fullback territory.

She’s bided her time, but can now cackle at all of us for getting it so wrong. She was one of the best defensive midfielders in the league last season, and is not just replicating her level of performance, she’s also added scrogin bangers to her resumé.

Rebeca Bernal TYSM

Last week I had a very serious conversation about the Washington Spirit where I scared myself by involuntarily asking ‘Where would the Spirit be without her?’. Throughout the offseason, Bernal wasn’t on the radar for a move to the NWSL, let alone the Washington Spirit—though we all knew they needed an addition center back.

Still, it wasn’t until the rumors started gaining traction, and were eventually confirmed by my friends at Our Futbol that the deal was happening. She’s been an instant starter for the Spirit, and the versatility she showed in Liga MX Femenil has already been called on multiple times in her seven games with the Spirit.

It’s been really fun to see her presence become a focal point for the team. Whether she’s playing as a defensive midfielder, central center back in a back three or central defense in a traditional unit, Spirit possessions often start with her, and her positional and strength has allowed her to have immediate success in the league. The only part of her game that she hasn’t already replicated from Liga MXF is her goalscoring from set pieces and open play. Keep watching, I’d put money on that coming soon.

The Wavé Might be … Fun?

I don’t know whomst this Jonas Eidevall is either. And truthfully, I still don’t trust it. But his San Diego team of young terrors and established menaces have had an extremely fun start to the season.

Top of the table clubs, Kansas City and Orlando, have each scored 14 goals, but San Diego is tied for third with 12, alongside Gotham. They execute an aggressive high press early in games to get the ball to playmakers Delphine Cascarino (a dribbling god), Kenza Dali, and newcomer Gia Corley. It’s, erm, working.

The one hesitance I have is the massive overperformance of xG, with the Wavé having 11 non-penalty goals from 5.07 xG. That’s typically not a sustainable thing, but in this case it’s going to be fun to see if it can continue. The location of San Diego’s shots are so central that they’re placing the ball in dangerous areas right in front of goal. Of course they also smack a number of shots from outside of the box, but overall their shot generation inside the box is ideal.

Cook on, yung Wavés, me and my close personal friend, Nigella Lawson, are watching intently.

what exactly is going on here

Ok but it hasn’t all been delightful. And I’m not talking about just a notch below spectacular, I mean some things this season have been downright forehead-smacking weird.

Chicago Why Are You (Still) Like This?

Read Lesley Ryder’s guest post for more details from someone local who has been covering the team for a while.

The red flag for me is the ‘financial stability’ piece in their 1,000 day plan to turnaround the club. Previous owner, the enabling and penny pinching Arnim Whisler, preferred a similar approach. Aside from ~everything else~, that was the old, broke boi NWSL. This is an NWSL where investment is critical, not just to win, but to even compete.

There are of course a number of ways to build a team that don’t require every club to go all Bay FC, but we’re not seeing Chicago or their GM, Richard Feuz, replicate any of them. So when they use a phrase like ‘financial stability’ after doing, essentially, nothing in a seemingly crucial offseason window, it comes across as being cheap for the sake of being cheap, and positions new ownership’s custody of the club as a vanity item rather than an entity focused on competing on the pitch. Feuz’s rampant tour of speaking engagements tells a similar story as well.

Boring, Boring Utah

I hate this. I was a Utah Clowner who, after a flurry of midseason moves, was converted to a Utah Truther. It’s my fault for believing in a front office that’s ok with printing ‘America First’ on their team’s shirts. But they really should be doing better with the players they have.

Yes, Ally Sentnor has yet to meet a 25 yard shot at goal she doesn’t think she can score, and yes Mina Tanaka has missed half the team’s games so far with an injury. But they’ve continued bringing in fun internationals, including Aisha Solórzano and Janni Thomsen, plus 15-year-old USYNT star KK Ream.

One of their problems has seemingly been head coach Jimmy Coenraets’ insistence that the team play only one way—short passes building up the pitch, starting with goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn. I get it, it’s an ideal way to play. When I play EAFC this is what I do. Popping the ball around in my own area before feeding into space to catch a defender out of position releases endorphins and is somewhat of an addiction. But this is the NWSL.

So while the theoretical idea is fine, in practice it’s led to slow and predictable play, the lowest non-penalty xG in the league (4.4), and lots of mistakes playing out of the back.

The Shaw + Sanchez Show Has Been Postponed Indefinitely

@niqqitee

I be so sick of YALL 🙄🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅 #fyp #FFXmasSwitch #dobetter

After two seasons of fielding two defensive stalwarts—Denise O’Sullivan & Narumi Miura—in midfield but not being able to consistently generate goals unless Kerolin (now with Manchester City) was on the pitch, I was excited for the Jaedyn Shaw + Ashley Sanchez show. I assumed Sean Nahas had a plan to get both in their most preferred and dangerous positions. My popcorn was ready.

We’re six games in and none of this has happened. Part of this is because Nahas’ solution was to stick Sanchez at right win while Shaw played either false 9 or center and attacking midfield. This hasn’t helped Shaw do what she does best (thread throughballs to runners and make late entries into the box) or Sanchez be the unpredictable creative force we expect.

The most recent change to a 3-4-2-1 is promising. It gives Shaw and Sanchez a chance to be the 2 behind the 1, allowing them both access to the attacking midfield pockets we all assumed they’d be in to start the season. Ugh.

Rahsing’s Rondos Must Be Hilarious

After weird and seemingly desperate summer moves last summer, Bev Yanez has continued to struggle to put the pieces together in a cohesive way. The result is a team with decent individual talent, but no clear way for them to play together.

This has been highlighted by the team having, by far, the lowest pass completion percentage in the league. Their 68% average is .01 away from being four percentage points away from the next club, Chicago, who didn’t really want much of the ball anyway under now former head coach Lorne Donaldson.

Taylor Flint will never be confused for a regista, but the entire midfield has struggled to connect passes to a frankly absurd degree. No midfielder who has suited up for Loovull this season has a pass completion percentage over 70%. The closest is Ary Borges, at 67.4. That is bonkers.

I don’t feel it’s solely on the players, though. Borges’ drop has been the most stunning given that she’s finished her previous two seasons in Louisville having completed over 80% of her passes. The weird thing i that Rahsing is actually doing ok once they get the ball into the final third. Their non-penalty xG and expected assists (xA) per 90 are second in the league despite being in the bottom three in short, medium and long passes attempted.

It seems when they’re in the box, they create good chances. Now, they just need to focus on finding ways to get there. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s probably going to require successfully kicking the ball to one another.

Sam Laity Forgot About Christen Press

Alright, so, I know Sam Laity has been in the league for a while and by all accounts across multiple teams and players, he seems to be a good person. Though the lowest of bars, this is the NWSL. Given history, that is not an insignificant thing. However, this is the second club he’s taken charge of, and neither spell has gone particularly well, or even had encouraging bright spots.

I talked before about the carry job of Alyssa Thompson, and what the team looked like without her. Outside of her, the team has been a bit unsettled, despite clear potential solutions hanging out in team colors. Macey Hodge (pure rangy defensive menace), Katie Zelem (deep-lying playmaker), and Kennedy Fuller (young star attacking midfielder) seem to be the exact profiles you want to cook in a midfield. Yet all three have barely spent time on the pitch together.

Instead, Alanna Kennedy, who spent the last four years as a center back at Manchester City, as been inserted into midfield, often in place of Zelem—a true midfielder. Even with this, Angel City was recently tormenting defending champions Orlando Pride. They came out with a superior intensity and had them down 2-0 at halftime. Then, in unfortunately predictable fashion, Laity took over, tried to slow things down, and they ended up losing 3-2—on an own goal.

In press availability since, the question was asked whether Christen Press (who he’s called on to play a total of 48 minutes this season) could have helped settle the team. "What we really lacked in those last 20 minutes was a little bit of calmness, a little bit of leadership,” Laity explained, “and, I think on reflection, Christen would have brought that."

On one hand, props for being vulnerable enough as a leader to admit a (clear) mistake. That is rare these days, and is good. It doesn’t really explain why this has seemingly happened every single game, but it’s something. But, of course, on the other hand [/flips over several tables].