we are so back

The 2024 NWSL season is over but the woso never stops. The NCAA College Cup semis and championship is upcoming, multiple European leagues have interesting titles races, and the UWCL group stages are nearing their end—but a couple banger matchups are to come.

Also, NWSL offseason chaos is percolating, so I take a quick look at recent free agent movement. There’s also words about recent pieces on the Spirit’s supporters and their relationship with the team, Jill Ellis vs. Casey Stoney, and NWSL leadership failing Barbra Banda.

Ok, let’s get to it.

upcoming matches for your eyeballs

today

This is a first versus fourth scrap that Wolfsburg really need to win, as Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Munich are both just two points below. Lineth Beerensteyn is their top scorer, with 8 goals, and Alex Popp has been hoppin with 5 goals and 3 assists in ten matches played.

Leverkusen decided to be serious have a super young, very talented and fun team. They’re not quite as dominant in games as the top three, but they’re tied on points with Eintracht and Bayern, and upsetting Wolfsburg would blow the title race wide tf open. They also have a young Danish goalscorer named Cornelia Kramer, which is a hilarious name but she’s looking like a real baller.

The College Cup is always fun and these matchups are definitely tasty. Wake Forest is the surprise team here, especially given the legacy of the other programs. But they are super legit, and forward Caiya Hanks has cooked all season and in the games leading to the semifinal. Elise Evans just might be the next superstar defender to come out of Stanford, while forward Andrea Kitahata be shootin.

UNC looked like they were in trouble when half their squad and recruits decided to bounce, but look what removing toxicity from your life will do. Kate Faasse and her 19(!!) goals makes her the obvious player to watch, but Maddie Dahlien has 7 assists and Bella Gaetino (yes, Eva’s sister) scored a banger in the prior round. Duke are without star scorer Kat Rader, but Maggie Graham and Mia Minestrella have combined for 26 goals and 12 assists to pickup the slack. In the assist department, Ella Hase and Mia Oliaro can do better, with each notching 13.

saturday, december 7

Chasing Barcelona in Liga F is probably the most Sisyphean task in woso, well apart from keeping the bigots out. Anywhomst, that’s exactly what Real Madrid’s century-plus old rivalry with the Catalan club demands. The table shows them third but with two games in hand. Even assuming all six points, they’d still be five behind Barca at the top. Still, they gotta try, the January window is coming up, and maybe #progress this season looks like Barca not winning the league a month and a half before the season ends.

I understand, no one needs more Korbin Albert in their life, but hear me out. Paris FC are always up for this game (even if they rarely win), but beyond that Eva Gaetino is turning into quite the interesting player. She’s been stepping into defensive midfield (for, reasons), pushing Albert to the right wing—her natural position amirite.

Also, PSG are a full on mess right now. Everybody wants out and that’s bad for morale and overall vibes. After a spell of being played out of position, Grace Geyoro suddenly isn’t starting or playing at all anymore. Star stiker Marie-Antoinette Katoto is finally fed up and has already hinted at leaving the club.

sunday, december 8

It’s a brand new WSL season and the first in over a decade without Emma Hayes so you might be a bit surprised that Chelsea are already five points ahead at the top of the table. Manchester City looked like the dominant team until the two met and Chelsea won 2-0. Anyway, Man United are six points ahead of Liverpool, which could be cut to 3 in this game.

Chelsea will also be welcoming Brighton, and Brighton’s Fran Kirby, back to Kingsmeadow. Bizarro world, but it will be emotional. Also Brighton have a history of bothering Chelsea and this season are third on the table, ahead of Arsenal by a point.

monday, december 9

For all the proverbial marbles.

wednesday, december 11

There’s not a ton of drama left as half the groups have their two entrants into the knockout rounds already set. But with just two matchdays to go the scrap between Wolfsburg and Roma is one of (tbh the only, more on that later) the potential banger matchups left. Right now Wolfsburg and Roma are tied on points (6) but it’s the Italian club who sits in the #2 slot due to their win over the German side on the first matchday of group play.

We may get funky lineups and weird performances from teams whose UWCL futures are already set, but Wolfsburg/Roma should make up for it.

thursday, december 12

Hilariously, the other team whose future isn’t mathematically secure is last season’s champions, Barcelona. This is all thanks to their fairly shocking 2-0 loss to Manchester City earlier in group play. However, all they have to do is draw or beat Hammarby and they’re locked into the next round, and the last time Barca faced Hammarby they won 9-0. So. Yeah.

things to know…

We’re into another NWSL offseason and that usually means chaos. While the panic about free agency is that players would all flock to the same warm weather climates and stack superteams, we have not seen that. In fact this year the first 29 free agents to sign did so with their current club. Player autonomy is good and is not linked to the erosion of league parity in any way; only clubs being various levels of serious and unserious impacts parity.

Anyway, we finally have some free agent movement away from the clubs they called home in 2024, and the moves are all quite interesting.

Two Gotham players leaving the club is unsurprising. Again, I go back to mechanisms like roster sizes and the salary cap that are still in place as “safeguards” against superteams. Gotham’s free agent signings ahead of 2024, plus int’l signings, were always going to come at a cost, and losing these two players is not an insignificant one (also, there are surely more on the way out).

Delanie Sheehan was often singled out as one of the unheralded parts of Juan Carlos Amorós’ system that made it hum. With a move to Houston she’ll need to be a much more noticeable part of whatever success they plan on having in the future. Also, not entirely sure who’s calling the shots there, so hopefully whoever is brought in is also on board with featuring Sheehan and playing to her strengths.

Maitane López to Chicago is a fun one, and notably Chicago’s press release listed López as a midfielder. At Gotham she was primarily deployed as a center back, but prior to coming to the NWSL she was a central or defensive midfielder. If López can anchor the Chicago midfield, Julia Grosso can be freed up to cook. Or, Chicago can lean into their white folding chair persona and stick Maitane and Bea Franklin as the 2 in a 4231 and dare other midfielders to pass.

The move that really intrigues me, though, is Madison Curry to Seattle. The holdup over the Reign’s eventual sale put them in a weird spot, but head coach Laura Harvey also did weird stuff most of the season. Even when they recruited well over the summer and had the “easiest” (nothing in the NWSL is easy) path to the playoffs, they floundered horribly. Now, in Curry, they’re adding one of the best fullbacks in the league.

Curry’s attacking play still needs to develop, but some of that is system-dependent, which brings me to the part of the move that worries me. The NWSL underwent a sudden style shift, catching a few people by surprise and leaving them behind. I think Harvey was one of those people. Since 2021, no player had won the golden boot with more than ten open play goals.

This year not only was the single season scoring record broken, all 20 of Temwa Chawinga’s goals were non-penalty strikes. All 13 of Barbra Banda’s goals were non-penalty strikes as well. In addition, seven other players notched 7 or more non-penalty goals this season. Among those, quite a few missed chunks of the season due to injury—Sophia Smith (10), Esther González (9), Ouleye Sarr (8), Trinity Rodman (7).

Basically, if you’re gonna rely on defense to win games in this NWSL you should also have a solid and versatile attacking plan. The talent and coaching standards have been raised to the point where ‘this one neat trick’ approaches will be found out. If Harvey can adjust and help develop Curry into a well-rounded player, she can become a USWNT-caliber talent.

I enjoyed this piece from Jenna. The relationship between the club and its fans has developed a lot, and I hope continues to do so. The players have always deserved it, and this piece gets into how truly appreciative they are, beyond the standard issue ‘we have the best fans in the world’ athlete saying.

It’s a rule that if Casey Stoney is on one side and Jill Ellis is on the other, then Stoney is on the correct side. After bringing a series of shames and lawsuits to the San Diego Wavé, she’s left the club to take up a newly-created role with FIFA, an organization that embraces toxicity with open arms.

Seeing people avoid consequences for alleged abusive behaviors by failing up is frustrating, but the hope here is that just like Arsène Wenger—who, too, compromised his morals for FIFA bucks—Ellis is just a figurehead. Primarily because she has promoted some awful ideas, like a Women’s World Cup every two years which would crush domestic club soccer—you know, the thing she was just paid to care about for several years.

For the Wavé it’s a chance to truly move on, even though they’ll still have lawsuits to contend with. Their list of things they must get right is long, Ellis was at the top, but they need a new coach (Jonas Eidevall is reportedly close, which, well, hm), and to address the horrendous pitch at Snapdragon which literally cost them a home game last season.

We hear that the NWSL is engaged in DEI trainings and NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman deflected several important questions with the same seemingly rehearsed “We are committed to…” line. But when Barbra Banda was attacked by horrible people in the UK, including the black mold wizard lady, the league itself was quiet. This would have been a good time to show the receipts of that work and “commitment.”

In the climate in which we’re heading, the league’s silence is worrying, and could dismantle their progress if they fail to protect players within the league from internal and external threats.

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come get yer gif

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