NWSL Week 13 Recap- Angel City debut new shape, Uh-Oh Orlando, and Houston collapse in North Carolina

1. Alex Straus making his mark in LA

   The start of the Alex Straus era in LA has not gone particularly smoothly. In the three matches the German has managed, Angel City have lost twice and drawn Chicago, and find themselves stuck in 11th place at the season's halfway point.

   
   

   Straus is, however, starting to do some things differently. On Friday, Angel City started a full-blown back three with Alana Kennedy dropping into the backline from her typical holding midfield spot. Straus' back three switch took attacking midfielder Kennedy Fuller out of the lineup in favor of a third CB, perhaps signaling a recognition that Angel City's defensive issues (ACFC have conceded the third most goals in the league) need to be addressed.

   
   

   On paper, Angel City's roster does lend itself to a back three: FBs MA Vignola and Gisele Thompson are both naturally more attacking-minded and the switch to playing as wingbacks makes sense for their respective skillsets. Kennedy and Sarah Gorden (and Savy King when she is able to return) are all talented ball-playing CBs, which should, in theory, allow the wingbacks to push forward more.

   
   

   The shape against Kansas City was really more of well-structured back five. The trick against the Current is to balance the need to keep numbers behind the ball to prevent Kansas City from getting out in transition, while not going full park the bus and allowing the Current to swarm. Angel City mostly got this balance right- Despite starting an incredibly defensive-minded double pivot of Madison Hammond and Macey Hodge, Angel City's wingbacks and front line did just about enough to provide outlets. Defensively, Straus had Kennedy man-mark Bia when Kansas City's Brazilian striker made her frequent forays back into midfield, while dropping the wingbacks when KC got into their build. Angel City did a good job of denying space in behind....right up until Temwa Chawinga broke through and had her saved shot put home on the rebound by Bia.

   
   

   Going forward, Straus compensated for taking his ten off the field by having winger Julie Dufour (getting a run in the team with Angel City missing Claire Emslie) drop into midfield to allow Gisele Thompson to fill the space high on the wing. Here are a few clips of Angel City's more vertical builds in the first half with Dufour playing almost as a third central midfielder:

   The main problem with the shape change was that it left Riley Tiernan and Alyssa Thompson --Angel City's two most dangerous attackers-- completely isolated up top. Thompson saw less of the ball than she has all season and Tiernan finished the match with fewer touches than any other player to play the full 90. If Straus does keep the back three, I might pair the excellent Hodge (Angel City's POTM for me) with Katie Zelem instead of Hammond to add a little more ball retention and creativity in the center of the park. Angel City ultimately lost the match via a missed penalty from Thompson and Bia's rocket, but looked more defensively sound than they have all season. Every match won't be played on the road against the best team in the league, so how Straus' tactical decisions change against different opponents after the summer break will be an interesting NWSL subplot.

   
   

2. Chickens come home to roost in Orlando

   Don't say I didn't tell y'all this was coming! After a few one-nil wins against mediocre opponents the two weeks prior, Orlando's falling standard of play finally bit them against an impressive Louisville side on the road at Lynn Family Stadium.

   
   

   Orlando continue to find themselves in situations where they are forced to depart from what made them such a dangerous side in 2024, namely spots where they're forced to play against a low block by conceding first. This combo of dominant possession and inept chance creation is exceptionally worrying if you're an Orlando fan. After a relatively even first half where Louisville scored the lone goal from a corner, Orlando came out of the gates slow to start the second and should have conceded again when Louisville midfielder Ary Borges rattled the post from nearly point blank range.

   

   via @nwslstat

   Orlando are still almost an entirely vertical team- The Pride lead the NWSL in both progressive carries and progressive passes, meaning that they want their attacking sequences to be short and direct. When they're forced to have the ball for long stretches, the chance generation starts to get worse. Through 12 weeks, Orlando had created 37 opportunities with an "good or great" xG of 0.15 or higher. Of those 37 chances, only four came from a "slow build," (one of the worst rates in the entire league). The Pride also generate 28% of their xG from individual play, well above league average and behind only Louisville in the entire NWSL.

   

   via https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/sebastian.bush/viz/NWSLTeamxGCharts/xG

   So what does this tell me? Well, primarily that the Pride don't generate many chances through their steady state or slower builds. That's not totally atypical for a team that is best in space, but you can see that the Pride's "basic pass" xG generation is well below league average. For a team with Barbra Banda, you expect a slightly higher rate of xG generated from individual play, but Orlando's game state management in 2025 has meant that they're often forced to play against a low block down a goal. If they want a chance at catching Kansas City (last season's poster child for this same issue), this will have to improve.

   
   

3. Louisville get a big one

   This was the proof of concept game I needed from Louisville. For all the criticism I've leveled at the Pride over the past few weeks, they remain, at least statistically, one of the NWSL's best sides. They still have Barbra Banda. At the very least, Orlando is not an easy out.

   
   

   This was not a sit-and-kick effort from Bev Yanez's side despite the heat map and possession numbers. Louisville straight up outplayed the Pride over 90 minutes, generating nearly 2 npxG and riding out the second half with a two goal lead without much stress. Yanez appeared to back off the press just a tad after last week's shellacking in KC--Louisville's average line of confrontation was substantially lower than it has been on average over the course of the season-- but kept the high pressure, in-your-face identity that Louisville has leaned on during their recent hot streak.

   
   

   Overall, this was simply a much needed impressive performance going into the post-summer break rematch against the Current. There's not another team in the league that I've done as much of a 180 on in 2025. Massive kudos to Yanez and her staff, who have their team playing at about it's maximum level after a rough start.

   
   

4. More garbage from Utah

   The people are clamoring for more Utah disasterclass clips, so I had to oblige. This might be, no joke, the most undisciplined NWSL team I've ever watched. There might have been an era of Sky Blue circa 2018 that rivaled some of the comedy potential, but in terms of pure bad decision making? Hard to get worse than this Utah side.

   
   

   I'll start with some of the shot decisions. What is this from Claudia Zornoza? Brecken. Mozingo is virtually through on goal if the Spaniard plays the easy ball to her left:

   Here's another one, this time coming after an excellent Janni Thomsen run. Mikayla Cluff just takes a wild swing at a rebound from 25 yards with options, once again, either side.

   
   

   There are also small things like giving up on late runs after crosses. Here's one of about three times it happened over the course of the ninety minutes, no Utah player on hand to take advantage of a rushed Seattle clearance after a Royals breakaway:

   
   

   Then there's the defense. Even if Utah's general defensive posture was better than it is, it's hard to account for the mind-numbing combination of individual and communication errors that continue to plague Utah every. Here's the first for Emeri Adames, and Seattle's second: Madison Pogarch, for unknown reasons, intentionally shows Ji So Yun inside instead of pushing the Korean wide, forcing CB Kaleigh Riehl to leave Adames and cover for her left back. While Pogarch stops and screams for a nonexistent offside call, Adames is left wide open to slot home.

   Here's the play leading up to Seattle's penalty: Thomsen, a poor 1v1 defender, can't keep Nerilia Mondesir in front of her before Cluff sticks out the laziest of legs to bring Seattle's winger down for what would eventually be given as a penalty. Really bad!

5. The Seattle Youths

   In a league filled with exciting young attacking talent, Laura Harvey's frustration factory might not be the first place you think to look. Combined with her less than attractive style of play, Harvey has been traditionally reticent to play her kids consistent minutes in the attack.

   
   

   Through a combination of necessity (Seattle's mostly gone with full-blown youth movement) and earned playtime, Emeri Adames has joined Maddie Dahlien in Harvey's preferred 11, starting the Reign's last four matches. After what I would deem to have been far too much Ana Maria Crnogorcevic over the first month of the season, Harvey has started going with Adames and Nerilia Mondesir more frequently. Seattle has played a number of different shapes, but against the hapless Utah defense, Harvey got a little frisky and ditched her defensive-minded three back for a 4-3-3 with Adames and Maddie Dahlien either side of Lynn Biyendolo with Ji getting a rare start underneath. This is almost unquestionably Seattle's best front three: Biyendolo's most underrated trait is how malleable she is, and her versatility and general soccer IQ has really helped her younger teammates thrive.

   
   

   We all know how good Dahlien is, but Adames might be the Seattle youngster I'm most interested in going forward. The 19 year old has scored four times in just 440 minutes on the field, good for the best Goals/90 rate in the NWSL and is in the top ten in both shot on target per 90 and goals per shot. Per 90 extrapolation doesn't always work, but there's a real world in which we're thinking of Adames in a different class by the end of 2025 if she continues to get real minutes, especially if --and that's a helluva if-- Harvey opens up a little more as she did against Utah. Fun little player.

   
   

6. Houston's fluid shape

   Houston's shape is about as hard to pin down on a week to week basis as that of any team in the league. First year manager Fabrice Gautrat has toyed with a few different formations over the first half of 2025, moving from a 4-3-3 to start the season to a 3-back in recent weeks. It took me a while to figure out exactly the Dash were playing on Saturday.....and, to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure! At times, it looked like a 4-3-3 with with a midfield trio of Sarah Puntigam, Dani Colaprico, and Delanie Sheehan sitting behind a front three of Yaz Ryan, Ryan Gareis, and Barbara Olivieri. At others, it looked like Houston's three-back of the last few weeks with Gareis and Avery Patterson as wingbacks and Christen Westphal playing as a third centerback.

   
   

   Whatever it was, it almost felt a little TOO fluid. Houston typically plays Ryan as their nine with Olivieri rotating inside with Messiah Bright off the field, but neither player really likes operating in those spaces. Ryan consistently finds herself drifting deep to find the ball, leaving a hole up top where a more natural nine would sit. Houston's central midfielders --Sheehan in particular-- fill that space on occasion, but it's rarely consistent. I did a double take a few times in the first half when I saw Puntigam making the runs off the ball into the North Carolina box. That's Olivieri dropping deep while Puntigam breaks high in the first clip, with the Austrian making a deep attacking run on the opposite side of the field in the second.

   
   
   
   

   As the kids would say:

   

   
   

   What I'd really like to see from Gautrat? Just get Avery Patterson higher up the field. If Ryan is Houston's most dynamic attacking player, Patterson might be the most effective. For a roster devoid of top end talent, it seems counterintuitive to keep Patterson tied to her defensive responsibilities, whether as a wingback or outright fullback. Whenever she gets forward, good things happen. Here's the whole clip of the 20 seconds leading up to Patterson's goal. She's everywhere, first dragging North Carolina's defense out and destabilizing the shape before nabbing the ball off of Malia Berkely to score the opener.

   
   

   Houston actually played a solid 70 minutes against North Carolina before Puntigam picked up an incredibly sloppy second yellow, clattering Jaedyn Shaw on the sideline. The Dash didn't even have time to adjust to being down a player before Shaw leveled on the very next attacking sequence, and completed their capitulation when Hannah Betfort touched a delightful Manaka Matsukubo cross home in stoppage time

   
   

7. Gotham's lineup

   Sometimes I enjoy seeing just how wrong google can get NWSL lineups. This one --with only keeper Ann-Katrin Berger, Bruninha and Mandy Freeman in the positions they actually played-- is the current front runner in 2025.

8. 

   Rob Gale gets it right.......almost

   I, your local Rob Gale disliker, am about to say something nice about the Thorns manager.....and no, it's not about the all-black-with-yellow-tie ensemble he broke out Saturday on a rainy June Saturday in Portland.

   
   

   With Friday's extremely depressing announcement that rookie winger Caiya Hanks had indeed torn her ACL the week prior against the Spirit, Gale had a decision to make: Would he keep his 4-2-3-1 despite Portland's dearth of wingers, or finally change shape?

   
   

   To my surprise, Gale changed shape. The Thorns trotted out a diamond 4-1-2-1-2 with both of their natural nines (Reilyn Turner and Pietra Tordin) starting in front of Olivia Moultrie at the ten, Hina Sugita and Jessie Fleming shuttling as eights, and Sam Coffey at the base. I saw the idea: The diamond finally got Portland's best attackers in more natural positions --Turner central instead of wide, Moultrie in the ten instead of on the wing-- and allowed Gale to get all four of his talented central midfielders on the field.

   
   

   The problem was the decision to play Tordin and Turner together up top in lieu of a more pacy option. The two nines are different players, but have matching strengths and weaknesses: Both are best with their back to goal and neither are real threats in behind. Combined with the fact that the Thorns do not have a Avery Patterson or Ryan Williams type at FB to provide pace and width, Portland's personnel offered no dynamism on the flanks. For those American football-inclined, the Thorns played like a football team that only runs the ball with no deep threat wide receiver, allowing their opponent to push numbers up on the line of scrimmage: Chicago had everything in front of them with no fear of getting beat over the top. The Thorns rarely even attempted to find their attackers or fullbacks in behind, failing to generate much at all in the first half beyond a Moultrie effort that hit the outside of the post. This clip comes at the very end of the first half, right as the whistle is about to blow, but it's indicative of the Thorns' unwillingness to try to stretch the defense. Isabella Obaze strides up field with the ball after a turnover. You can see Chicago RB Natalia Kuikka checking her shoulder as she retreats. She's doing that because Turner, just off screen, is in acres of space in behind. This is a ball Obaze just needs to put into space for Turner to chase, but instead she checks back and the halftime whistle blows.

   
   

   Gale went back to a version of the 4-2-3-1 in the second half with Fleming in the 10, Moultrie wide, and Turner and Tordin rotating centrally. It still wasn't all that effective: while the shape change offered more natural width, it didn't change the personnel issue. The Thorns still didn't have anyone on the field who seemed remotely interested in challenging Chicago's back line with a forward run, and the ball was continuously recycled whenever Portland got forward. This remained the case until Sam Coffey decided --not for the first time this season-- that she had had enough of her team's timidness. The Thorns' six made a darting run into the Chicago box where she was found by the typically excellent Hina Sugita, before squaring for Tordin to tap a not-as-easy-as-it-looked chance into an open net.

   
   

   We may never see the diamond again given how quickly the Thorns moved away from their new shape in-game, but I appreciated the attempt to mix things up a little bit. The Thorns did look more incisive against Chicago when Payton Linnehan came on for Tordin, so the lesson is probably just "get some speed on the field instead of playing the slowest front line in the history of pro soccer"

   
   

9. San Diego huffs and puffs

   The Wave spent much of the last match of the weekend knocking on the door of Washington's goal, but really generated very little in terms of clear cut goal scoring opportunities. There are some --not I, necessarily!-- who feel as though San Diego's xG over-performance portends some MAJOR 2nd half regression, and this was a good example to point to for those of that belief. The Wave have scored 25 goals on the season (that's second on the NWSL) on just 14 xG (that's 9th). For the mathematically inclined, that's an over-performance of 10 goals or 0.76 goals per game, which would put them on pace for a 20 goal season over-performance if this keeps up. That's absurd. For added reference, the highest xG over-performance in all of 2024 was Kansas City at +2.6.

   
   

   So, there are some very valid concerns here if you're believer in statistical regression. San Diego's fluidity and all around beautiful soccer has screened some of their lack of chance creation, but the numbers are what they are. Thoughts?

   
   

10. The 100% Correct and Indisputable Midseason Awards Ballot

    MVP 1-5: Kenza Dali, Temwa Chawinga, Esther Gonzalez, Manaka Matsukubo, Delphine Cascarino

    RoTY 1-5: Maddie Dahlien, Riley Tiernan, Lilly Reale, Trinity Armstrong, Taylor Huff

    MFoTY 1-5: Kenza Dali, Manaka Matsukubo, Sam Coffey, Debinha, Taylor Flint

    DoTY 1-5: Jordyn Bugg, Emily Sams, Reyna Reyes, Avery Patterson, Tara McKeown

    GKoTY 1-5: Claudia Dickey, Aubrey Kingsbury, MacKenzie Arnold, Lorena, Ann-Katrin Berger

    CoTY 1-3 : Jonas Eidevall, Bev Yanez, Vlatko Andonovski

    
    

    Best 11 (4-2-3-1): Claudia Dickey (GK) - Reyna Reyes (LB), Emily Sams (CB), Jordyn Bugg (CB), Avery Patterson (RB) - Sam Coffey (CM), Kenza Dali (CM), Manaka Matsukubo (AM), Temwa Chawinga (LW), Esther Gonzalez (ST), Delphine Cascarino (RW)

    
    

    2nd 11 (4-2-3-1): Aubrey Kingsbury (GK) - Lilly Reale (LB), Tara McKeown (CB), Elizabeth Ball (CB), Gisele Thompson (RB) - Sam Meza (CM), Denise O'Sullivan (CM), Debinha (AM)- Alyssa Thompson (LW), Barbra Banda (ST), Michelle Cooper (RW)

....and for fun, here's one more:

3rd 11 (4-2-3-1): MacKenzie Arnold (GK) - Alyssa Malonson (LB), Emily Sonnett (CB), Trinity Armstrong (CB), Ryan Williams (RB) - Savannah McKaskill (CM), Taylor Flint (CM), Olivia Moultrie (AM), Ludmila (LW), Riley Tiernan (ST), Emma Sears (RW)

Goal of the Week:

Not a great week for great goals. Bia gets this week's prize: