NWSL Week 14 Recap- 14 Questions for 14 teams

I have a few weeks of weekend busyness as the NWSL season begins its second half, so the weekly recaps will be delayed until Wednesday as I catch up on the games. This week, I'll be talking about the Week 14 matches in the context of one second half question for each of the 14 teams. We're back!

1. Kansas City Current

   The question: Can the Current give the 2018 Courage a run for their money as the best NWSL team ever?

   
   

   I'd like to have a more substantive question for the league leaders, but the Current enter the second half with an eight point gap to second place Orlando that, frankly, I would be utterly shocked if they came close to giving up barring injury to Temwa Chawinga or multiple other key pieces. So instead, I'll use this as an opportunity for a quick history lesson.

	2025 Kansas City	NWSL Record
Points per Game	2.54	2.38 (2018 Courage)
Goals per game	2.23	2.25 (2018 Courage)
Goals Against per game	0.76	0.71 (2021 Thorns, 2018 Courage)
xG per game	1.85	2.27 (2019 Courage)
xGA per game	0.77	0.71 (2018 Courage)

With the caveats that a) we don't have advanced stats pre 2019 and can't fully get at the underlyings as a result; and b) the overall level of the league has gone up significantly since 2018, I think that it remains relatively inarguable that the 2018 Courage are the best NWSL team of all time. Despite a near invincible season from the Pride last year, the 2018-19 Courage side led by an in-their-primes Lynn Biyendolo, Denise O'Sullivan, Crystal Dunn, and Debinha remains the most singularly dominant NWSL team I've ever watched over the NWSL's 12 years of existence. While then-manager Paul Riley was revealed to be a complete monster of a human being, his box 4-4-2 had opposing teams in absolute hell virtually the entire back half of the 2010s, winning three straight Shields from 2017-2018 and four of the six available trophies overall from 2016-2019 when you include the former Western New York Flash side that was relocated to Cary in 2017. They were utterly dominant.

And yet, as the above table shows, the 2025 Current are on pace to either beat or come close to that 2018 team. It's not all together shocking that a team led by Temwa Chawinga and flanked by Michelle Cooper, Bia Zaneratto, and a resurgent Debinha is challenging goal scoring records, but it's the shockingly stingy defense that is pushing the Current into the conversation. It's probably fair to say that, like many of the best defenses of all time, the Current's remarkable 0.77 xGA per match speaks more to the structure of the side and the threat their attack carries, but that failing to credit the back line would be a tad unfair to Kayla Sharples and company.

The Current didn't really show any signs of slowing down against a challenging Louisville side down in a classic KC performance, letting their opponents have the ball for large swathes of the game before hitting a quick fire double through a lovely flowing moved capped off by Temwa Chawinga followed almost immediately by a Liz Ball header. Oh yeah, and then they signed Ally Sentnor to replace the pregnant (congrats!) Vanessa Dibernardo. I have only one thing to say about that:

The Kansas City Current

2. Orlando Pride

   The question: Is Orlando poised for more slippage, or is the recent poor play an aberration?

   
   

   If the Pride's first (Marta-less) game out of the break was any indication, it's the former. Orlando put up a shockingly flat performance, getting straight up outplayed by whatever you can call the husk of the Utah soccer franchise for 45 minutes before fighting back to nab a solitary point at home at Exploria Stadium.

   
   

   I've written about how Orlando just FEELS like a different team than they did last year. I don't know if it's a championship hangover (they certainly didn't look hungover for the first month of the season) or something more sinister, but Orlando spent the two months prior to the break sputtering along, accumulating a total of 14 points from 10 matches. The average of 1.4 points per game would put the Pride squarely between Louisville in 7th and Gotham in 8th from a season-long pace perspective, and that's not even mentioning that their four wins over those two months have come against the league's 10th, 11th, 12th, and 14th place teams. Not great Geoff!

   
   

3. San Diego Wave

   The question: Can the Wave continue to dramatically over-perform their xG?

   
   

   San Diego's potential for paper tiger-ness through the season's first half has become a popular talking point amongst the nerds (myself included) attempting to project the Wave's second half. On paper, the numbers are alarming: As I wrote in my Week 13 recap:

   
   

   The Wave have scored 25 goals on the season (that's second in the NWSL) on just 14 xG (that's 9th). For the mathematically inclined, that's an over-performance of 11 goals or 0.84 goals per game, which would put them on pace for a 22 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.

If San Diego continue to create chances at the same level, it's hard to see them continuing to score goals at the rate they have. Over-performances like this just don't happen over the course of a full season. As mentioned above, the highest delta in 2024 was KC at +2.6. In 2023, it was Portland at +2.8. In 2022, it was the Courage at +7.8. In 2021, it was Orlando at +0.7. In 2019, it was the Spirit at +0.4. If this continues, the Wave would exceed the largest NWSL over-performance since fbref has counted xG by a whopping 14 goals.

That's probably not going happen. So, the Wave's best chance at keeping themselves near the top of the table is simply getting better at creating high xG chances. The good news for Wave fans is that there's reason to believe they could if they can figure out their striker position: The Wave lead the league in both touches in, and carries into the opponent's attacking third, and are second in carries into the opponent's penalty area (hello Delphine Cascarino!).

The first game out of the break wasn't a great start, the Wave taking 18 total shots for a grand total of 0.94 xG against a pitiful Courage team that did even less. This is an UGLY shot chart. There's just nothing here. The Wave haven't scored a goal in two matches.

via @nwslstat

If San Diego falls off a bit, it won't be the end of the world- They've overachieved most everyone's expectations. Their big summer signing --Brazilian midfielder/forward Dudinha-- is an exciting talent, but one that doesn't fundamentally fix their striker problem. It's possible that fitting Dudinha into either the Maria Sanchez role and letting her float around the left side of the field, or playing her up top as a false 9 will lead to better chance creation, but it feels like they're biding their time until 2026 when Trinity Byars (hopefully) makes a full, healthy return to action.

You know who the Wave could use? Late career Alex Morgan!

4. Washington Spirit

   The question: Is Croix Bethune Washington's MVP?

   
   

With all the respect in the world to Trinity Rodman, Tara McKeown, and co, all I could think of while watching Bethune pick apart Portland's defense for most of Sunday morning's marquee at Audi field was HOW FREAKING TALENTED the reigning NWSL rookie of the year is.

The Thorns didn't help themselves by pushing their FBs high to compensate for their lack of true wingers (more on that in a second) and letting Bethune, Gift Monday, and Rose Kouassi iso against poor Sam Hiatt and Isa Obaze, but Bethune continuously took up the perfect positions in the holes between Portland's CB duo and the midfield double pivot of Sam Coffey and Hina Sugita. Watch Bethune from the start of this clip just drift into space past Coffey, receive the ball in space, shrug off the challenge of Coffey, and then rattle McKenzie Arnold's crossbar.

Here she is again, getting in between Portland's double pivot and their CBs, Cruyff-turning her way into space, and placing a lovely through ball in on goal.

There really isn't a more fun player in the league than Bethune when she's on. Please stay healthy!

(While we're on the Spirit, shoutout to Rose Kouassi, who is fully rounding into the explosive form she had discovered at the end of 2024. The Ivorian remains one of the NWSL's most underrated attackers).

5. Portland Thorns

   The question: Can the Thorns keep themselves afloat without any pace on their front line?

   
   

   This one is fairly simple. The Thorns are a slow team. Like, incredibly un-fast. Like if a tortoise and a snail had a baby.

   
   

   Manager Rob Gale has been playing players out of position on the wing all season, a problem only exacerbated by the tragic ACL injury suffered by rookie sensation Caiya Hanks in June. Reilyn Turner has been forced wide, we've seen both Jessie Fleming and Deyna Castellanos on the wing, Mimi Alidou started wide against Washington on Sunday, and Olivia Moultrie is apparently just an inverted winger now.

   
   

   I'm not one to give Gale the benefit of the doubt, but this is primarily a roster construction issue. Portland's strongest positional group --by an absolute country mile-- is central midfield. More specifically, the Thorns came into the 2025 offseason with two starting caliber 10s in Moultrie and Fleming, but still signed both Castellanos and Alidou. The Venezuelan has played around half her minutes as Portland's nine, and Alidou has seen minimal playing time overall since joining from Benfica in the spring.

   
   

   A common refrain among disgruntled Thorns fans is "well, just change the formation!" "Play a narrow 4-4-2!" While Gale has actually tried a diamond on occasion, he's mainly stuck with the 4-2-3-1. That 4-2-3-1, however, plays extremely narrow in practice because the wingers, mostly out of position when Payton Linnehan isn't on the field, almost universally want to be filling central spaces. So, yeah: Gale could change to a diamond, get both rookie Pietra Tordin and Turner up top with Moultrie central and Hina Sugita and Fleming playing the shuttling 8 roles, but that doesn't actually solve the main problem the Thorns have......

   
   

   ....that darn lack of pace of and dynamism on the front line.

   
   

   On Sunday, Gale brought Linnehan in for Alidou at half time and the Thorns immediately started looking long in behind, not letting the Spirit back line step high without having to worry. In the first half, Washington's wingbacks simply stayed high with impunity, knowing full well that Tara McKeown wasn't about to be beaten for pace by Moultrie, Turner, or Alidou. Linnehan has been inconsistent over her first year and a half as a pro --I'd argue she's had her minutes yanked around far too much by Gale-- but she is, if nothing else, a threat to stretch a backline. Portland's wider structure helped them claw back in the game after an atrocious first half and really should have (looking at you, Reilyn and Pietra) put a few more past Aubrey Kingsbury before Trinity Rodman's fairy tale winner in stoppage time on her return.

   
   

   There is, perhaps, an element of Portland's front office not wanting to spend money on a position home to a hopefully returning Morgan Weaver and Hanks next season, but hoping for a quickfire recoveries from one player who has missed the better part of two years with various knee injuries and another returning from an ACL tear is simply not a good strategy for a team that is plenty capable of staying competitive this year. Please, Mr. Agoos: Go get a winger with some speed. I beg.

   
   

6. Seattle Reign

   The question: Can Seattle keep up the pace offensively?

   
   

   The Reign continue to impress in the most Reign fashion possible. Seattle's 2025 so far is looking quite a bit like their 4th place performance in 2023 with the obvious caveat that the top-end competition in 2025 is MUCH better than the 2023 iterations of the Thorns and Wave, who kinda just faffed their way through one of the league's worst ever shield races.

	2025 Reign	2023 Reign
PPG	1.71	1.45
xG/90	0.94	1.24
xGA/90	1.16	1.15
G/90	0.93	1.31
GA/90	0.93	1.09

The main difference is that the 2023 Reign were substantially better offensively than the 2025 Reign have been through half the season. Seattle's playstyle lends itself to xG variance --they rely heavily on converting the few chances they create, ranking rock bottom of the NWSL in total volume of shot-creating opportunities-- so it's not incredibly difficult to see a world in which Seattle maintain this pace until the end of the season and finish around where they currently are.

Bonus hit: I did not like the Mia Fishel deal for Seattle. Fishel is a good and talented player who has suffered some unfortunate injury luck in her young career, but her only real pro production came in the Liga MX Femenil and does not have --in my eyes-- the type of upside to justify the richest contract (and yes, I am aware that the scale of deal will almost certainly be usurped multiple times within the next 6 months) in NWSL history. If I'm Seattle, I would have preferred that money be invested elsewhere. We'll see. On the plus side for any angry Seattle fans, I have now almost guaranteed Fishel scores at Providence Park on Sunday.

7. Racing Louisville

   The question: Does Taylor Flint deserve another national team look?

   
   

   Alright, I went a little rogue on this one. The easy question would have been "why doesn't this team sign a better striker?" or something else related to getting Racing's attack a little juiced up.

   
   

   But there I was, passing through Centralia, Washington on my way from Portland to Seattle on a particularly un-air-conditioned Flix bus with shoddy wifi, listening to the stranger sitting next to me ranting to her friend on speakerphone about how the father of her son was now dating her sister, watching the first half of KC-Louisville on my laptop. And Flint was everywhere.

   
   

   Louisville's giant six has been a tough player to evaluate over her pro career. Now on her third team, Flint started her career playing in more advanced midfield positions as she did in College at the University of Colorado, but it always felt like she didn't quite have the vision or the requisite technical ability to play in those spots. In Louisville, however, she's found her calling. The best thing about Flint is just how much better she's gotten at using her physical tools in productive ways. She's become an absolutely ELITE reader of balls played into midfield, and her huge frame gives an almost unfair physical advantage to go with the growing mental side of her game. Here are two instances of Flint winning the ball higher up the field in quick succession in the first minutes of Friday's first half:

   
   
   
   

   Flint's raw counting stats are predictably spectacular. She's not just leading the league in interceptions and aerial duels won, she's miles ahead of second place in both categories (46 interceptions to second place's 28, and 83 aerials to second place's 54). She trails only Denise O'Sullivan in tackles won, and is 4th in the league in blocks despite playing in midfield. Louisville manager Bev Yanez has done an excellent job of designing Louisville's press around forcing those outballs that Flint can eat up like a venus fly trap, so much so that I'd be curious to see how the press would function without Flint at its base.

   
   

   Flint has probably missed her window to establish herself as a consistent USWNT midfield piece and she's still a relatively one-dimensional player --though she has, to my eyes, improved technically--but on form, she deserves to be kept in consideration.

8. Gotham

   The question: Can Midge Purce and Rose Lavelle get on track quickly enough to elevate Gotham's mediocre season?

   
   

   Gotham's offseason exits, including Lynn Biyendolo, Crystal Dunn, Delanie Sheehan and Yazmeen Ryan were much discussed in preseason, but I tended towards trusting the infrastructure to sustain what had been a mostly consistent program under the stewardship of manager Juan Carlos Amoros.....as did GM Yael Averburch West, who outside of the addition of Jaelin Howell from Seattle and Geyse on loan from Manchester United, has done very little to replace the lost starpower.

   
   

   With the always-relevant injury caveat, Gotham have been the definition of average in 2025. They have an expected goal differential of +0.1 and occupy the league's 8th and final playoff spot. Gotham's general mediocrity comes despite the herculean efforts of Esther Gonzalez and a still-stingy defense led by Emily Sonnett, Jess Carter, and rookie Lily Reale (let's not talk about what's been going on at right back when Carter doesn't play there).

   
   

   When Esther returns from her well-earned Euros break, Amoros will be able to start Lavelle, Purce, and Gonzalez for the first time in 2025. Barring a big name signing or two, Purce and Lavelle are going to have to take a little of the goal scoring burden off Gotham's star Spaniard. Through 14 matches, no other Gotham player has scored more than twice (Geyse) or accumulated more than 2 xG (Howell). That's not going to cut it over the remainder of the season if Gotham want to make a charge towards the top four.....and neither is getting outplayed by freakin Chicago in the first game out of the break, Esther or no Esther.

   
   

9. North Carolina Courage

   The question: Who is North Carolina's best striker?

   
   

   I don't want to belabor this point too much- I've spent plenty of time moaning about Sean Nahas's inability to find (or unwillingness to select) a player to lead his line. Yes, I know the Courage play functionally without a nine. Yes, I know Nahas is stuck in his ways. Yes, he did make a real adjustment when North Carolina switched from his beloved 4-3-3 to the current 3-back.

   
   

   While North Carolina had improved undeniably since Nahas made the switch to the back three, scoring 9 goals on 10.8 xG in the five games before the break, I still have very real concerns about what their ceiling looks like. The three back had opened up a hithertoo mostly unseen verticality via North Carolina's wingbacks, which mitigated the Courage's worst tendencies to overplay in key areas. Despite the statistical improvement, the top of the Courage's formation all too often looks like someone chopped the top off a Christmas tree and then turned it upside down. The Courage have started a whopping SEVEN players (Ashley Sanchez, Manaka Matsukubo, Cortnee Vine, Aline Gomes, Briana Pinto, and Jaedyn Shaw) up top through 14 games. Nahas has tried false nines, point strikers, strike duos, and just about every other combination under the sun. But when approximately zero of the players you've tried to fit into the nine have experience playing that role, the shape looks like it did in Saturday's 0.17 xG snooze fest against SD.

   
   

   

   via @nwslstat

   The most befuddling element of the Courage season that has somehow, in my opinion, gone largely under-discussed is how the Courage have completely failed to properly integrate Jaedyn Shaw into the Nahas ecosystem. Shaw, in theory, should be the point of that chopped off Christmas tree. I HAVE to assume --especially after she started up top early on the season-- that this was the intent. Shaw has demonstrated the ability to play both as a false and a more typical nine, but Nahas hasn't really given her the chance to bed in to that role. Shaw has been a little banged up at times, but has still played in every one of North Carolina's first 14 games....but has started just eight. Despite her limited minutes and general meh performance, she still is behind only, Manaka in the most creation metrics. I'd like to see her get a little bit more of a run and see if they can get her bedded in, because her usage has been befuddling to say the least.

   
   

   DISCLAIMER: The Courage fired Nahas for undisclosed reasons after the writing of this post.

10. Bay FC

    The question: Can SOMEONE get Rachael Kundananji going?

    
    

    Anyone who watched Bay's rather entertaining draw with Houston likely came out of it slightly concerned with Rachael Kundananji's finishing. The Zambian has had issues finding the net in 1v1s throughout her Bay career, but her multi-post-hit game against the Dash felt cruel. It feels bad enough watching these highlights, but trust me: it was far worse watching the full game.

    
    

    The Zambian has been moved centrally by Albertin Montoya over the past month or so to try to juice up Bay's mostly juice-less attack. While the move hasn't really helped Bay out from a results standpoint, the chance creation numbers have gotten better. In a small sample size of the three games Kundananji has started up top, Bay have accumulated 7.4 xG (2.5 xG per match) compared to 1 xG per match in the first 11 games of the season.

    
    

    Kundananji's underperformance isn't really that much of an underperformance when you look at the data. Her finishing rate over expectation isn't great (-2.9 through 14 weeks), but that averages out to just 0.20 per match, which is mostly just bad luck. Similarly, her shot on target percentage is 35%, which is almost perfectly average. It's her goals per shot on target rate of 0.07 (1 goal on 15 SoT) that's dreadful, but I won't be surprised if this balances out over the second half of the season.

11. Angel City FC

    The question: Can Alex Straus figure out his best 11 in time forAngel City to make a playoff push?

    
    

    Angel City got Seattle'd on Friday night against the Reign, getting thoroughly frustrated by the discipline of Laura Harvey's side en route to accumulating just 0.19 xG over the 90 minutes.

    
    

    Straus has picked up just one point from his first four matches in charge of Angel City. After the German shifted to a 3-4-3 against the Current in the last game before the break, he moved back to the 4-3-3 against Seattle. Straus' lineup choices have been a bit strange. He has benched both English midfielder Katie Zelem and rookie Macey Hodge three out of the four games he's managed, and played a truly bizarre midfield trio of Jun Endo (welcome back!), Kennedy Fuller, and Madison Hammond against Seattle. He's also dropped Alana Kennedy back into the backline over the past two matches in place of Megan Reid, and started a FB duo of rookie Evelyn Shores --on debut-- and Miyabi Moriya --whose contract option Angel City recently declined-- against Seattle. Starting RB Gisele Thompson is injured and I support the Kennedy over Reid decision, but the midfield stuff is....weird, to say the least. Seattle had no issues with a paper thin Angel City midfield with Hammond the only player with any interest in playing a more holding role. We see this kind of naivety this sometimes with new coaches in NWSL who think they can get away with an attacking 4-3-3.....but I don't want to see Endo and Fuller in the dual 10s/8s role again.

    
    

    I'm curious who Angel City fans would like to see start next week using the 18 that were available against Seattle. My preferred eleven would be:

    Anderson/Vignola-Gorden-Kennedy-Miyabi/Zelem-Hodge-Fuller/Thompson-Tiernan-Jonsdottir

    
    

12. Houston Dash

    The question: Are the Dash really signing Lisa Boattin?

    
    

    I gotta say, if the reports out of Italy are true, this would be a GREAT fit for Houston. Boattin isn't someone likely to hold up too well defensively against the physicality and pace the NWSL has on the wings, but she's not a BAD defender, and her technical ability and versatility going forward would shift some of the tremendous load off the shoulders of Avery Patterson on the opposite side.

    
    

    The Dash have looked somewhat frisky --well, as frisky as you can look while going six games without a victory-- at times over the last month. I admit to being a little out over my skis on Houston from a projection standpoint and they are much further out from true contention than I had hoped, but they do, for the first time in years, have some real things to be excited about. Patterson has turned into a straight up star. Yaz Ryan has been miscast as a striker due to Houston's lack of a starting caliber option in her place, but looks as dangerous as ever. Delanie Sheehan has tailed off a tad after a hot start, but remains an excellent midfield building block. I like what I've seen out of rookie Maggie Graham. They have some pieces! They do, however, still have holes at some of the most important positions on the field. They don't have either a starting caliber six or nine, and the departure of Tarciane (who was herself a flawed young player during her tenure in Houston) left a massive hole in the center of the Houston backline.

    
    

    Houston really just needs talent, and adding pieces like Boattin, if the move goes through, would be a fun start.

    
    

13. Chicago Stars

    The question: Can Chicago do a 2024 Utah?

    
    

    The Stars have had some moments over the past month and really should have defeated Gotham in their second half of the season opener, but their overall lack of talent remains apparent. Utah's 2nd half run in 2024 was spurred in part by the manager switch, but was mostly down to the additions of Mina Tanaka, Cloe Lacasse, and Claudia Zornoza who injected the requisite talent into Jimmy Conraets' lineup.

    
    

    Chicago has......not done that. With just over two weeks remaining in the summer window, Chicago has done literally nothing at all. Well, they did sign RB and Iowa product Samantha Cary Angel from Norrköping, and signed Bea Franklin, McKenzie Wood, Taylor Malham, and and Jameese Joseph to extensions, so not LITERALLY nothing, but you get what I'm saying. Barring a few major adds in the next two weeks, it's hard to see a world where Chicago improves in any meaningful way, whoever the coach is. It is, frankly, a tad disturbing that Chicago has done so little to add around poor Ludmila, who remains the only real attacking threat on the roster. This is simply an unacceptable roster composition to have in the 2025 NWSL. It's nasty.

    
    

    There's a chance Massar can get Chicago playing like they did against Gotham and the Stars sneak a few more points out of 2025 as a result, but there are simply too many good teams with too many good players in the league for this roster to do much of anything. So, to answer my own question: No, no I do not think they can do a 2024 Utah.

    
    

14. Utah Royals

    The question: Is this a tenable NWSL franchise?

    
    

    Utah Royals to their fanbase every week

To their credit, Utah put up an impressively resilient display on the road against Orlando just days after trading their talismanic 21 year old forward Ally Sentnor to the Death Star Current in a move that shocked the league on Friday, but, for a team that had high hopes after a hot second half to 2024, 2025 has been nothing short of utter catastrophe.

Teams like Utah have to develop from within. They just HAVE to. Utah have managed to attract a frankly remarkable crew of internationals in Cloe Lacasse, Mina Tanaka, Claudia Zornoza, and Ana Tejada, but attracting that caliber of international becomes substantially more challenging when you don't have a future to sell. The value Utah's front office got for Sentnor -- $600K + $100K in add-ons and a 20% sell on clause-- was good given the player submitted a trade request, but what exactly are Utah going to do with that money? It's so bad there that an under-long-contract-term, 21 year old burgeoning star just successfully asked out! How can you possibly sell the club's vision to talent from around the U.S, let alone abroad? Players like Sentnor are the exact type of player you have to be able to retain if you're a franchise like Utah. And the org managed to create a situation so bad she's gone after a year and half.

Utah fans, vent away.

Goal of the week: This Mina Tanaka lob vs. Orlando