NWSL Week 16 Recap- Ms. Cantore goes to Washington, ACFC in crisis mode, and the KC heat

1. Washington go hyper-aggressive

   Washington managed to nab a point at home against Louisville thanks to a late solo effort from Rose Kouassi, but some of the same issues that plagued the Spirit in last week's draw against Gotham rose to the surface once again against Louisville.

   
   

   Manager Adrian Gonzalez kept the 3-5-2, but went wildly aggressive in midfield, electing to start both Leicy Santos and Croix Bethune underneath debutant Sofia Cantore and Gift Monday. Functionally, this meant that Hal Hershfelt was left as a mostly-solo six at the base of Washington's midfield trio, only occasionally aided by a dropping Santos. Here's what it looked like in possession, Hershfelt ranging across the field to provide options to Washington's back three, with Santos and Bethune showing to fill the holes:

   
   

   

   
   

   I imagine the logic was to draw Louisville's press high and use the creative talents of Bethune and Santos to turn and break the press, as Bethune does so well here:

   
   

The problem was that just didn't happen very often, and Washington frequently left Hershfelt on an island when Louisville came the other way, the Spirit six often appearing trailing a sprinting Emma Sears. Louisville didn't generate a ton, but Sears was found isos against Rebecca Bernal constantly and only a some poor finishing and a save or two from Aubrey Kingsbury prevented her from tallying.

Washington has some interesting shape and personnel decisions to make as they reckon with their newfound health:

• You have to have Kouassi or Trinity Rodman on the field because neither Cantore or Monday, while both excellent players, offer the 1v1 dynamism and creativity that those two do. Until Rodman is fully ready to go, Kouassi needs to be starting games weekly.

• With Paige Metayer back, it might be time to ditch the 3-5-2. I'd go with Monday up top flanked by Kouassi and Cantore, stick Bethune in the hole, and pair Hershfeldt with either Santos or Narumi Miura to provide a little bit more transition resistance in central midfield.

These are, fortunately for Washington, very much first world problems. Regardless of how Gonzalez decides to line up his team moving forward, it's likely that the Spirit will have two of Cantore, Monday, Rodman, and Kouassi to call on from the bench. And, as 95% of NWSL teams can attest, that's a pretty damn good place to be in.

2. Louisville bypassing the midfield

   Louisville, on the other hand, continues to give good teams problems. Yes, the penalty "conceded" by Leicy Santos for what was essentially a tangle of legs on a ball always destined to be claimed by Aubrey Kingsbury was incredibly fortunate and an absolutely nonsensical call, but Louisville, for the most part, did what they always do: stay in shape, press relentlessly, and play long balls to Emma Sears.

   
   

   No team in the NWSL has less possession per match or has taken fewer touches in the middle third of the field than Louisville. Not Chicago, not Utah, not Houston, not nobody. Louisville trails the Stars in 13th place by over 300 total touches and an average of 2% possession per match on the season. This team simply does not care to have the ball in the midfield, and it matches their emphasis on high pressure and verticality- Outside of Savannah Demelo, they don't really have the personnel to play any differently.

   
   

   Despite the lack of the ball, Louisville rarely find themselves under siege because of the impressive combination of aggression and discipline they play with in the press. They very rarely sit back in a low block in any neutral game state and their fullbacks are well drilled in scooping up long balls either caused by the general gnat-like traits of their forward line, or errors by the opponent. Janine Sonis, who has had her trials and tribulations playing at fullback both while at Manchester City and Portland, has looked much more steady in that position deputizing for Lauren Milliet. The clip below was the third time she intercepted a progressive pass in the match, stepping in front of a lazy ball to start a Louisville counter, before a rather hilarious attempted (and failed) shirt grab by Hershfelt draws a yellow.

   
   
   
   

   Even setting aside the penalty, Louisville had their chances, mostly through Sears who had a tasty matchup with Rebecca Bernal when Spirit LWB Kate Wiesner was drawn higher up the field. Ary Borges, always a bit of a loose cannon, was mostly really good when she came on until her giveaway led to Kouassi's late equalizer, an effort that Jordyn Bloomer really should have done much better with. Arin Wright has been a bit of an unsung hero for Louisville, and had another mostly good game when she and LB Courtney Peterson weren't being tortured by Monday's work rate.

   
   

   Louisville --knock on wood-- seem destined to escape 9th place purgatory, but though much of their identity stems from the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, it would be SO nice to see just one more talented attacker join this group. I'm not asking for the impossible task of attracting some Euro megastar or even a young American college star, but it would be nice to see Louisville splurge on some high level young talent at some point (or, if they had just kept Reilyn Turner, quietly having quite the season in Portland and still just 22 years old, around instead of dumping her last summer).

   
   

   Anyhow: Good result for Yanez and her side despite the disappointment of the late concession. It's been fun to see this team develop a real identity in 2025.

   
   

3. Alex Straus: Ur losing me brother!

   If I had to classify my level of concern about Angel City and their German manager going into this week, we would have been at Defcon 3- Worrying and disappointed, but understanding of the difficulties associated with being a new NWSL manager.

   
   

   However, after Angel City put forth a strong entry for the worst performance by an NWSL team relative to expectation all season, we're fully into Defcon 2 territory. Straus is still early enough in his tenure as Angel City's manager that I can give a little bit of grace as he figures out the league and his own roster, but the series of increasingly bizarre choice made by Straus and the resulting performances are starting to edge into "is this dude cut out for the league" territory.

   
   

   Straus rolled out what looked like a version of the same narrow 4-3-3 Angel City have been playing since he took over, but inserted Christen Press into the starting lineup in place of Jun Endo, who, as has been documented on these pages over the past two weeks, he had been playing in place of Kennedy Fuller as Angel City's 10. "Hmm" I wondered. "Does this mean Press is going to play in the 10?" "Is he going to go full attack 4-2-4 with Press and Tiernan up top?

   
   

   As it turned out, Straus did neither, instead picking the weirdest of the weird options and opting for what played almost as more of a 4-2-2-2 with the ball, with both Press and Tiernan frequently dropping below Alyssa Thompson and Sveindis Jonsdottir into an odd double 10. Angel City played in a 4-2-3-1 defensive shape, with Press leading the line with Tiernan in the hole behind her. In making the changes he did, Straus somehow managed to neuter Tiernan's two greatest strengths in one fell swoop: It took the youngster and her relentless work rate away from the point of Angel City's press without the ball, while dropping her deeper and away from goal with the ball. Look at where Tiernan's starting position is in this clip, and where she ends up as Fuller drives forward- She almost looks lost!

   
   
   
   

   Here she is, again far deeper than you want her, as Jonsdottir prepares to cross:

   
   
   
   

   The most concerning element of Straus's early tenure in LA isn't the record, it's that he doesn't seem to know his own team yet. Since the international break, Angel City's manager has:

   - Taken Fuller away from the elevated positions she thrives in.

   - Tried Endo in the ten spot she clearly wasn't comfortable or familiar with.

   - Moved Alyssa Thompson more centrally, taking away some of the danger she offers on the wing.

   - Played Tiernan as a withdrawn 10.

   - Played Madison Hammond over both Katie Zelem and Macey Hodge -- who immediately crunched into two excellent tackles after coming on in the second half-- like she's blackmailing him. What exactly does Hammond do that Hodge doesn't do better?

   
   

   For anyone who thinks I'm being too harsh, just look at the heat map and the xG. ALEX, BROTHER, YOU ARE PLAYING UTAH!

   
   

   

   via @nwslstat

   We're still so early in his tenure that Straus has some time to figure stuff out before his seat starts getting hot, but let's be honest about what's happened since he took over: Angel City has transformed from an exciting --if not always effective-- young team under Sam Laity and turned into one that's getting dominated by an Ally Sentnor-less Utah Royals.

   
   

4. Utah more sturdy, but offensive issues persist

   
   

   I won't get bitten again after my always-destined-for-disaster early season dalliance with Jimmy Conraets' side, but the Royals are, once again, showing the tiniest of flashes even if their ceiling is almost certainly capped at around the 10th best team in the league on roster talent alone.

   
   

   On the plus side, they've somehow looked much sturdier since the Sentnor trade, conceding just 1.5 xG over two matches against the Current and Angel City. I have to imagine a large part of this is simply the return of CB Kaleigh Riehl, who has replaced the revolving door next to Kate Del Fava and simplified Utah's defensive structure. Riehl is also much less prone to the sins of overplaying that have plagued both Lauren Flynn and Ana Tejada, and has brought a needed simplification of the defending process. Conraets has also gone a little more practical at RB as Janni Thomsen returns from Euros duty, starting the newly-healthy vet Imani Dorsey, who was EXCELLENT against Angel City and Alyssa Thompson. Nuria Rabano, who had a pretty torrid time defensively against the speed of the NWSL in the first half of the season, looks to have found her groove going forward as a result of some of the newfound stability next to her.

   
   

   On the other hand, the offense still stinks. Sentnor's propensity for potshots has infected Mina Tanaka who, though probably Utah's best player and active throughout, made a number of bad decisions in attack. Against a frequently wide open Angel City midfield and defense, Utah still took seven of their fourteen shots from outside the box, many of them WELL outside the edge of the are. Utah did have a few excellent opportunities in front of goal, but failed to do much of anything with them. A healthy Cloe Lacasse, who was really good before tearing her ACL in 2024, should help with the chance creation, but Utah's lack of a reasonably competent striker --Aisha, I had such high hopes :( -- will continue to limit any improvement going forward.

   
   

   Overall, Utah have resisted the draw of total collapse after the disaster of the Sentnor trade request, which is an unquestionable victory for Conraets and his hopes of keeping his job in 2026. Does Utah have any chance at using the Sentnor money with similar level talent? Probably not. But let's see.

   
   

5. Same old Courage

   No one could have reasonably expected North Carolina to look any different just one week after the shocking firing of Nahas, but the Courage's 1-1 draw at home against Portland punctuated by more poor finishing, flowing transition moves leading nowhere, Manaka playground highlights, and Jaedyn Shaw once again sitting on the bench didn't exactly convince me that Nahas was the issue. Interim manager Nathan Thackeray did seem to change back to the 4-3-3 from the 3-back the Courage have used for the last 10 matches or so, but North Carolina virtually ran things the same way in the slightly changed shape as they had in the 3-4-2-1, did the same things well, and did the same things poorly. It was Nahasian in all its elements, and I imagine we won't really see anything different until North Carolina's new look FO go get their handpicked coach....and, I'd imagine, a few new players.

   
   

   Both a highlight of the match and an indicator of what North Carolina do well and poorly was the play of Briana Pinto, who was North Carolina's best non-Manaka player on the day. Pinto was brought in to reprise her role as North Carolina's false 9, and gave Portland's CBs fits all afternoon long with her hold up play and movement. A lot of it was pure back to goal hold up and distribute work like this....

   
   
   
   

   ....but she also did a lot of dropping even deeper into the Portland midfield and testing whether Portland's back line wanted to follow her and abandon their stations:

   
   

Pinto's play may have led to more if it wasn't for a couple of absolute stinkers turned in from the wingbacks Tyler Lussi (yes, I know she got the goal) and Aline Gomes, who had moments but also made some truly awful decisions with her final ball. Ryan Williams, consistently one of North Carolina's best attackers from RWB as of late, didn't do a lot of venturing forward and was mostly North Carolina's 3rd CB in their attacking build, which was a major issue before the switch to the back three and once again did not allow her to venture far enough up the field.

I'd guess any substantial changes won't occur until next season, but this was about as typical a Courage performance as you're ever going to see.

6. Portland run out of gas

   The Thorns were a bit of a mixed bag against North Carolina. As is typical of manager Rob Gale, they came out in the 4-2-4 press that worked so well the week prior against Seattle.....and promptly got shredded by a North Carolina team that, if nothing else, can break a press with the best of 'em. This is just way too easy. Look at Portland's front line of four and how easy the Courage play around it.

   
   
   
   

   But then, a minor miracle occurred about 20 minutes in: Gale adjusted (or at least appeared to do so!) and dropped Jessie Fleming slightly deeper so that the press was more of a 1-3 than a flat 4....and it kind of worked. Watch this clip, where Fleming is underneath nine Pietra Tordin and is therefore deep enough to recover to pick up Ashley Sanchez as she tries to turn inside:

   
   
   
   

   After the adjustment, Portland were much the better team for most of the the middle half of the game, taking the lead through a net-breaker from teenager Olivia Moultrie in transition and starting the second half with a brief flurry of chances. Eventually, however, the front three became visibly gassed, and the Courage began finding the holes they had managed to locate in the first quarter of the game, Manaka in particular beginning to take over. Gale waited probably ten minutes too late to bring some fresh legs to his front line and but for a series of heroic McKenzie Arnold saves, the Thorns would have conceded more than the one time they did.

   
   

   A draw felt about right, even if the Courage will probably be kicking themselves for not taking some of their chances. Young Pietra Tordin missed a couple of golden opportunities, including one on yet another incredible Dennis Bergkamp-esque spin, before an absolutely hysterical and cartoonishly reckless challenge was somehow left unpunished by VAR.

   
   

   BROOOOO

   
   

   Portland will take the point despite the missed chances, and return home to put their unbeaten home record up against the runaway shield leaders.

   
   

7. Thoughts on the weather delay in KC

   On principle, I don't particularly like defending the NWSL, who all too frequently enjoy jamming their foot as far into their own mouths as possible, but I thought the league got a little too much heat for the chaotic weather delay in KC during what was set to be the weekend's primetime matchup between the defending champs and the current shield leaders.

   
   

   Most of the arguments for hammering the NWSL revolve around some idea that the league is prioritizing networks and advertising revenue associated with the national TV games over player safety. And yes, of course the game would have been better played at 7:00 instead of 3:00, even if it had meant switching the national TV game to a more weather-appropriate matchup, yes the atmospheric loss caused by the multi-hour delay was frustrating, and yes, moving forward with the intent to start the game on time despite the heat was probably a misstep.

   
   

   But here's the thing: The league has virtually zero (0) teams immune to climate-related circumstances, especially as the **waves at everything climate change-related** gets steadily worse. Aside from the obvious KC/NCC/Orlando/DC quad where humidity multiplies the heat factor, Chicago, LA, Louisville, and Gotham are prone to extreme heat. Utah has it's share of heat, as does San Jose. Seattle, Portland, and San Diego are a probably at the least risk, but we JUST SAW Portland and Seattle play in 98 degrees at Providence Park the weekend prior. This isn't just a "scheduling a match at 4:00 in KC in August is bad foresight" thing, it's a "we're going to see this happen as long as we play pro soccer in the summer" thing.

   
   

   This isn't to say that this situation couldn't have been handled better, because it could have been. The league should have taken action to move the game days before when we had a pretty good idea of what the temperature was going to be, and the decision making process leading to the eventual correct decision to delay the game should have both started sooner and been more decisive and less stop-start than it was. The fans at the game shouldn't have been made to come out and sit in the sun. But there's not necessarily a real airtight solution in terms of addressing the actual issue --playing mid-day matches during the summer -- here unless we play every game in the evening, which simply isn't going to happen.

   
   

   Tl;dr: The situation should have been handled better, but I think --and I very well could be wrong-- this is more about establishing better, more timely, and more efficient protocols when needed than an issue with the league prioritizing exposure and revenue over player safety.

   
   

8. Orlando & KC fight to a stalemate in the heat

   When the game was finally played, it was a real slog. Orlando lost Barbra Banda to injury early after a collision with Chawinga, mostly sat back afterwards, and didn't have a shot on target until the last five minutes of the match, playing one of their worst offensive games of the Hines era. KC banged their heads into the wall and came close with a brief flurry at the end, but only generated 0.81 xG on the night themselves against a resolute Orlando side. Emily Sams, showing her versatility, was shifted to RB to make way for the returning Rafaelle, and was mostly excellent against KC's dangerous attack.

   
   

   While there was a prevailing notion that the heat delay deprived the world of a classic match between the Pride and Current in which Banda and Chawinga each scored double hat tricks en route to a 8-8 draw, the reality is that this game mirrored each of the past three regular season matchups between the Current and Pride: grind it out, incredibly physical matchups played on the margins. This isn't to say that the heat didn't play a part, but these matchups are traditionally rarely the up and down thriller of last season's semi-final.

   
   

   KC, however, did accumulate under 1 xG for the first time since the Laura Harvey game in Seattle, just one week after struggling to break down Utah. An aberration, or might the offense be slowing down a tad? I'm gonna go with the former.

   
   

9. Trinity Armstrong

   I plan to do a deeper dive on Armstrong in one of these recaps before the season ends, but I do think it's actually going a bit under the radar that San Diego just spawned a Naomi Girma replacement. A Naomi Girma replacement that just turned 18 years of age.

   
   

   Despite the hyperbole in the previous paragraph, Armstrong is NOT actually Girma, who might be the single best defender in the world and is essentially the perfect center back. Armstrong is prone to the occasional stab and has a bit of work to do in 1v1 areas (as shown in the fbref spiderchart below), but she does have the innate ability to be in the right positions so frequently that she rarely has to recover. Armstrong's best trait at this stage in her young career--and one that fits right into San Diego's control-heavy system-- is her ball-playing ability and coolness under pressure.

   
   

   

   
   

   Perhaps most impressively, she's the anchor of an increasingly sturdy Wave defense, which ranks 4th in the league in xGA after a relatively rough start to the season. A 17 year old CB --as she was until last month-- leading the line for a top five NWSL team is just not something you see happen often. Armstrong was mega-hyped coming out of North Carolina, and, if early returns prove correct, the hype is justified.

   
   

10. Bay go 4-4-2

    One week after manager Albertin Montoya played the craziest of 3-backs in Week 15, Bay moved to yet another new formation: A flat 4-4-2 that saw Karlie Lema enter the starting 11 to join Rachael Kundananji up top.

    
    

    The 4-4-2 played very aggressively as Bay attempted to claw back a two goal deficit, fullbacks Caprice Dydasco and Alyssa Malonson pushing high alongside wide midfielders Taylor Huff and Rachel Hill. Bay played mostly down the right where Kundananji and Huff were located, 61% of passes in the final third coming down the right side. The wisdom of playing Huff, a dynamic playmaker who thrives centrally, on the touchline remains confusing. It would be nice to see more of Huff and Tess Boade, who was an instant threat upon entering the match in the 66th minute, playing together underneath Kundananji, but Montoya's constant tinkering has made it tough for Bay to find any rhythm.

    
    

    To Bay's credit, they have looked more dynamic over the past few weeks despite a series of disappointing results (and the xG tallies largely reflect that), but I can't imagine it's easy for Montoya's players to find a groove when the structure shifts weekly. Against San Diego, Bay never really got into top gear until they were already 2-0 down and failed to find the net from open play. Asisat Oshoala continues to be an absolutely tremendous disappointment when she does manage to get on the field, meaning that two of Bay's much ballyhooed year 1 international signings have been busts. Not what you want!

    
    

    Goal of the Week: Welcome to the NWSL, Sofia Cantore: