NWSL Week 18 Recap- More Dash Drama, Gotham's identity shift, and KC's defensive dominance

1. Louisville exposed in transition

   The 2025 version of Bev Yanez's Racing Louisville side have become the hipster darling of the NWSL. They press hard in structure, they don't have the top-end talent of their league mates, and are an absolute bitch to play against. 2025 has been a hell of a way to break the ninth place curse.

   
   

   Friday's home duel against Houston wasn't a total disaster by any means: Louisville were yet another Dash stoppage time goal away from making their way into the NWSL's top four, they made another trade the hipsters loved in adding Makenna Morris, and have emerged out of the July/August gauntlet looking better than ever.

   
   

   With that said, this was the most wide open and disconnected Louisville have been since April. Houston relentlessly picked at the gaps either side of Taylor Flint in Yanez's 4-3-3; the Dash's front three of Kiki Van Zanten, Messiah Bright, and Yaz Ryan dropping into the holes and finding acres of space in behind. Louisville's press is predicated on winning the ball high or relying on Flint to sweep up errant balls over the top, but Houston's overloads meant that Flint struggled to choose which of the dropping Dash players to pick up. At times, Delanie Sheehan floated into elevated pockets, pushing Van Zanten even higher. Watch the eyes of Louisville's midfield here: They're all so wary of Ryan's threat on the turn that Sheehan is allowed to just drift completely unmarked into space.

   
   
   
   

   The balls that REALLY had Louisville cooked all match were simple chips out of the back to the dropping front three. Look how easy this is once Ryan wins the first ball- The danger of playing a pressing 4-3-3 is that it takes the two eights out of the play, and such was the case for Louisville: Ary Borges and Savannah Demelo were absolutely nowhere in transition all night long.

   
   
   
   

   Louisville play the Thorns next week without Flint, who picked up her 5th yellow late on and will be suspended. Portland plays a similarly narrow structure with dropping wingers, though without the dynamism Ryan offers the Dash. I'll be curious to see if Louisville changes anything up without their star six.

   
   

2. More good for Houston

   On the other side of the ball, Houston and manager Fabrice Gautrat deserve a ton of credit for turning the vaunted Louisville press inside out for large portions of the match. With a few notable exceptions --including an errant pass out of midfield that led the corner from which Taylor Flint scored-- Houston made the right decisions about when to try to play out and when to look long over the first line of the Louisville press.

   
   
   
   

   One of Gautrat's best decisions has been getting rookie Maggie Graham into his 11 to partner Dani Colaprico in the double pivot. Graham played more as an attacker for the Dash early in the season, but she's really taken to her deeper role as of late- Graham's ability to click through the gears in midfield has made a noticeable impact on the quality and confidence of Houston's builds, especially when under pressure. Colaprico has looked more comfortable next to her, and it's also given Sheehan more license to move into the sorts of elevated spaces she took up on Friday.

   
   

   Outside of leaving poor Alyssa Chapman 1v1 vs. Emma Sears two or three too many times over the course of the match, Houston's problems remain, to me, mostly in the decision-making department. There were numerous times against Louisville when a Dash attacker picked the wrong pass or took too long to make a choice. Here's one example that stood out: Messiah Bright (who had one of her better matches as a member of the Dash) failing to check her shoulder, instead playing where she faced and missing a home-free Yaz Ryan in transition. You can see Gautrat at the end of the clip motioning to where the ball should have gone.

   
   
   
   

   Houston continue to improve match by match, which is pretty much what you want to see from a first year manager. It is still fairly unlikely that they sneak into the playoffs given how competitive the fight for that eighth spot is, but I won't be surprised if they're in the hunt for the rest of the season.

   
   

   (One player who deserves more praise is Van Zanten, who put in a more than passable Yaz Ryan imitation and seems to have made herself a key member of Gautrat's preferred 11).

   
   

3. Bad personnel choices doom Portland

   Like Louisville hours before, the Thorns had a chance to climb past the feeble Pride into a home playoff spot position by beating Utah at home in what in theory should have been Portland's easiest fixture of the season.

   
   

   Enter Rob Gale and his particularly mind-numbing case of bizarre lineup-itis.

   
   

   Gale switched back to his preferred 4-2-3-1 after a one week dalliance with the 3-5-2, but stayed with the same defensive personnel by moving Isabella Obaze to right back. Gale, correctly, seems to have put an end to the always-destined-to-fail Kaitlyn Torpey experience, but is also oddly reluctant to give young Mallie McKenzie --who has played quite well in limited minutes-- a go behind Torpey. So there's one weird choice.

   
   

   Bad decision number two was dropping Jessie Fleming, who has a case for "most important Thorn of the last few months", in favor of Mimi Alidou. Gale's reasoning for dropping Fleming was essentially "we wanted Olivia Moultrie's creativity central against a team we thought would sit back and defend." Seems logical, except for Jimmy Coenraets doesn't really ever set his team up that way, even if he has gotten a little more practical since Ally Sentnor's departure.

   
   

   Lastly and most importantly was the inclusion of Deyna Castellanos over Pietra Tordin for the second straight week. I skipped over this last week because I really try not to pick on specific players and Castellanos has been hammered non-stop pretty much since joining the league, but the impact of her inclusion has become so detrimental to Portland's identity that I have to bring it up. Castellanos is, well, let's just say not the most energetic of players. In other words, she doesn't really like to move when she doesn't have the ball. She doesn't press, she gripes when she gets knocked off the ball, and isn't going to make runs in behind. For a player of many undisputed talents --she's one of the best pure ball strikers in the league, still has a silky touch, and can find a pass-- it has become more than evident that she simply does not have the want to make the most of her own ability. Gale's choice to play her not only over Tordin, but also Reilyn Turner who remains locked to the wing, is baffling at best not only because Portland has better players available, but because her inclusion neuters the biggest thing Portland do well: High press out of the 4-2-4 shape.

   
   

   Put together, those bad decisions equaled a thoroughly maddening loss for the Thorns against the last place Royals. Simply unacceptable.

   
   

4. Mandy McGlynn sends us all a reminder

   Utah's starting keeper has had a bit of an up and down season. It's hard to be the anchor behind the worst backline in the league, and McGlynn, particularly with the ball at her feet, seemed to let the pressure get to her at times early in the season.

   
   

   In net, however, McGlynn has remained one of the league's best shot stoppers. She's 4th in the league in post-shot xG - goals allowed, and, unsurprisingly based on volume of shots faced, leads the league in saves. She showed her range against Portland on Sunday throughout the 90, making 11 total saves including a series of highlight-reel stops that allowed Utah's attack to do just enough to leave Providence Park with all three points. Portland will (mostly correctly) get the criticism for losing the game, but it's easy to forget McGlynn's outstanding trio of saves within the first five minutes of the match from a 1v1 vs. Reilyn Turner, a well-struck rasping drive through traffic from Castellanos, and an effort headed towards the top corner from Reyna Reyes; without which Utah easily could have found themselves multiple goals behind.

   
   

5. Orlando in free fall

   The euphoria around the signing of Jackie Ovalle and the tragedy of Barbra Banda's SEI, combined with the inability of teams behind them to take advantage has somewhat managed to cover up Orlando's downright horrific form over the past few months of the season. After losing 2-0 to Gotham on Saturday, Orlando is now six matches without a win and are officially closer to last place Utah than first place Kansas City in the standings. Orlando haven't beaten a team currently in the NWSL's top 8 since San Diego in MARCH, the Pride's 3rd match of the season.

   
   

   Ovalle and her creativity may help some, but Orlando's problems are numerous and all over the field. Orlando's depth has been tested frequently by injuries this season, and hasn't always responded. The 2024 iteration of the Pride was marked by key contributions from players like Summer Yates, Julie Doyle, and Kerry Abello. Yates and Doyle have been sidelined for large potions of the season due to injury, and Abello seems to have lost her spot to Carson Pickett.

   
   

   Just as importantly, Orlando's non-Banda attacking adds over the past few seasons haven't really contributed. The other two thirds of the Zambian attacking trident haven't offered much. Grace Chanda, returning from a brutal injury, has only featured three times and hasn't even been in Orlando's 18 most weeks, and Prisca Chilufya has shown flashes on the ball but remains frustratingly inconsistent, ranking as one of the least effective chance creators at her position at just 2.3 npxG+xAG over 512 minutes. With Banda out and Marta just now returning to full strength after Copa America duties, manager Seb Hines has had to turn to rookie Simone Jackson and second year midfielder Ally Lemos to juice the attack to little success.

   
   

   With all that said, I'm not going to hammer Orlando too much: Their defense remains steady (albeit with a slight overperformance) , and they somehow still find themselves in 4th place despite the double-winning hangover. If anything, Orlando's struggles after the 2024 dominance show just how difficult it is to win consistently in the NWSL year by year. Their structure remains one of the league's best, and if Ovalle can click, they'll be a tough out for just about anyone.

   
   

6. Gotham's identity shift

   
   

   Gotham's switch from a star-studded attacking side with a high level defense in tow, to a physical, ball-winning team reliant on said defense is not new --it's been moving that way all season-- but Juan Carlos Amoros's side's suffocating victory over Orlando on Friday made me want to sift through the underlyings a little:

	2024	2025	% Difference
xG / 90	1.59	1.17	-30%
G / 90	1.54	1.11	-32%
Progressive Passes / 90	43.6	33.8	-25%
Shot Creating Actions / 90	24	18.5	-26%
Passes into final third /90	31.4	22.5	-33%
Carries into final third / 90	10.3	7.7	-29%

Everyone who has watched Gotham throughout 2025 probably knew this intuitively just from watching the matches, but the metrics really show how stark Gotham's attacking drop off has been. Even with the league's top goal scorer, Gotham's creativity metrics are mostly atrocious. You could blame the lack of attacking production in part poor production from their attacking adds, but it really feels like Gotham's midfield just lost it's flow: The 2024 trio of Nealy Martin, Delanie Sheehan, and Rose Lavelle was perfectly balanced between defensive stability, ball carrying ability, and creativity, whereas the 2025 iteration has been inconsistent both in play and personnel. Sometimes it's more about the relationships between the individuals than the individuals themselves, and Gotham feels like a good case study..

With that said, Gotham's victory over Orlando was very much the best of what this version of the team are capable of: A physical defensive midfield performance, Emily Sonnett instigating, Lavelle magic, and Esther goals. Gotham's defense, anchored by Sonnett and Jess Carter, remains among the best in the league, ranking second in xGA and third in goals allowed. The fun (well, depending on your perspective, I suppose) thing about the NWSL is that even a team with Gotham's attacking woes can find themselves just four points out of a home playoff match with eight matches to play. If they can keep Lavelle healthy, Esther Esthers her way to 15-18 goals, and Portilho can get firing, Gotham has just about a good a chance as anyone outside of KC and Washington to make some noise.

7. Kansas City stacking zeroes

   With the Current's relatively comfortable 2-0 victory over North Carolina on Saturday, Kansas City have now gone an astonishing six matches without conceding a single goal, the longest such streak (as far as I can tell) in NWSL history. This isn't fluky, either: The Current are simply suffocating teams. Over the course of the six game stretch, Vlatko's side have allowed a COMBINED 3.6 xGA. That's an AVERAGE of 0.6 xGA per match. That's insane to the point of being barely believable.

   
   

   Possibly the most amazing part is that Kansas City are doing it, with all due respect to Kayla Sharples and Hailie Mace, without three of their top four central defenders. Gabby Robinson returned from an ACL injury only to be immediately sent off and suspended, Elizabeth Ball has a hip injury, and Alana Cook has been out a majority of the season after suffering an early season injury. Mace has slotted in at CB and is doing just fine, while FBs Ellie Wheeler and Izzy Rodriguez have been mainstays.

   
   

   The backline have been spectacular, but KC's dominant defense has been very much a team effort. Claire Hutton and Lo Labonta are probably the most sturdy double pivot in the league, and KC's wing duo of Temwa Chawinga and Michelle Cooper both possess high defensive work-rates that allow them to support the two FBs, both of whom love a foray forward.

   
   

   Really cool --and terrifying!-- to see the league's best offensive team possess an even better defensive record.

   
   

8. An ode to Tara McKeown

   When Naomi Girma departed San Diego for Chelsea, she left the "best 1v1 defender in the league" belt open. That belt has since been taken up and put on by Spirit CB and winner of most-annoying-announcer-talking-point "did you know she used to be a striker?," Tara McKeown. McKeown has the highest percentage of dribblers tackled of any CB in the league at 85%, behind only Gisele Thompson and Taylor Malham league wide.

   
   

   This isn't anything new- McKeown's been impressive in her CB role for years now. With that said, she's taken massive strides positionally in addition to her prowess 1v1. Here she is covering for teammate Esme Morgan after Morgan is turned by Ludmila:

   
   

And here she is covering for another teammate after Hal Hershfelt slips in midfield:

For a Spirit team that have struggled at times with their defensive structure, having a cheat code like McKeown to clean up messes is a massive boon- Really impressive stuff from the USC product.

9. Chicago draw....again

   To the best of my knowledge --someone correct me if I'm wrong-- no NWSL team has drawn five straight matches. I'm sure there's a red stars/communism joke to be made somewhere, but Chicago's streak of shared points continues to be legitimately very impressive.

   
   

   Chicago looks like a real team, and Ludmila --who scored yet again Sunday-- looks very much to be turning into a bonafide superstar. Going into Audi Field and getting a point against the Spirit is no mean feat, and the Stars, while pressured heavily late on, earned the point they ended up with.

   
   

   Chicago did spend a pretty penny --$550K, to be exact-- on Colombian forward Ivonne Chacon. Chacon had a decent goal scoring record for Levante in La Liga last season, but isn't exactly the dynamic big money signing the Stars needed- I'd be surprised if she comes in better than Jameese Joseph who, despite some major end-product issues, is just 22 years old and seems to get better week by week. It'll be interesting how Chacon fits into this lineup.

10. Thoughts on the Alyssa Thompson situation

    As we move closer and closer to what appears to be heading towards Angel City losing their talismanic twenty year old to the clutches of WSL giant Chelsea, NWSL fans and media seem to be separating themselves into the following groups, with some overlap between them:

    
    

    - The Doomers: These are the folks that you saw proclaiming the world had ended when Naomi Girma decamped for the very same Chelsea. That the league was turning in MLS and would soon be just a feeder league. The "how do we keep our stars in the league?" folks. We've all seen them.

    
    

    - The everything is fine, actually-ers: People in this group will frequently say things like "What about Temwa Chawinga? Banda? Cascarino? Jess Carter? Sofia Cantore? Sveindis Jonsdottir?" They don't really care if stars leave the league, because stars are entering it too. These voices are largely present in national media and will tell you that they're very measured and very logical, actually.

    
    

    - The NWSL needs to fix its rules-ers: These are the people who believe that the NWSL's salary and spending cap is what's standing in the way of keeping the Thompsons of the world in the league. "Of course she'll go where she can make way more money!" echos the masses. "Angel City can use this money to buy three stars!" say others.

    
    

    - The Emma Hayes is ruining the league-ers: This is a group convinced that Emma Hayes is threatening her stars with less playing time should they stay in the NWSL. "Trinity Rodman and Alyssa Thompson may not have locked in roster spots if they don't go abroad" is the popular refrain.

    
    

    I find myself somewhere in the middle off this particular enn diagram, though probably closer to the "everything is fine" group than the others. If Thompson does end up at Chelsea, it will be because SHE decided she wanted to go, not because Angel City couldn't afford to keep her. Equally, Emma Hayes might very well be encouraging her players to go to Europe, but I kinda doubt she's threatening Alyssa Thompson with reduced playing time if she stays in the country. I don't think this necessarily means anything for the state of the league, as much as it would massively suck to lose a player like Thompson.

    
    

    While I don't personally agree with Thompson's decision to go to Chelsea at this stage in her career if she does end up doing so, I can see the appeal of playing in London for one of the best teams in the world. The big question is why Angel City are conceding to doing this now? They have her under contract until 2028 and there is no reason why they couldn't get the same value for her in four months. Is she threatening to holding out? That's a bit hard for me to believe. They can't replace her --they just traded Julie Dufour and Straus had to play MA Vignola on the left wing vs. Bay on Labor Day-- and are in the midst of a playoff hunt. I just don't get it.

    
    

    Ultimately, I'm not really concerned with interrogating what a move would mean on a macro level as much as I'm just bummed that it seems to be happening. I like watching the NWSL every week and Thompson has been one of the most electric players to watch since entering the league three years ago. As someone mentally preparing to lose one or both of Sam Coffey and Sophia Wilson this offseason, there's nothing worse than facing the reality that the face of the franchise might be on the way out the door. That's the worst aspect of it for me, and I feel for all the Angel City fans who just got blindsided.

    
    

    Bonus Angel City: Remember how I wrote about Riley Tiernan and her fake-shot chop cuts last week? Well, this is what she did against Bay tonight:

    
    
    
    

    Goal of the Week: Jaelin Howell's full volley vs. Orlando: