NWSL Week 19 Recap- A Portland late show, Chicago make a statement, and Houston crash the Wave's party

1. Reilyn Turner breaking out

   In a Thorns attack filled with dynamic kids (Pietra Tordin, Caiya Hanks, Olivia Moultrie, Deyna Caste---wait) fighting to either replace or become the future running mate of Sophia Wilson, the season 22 year old Reilyn Turner is having feels like it's sliding a bit under the radar.

   
   

   Turner is Portland's leading goal scorer despite playing over half of her minutes on the wing. With the unfortunate ACL injury suffered by Hanks in June, Portland's well-chronicled-on-these-pages dearth of wingers has meant Turner has been shunted wide. Despite being perhaps a more natural center forward, Turner is plenty capable of playing wide. We saw it at UCLA on occasion and she's progressively growing into the role in Portland. Turner isn't fast in a way typical of a speedy winger, but her long strides means she can cover a lot of ground in a hurry, and she's learning how to use her physical traits to her advantage in wide areas. In the lead up to Portland's first goal, it was Turner's intentionally giant first touch --quickly becoming a trademark move of hers-- that completely takes an already out of position Janine Sonis out of contention.

   
   
   
   

   Turner, who was traded for Sonis last summer, had Louisville's makeshift RB on skates all night. Sonis has never been a particularly adept 1v1 defender anyhow, but Turner had no trouble getting by her in 1v1 situations most of the match. Louisville, minus Taylor Flint, left huge spaces behind their midfield all night (more on that in a second) and Turner was frequently the beneficiary. Here she is 1v1 with Sonis again, easily chopping by the Canadian before Sonis makes a sloppy sure-fire penalty challenge.

   
   
   
   

   Portland are a wild team: they trail just Kansas City in total xG accumulated despite having never put together anything close to a fully competent fully 90. I want to call Portland's performance against Louisville a smash and grab because of how much pressure they were under for large swathes of the match, but the fact is that Portland easily could have scored a goal or two more themselves. Sam Coffey had a poorly taken penalty saved by Louisville's resident psychopath Jordyn Bloomer, Pietra Tordin put two excellent chances straight at Bloomer, and Turner had a 1v1 of her own saved far too comfortably. The Thorns --who did get a second goal in two matches from Angel City castoff Julie Dufour, and added Colombian teenager and Copa America sensation Valerin Loboa the week prior-- are either preparing themselves for a post-Wilson era, or building a pretty terrifying young attacking talent base around her when she returns. The question will ultimately be whether the Thorns --somehow 4th in the table after every single Week 19 result broke their way-- can begin to put together complete performances under an iffy coaching staff unlikely to get canned after the season given their place in the table. We shall see.

   
   

2. Louisville issues bubble to the surface

   Racing Louisville have had an incredibly impressive season. Bev Yanez is a legit COTY candidate. They've outperformed their talent across the board. Their press is thrilling. They do, however, have two consistent flaws.

   
   

   First, a substantially high percentage of their chances generated are low quality. They take a lot of shots and accumulate xG at a perfectly acceptable rate (6th in the league), but a disproportionate level of these chances are low xG. Only 15% of Louisville's chances created are classified as "good" or "great" opportunities. Only Utah (13.7%) have a lower quality chance ratio. For context, here are the ratios of the other teams in the NWSL's top 8:

   
   

   KC (26.2%), Washington (25.6%), SD (20.3), Portland (21.5%), Orlando (19.3%), Gotham (21.1%), and Seattle (25.5%).

   
   

   Not....great!

   
   

   The other piece is their continued issues defensively in transition. Portland weren't quite as dynamic as Houston were the week before, but still consistently were able to get in behind Louisville's midfield. Even without Taylor Flint, Yanez kept the same shape with Katie O'Kane in at the base of the 4-3-3. I mentioned Portland's propensity to drop into the gaps much like Houston did last week, and we saw a lot of that, specifically from Olivia Moultrie who was moved back central and created both the first goal and the sequence that led to Portland's penalty.

   
   

   I don't want to totally overreact to this one- Despite missing Flint due to yellow card accumulation, Louisville were mostly the better team against a frequently ragged Portland side. A dominant first 20 minutes led to an O'Kane go-ahead goal and Louisville accumulated a whopping 2.82 xG over the course of the match, with only a point blank McKenzie Arnold save from Emma Sears stopping at least one more goal from going in. With that said, Louisville can't continue to drop late points like they have all season. With the Dash making a late charge and an even tighter than usual NWSL playoff race, Yanez is going to have to tighten the screws to prevent the 9th place bells from tolling once again in October.

   
   

3. Montoya continues to befuddle

   Albertin Montoya's final episode of tinkering came against the runaway league leaders Saturday. Bay's now-ex manager switched to a 4-2-3-1, moving Karlie Lema into the starting lineup with Rachael Kundananji wide and FINALLY letting rookie Taylor Huff move central as a pure ten.

   
   

   The problem was that Montoya chose THIS of all matches to go with a more attacking side. Tess Boade, a natural ten, was dropped deeper into midfield next to rookie Hannah Bebar, making for a paper-thin central midfield shell against the league's most terrifying attacking midfield/front line combo. The double pivot of Bebar and Boade were completely overran by KC with Debinha and Bia both thriving in the gaps between the midfield and the CBs. Here are a few examples, first in transition and then from a steady state. Just WAY too easy, even for KC who make everything look easy.

   
   
   
   

   Probably correctly, Bay chose to move on from Montoya within two days, with one of the funniest press releases of all time. The following, sent out to NWSL media members, reads more like a eulogy than "we're firing our coach":

   
   

   Bay FC today announced changes to its sporting organization as it celebrates the club’s achievements in its first two startup seasons and moves into its next phase. Albertin Montoya, who serves as Head Coach, has decided to step down at the end of the 2025 season.

   
   

   The funniest part of this very peaceful, lede-burying statement is the use of the term "startup seasons," like "no, actually, these first two seasons were just practice and now the real games start." Excellent, if hilarious, PR-ing from Bay, from whom the Courage probably could have learnt a few things about coach firing.

   
   

4. KC rolls on, with some minor cracks

   KC played the most classic of classic KC games against Bay: A first half goal, let the opposition commit, Temwa Chawinga late transition goal. A 2.25-0.25 xG tally, Bia having one of her best games in a while, Debinha flourishing, etc etc.

   
   

   With a team as dominant as KC, I have to dig deep to find a few cracks, but despite Bay's inability to take advantage, there were a few minor moments of slippage from the Current. With Rocky Rodriguez starting next to Lo Labonta, Bay broke through the midfield a little more comfortably than you would expect of Kansas City's typically rock solid midfield. Taylor Huff frequently found herself in quite a bit of space in the first half. That changed as soon as Claire Hutton came on in the second half, but something to monitor should KC's star six ever take a knock.

   
   

   Perhaps more significant was some iffy play from CB Elizabeth Ball and backup keeper Laurel Ivory. Ball had a few really shaky moments in possession and was fortunate to avoid conceding a first half penalty after tripping up Maddie Moreau in a similar situation the the penalty awarded to Portland the night before. Ivory, in for the injured Brazilian Lorena, was never really troubled but seemed to struggle to hold onto the ball at times. None of it mattered and KC was relatively comfortable throughout, but some things to watch moving forward.

   
   

5. Chicago's big moment

   For those watching the Stars steadily improve under interims Ella Masar and Anders Jacobson over the past month, it felt inevitable that Chicago would ultimately break through after five consecutive draws and get their second win of the season. I'm not sure, however, anyone saw it happening quite like THIS.

   
   

   In the first match at the beautiful Northwestern University lake side stadium (seriously, it looked awesome on television!), Chicago absolutely obliterated the defending champs. Like, blew them out of the building and into Lake Michigan. The Stars waltzed up and down the field seemingly at will, accumulating 3 xG in front of a probably-disbelieving season-high crowd of just over 10K. Ludmila was her MVP-level self, Jameese Joseph was running by Orlando defenders like they weren't there, and Julia Grosso --who has a quietly excellent last month-- pulled the strings throughout. It was a legitimately dominant performance in every facet.

   
   

   The Stars are out of the NWSL playoff race, but they have a lot to play for going into 2026. Let's all collectively hope Mr. SoccerDonna himself Richard Feutz realizes the need to continue to improve Chicago talent-wise so that we can avoid a repeat of Utah's high expectations end of 2024--> disaster 2025.

   
   

6. Orlando hits rock bottom

   Would you classify a 5-2 loss to the Stars for your 7th straight match without a win rock bottom? I would! I don't really know what to say about this team other than it doesn't look a thing like the 2024 version. Yes, they're without Barbra Banda, but I haven't seen this level of defensive laziness and miscommunication since the dark days of the Pride. After a relatively even first half, Orlando got absolutely dusted in the second half. Watch some of the defensive errors on the last few Chicago goals. Kylie Strom inexplicably loses Bea Franklin on Chicago's third. Julia Grosso runs straight by Emily Sams and cuts past Cori Dyke with ease on the 4th. I have no idea what Sams is doing when she completely loses Grosso again on the left wing in the 83rd minute, leading to a Jospeh 1v1 saved by Pride keeper anna Moorhouse. Then, to cap it off, freakin Ludmila of all people is WIDE open on the back post for a fifth! What do you think Seb Hines was thinking? Pure Yakety Sax all over the field from the Pride.

   
   
   
   

7. Jaelin Howell, feeling herself

   After a barnstorming second half performance gave Gotham a well-deserved 3-1 win against Angel City, it felt right that Jaelin Howell, in many ways the epitome of how 2025 Gotham play, was front and center. Howell, often pigeonholed as a destroyer six --something I was certainly guilty of myself before this season-- has leveled up going forward this season. She's still far from a creative player, but her second screamer in two weeks led to some pretty entertaining moments as Gotham rolled to victory. Here's the goal, Howell banging home a side-foot off the under side of the crossbar:

   
   
   
   

   And here she is skill-checking around defenders before exhorting the crowd:

   
   
   
   

8. Houston doing more cool stuff

   I have a confession to make: The Houston Dash are my favorite team to watch in the whole of the NWSL right now.

   
   

   Houston's resounding 3-0 road win against the Wave at Snapdragon Sunday night wasn't quite as flashy as Chicago's destruction of Orlando, but it followed a similar thread of "team finally breaks through after weeks of good performances." It's fun to watch a new coach progressively figure stuff out week to week- It took Fabrice Gautrat a little while to figure out who fit into into his 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 system, but if Sunday night was any indication, it appears that he has mostly done so.

   
   

   Houston play a really cool version of the 4-3-3 that utilizes the talents of the Dash's best attacking options in creative ways. Houston's whole shape is really built around the talents of Yaz Ryan, who might very well be the most under-appreciated star level player in the NWSL. Ryan's versatility to play equally effectively as a winger or a hybrid 8/10 means that Gautrat can afford to allow his two 8s and wingers to rotate in and out with relative ease. We see this most frequently with the Delanie Sheehan / Ryan / Kiki Van Zanten trio. Typically, the ball-side winger will drop into the eight hole to create an overload with the far-side winger pushing high. We saw this a lot against Louisville the week prior, and it continued against San Diego. Look at the space Van Zanten (playing on the RW) moves into, and how it draws the defender in to create space for Avery Patterson on the combination. Patterson ultimately makes the wrong decision and the Dash have to reset, but it's really good stuff.

   
   
   
   

   Here's another example, this time on the opposite side. There is no one in the league better than Ryan at bringing mid-range balls down under pressure and finding overlapping runners. Sheehan and Ryan (obviously) have an excellent connection, and it's beginning to pay off for the Dash. Here's Maggie Graham picking the ball up deep, lays off to Alyssa Chapman, who finds Ryan. Sheehan immediately rotates wide to pick up the ball, Graham follows the play, draws the defenders deep, and allows Ryan more space to float into on the top of the box. This happens in the buildup to the Dash's first goal (which ultimately comes from a Wave giveaway), and is another example of how well the Dash's central midfielders and wings rotate on and off the ball.

   
   
   
   

   Cool stuff going on in Houston!

   
   

9. Perle Morroni's rough day at the office

   The French leftback has been a mostly excellent add for SD. She's been very effective going forward, and, for the most part, perfectly competent defensively.

   
   

   For those of us that watched quite a bit of Morroni during her time in France, however, Morroni is very much NOT a fullback who wants to defend in her own box....and it showed Sunday night against Houston. Houston's first was a well-set up goal, but what in the world in Morroni doing against Clarissa Larisey? She takes completely the wrong angle, doesn't get goal side of her mark, and then gets rolled easily by the Canadian striker:

   
   

   And here she is again the wrong side of a Houston striker, this time allowing Messiah Bright to cut right in front of her and sweep home:

   
   
   
   

   It's gone a little bit under the radar in SD, but the Wave's first half xG over-performance is, as most suspected, averaging itself out. San Diego have held onto third place mostly due to the chaos below them, but are now scoreless in three matches and five of the last seven. Let's see if they can right the ship over the season's last third.

   
   

10. The NWSL's Sunday Night Propaganda Tour

    During the aforementioned ESPN broadcast of the Wave-Dash match, the NWSL shamelessly used Alex Morgan's jersey retirement night as a vehicle for some of the most annoying people to ruin a perfectly good evening.

    
    

    First, we were subjected to five minutes of Alex Cooper starting around the 24th minute. Not my favorite thing in the world. Then, in the second half, we got to hear beleaguered commish Jessica Berman talk about how important it is to listen to the wants and needs of the players (??????!!?).

    
    

    (As an aside, it would be nice if the esteemed honoree of the night didn't seem quiteee so willing to participate in the Unwell FC-ing of it all. There are far, FAR worse things in the world than going on Cooper's podcast, and Morgan has frequently used her status to leverage real positive change --never forget her standing up for her Thorns teammates in the Paul Riley abuse scandal-- but it's mildly disappointing nonetheless)

    
    

    Goal of the week: Howell vs. Angel City