NWSL Week 24 Recap- Friday night late shows, a KC-Gotham clash, and SD get a big one

1. Thorns flash, run out of gas yet again

   Portland's first half against the Pride on Friday was one of their better halves of the entire season. Against an Orlando side who, for all their recent flaws, have retained much of their defensive structure, Portland's 4-3-3 consistently found gaps in behind Orlando's fullbacks.

   
   

   The now-infamous Hina Sugita trade has severely depleted a Thorns roster already about as shallow as a kid's pool behind the trio of Sam Coffey, Jessie Fleming, and Olivia Moultrie, but MA Vignola has been a godsend for a team severely lacking athleticism and width on the wings. Portland's attacking shape was predicated on unbalanced overloads: We saw a lot of Alexa Spaanstra tucking in from her left wing spot, sucking Orlando RB Oihane Hernandez infield, and allowing Vignola to get on the overlap wide left. On the right side, Reilyn Turner was in behind Orlando LB Kerry Abello throughout the first half, Olivia Moultrie spraying a number of gorgeous direct balls over the top. Portland had a few chances to go in front in the first half, notably through Moultrie, who scuffed a difficult bouncing late-run chance over the bar, and rookie Pietra Tordin, who both missed a clear cut chance in front of goal (which was incorrectly pulled back for offside and and likely would have counted had she tucked her chance away) and could easily have had a penalty.

   
   

   Defensively, however, the Thorns were always a pulled thread away from disaster. We've seen this before in the 4-3-3, where Sam Coffey is the only defensive presence playing as a single pivot. The Thorns have never been particularly sturdy in the defensive midfield area anyhow, but playing two players (Fleming and Moultrie) who have been utilized primarily as tens in 2025 as the two eights puts an unreasonable burden on Coffey, who wants to get forward herself. Many of Orlando's breaks came from Coffey aggressively stepping into midfield and not winning the ball, leaving nothing but space between Orlando's attackers and Portland's backline. Coach Rob Gale, in an immensely revealing pre-match interview, identified that the Thorns were trying to obtain an athletic eight and never did- A role that is BADLY needed to restore any semblance of stability to the Thorns midfield. Watch Coffey on these two plays. She's drawn so high up the field on the first that it's one long ball that flicks a just-offside Ally Watt through on goal. The second, she overcommits: As soon as she doesn't win the first tackle on Angelina, Orlando is immediately through Portland's midfield block and running at the back four. This isn't to blame Coffey necessarily, but this has been a MAJOR issue whenever the Thorns have switched out of the double pivot over the last two seasons.

   
   
   
   
   
   

   In the end, however, it was really the lack of depth that came back to bite the Thorns once again. A noticeably flagging Turner and Spaanstra were replaced by the ineffective Mimi Alidou and Deyna Castellanos, and Portland's lone midfielder off the bench was Arsenal loanee and Smol English child Laila Harbert. Even with most of the ball over the last third of the game, the Pride didn't generate a ton and it was ultimately a miscommunication between keeper McKenzie Arnold and substitute Mallie McKenize that resulted in the Pride taking a crucial three points. With each passing game, questions surrounding Portland's small roster size and intended activity in the offseason loom larger.

   
   

2. Orlando nab important three points

   Seb Hines' side once again failed to impress, but nonetheless picked up a crucial three points against their playoff rivals. Orlando's attack remains alarmingly tame, even against a Thorns squad that has been bleeding chances over the second half of the season.

   
   

   Orlando generated only 0.89 xG on the night, frequently failing to take advantage of numerous Thorns giveaways in dangerous areas. It's worth noting that Ally Watt did put away two chances that were correctly called back for offside, but Orlando's indecisiveness continues to plague their attack. Jackie Ovalle -- while always capable of the spectacular-- feels like she's pressing a little bit, taking pot shots from 20+ yards multiple times in the first half with better options available. Watt feels like she's carrying the entire offensive load with Carson Pickett starting on the left wing, meaning that teams can (as Turner did throughout the match for Portland) push high without fear of threat in behind on the Pride left.

   
   

   Unsurprisingly, things did pick up slightly with Marta's second half introduction, but Orlando still failed to do much in the way of generating real opportunities on goal. Much like their streak-snapping victory over the Wave two weeks prior, too much of Orlando remains unconvincing. They do, however, find themselves back in position to host a playoff game with two weeks to play. So that's something!

   
   

3. Louisville stymied, salvage point

   Things are so tight in the NWSL's top nine that it's hard to call any game a "must win," but Louisville failing to secure three points against Chicago seems like a missed opportunity in the fight for the fourth playoff seed.

   
   

   The match itself was quite the game. Louisville came out of the blocks --as they generally do-- looking like a pack of rabid squirrels, harrying Chicago's defense and forcing a couple of good saves from Alyssa Naeher. Much of Louisville's chance creation has been coming from breaks started by their FBs, Janine Sonis in particular being given license by Bev Yanez to freelance on reads on forward balls. This doesn't always work: teams have gotten behind Louisville's elevated FBs frequently, but it's a staple of Yanez's all gas no breaks press. Look at Sonis' heat map and how high both she and Lauren Milliet were all night:

   

   
   

   

   via @nwslstat

   Louisville remain a predictable side, however, both in the positive and the negative aspects of their game. Their press is going to create chances, their forwards will not take many of them, and their high line is going to concede chances. Louisville's goals scored above expected is second worst in the league at -7.6. That's not TERRIBLE: -7.6 averages out to about 0.32 xG under expected per match, but that's the equivalent of missing one big chance more than you should per game. That's just not going to cut it when your playstyle invites big chances going the the other way. A late error by Courtney Petersen allowed Chicago newbie Ivonne Chacon to cut back for Jameese Joeseph to side foot home, rendering a crucial late Bethany Balcer equalizer nothing more than point-saver, albeit a potentially very important one.

   
   

4. Seattle....generating chances!

   The last Friday night match generated the third late goal of the night, with yet another point-rescuing finish from Seattle legend Jess Fishlock giving the Reign a deserved point and pushing the Seattle above their rivals to the South and into 5th place.

   
   

   This wasn't your typical Seattle performance. While Laura Harvey's side were, admittedly, playing against the league's worst side form-wise, this was a representation of what Seattle could be in attack if Harvey just took the handbrake off once in a while. Seattle missed a series of wonderful chances in the first half: First, an excellent reflex save by Bay keeper Jordan Silkowitz kept a Jordyn Huitema header out. Silkowitz then parried a Maddie Dahlien effort wide after the rookie dummy-turned brilliantly at the top of the box. Nerilia Mondesir missed the best chance of the lot, striking the post 1v1 with Bay's keeper 10 yards out. Emeri Adames fired a tame effort right at Silkowitz. It was like Seattle forwards weren't used to the amount of chances they were getting and didn't quite know how to react.

   
   

   Bay were mostly better in the second half, playing with a 1-0 lead, but a late Seattle barrage of pressure yielded Fishlock's 84th minutes equalizer after more good work from Dahlien. Seattle's 1.8 xG on the night was their most since August 18th against Chicago, and their third most of the entire 2025 season (Seattle's top 3 xG outputs have, unsurprisingly, come against the three worst sides by record in the league in Bay, Chicago, and Utah).

   
   

5. Bia's big day

   Kansas City's Brazilian remains underrated as one of the league's best strikers for some reason (not here though!), so it was good to see her dish out a reminder of how important she is against an excellent Gotham defense in Week 24's marquee matchup.

   
   

   The cool thing about Bia is that she's a bit of a dinosaur from a playstyle perspective. She's not going to offer much of a vertical threat like some of the NWSL's most dangerous attackers, but she is very much an absolutely elite center forward. The Brazilian ranks in the 94th percentile or above in what I'll call the creative metrics for forwards: shot creating actions, progressive passes, and touches. Hell, even her progressive on-ball stats are pretty damn good.

   
   

   Against Gotham, Bia showed off the whole repertoire. Here's a delightful back-to-goal flick into the path of Debinha to start a KC break:

   
   
   
   

   Here's her beautiful header off from a yet another lovely Izzy Rodriguez second ball off a corner to put KC 1-0 up:

   
   
   
   

   And here's a slide rule pass through to Temwa Chawinga to put the game away:

   
   

   In addition to her goal contributions, Bia also led both teams in duels, consistently winning physical battles against the enforcer CB pairing of Emily Sonnet and Jess Carter. A really, really good all-around performance from the Brazilian.

   
   

6. A butcher battle in KC

   Gotham-KC was all kinds of fun despite the relative lack of chances created. Central to the fun was the duel between the league's two most aggressive defensive sixes: KC's teenager Claire Hutton and the rejuvenated Jaelin Howell. The two went at each other from the get-go. Hutton snapped into a few hard tackles early on Gotham's playmakers on, and Howell got stuck in a few times on Bia and Debinha.

   
   

   Then Howell came absolutely flying into Michelle Cooper (who had an excellent match) in the 40th minute, drawing a yellow card.

   
   

   Hutton, not to be outdone, came crashing into Howell herself in the 60th minute, drawing a card of her own:

   
   
   
   

   The NWSL can often times be TOO physical and under-refereed, but it's always nice to see two traditional sixes duking it out. Let's hope we see it again in the playoffs!

   
   

7. The Courage: Evolving or not?

   Color commentator Jill Loyden went on a bit of a rant around midway through the first half of the Courage-Spirit match played in a North Carolina downpour on Saturday afternoon. The match was relatively even throughout the first half, with the Spirit threatening frequently through Trinity Rodman versus Dani Weatherholt on the Courage left, and North Carolina controlling most of the play overall, coming close to scoring on a beautiful Manaka vertical ball finished off by Ashley Sanchez, who was just offside. The crux of Loyden's complaint was that North Carolina was "in-between eras" and uncertain about how they wanted to play. She criticized the Courage for not having the players to play that vertical style, at one point noting that (paraphrased) "there is no Trinity Rodman who can dribble like they need to play that vertical style."

   
   

   It's an interesting thesis, if a bit harsh: North Carolina have certainly become more willing to play the vertical ball, but it really has been more of an evolution than a tactical sea change. The Courage are still very much a team who want to keep the ball: They still possess the ball at the third highest rate in the league, albeit down 2.5% from last year's league-leading mark. North Carolina have certainly appeared to become a more vertically-oriented, direct team since Thackeray took over, and really, even through the last of the Nahas era, but....their long ball and progressive pass rates haven't really changed much from last season, both nearly identical to the 2024 numbers, and they're still the third slowest team in the league from a buildup pace perspective. I'd wager these numbers would change slightly if we had the ability to filter out the Nahas portion of the season, but not exponentially so as to put them all that much closer to the majority of the league.

   
   

   

   via ASA VIZ Hub

   
   

   With the addition of Payton Linnehan --who has been mostly quite good, though still having issues with lack of end product she struggled with in Portland-- the Courage do appear to have evolved into a vertical possession team instead of a horizontal one: They want to possess in the midfield, find Manaka or Riley Jackson in the holes, and then hit on the deep ball over the top or through the middle to a winger. It's just that the actual speed of play is still relatively slow, which is what Loyden might have been commenting on. She also has a valid point about North Carolina's personnel. The Courage may WANT to play more directly, but outside of Linnehan and the occasional Ryan Williams charge forward, it's just a pretty talent-deficient group. As ever, it will be interesting to see whether the Courage can go out and finally manage to find the true Kerolin replacement they so badly need.

   
   

8. Kate Wiesner's rough night

   The Spirit have certainly improved defensively from the early season doldrums --No team in the league had a worse xGA through nine weeks-- over the course of 2025, but, given their place in the standings, are still often too vulnerable in wide areas in particular. Part of that has to do with missing Casey Krueger: Fullbacks Gabby Carle and Kate Wiesner are both primarily attackers (both are wingbacks in Washington's 3-back formations), and are prone to the occasional defensive shutoff.

   
   

   Wiesner had a tough time with Linnehan's runs into space throughout the match, including twice getting beaten by the Courage winger for ultimately disallowed goals on Saturday afternoon. Here she is letting Linnehan in behind on a great ball over the top from Manaka, with only Ashley Sanchez's impatience on her forward run stopping it from being 1-0.

   
   
   
   

   And here she is with her back turned on Linnehan's second half disallowed goal:

   
   
   
   

   The Spirit's defensive improvements over the second half of the season have brought them up to fifth in xGA and sixth in goals allowed, but, if there is a nit to pick with a squad as deep as Washington's --especially in the face of the how good their two primary competitors are defensively-- it is the occasional openness in the wide defensive areas. You're not getting away with this kind of stuff against KC.

   
   

9. SD nab massive win in Utah

   It wasn't always pretty for the Wave, who continue to struggle score normal goals --I don't think I've ever seen a team score three goals on 0.23 xG-- but Jonas Eidevall's side will happily take Saturday's three spot on a cold, rain-soaked, delayed clash against the red hot Royals in Utah.

   
   

   Two of SD's goals came via a comedic Kate Del Fava own goal and a Kenza Dali floated errant cross that was horrifically misplayed by Mandy McGlynn in Utah's goal, but it was a mostly really good performance from a young Wave side on the road in a big spot. Dudinha, who scored SD's first by beating McGlynn at her near post, has gotten better every week, particularly now that Delphine Cascarino is back torturing opposing left backs on the San Diego right. The Wave have a pretty good outlook over their last few matches- They get Chicago next week, before going to KC (who might play a rested lineup) in Week 26. If they can get Savannah McKaskill back and Dudinha firing, they could be a tough matchup come November.

   
   

10. Angel City continues to tinker + Houston missing Maggie Graham

    It's not often you see a team use the second half of a season as an offseason, but that's exactly what Angel City and GM Mark Parsons have done. Angel City have entirely rebuilt a midfield that badly needed it over the summer, bringing in Nealy Martin and Hina Sugita to replace the now-departed Alanna Kennedy and the now-glued-to-the-bench Madison Hammond.

    
    

    Manager Alex Straus has rolled out a 3-4-3/3-4-2-1 in both games since acquiring Hina, putting a tremendous amount of responsibility on both of his new central midfielders. Angel City have managed to stay relatively compact despite the switch to a 3-4-3. Against Houston on Sunday, it was really more of a 3-4-2-1 with Sveindis Jonsdottir moving central, and Riley Tiernan and Kennedy Fuller playing as half-wingers underneath the Icelandic striker. This makes sense structurally --wingers in a 3-4-3 often tuck inside to make room for the wingbacks to overlap-- but I remain very much NOT a fan of the Riley Tiernan attacking midfield concept, no matter how many times Angel City staff tell us she's capable of playing there. It's a classic "just because she CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD" situation......but Tiernan has developed so well in the more creative areas of her game in ways I didn't expect, I suppose I can just about see the idea.

    
    

    

    
    

    On the Houston side, the whole match felt disconnected. Avery Patterson was switched to left side for the second straight match with Michelle Alozie starting at RB. It seems as though the Dash are easing in Italian Lisa Boattin into the early stages of her NWSL career, but Patterson looked uncomfortable on the left side throughout Sunday's 1st half --certainly missing the relationship she's built with Yaz Ryan on the right side-- before switching back to her preferred RB spot when Boattin entered the game at half time.

    
    

    Houston's biggest issue as they've cooled down from their second half hot stretch has been, as it was in the first half of the season, in central midfield. Rookie Maggie Graham was the unsung hero of the Dash's post-break revitalization, and her loss to a season-ending shoulder injury has crippled the Dash's crispness in the build up. Houston has started Sarah Puntigam next to Dani Colaprico in each of the four matches since Graham went down and it hasn't looked pretty- Puntigam has none of Graham's confidence on the ball, much less the rookie's attacking instincts, and it's shown. Against Angel City, the Dash leaned heavily on Delanie Sheehan to play both her usual role and the Graham role, the ex-Gotham midfielder spending time all over the field in order to get Houston going forward. It's too bad for Houston, who were putting together a real playoff push, but missing the playoffs isn't the end of the world for the Dash in the first year of the Gautrat era.

Goal of the week: HAHAHAHHAasadfga OH MY GOD JUN ENDO