SoccerWise - NWSL Edition: Pardeep Cattry (CBS Sports) NWSL Media Day, Expansion Update & Gotham Deep Dive

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

NWSL Media Day has kicked off the 2025 soccer calendar so David brings on Pardeep Cattry for the books on the ground experience. Pardeep brings us behind the scenes with the vibe from the event, Commissioner Berman's comments on future NWSL expansion, and Rachel Kundananji’s friendships across the league + plans for 2025. And of course they dig deep on Gotham and where this club stands right now with all the movement across their roster.2:30 Vibes from NWSL Media Day3:40 Racheal Kundananji’s Star Rise8:43 Commissioner Jessica Berman’s Expansion Update15:50 Deyna Castellanos’s Journey From Bay To Portland21:20 Deep Dive On Gotham’s Offseason28:45 Most Exciting Move & Most Interesting Team For 2025 Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome back to SoccerWise, another big Wednesday of NWSL action. We've been having a lot of fun at the start of this year, chasing all the free agency, chasing all the transfers, all the news, all the report. It has been a wild off season. And this week, another little piece of news for NWSL, we had its media day for the league. I did not go because I'm lazy and I don't move and whatever else happens. But we are lucky enough on this show to have someone who was out in LA on the ground for this event who's going

to take us behind the scenes and then we're just going to talk some NWSL and everything that's been going on in this offseason. So we have Pardeep Khatri, soccer writer at CBS Sports. You know her from our coverage of NWSL, MLS and everything else under the sun. Thanks for taking the time to join us. Thank you for having me. We we bet actually in LA for MLS Cup just a few months ago. We bonded over as New Yorkers, our hates of the West Coast and everything about it. So I was proud that you decided to venture back into it. I would assume the temperature shift wasn't a bad part of this as well. It was actually the greatest selling point. To be quite honest

with you, the fact that I didn't have to wear a jacket for three days was it was lovely. I kind of miss it, but not really. Yeah, that's how I feel. I'm in Florida right now. And my family actually came and visited me last weekend. And it was the first two days they were here like 4950 degrees and they were pretty PO'd. They felt like they got sold a false. Yeah. Then it shifted into the 70s. And yesterday after I dropped them off at the airport and they got their jackets back on,

I was like, okay, some of this is bad. Not bad. Some of this is good. I can understand it. This media day, sort of the first event of the 2025 season. 2024 had a lot. It was historic. The opening of CBKC Stadium. Obviously, Orlando's championship.

The undefeated runs. The Olympic gold medal in the middle for the U.S. women's national team. Like, their last year is going to be, I think, looked back as one of the big years in the history of NWSL. So just give us, for starters, the vibe check of, like, what was it like as everyone finally came back together post-offseason and started to sort of look towards what 2025 of like what the feeling was? It's honestly really funny to get a group of players in without a bunch of them having started preseason yet. So it's like you kind of can't talk to them about what it's like being. Some of them are good. Some of them, like like not so much.

The national team players obviously spend some time together. But, I mean, the overwhelming feeling was that everybody was really ready to go, really excited. I think as a not soccer player, you don't realize how much soccer players miss kicking a ball around. And a lot of them did say that. But then just touching off the, you know, the thing you said about how last year there was an Olympics smack in the middle of the season. This does remind me that now this season, there won't be as much interruption for the national team players that a lot of them will actually spend the bulk of their minutes in the NWSL this season. So that adds really interesting angle to what's coming up this year.

We haven't seen a ton come out from it yet, as a lot of people, it feels like collecting information and all of that. Were there any big moments that stand out that people should be watching out for? Maybe any new characters that you did or didn't know about that were charming or interesting or funny? Okay, that's a great question, because I have my answer. Rachel Kundanandji from Bay FC. Well, I guess now Naomi Guillermo has a record transfer fee. okay that's a great question because i have my answer um rachel kundanaji from bay fc she well i guess now naomi girma has a record transfer fee in the women's game right but before that it was her um she honestly the second half of the season was great for her the first half i think well she said herself that she was in her head a little bit maybe put a little bit

too much pressure on herself and then um but you know she but i think she's if everything goes in the right direction at bay this season she's gonna have a big year but just sitting there or well she was sitting i was standing but just talking to her she oh my god she had a great answer for every question she's very personable honestly there's like a star quality about her um but you know talking about her first season with bay she was saying that she probably put a little bit too much pressure on herself and at one point about midway through the season albertine montoya the coach said you know just play free remember that you actually love the game so now she just goes out there and plays with love and i asked her you know what are your goals for next

season she's like just remember that you know i go out there and I love the games. I'm going to, you know, play with that freedom. But speaking of that, she was actually the last in the last group of players that showed up on the first day. And she came out with Tim Wachowenga and Barbara Banda and the three of them. I didn't realize how close they were as friends. Oh, yeah. Because they, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Apparently they had spent all day together um they had hair

and makeup for all the players um on site and like i think barbara was the first one to go in and the two of them just sat with her and chilled the whole time and i think they that with each other the entire time um they were supposed to spend some time together in the off season um rachel kundanandji said she was supposed to visit temuanchoinga in malawi but she didn't get around to it and so she did say that the first thing they talked about when they met up in california was her sort of explaining herself to maintain their friendship so yeah she's something i even before all that i was keep i was like we got to keep an eye on her i think she'll have a big season if things go in the

right direction but like i said she gives a great answer to every question so hopefully they put her in front of a camera a lot too i think she'll be somebody that people love to hear from so the banda and kundanaji part we know right they are national team teammates you don't always know people are friends it's nice to hear i like that shawinga has like been like no i'm inserted in this because from the, we all talked about the influx of great African players into NWSL last year. It was the storyline, the golden boot race and all the record signings. I love hearing that then behind the scenes, they have a connection and an association. And I think our hope is it leads to more great players coming to this league, right? If players in Africa or around some of these national teams

get to know them, and we always bring up Shwinga's sister as potential transfer and all of that, it's nice to know that there's a little bit of a draw there. Yeah, I mean, the three, I think it was Rachel who said, you know, we use each other as motivation and we hope to, you know, prove to, you know, other folks around the women's soccer space that there's lots of talent in lots of places.

And I think the NWSL, at least their roster was last year, which they're now obviously carrying over into the season, really makes it easier for teams to go out of their way to scout players that maybe were in less visible places but didn't necessarily lack the ability to play in the NWSL. We just didn't know that yet so thankfully you know those three showing up was a really great first example of what those what the teams can do if they really put their minds to it and hopefully we got we get lots of more

great players like them just showing up yeah it feels like there's been a a shift then to say and we've seen a lot of teams sort of sign a lot younger players, so not maybe ready to be stars like Akun Danji or spend the number like that or a Banda, but maybe in two, three years, these players can develop in NWSL and go on to be starters. For Bay fans, you got to love what you hear because we said it on this show, Bay finished the year as well as anyone. And that the performance in Washington against a team that goes on to the final Kundanaji gets the goal you take the lead it felt like post when Dahlkemper joined so much went right and they have been pretty steady this offseason we'll talk about one of their big ish moves in and out but they've been pretty steady you were hoping that that's just the platform to

this year I think Utah another team you're hoping that's the platform this year. So to hear that, I think for Bay fans has to be huge, which is the acknowledgement internally of what we've been seeing from the outside. Yeah, totally. It's again, for me, Kundanandri is the big story, but you're right. There was a big change when Dolph Ember showed up

in the middle of the year. It really felt like they started to figure themselves out, which can be so hard as an expansion team. You never know what you're going to click. So the fact that it only took them a couple months to click is probably good news for them. And maybe good news for the rest of us too, that like an,

a very competitive NWSL. We got a little expansion news out of media day as well. So let's move into our next big topic, which is the commissioner gave, I believe, you know, had to sit down and talked with the reporters. Give us an idea of what that was like and sort of what the big storylines were coming out of that.

Yeah, Berman, Jessica Berman showed up pretty early on the first day of media day, and she was game to answer whatever question was thrown at her, which was which is always very, which we always very much appreciate. But the big ticket item is that this week, she said that we're expecting an announcement on expansion. Obviously, all the reporting suggests it's going to be Denver. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be. But that will be the end of this latest round of NWSL expansion. They don't actually have a timeline yet for when the next round will start, though that is something they

will think about this upcoming year, especially since they got a lot of people who are constantly interested in joining this league. The obviously Boston, the next team to come in, whatever the name ends up being. And then that 16th team after that, we have clearly stated here at SoccerWise that we are for Denver. Jordan and Anjali are part of that bit. And we are so excited if that is the case, if that is the final news for that club to come to be. But you mentioned whatever happens after that. Was there a clear idea of how big this gets or what markets maybe they're looking at? Like, what was the conversation past 16?

Sure. So in terms of immediate steps, Jessica Berman said that she and the Board of Governors will begin discussing what the timeline looks like for the next round of expansion. You know, we've seen over the last couple years the award teams two at a time basically they she said that probably will stay the case um just because it makes scheduling a lot easier um and that a lot of people that were probably involved in this round of expansion might come back again so there were obvious so she said that there were 80 different parties interested when they opened up the expansion process. I asked the clarification eight zero or one eight eight zero. But it was people obviously at different levels of interest,

right? You'll have groups like, you know, the one we know about in Denver that were kind of a whole package. They were a complete deal. Some people were like, we're interested, but we're probably, we know you're not probably going to pick us now, but we definitely want to throw our hats in the ring. And Jessica Berman said that she, you know, has obviously had to tell certain groups, we like you. It's not a no forever. It's a no for now um and that she's she does she does what she calls matchmaking with different people with different um ownership groups to see maybe if they have obviously the geography in common that they can get together and form a group of their own

so we'll see but she said the priority for them when they look for expansion teams right now is infrastructure and less so actual like cities because there's still so many cities that i think they see as viable um i mean at this point what the nwsl in 2026 will only be in 16 different cities so you know america's a large place they can find themselves in a lot of different places yeah i i love to hear that because i i think what we've sort of seen is we don't really know where soccer markets are or we don't know where women's soccer markets are. Like, I think we've now had enough of the like, I wouldn't have guessed that city where it's like if the project's right, if the ownership group's committed, if the infrastructure's

there, which I do think does matter probably more, people will come. If you put together a good product, people will come, players will come. And so I think it's exciting to hear that from the NWSL, because I think for some people, and I know for us, our fans, we got, we were getting messages from Cincinnati and, and, and Cleveland fans being like, well, would they come? And it's like, yes, they would. I, they may not have chosen this time and there might be other reasons behind

that. But I think sometimes people get worried that it's because of their market. And I don't think that's true. I think the project just has to be right, which is sort of what we're hearing from the league themselves. Yeah. And I think at this point, the league is in basically every major city in America minus Miami. So they can, I don't think they have to be as selective about specific places if they don't want to. Yeah, yeah. They don't need the geographic footprint.

They don't need the time zones or maybe the TV market conversations as much anymore. Now it's about, can you make the league as strong as possible? Which is a huge conversation we're having. I've seen this a lot. And we'll talk about Gotham coming up in a moment and the Jen and Icewinger transfer. But coming on the back of a lot of connection with European players, a huge debate a year ago was like, is NWSL strong enough? Is it able to compete globally?

It felt like a lot of that was quelled. Now the conversation's coming back up. Did people ask about the league's view of where it stands in the global game and how it sort of will continue to compete with other leagues? Yes and no. I was definitely, so I was definitely going around asking a couple different players if that debate that we see, you know, online exists amongst the player pool. And I think the answer is sort of yes or no. Where all the NWSL players seem in lockstep about that league being the best in the world. And I think you can see the argument, right?

It's the one league right now in the women's game where you get great competition week in, week out. You know, I'm sure this was something that you guys talked about when the Naomi Guermas transfer wasn't complete yet. It's like, okay, her going to England versus her going to France are two very different conversations about what she's going to accomplish on a weekly basis with the opponent she's going to england versus her going to france are two very different conversations about what she's going to accomplish on a weekly basis um with the opponent she's going to get so yeah the players even locks up about that and i think the league sort of has an idea of what it needs to do i you know going back to the conversation about kundanaji and banda and chewing i think by expanding their international roster spots from i think it was five in 2023 to seven starting last year, I think is a game changer. They have transfer fee mechanisms that they didn't have before.

They have entry mechanisms for players under 18 that they didn't have before. I think in terms of player development, that is something that they take a lot of time to think about now. And I think they've started to make the moves to keep themselves as competitive as possible yeah um it does feel like and this was part of the cba as well of now there's less of the danger of if i go into this league i don't control my own destiny after that you've now shifted the inability to be traded against your will plus also free agency it does feel like a lot of these mechanisms have helped and opened things up. If I was a player in NWC, I'd walk around and say it's the best league in the world, because why would you say anything less?

And I think it is an easily debated point in that. Let's talk about some of the news, I guess, coming out of this week. Let's start with Daniel Castellanos, who was part of the bay fc build was not as effective as we thought it would be on the roster and then was at media day but not technically a part of a team as she had terminated her contract with bay we now see her popping up as a signing for the portland thorns what did you hear from her and what do you make of this destination for her um so just to sort of give a timeline of how i figured it i found everything out um i got to you know media day the first day and like open up my phone and there's the bay fc tweet like oh the contract has

been terminated i'm like oh that's interesting i wonder where she'll end up um and then within like a few like a very short amount of time she was out on the floor doing you know interviews with people and we had found out with like a couple hours and i mean i guess we found out the day before everybody else did that she was going to portland i mean when you're standing next to the Portland press officer, it's a dead giveaway. But to be fair, they were, you know, the press officer was very, you know, nice. And she was like, okay, there are gonna be a couple people that'll get, you know, to talk to her to get to break it down. And my colleague, Sandra Herrera was able to do that, which is very exciting. But, you know, it's, it did suck. I think a little bit that it didn't work out with her at Bay FC last year. I think, you know, going back to the fact that expansion weirds can, I mean, expansion

years can be kind of difficult and weird. Um, you know, they didn't get the balance there, but I find it very interesting, you know, that she's going to move to Portland because Portland are at this very interesting point in their, um, you know point in their journey too, right? We're talking about the team that has historically been the most dominant team in the NWSL. But over the last couple of years, things have not always gone according to plan. And it feels like now they have officially decided, okay, this is going to be, maybe last year was the first year of the rebuild.

This year, now without a bunch of veteran veteran players have decided to retire, right? Christine Sinclair, Becky Sauerbrunn, Megan Klingenberg. They really are a younger team. Sophia Smith will be, you know, probably the really big leader in face of that team if she wasn't already. So I find Portland now really interesting story as I think probably the first time in really their NWSL history, like the rebuild, the scrappy up and comer almost. Um, but yeah, I think it should be a good destination for somebody like Dana Castellanos,

who I think will really pop off in this league when she has the right circumstances around her because she really is a talented player. Yeah, you i i thought i agree with you and i think it's interesting you sort of say the word of like in a weird place like it's hard to tell where portland thinks they sit right now it's hard to tell where portland sits and i think this signing is similar of like is this a sort of low hopeful signing or is this a player that you're going to put a lot on and have belief in consistency? Because you're not getting that from last year, but you are getting that from the her

body of work and her resume over the course of her career. But I don't know what Portland thinks they need. Like when you look at this team, I think they've solidified at center back. You mentioned Sophia Smith, who has announced today, by the way, Sophia Wilson. Oh, yeah. So that's another name that we have to figure out and learn as we go forward. And, you know, Moultrie and, you know, Spanshaw, like a lot of pieces that I think are coming back in a better place than last year, which in theory should say Portland at the top, but we don't know the gap. I think that's what's tough for me is I don't know the gap between where they were last year at sixth and seventh and struggling versus the top four, which I think is the big

gap that exists in the league. Or you could, I actually maybe think North Carolina has gotten there wherever it is. And I think that's where this signing could be. If it hits, this is a way for you to jump that gap. I don't know how reliable you can believe, though, that this will be based off what you saw last year or didn't see last year. Yeah, I mean, going just off like the top four where Portland fits, I think the big question of the 2025 season is that top four, are they going to actually stay the top four? Or are we, you know, or is another topsy-turV season in the store, right? Like, I don't know if we could have predicted at the start of last year

that there was going to be a top four that was clearly better than the rest. And I think you're right about Portland. To me, it feels like even if last year was like you're one of the rebuild, this year will feel more like the hard launch of the rebuild versus last year being the hard launch of the rebuild versus versus last year being the soft launch so you know i mean playoffs definitely not out of the question for them especially since right now more than half the teams are going to make it i think maybe we're like two or three years away from figuring out like or for them making it to what like whatever

the peak of the project they're building is yeah yeah having a year that finished with a clear gap but also the top two teams not having made the playoffs the year before really sets up well for us in the media space of being like you never know anything can happen and i think right now where we stand we're still in that place let's talk about maybe the biggest team when it comes to you have no idea what's going on and you never know what could happen. Let's try and talk about Gotham FC. We haven't done it a ton on this show because I wanted to like make it its own conversation, just the amount of movement that has happened with this team.

Yasmeen Ryan leaving in the big trade was sort of the start start of it almost every free agent that was available from the team has gone and signed in other places and so when all of that happened you could argue they actually and maybe only lost one starter went healthy with everything now uh you get the trade of lynn by indolo i think his pronunciation for lynn williams indolo thank you for the assist there you get rose lavelle coming into media day on crutches which was a bit unexpected and we still don't know what's going on with mitch burst so let's start at the top jenna nice wonger transferred out to Arsenal. It's $100,000, I believe, in the transfer fee for the young left back to go to England. What do you make of that move? And

sort of what does this tell you about what's going to continue happening with this Gotham squad? Yeah, I think actually, so I remember the first couple of weeks of that offseason, it was like a couple of free agents leave and then williams or i guess b andolo now another one i'm gonna have a tough time remembering um she leaves and she says for personal reasons because she wants to be on the west coast where she's originally from and then yasmin ryan going in you know an entirely separate move as well and so at first you're like okay okay, these feel like different things, but I think the body of work ends up adding up, right?

Gotham last year had really like just wild amount of talent and probably not enough minutes for every single person that wanted them, right? Like Niswander, for example, somebody whose minutes came down yeah after you know like in the second half of the season so it's not really that much of a surprise if she's like oh i want more playing time i might have to go somewhere else um the free agents that

left probably the same problem right um when you have the quote unquote super team there's just not going to be room for every single talented player. And they really did have a great roster, right? It wasn't like, you know, a roster where it was like the national team players and then like everybody else and there was some drop off. Really, they were able to compete in as many competitions as they did last season because they had so many quality players. And what is also interesting about Gotham is that they built the super team after winning the championship with a bunch of players that maybe were like NWSL underdogs so and a bunch of them were able to hang with the super team players no problem with the national team players no problem so

it created I think a weird problem for them but it doesn't surprise me at this point that a bunch of these really top level players are like um no, I should go somewhere else and maybe get more playing time if that's what I really want. Yeah, it is hard to put your finger on the fact that all of a lot of the free agents or pieces that have left whether it's trade or free agency are going to be starters on their next team. But weren't starters at Gotham and like two things are correct gotham is losing talent but also there's a chance that gotham is equally good if not better this year because the big story i think for me last year was with internationals you didn't have that super team together very often you didn't have the center back pairing you you had rose lavelle for a good stretch but not the

full year um you lost a number of pieces for other national teams as well. So, like, we didn't see Gotham's best 11 from what they were trying to build a lot last year. And when you go back to the playoffs, only two of those starters have left. Now that because Jenna Niswanger lost her spot and all those other things. And yet, there also feels like this panic of why is everything changing? And why is everyone leaving Gotham? It's hard to put your finger on if it's just a minute's crunch, or if there's something bigger going on that behind the scenes that fans should be worried about that this team isn't as settled as maybe we expected them to be. Right. And that's a really reasonable

concern. Actually, Lynn Biandolo spoke about it very, very briefly at Media Day. I had asked her, you know, what was really the reason behind going to Seattle specifically? How did that deal materialize? And she said that for ages, she'd been chasing a move to the West Coast, again, because that's where her family is, that's where she's from. But she suggested that, you know, the way things ended with Gotham, it just wasn't a good fit for her anymore. And all I could get out of her in a couple of follow-ups was that the team and her were not meshing. They were not getting the best out of each other anymore. And, I mean, I asked her, I was like, was it tactical? What was it? She was like, well,

I mean, basically she was like, it's not that I didn't like New York. So there, I think, and I, so to me, I think it's very reasonable if people ask questions about whether or not there's a little bit of discord there, or if just there's something off balance um i don't have more than that right now but it it is it has to be a big question it has to be especially since this is a team that coming into last year was really priding itself on being the destination for that many titan or that many really elite players yeah it is um it is an interesting i mean it's what happens when you are a super team in a big market like you're going to be under the microscope it is fascinating there are so many ways that this is fascinating and this is why we love covering this

league it's you know ella stevens was not supposed to be a huge part of this she could be a go-to piece for this team this year, and that could be fine. Ella Stevens showed last year she is good enough to carry a team through big games, and you talked about their ability to contend in so many competitions. They made a Summer Cup final without having any of the national team pieces, and a lot of players that were out with injury as well. They didn't have Crystal Dunn as part of the traveling roster for the last third of the season, a player that won a gold medal, and yet they were still

able to contend. They won a playoff game, went to Washington, probably not the best showing in Washington, but had the lead on the road late with a chance to beat the team that ended up going to a final. So there's a lot to have liked. There's a lot to question. It is still probably the team to watch right now for a lot of people. And that has to do with the magnitude of the names of the players around it, as well as the amount of moves and what's going on. I will say for myself as a US fan, I'm excited to see Jenna Niswonger go to England. She wasn't a starter. I think there's still levels for her to take steps as a defender at that position, having converted. And I do think that

a club like Arsenal that has a lot of the ball, but also is playing in competitive games week in and week out, is a really nice spot for her to fall. And it will be interesting to watch, as well as the rumors we hear now around Sam Coffey of how much England will be involved with NWSL and the back and forth between players. And it is back and forth. I think every time a big player goes in one direction, people panic, but then you have to remember the amount of players that a San Diego is bringing in right now and a lot of other teams as well as Gotham into NWSL. On that note, let me ask you this question. What is, so far in the offseason, or maybe a story you're watching, what's been the most interesting move to you,

or what has you most excited for the 2025 season? The most interesting single move is Jaden Shaw to the North Carolina Courage. That's an easy, easy, easy one for me. The Courage feels like a team that know what they're doing but couldn't quite figure out how to do it with like the maximum impact last year and so having jayden shaw thrown into the mix will make things very interesting especially with ashley sancho after they had after she had a very very good year last year um and i mean i think just jayden shaw being you know one of the most exciting young talents in the u.s just makes her like

interesting period regardless of whatever team she plays on um so that's the one single move i'm probably more interested i'm most interested in but in terms of like a whole collection of moves i am very fascinated by the houston dash who really have to like start that rebuild from scratch because they haven't they didn't have a g GM or a head coach at the end of the season. Now, thankfully, they have both. But, you know, Yasmeen Ryan is there. They've got a lot, a lot of different pieces that are coming in. I'm very, very excited to see what happens there.

We said on this show right when we finished last year, Delaney Sheehan had just signed, and it was like, okay, Houston, raise the floor, be consistent, make signed and it was like okay Houston raise the floor be consistent make good moves they have made the raise the floor move a lot like every piece they've brought in you're like that's a good NWSL player who are the stars we don't know and and maybe year one of a rebuild that's fine be competitive week in and week out start to build an identity the other fascinating thing to me is I think Yasmeen Ryan is good at everything. I don't know what she's great at. And this could be the spot where we find out she's actually great at everything or she's great at one thing. Like she will be

a central force for this team. And Ordonez has star quality as well. If maybe the team is built well to get to those talents and get her, you know, get her touches in the attacking third and make her more competitive. But I absolutely agree with you that this Houston team is going to be one of the must-views early in the season to see where they fall. I also think, and I probably should have this written down, that there are reports that they may be selling the club coming into the season.

So that's another thing to watch out for as maybe it hasn't gone as well under the new ownership group that, I believe it's said Siegel, who owns both the Houston Dash and the Houston Dynamo, as previously hoped for. And Houston's a massive market. Like it should be one of the big teams selling out games, contending for championships,

but it always puts teams in tough spots when you don't know what the future looks like. Oh, totally. I think at the very least, as long as they can get some results on the field, they'll be able to survive some of the uncertainty. And the vibe I get from the Houston players is they all like each other a lot. Jane Campbell, I was asking, or we were talking about just getting through a really difficult year last year in terms of results and she you know she admitted

that it wasn't good enough but she also was like the one thing with the new coach Fabrice Gautreaux is not actually going to have a problem with is making sure everybody in the locker room actually likes each other and is on the same page which I thought was a very you know bold and interesting thing to say but she's also like been there nine years so if anybody would know that about that group it's them they everybody

says it's a very tight-knit group there so i think at that and they've all a bunch of us survived a lot of uncertainty at this point um so if they can get that part of it working at least hopefully the rest will fall into place but what do i? But that does connect with the one thing which was confusing at the end of the year, but we never know, which is the amount of veterans who signed extensions with a club that didn't have a sporting director and didn't have a coach. And you saw a Losey sign a deal. You saw Paige Nielsen sign an extension, Patterson as well. And it was like, what's going on here?

And that makes sense then of the, I'm happy. I'm happy with the people I work with every day. And obviously, it felt like at the end of the year, it was so hard not having a head coach for half the year and then having an interim the other half that you could believe that things would get better. And so the hope is that that's around the corner for Houston fans, and for all of us to just watch a more competitive league week in and week out it has been a lot of fun chatting about this we're going to have you back on to talk nwsl as the year goes along um anything else people should think about before we get out of here or do you feel good

i think we're good i think we covered every single possible topic ever we the only one we didn't cover i had written down was sam stob being at media day as a player that i didn't think would play in 2025 i thought that was interesting credit to her for doing it i think is one of the big ones um and it sounded like she sounded optimistic about how she felt and maybe her rehab yeah i think a lot of optimism in in that optimism in the team uh the direction of the team um i i mean i guess she was just happy to take the time to speak to folks um and i guess correct i don't know if people saw but she had to correct the piece of paper with her name on it because chicago red stars now they're just the chicago stars we're all stars. And Sam Stobb's probably the

biggest one. If we were in a room, the three of us, Sam Stobb would be the biggest star. Thank you, though, to her for coming and being a part-time editor, full-time guest. And we hope to see someone back out on the field. Well, once again, we appreciate you taking the time. Part of Cat Tree, soccer writer at CBS Sports, and friend of the show and guest of SoccerWise. So thank you. Thank you again for having me. Thank you so much to Party once again for joining us. Just a little note.

You notice in that Gotham conversation, we mentioned Crystal Dunn. We mentioned we didn't know what was happening with her. Well, about 13 seconds after we finished recording, literally, it was announced that Crystal Dunn was mutually parting ways with Gotham FC. I don't think it changes our conversation at all. It's a club that's in flux. There is some chaos around it.

There is a feeling of chaos for fans, and yet there's still a ton of potential and a ton of talent there. I don't think Crystal Dunn was a player many of us thought would be playing with this Gotham group because of the way last year ended. So now that's a reality. And we don't know what her future holds. It's obviously I think upsetting for many people, a New York local coming home to her local club, it felt like it was a great way to finish a career coming off a gold medal, she still has a lot to give to the game.'ll be interesting to see what she chooses to do next and where she chooses to fall. And of course, for Gotham, it just continues what we talked about with Pardee of all the movement for them and a lot of the unknown going into this next year. As I mentioned earlier in the week, Jordan Angeley has returned to the Northern Hemisphere, so she is going to be with us to help continue covering NWSL's offseason and heading into the preseason now that the

teams are starting to meet up and start training preseason games coming and then of course the season kicking off so a lot of fun stuff to cover a lot to talk about and we're going to do it all here at SoccerWise so thank you once again to Pardee for joining us thank you to all of you for listening and we'll talk to you again very, very soon.