SoccerWise - NWSL Edition: THE MASSIVE SEASON PREVIEW w/Lori Lindsey & Jill Loyden

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

The NWSL season is around the corner so it is FINALLY time for Soccerwise's big season preview. Jordan & David call in reinforcements as Lori Lindsey & Jill Loyden join the show to hit EVERY TEAM in the league. Six minutes and thirty seconds are on the clock as the squad goes team by team through big offseason moves, tactical breakdowns, and big question marks for every team. See below for timestamps for every club's conversations & you can find each team as a standalone video on our youtube page. Soccerwise is of course your number one source for weekly NWSL coverage. And keep an eye out for our special NWSL Challenge Cup preview coming up ahead of Friday's match. 4:50 Angel City FC12:30 Bay FC19:00 Chicago Stars25:50 Houston Dash32:50 KC Current39:00 Gotham FC45:55 NC Courage52:55 Orlando Pride1:00:30 Portland Thorns1:07:50 Racing Louisville1:14:40 Seattle Reign1:20:40 San Diego Wave1:27:20 Utah Royals1:32:45 Washington Spirit Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome back to Soccer Wise. David Goss, Jordan Angeley, and a bunch of big friends coming up for our gigantic NWSL season preview. Jordan. We thought about how to do this. How do we get the fans their best coverage of the league? And I think we put together the dream team. We put together a group of the best analysts, I think, covering NWSL. We will have Lori Lindsay and Jill Lloyd joining us in just a moment for all of us to talk about every single team in one episode. You know where this idea really like popped into my mind is from listening to Extra Time for so many years, Goss.

Like you guys did this. You guys did this though. Like you originated this, don't you think? Yes, but now I realize we probably NWSL is probably reaching the, we did it across like seven episodes because there's five million teams. Right. NWSL probably next year, I don't know if you've heard, there might be a couple more teams. We probably couldn't do one episode anymore.

This was probably, we probably reached our limit on this one. But it's hard to get a lot of star celebrities in one room at the same time, or at least one studio space online. So this was the time window we had. I tried to do the math on it and make it work. I don't know how successful the math was. I feel like we did pretty good. I wouldn't even say it's our longest episode ever which is wild because you and I by ourselves we can yap. Yeah clearly. I had to put on timers

and then start to push people and there's a lot of great Conversation we don't get to have because there's a lot to talk about for a lot of the teams Coming into this season. There are storylines off the field that we don't really hit in this this I think our idea Jordan was to talk on the field the soccer because so often What gets covered around this league is the off the field stories. But now is the exciting part. We interviewed Aubrey Kingsbury, that will be coming out for the NWSL Challenge Cup, and she basically said, like, now you guys have something to talk about because you're going to get to watch us play. Yeah, yeah, thank goodness. Gosh, we've filled some time, but it'll be nice to,

you know, this is what we're expecting maybe from some of these teams but a lot of teams we don't know how they're going to play and I think we are ready for those games to start back up and they they start back up this week this week yep nwsl challenge cup around the corner nwsl season begins as well i'm sure people must know them but if they don't as well. I'm sure people must know them, but if they don't, tell everyone a little bit about Lori and Jill. Yeah. Okay. So Lori, Lindsay, and Jill Lloyden, two professional soccer players back in the day, both in WPS and NWSL and with the national team as well. And Lori and Jill have been analysts in the women's game for a number of years now, not just in NWSL,

but both of them covering their different respective college conferences as well. Jill in SEC, Lori in ACC. These two just know so much about the women's game, have really good soccer minds, and a way to analytically say, this is what I'm seeing, here is maybe some of the things you guys can look for. I like the way they explain the game. And one of the things I like, Goss, about this mixture of us is we kind of all see the game a little bit differently.

And I really appreciate that because I don't want to just be like parroting the same talking points. It's really nice to hear different perspectives and places where maybe some study sees a weakness and somebody's like but That could also be a benefit to them in this regard. So I think it was a really good mixture of These women with really good points of view Yeah They are all people that are steeped in the game here in this country and now especially in NWSL. You are going to hear all of them very often

as the season goes along. When you turn on your TVs and you stream wherever you stream on the weekends, it was an honor for me just to be in a virtual space with everyone to talk about the game. So the format for us coming up is I will set the stage to open things up about the off season moves, how 2024 ended for all of these teams as well as on the field and off the field notes, then Jordan will

give us a tactical breakdown for each team early thoughts about each group. And then we will go into a conversation and discussion with Jill and Laurie and then I sadly will be the one that has to put my finger on the buzzer right as it gets good every single time so that we can dig into it. But a lot of fun and why waste any more time? Let's get into it. Well, we are starting off with bad coal. So let's start our 2025 NWSL season previews, of course, with Angel City. Last year, 2024, they finished 12th, did not qualify for the playoffs. They were of course docked three points and fined

for some clerical issues that were found outside of the playing field as well as suspending President Julie Erman and at the time CSO Angela Huklis who has now left. Since then they've hired Mark Parsons most recently the head coach of the Spirit, most famously the Thorns former head coach to be sporting director,

but there is still no head coach as we are 12 days from kicking off. In terms of moves, they have brought in Julie Dufour from Paris, they traded for Savvy King and they signed Macy Hodge. On the way out, Rocky Rodriguez and Messiah Bright have been traded. Madison Curry has left the club

as well as Didi Haricic through free agency. For each of the teams we have other major news and notes I'd like to point out there is no coach of this team as the other major news and notes. Now Jordan will take us into our tactical prompt and then Jill will take us off the back of that. So the last few seasons we've seen Angel City play out of a variation of a 4-3-3, sometimes a 4-2-3-1. And I think they emphasize building out of a three-back.

They want to get one of their outside backs high into the attack to try to help with the way that they build. And I think one of the things that they also do is they're really keen to turn a team over and play a long ball, isolating 1v1 in the channels. But I think the biggest question, Jill, is who is this team going to be? It's a rebuild year. They don't have a coach. How the heck are they going to play? You guys know that meme with the lady from Dance Moms. She's like, you're good. I'm ready for you to be great. And that's how I feel about Angel City. I'm ready for them to be

great. And last year in the offseason they picked up Alana Kennedy was probably is their biggest signing and that's not really that I'm not having that much optimism with that signing in the offseason that doesn't make them any younger that doesn't make them any more mobile in the midfield and this is a team that was generating some more attacking production through Emslie, through Thompson, Kristen Press coming in the back end of the season but what was their Achilles heel at the end of the year was defensive transitions and they continued to give away balls in bad spots and because of the lack of mobility in the midfield I thought that

made them very vulnerable defensively. Some positive news is that hopefully June Endo will be back and providing a bit more, but I think the biggest change for them is going to be Angie Anderson in goal. I mean they they let Didi Haricic go in free agency and they said you know Angie we're gonna build our franchise on you. You're a young goalkeeper. The problem is is that she's inexperienced and we saw her start the beginning of last season. She played four games and she continued to give the ball away in bad spots in possession, which led to some significant goals against for this Angel City side. So there's going to be a learning curve for her.

And I think they have to take that. But the biggest question mark is the biggest red flag for this team is how do you come into a season with no head coach? I mean, last year with the Washington Spirit, they at least had an interim coach that was Sam Lady is the interim coach. Yeah. Sam Lady is their interim coach, right? Like he's been obviously in the league.

He's currently, he's having them. But looking at last year, the Washington Spirit brought an interim coach that was going to segue them perfectly into the full-time head coach when Harada's became their coach in June. Unless Laura Harvey is taking over Angel City, I don't see any continuity for this preseason into the regular season into whoever they potentially hire. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think that is like the overarching theme though of Angel City because it feels like they never had like an identity and then they were putting these coaches in

positions that they weren't going to succeed because it was like they never had an identity, and then they were putting these coaches in positions that they weren't gonna succeed, because it was like, if I have a certain style that I wanna play, that doesn't mean that there was a recruiting that synchronized with that, in terms of the players that they would go out and get. And so I think you saw that. And I'm just saying, okay, Sam Lady is taking charge, like, right, we know him from being

Seattle Reigns Assistant Coach under Laura Harvey, then he was, for a short time the Houston Dash head coach. So, potentially there will be some sort of possession oriented style of play. We've seen that in the past. I don't actually know if that totally suits them, because everything that you have all said I agree completely

with. I'm just looking at their midfield again. That has been an area of concern for me, because there's some other teams that have a concern with this exact same aspect, is that they're all similar players in the midfield. So, no one's like a true ball winner, no one's a true playmaker,

or you have all playmakers and all ball winners, or whatever, right? But like the makeup of this team, everybody's kind of a possession player. And then when you think about, okay, we want to keep the ball, we want to progress quickly or we want to play transition. When this team gets stretched, that's where they've been most vulnerable because the midfielders aren't able to cover that much ground.

And they're all a similar pace type player. So I still have concerns in that way. I think you see Giselle Thompson can take another step forward, which will be huge. Savvy King will have another season under her belt that could potentially take a step forward in terms of attacking out of the back. And then obviously, Alyssa Thompson and her ability in front of goal and how she's turned things around, essentially, confidence-wise in the middle of the season last year. And I think the biggest question for them is who's going to score goals, right?

They have now Sydney Leroux. they have Kristin Press who's back, but can those two continue to be who they've always been and score goals for this team consistently? Because it's not as if they didn't create chances last year, right? With Emsley coming inside, allowing numbers to get forward, she played a really good role of playing in that pocket, but it felt like there weren't enough players in the box, ready and eager to score goals. And that was a lot of this Angel City's team's downfall last year. There's obviously the hope that Julie Dufour adds a little bit to that, whether it's in creative areas or that finishing as well. Um, Joe mentioned Junendo coming back. And then

of course, Kennedy Fuller, who was gave some good minutes, but a very young player trying to add production. Uh, Joe, we go through this whole thing. Should there be expectations for Angel City? Like in this state that they're in coming into this year, AKA not having a coach, like what would be a fair idea for 2025? I mean, I think there's always going to be expectations on this Angel City team. I think they just got sold for what was it? 250 million, the most expensive franchise in the world or women's soccer team in the world. So there's always going to be expectations upon this team. But I think the high ceiling for them is challenging for a playoff position again in the top eight.

I think it's gonna be hard. I think it could be doable if the coach can get every bit of juice out of every squeeze from this roster but I think it's gonna be tough with the lack of acquisitions in the offseason. This should be the team that wins all of their home games and they don't win games at home. If I'm Angel City, I'm thinking, that is number one priority this year, is to get three points week in and week out when you have home games because it- Buzzer.

Oh. Buzzer. I knew it was gonna be me. I knew it was gonna be me. Yes, it was. I thought we were gonna hit it on our first one. I was about to be so proud of ourselves. We are gonna have trouble with all of these because there's so much to talk about with all these teams.

But that means we have to move north up the coast and go to Bay FC 2024 expansion year. They finished seventh in NWSL. They lost in the first round of the playoffs. Here's the note that I think is important. On August 31st, Abby Dahlkemper made her first start for this club. Abertine Montoya did an interview last week with attacking third where he mentioned the bar so friendly, which happened to be two days before that game as the turning point for their season.

They went five, three and one after Abby Dahlkemper entered the starting lineup. Three losses all to top four seats. 1.8 points per game is the rate there. That would have been a fifth place finish over the full season if they had played at that rate, all 26 games. They eventually lost at Washington

in the opening round of the postseason after leading and then losing in extra time. So because of the hot finish, the off season has been minimal for them. They brought in Kelly Hubley at center back and then three college stars, Hannah Babbard, who just played with the US women's national team in January, Carla Lemmama the ACC offensive player of the

year and then Taylor Huff from Florida State on the way out they traded Alex Luray and Daniel Castellanos left as a free agent and then Kaitlyn Roland and Jen Beatty both retired but for this team Jordan a promising year you go now for your tactical prompt and then Lori will take it from there. Well, I think if you asked us what the tactics were for Bay last year, we would have given you four different answers throughout the season. I think it's a really good case study on how to build an expansion team. But Albertine Montoya wants to be a team who dictates the tempo with the ball. He wants the ball.

They struggled with that at the beginning of the year because they gave up some some goals but they're gonna play out of a 4-3-3 and utilize their main scoring threat is in transition using Rachel Kunanandji to allow them that outlet but I think the main focus for them Lori in preseason has to be how they can keep the ball a little bit more. They've shored up their defense with Abbe Dal Kemper as Goss mentioned but this team has the ability to have more possession. Will they do that this year is the biggest question. Yeah and I think they will. I mean this is gonna be another year. It's always difficult I feel like to come into this league and be successful as an expansion team and especially to be able to turn things around.

I mean, we mentioned in Abby Dahlkemper, that's a huge acquisition for them in the middle of the season last year, because one of the overarching themes for this team as well was that we need more veteran leadership. So I think that's where Kelly Hubley comes in. You mentioned solidifying them defensively. I think they still look like they're gonna be

a tough team to break down after they corrected that. But then even just the players that they brought in, yes, they're young players that Goss mentioned. Hannah Bebar from Duke loved her. She was a huge player that allowed Duke to get to the national championship game. Taylor Huff, a two-way midfielder that's gonna cover a lot of ground.

So if this is a team that's going to be able to keep possession, those two are gonna add depth to that and they're also going to be able to cover quite a bit of ground particularly Taylor Huff She can slide in as a number eight competitor from Florida State So you have the ability to not only play in transition with some of these new acquisitions plus everybody one year More and experience under Albertine Matoya, which I think cannot be overstated one year more and experience under Albertine Matoi, which I think cannot be overstated. But then you also have the ability with some of these players that have been brought in to keep possession

and create a bit more rhythm to give Ashwala Kundanandji the ability to get into the box and better scoring positions. I mean, I think the biggest conversation at Bay of C is who is gonna play in goal. They have three goalkeepers on the roster, Jordan Silkowitz, Melissa Louder, and Emi Allen who have zero minutes played in our league. And with the departure of Kaitlyn Rowland in the middle of preseason, that's not a great

sign when someone retires in the middle of preseason and leaving you zero experience in goal. I do like Jordan Silkowitz. I think she has a lot of tools. I think she has a lot of intangible elements of her game. But again, with no experience, having played last two or three seasons ago in Australia, which isn't really a great indicator of how you're going to be able to perform in the NWSL.

I think that's a little bit scary going into game one with no other potential options. Like if they said, okay, we're going to go get AD French because she's available, then I get that even if French were to be a backup to Jordan Silkowitz and an ice player in case of emergency player, let's put in someone who has proven that they could do it. The good shot stopper will provide some good leadership and mentor this young player who has no experience and help her with the mental side of the game because that's a big element when you're going into your first season with no safety net in my opinion. Jill I have a question because we saw this last year with Angel City you just kind of mentioned it with Angie Anderson as she was given the opportunity and then taken out. And

that's one of the difficulties too, is if you play one of these young goalkeepers, you kind of have to keep playing them and let them make mistakes, even if it costs you some difficult goals. How would you manage that? If you're the goalkeeping coach or the coach at Bay FC, how do you manage those situations? Well, I think it's different for Angel City. I think at the end of last season they said, okay, Angie is going to be our starter next year. This is who we're going to bank on, is going to be our starter. They chose that situation. They chose the potential that Angie has and what they've seen over the course of two seasons. I think if they thought that, they should have put her out on loan to get her some minutes last year But I totally understand, you know

If Dee Dee got hurt they didn't feel comfortable with their number three now Bay is in a predicament because they didn't choose this They had gone into the season thinking that Roland was gonna be their number one in my opinion The goalkeeper coach becomes the most important person on your staff at this point to be able to help a young player transition making sure that they're mentally capable and important person on your staff at this point to be able to help a young player transition, making sure that they're mentally capable and comfortable with making mistakes. It's going to happen, right? It's going to happen. That's going to be the hardest part because Jordan Silkowitz does have a lot of tools

to be able to defend the goal, start the impossession, which is important today. Now it's just that mental resilience, making her comfortable, making her know that you believe in her and no matter what happens, you're going to rock with her. Whoa, making her know that you believe in her. And no matter what happens, you're going to rock with her. Well, look at us. We nailed this one. I'm not even going to set off the buzzer or the timer. Big question marks once again for BFC, but a lot of positivity coming out of last season. Let's roll on to our next team. And it is the Chicago Stars. No, I did not misspeak. It is not the Chicago Red Stars anymore. Name change, Chicago stars. They finished 2024 in eighth place on 32 points in

NWSL. They lost the opening playoff round to Orlando 4-1. They won one of their final six matches in 2024. In the offseason, they brought in Matian from Gotham, Monaka Hayashi, the Japanese U-20 captain and a U-18 signing in Michaela Johnson. On the way out, Tatum Malazo has left to go to Utah, Julia Bianchi, Maxie Rall have both left NWSL, and the loan of Rossella Ayané has ended. Other news outside of the field of play.

Right now, Mel Swanson has not reported for preseason as of recording this. We do not know what her status will be for the start of the season. And then Sam Staub, of course, we thought would miss the year with an Achilles injury, but maybe there is hope she'll be available. And then right before recording this,

Natalia Kwiika suffered a knee injury with the Finnish national team. They are saying it's not a torn ACL, but they are not exactly sure when she will be available. Jordan, over to you. Yeah, that's not a good last few lines there, Goss, when you're talking about how this Chicago team wants to play.

I think under Lauren Donaldson, they want to be hard to beat defensively, right? Compact make them hard to break down, but the difficult thing was they weren't that in 2024. They had some holes in the way that they played defensively and they gave up a lot of goals. And then they want to go in transition, use Mal Swanson and now use some of their other really key stars up front to why am I blanking on the Brazilian's name? Lude Milla. Lude Milla, use them in transition. But for Chicago, they've added some pieces in the later half,

Julia Grosso. Now you're bringing in a Japanese international, which can help you play a little bit more through the midfield and have some more of the ball. But they have to be harder to break down if this is going to be their main tactical way to set up, Jill. And in 2024, that wasn't the case. way to set up, Jill. And in 2024, that wasn't the case. Yeah, I am very worried about the Chicago team. Last year, they overachieved. They outright overachieved for what we expected from the Chicago team. They made it. They squeaked into the playoffs. But this is a team that only got two points off of the top five teams in the league. Everybody else they beat were cellar dwellers and that's how they propelled themselves into the playoffs. I think the biggest question going into this season is how much if any and at what capacity is

Mal Swanson able to play for this team and contribute to this team. We saw the first iteration of Chicago without Mal Swanson a couple years ago. It was a defensive train wreck mainly because they needed to create some more attacking production through every other player on the team. Their best players were defensive players. They needed to get higher up to produce something into the attack. That left them so vulnerable defensively. They gave up the most goals I think in history of the franchise. And then this year without stop starting in the center back position that was a massive hole for them last

year Quika is now they did pick up my tiny but Kara Karl filled in a center back last year that was not the solution this roster is certainly skinny in the in the defensive line. So I think a listen there is going to be really busy this year. Yeah, the thing that I think of when I look at this Chicago team is everybody's going to have to outplay themselves. Everybody's going to have to raise their game because I think what we've seen with Mal Swanson and very much like in Portland with Sofia Smith, I think now Sofia Wilson, is that this team looks very different, like almost incredibly different when you don't have those two strikers playing in any given game.

And so it feels like if it's unknown right now when Mallory Swanson is gonna return, then everybody's just gonna have to be raising their game. It's gonna have to be a complete team effort. And Jordan and Joe, as you mentioned, defensively it's gonna have to start with that. But that means everybody is behind the ball, you're scrapping, you're, and so those are my question marks.

Is this team gonna be up for that? Because you still have a lot of young players as well. If Quika's out, that's another veteran player, Sam Staub. So you have a lot of young players, first or second season, first or second year, that are having to step up and play a veteran role. And you're having to do that with every single player on this team, because there isn't somebody that's going to have that potential individual brilliance that we've

seen just yet that can carry this team right now. So that's my concern as well. Time will tell, but. Yeah. I would have liked to get, to see them get somebody that helped them in creation. They have very upfront, they have players that can stretch you, right, with Ludmila and Swanson, but couldn't they have gotten a forward who allows them to have a little bit more target play, I think would have been more helpful.

But when I'm looking at this back line, I do think there is hope. Hannah Anderson, I like her youthfulness. I think she's going to grow into a really good center back. It's going to help her to have Maitani next to her, but still is the speed there in because you've got to have speed in the center back position if you're going to succeed in NWSL. It's going to be difficult for Chicago. I felt like they kind of waited too long in the offseason to make any big moves and still we haven't seen anything that I think gets us on the edge of the seat, our seats for what they can do in this next season. Yeah. The one thing I'll just add is this feels like it's been an interesting

off season because we've seen teams that needed to make moves that haven't where typically the draft would help them because they're automatically going to get players. And now this is the first time that we're really seeing do we, obviously we don't know the, the backend or behind the scenes, but what are teams capable of? What is their structure set up to be able to go out and get these players that we think that they need to help them push along. Right. So what is the recruiting system look like?

Um, behind the scenes, I think all of these questions are going to be highlighted this year and whether or not individual organizations are in a place to really be able to put their best foot forward to be able to go out and get these players or not, right? They're just stuck in terms of being able to make it on a daily basis, really is the best way to put it. I will say for Chicago, a little unfortunate probably in that Ludmila and Julia Grosso were probably this off-season signings in theory

to add to what was there last year. Now they've lost so much that they haven't been able to re-replace, which means that, David, you are running behind. It is time to move on. I was able to buzzle myself on that one and I couldn't not take the opportunity from the future to my soul.

Let's move on to a team that struggled last year but we're hoping for a better 2025. Houston Dash, when you look at the standings it's easy to find them on the bottom of the table at 20 points overall. They didn't have a permanent head coach last year after June 1st with Fran Alonso on a leave and then officially leaving the club on October 1st. But Hope Springs Eternal at this time of the year. They set a record in their trade for Yasmine Ryan. They also traded for Messiah Bright, Kristen Westfall and Abby Smith. They signed Delaney Sheehan, Daniel Koloprico and Evelyn Jullon in free agency. On the way out, this team set a transfer record

for about a week in selling Tarsion to Lyon for $960,000, which was then of course broken by Naomi Gurma. And then Andressa has left to go back to Brazil. The huge news off the field, there's a ton of it. Angela Hucles is now in charge of this team from a soccer point of view. And Fabrice Gautra is the head coach coming over as the assistant

in North Carolina. Something to note, ownership did put out the news last year that they were exploring either new ownership or potential ads to their ownership group. And they've employed a group to work on that as well. But Jordan, on the field, what do we expect to see? I'm waiting and seeing, I think is the big tactical approach here I would imagine from what we know for Bruce Cotra play or was underneath This Sean Nahas style in North Carolina for a number of years and to me with the Acquisitions that and Schuchly's brought in in the offseason. It is veteran veteran veteran ball playing type players I think they're gonna love to have the ball and with all that NWSL experience it is veteran, veteran, veteran, ball playing type players. I think they're gonna love to have the ball.

And with all that NWSL experience, it is going to raise the floor for this Houston team. And I think they're missing one piece, but I feel like this Houston team, Laurie, is gonna be so fun to watch this year, very different than other years, but I think they're gonna want the ball under Fabrice Gautra.

Yeah, I completely agree and I hope that they stick with a 3-5-2. We saw North Carolina play every once while a few games maybe a handful of games throughout last season with a three back. So, Fabrice Gautra would be familiar with that formation whether or not that's his like number one formation that he wants to go with. But I hope they do because obviously they played it with that last year. I think when you look at the three backs that they have, they brought in Paige Nielsen in the middle of last season,

Natalie Jacobs, Katie Lind coming back from after being out after having her first child. So I think those three centerbacks will be like the staple, the anchor, but I love what they've done in this off season. It's the most aggressive that we've seen, the Houston Dash. So the promise, the excitement to what they can do with the new head coach, Anne Hukle's another year under her belt of just understanding the ins and outs of the league and bringing players in.

I have two question marks, I would say, even though I'm excited about this team, is again the midfield. Because one, veterans across the board, experience across the board, I love that. We saw that that was fruitful for Orlando Pride last year. Majority of those players had experience in the WSL. They weren't all national team players, or very few actually were getting called international players, so you always had a continuity to your team regardless. I think we could see that with this Houston Dash team.

But my concerns will be a little bit still in the midfield because it does feel like there's quite a few similar players. Again, we mentioned that about Angel City. I love Koloprico. Delaney Sheehan was an important piece to Gotham. Yasmin Ryan would be different and we'll see if she actually plays in the midfield or more out wide.

But there is a concern that there's a quite a few similar players and then obviously you bring in Dujon from Orlando, you have Messiah Bright that's come from Angel City, Diana O'Donnay's. But none of these players except for Diana O'Donnay's, her rookie year have put up double digits. So in terms of goal scoring again, and that has been an issue,

they've been stingy in the last couple of years defensively, but they've had nothing in the way of an output in terms of being a threat anywhere near goal. I do believe, and this will be my last point, with these players and wanting to keep possession and then having experience in this league that they'll be able to have the ball, it'll allow for these players to be in better positions and they can progress as as a team and with numbers that they haven't

in the past years so that could be the change in terms of these players up top who do have the ability to score goals to now be able to showcase that they can do it more consistently. I think it's important to reflect back on last season. I know there was a top four teams that kind of ran away with the season and then there was a middle pack and then there was teams that were never going to challenge for the playoff position. So between fourth place and eighth place was a 23 point gap and there was just like this chaotic middle race of teams and I think Houston

will be one of those teams this year. I don't think they're gonna break into the top four but I think this team had a facelift in the composition of their team. I think bringing in an experienced coach who understands this league and understands how to transition a playing style because North Carolina had to do that right under Paul Riley then with Sean Ne North Carolina had to do that right under Paul Riley then with Sean Nehas he had to completely revamp the style of that North Carolina team and I think that's the biggest question mark for this Houston Dash under Fran Alonso he tried to do it overnight he tried to do it

overnight in terms of we for the last 10 years Houston has been a defensive team they have conceded the least amount of goals over that 10 year, in those 10 years, and I think overnight he tried to completely transform this team to produce more attacking production, but it was only to the detriment of their defensive side last year. They conceded way too many goals in the beginning of the year under Alonso, and then when Ricky Clark came across, it was a more considered approach to try to create attacking production So I think that transition from we're a defensive team Which has been our identity for ten years to we want to have a little bit more of the ball has to be one

That's considered immature. Yeah, I would say Laurie your point about Deanna Ordoña's being the only goal scorer up front for that team Well, where did she do that? In North Carolina, which is important in this because Fabrice Gautra is going to know her, is going to know what helps her score goals because she is a goal scorer. But when you're asking her to run in behind or chase balls down after a big defensive ... That's a great point, person, who I'm not sure will be talking at this time for a pre-recorded ending. It is time for us to move to our next team. These are so good.

Yeah, they're funny. That's all I had, by the way. I used all of them in the first four. Sorry, Jordan, about that. Goals. I'll just say goals there. Yep. We interviewed Yasmin Ryan on this show a week ago, so I'd highly recommend as well going to talk or going to listen to that. It was interesting to hear her talk about the culture that they're building in this group as well. We are into, uh, as Jill mentioned,

that top little segment. Now let's go to Kansas city current. They finished fourth in 2024 and 55 points. They beat North Carolina. And the opening round of the playoffs, they lost three to Adderlando in the semi finals. They started the year on a 15 match undefeated streak. They won the NWSL Liga MX Summer Cup series, the last time I get to say that. And of course they had the Golden Boot and MVP winner in Temua-Shinga in the offseason. They looked to goal. Lorena was brought in from Gremio. Laurel Ivory signed as well. They traded for Rocky Rodriguez and then they re-signed some big players in Dubinia and Di Bernardo. The goalkeepers from last year, Almuth Schupp, we believe is out.

80 French we believe is out as well. And Desiree Scott has headed back to Canada. One thing to note, Kaitlyn Carducci has officially taken over as GM after acting as interim. Jordan, let's talk about one of the most fun teams in the league. Yeah, entertainment I think is the first thing that they want to do tactics-wise. This is a direct team. They want to win the ball and how quickly can they get it to their NWSL MVP, Tamwa Schuenga. It feels like to me Kansas City wants to control the tempo of the game and they want the tempo of the game to be as fast as possible because they have runners in the midfield.

They rely on their three centrally to link the play between the defense and the offense. And for this Kansas City team, it doesn't feel like they're going to slow down at all, Jill. This is a really good structured team and they can score a ton of goals. Yeah, I mean, I think this is my prediction for the Shield winners this year. I think this is a roster that is completely steeped in quality in almost every position on the field

I don't think they're gonna struggle to score goals. Even if she Wingo has an off game here or there They still have players like be a D Bernardo who is arguably playing some of the best football of her career low labanta is slinging in a bunch of goals Michelle Cooper looks Reinvigorated out on that right-hand side And I really liked their tactical approach last season and you could see it to the entertainment part is they wanted to score goals. It didn't matter if it was the first minute 90th minute, it didn't matter if they were up four goals or up one goal. They wanted to score goals. And I think that if,

when I think back about this Kansas city team, I saw a distinct difference in their approach. I think it was against Portland when they won 4 to 1. In that game, they bossed Portland in every single way in that first half. And in the second half, they didn't force the issue. They didn't force the issue to score more goals. And it allowed them to be in a little bit more of a defensive posture, to be more conservative and allow teams to come out of their shape more which opened it up and transitioned a bit more for them as well. So I thought there was a much more considered approach toward the

end of the season. I have some reservations about Lorena in goal for this Kansas City team but in their last eight games of the regular season they were 6-0 and 2 and they only conceded three goals. So I think this is a team whose identity has become galvanized under Vlachov Andronovsky. Well, let's not forget too, this is one of the teams that actually made quite a few personnel and a tactical change in the middle of the season.

And that's something even up until their very final game in the semifinals against Orlando had mentioned, like, listen, we're still very new. You bring in Alana Cook from Seattle, Sharples as the two center backs. I mean, Gabby Robinson had gone down with an ACL. So they were very much in the mindset that we're still developing relationships

all the way to the end because they had made so many personnel changes. And this was a team that high pressed early on and they let up some really easy goals once teams started figuring that out. And so they had to change. They had to start to sit back and then look to transition. It was difficult for teams to be able to stop Schwinga,

but to Jill's point, you get Bea, you get Timwa back. Hopefully Bea will be healthy, Dabinia healthy as well. You also get Rocky Rodriguez in free agency from Angel City. You get Haley Hopkins. I think she's a player that's gonna give them a completely different profile up top because she can play back to goal

or she can play out wide. So now all of a sudden you get a little bit more experience across the board, especially when you think of like a Desiree Scott leaving and was coming in to kind of close out games towards the end. So I have a feeling that this team is gonna feel upset and pissed off actually, the way that they ended. And again with the fan base behind them, but they experience another year under Vlach-Co and those relationships building. I think they'll have some tactical nuance. They can flow in and out of two different styles. And if everybody's healthy, I think this team is going to be

extremely difficult to play against. We've done this on this show a lot of times. I was going to give Jill you the chance. Claire Hutton, what do you what do you make of what she can be this year if you think they're going to be a shield winner? Yeah, I mean, I think she adds so much on the defensive side of the ball, um, for this Kansas city team, but she also is adventurous and getting up into the attack. She gets up that left-hand side can provide in combination in wing play or just lurk at the top of the box, waiting for those balls to pop out, um,

that teams are just trying to clear their lines. And I, I am excited about this young player, not only for Kansas city, but for the future of our US women's national team as well. Because I thought it was interesting that Rocky Rodriguez was brought in. Laura, you mentioned her. Like that's an experienced center mid. There's not minutes in that position in theory if everyone's fit.

That's true. I do think though that Rocky is more, even though we've seen her play a bit more of like a two-way midfielder in the last couple of places that she played, Portland and in Angel City, I do think she's more of an attacking player and I think the more that you can allow Rocky to not have to be a two-way player and allow her just to stay up and the players behind her and get her into good positions, I think we're actually going to see a Rocky Rodriguez that we haven't seen for quite some time, which is like a playmaking, vision type attacking midfielder that can play

the final pass or at least get herself on top of the box, shoot from distance. But I'm in complete agreement, I think with everybody on this podcast is that Claire Hutton is exceptional. And I think that we're going to see her next to like, Lili Johannes for years to come with our U.S. Women's National Team midfield. We are excited to cover this team all season. I am excited because we are on time. Once again, we are on fire. We are in mid-season form. We're hopefully, Gotham is hoping to pick up this year

after a hectic off season. They finished last year, of course, third losing out on a tiebreaker for second place to the Washington Spirit, which meant after their 2-1 victory on their 97th minute winner from Rose Lavelle in the opening of the playoffs, they had to go to Washington.

It meant that after leading 1-0 in the 92nd minute, they gave up an equalizer and they lost in penalty kicks on the road. 10 new players this off season, if you include Mitch Purce, returning to this squad. Gabby Portillo, the big one. She was brought in as a signing internationally. Jalen Howell acquired in the trade. Stella Nyameca and five college rookies. A part of this roster

on the outbound has been the big story. Yasmine Ryan traded in that Jalen Howell deal. Linby and Dolo, sorry, Linby and Dolo traded in that Jalen Howell deal. Crystal Dunn has gone to PSG. Matian Delaine Sheehan, Sam Hyatt all have left in free agency and Mikhail Zabroni has called it a career. So thank you to a legend. There has been some worries Jordan about this team just with all the in and out. What should we make of Gotham? Well we know it's going to be they've like coined this themselves.

It is a little bit of controlled chaos for this Gotham squad because they have so many footballers on the team that moving off the ball is really something that they pride themselves in finding the space occupying it and then utilizing whatever is left over from the other players they're gonna they're gonna play out of 433 I wouldn't be surprised if we see them out of 43 or 4-1 with the addition of Howell now next to Neely Martin there centrally just to help them build and be a little bit more aggressive with their outside backs But they want to really the thing that helps this Gotham team so much Lori is they want to high-press They want to turn teams over as high as possible on the field. And they've scored so many goals with good pressure, high up the field, close to their goal as possible. And it's difficult for you to defend this Gotham teams

because they have so many good players in the attack. Yeah, that high pressing, the nuance, the way they play, the controlled chaos that you mentioned was one of the reasons why initially when all the players were leaving, also makes sense, right? Like players have free agency now, they're able to go autonomy. So that makes sense to me.

It just seems like here is a team that was built to bring in all these players. And then the next season, it feels like, okay, there's so many departures. But it's that controlled chaos that initially had me worried about this team because it does take time to understand what Juan Carlos Amoroso,

or at least it perceives to take time to fit what Juan Carlos Amoroso, or at least it, perceives to take time to fit into the way that they wanna play, Delaney Sheehan, Yasmin Ryan were integral parts to the way that this team played, the way they played through the midfield. So, but then as I dug in a little bit deeper and still looking at the players that they have available,

they retain quite a few, especially down the spine as well. I mean, you look at Emily Sonnet, Tina Davidson, Astaire, and Katrin Berger, Jess Carter, to name a few, right? So you still have a considerable group that will know what one Carlos Amoros is asking for. They can help some of these younger players coming in. Mitch Purce should be an excellent addition when she comes back and her ability to create in the attack.

I do think the biggest question though for me is how quickly can they get up to speed because of that. There is a nuance to the way they want to play, I think, and again it seems like Juan Carlos is very detail oriented, so that requires everybody to be on the same page. But at the same time, I do think it'll be interesting to see if maybe this benefits. Because so many of those players were out

with national team duty in and out, they were having to bring players in as national team replacement. I mean, it just, it does cause additional chaos as well. So maybe now you retain some of those players and keep the continuity of the group more consistently, that could be a benefit for them. I think the shift away from the individuals to a more well-rounded team is happening in football these days.

However, I say that with the caveat of I think there's three players within this league that if they don't play kind of spells doom for their team. Those three players being Sophia Wilson. I think if Portland don't have her, they're in trouble. If she gets hurt or she can't contribute, Mal Swanson and Katrin Berger for Gotham. I think Gotham plays such a specific high risk, high reward way. They high press, their center backs get up, they squeeze the pitch, that you need

to have a goalkeeper that can space defense behind them, that's vertically high off of their line, because the natural ball to relieve that pressure is in behind the center backs. And if you do not have a goalkeeper that is preventative and very, very comfortable being high off their line, it can spell disaster. Especially because Sana and Davidson aren't the fastest centerbacks. It's not they're slow, but also there's quicker forwards than them. So if you don't have someone that's gonna be high and kind of snuff out those relief balls, I think it's it's gonna be trouble. Especially because Gotham had, I thought, the best goalkeeping unit last year and now with the departure of Abby Smith, Cassie Miller is gone.

Michelle Bateau is retiring. I'm very concerned if Berger gets hurt. Shelby Hogan is not that kind of goalkeeper. Ryan Campbell, not that kind of goalkeeper and no experience in this league. I think Gotham could be in trouble if Berger can't contribute. How smart were we to bring Jill on this podcast? Because we're not even talking about goalkeepers and Jill's like, you guys are missing the biggest point. And it is so true. I thought she was going to say Rose Lavelle. And I was like, no, no, no. Yeah, I know.

Everyone knows. No, no, no, I shouldn't have gone that way. Well, Rose Lavelle, yes, but she is so inconsistent in how much she can play. So I think that they've actually already adjusted to having Rose or not having Rose because she gets injured quite often. It's such a good point, Jill, because they are risk and reward team. The space is in behind and this team was so different with Berger in the back line or in the net for them. So it's a really good point. Laurie, I like your point though of the question is,

can they move from individual to as a team? I was lucky enough to go to their pre-season game and all five of the college players played heavy minutes. Like, can this group be cohesive in ways that maybe they weren't at times because of all the movement of international players playing at Olympics and all those other things over the last year. Even if the elite talent is not the same for them, we continue on here

and we move into North Carolina, who have had an interesting 12 months themselves. They finished fifth last year on 39 points, which was 16 points less than 4th place. They lost at Kansas City in the opening round 1-0 in the off season. They brought in Jaden Shaw for $400,000 across allocation money and internal transfer fund. They signed Hannah Betfort as a free agent. They acquired Shinomi Koyama from Sweden in a club record transfer overseas for over $200,000. And they signed one of the top

young centerbacks from college soccer in brookly court now from USC on the way out though the names are maybe even bigger former MVP carolyn's time has come to a close with the club she heads the man city and narumi has signed with the washington spirit of note outside of soccer their nine-year cs o kurt john Johnson has left the club and on top of Sean Nehas, they still have not filled that role. And Mark Lazry was rumored to be taking over the club as ownership at the end of last year.

And then in December sent a letter saying, because of terms of investment, he wouldn't. And that is a cloud over them. Not unknown Jordan is what the team likes to do on the field. They are fun to watch. They are the best possession and passing team in NWSL with a clear style of play and that requires rotations.

Lori mentioned it earlier, sometimes they start out of a three back, sometimes they start at a four, but they want their left back to come centrally and create overloads in the middle of the pick. They have pitch, excuse me, pick. What is that? They want to play through the thirds. Their desire is to progress the ball as efficiently and effectively as possible. And when you add some of these pieces in

that Goss just mentioned with Jaden Shaw with Hannah Betford, who's a different nine than they've had in a long time, this is going to be a North Carolina team, Jill, that is going to up their level even with the exit of Caroline. Yeah, I mean, I think if you speak to most coaches in the league that they would say that North Carolina is the best footballing team. But if you ask them, do they fear North Carolina, I would surmise that a lot of would

say no. But I think that it's interesting. The squad is interesting this year because you add in a player like Jayden Shaw, who could add out wide. She could be in a 10 roll, she could be in more of a false nine that we've seen like a Tess Bodie play from in the past with North Carolina. But I think that Jayden Shaw, the biggest question marks I have for her is, is she going to be willing to defend?

Because this North Carolina team is a good defensive team and they require two-boy players in 11 positions all over the field. And can Jaden Shaw consistently, we know how talented she is, we've seen what she can do on the attacking side of the ball for the national team. Now can she bring that into a club setting and do it on a consistent basis? and she's really talented. She is we've seen what she can do on the attacking side of the ball for the national team. Now

can she bring that into a club setting and do it on a consistent basis week in week out? Um I'm just curious to see in what positions we're going to see her play out wide. Can they isolate her or is she going to drift inside? Look to

play off of Ashley Sanchez, but the thing that encourages me the most is that I think Sean Nehas is a really brilliant coach and you can see how he's elevated a lot of players across his span at North Carolina. One of those players being Kaylee Kurtz who wasn't drafted by this team, wasn't picked up by North Carolina and has become one of the best centerbacks, most consistent, maybe not glamorous but more stable, reliable players in this league. And I think Sean Dayhouse is one of the best developers in this league. Yeah, you could add Ryan Williams to that conversation as well. What she's done on that right back position, both of those players, significant minutes,

but Haley Kurtz, like three time Iron Woman. Makes me tired. Yeah, exactly. I think what's really interesting is the acquisition of Hannah Betford, because even if you don't get loads of goals from Hannah Betford, she's at least going to, with her presence and just how she plays the game as a center forward, is gonna occupy center backs.

And that was the biggest struggle to speak to the point that you made about teams not fearing them. And we saw this in their last game in the quarterfinals against Kansas City is that Kansas City just squeezed them. There was no verticality. Obviously, Caroline was still coming back from injury, but they just had nobody that was able to stretch the game. And so even with just Hannah Betford's presence, you all of a sudden now open up

space for Ashley Sanchez, Jayden Shaw, depending on where, if she even if she starts out wide and comes inside, there's more space, which they haven't had all last season and towards the end of the previous season. So I think that alone is gonna be important to give them a different dimension and then be able to create in a way that they want to.

Nurumi's departure, I think is actually actually going to be bigger than we actually, maybe anybody thinks, because she was such a focal point in that midfield with her rotations, her and Denise O'Sullivan playing off one another. There was a really good relationship there. Now Riley Jackson is a young player that I think can step in and we'll, we'll get more significant minutes, but there are still some pieces that maybe are, they just needed a shakeup as well. I mean, this team has been together, majority of these pieces for a couple of years now

under Sean Neha. So maybe it's the right movements that needed to happen to give them a lift. But I think, yeah, Hannah Betford and then what does it look like without Nurumi in the midfield? And to me, how do you play Shaw and Sanchez together? Yeah. With what Jill said is, I think an earlier episode this year, Goss, I said the thing about Ashley Sanchez that I feel isn't quite there is her consistency and her defensive responsibilities.

She can do, she's just like Jayden Shaw, she can do so many great things going forward. But Shawn Nehas is demanding and you have to be willing- And he's spoken vocally about this. Yes. So how can those two work together and they like to occupy a lot of the same spaces? That's interesting to me, how you can get them on the field together in a creative way. It does. You go, Jill. Yeah, I just to Lori's point about Hannah Beford, I think she adds something different that this North Carolina team doesn't have and allows them to play not different, but

just give them some different options, especially late in the game. You're chasing a game. You can play those crosses in a little bit more than you would if you had Brianna Pinto, because Hannah Beford does have a good aerial presence. You can play in behind. We saw her do that against Portland last year where she exposed Portland in a transition moment in the space behind. So in those later minutes of the game, whether you're down, you're chasing, you're trying to change the game, I think she's something else that can be added.

Great point Jill. It was a great point. Left color out. Beautiful. I didn't even want to cut you off if I didn't have to. Absolutely. North Carolina, this is a different team than we thought we'd see 12 months ago.

It's a different team than we thought we'd see two months ago. They are going to be one of the must watch teams when we get into the season. The must watch team is going to be the two time double winner or whatever you want to call it, the defending champion, Orlando Pride Shield and NWSL Championship.

They started the year on a 23 match undefeated streak, 24 when you go back to the previous year. Most wins in a single season in NWSL history, most shutouts. They set a record transfer with the acquisition of Barbara Banda and they won the final one zero over Washington in Kansas City.

And then Marta got to curse at Laurie on national television. So it was a perfect finish to the year for all of us. One big move really in the off season. Ohani has been brought in 24 year old Spanish right back who has 27 caps for the national team. Not a bad ad for a club that hasn't really lost much after coming back from a double win. They sold Adriana to Saudi,

a Saudi Arabian club for $500,000 and then Carrie Lawrence and Celia Jimenez Delgado have retired. Jordan, take us on the field for sub hindsight. Yeah, this is gosh, Orlando best team we've seen in NWSL in the 2024 season. They take the cake for the history of this league. They play out of a 4-4-2. Marta really has a free roll to float, especially on the right side.

She likes to overload there and then can isolate on the left with a 1v1 in that space in the channel. Defensively, this team is so cohesive, difficult to break down. I think one of the things that sets Orlando apart is they have a number of players who are just footballers over positional players. So it allows them to read the game in front of them, see what is being asked of them, and then to answer in that way. This is, Lori, a team that was really good, has been built over the last, what, two and a half years, and now we're seeing them just be

hopefully be consistent in 2025. Yeah I think that is what I'm most looking forward to is because they did retain the majority of their their roster in fact I mean all of almost everyone except for Keira Lawrence that retired Adriana transferred so but then you get Chalufia as well as Ambien International, O'Yane who you mentioned. But I think, I think Jill and I were having this conversation in the last couple weeks as well. If you look back the last two championships, it's been Gotham and then Orlando and both of those teams were playing for a little something extra. Ali Krieger's retirement and then this past year is to get Marta once they realize oh this team is special there's something good there was always something that felt like they're playing for one another every single game you're getting the best out

of every single player to win that championship for Marta is quite frankly what it felt like and they did that and why I fully believe that this team is built on like they have their principles in play, they've been vocal about this team was built defensively so that they know they're solid and then they can create and afford market to have more of a free roll once they get into the attack. It's really hard to maintain that. It's really hard to have that consistently over one year

to find that little extra something that's gonna consistently get you over the edge and They had that momentum this year So what if they have a period of like where things start to break down and they don't win a number of games in a row How did they handle that? We didn't they didn't have to really go through that credit to them They bounce back after there's two back-to-back losses at the end of the season So they're able to overcome that but if there's But if there's some trials and tribulations this year,

are they able to overcome that as a team? I think time will tell, but I love that they've maintained the majority of the roster. I like the pieces that they brought in. Shavoshi is a rookie from Wake Force, hands down one of my favorite center backs in college soccer last year. I think she fits this mold in this team incredibly well.

And it affords you to start to rotate a little bit more because if Sam's gonna be gone with national team, that was the thing. Like that's gonna have to be in the conversation much more in the women's game consistently going forward is because these players cannot play the amount of minutes, international duty, come back, play the grind that the NWSL is in the amount of games. So you have to be able to rotate players in that can step in

and know their role immediately. And I think Shavoshi is one of those players. So I'm excited to see what this team is going to do this year. I think Orlando has three X-Factors. I think one of them is Seb Hines and his ability to choose the right strategy for each single game. The way that they played the final was different against the way they played against Chicago, right? They literally said in the final, we don't even need the ball because when we have the ball is when we're most vulnerable against a team like Washington Spirits.

So they made it ugly. And that I think that goes into the second way that this team is just so good as they find ways to win no matter who's against. Whether they're getting an early goal and just being a bit more conservative on the defensive side of the ball or whether they're having to go and chase a goal against a team that can be in a low block. I mean, they're one of the best teams at breaking down no matter what the opponent is throwing at them.

And their last thing is the depth, which is something I think goes hand-in-hand with Seb Hines He created that depth by the players that he chose and the way he developed them. Ali what is Playing the best football of her life. I mean she had some glimpses of it in college She was special in college, but the way that she's been able to contribute to this Orlando Pride team They were like, alright Adriana fine go to Saudi Arabia. We've got Ali watch she's's playing at the top of her game right now. Summer Yates. Yeah. And I think that gives them the versatility for Seb Hines and the freedom to say, All right, what are we playing against? And how

can I play these players in different positions, rotate the starting lineup because I'm going to play horses for courses type situation and allows Orlando to be so much more unpredictable and harder to prepare for on a weekly basis. I think that could, sorry, Jordan, I was just going to say, I think that could all be wrapped up in like just the culture that he's created. And that was something that we heard, we called so many games of Orlando's last year. Not only did I live in Kansas City, I also lived in Orlando. But you heard him say they wanted to shift the culture,

find ways to win regardless of what, if it looks pretty. And so that speaks to everything that Jill just said is they changed the culture. They could grind things out if necessary. They could play against the ball. They could play with the ball. They had rotations in the attack that we never saw. But most importantly, everybody believed in what they were doing and they found ways to

get it done when it was most important. I was just going to say the depth too. Now in the off season, you add players in a center back. Now you can move Kylie Strong back to an outside back position if you need to. And this is where the decision making of Seb Hines is elite. He can pick and choose these players who are really truly footballers. Like that's what I feel like.

Cory Dyke is not an outside back, but she played outside back for this team in the final, right? But she can play midfield. She can play, she played as a winger. I think you get that same thing along your back line with Keria Bello too, can play in the midfield. This team is really deep because they have really good footballers.

Seb Hines has developed those players into Hit this culture and system is so many good points and it will be interesting to see how Orlando Tries to repeat what they did last year because it's gonna be more difficult. I Love that. We got through this all and Haley Carter was on the show last year and I asked about No draft and she was like, well, I don't really like young players anyway. And they only signed one college player. So she is right on her mark right now and they won the championship. So they get to do whatever they want. A lot of excitement once again for this Orlando team. Let's move on to Portland. They

finished sixth in the regular season in 2024, then lost to Gotham in the opening round of the playoffs 2-1. Rob Gale was moved from interim manager early in the season to permanent head coach throughout the 2024 season. In the off season, they tried to address the needs. Diani and Sam Hyatt brought in as centerbacks. Bella Bixby returns from a maternity leave. They signed Danya Castellanos as a free agent, and then some big time college rookies coming in,

and Pietra Tordon, who we saw teared up at the U-20 World Cup. Jaden Perry and Carissa Boekerman. I know that I butchered all three of those names. Unfortunately this is one of the long off field note teams. And the positive new training ground that will open up alongside the Portland WNBA team that the ownership group is a part of both. Jeff Agus was hired as the new general manager, longtime Major League Soccer employee, no experience really on the women's side. And then of course the legends, Christine Sinclair, Becky Sarabrand, Megan Klingenberg departing

this team. We have still not seen Sophia Wilson, formerly Sophia Smith, in preseason so far. And then we did this, Jordan, on last week's show with the devastating news right before the season started that three players have been added to the season-ending injury list in Morgan Weaver, Maria Mueller, and Nicole Payne, who will be unavailable for the 2025 season, Jordan. Well, 2024 for Portland, there was a lot of changes,

but I think one of the biggest things is they were devastated because of injuries. So Rob Gale tried a number of ways of playing. Typically out of a 4-3-3, there were times when he dabbled in a 3-5-2 in the middle of the season. And I thought going into this season, that actually could have been a really good setup for this squad. But unfortunately, those wing backs that I was thinking about, Goss, are now injured and really difficult injuries for them. I think I'm curious with a full season under Rob Gale, a full preseason, really, how does this Portland team want to play?

They have really good pieces down the spine. They want to rely on Sam Coffey. They want to rely on Sophia Wilson. But I feel like they have lacked having a true identity again as they, I wouldn't call it, would you call it a rebuild or a restructure, Jill? I don't know what to say about this Portland squad. I don't think the Portland fans are going to be happy with what I have to say, but I am the most concerned about this team. Just because of the rich history of success, they've only missed the playoffs one time. That was in 2015. I think without Sophia Wilson, we don't know what's happening with her, she hasn't reported, without Sophia Wilson this team will not make the playoffs, in my opinion. I think

that, you know, with how things went at the end of last season, it was so deflated at the end of last season. They limped into playoffs. Then you lose players like Sinclair, Becky Sauerbrunn, Megan Klingenberg, Hubley, say what you want about those aging players. That's a lot of leadership, a lot of leadership in your team. And then things go from bad to worse because then you lose Mueller, Payne, Weaver all learn long-term injuries This has always been a team in the past where I was thinking they're gonna score goals defensively. They've always had

Defensively, they always had problems, but you were going into every game. They are going to score goals So it's a big question mark if Wilson's not there Weaver is not there Who does the attacking burden fall on, who can pick up those pieces? And then they've had a goalkeeping problem for years and it is interesting to see who's going to be their number one. Is it going to be Bella Bixby? Is it going to be Mackenzie Arnold? I thought Arnold was very poor last year, very very poor to a defensive team that or to a team that needed more defensive energy. I think Portland Thorns will hope that Bella Bixby comes back and even better

than she was before maternity leave. I think the bright spot, because I agree with all of those concerns. And I remember just looking at those, those three that went on the season in the injury list. And then I was like, let me just go take a look. And I'm, and it is for the first time, maybe in the history of this Portland Thorns organization, it's like, okay, what is this team gonna look like?

And I think mostly to what everybody's saying is identity. We don't really know. In the past, we've known what this team is gonna look like, how they're gonna wanna play. I feel like a lot last year after they made the coaching change and then had a little bit of an uptick and then obviously that fell off.

We haven't known what this team's gonna look at like each game, right? Who's gonna show up? What's the energy level gonna look like? How are they gonna play? How are they gonna break teams down? So I still have all those question marks, but I would say if there is a bright spot

when I look at this team, still looking at the midfield. I look at Hina Sagita, I think one of the best in the league, hands down. Sam Coffey, Olivia Moultrie, Carissa Beckman. I actually think can step in from Florida State as a rookie. She's just gonna be a ball winning, a player that's gonna hold her ground,

do a lot of the dirty work. They also need that, because then I think that will release Sam Coffey do a lot of the dirty work. They also need that because then I think that will release Sam Coffey. But that was the biggest issue last year is when their midfield would go on a run, they left that back line or back three, regardless of the formation, so exposed. And in transition, that team was in one pass taken out.

And that's when you lead to the vulnerability of like, okay, who's playing in the back line? What are the goalkeepers being asked to do? So I think first and foremost, this team would be best if they like, solidify things defensively, knowing who they have now, but then also really having understanding

of what those roles in the midfield are. Because that was also a question mark, even though I look at those three as individuals, as excellent players, it didn't always mesh that well last year with those three players. So we'll see what the combination looks like and where they start to put players,

if Zagitoz may be on the front line. Yeah, well, one of their biggest acquisitions in the off season was Dana Castellanos. And I'm, Goss and I already talked about this. What do you guys think? How do you, where do you feel like she can fit in? My biggest question mark with her is, is she an NWSL player? I don't know if she is. And I'm just curious what you have to, what you think about that Jill.

Well, we'll go with Lori. Lori's a midfielder expertise. You go with that one. All right. I like that. Oh, Dana Castellanos, she played on the front line, right? I mean, I think honestly you maybe would have, well, it's tough because Portland does utilize Sophia Wilson as their number nine. They don't play her out wide. So maybe now without Morgan Weaver,

you play an inverted winger essentially and Dana Castellanos can play next to, and then Reyna Reyes, if she's playing on the left side, you allow her a bit more freedom I mean there's ideas and ways that you can fit everybody in. Timer has completed. Who knows? That's a question with one second to go.

It was a good question though. It was a great question and you know what we're gonna do a Portland Thorn special at some point soon because we don't know what this team looks like and everyone's gonna come back on and we're gonna talk all about this and so much more. We have so much to talk about across all these teams. One of the interesting ones that we're gonna do now here is racing Louisville. Spoilers, here's another question. Does anyone know where they finished in the standings last year? Nice! Always and forever! Four years in NWSL, four years they have

finished ninth. All their off season moves have been players coming in from college. Louisville native Ali George from Virginia Tech, record setting attacker from Nebraska as well. Sorry, Ali George and then Ella Hase, fullback from Duke. Abby Ersek has headed to Mexico and Linda Mothalla has left the club.

Just to note for everyone, last year they brought in Bethany Balser and Janine Becky in the mid season. So those were probably their big off season ads. Jordan, what should we see from this team? This is a team under Bev Yanez that has some really good ideas. I think that they just struggle in certain moments of the game to punish teams. They're going to play out of a 4-2-3-1. The emphasis

is when they win the ball, they're most successful when they find the weak side. So it's a quick change of the point of attack. They want to utilize Taylor Flint, who had an excellent 20-24, as a deep-lying playmaker, and I think it's worked out really well for them. But then when they do attack, it's rotations, especially on the right side, they wanna get their outside back into the attack, either centrally or in the channel to create some overlays on that right. And they've built well on that side this last year.

But Lori, they haven't been able to find the back of the net as much as they should. They were hoping Bethany Balser will be that answer. Do you think that that is gonna be the case in 2025? Okay, we're only 30 seconds in and I do find myself having anxiety about the buzzer. So, I'm like, it's gonna go off. I've been living with that anxiety,

literally for 24 hours thinking about this. Yeah, no, that's fair. That's fair, so I'm gonna make this quick. This is a team to me that is both frustrating and I love this team. And I say frustrating because they have been sitting at ninth, that is where they've consistently finished. And I feel like there's more, just add a few more pieces.

And again, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but I'm like, let's be a little bit more aggressive. One, two players that you feel like are gonna like set this team over the edge, because that's to me, what this team feels like that it needs. Because all the other pieces are there. You've got these players that have experience, that have some individual brilliance, Sav DeMello,

Emma Sears that's been called in for several camps now with US Women's National Team. She has breakaway speed. She's still learning and progressing. This will be her second year in the league. You have veteran players, Taylor Flint that you mentioned, Janine Becki, Bethany Balser has proven that she can score goals. It's just like it feels like one or two Ari Borges who I love in the midfield, one or

two more pieces that are going to be like hey if nothing's going this team's way in this game this player's individual brilliance will get you out much like we talked about with Mallory Swanson and Sophia Wilson. So, sometimes I think like I'm looking at the scores each week and I'm like, all right, they're going to go on a run and then they tie or they lose to a team that you don't expect them to. And so some, it just feels like, ah, there's just a few pieces missing and they'll get them over the edge because otherwise I like what this team

How they're built how they play and how they've been coached. I agree with you Lori I think it'll be interesting to see who they replace Abby or sig with because I think that could be a net positive position for them because Ersig consistent player consistent defender But not really fitting the mold of what Bev Yanez wants in a center back to be able to build out in that three, setting their fullback higher. So I'm curious to see who they replace her with. Is it more of a ball playing center back that could help Katie Lund? Because I think we didn't see the best from Katie Lund last season because she was being asked to play a bit more under pressure to solve pressure, not just hit it long and use

her range of pass. However, I think you know when you think about North Carolina and Casey Murphy she wants to play out but every time she gets pressed she has three to four players that want to make themselves available to her as an option to be able to beat that press where I didn't feel like Katie Lahn necessarily had that. Ball-playing center backs who wanted to help break that initial pressure. So I'm curious to see who they replace her sig with. Jordan, you talked about the midfield rotations we did. You know, we did this show last year and it was I still think Taylor

Flynn's one of those lost generation players that Emma Hayes is talking about. I was surprised she wasn't in camps over the last 12 months with the way she has played for this team and her ability to progress the ball. As Laurie said, the match winning, like that final thing. And I guess the hope is Emma Sears can take that step playing national team for the last seven months or balls are fitting in more comfortably after an offseason can be that jump. Yeah. I think Emma Sears can, does add so much to this frontline, but she's very one-dimensional. We've seen her now play on the left with this Louisville team. Bevyanez tried to play her on the left. Emma Hayes tried to play her on the left, and you can tell she is uncomfortable playing on the left-hand side. She is a right-winger who can stretch a

back line, which is an important thing to have, especially when you want to utilize those players in the midfield who are really great. But I think if they want to get the most out of MS Air, she has to continue to develop and to be a little bit more well-rounded. There is a lot of question marks for this Louisville club. Laurie, one kind of feels like they joined NWSL in 2019 at one point in the league and now in the Michelle Kang San Diego wave, potentially now Denver and Boston. Like where do they fit in this sort of the where the league stands right now? Yeah, I think that is actually a big question that could actually be an episode because

I think this is because I think this is what's gonna be interesting is you do have big spinners you have deep pockets that are willing to come in make moves and it kind of goes back to the question that we're having even with like a Chicago and not making a ton of moves in the offseason how aggressive do you want to be are you happy just kind of being in the middle of the road and and successful in that or do you want to stay up and really start to push for some silverware?

And I think that is gonna be more highlighted when Denver, Boston come in, you get more teams that are willing to spend. What are some of the other teams looking like and how far do they fall behind or did they not? But if they do start to fall behind, then how do you start to make up that ground? Or how ninth place can it get looking maybe in a different NWSL? 16 teams are in maybe

19. You're in the playoffs. Yeah, exactly. Maybe that's the positive going forward. Let's move out west. Let's go to the Seattle. Let's talk about a team that finished last year in 13th place on 23 points. An off season of massive moves. There's the chance that from 2024 season kickoff to 2025, there could be 12 new players on the field for this Seattle side. They traded for Lindby Indolo, the big move, and Cassie Miller from Gotham.

They brought in Madison Curry, hopefully as a starter, as a free agent. They signed some big NCAA rookies themselves and Emily Mason and one of the best, if not the best, prospects in Mattie DeLeon. On the way out, Jaylen Howell in that trade. Quinn going to the new Northern Super League. Sarah King and Laurel Ivory, who we talked about before. And the big note for this team, This is the first season under their new ownership. They were sold from Leon to A.J. and Hanauer in the Seattle Sounders. Laura Harvey in a press conference last week said, I can't even describe. It's just massively dramatically different heading

into this preseason than I, this preseason than I have felt over the last couple of years. That's off the field. Jordan, let's talk on the field. Yeah, well, just a note on that. I mean, I feel like all three of us, Laurie, Jill, we all talked about last year, when is Seattle gonna make moves?

And they couldn't do it because they didn't have the ownership to back them up. So it is a really good place for them to start. Last year at the beginning of the season, we actually saw Seattle start in a 4-4-2 diamond. And there was some really interesting things about that. It didn't work, so they reverted back to a 4231 They'd like to utilize an attack their right back historically

This has been Sophia Huerta try to get that back in the attack as many as much as possible and cross the ball They are a cross dominant team Structured defensively you kind of know what you're going to get from Laura Harvey. And I think, Lori, this is the best question for this Seattle team is what is the evolution of what you get on the field or how can you take what Laura Harvey has implemented with this team and just refine it a little bit? I think that is where they can be. And maybe Lynn Biendolo is the answer there. But I think there's questions about how they're gonna play going into this season. Yeah, there certainly are.

The thing that I think of with Seattle is last year was so challenging, speaking to what Goss said with Laura Harvey's interview, and that was written all over this team's face, Laura Harvey's face, like it was, I think, just undoubtedly such a challenging year. So from that standpoint, and the competitor

that Laura Harvey is, the longest tenured coach in the league, I think that she will be doing whatever she can. I think it'll feel like a huge relief to have the new ownership in place from the start. And from that standpoint, they're already gonna be miles ahead. However, I think on the field,

even though I think they've made some changes that are gonna benefit them, Lin-Biandolo immediately is gonna allow them something they didn't have again. And we've talked about with a few different teams is they didn't have anybody that could get in behind. So not only were they injury riddled, they were a slow team in every aspect.

Sorry to say it, they just were. And they didn't have anybody that was counteracting at the time, Bethany Boleser or Jordan Heidema. It felt just like so many of the same players out on the field that didn't provide any sort of different dimension than them just trying to keep the ball. So Lynn Biondolo, I think is a huge addition. Maddie Dallene from UNC. Listen, this is a bold statement, but

this is not a direct comparison, everybody. So let's just see how this plays out. We could all like point the finger at me. But this is going to be the closest to a Megan Rapinoe as a wide player that Seattle Rain is at. She was my favorite player in the college cup last year with North Carolina. She has pace, she has the ability to run all day.

She can, she's savvy with the ball. She can come inside, she can play in the midfield. I think they'll utilize her in the wide areas, but this is, I believe that she'll be able to fit in immediately in this league with Seattle and at least add something that they don't have. My biggest question, Mark, is defensively. You get, Lauren Barnes, sorry,

you just, she's not gonna be able to play the full season. And we saw that last year, she's picked up more injuries. Jess Fischlach's not gonna be able to play the whole season. Madison Curry is an upgrade. She had an excellent rookie year with Angel City. Now could be the starting left back. But I do centrally and just the other positions on that back line for a team that we've known that's been extremely stingy and built defensively. I just don't know what this team is going to look like to start this 2025 campaign.

I completely echo what you said. I'm excited for Maddie Dillian. I think she has the ability to make defenders look like absolute holograms on a field in those wide spaces. I am worried about how are we transitioning this team from the fish locks and the Lou Barnes to those younger players and then defensively massive question marks because this has been a team that has always been successful because of their defensive stinginess and I'm not sold on Claudia Dickey and I surmise that we will see Cassie Miller play for this team at some point. Yeah, I just want to add because you made a really good point when we were talking individually, Jill, about Cassie Miller and to the point that we talked about with

Anne Ketchamberger, how she did fit in with Gotham. Well, Cassie Miller, excellent goalkeeper, just her profile, not totally fitting in with Gotham, but very Cassie Miller, excellent goalkeeper, just her profile, not totally fitting in with Gotham, but very much could with the Seattle Rain team. And we could see a resurgence from her. Yeah, I think she provides reliability. I mean, she's a seven out of 10 every game. She doesn't concede soft goals. Maybe she doesn't make that, you know, worldy save, but she is consistently seven out of 10 every single game. And as a goalkeeper, knowing what you're going to get is really important.

Well, I think for Seattle, the hope is that they've got strong partnerships. Have a partner like a Jordan Angeley who picks you up when you don't know how to spell in the alphabet, and you put San Diego after Seattle, even though that's not the way it's supposed to be set up. So let's go to San Diego now, who finished last year in 10th place on 25 points,

didn't qualify for the playoffs, finished. They fired shield winner, Casey Stoney in the middle of the year had two interim managers after that in Paul Buckel, Emlyn and Donovan. And then president Jill Ellis left to join FIFA after being accused of creating an unsafe work environment by multiple former employees. So a lot going on last year in the off season,

they have acquired eight new players who have never played in NWSL before. Kenzadali and Adriana Leone are the big ones from Aston Villa. Giacorle comes on. We saw Delphine Cascorino come in last year late. And then two rookies named Trinity, one Trinity Armstrong from UNC and the other Trinity buyers who most likely will be out of the year with an injury on the outbound. I don't have to tell you because everyone knows. Naomi Germa set the record the first over million dollar transfer in women's soccer history. Jaden Shaw was traded for a record trade fee at $450,000 and they lost six other players including of course Alex Morgan who retired midway through the year last year. Off the field the big news is Jonas Eidevall is the new manager for this squad coming over after a couple years as the head coach of Arsenal to take this club in a new direction post-Jill Ellis and unfortunately to note Snapdragon Stadium now has a new tenant on top of the wave and San Diego State football. So Louisville, I don't know, get the field ready in case you need to move a game or two at some point, Jordan.

What do we think the soccer will look like on whatever that field looks like? Yeah, well, maybe that's the biggest question. How does the field look? Cause you might have to adjust your tactics because of that. But for San Diego, I would say for the first couple of years of their existence, really good defensively relied on direct

attacks to beat opponents and then this last year they tried to add some nuance when when Casey Stoney even when she was there but especially when she left tried to be more of a ball-playing team it left them exposed they gave up the most goals they couldn't capitalize on the chances that they had but with Jonas Eidevall I'm imagining we're playing out of a 4-2-3-1 or an iteration of that. It's interesting to see if San Diego can be a ball-dominant team. They added some pieces, I think, especially in the midfield, that can allow them to do that. But Jill, big questions on if those pieces are going to adjust to NWSL, the demands of this league

week in and week out and how hard every single game is. A lot of question marks around San Diego. Yeah I think San Diego is the biggest wild card this season, this coming up in this season. This is a franchise that was built on the shoulders of Casey Stoney's defensive mindedness and her tactics. I mean their first selection was Abby Dahlkemper to the franchise. Then they bring on Naomi Germa and Kailin Sheridan and of course, Alex Morgan up top. But I mean, Dahlkemper gone, Germa gone. And now I feel like this season is going to have to be one of the best seasons of

Kailin Sheridan's career here in San Diego. Who's going to score goals? I mean, Alex Morgan wasn't in her best form in the last few years, but they were finding ways to use her to create some space for others. But then when Stoney gets fired, they bring in Lannan Donovan, who had a complete opposite way of wanting to play, very high risk, very high reward.

Well, I mean, he wanted it to be high reward. He wanted to force teams into a low block and get everybody in there attacking third. And that left them so exposed, especially after the Olympic break. I thought defensively in transition, they were dreadful, leaving their best players in on islands having to defend. I thought Naomi Germa didn't have a great second part of the season because she was left to do so much emergency defending. Kailin Sheridan was playing in a very uncomfortable style high off her line where under Casey Stoney

she was more reactive goalkeeper numbers in front and around her. So yeah, big question marks. A biggest wild card going into this season is San Diego. Yeah, new coach, a lot of new players, a lot of young players. I don't know, historically that feels like that has been a recipe for success in this league. So it will be interesting how quickly everyone gets up to speed.

But also the thing that I've been thinking about is there was so much turmoil from like a, just a human standpoint last year that maybe all the newness will reinvigorate them, allow them to just feel like, okay, it's a complete fresh start. Let's build off of some of the things that we have, but with a new coach, I mean, maybe it's just like, okay, we're going to start completely over, go with a new identity, and then that freshness will be enough to at least hopefully get them in a decent spot this year.

I mean. You're the optimist of the room. I'm trying to be optimistic because I'm like, goodness gracious. I do like Trudy Armstrong. I'm excited about to see this young player from UNC come in, but that's a lot on their shoulders, especially when you have Kennedy Wesley as well,

who's just gonna be a second year. If those are the two starting centerbacks, I was trying to piece together what their starting lineup was looking like from some of their preseason games. That's not always a great indication at all. But yeah, it's it's I think it's going to be challenging. It'll be really cute. I'm going to be really curious to see what this identity and how it shakes out is going to look like. I would hope for the fan base that I don't know. It feels like this team will at least be fun to watch even if it's not super successful. and you have these new attacking pieces. Jordan, we've talked

about Delphini Cascarino a ton of just like individual flair and must watch potential. Yeah, you and you have to play her on the right side, right? We saw her play on the left side early with Linden Donovan and she can create in that situation but her best spot is in the right winger and so can you build around that? My question is Jonas Eidevall comes from WSL a league where he was top what three maybe maybe four in the league like Arsenal was such a successful team that now you're coming into a team where you're gonna have to build success is to be a lot more difficult in this league. How do you continue to build your tactics when things aren't going right? It's a

question mark and I wonder, I think we all wonder, but I like some of the pieces I like bringing in Dali. I think she's going to add a lot to this front line especially with the French players around her that they can put in get into attack. So questions, but I feel like they're going to score more goals than they did last year. But that's not a hard number to beat you guys. David, you are running behind. It is time to move on. Perfect though, because we are hold on to your butts about to hit. Soccer-wise, favorite Utah Royals here who finished 11th in NWSL

last year and did not jade us at all. They won one of their first 12 matches so to not finish in last it meant that they finished the year on a 1.6 points per game mark which would have been fifth if they had played that for the entire year. In this offseason they brought in Nuria Rabona from Germany, Alex Luraya in a trade, Aisha Sorlazano from Tijuana, Tatum Malazo from Chicago. They brought on loan Anna Guzman as well from Bayern Munich and KK Rehm, a U18 signing that they are very excited about. Hannah Betford we have talked about has left. Cameron Tucker and Zoe Burns as well. But the story for this team off the field,

Jimmy Coonratz, the full year as a head coach and Kelly Cousins the full year as a sporting director, Jordan. Yeah, I love Utah. I love what they've been doing under Jimmy Coonratz and this is a team who has a lot of European flair to the way that they play. They play out of a 4-2-3-1 with Mina Tanaka as that front runner. Ali Sentinor really runs this team centrally in the midfield. And throughout the end of the season, they built in a structure of a three in the back and two right underneath it and allowed them to get an outside back high. I think with the additions, Guzman and Robano, this is a team who's going to be able to

go forward and be a little bit more structured in the way that they go forward. They showed that at the end of last year. Jill, there's a lot to like about Utah and what they built through 2024. I mean, going into last year, I thought, okay, this is a Utah to like about Utah and what they built through 2024. I mean, going into last year, I thought, okay, this is a Utah team that's going to finish dead last. And then after the summer cup, I was like, okay, we're making a run for playoffs. There's hope.

It was like Jekyll and Hyde within one season, partly because of Jimmy coming in. But they also added some players, Tejada, Zornosa to their midfield that I thought in the beginning of the year under Amy Rodriguez, they were a team that quote wanted the ball, right? They wanted the ball, but then under Kumratz, they found a way to penetrate with the ball. They didn't just swing it from center back to center back. They actually found ways to break through their opponent's first line of pressure. I thought that started with Mandy McGlynn. I think she is the most important piece to this team. Like the quarterbacking their possession has a way to solve pressure,

but she is so good. I will say I think she's one of the most penetrative passers in the world and the her ability to find players between the lines and in central spaces is His second to none and when they moved to Hata into the midfield She was one of those players that could receive from Manny McGill and draw pressure engage that next line and open up players like Tanaka or sent nor between the lines and when set nor and got the ball Between lines. I mean she was so dangerous off of the dribble She's a player that every time she receives the ball. It is just one-minded and it's forward

I want to receive the ball I want to go forward but then I thought she added so much on the defensive side of the ball, too I mean there were times where she was creating turnovers and then going off of the dribble herself her ability to shoot from range Um is obviously fantastic. We saw it in the she believes and I um surmise that as this team grows and adds more pieces They're going to put themselves in more dangerous Positions to score in a more sustainable way closer to goal rather than just relying on sentinor from distance Laurie we're in danger of groupthink right now. Can you pour some water on this?

I am just excited with the work that they've done in the offseason. You know, I think this is they have at least shown that they're like, okay, let's take a broader look at how this team was built, what pieces we needed to add. And I would even say, even though their record was, and their play in general wasn't, to be fair, just like not great at the beginning of last season by any means, they still had a lot of quality on their team. And I think they did a really good job in the middle of the season and this off season

to come in and say, what else do we need? Guzman, who no one's talked about, I think is actually going to be a huge piece because then they can be more aggressive. Colombian international, they can be aggressive, they can push forward. I mean, this is the thing, they had to be dropped back so far defensively throughout a lot of the beginning of last season. There's so much ground to make up. It was just such a, like, it felt like such a labored style of play. Well, you want Ali Centenor, you want these players to be higher, closer to the goal. I mean, you could say that for every team, but still just the way that this team is built. So I'm excited about Guzman.

And I'm excited to see what this team has because it's going to do in this season because they have been aggressive. I want them to be rewarded for that. It has been a strong 12 months or six months for Utah. We're hoping to make it 12 months and make it last all the way through the season. Not another midseason rebuild, but the pieces they brought in, especially across Central Midfield, were some of the most fun to watch last year. And we are hoping to see it all on display once again. OK, we are on to see it all on display once again. Okay we are

on to our final team but last but not least for sure the Washington Spirit. I guess they're used to this runners up in both the regular season and the championship last year not exactly where they'd love to be. Everyone knows how it ended and they are going to get the chance to turn it all around in the NWSL Challenge Cup final or the NWSL Challenge Cup. In the offseason, they've mainly made defensive moves. They brought Nurumian from North Carolina, Rebecca Bernal from Monterey, Kaisha Sayla from Lyon on loan from, of course, the team Michelle Kang also owns. And then on the way out, Anna Boutel has left. Lena

Solano has moved overseas and Nicole Barnhart has retired. The question is, Yonatan Giralde, his first offseason, first full year, what can he do? Of note, off the field, Andy Sullivan will be unavailable this year both for ACL Indory and out on maternity leave. Congratulations to her. And then Trinity Rodman is in the final year of her contract, which is just something to think about as we go along. Jordan, what do you expect to see on the field for this squad? Well, first, I think we have to say Nicole Barnhart.

What a career, man. She just kept going and going and going. So around, can you play the round of applause actually? Hit it. That's for you Barney. Congratulations on a good career. That's alright. I love it. I love it. I think the beginning of the year, they kept this consistent but they added layers. The Spirit were the best team in a mid-block defensive stance.

They won the ball centrally and they could score quickly from the middle of the field, getting in behind the back line. I would say that was the first part of the year. And then as they built, the biggest thing about this Spirit team was they could switch up their game plan depending on who was available. They had flexibility out of a 4-3-3.

They wanna play through their central players, which I think Nerumi will really help with some of the losses that they have in the middle of midfield. But they're a difficult team to defend with how much firepower they have going forward and really solid defensively, structured defensively. And Aubrey Kingsbury in goal always can be a game winner for you. Laurie, this team just keeps getting better. This is the best team when they had all of their pieces, in my opinion, that had the

most fluidity, the most interchange in the attack. That was just instinctual. It's not something that I feel like you can teach. You just get, and sometimes you just get lucky with the players that you have that can play off one another. Croi Bethune, Hatch, Trinity, Rodman, Sarr when she was healthy. I mean all of these players just being able to play off one another, runs out of the midfield, it was a sight to see, so fun to watch. And I think the three of us actually too, off air a few different times, when Kansas City, Orlando were pretty clear front runners for a while.

We were like watch this space, this is a sneaky team that is going to make a run towards the end. And unfortunately, injuries did catch hold. And I think we saw that a bit in the final. One, to the point that Jill had made earlier, is that great game plan from Orlando Pride. But also a team that just had to bring in some players that didn't have a ton of minutes or experience, particularly in the midfield. But I would say the two things that I was looking at in this off season, Rebecca Bernal,

Mexican international, Esme Morgan, Boutel, those are two players when Esme Morgan made her way over that rotated quite frequently along with Tara McYone as the true right center back. I think Bernal, depending on which side each of those two play on, could be the mainstay in that back line. That anchors them even more. And then Jordan, you mentioned Narumi. I mean, if you're not going to have Andy Sullivan, that allows Hal Hirschfeld then to pretty

much anchor, and she's going to have to be disciplined in that position. But then Nouroumi possession oriented, keep the ball. So I think they could add a little bit of a different dimension instead of just where they were most successful sitting back and then counter attacking, keep that. But there could be opportunities now where you have a little bit more nuance and rotations that maybe Jonah Geraldo is looking for that didn't have enough time last season. Well I think that that's probably my biggest question mark for this Washington Spirit team. Looking back at the composition of their goals last year

they scored 51 goals. 11 were from set pieces, 40 in the run of play. Of those 40 goals 23 were in transition. Then in the back half of the season, the last nine goals that they scored in regular season, seven were from transition to set pieces. So this was a team that relied on their defensive posture, creating those turnovers and exploiting the weaknesses of the opponents. But Orlando was able to adapt to that. Can other teams do that? And if they do, can Washington Spirit be as successful against teams who sit in a little bit more and defend well? The center forward position, they didn't do any work.

It didn't feel like they had to, but Ule Isara was out for much of last year. And Jill, it felt like felt like that coincided as well with the inability to score maybe in the run of play. Yeah, I thought Ule Isara was a real bright spot for this team when she was able to contribute significant minutes last year because of how many different capabilities she had to her game. She could play in behind quickly in transition, but she could also come back and play next to like a Croy Bethune, add a bit more of link play there and allow the wingers to get

higher drag center backs out of position and create space for those wingers to cut inside I thought she has such a wide range of capabilities that they certainly missed that movement in the nine position as well as her ability to steer the opponents into their pressing traps well I'm gonna cut us off there because my assumption is what thoughts recording this you know ten days before the season that you know Michelle Kang's probably bought Tabitha shawinga for Washington in the last you know 37 seconds for $10 million and changed the nature of the game once again. This team, the way the crowds were at Audi Field to end the year, they must watch. They must watch on the field. The atmosphere is much watched. And of course, Michelle Kang,

putting them in a position to be as successful as humanly possible as I have tried to do here and we made it. We did every team in NWSL in one episode. Applause! Good job! Applause! Oh, I wasn't ready for that. Jordan, come on, you already had me on my wits end. At this point, the applause for all of you.

I know I have to get you all out of here, so thank you for being here. If you thought we didn't talk about your team enough, you are right. And that is why we will be here two, three, four times a week, the entire season to cover all things NWSL, uh, as well as of course national teams with a women's European, European championship and a Copa America around the corner this year as well. But thank you most of all to, uh, Laurie and Jill for being here and Jordan, as always. Well, once again,

thank you so much to Jill and Laurie for taking the time to as always. Well, once again, thank you so much to Jill and Laurie for taking the time to join us. Jordan, it's not enough time. But we are lucky. We have a show that we talk about these teams and these stories all the time. We're gonna have more coverage coming up. I think we wanna save our episode next week on Wednesday

to go game by game to preview all of the matches in week one. But we're gonna talk big picture about all these teams consistently. I did realize probably need to throw some standings and some predictions in somewhere as well, which is always the nightmare. Yeah. I actually like predictions though, because it doesn't matter. You can say whatever you want and if it doesn't come through, it's just a prediction. You don't have to be right.

So I kind of like that. There's really, it's not like you have to know exactly what's gonna happen, you know what I mean? I do know what you mean. My comment sections normally don't know what that means and therefore now I'm battling online warriors who I will never meet and I am frustrated and sad about everything.

It is interesting in that preseason we had a little bit of streams with Coachella this year but like that's not really on display yet. And so we're in a situation where it's a lot of guessing. And as you said there's maybe less stakes because it is so guess heavy. I was lucky enough to go to a Gotham preseason game I don't know if we got to fully talk about this. I saw them play against Fort Lauderdale Estair played for like 80 minutes. It was like really interesting Ella Stevens played a ton as well

But with so many internationals Mandy Freeman start at center back alongside Taryn Torres like it was not exactly The team you'd expect to see. What I, what it reminded me though is, and I think there's a lot of interesting storylines about Gotham is like all of these college rookies are going to play. And every time, and we talked about it a little bit in the segment today, every time we talk about lack of depth, it's going to be a rookie. Like it's going to be the rookies playing at fullback and they're probably going to say look what happened with Jen and Icewonger. Like we think we can do it again.

And so I think this is a Gotham team with the same top end talent capable of winning at the high levels. But it was interesting to see the other players get their opportunities as well as to see a little bit of the Super League NWSL, which is a tough one to see in a friendly. Yeah, I think what I've come to realize through calling NWSL games over the last, gosh, I think this is going to be year eight for me, is these first few weeks of season, you learn a lot about teams, you learn where they're starting and as they kind of build through it, because it does take a couple of games to get into the form that they want to be in. So, um, I think we're going to have a lot of expectations that, Hey, we, we expect this team to play this way, but the nuances that they worked on in

pre-season or the new coaches, like we don't, as you just said, don't get to see those things and what they're specifically working on. So it is fun to see what is the next iteration of all these squads and we'll get to see it very soon. What do you make of Challenge Cup before we go? Of the concept of it being one of the biggest games you could argue of the year and for Washington, it's revenge and rematch and all of that before the season has even started. It feels very European to me. What's the what's the European community something? Yeah the community shield maybe. I like the concept. I don't know if playing the first game like that always gives you the best result. As we saw last year like that game was won

in the waning minutes by a set piece, one to nothing. It was kind of a throwaway game if you're thinking about tactics or anything like that. But I like the concept of the game. I like it better than the old Challenge Cup setup where it was kind of mixed into the season. So I think it's a nice idea. I wish it was just like in June though. Yeah, it's It's obviously not a regular season game. So you still get it. I Don't want to waste the Washington Orlando game, you know, like those are going to be big games Now you still get the full regular season compliment. At least it doesn't double as a regular season game I think that would make it a little bit worse

but we're gonna have our interview with Aubrey Kingsbury and she sort of mentions like it's cool that all the eyes are on you and you kind of get to set the tone and like it is nice to have one Rallying point for everyone which isn't just first day of the season is this and there's gonna be seven games and everyone's gonna be spread Out and watch what they watch it's nice when there's communal moments for all of us and a lot of this is done online and you can join our Patreon, which gets you access to our Discord

and we have those conversations in there and I don't know, a little more comfortable, maybe safer space for everyone. It's nice that everyone kind of has this one starting point of being like, you have all this excitement, you have all this energy and then boom, you're gonna get to see what Barbara Banda looks like this year and like what Alani looks like as a right back for Orlando. Now it's early so a lot of

times those players aren't even in camp yet or not fully fit and all of that stuff and that's a bit of a takeaway but it is cool to sort of have this high point moment to open things up and then we get a week off and then we get rare to go into all of the momentum. We six days like it's back into it. It's just back into it and I am excited for it. We are live every Wednesday talking NWSL. We're going to be adding in a ton of interviews as well. We've got the weekend recap show in which I recap all the big highlights from the weekend

to get you updated on anything you missed. That comes out every single Monday covering all things NWSL so we will have a ton of coverage for you and that's not even including international stuff which we just talked to She Believes. We've got more camps coming. We've got a Copa America and a European Championship as well on the docket this year so the soccer never stops. We are excited to do it. It was awesome to do this preview episode. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Please feel free to subscribe to our Patreon to get access to our discord and tell me why i'm wrong about your team Or any of us are wrong or right about your team and what we forgot Uh, we couldn't get it all in there in six and a half minutes per squad

And we've got plenty of time more to talk about so thank you once again to all of you and we'll talk to you again very very soon.