Generally, I hate euro-snobs. I do. They insist that the sport's best soccer is played across the pond, that American soccer is some sort of glorified rough-housing and lacks finesse, and that any NWSL player's dream should be playing their matches on the training ground of whatever multi-billion dollar legacy club has most recently under-prioritized its women's side. You get the idea. They suck. They're pretentious dicks. You can practically see hear the voice of anonymous vaguely racist Barca stan Twitter accounts. Nasty stuff.
They do have one good point, however: Soccer playoffs suck as a mechanism for determining the league's best side. I don't mean to knock the playoffs as a spectacle: In fact, playoff soccer has a penchant for producing some truly all time moments. I mean that single elimination knock out matches --in most years-- don't do a whole lot to tell us who the actual best team is. Even as more teams have entered the league and an additional playoff round has been added as a result, the league champion being decided by three elimination games has gotten only slightly more palatable. The team that deserves the fireworks? The one that finished top of the league after 26 games. The side that weathered injuries and international absences to get there. I will die on that hill.
Fortunately, we don't really need to worry about that this year. Fittingly, the NWSL's last four standing mirrored its runaway top four over the course of the regular season, with the two finalists finishing first and second in the Shield standings. Any of the top four reaching the final would have felt just, but Washington and Orlando progressing to this weekend's showcase feels right: Two well-coached, well-built teams rising from missing the playoffs entirely in 2023 to reaching the final in 2024. The other two? Well, they'll almost certainly be fine. But let's do a post-mortem on their seasons anyhow.
#4 Kansas City Current
Record: 16-7-3, 55 points
Preseason Prediction: 7th
Player of the Season: Temwa Chawinga
Season in a gif:
The Current had a nice 2024. They did. They opened a brand new, first of it's kind, pro woso-specific stadium. They set the NWSL record in total goals (57), goals per game (2.2), xG (53.4), xGD (29.2), and xGD/game (1.12). Striker/winger Temwa Chawinga won both the MVP award and Golden Boot, breaking the all time single season scoring record with 20 goals. Hell, even their defense, the team's achilles heel in theory, allowed the fewest cumulative xG in the league with 24.2.
It was a good year.
It does, however, feel a little hollow for those of us not currently bathing in the schadenfreude of the NWSL's master plan to have the Current host the Championship game in the aforementioned brand new stadium fall just a game short. Kansas City finished 4th, but were significantly closer to winning the league entirely than finishing in 5th: The Current finished the year 16 points ahead of the 5th place Courage, and just five points behind shield winning Orlando. For a team --the 3rd of our 2024 top 4-- that finished outside the playoffs in 2023, 2024 was a resounding success by almost every metric you can find. Metrics, however, don't win you trophies, and the Current fell short in both the regular season and the playoffs. In any other season, they likely run away with both. But that's the reality of the new NWSL.
But it was a good year.
How they played:
Ridiculously, RIDICULOUSLY fast, that's how. Former USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski seemed determined to shed his "boring boring boring" reputation, overseeing a group that ranked near or at the top of the NWSL in almost every pace metric available. KC was second only to Chicago --who built their whole offense around kicking the ball fast to Mal Swanson-- in fewest passes per sequence, and first in the league speed of attack, while finishing 4th from the bottom in overall possession. They led the league in successful 1v1s and finished behind only Orlando in shot creation actions generated by a player beating her mark 1v1. The Current also generated a historic amount of chances, and most of them came through pure aggression.
If verticality is not necessarily a feature of every Vlatko Andonovski side, real NWSLers will remember that, at least at club level, midfield shape certainly is. The Current's defensive style required both immense talent and discipline to work. If you watched a lot of Current soccer in 2024, it probably seemed like they were constantly on the front foot because of how aggressive their individual presses were, but KC are a particularly interesting case because their PPDA (passes per defensive action, or how many passes the other team makes before a challenge is made) was actually relatively average. Kansas City did, however, finish tied for the league lead in tackles in their opponent's defensive third. PPDA, while a good indicator of how often a team presses, is not necessarily how well they press and Kanas City is Exhibit A. Vlatko didn't press all the right buttons over the course of the season, but his team had clear pressing triggers, particularly when the opposition played the ball out from the back. Here is an example clip from the semi against Orlando: Marta receives the ball marked by Lo Labonta, Marta dallies a little too long the ball, and Michelle Cooper pounces, with the ball deflecting to Vanessa DiBernardo who plays the ball into Temwa Chawinga. That was essentially KC's gameplan: Sit, wait, pounce, Chawinga. They didn't want the ball, because they were much more dangerous without it.
The other reason KC's press was so effective? 18 year old Claire Hutton. The teen should have received one of the All-NWSL midfield spots issued to Current teammates Lo Labonta and Vanessa Dibernardo, but she'll have to settle for me waxing lyrical about her every week and finishing behind only Taylor Flint in tackles won among all NWSL midfielders. The kid is not only an absolute goddam menace, but an extremely intelligent, disciplined six. No one, and I mean NO ONE reads balls into midfield as well as she does. The sequence below illustrates one of the reasons KC were so hard to pass through: Orlando plays the ball around the back while KC holds their shape. The minute Pride CB Kylie Strom gets impatient and forces a ball into midfield, Hutton reads the play and moves off Haley McCutcheon to step in front of Marta. Her tape is littered with these types of plays- Her intelligence as a rookie six at only 18 is remarkable, and she plays with an --somewhat-- controlled aggression that made her indispensable to Andonovski. I would put a good amount of money on Hutton starting games at the six for the USWNT inside the next three years.
I wouldn't say anything in particular went wrong for the Current in their quest for trophies-- No one was catching the near-invincible Pride in 2024-- but if I had to identify one thing, it would be their lack of a backup plan against good teams. Between the regular season and the playoffs, KC lost just four times, and three of those four came against the top two teams in the league: Orlando (twice) and Washington. Vlatko struggled to adapt against teams that didn't come out of their shell and let KC have the ball. Kansas City out-possessed its opposition in SEVEN of its 28 games. Only three of those seven were wins. Some of this is game-state induced --teams that trail in a game will naturally get on the ball more as they hunt for an equalizer-- but it also speaks to KC's desire to cede possession to their opponents in order to hit on the counter. Against teams that forced the Current to come forward, they struggled. Kansas City's first loss of the season, against 10-woman Orlando at home, was the first sign of the issue, Vlatko's side failing to break down a resolute Orlando defense while being opened up time and time again on the counter. The best teams have a Plan B, and the Current, well, didn't.....or at least not against the one team they actually needed one against.
I'm not sure there's a clear position of need going into next season on what is probably the 2nd deepest NWSL roster. I do have questions about the sustainability of KC's defense --it never ~felt~ like the backline was quite as sturdy as the numbers suggest-- but with young CB Gabbie Robinson set to return to partner Vlatko fave and midseason acquisition Alana Cook in the middle of KC's defense, there's reason to expect the unit will probably be fine, if not elite. The position group I had some questions about in the preseason was the FBs, but the emergence of rookie RB Ellie Wheeler and the improved play of Hailie Mace on the left answered some of those as well. It is important to note that KC played most of the season without offseason striker signing Bia Zaneratto, who looked nothing short of spectacular in the minutes she did get and developed a quick-fire hold-up-woman/runner chemistry with Chawinga early in the season. I won't be shocked if KC look to upgrade on young second year winger Michelle Cooper, but the youngster improved dramatically as the season went on and would be hard done by if she loses her place. But that's the game when you play as well as KC did and fail to win a trophy.
#3 Gotham FC
Record: 17-5-4, 56 points
Preseason Prediction: 1st
Player of the Season: Esther Gonzalez
Season in a gif:
Gotham's 2024 offseason began with a bang. Before the 2023 final had even happened, Crystal Dunn had not-so-subtlely signaled that she was putting Portland in her rearview mirror. A month later, Dunn's USWNT colleagues Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnet followed her to Gotham with announcements leaking in late December. When Tierna Davidson completed Gotham's assault on the league's first true free agency period (and the brand new salary cap as a result) by leaving, it seemed no one would have much of a chance at challenging the defending champs.
But Gotham ran into some early season troubles. Dynamic winger and 2023 playoff hero Midge Purce tore her ACL on return to Providence Park in Week 2, veteran Lynn Williams struggled through a nagging thigh injury for parts of the first month, Lavelle didn't play her first game for Gotham until Week 4, and Davidson missed a month from late April through most of May. Ultimately it was Gotham's early struggles that kept them from winning the Shield. Amoros' side won just one of their admittedly tough first five matches, collecting just five points from a possible 15. Amoros struggled to nail down his lineups over the first month, particularly in the attack. Williams and Purce never shared the field in 2024. To complicate matters further, Amoros kept marquee signing Crystal Dunn glued to the bench, the versatile Dunn starting just just two of Gotham's eight matches in April and May.
Gotham were branded as a super team after their offseason splurge on USWNT talent, but it was their less-heralded depth pieces that kept them in the hunt in the first half of the season before powering Gotham's hot streak to finish the year. While their entire squad certainly deserve a shout out, I want to highlight two in particular:
Striker Ella Stevens, another FA acquisition who was overshadowed by Gotham's flashier offseason adds, kept her side afloat for large portions of the season. There's really no other way to say it other than the 4th year Duke product was simply really freakin good! She finished the season tied for second on the team in goals and tied for firsts in assists.
The impact of Delanie Sheehan is much more difficult to quantify. Her numbers aren't anything to write home about. Her creation metrics are fine, but nothing spectacular. But like myself, a proud card carrying member of the Sheehan hive since she first broke into the team in 2023, Gotham manager Juan Carlos Amoros absolutely adores her. The UCLA grad played in all 26 regular season games for Gotham, starting 25, and playing 80+ minutes in 20. Sheehan was a ball-progressing machine: No Gotham midfielder or attacker completed more passes or carries into the final third than Sheehan did- She was the ultimate cog in the wheel for Gotham, if one that was slightly overshadowed by the fancier, more shiny cogs in front of and behind her.
Gotham have so many candidates for player of the season that it's hard to narrow it down to one. Sheehan is a candidate, as is the excellent Emily Sonnett who thrived after being returned to the back line after a year of playing in the midfield for Laura Harvey in Seattle. Yaz Ryan, who deservedly claimed an All-NWSL Second XI spot, should also be mentioned.
The correct answer, however, is Gonzalez. Esther is, simply put, an abosolute joy to watch. The Spaniard sees the game at a different level than a majority of the rest of the league: She is a classic Spanish striker in that, well, she's not actually really a striker in the classic sense. Most of Esther's heat maps show her spending a majority of the game dropping into pockets and interchanging with Gotham's attacking midfielders. Esther and Amoros fit each other perfectly. The Spanish manager's style relies on the intelligence of his attacking and midfield players, and no player embodies "soccer intelligence" more than Esther does. The Spaniard led the team in both goals (nine) and goal contributions (thirteen), but so much of her value came in how she sews Gotham's build up together. She's a player that all coaches would love to have.
How they played:
I just mentioned how Amoros' tactical set up relies heavily on the intelligence of his squad. Gotham play what is ostensibly a 4-3-3, but is really more of a free-flowing, fill-the-space system than one that requires a ton of structure. As a point of contrast, Gotham and North Carolina are probably the two teams that NWSL fans associate with ball-retention, but they do it in different ways. North Carolina's style under Nahas is much more structure-oriented and positional, whereas Gotham's tends to be more free flowing. This is, in part, because Gotham has built its attack around some of the smartest and most versatile players in the league. Sheehan (and utility-woman six Nealy Martin when she plays) tend to sit at the base of the midfield, but everything that happens north of her is fluid: Ryan has played both inside as a dual 10 next to Lavelle and outside on the right as a pure winger. Gonzales and Lavelle rotate between who tucks in and who stays high so frequently that the opposing CBs never quite know which one to pick up in attacking spaces. The ball-playing ability of Gotham's back four allowed Gotham to constrict opposing midfields with their numbers, Sonnett frequently stepping into the midfield and Nighwonger using her on-ball ability to conduct from her LB role. When Gotham clicked --as they frequently did as the season progressed-- they were nearly impossible to stop.
One of the relatively new features of 2024 Gotham was their versatility. Let's take a look at a comparison of some of the underlying metrics:
2023 | 2024 | |
Possession % | 54.1 | 53.2 |
Progressive Passes per 90 | 37.3 | 43.1 |
Progressive Carries per 90 | 319.5 | 336.5 |
Long Passes Completed /90 | 34.5 | 36.6 |
Crosses per 90 | 2 | 2.31 |
You may look at this and say "oh, that's not really that different." And, to an extent, you'd be right. Gotham was still a team who wanted to keep the ball. That aspect din't change. What did change was the verticality. 2023 Gotham were pretty one-note. They weren't quite Courage-esque in their commitment to pure possession soccer, but they did have the second highest possession rate in the league by a full three percent. In 2024, they had a change of pace. It varied by game, but Gotham was frequently much more direct in terms of play-style. It helps having Rose Lavelle, an elite ball-carrier who isn't really a fan of slow methodical build up, but it wasn't just her: Despite missing arguably their most direct winger in Purce and often times playing a front line of Esther, Stevens, and Yaz Ryan; Gotham still were much more willing to go fast and long than they were the year prior- A lot of this likely had to do with the addition of Tierna Davidson --who loves a long diagonal-- and the return of Sonnett to her preferred CB role. Both players are extremely comfortable spraying passes out of defense in ways most NWSL CBs simply cannot....and that helped Gotham's diversity of build up.
It's hard to find all that much to critique with Gotham's 2024 season, all things considered: They were tied for first in the NWSL in fewest goals allowed and 2nd in xGA. Their offense lagged behind their top four competitors, but the relative lack of firepower is explained away relatively easily by the lack of minutes from some of their key attackers; Dunn, Williams, and Purce combined to start just 22 games all year. The loss of Purce, who had completely taken over as Gotham's best player during their run to the 2023 Championship and entrenching herself in the USWNT picture prior to her ACL tear as a result, loomed particularly large during Gotham's early season doldrums. By the end of the year, however, Gotham was just fine: They scored 22 goals in their last nine games, good for over two per match. It's fair to remark that Gotham lacks the individual attacking firepower of their primary competitors at the top (Chawinga, Banda, Rodman), but coming a penalty shootout from back to back finals is hardly something to scoff at.
It will be interesting to see what kind of improvements, if any, Gotham makes over the offseason. It is already unclear how they've skated under the salary cap given both their immense talent base and the star power on top of that base. They also don't really need to add: They can already practically field two full NWSL-caliber starting elevens. Unlike a number of other NWSL sides challenging for trophies, Gotham are a veteran-laden team, but not an old one: Dunn and Williams may be past their best, but the emergence of Ryan and Stevens fills any potential gap left by the old guard aging out nicely. The remainder of their core --Lavelle, Esther, Sheehan, Davidson, Jenna Nighwonger, and summer addition Jess Carter are all firmly in their mid-20s primes. This is a very, very good team that is also crucially nearly injury-proof because of their depth. Their unceremonious exit from the playoffs after three of the worst PKs you'll ever see will sting, but they will, once again, be a frontrunner for the Shield going into 2025.
Thanks for the Datavis:
NWSL Season Stats Charts: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/sebastian.bush/viz/NWSLDashboard/Player
Pace of play numbers: https://theanalyst.com/na/2024/03/nwsl-stats-2024
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