NWSL Week 5 Recap- Gotham explode, SD thrash Louisville, and North Carolina continue to languish

Maddie Dahlien: Terror
Here is my summary of the first half Thorns' RB Kaitlyn Torpey had trying to defend Seattle rookie winger Maddie Dahlien on Friday night:
I try to keep it mostly positive in these recaps, so lets focus on Dahlien. One of the questions I always ask when evaluating high level attacking college prospects is whether their primary skillset will translate against pro talent levels. In Dahlien's case, that skillset is "run fast and dribble," and it very much HAS translated through the first five weeks of her pro career.

Dahlien had Torpey in absolute hell over the first 45 minutes in Seattle. A blender. A torture chamber. Whatever you want to call it. Part of it was Portland manager Rob Gale's failure to identify Dahlien as Seattle's primary attacking threat and give Torpey some help, but you could almost see Dahlien's eyes light up when she saw an opportunity to go 1v1. It happened all the damn time in the first half.

Here's the goal. I'm really not sure why Torpey is tucked so far inside --this was a theme throughout the night for Portland defensively-- but Dahlien finds herself in acres of space and goes right at the Portland RB. Torpey's 1v1 defending here is awful. She is trying to show Dahlien down the line by shaping her body wide, but she isn't tight enough to actually influence Dahlien's decision making. Because Torpey's body position is slanted to show Dahlien to the outside without being close enough to her mark, Dahlien makes an easy cut inside and does well to finish into the bottom right corner of Bella Bixby's goal. It was an excellent finish for the rook's first pro goal, which has to feel good given some of her finishing issues over the previous four weeks.
There are a number of other clips I could find from the first 45, but frankly, they all kind of looked like this. Dahlien's awesome. Good for you Seattle, I'm only a little bitter. Torpey got a late yellow and was yanked at halftime.....and that was that.
Jayden Perry's Passing Range
The lone bright spot in what was otherwise a pretty calamitous trip up the I-5 for Portland was the play of rookie CB Jayden Perry. The UCLA product has been a nice surprise for the Thorns over the three matches she's started. Perry, who was understandably out-shown by teammate Lily Reale while at UCLA, has an interesting skillset: She's big, but extremely coordinated. She's two-footed and supremely calm --sometimes to a fault-- in possession, and is extremely comfortably testing out what seems to be an excellent passing range.

Here are two clips of her spraying lefty diagonals cross field, the first an awesome 50 yard dot onto the foot of winger Payton Linnehan, the second a more vertical ball right onto the chest of Reilyn Turner.

Here she is calmly dancing by a pressing Seattle defender, directing traffic, and playing Sam Coffey into space:

And lastly, something you'll see a LOT of on Perry's game tape: A real desire to feed balls through tight gaps into the feet of her attackers and midfielders. It doesn't ALWAYS come off, but it does more often than not- Perry plays passes with a technique you don't see from a lot of CBs, and you really tell it's something she works on.

A bright spot amidst a sea of Rob Gale-induced rubble, Portland fans!
An Ode to Esther
Gotham's Spanish striker is so fun. She's SO FUN. She's Spanish soccer distilled into one person. An absolute joy to watch. A 5'3 forward who somehow routinely leads the league in headed goals. Juan Carlos Amoros' on-field avatar. A player every who sews everything together and one that every coach in the league wishes they had as an option.

The Spaniard is liable to pop up anywhere on the field at any given moment. She drops into the hole to distribute, her movement in the penalty box is elite, and she often doubles up by playing Rose Lavelle's role as a midfield driver. Esther ranked 6th in the NWSL in goal contributions in 2024 with 13, has already scored four times in 2025, and is 4th in the league in xG per match. If you took Temwa Chawinga and Barbra Banda out of the equation (which you can't and shouldn't!), Esther is either first or second in every important striker metric: Goals, xG, shots, and shots on target.
Louisville's Malaise
It was around the the 78th minute of San Diego's demolition job at Lynn Family Stadium -- right after the superb Delphine Cascarino laced a low drive into the bottom left hand corner of Katie Lund's net from 20 yards-- that I figured it was about time to re-up what I wrote about Louisville in October 2024, just after their 4th straight ninth place finish. Here it is:

Don't hate me, Louisville fans, blame....well, a few different things, but mostly your own front office. There is a tendency to blame the Louisville market for the inability to attract big name players, and to an extent, that may be true. Teams playing in small markets are always going to struggle to attract big name international talent at the rate of teams based in the bigger markets, or even the markets in big cities like Houston or Orlando. With that said, it can be done. We just saw freakin' Utah lure two Spanish internationals, a veteran Japanese international, and Canadian international who was living in London to come play for a last place team in Sandy. Again, it can be done....Louisville just hasn't shown any desire or ability to do it.

But let's take a step back. Even if we do shift a large piece of the blame pie off the Louisville ownership and FO and onto the market, Louisville's decision making process since coming into the league as an expansion side has been all over the place. Louisville has, bizarrely, managed to finish in exactly 9th place in EVERY SINGLE ONE of their first four seasons in the NWSL. Across these four seasons, Louisville have averaged between 0.9 and 1.28 points per game. This has been the most perfectly mediocre franchise, possibly in NWSL history: Louisville has never finished in last, and never made the playoffs. It has been a masterclass in how to finish exactly just below the middle, good enough to where there's reasonable expectation that a playoff appearance should eventually come, but never good enough to where anyone looks at Louisville and thinks "Oh, that's a playoff team."

How did we get here? It started with the 2021 expansion draft where Louisville, instead of taking advantage of their status as the league's only 2021 expansion side by building out a solid base roster, instead chose to waste an astounding four of their twelve picks on Tobin Heath, Christen Press, Alanna Kennedy, and Caitlin Foord in a sort of sad "we admit we can't get any stars to play here under their own will, so we'll try to force them to come here via expansion draft" Hail Mary. As anyone with even peripheral knowledge of the league knew at the time, none of the four would play a second in purple argyle. So, that wasn't a great start, but certainly possible to overcome with some astute roster management.

As any small market executive in an American sports league will tell you, drafting well and retaining drafted talent is a pre-requisite to keeping pace with competitors with more money and pull. And the thing is, Louisville have done that! The NWSL draft, which, before its timely demise at the hands the historic 2024 CBA, was hard to nail down. But Louisville have drafted mostly excellently, acquiring would-be franchise cornerstones Emily Fox 1st overall in 2021, Jaelin Howell 2nd and Savannah Demelo 4th in 2022, and Reilyn Turner 6th and Emma Sears 28th in 2024. Only Demelo and Sears are still playing in Louisville in 2024, mostly due to a series of strange "win-now" moves that have consigned Racing to those four straight ninth place finishes. Fox, who has since signed for Arsenal for a large fee, was traded for veteran defenders Abby Erceg and Carson Pickett (now in Orlando) in 2023. In 2024, Louisville gave up on both Howell (trading her to Seattle for veteran striker Bethany Balcer) and Turner (shipping her to Portland after an impressive half season, for veteran winger Janine Beckie).

Racing Louisville GM Ryan Dell's moves reek of ownership desperate for a playoff spot, but it's hard to see how trading controllable, young, high potential assets for mid-tier veterans elevates the team's ceiling. It must be almost impossibly frustrating to be a Racing fan, getting attached to these young homegrowns only for your FO to ship them out in a low-ceiling swing for the 8th spot in an expanded NWSL playoff field. Meanwhile, Racing has consistently whiffed on international signings outside of Brazilian Ary Borges, with even the hit, South African striker Thembi Kgatlana sold to Mexican side Tigres. The 2024 crop --led by another South African striker, Linda Motalho, and young Kiwi Milly Clegg-- played a grand total of 23 minutes over two matches in 2024. WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE DOING HERE?

Dell is now gone --though who knows how much control he ever had in the first place-- but it's hard to see the issues changing. Louisville have had some more bad on-field luck with Balcer's decision to take a mental health break and Demelo's health scare, but the root issues remain the same, and it's hard to see anything changing any time soon.

Am I being too harsh, Louisville fans? Let me know.
A Bizarre Refereeing Moment
There was an interesting --though ultimately inconsequential-- refereeing moment that gave Louisville a penalty in the first half against SD. Ary Borges was clattered about 10 yards outside of the SD box, the referee played advantage, and Louisville striker Katie O'Kane was clattered into by a very clumsy Gia Corley moments late. The referee on the day, Jaclyn Metz, strode over to give the initial freekick right as Corley barged through the back of O'Kane, awarding the first free kick while Louisville protested for the second --a penalty offense-- to be given. Upon review, Metz, despite clearly intending to call the first foul, did not actually blow her whistle until the second foul had been committed, which allowed VAR to recommend the referee review the play for a possible penalty, which Metz ultimately (correctly) awarded. It was the right outcome, but a very weird process to get there. If Metz had blown her while a second earlier, the VAR could not have called for a review, and Louisville would have been denied the penalty.
San Diego's Possession with End Product
I've been trying to figure out why it feels like the Wave -- who lead the league in possession rate at an astounding 59.6% through four weeks-- feel so much more incisive than the usual high possession suspects (looking at you, North Carolina) and here is my attempt at explaining it:

I'll start with the caveat that the Wave's league highest goals over expectation rate currently sits at a whopping +3.1 (in other words, San Diego have scored 3.1 more goals than their cumulative xG would suggest) through just five games, which undeniably makes things look better. Similar to last week's spot on Portland's underperformance, goals can cover up poor performances and lack of goals can make otherwise pretty good performances look worse than they are. Leaning on expected goal performance early in the season can be a bit of a fool's errand because it does tend to even out over the course of a 26 game season, but I think San Diego's might be sustainable, if maybe not quite THIS sustainable. My totally non-analytical answer for why I think that: The incisiveness and speed of their best attackers.

I've called the Wave's version of keep-ball "vertical possession" because of how fast the San Diego can get forward when they want to, and the primary reason for that is that the presence of Delphine Cascarino and Gia Corley. The former Lyon star would easily get my vote for league MVP if the season ended today: She's blended her usual vertical and 1v1 threat with a willingness to cut inside and create for others, she's looked about as good in tight spaces as I've ever seen her, and, most importantly, she's the outlet for when SD decide to go forward. Corley has been Cascarino's partner on the SD right, and her explosiveness on the turn has been an excellent fit with the holding midfield play of Kenza Dali and Savannah McKaskill. SD's 2nd goal against Louisville is a good encapsulation of what they're about: Some calm possession in their own half, McKaskill plays Corley who explodes into space to play Cascarino, who absolutely rinses Ary Borges before cutting the ball back to Mel Barcenas (who started!) for the finish.
....and North Carolina's possession without purpose
I want to compare the Wave and the Courage because North Carolina has been the NWSL's outlier-that-proves the rule when the league gets the "transition only" tag from snobby Euros (and Lindsey Heaps). The Courage have led the NWSL in possession --and comfortably so-- every year of manager Sean Nahas' tenure in Cary. I've gone into the possession without purpose issue many times over the past few seasons, but Evan Davis of American Soccer Analysis and the Expected Own Goals Podcast wrote an excellent piece for the Equalizer a few days ago that I'll link to instead. Long story short, North Carolina's possession is not generating enough chances and their forwards are not scoring enough goals. Simple as.

The one point in Davis' article that I'll quibble with is the assertion that Nahas can only play with the hand he's been dealt, and that North Carolina ownership's unwillingness to splash on a true goal scorer is the reason for the diminishing attacking returns. I think it's been pretty clear that it is Nahas who runs the Courage ship. Every big-name player the Courage have signed --Narumi Miura, Ashley Sanchez, Jaedyn Shaw, Feli Rauch, Manaka Mataskubo, and Shinomi Koyama-- have been clear "Nahas players": Technically adroit chance creators who are comfortable on the ball. It us not as though North Carolina haven't spent money either. The Courage splashed on Shaw despite not getting any fee for Kerolin and put $250K more into Shinomi. They just haven't spent on a real goal scorer OR a truly explosive winger! Nahas has built this roster in his image and has been given the resources to do so, but the fact remains that he has failed to add any sort of dynamic attacking option outside of Shaw.

And that's why I compare North Carolina with San Diego. The Wave keep the ball, but they have the electricity of Corley, Cascarino, Perle Merroni, and Maria Sanchez going forward to turn on the gas when needed. The Courage have Shaw and Sanchez, neither of whom have much pace to burn....and that's really it. Tyler Lussi, Aline Gomes, Cortnee Vine, and Olivia Wingate (who I like!) just ain't cutting it.

I do think it will get better for the winless Courage, who have suffered from some xG underperformance of their own....but how much better is up for debate. Their toothless attack isn't magically improving overnight, they have far too many overlapping skillsets, and Shaw hasn't provided the necessary bite. Their 0.3 xG performance against Bay Saturday was diabolical in all the worst ways, and Nahas has some work to do going forward.

Kiki Pickett, Bangers Only
Some players only score bangers. Kiki Pickett is one of those players. Pickett has two goals this season on four shots, both absolute screamers. Here are the two:
Washington continue to manage
Despite a continued list of injuries to key pieces, the Spirit continue to make do. The latest addition to the injury report --star Trinity Rodman because of ongoing back issues-- is about as scary as it gets for all NWSL fans, but the Spirit nevertheless weathered a first half storm from the Pride before snagging a second half winner on a horrific error from Pride keeper Anna Moorhouse, who was caught on the ball by Spirit full debutant Gift Monday. It's been a masterclass in tactical and personnel management from manager Jonatan Giraldez, who continues to keep the depleted Spirit not only afloat, but well within reach of the title.
Match I hope no one watched of the week
Utah-Chicago. Yuck. I'll never get those two hours back.
Gotham's Elite Defense
Gotham, unsurprisingly given who they have across their back line, have the league's best defense through five weeks by expected goals against, having conceded just 2.9 xGA despite losing Tierna Davidson to an ACL tear. Not only is the backline sturdy, but they're extremely physical while being excellent on the ball. Lily Reale has slotted seamlessly into left back, Emily Sonnett has continued her Best 11 caliber play from 2024, and 2024 signee Jess Carter has looked more at home every week. With a returning Midge Purce, Esther's form, and the addition of Geyse, don't be surprised if Gotham turn the Big Three back into a Big Four sooner rather than later.

Goal of the Week: It's Pickett's. Of course. Here it is again: