NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Racing Louisville, Orlando Pride serve notice with statement wins

Heading into the World Cup break, and the chaos is back

The NWSL is heading into its World Cup break, and the vibes are all over the place.

Some teams could use the break to make some tweaks, get healthy, or even go for a wholesale adjustment. By contrast, a few others may just be hitting their stride, and will be understandably frustrated to have a couple of weeks without more games to build on their current momentum.

Naturally for this topsy-turvy league, the teams that need the break are closer to the top of the table, while most of the teams that are settling into a groove are the ones just outside the playoff places. In a couple of weeks, the NWSL has gone from the brink of “we might not have a serious race for postseason spots” to “everyone’s in the mix.”

For one last time before the World Cup gauntlet begins, here’s your Weekend Take-Off.

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Shim returns as league parity verges on parody

The only predictable thing in the NWSL is its unpredictability

The National Women’s Soccer League is not a normal league.

Last week, the major through-line for this column was that the league’s six playoff teams were already threatening to separate themselves. This past weekend’s schedule paired the teams in playoff places with teams on the outside, and could have more or less sealed a haves and have-nots stretch run (give or take the Houston Dash clinging to the contending pack).

Instead:

The “we are SO back!” vibes are off the charts.

The teams entering the weekend sitting seventh or worse went 3W-2D-1L against the top six. The Kansas City Current and Orlando Pride got road wins against the Portland Thorns and Washington Spirit (arguably the two most consistently good teams in the NWSL in 2023). The Chicago Red Stars got a shutout! Up is down, left is right. That’s our league.

We talk all the time about NWSL parity, but this was parity to the point of parody. Of course the NWSL had a weekend where the teams that can’t win all rise up to beat the teams that can’t lose.

This league knows no other way to be.

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Top-of-table clash delivers, crunch time arrives for playoff outsiders

The game of the year may have already happened

The World Cup break isn’t quite here yet, but for this NWSL season, it feels like we’ve hit an inflection point.

The 13th round of matches is clearly past the halfway point in a 22-game season, but it does serve as a sort of act break for the drama that is this league. With players leaving for the World Cup, it’s a moment to take stock on where teams are, and what the stretch run might start to look like.

In short, we really have two groups: a top seven who should be in the battle for six playoff spots through the end of the season, and a bottom five whose hopes are already surprisingly dim.

That might seem harsh on Racing Louisville, just three points out of that top seven, but consider this: the San Diego Wave hold the final playoff spot, and their current points-per-game (PPG) pace has them on course for a 34-point total.

Louisville would need 19 points from their final nine games to match that total, which is 2.11 PPG. A hypothetical team on 2.11 PPG through 13 games this season would have 27 points and be two points clear of the Portland Thorns, who have been outstanding this season.

Barring a collapse from the playoff contenders (none of whom look like they have a lengthy losing run on their bingo card), the teams on the outside have already hit their It’s Go Time moment.

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: McKeown, Spirit back atop table after parity-driven week

There are no days off in the NWSL

When people talk about how competitive the NWSL is, this is exactly the kind of week they’re talking about.

The top six teams from last week’s standings took on the bottom six, and rather than the gap between the haves and the have-nots growing, we saw the league’s parity on full display. Two teams entering the weekend in playoff position lost to teams that were out of the mix, with the San Diego Wave falling in the Chanclásico and NJ/NY Gotham FC stumbling against Racing Louisville.

Meanwhile, the Washington Spirit went top of the table, but only after coming from 2-0 down against a Kansas City Current team that sits in last place (probably not for much longer though, it must be said). The Portland Thorns, who are currently in second place, were pushed extremely hard by the 11th-placed Chicago Red Stars.

There are truly no days off in this league. Let’s get into the action.

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: NC Courage create a masterpiece, standings stay tight

Kerolin, Adriana, Borges, oh my!

Just like that, the NWSL regular season is halfway over after the 11th round of games finished up Sunday night.

As is typical for this particularly wild league, the top of the table is comically close. The North Carolina Courage, in sixth place at the time this article was published, have multiple scenarios in which they could end up in first place by next Sunday night. Next weekend’s games feature the top six against the bottom six, and there’s one set of results that could see three teams tied on 20 points, followed by four more on 19. Last year’s potential seven-way tie for first could once again loom over us in September, and that doesn’t even account for improving teams like Racing Louisville or the Orlando Pride.

That’s the big picture. Getting more granular on the week that was, it was a great week to be a Brazilian attacker, and a not-so-great week if you happen to play for a team in the bottom three.

Here we go:

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: KC Current gets tough, Angel City stumbles

The going is tough, and the tough are about to get going

The NWSL’s halfway line is in sight, and not far beyond it we can make out the faintest outline of what this year’s playoff race is going to look like.

After 10 games, the lucky teams are starting to be found out, and the tiers that have started to form broadly conform with the vibe around each of the 12 teams in the league.

For the Take-Off at least, this is what is appearing on the distant horizon:

  • Contenders: Portland Thorns, San Diego Wave, Washington Spirit, NJ/NY Gotham FC, OL Reign
  • Hopefuls: Houston Dash, North Carolina Courage
  • Still in the mix: Racing Louisville
  • Time to get moving: Orlando Pride, Chicago Red Stars, Angel City FC, Kansas City Current

There’s still wiggle room in here, of course, and through a weekend that extended out into a weird Monday night match, we saw teams threaten to move up and down the ladder. The Reign, mired in about a month of very inconsistent performances and results, may only be in the Contender tier based on past results and the quality of their roster. Kansas City and Chicago, meanwhile, are showing a pulse.

We’re both a long way from the playoffs (summer hasn’t started yet!), and yet also, teams have a dozen games to get the job done. Grab your lucky pine cone while we figure out where things are headed.

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Shaw’s central shift, extreme parity highlight week nine

Calling all mentality monsters

When people talk about the NWSL being the world’s most competitive league, this is what they’re talking about.

Parity is back in a big way. The top five teams are separated by one single point — shout out to still league-leading NJ/NY Gotham FC for having that one-point edge over four teams on 16 points — while the Chicago Red Stars got a massively needed win to hopefully put themselves back on course.

Qualities like focus and intensity kept coming up in press conferences, with some teams not quite having it until the late stages, and others seeing it slip away as their game went on. As we drift closer to the midway point of this 2023 season, with the newness of the season wearing off, summer’s heat increasing, and team leaders and stars in many cases heading off to the World Cup, the mentality monsters are going to be the ones getting the results.

Here’s your Take-Off for week nine.

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Gotham FC top the table after topsy-turvy results

No one’s flying higher than the Bats

Just like everyone expected, NJ/NY Gotham FC is in first place in the NWSL, while the Kansas City Current and Chicago Red Stars are struggling.

It’s fun to start with a joke. Obviously no one really thought the standings would include Gotham FC — for the first time since 2013! — in first place in late May. While Chicago’s off-field problems always looked like they’d undermine their 2023 season, KC sitting in 11th after following a run to the 2022 final with a blockbuster offseason? It’s arguably more of a shock than Gotham’s ascent.

This wasn’t the most artful or edifying NWSL weekend, but with the season now over 36% complete, we have enough to start really sketching out a final product for teams rather than discussing various works in progress. Let that be your North Star as the Take-Off rumbles on.

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: fit Spirit flying, Louisville off the mark as standings tighten

The NWSL crucible is red hot these days

Ask anyone about NWSL and they’ll probably tell you it’s the world’s most competitive league.

This past weekend’s results are exactly what they’d have in mind. Racing Louisville came in winless, yet came up with a dominant 3-0 win. The Houston Dash and North Carolina Courage beat title contenders, the San Diego Wave broke out of a mini-slump with a back-to-basics win, and the Washington Spirit overcame a three-game week to pick up three points on the west coast. Even the lone draw in the set saw the Orlando Pride, a team that entered the weekend in 11th place, go on the road and outplay a Gotham FC team that sits in third place.

Sometimes the truisms are actually true. As we’ll get into immediately after this paragraph, this week showed that to win in NWSL you need world-class mental and physical toughness to go with outstanding skill (we see you, Ebony Salmon and Abby Smith).

Let’s jump into the crucible.

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Golazos abound as hard times continue in Chicago, Houston

The caliber of NWSL goals is through the roof right now

This past round of NWSL matches saw an abundance in glorious goals and outstanding individual play.

Trinity Rodman set one of those goals up but won’t win the league’s player of the week award for reasons, while Alyssa Thompson bolstered her credentials as some kind of sorcerer and the Portland Thorns hit the absolute heights of what a team working in concert can do, only to end up with a draw after being Kerolin-ed. If you live for highlights, you could have easily over-indulged.

On the other hand, it was a rocky day at the office for the Chicago Red Stars, while the Houston Dash and San Diego Wave were left frustrated once again on the attacking end.

What’s right? What’s wrong? Let’s get into it: