Tag: Mana Shim

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.

Shim signs with Gotham FC, reuniting with fellow whistleblower Farrelly

Shim returns after a five-year absence from the NWSL

NJ/NY Gotham FC has announced the signing of Mana Shim on a short-term injury replacement contract.

The 31-year-old midfielder returns five years after her most recent game in the NWSL, and was immediately named to the bench for Sunday’s game against the Chicago Red Stars.

“I am excited to return to the NWSL as part of Gotham FC. It’s a demanding and professional environment that’s focused on players first, and they have put together an incredibly talented group that I’m honored to share the field with,” Shim said in a club release.

Along with her former teammate Sinead Farrelly, Shim came forward in September 2021 to detail horrific allegations of abuse against Paul Riley, her former coach in Portland.

Farrelly and Shim have now been reunited with Gotham, as Farrelly signed with the club prior to the season after nearly seven years away from the game.

Farrelly and Shim, along with other whistleblowers, have helped usher in significant changes in the NWSL. Allegations against several coaches across the league led to investigations from former attorney general Sally Yates and one conducted jointly by the NWSL Players’ Association and the league itself.

In addition to a number of systemic reforms, several former coaches and executives were suspended, and four — including Riley — were banned for life.

In 2022, Shim was named the chair of U.S. Soccer’s new Participant Safety Taskforce — a full-time position that she will maintain even after signing for Gotham.

“Sally Yates’s report made it clear that, for far too long, leaders across the soccer ecosystem – including at U.S. Soccer – have not taken responsibility for protecting players,” Shim said upon being named to the role. “But I believe in the capacity for change. As leader of the Taskforce, I am committed to ensuring not only that Yates’s recommendations are implemented, but that we push beyond them.”

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