Tag: Orlando Pride

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.