NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Ertz changes Angel City, Williams and Kizer standing out

Big names are shaking things up in the NWSL

The NWSL returned to regular season play after its first dalliance with the new Challenge Cup format, and gave fans plenty to think about.

Julie Ertz made her first appearance in the league in over two years, and the early signs are that her presence will change a lot about how Angel City FC executes. That follows some positive changes that came in part from Lynn Williams arriving with NJ/NY Gotham FC this winter, while Cece Kizer’s return to fitness has opened up missing elements for the Kansas City Current.

Unless you’re the Portland Thorns, change is good at this part of the season. For some teams, that means staying the course in anticipation of changes for the better coming to fruition. In other cases, we may have a couple of teams who need to consider more marked changes to avoid being left in the dust.

Here’s your look back at another eventful weekend in the NWSL:

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Broadcasting woes and new wrinkles for Reign, Red Stars

Once fans could watch last weekend’s games, they got plenty of drama

The international window is over, and NWSL came back with its customary mix of thrills and drama on the field.

Two stoppage-time winners, a two-goal comeback in LA, two teams hanging onto road results under intense late pressure, a league record broken, a team people wrote off putting four goals past a projected contender, and some spectacular goals? That sounds like the NWSL.

Unfortunately, so does a broadcasting own goal that is arguably the major story from this weekend’s games. The NWSL giveth, and the NWSL taketh away.

Pro Soccer Wire‘s NWSL Weekend Take-Off is here to cover all of the highs and lows:

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Sinead Farrelly returns, Thorns and Wave flex

A big moment, two teams in top form, and lots of wind in the NWSL weekend that was

It’s only week two in the NWSL, but we’re already getting mid-season levels of intensity and weirdness.

One long weather front extending from the Atlantic coast to deep into the Midwest resulted in a lightning delay in New Jersey and a goal scored by a gust of wind in Chicago. We had a two-goal comeback, a remarkable return to the field for Sinead Farrelly, and a month’s worth of league drama packed into one game between Angel City FC and the Orlando Pride.

If you’re the Portland Thorns or San Diego Wave, another thing at mid-season levels is the performance quality. These two seem, at least right now, head, shoulders, and arguably whole torsos ahead of the rest of the pack. It’ll come around for at least a few other teams, but for now, two of the preseason favorites seem to be meeting any expectation fans might have placed on them.

Let’s get into this weekend’s action:

NWSL can finally give its top youngsters the support to shine

What does it take for a teenager to shine in NWSL? We tried to find out

NWSL’s history with truly young players is, thanks to under-supported clubs and a lack of guardrails, a messy one.

As with many situations pertaining to the NWSL during its early years, teams — and the league itself — were unprepared to take on the challenge involved, but also simply lacked a clear plan on how to incorporate players outside of the draft system.

While teams seemed to grasp what it could mean for them on the competitive side — both the Portland Thorns and Washington Spirit moved mountains specifically to be in position to acquire Mallory Swanson, for example — the league was far less prepared for how much the non-soccer side matters.

Swanson’s experience is instructive. Then 19, Swanson, née Pugh, would lead the 2017 Spirit with six goals, but was largely left to her own devices two time zones away from home. Between injuries and little club-level support at a team running on a minor-league financial plan, Swanson’s development path seemed to plateau at a moment when she was largely expected to be U.S. Soccer’s Next Big Thing.

In retrospect, Swanson’s growth being hampered was hardly a surprise given the Spirit’s multiple off-field issues during her time with the club.

Considering the state of the entire league, the series of public missteps, and the multiple investigations involved, it’s safe to say this wasn’t one bad environment. Frankly, it’s not clear that any NWSL club in this time frame was an appropriate environment for a player like Swanson to walk into. The entire league simply was not ready to provide what was required of it.

As Swanson approaches 25 years old, she has reached the level of being one of the best attackers on the planet. Things eventually worked out. However, her path here wasn’t easy, and a major factor was an NWSL club whose on-field ambitions surpassed what their off-field capabilities would actually allow for.

To be sure, there are success stories: Ellie Carpenter’s time with the Thorns — who for all their failings in player safety still had a much more substantial infrastructure than any other NWSL club in that era — became a near-instant starter and is now a fixture for Lyon and Australia.

Back with the Spirit, Trinity Rodman declared for the draft and was immediately one of the NWSL’s best players. The Spirit took some lessons from how they had failed Swanson, having a more robust plan in place to give her a better situation away from the training field. Rodman ended up winning a title and making the NWSL Best XI in 2021, and has broken through with the USWNT over the last year-plus.

Over on the west coast, Alyssa Thompson started for Angel City straight away, scoring in their opener as the focal point of an attack that is missing veteran stars like Christen Press and Sydney Leroux.

Still, with no NWSL rules on how these situations worked, the process is different every time. Swanson’s path to the NWSL was convoluted: the Spirit made multiple trades to obtain the top spot in the Distribution Ranking Order, a mechanism which no longer exists, and she missed the first five games of the season because the league simply didn’t have the wherewithal to come up with a more timely method to get her on a team.

The complications for players just trying to get into the league continued: Olivia Moultrie getting a contract from Portland involved a public pressure campaign and a court case that saw NWSL on one side and one of its clubs (as well as a player who wanted to be in the league) on the other. Even after a judge ruled in Moultrie’s favor, NWSL rules still ended up putting her into an ad hoc discovery process that saw OL Reign acquire her rights before trading them to Portland (for far below market value).

(Photo by Amanda Loman/Getty Images)

The outcome was what the player, her family, and the club wanted. Moultrie has proven her mettle, and even for the defending champions, the 17-year-old gets regular playing time as the team’s attacking midfielder. She’s a serious contributor (three goals and four assists in 17 games last year) for a powerhouse. It’s just that, as with Swanson, she faced plainly unnecessary obstacles that seemed rooted in a lack of preparedness and infrastructure.

Jaedyn Shaw’s path into the league was only slightly less rocky. The Texan, then 17, joined the Spirit in the 2022 preseason and trained with them for months while Washington tried to pursue some backchannel diplomacy aimed at a new method for young players to enter the league.

The campaign didn’t change enough minds, and once again NWSL held a mid-season discovery process to sort the situation out. Sources at the time told Pro Soccer Wire that at least six NWSL clubs submitted bids — Washington and San Diego being the only two ever publicly revealed — and that a weighted lottery placed the Wave atop the discovery list. Another potential star player’s career course was charted by a confusing, opaque method.

In a call with Pro Soccer Wire from San Diego, Shaw took a moment to choose her words before discussing how much of a problem it would have been if she had been denied entry into the league last year.

“It would have been definitely really hard for me,” said Shaw. “I would have been basically with the Spirit for a whole year, and being in that environment, knowing that I can handle it, knowing that I can do it every single day and play at that level, and then just being told no…that definitely would have been hard for me to deal with.”

It’s hard to dispute Shaw’s read on her ability to compete. She scored in her professional debut, and has been a regular starter for a San Diego side that competed for the NWSL Shield last season. In the Wave’s 2023 opener, Shaw scored a splendid goal, while coach Casey Stoney experimented with a formation change designed to make the 18-year-old more of an attacking centerpiece.

With multiple clubs now well-staffed enough to both scout the youth ranks more thoroughly and able to create an infrastructure to truly support teenage players, the situation was only going to repeat itself with more frequency. Shortly after the 2022 season ended, NWSL announced that it had created a new way for young players to join teams. The Under-18 Entry List specified both how young players could end up with a specific team, and installed some common-sense safeguards to prevent teams from choosing short-term competitive needs over a player’s well-being.

For example, the new rules prevent teams from trading or waiving a player before they turn 18 without the consent of both the player and their legal guardian. Under-18 Entry List players can’t be selected in expansion drafts, and their initial contract must run through the season in which they turn 18. If a team wants to make the commitment, the rules oblige them to truly take a longer view, in exchange for removing the bizarre paths to entry players in this age group have had to endure.

So far, the new rules have been applied twice, both for 15-year-old prospects: Washington signed Chloe Ricketts, while the Wave followed shortly thereafter in signing Melanie Barcenas. Both clubs had these players on their radar well before the establishment of the league’s rules, meaning that clubs have essentially been waiting for NWSL rules to catch up.

The time appears to be now, and the league — as it emerges from numerous debacles — has entered a new era.

Resources have changed the game

That era contains a need to balance multiple thoughts: player safety, development, the attention that comes when a younger player signs with a pro team, and the day-to-day process of trying to win games in an endlessly competitive league.

Speaking to Pro Soccer Wire just a couple of weeks before Barcenas signed with the club, Stoney said that when the opportunity to sign Shaw arrived, “as a club, we were like, ‘we need to make it happen,’ because she was such a talented young player.”

What followed was both pursuing the nuts-and-bolts of signing a player, but also showing that they could meet the requirements NWSL said had to be in place: housing for Shaw and her family, “a separate locker room, making sure that every player and every member of staff was qualified for SafeSport to make sure we could bring minors into the environment,” said Stoney. “Making sure we had all the policies and procedures in place, making sure that we were looking after the California law side of things as well.”

(Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

Shaw said that the team brought her in for meetings with Stoney, club president Jill Ellis, and general manager Molly Downtain to talk through the normal things a player wants to know about when signing with a new club (team philosophy, training ground, etc.) and also go over how things would be for her in specific circumstances.

“It was just what to expect, basically. They didn’t want me to just come here not knowing exactly what’s going on, and just being completely new to this to the area and everything,” said Shaw, who added that the major offseason change for her was limited to moving to a “more permanent” home in San Diego after the team had set up something more short-term last year.

A major difference between San Diego and NWSL teams circa six or seven years ago? Ownership groups that can afford to create a larger club infrastructure. Shaw said that upon arrival, the Wave had everything in place, rather than trying to build the plane while mid-air.

“I think that the Wave have a lot of resources,” said Shaw, listing off the team’s coaching staff, trainers, and a mental well-being coach the club has made available for the entire squad. “I’m comfortable having that relationship with them and being able to express what I need as an athlete, and what I need as a person from them.”

Spirit president of soccer operations Mark Krikorian told Pro Soccer Wire that a club’s commitment when signing such young players has to start with safety, and that teams should be aiming to surpass league rules when they can.

“I think that we’re all committed to protecting [Ricketts], first and foremost, and any other young player that’s here,” said Krikorian. “The league has done a good job in putting together protocols to protect the players, the states all have different rules, laws, and so on to protect [minors], but hopefully we’re going above and beyond those.”

Speaking to reporters before the season kicked off, Spirit midfielder Andi Sullivan said that in her view, Washington is a good place for a player like Ricketts because of both the infrastructure Krikorian, owner Michele Kang, and others have assembled, and because the players themselves are well-tuned towards helping a youngster out as a teammate.

“I do think we have a lot more ability to support her and hopefully that continues to grow, that we would be able to support her and people her age more,” said Sullivan. “I also think — not to toot our own horn — but I think she stepped into the perfect team to do that, because we’re taking good care of her in terms of the team aspect.”

In Washington, that means so many things: light-hearted ribbing during a rondo, a new coaching staff that has prioritized internal standards and culture, player-to-player communication in training and elsewhere, but also continuing education. Krikorian says that Ricketts will continue the same remote education program she was on in Michigan, and that the Spirit have longer-term plans to link up with regional universities to allow young players an avenue to get their degree while playing for Washington.

“I think that they all realize that they can make a positive impact in this young woman’s life, and help her and help to guide her and mentor her,” explained Krikorian. “It’s not their job. Their job is to go out into play and so on, but I do think that they are sensitive women and I do think that they do want what’s best for Chloe and what’s best for the club and they recognize they can be a positive piece of this.”

The soccer side is the easy part

On one front, the game tells the truth: if a young player brings it on the soccer side, getting acclimated tends to go very quickly.

Stoney said that Shaw got “the respect of the group immediately” with what she showed in training. “She shows what she’s capable of, and the players want her on there because they know that she can make a difference.”

With Ricketts, Sullivan and Ashley Sanchez — no strangers to the cauldron that is the USWNT environment — took note of how she’s got confidence and skill, but is also not timid when it comes to challenges.

“I think Chloe stepped in and was like, decking people,” Sullivan said. “I think [it] shows that she’s not afraid of anything. And I think that fearless mindset will carry her a long way.”

“She came in with the energy, she was hitting people immediately,” added Sanchez. “I was respecting it.”

Sullivan noted that Ricketts is “young, but she doesn’t want to be treated like she’s young,” adding that the Michigan native “is very thoughtful. You [can] tell that in conversations with her: she is very considerate of, and aware of, how things work, and she knows herself really well,” all of which help a player who has to handle a new phenomenon: being hugely talented, but also not being her team’s star attraction from day one.

Young players, eager to show their best stuff, can often make a big impact on arrival. Consistency is harder to come by, and those outsized expectations can pose a problem over time. In San Diego, Stoney is quick to caution that no one is expecting Shaw to carry on without any issues or tough patches. “Are there ups and downs for a young player? Yeah. They’re gonna go for a bit of a bumpy road because they’re not always going to be on a trajectory like this,” she said, tracing a diagonal line heading towards the heavens. “That’s not real life. No one does. They go up, and then they might have a little dip, and then they’ll go up again.”

Stoney said that it’s a coach’s job to sort out when a player needs to push through those down moments to build resolve, and when they’re no longer progressing. However, she adds, “[being] honest about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it” is just as vital.

According to Stoney, the vagaries of the U.S. development system — players remaining stars in their club teams and then doing the same collegiately — can deprive those youngsters of the chance to develop resilience. They get to the NWSL level, and it might be the first time in their lives where they’ve not just walked right into a given lineup.

“They’ve played every game, they’ve been a starter, then all of a sudden they step into a professional environment and they might not even be on the [gameday] roster,” said Stoney. “It’s a massive adjustment for them in terms of their mentality and emotional responses to that, and they haven’t built the resilience to be able to cope with it because they’ve never faced it before. So we try and get ahead of it. We know that it’s going to happen. We put on workshops for those players that have come into professional environment for the first time. We look at the challenges they might be facing and we tackle them head on.”

Still, the task Stoney describes is a next-level problem, one that is normal for a functioning and healthy soccer environment. For the NWSL, “functioning” and “healthy” have been qualities to aspire to, rather than the day-to-day truth. The new system of rules and guidelines, combined with major advances at clubs and player-driven demands for raised standards, has finally put the league in a position to answer that kind of challenge.

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NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Thorns imperious, VAR off to a rocky start

Tactics, VAR controversy, and spicy quotes? NWSL’s not wasting any time

The NWSL is back for 2023, and immediately produced a characteristic mix of quality play (we see you, Portland Thorns), strangeness, and controversy.

Pro Soccer Wire will be bringing this look at one aspect from every game to you every Tuesday throughout the season. Great goals? Tactical nuance? Spicy quotes? It might be week one for NWSL teams, but there’s so much to tackle. We saw the return of some banter between old rivals, several glorious goals, a total change in system from one team, and VAR’s debut resulting in a pivotal call.

Without further adieu, let’s dive into the takes:

San Diego Wave sign Melanie Barcenas, youngest player in NWSL history

The Wave are among several NWSL clubs pushing a youth movement forward

The NWSL’s youth movement is well and truly underway.

The San Diego Wave announced on Tuesday that they’ve used the NWSL’s new Under-18 Entry Mechanism to sign Melanie Barcenas, a U.S. under-17 national team forward, to a three-year contract.

Barcenas, aged 15 years and 138 days, is the youngest player in NWSL history. She breaks the record set by the Washington Spirit’s Chloe Ricketts, who signed her deal less than three weeks ago.

“We are very happy that Melanie and her family have decided to entrust her hometown club as the place for her to begin her professional career,” said Wave head coach Casey Stoney in a press release. “The coaches at San Diego Surf have been instrumental in helping her develop as a person and as a player for her entire youth career. We’re excited to maximize her potential through the coming years, while being patient and deliberate in advancing her development while ensuring she retains some routine and normalcy of being a teenager.”

“I’m very excited to sign my first professional contract with my hometown team, San Diego Wave,” added Barcenas. “It’s been a dream of mine to not just play in the NWSL but to have the opportunity to represent this city since the announcement of the Wave last year. I know I am young, but the team and coaching staff have been amazing, and I look forward to learning from them every day as I continue to develop.”

Wave among teams pushing the envelope

Signing Barcenas is a move that seems to have been in the works for some time for San Diego. Back in 2021 at a team launch event, the then-13-year-old forward was one of numerous speakers, expressing a hope to play for the team sometime down the road.

It’s still early days for the Wave as a club, but there’s clearly an emphasis on bringing in youth talent as early as is feasible. Last year, the team found itself atop the discovery order for attacker Jaedyn Shaw, and turned down some substantial trade offers from the Spirit to sign the Texas native. Shaw would go on to score in her debut, and established herself as a first-choice player for Stoney immediately.

Developing less-experienced players has also been something of a Wave hallmark, with Stoney installing Naomi Girma as a day-one starter at center back in her rookie season. Taylor Kornieck — who has been open about a lack of position-specific coaching in college and her first pro season in Orlando — has also grown into a U.S. women’s national team player in central midfield, while winger Amirah Ali became a game-changing weapon off the bench in her rookie season.

There is something of a trend in this direction going on league-wide, with the first two NWSL draft picks this year being 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson and 20-year-old Michelle Cooper. Barcenas is the third 15-year-old to sign a deal with an NWSL club, with the first (Portland Thorns midfielder Olivia Moultrie) seeing her playing time steadily increase last season on a team that ended up winning the championship.

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San Diego rookie phenom Naomi Girma wins two NWSL awards at once

The defender is being rewarded for an incredible rookie campaign in the NWSL

Naomi Girma’s incredible rookie season has been recognized as she was honored with two major awards on the same day.

The San Diego Wave FC center back was named the 2022 NWSL Rookie of the Year and the 2022 NWSL Defender of the Year on Thursday, becoming the first rookie to win two individual end-of-year awards.

The top overall pick in the NWSL draft was an ever-present for the Wave in 2022, helping lead the expansion team to the third-best record in the league.

Girma also made her U.S. women’s national team debut in 2022 and looks set to be a cornerstone of the team for many years to come.

The 22-year-old was named to the league’s Best XI and is still up for the MVP award as well.

The Wave have enjoyed a clean sweep of the NWSL end-of-year awards so far, as Kailen Sheridan was named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year and Casey Stoney was recognized as the league’s Coach of the Year on Wednesday.

San Diego could make it an incredible five out of five if Girma or Alex Morgan wins the league’s MVP award. Though Sophia Smith of the Portland Thorns looks like the front-runner for the prize, Morgan could also nab the honor after winning the league’s Golden Boot in 2022.

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The four biggest NWSL playoff crowds ever all happened within a week

All four playoff games have surpassed the previous record, set in the 2018 championship game

The NWSL playoff attendance record was set in the 2018 championship game, when 21,144 fans packed Providence Park to see the NC Courage beat the Portland Thorns.

That record has been surpassed in all four NWSL playoff games so far in 2022.

The Houston Dash broke the record last weekend when 21,284 fans saw their playoff defeat to the Kansas City Current at PNC Stadium. The Dash’s record lasted for a matter of hours, as the San Diego Wave hosted 26,215 fans at Snapdragon Stadium later that night for their win over Chicago.

On Sunday, Providence Park saw 22,035 fans attend the Thorns’ win over San Diego while later that evening, 21,491 fans showed up at Lumen Field to see OL Reign fall to the Current.

The attendance at Providence Park was especially notable given the simmering fan discontent in Portland in the wake of the Yates report.

Several Thorns players, including MVP candidate Sophia Smith, urged fans to show up for the game despite their anger toward the organization and its owner Merritt Paulson.

Fans in Portland took that to heart, helping to boost their team to a dramatic win over the Wave while also holding up a host of “for sale” signs urging Paulson to sell the team.

The Thorns advanced to Saturday’s NWSL title game, where they will take on the Current. With the match set for 20,0000-capacity Audi Field, a large but not record-setting crowd is expected in Washington, D.C.

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The NWSL semifinals promise nothing less than exquisitely high-tension soccer

Last week was nuts, and the semifinals should offer the same level of drama

The NWSL playoffs got underway last week with high drama in both games, and there’s no reason to expect anything less in the semifinals.

OL Reign and the Portland Thorns got a bye to this stage, and while they rested up, we saw one match settled with extra time and another settled with a game-winner that arrived further into second-half stoppage time than any decisive goal in league history. The margins? They’re thin!

The semifinals will start with Portland hosting the San Diego Wave, with two teams that have already faced off four times this year clashing again in Oregon. Then, about 175 miles up the Pacific coast, the Reign will welcome the Kansas City Current to Lumen Field, where a huge crowd is expected.

Follow along with Pro Soccer Wire as we preview both semifinal matches, including analysis, broadcast information, and predictions.

San Diego Wave outlast Chicago Red Stars in NWSL playoff marathon

San Diego set another NWSL record, and got a playoff win over a gritty Red Stars side

For all the glamour and attacking talent the San Diego Wave have, the story of their debut season may just be their toughness and determination.

San Diego wore down a stubborn Chicago Red Stars side to take a 2-1 extra time win, sending a 26,215 crowd — breaking an NWSL record the Houston Dash had set just hours earlier — at Snapdragon Stadium home happy. Alex Morgan bagged a 110th minute winner after Yuki Nagasato and Emily van Egmond had scored for each side in regulation.

A stunning mistake gave Chicago an unexpected lead. Kailen Sheridan, who is contending for NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year, is known for being sure-footed in possession. However, collecting the ball just outside the San Diego box in the 10th minute, she seemed to be caught between two choices in distribution, eventually badly under-hitting a pass attempt that rolled right towards Yuki Nagasato.

Accepting the gift, the veteran did what veterans do, calmly scooping the ball over Sheridan and into an empty net from 24 yards.

It’s bad to fall behind early in a playoff game, but it’s even worse to fall behind against this Red Stars team. In the 2022 regular season, Chicago had never lost a match in which they took a lead.

A major reason they managed that record was that Chicago is a team full of veteran technicians that know how to control a game. The Red Stars showed plenty of guile in possession, patiently making San Diego chase for long spells in what was one of their best halves of the entire year.

Adjustments were needed, and late in the half San Diego finally started connecting in their attempts to go direct and figuring out how to set up shop to complicate things for the visitors. Wave coach Casey Stoney could be seen using stoppages in play to talk her side through those alterations, and they started to take hold.

“We were getting outnumbered in certain areas,” Stoney told reporters post-game. “I think once we went to a 4-4-2, we looked a little more structured. We could get pressure higher up, and that really helped us.”

Chicago agreed that the shift from San Diego had a huge impact. “I think they changed formations a little bit, or at least tactics a little bit, and put four on the front line,” said Red Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher. “They looked to use (Taylor) Kornieck, and then their speed up front to overload and create some different chances.”

The changes from San Diego expanded to include Sofia Jakobsson, who entered at halftime, and she played a major role in the Wave’s equalizer. Engineering some isolation on the flank against Zoe Morse, Jakobsson played a dangerous cross that Chicago couldn’t fully clear, with Emily van Egmond volleying home amid the resulting chaos.

The Red Stars were hardly parking the bus, but the intensity required to play San Diego began to clearly take its toll. The Wave were seizing more control as full time approached, with Chicago simply not having enough in the tank to push back with consistency.

Extra time was more of a curse than a blessing for Chicago as a result, and while they did have a couple of chances, it felt like there could only be one winner.

The path there — an angled low shot designed to create a rebound that bounced just barely below Alyssa Naeher’s dive, slipping into the bottom corner — wasn’t expected, but Alex Morgan being the goalscorer? In 2022, that’s absolutely in the script.

San Diego’s reward for chipping away at Chicago’s resolve until they finally found their way through? A daunting trip to Portland, where they’ll face the Thorns next Sunday, October 23, at 5:00pm Eastern.

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