I'm going to try something this week. We had a lot more discussion on Week 1, and nothing for Week 2 except for a post in the general game talk thread. I'm wondering if we have weekly threads, if there will be more discussion? I'll try it for this week anyway to see. Week 3 games Chicago at Orlando, March 29 at 7 pm ET (NWSL+) Seattle at San Diego, March 29 at 10 pm ET (Prime) Angel City FC at Kansas City, March 30 at 3:30 pm ET (ESPN/ESPN+) Gotham FC at North Carolina, March 30 at 7 pm ET (NWSL+) Racing Louisville at Portland, March 30 at 7:30 pm ET (ION) Houston at Bay FC, March 30 at 10 pm ET (ION) Utah at Washington Spirit, March 31 at 1 pm ET (NWSL+)
In my case, it does't make much difference: it's just that, these days, I am following other women's leagues much more than I follow NWSL, since I don't have much spare time for it. Anyway, I appreciate the effort of opening this thread and I'll be happy to chime in, should someone post any interesting comments here.
The big news items this week: Gotham's Midge Purce's injury last weekend at Portland has been declared season-ending. She will need ACL repair surgery (this was a whole thing last year in the WSL especially). In good news, Sophia Smith signed an extension through 2025 with Portland, apparently for the highest annual salary in NWSL. The lawsuit by Emerald Necklace Conservancy and others against the City of Boston and Boston Unity Soccer Partners trying to stop the White Stadium project was dismissed this week. This was a serious challenge, ENC and similar organizations wield a lot of power in Boston when they choose to exercise it. The case mainly seems to have been dismissed on "ripeness" grounds. It alleged that the stadium would be illegally transferred to BUSP in violation of the terms under which the stadium was transferred to the city. Community meetings continue, and there's a lot of opposition being voiced (some of the loudest voices were plaintiffs in the dismissed case). It's hard to win a fight against an imaginary plan, and that's largely what BUSP is up against, the fantasy of a smaller stadium project that won't change the character of the neighborhood, provide any kind of traffic/light/noise issues, and won't result in any dates being blacked out for public use. No one seriously considers the current state of the stadium tenable, it's unusable for track and field, and beyond run down, badly in need to rehabilitation. Sarah Jones Simmer, formerly COO at Bumble and CEO of Found, has also been named the new COO of NWSL. I believe Bill Ordower was double-hatting this job and Chief Legal Officer before (he had a long history at Major League Soccer/SUM before that).
Gotta say, Gotham vs NC seems to have all the storylines this week. Last year's champions, just now missing one of their best, versus a team that came out blazing in wk1 before losing to an expansion side in wk2.
After two games apiece, counting the GOT v SD opener, I will foolishly venture to pick winners. When in doubt I have favored the home team. I have wins for WAS, BAY, POR, KC, and ORL with SEA-SD and GOT-NC draws. Next weekend has no NWSL games due to the Sheba Leaves Cup April 6 and 9.
The NWSL schedule is clear for all of the International match calendar windows this year. (1-9 April, 27 May-4 Jun, 8 Jul all the way through 10 Aug (taking the week between the window and the Olympics off as well), and 21-30 Oct. There's a final window this year in late November, but the playoffs should be over by then.
They're announcing sellout in San Diego (I thought they said 32,000 but that can't be right because the upper sections are closed) on the broadcast but there are a lot of empty seats at 19:30 local.
I feel like it's weird for a team with no black starters to have BFF on their shirts. I guess it is still better than being an English team with "Visit Rwanda" in the Rishi Sunak era.
I am sorry not to add anything meaningful about the NWSL matchday, but, for records, I recently noticed the "Visit Rwanda" advertising on the sleeves of PSG's jerseys. I must admit that I wondered if, by just reading that everytime the team plays, anyone actually feels inclined to visit Rwanda. I don't.
Mal Swanson scored her first goal since coming back from injury: A perfect timeline cleanse anytime:A Mal Swanson goal! pic.twitter.com/xQCp0n29xx— Our Game Magazine (@OurGameMagazine) March 30, 2024 Chicago and Orlando ended up at a tie, but it's good to see Swanson back and putting the ball in the net. Also she pretty much played the whole game (subbed out in stoppage time). In the first two games, I think she was closer to 80 minutes playing. She's not in the same form she was in when she had the injury, but other than that, she seems pretty much fully fit.
In the San Diego-Seattle game, San Diego ended up winning 1-0 on a goal from van Egmond scored in stoppage time. San Diego actually scored another (non)goal in stoppage time that was called back because the pass to Morgan was ruled to have gone out of bounds. It was certainly a close call though....looked like Carusa kept it in to me (but there's no camera on the goal line).
Everything about the new KC stadium and upgraded roster is just first class. Absolutely the gold standard for NWSL now.
Probably a second goal for KC but I've got it on mute as Lianne Sanderson's voice is proof that evil exists in this world.
She's not on the NWSL+ feed. I'm really jealous of the KC fans who are probably going to see this team breeze into the postseason in a gorgeous stadium with goals galore.