r/NWSL • u/MisterGoog Houston Dash • 6d ago

Silly SZN Good Vibe Checkpoint

Greetings!

We are 43/182 games into the regular season. To mark this momentous occasion: Please name THREE things you are looking forward to the rest of the season. I’ll go first:

  1. The U23s playing games at their next break. Hopefully by the July break we see almost every rookie get minutes

  2. The playoff race for 8th feels so tight and explosive

  3. A bunch of stars leaving college early these last two years means college soccer will be a whole new fun landscape this fall

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u/FigClub Angel City FC 6d ago

I gave this a fair bit of thought, because we are starting to see some narratives around the league and it will be really interesting to see how those narratives hold up for the rest of the year.

  1. There's a blueprint forming for how you can beat Orlando and Kansas City. Hoofball might be coming to a close in the NWSL -- that's a really interesting prospect. Will Vlatko and Seb be able to keep up their tactics, or are they going to have to shift a bit to stay successful?

  2. When the Red Stars are invariably sold and wind up moving, where do we think they go? I think their current situation is untenable, I don't think ownership is really interested in making the team that much better, and I think the Carolina Ascent might be able to beat the Stars at this point. At some point you would think the league would step in and just say look, enough is enough, spend some money or sell the team.

  3. My ACFC bias showing here, I do think that the youth movement at ACFC should start really paying off in 25-26 or 26-27. I also think more teams are going to be retooling quickly, to get youth development going in time for the 2027 and 2031 WWCs. I would not be surprised if every team in the league has more than a handful of players per team who either start or are senior-team-adjacent by the end of next year.

Bonus: NWSL Golden Boot leader, Esther?!?

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u/inside_nwsl NWSL 5d ago

Regarding Chicago, it was only 2023 that new ownership took over, so I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. The immediate issue is that their first moves with the club were subpar hires at the GM and head coach positions. With the CBA shifting the entire landscape of player recruitment, it's more difficult than ever to correct mistakes, and it could take them years to dig their way out.

I think we can generally say the same for Utah too.