Category: Articles

How to Love Your NWSL Team When it Doesn’t Love You Back

Posted on by Backline Soccer

When I was 19, I saw Brokeback Mountain for the first time. I felt my heart crack open when Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack Twist told Heath Ledger’s Ennis Del Mar “I wish I knew how to quit you.”

I didn’t know that years later I would whisper that same phrase every time my team gave up stupid goal after stupid goal.

I love the Orlando Pride.

I have loved them since they were a whispered rumor on the wind. I have loved them through the floral snapbacks that sold out in ten minutes. I have loved them through the social media hashtag #NippleFC. I have even loved them as the front office put together the most hodgepodge group of players known to man. I have loved them through the trades that broke my heart and the signings that made me scream from the rooftops. I have bought merchandise, tickets and posted them all over social media. I love this team.

The problem is that even as I love this team, this team does not love me back. It’s taken some time but it is time to accept that. It’s time to accept all these awful turn-overs and silly giveaways. It’s time to accept the terrific shots on goal more often than not turn out to be nothing more than shots to the parking lot. It’s time to accept that the majority of the starters just need more time and room to grow. It’s time to accept that maybe the front office needs to blow the roster to Kingdom Come and rebuild. 

If you saw the Portland vs. Orlando game, then you saw maybe the greatest game the Pride has had since 2018. Rallying back from a 2-0 deficit to tying the game 3-3 in stoppage time was nothing short of magnificent. But to do that you have to ignore how those three goals came about. Haley Kopmeyer had one of the biggest brain farts I’ve seen since AD Franch picked up the ball and Alyssa Naeher sent that back-kick ball to Jenni Hermoso.

Allowing Portland to get on the board so early was a sign of things to come and going into half time only down one goal was strictly thanks to God’s infinite mercy. Marta, who seems to be returning to her goal scoring form, had enough of her team and sent in two bangers to make it 2-2 early in the second half. Portland would score again and then Erin Greening would begin her legacy, tying the game 3-3 in stoppage time.

And just as I’m getting ready to celebrate getting a point and being  obnoxious to all my coworkers, Portland would get that last second goal thanks to Kopmeyer once again being asleep at the wheel. She was so bad I’m beginning to think she’s color blind and thought the Portland players were actually her real teammates. I spent the rest of my shift pouting and finally having a come to Jesus talk with myself about Orlando.

It’s time to accept that no matter how much I love this team, it’s just not a very good team right now. And that’s not fully on the players. Marc Skinner came in with a good pedigree as a coach and a very specific game plan. Maybe if given enough time, he can get all the players to do what he has been drawing up for them to do. Given time the front office can change and make solid improvements to the roster to give help to the players who we all know can be great. Given time, this team can and should make it back to the playoffs and beyond.

Given time, this team will love me the way I love it. 

The Fans of Women’s Soccer: the Diehard, the Casual and the Social

Posted on by Backline Soccer

I spend a lot of time thinking about women’s soccer. It’s part of the job when you are someone who writes about women’s soccer.

I think about fans and the community around women’s soccer a lot too. It’s a community that is as diverse as it is dedicated. As adaptable as it is aggressive in its willingness to proselytize the good world of women’s soccer.

Women’s soccer and its fans have struggled during modern history due to a delightfully toxic mix of negligence from those charged with growing the game and being ignored by those who have the ability to invest in the teams that make up different leagues around the world or national teams. To be very clear the game has not struggled because the players are poor at playing soccer or because people have an inherent disinterest in women’s sports.

Fans have been pushed off and pushed away because of lack of access or lack of care taken with treating them with any kind of respect. And the ones who have survived that shuttering of fans have been left with the memory of a bitter taste in their mouth.

There are flavors of fan in women’s soccer like there are for just about any sport. We talk often in the extremes when it comes to fans or we talk about the most passionate fans without talking about the others. We hold up and praise the diehards, we often bash the casual fans for not being diehards and we disparage the social media fans as not being good enough.

When we talk about women’s soccer fans as a whole we talk about how they are rabid. Ever hungry for more. More access to games, more access to merchandise, more access to the sport they love, more devoted to the players whose jerseys they wear – if and when they can find them, and if they come in their size – on their backs.  And honestly all women’s soccer fans share a hunger for more. Because over and over we have seen if you give women’s soccer fans even an inch they will pay you for the suggestion and one day there will be a foot. And, if you give them a foot, they will prepay for the full mile for themselves and all of their friends. They will fly across the world for the national teams they love, they will spend hours on public transport getting to games, they will go above and beyond for the sport and the players.

But there are limits. The very first pro women’s soccer game played in the US after the USWNT played in and won the World Cup in France saw just over 1,800 fans show up. And while the two-win Sky Blue FC and the somewhat boring Utah Royals FC are not the marquee showpieces for the league right now, it does sum up the limits of the fan base. A fan base that cares about the quality of organizations, and has a long memory when they have been mistreated or forsaken. But they also have an endless willingness to forgive, to show up, to support teams and players if just the bare minimum is shown in terms of effort.

If you boil the fans of women’s soccer down as far as you can get you can find three general forms left. The diehards are the type that can tell you who scored in the third place game for the USWNT back in 1995 or the play leading up to Tobin Heath’s free kick in the 2013 NWSL Championship game. The casuals usually can tell you the current happenings in the sport, but may stumble on the history or push the sport aside as life gets in the way. The social fan – nope, I refuse to use “stan” here even if you are all thinking it – says Megan Rapinoe is their favorite person in the media right now, have a shirt with her face on it and think her goals in the World Cup were amazing but it’s a love that is as fleeting as a viral video.

The social fans can turn in to casual fans and the casuals to diehards if they are given a chance. If they are given a reason to go from supporting just the national team, which has been around for 30 plus years, to supporting an NWSL team that may or may not be there in five years or three years or even next year. It is easier to invest your time, your social media posts, or money for a jersey or a ticket into a player like Alex Morgan or Megan Rapinoe because the USWNT isn’t going anywhere. The national team might break your heart, but it isn’t being disbanded anytime soon. And fans can shift between all of these stages from time to time. Pushed away by overzealous diehards or pulled in by the ones that understand how to speak their language so to speak. There are other types of fans, shades that bleed from one color to another like the lines between red and orange and yellow bleed together on a canvas.

Right now women’s soccer in the US, and really around the world, is at a crossroads in terms of how they draw people in. Not just the diehard fans and not just the social fans, but how do teams draw in the mass of casual fans and get them to give a damn long term? How do you turn someone who has a general idea of what is going on and make them passionate a year from now, five years from now when there are so many others sports and so much other entertainment in the world?

That is the billion dollar question, right? The men’s side has figured that out by and large around the world. They have multi billion dollar clubs. They have transfer fees that make MLB contracts look like chump change. They have full stadiums and professional accommodations.

The answer to all of this might be as simple as investment spent to raise the tides and to lift all the boats up. It likely is more complex than that as oversight and accountability have to come into play after all the negligence we’ve seen over the years has rotted the core in places.

The biggest asset that women’s soccer has right now is the players who play the sport, but the second is the fans who will be there in one form or another as long as there are balls to kick into nets and defenders trying their hardest to stop that from happening. The fans have shown in one form or another they will show up, show out, retweet, talk about and be there when the Yanks come marching in or the Riveters march to Providence Park. Given half of a half of a chance they always will.

Christen Press and Rose Lavelle Pull Up a Barstool and That’s Not Great

Posted on by Backline Soccer

Women’s soccer is funny sometimes. There are funny things that happen in and around women’s soccer (or women’s sport in general) that are odd when you compare them to men’s sports.

Women are often scrutinized for the things they chose to do on a level that is comical at best and deeply unfair at worst. Megan Rapinoe swears and we must think of the children, but if LeBron James then he’s just being passionate. Alex Morgan sips tea after scoring it is arrogant, but look at any NFL game and you will see nut grabbing and planned celebrations nearly every touchdown or sack. 

Things like Rapinoe and Morgan celebrating publicly and proudly are harmless. Even if we must think of the children, and we so often are told we must in women’s sports, at the end of the day these players have no more a duty to think of the children as Charles Barkley did in 1993. If little Timmy or Susie hears Rapinoe drop an F-Bomb or see’s Morgan sipping some tea, they will be fine. I promise you a life of crime does not lay ahead for anyone seeing what Rapinoe and Morgan have done.

It is a problem though when a women’s soccer player does a gross thing. Because we’re so often called on to defend the silly or the meaningless or to think of the children when they do step over the line we don’t always want to point out the gross thing they have done.  The same people who would, rightly, defend Morgan’s celebration or Rapinoe swearing may not know how to react. The problem is in the case of the gross things, they shouldn’t defend the players even if it feels like the Rapinoe and the Morgan thing all over again. 

And that brings us to Christen Press and Rose Lavelle.

Christen Press promoted Barstools brand during the parade in New York City during her Instagram takeover just days after they won it all sends people to the Barstool social media. People who had either never heard of the company or who wouldn’t have followed them before did. It grew their brand.

Rose Lavelle went on their Pardon My Take podcast to “talk about the World Cup, how soccer works, Cincinnati and scoring mad goals” according to Barstool. People who were searching for Lavelle or the USWNT or anything to do with the World Cup may have found and tuned in. They may go back for more episodes. 

The debate about the differences in impact of taking over an Instagram for an hour and being on an episode of a podcast is not one I am interested in having. If you want to say taking over an Instagram is worse, sure, go for it. If you want to say being on a podcast and interacting directly with people who work for the site is worse, fine by me. In the end both are bad. Because Barstool Sports is terrible. And don’t take my word for how bad Barstool Sports is, check out Stop Enabling Barstool’s Shit and Inside Barstool Sports’ Culture of Online Hate: ‘They Treat Sexual Harassment and Cyberbullying as a Game’ if you want a taste of why they are terrible. 

We put more pressure on the USWNT to get things right more than most other female athletes and most female athletes have pressure on them to get things right more than most male athletes. We expect more from them in terms of being role models and giving the perfect quote, the perfect sound bite, the perfect performance in their public lives. It’s not fair to them. It is 100% not fair at all.But they also shouldn’t get passes when they do gross stuff because some men do it too. 

Press and Lavelle working with Barstool Sports is very bad, horrible, no good. There is no way to spin it in a way that it becomes somehow neutral, let alone positive. I want to be clear that we don’t fully know if it was Christen Press or her team or Rose Lavelle or hers that reached out to Barstool or if Barstool reached out to them. USWNT Press Officer On Christen Press’s Barstool Sports Partnership: “Something Seems Amiss!” shows how unclear it all is. But at the end of the day even if the players knew nothing about the site they were connection themselves with, their names are now linked when someone Googles their name. At the end of the day, team or player, the player’s name is the one that is out there.

Women and women of color have a lot of pressure put on them that isn’t fair. But I do not think it is unreasonable to expect them to not work with and promote sites that actively harm and harass others while wrapping what they do is a goof and just for fun. I get the urge from their fans to defend them the way they often have to defend female athletes just being themselves. But working with companies that don’t gleefully harass women isn’t unfair pressure, it is basic respect. 

I’m disappointed in Press and Lavelle as someone who supports the USWNT and who believes in the calls for equal pay and equality the team has been pushing for years at this point. I don’t expect everyone on the team to be Rapinoe or Ali Krieger when it comes to politics but I do expect more than endorsement of sites like Barstool Sports. 

I really do hope they figure out what they did sucks, honestly tell us they are sorry and they do things that suck less in the future. 

Carli Lloyd Unsure of Future

Posted on by Backline Soccer

Amidst the celebration of yet another World Cup victory, US Women’s National team star Carli Lloyd may have given some insight into a potential retirement. She still feels like she is at the top of her game, but sounded displeased by the view of her as being more of a substitute. 

“It’s been a really tough couple of years,” said Lloyd. “It’s not based on my ability and for whatever reasons, coaches made the decision. I tried to put up a good case (to play).”

Lloyd did play a role in the 2019 World Cup victory but it was as a super-substitute off the bench. In all, the former FIFA Women’s Player of the Year only started in one game, a group stage meeting against Chile. She scored twice in that game but was unable to crack the starting line-up for the remainder of the tournament.

Overall, the Women’s National team was stacked with talent unlike ever before. Lloyd’s contributions are certainly not undervalued, but head coach Jill Ellis may not see her as a long term part of the team and played her in that way over the course of this tournament.

Lloyd turns 37 next week but hasn’t shown a significant dip in production. Her efforts with Sky Blue can be attributed to the team’s on and off-field issues but she has produced on the international stage. She has scored three goals despite not being a starter thus far in 2019 and does have hopes of playing in the Olympics next year.

 “I’m going to go home, I’m going to kind of let the emotions die down a little bit, speak to my husband and we’ll go from there.”

While her future may be in doubt, she did express her happiness about the team’s performance in France. She has been a part of two World Cup teams and been a major face for women’s soccer.

“The goal was winning,” said Lloyd. “I’m really proud of this team and proud to be on this roster of 23 players to win another World Cup.”

The Game Changers: Week 12

Posted on by Backline Soccer

The Game Changers is a weekly series looking at the most important results each week. Each section will look at one team and how its win, loss, or draw impacts the season.

Before the U.S. Women’s National Team won their fourth World Cup title on Sunday morning, there was NWSL action on Friday and Saturday nights. As players continue to return from their World Cup teams, the Starting XI’s across the league were beginning to look a little more familiar. And this week’s action was full of goals. Marta scored two goals for the Orlando Pride in their 4-3 victory over the Washington Spirit. Sky Blue managed to find two goals, earning a surprising 2-1 victory over the Chicago Red Stars. But it was Kristen Hamilton who took the prize this week with four goals in North Carolina’s 5-2 win over the Houston Dash. Here is a complete list of results for this week:

North Carolina Courage vs. Houston Dash (5-2)

Portland Thorns vs. Reign FC (0-1)

Chicago Red Stars vs. Sky Blue (1-2)

Orlando Pride vs. Washington Spirit (4-3)

North Carolina Courage look dominant again.

The North Carolina Courage are still missing many of their World Cup stars, including Sam Mewis, Abby Dahlkemper, and Jess McDonald. But that didn’t stop them from putting back five goals on Friday night against the Houston Dash. Without a doubt, Hamilton dominated the night. She scored her first goal in the 5th minute, then tacked on another one in the 18th. Kristie Mewis cut the home team’s lead with a goal of her own in the 24th minutes, but Lynn Willliams came back less than ten minutes later with another goal for North Carolina. Kyah Simon knocked one more back for the Houston Dash in the 43rd minute, so the two team’s went to the half with a scoreline of 3-2. But if the Dash thought Simon’s goal was the beginning of their comeback, they were mistaken. Hamilton scored two more goals in the second half in one of the most impressive individual performances of the season. North Carolina won 5-2. 

The Courage were starting to look a little more vulnerable in May and June, with a couple of draws and even some losses. But in this match they returned to their dominating form for their second win in five matches. Is this the Courage returning to the form we expect from them or just an excellent performance from an individual player? We’ll have to wait and see.

Sky Blue beat the Chicago Red Stars 

Sky Blue earned their first win of the season on Saturday, defeating the Chicago Red Stars 2-1. While the Red Stars created more chances and had more possession, Sky Blue was able to better capitalize on their chances. Raquel Rodriguez scored first for Sky Blue in the 23rd minute, and tacked another goal on in the 81st minute from Jennifer Hoy. Goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, back from her World Cup stint with Canada, made seven saves for Sky Blue, only allowing one late goal from Danielle Colaprico. Sky Blue earned the victory.

Former head coach Denise Reddy was not the only problem at Sky Blue. But the fact that the players won their first game without her doesn’t quite seem like a coincidence either. Sky Blue has a talented roster that should be performing better than they are. Will the on-the-field problems finally change with Reddy out?

Orlando Pride win in high-scoring match

The Orlando Pride also earned a win in their Saturday match; their second win of the season and their first at home. The goals started early, with Bayley Feist giving the Washington Spirit a 1-0 lead in the 7th minute. The Orlando Pride haven’t had much of a comeback mentality this season, but they equalized in the 21st minute with a goal from Chioma Ubogagu. Just five minutes later, Rachel Hill got her first goal of the season and the Pride were up 2-1. But less than four minutes after that, Chenya Matthews scored for the Spirit and the two teams went to the half with an even 2-2 scoreline. 

Marta clearly wasn’t happy with that, and for the first time this season, we saw the Brazilian attacker step up when her team needed her. Marta scored her first goal in the 48th minute, putting the Pride up 3-2. Then she added on another one in the 78th minute. The Spirit were able to score a stoppage time goal, but it wasn’t enough, and the Pride won. 

Ironically, Marc Skinner wasn’t on the field for this game. Instead, he watched the game from a suite at the stadium and relayed feedback to them at the half. What does it mean when the Pride’s highest scoring win of the season was also played without their head coach? And will the team get better when Alex Morgan, Ali Krieger, and Ashlyn Harris return to the squad? Lots of questions still surround the Pride, but a four-goal game and a win is at least a sign of life.  

Women’s World Cup Awards: My Ballot

Posted on by Backline Soccer

The United States have taken home the trophy, making them the second nation to win back-to-back titles, and giving them four total out of eight tournaments. For obvious reasons, the US end up reasonably well represented on my end-of-tournament awards. Though they don’t have quite as many names as you might expect. That’s a function of a team that played well across the board, but also suffered some poor games in virtually every position. 

It’s a testament to the quality of the team that some mediocre individual performances were always backed up by teammates sufficiently that it never quite bit them. 

And that’s actually a general feature of the tournament as a whole. Plenty of players had incredibly good games. Very few had rock solid tournaments from top to bottom. 

That’s potentially a demonstration of the parity in the sport these days, which is good. But it did make it difficult to pick individual players. Nonetheless, here is my Best XI

Ellen White (ENG), Alex Morgan (USA)

Rose Lavelle (USA), Kosovare Asllani (SWE), Amandine Henry (FRA), Jill Scott (ENG)

Kelley O’Hara (USA), Nilla Fischer (SWE), Abby Dahlkemper (USA), Lucy Bronze (ENG)

Sari van Veenendaal (NED)

Forwards: White, Morgan

The easiest name on the whole list was Ellen White. In a tournament where few strikers were truly excellent, she was the one exception. She consistently scored, and consistently put herself in position to make trouble for the defense. It was hardly a surprise–we already knew she was great–but it was still a revelation to put it all together on this stage.

I’ve paired her with Alex Morgan. But not because Morgan also tied for the joint lead in goals. Five of her six came against Thailand in that crazy game, and should be heavily discounted. But Morgan was an immense physical presence, holding the line for the US game after game, making runs, putting defenses under pressure. That sort of work produced several of the key penalties, without which the US would not have progressed. I was a bit of a late convert on this point, but enough smart people kept telling me where to pay attention to what Morgan was doing that I came around. In a different tournament–where Australia progressed and gave Sam Kerr more chances, where Barbara Bonansea maintained her form, where Caroline Graham Hansen had one more great game–she wouldn’t have done enough. But given a limited field, she provided enough critical interventions to deserve the nod.

Midfielders: Lavelle, Asllani, Henry, Scott

Rose Lavelle had a truly awful game against France. But she was just that good in her other matches that it overwhelmed that game. She was creative with the ball, unstoppable on the dribble, active in defense, and generally dominated the midfield. It was a true coming out party for a player that we’ve spent so long calling ‘the future of the team’ that it feels almost predetermined.

Asllani started strong and only got better as the tournament progressed. She was absolutely immense in the knockout rounds, orchestrating a Swedish symphony from the number 10 position. Even in her worst game of the tournament against Canada, she unleashed an all-time great pass to produce the game’s only goal and take her team through. Asllani has long been a great player. For the last month, she has been transcendent.

Henry exited the tournament in the quarterfinals, but not through any fault of her own. While she wasn’t the dominant midfield force against the US that France might have hoped, she was one of the few players on that team that didn’t shrink from the occasion. She also scored the winner in the octofinals, and was one of the only reasons France held together as well as they did.

Scott had a relatively quiet tournament, in precisely the way that the very best midfielders will hope for. She was rock solid and absolutely consistent, controlling the midfield, regulating play, stepping forward in the attack when needed but also holding the line. Many other England players got more attention during the tournament, but possibly none were so essential to their ability to control the game.

Defenders: O’Hara, Fischer, Dahlkemper, Bronze

I’ve cheated a bit here by picking two right backs, but it just feels ridiculous to pick a left back, when so few had even decent tournaments. Crystal Dunn struggled mightily for several games, though she certainly grew into things in the later knockout games, but probably ended up the best of the pack. But Kelley O’Hara can obviously play left back, and had a far more successful tournament than her counterpart on the left. So I’m going with her. She didn’t contribute a huge amount to the attack, but was useful in small doses and provided some absolutely essential defensive cover.

On the other side, the obvious choice is Lucy Bronze. We already knew how good she was, but if anyone wasn’t previously aware, they surely are now. She was absolutely dominant in several games, including probably having the single most impressive game of any player in the whole tournament when she single-handedly dismantled Norway in the quarterfinals.

In the middle, I’ve gone with Nilla Fischer and Abby Dahlkemper. Both provided calm, precisely measured defending game after game. Fischer is a longtime veteran who showed her intelligence and experience, playing a huge role in driving Sweden toward the 3rd place trophy. As for Dahlkemper, this was a truly massive tournament. For several years she’s been the apparent partner for Becky Sauerbrunn, but more by default than any ringing endorsement. And yet once they actually arrived in France, it was Dahlkemper that was the steadier player. Finally, the rest of the world got to see the player that has been so good for North Carolina in the NWSL.

Goalkeeper: Van Veenendaal

On a per-game basis, I don’t see how you could beat Christiane Endler or Vanina Correa, who single-handedly kept their teams in the tournament. But over the course of seven games, Van Veenendaal was able to generate enough bulk to take the award. She pulled off several absolutely critical saves, without which her team very likely would have gone home far earlier, and also served as a calming presence for a backline comprised of quite a few converted defenders.

Golden Ball:

  1. Kosovare Asllani
  2. Lucy Bronze
  3. Rose Lavelle

The World Cup is Over. Come Watch the NWSL!

Posted on by Backline Soccer

The World Cup is a wonderful event. Once every four years, the whole world collectively watches the best players in the world compete. We watch their triumphs and their failures. And we share it with millions of others all watching together. There is nothing that can replicate that kind of communal experience.

But there’s actually something even better out there: club soccer.

It hasn’t always been true. For most of the history of women’s soccer, ‘clubs’ barely existed at all. They were amateur organizations at best, literally nonexistent at worst. That all changed in the United States in the early 2000s with the arrival of the Women’s United Soccer Association. For three shining years, the biggest stars in the world all played in America. But then the league folded. Things started up again in 2007 with Women’s Professional Soccer. Which also lasted for three years before folding.

So expectations were suitably low when the National Women’s Soccer League started up in 2013. But it has now outlasted the other two leagues combined, and is going strong.

The World Cup comes every four years, but the NWSL is here every week, and the quality is every bit as high as what you’ve been watching at the World Cup. It features all the very best American players, along with many other top players from across the world. Its teams draw big numbers—with Portland the shining jewel bringing in over 16,000 fans per game. The league just signed a sponsorship deal with Budweiser, and reportedly has more deals coming. That influx of cash will help them stabilize and develop. They also just signed a TV deal with ESPN, which will make the league more accessible to casual fans. And those fans will be primed to go, thanks to all the excitement over the World Cup.

And they’re going to get a great show. In terms of talent on the pitch, this is maybe the best league in the world. But for too long, these world class players have been surrounded by a league run on a shoestring budget—under-capitalized, under-marketed, under-supported. But that’s ready to change and you can be a part of it.

Here are five reasons why you should be pumped to watch the NWSL.

The players are world class

Every single player competing for the US in the World Cup plays in the NWSL. If you’ve been enjoying Megan Rapinoe, Rose Lavelle, and Tobin Heath…they all play every week. Not to mention some incredible players who have barely seen minutes, like Jess McDonald, Mallory Pugh, and Morgan Brian.

But this is a truly international league. The NWSL also features Sam Kerr, maybe the best player in the world. And Marta, maybe the best player of all time. Christine Sinclair, who is also in that conversation for GOAT. Debinha, the rising star for Brazil. Abby Erceg from New Zealand. Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, and Ellie Carpenter from Australia. Yuki Nagasato from Japan. Rachel Daly and Jodie Taylor from England. Raquel Rodríguez from Costa Rica. And these are only a few of the names.

From top to bottom, this is the deepest, highest-quality league in the world. Turn on any random game, and you’re likely to see a genuine superstar, and plenty more players close to that level.

The talent pool is deep

Skim off all fifty-odd players that went to the World Cup, and you’ve still got an incredibly deep pool of talent. That’s a feature of a US developmental structure that generates tens of thousands of high-level players per year, hundreds of whom reach the end of their college careers with the plausible talent to play professionally. It produces a league full of players who have contributed years of high-level performances completely outside of the national team.

If you like Rose Lavelle, you’ll also love Vanessa DiBernardo, who plays for Chicago. Been enjoying Alex Morgan? Check out Lynn Williams on North Carolina. Or Kristen Hamilton, who just scored four goals last night. Or you might just remember Amy Rodriguez, who has been banging them in for Utah. Love Julie Ertz? Take a look at McCall Zerboni. Big fan of Sam Mewis? Andi Sullivan is right there with her. There’s Midge Purce, who’s been on a scoring tear. And Simone Charley who had to fight like mad to make it onto the field, and then delivered the goods when she got there. Like defenders? Take a look at Megan Oyster for Seattle or Amber Brooks for Houston.

Every one of these players has her own story, each of which is worth digging into. Think about how fun it has been to learn the backstories of the US national team players. Then multiply that by ten. 

The league is balanced

In many leagues around the world, the talent is highly concentrated, leaving just a couple teams at the top competing with one another and running roughshod over everyone else. The NWSL isn’t like that. There certainly are better and worse teams—but just look at the table right now. Five teams are within four points at the top, with two more in touching distance.

And it’s not only about the teams at the top. Just last night, the two bottom teams in the league—Orlando Pride and Sky Blue FC—each managed wins over teams far above them in the table.

That’s the way this league goes. Every single game is a battle. There are no pushovers, no easy points. It’s part of why so many prominent international players choose to come here—because they know they’ll be tested in a way that just doesn’t exist anywhere else. 

From a fan’s perspective, it’s also great. It means every game is tense. There might be a favorite and an underdog, but until the game is actually played you can never know if it will hold to form. It’s thrilling stuff, which is setting up to be one for the ages.

The fans are the best

There is something joyful and communal about following this league, even more than following international soccer–where allegiances always carry that weird tinge of nationalism. In the NWSL, there are obviously still fans of given teams, and certainly rivalries–as you would hope for in any good league. But there is a sense of togetherness as well. People are all rooting for each other, because we all know how fragile these things can be.

It can sometimes be daunting to jump into a new hobby or interest. Where do you begin? How do you get up to speed? Will the people who have already been there a long time be welcoming?

The NWSL community does a whole lot to ease those worries. Show up to a game, reach out on twitter, and you’ll get dozens, hundreds of folks who will be thrilled to welcome you in. Who will be happy to share inside jokes and explain references. Who will love nothing more than to share the history of their team, talk about favorite players, or anything else you’d care to discuss.

The NWSL is diverse, in all the best ways

The sports landscape is not especially welcoming to those who fall outside the traditional trope of the sports fan. It can feel alienating for those who aren’t in love with white, hetero, masculine tropes that dominate the sporting world.

The NWSL is a good home for anyone who feels that way. Which certainly doesn’t mean that it’s not a sports league. Despite the best efforts of many involved in marketing the league, this is not simply a home for young girls and their parents. It’s still a fun and raucous place. It’s just that the fun comes from a much wider range of sources.

Look at the crowd at an NWSL game and you’ll see queer people, trans people, men, women, children, people of all colors. And you’ll see supporters groups that work very hard to blend all these elements together to produce an inclusive, exciting environment which is genuinely fun for everyone.

There are very few places like this in our culture. Far too many of our social spaces are controlled by those who are loaded up with cultural advantage. Even if they try to be open and inclusive, the whole structure is still defined by white, male, cishet standards. But come to an NWSL game and you’ll experience what it’s like when those standards aren’t just taken for granted. It’s wonderful.

If you’ve been enjoying the authenticity of players like Megan Rapinoe, who express themselves in thoughtful and considered ways about complicated and important subjects, it’s worth seriously thinking about what kinds of structures make it possible for that sort of engagement. To think about what a difference it makes when many prominent players are queer. When many members of the media are people of color, women, gay, trans, etc. When many of the fans are as well. It all creates a support structure in which people can think about new ways to perform, discuss, and appreciate sports.

The culture of the NWSL–along with leagues like the WNBA and NWHL–is bringing something new and important to the sports landscape of this country. It’s a place where competition doesn’t have to mean abuse. Where tension and passion can flourish without having to be accompanied by exclusion. Where compassion adds to the thrill of victory and tempers the pain of loss.

How to watch

If you live anywhere near one of the markets, go and see a match live. Soccer is so much better in person. But if you’re not near a stadium, the league just announced a TV deal with ESPN, which will air 14 matches on ESPNEWS and ESPN2 over the rest of the season. If you don’t have those in your cable package, you might be able to get them through a streaming service like Sling or YoutubeTV, or you can simply pay for the ESPN+ service.

With matches on TV, you can also stop by your favorite local watering hole and ask them to put the game on. There’s no better way to find other fans and make new friends.

If none of those sound appealing, every other game streams for free at Yahoo Sports or on the Yahoo Sports App. If you live outside the US (or know how to convince your computer that you’re outside the US) you can also stream the games directly from nwslsoccer.com.

The national team players are expected to take a week or two after the conclusion of the World Cup to rejoin their teams. So if you’re excited for their return, you can target the games at the end of July. But every team in the league has plenty of exciting players, even without their US national teamers, so don’t worry too much about it. 

Reign FC and the North Carolina Courage – 1st and 2nd in the league at the moment – meet on Saturday, July 14. It’s going to be a great game, and you should check it out.

USA v. Netherlands: Four Questions for the Final

Posted on by Backline Soccer

The big one is finally here. The United States enter this match on an 11-game winning streak in the competition, which goes all the way back to the group stage in 2015. One more win here and they will win their fourth World Cup.

According to the bookies, that is overwhelmingly likely, with the US favored at around 80% to take home the title. I’m inclined to agree. But 80% isn’t 100%, so let’s talk through a couple of the key variables worth considering while we wait.

Will Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle start?

Rapinoe was held back from the semifinal with a hamstring strain, while Lavelle had to be removed after an hour with the same injury. Both have been training in the run-up to the final, and are at least theoretically available. But will they be 100%? And if they’re anything less than that, will they start anyway?

In the case of Rapinoe, the US has a more-than-able backup in Christen Press. In fact, as I argued after the England match, Press is almost certainly a better option right now, even setting aside injury concerns. It would be hard to sit Rapinoe—who has been the biggest story of the tournament. But the reality is that, goals notwithstanding, she hasn’t actually played that well. And Press is in the best form of her life.

With Lavelle, there isn’t an obvious replacement, with no other players on the US roster really capable of creating the same way that she can (Crystal Dunn is the exception here, but that ship has long since sailed). However, it’s not clear that the US needs a player in Lavelle’s mold in this game. The more muscular and mobile trio of Ertz, Horan, and Mewis might be best-suited for throttling the Dutch midfield, and ensuring the US keeps a tight hold on the game.

In both cases, the US has a range of options. Even with no injury concerns, you could make a decent case for resting them both. And with the injuries, the argument gets stronger. But, in general, Jill Ellis has a preference for sticking with her best XI, so I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if both Rapinoe and Lavelle start.

Will the US play sloppy, and can the Dutch make them pay?

The US have won every game so far, but have also been pretty sloppy in the process. A mistake from Alyssa Naeher almost gifted Chile a goal. Some extremely questionable defending against Sweden could easily have conceded a goal. Spain, France, and England all had excellent chances to find an equalizer or winner in their knockout matches.

In every case, the US has had enough to hold off the opposition. But these have not been blowouts. They’ve generally been lucky that their defensive breakdowns have been relatively contained. A big part of that has been the oft-maligned Abby Dahlkemper, who is quietly having her best run of games in a national team kit. But the US have been playing with fire. And, at least in theory, this Dutch team has the potential to ruthlessly exploit the kind of gaps that the US has been allowing.

Will the 2017 Netherlands ever show up?   

In 2017, the Dutch were a revelation. They raced to a European title, obliterating every opponent that came their way. They were particularly devastating against teams that expected to control the game. Given space to work, the wide attackers were relentless. Opponents simply couldn’t cope with the quickness of play and repeatedly found themselves overwhelmed.

Over the next two years, though, the Dutch showed relatively little of that prowess. They struggled to qualify, having to go through the playoffs. And even here, with six wins out of six, they have never really turned up. They’ve made the final, which is a huge accomplishment, but compare the route the US have taken (Spain, France, England) to the Netherlands path (Japan, Italy, Sweden). The gap is enormous. And then remember that the Dutch were thoroughly outplayed by Japan and only managed to scrape through on a 2019 Handball Special.

Most of the problem has come from the frontline: Lieke Martens has been bad, and Shanice van de Sanden has been worse. Vivianne Miedema has done just enough to keep them going, but has only really had one excellent game (against Cameroon). The substitutes have played well in limited minutes, but shown little when given more of a chance to make their mark.

The midfield haven’t controlled games to the extent they would like, but have done enough to keep them in every match. The problem there is that Spitse, Van de Donk, and Groenen have played 1651 of a possible 1710 minutes over their first six games. They’ll need to get 100% performances from all three in this match, and it’s hard to see that happening under the hot midday sun, on no rest, at the end of a long tournament.

So on the evidence of the last month, this game should be a fairly easy win for the US. But we know what the Dutch are theoretically capable of producing. If they can put it all back together, this could be a lot tougher for the US than expected. I wouldn’t bet on it, but you certainly can’t rule it out entirely.

How do you mime eating a stroopwafel?

I certainly don’t know, but we’ll probably get to find out!