Grab yourself a small paper cup of Lucozade, a granola bar and make sure you've got some inspiring music in your headphones. The NWSL marathon is halfway done. It's a brief moment to take stock and look backwards. But soon the race will resume.
It's been a chaotic and highly competitive first 11 matchweeks of the 2023 season. The standings at midseason couldn't be any closer. Just one point separates the top team, San Diego Wave FC, and the fourth team, OL Reign. And there's just four points between top and seventh place, the Houston Dash. With only the top six teams heading off to the postseason, there's absolutely no time for slacking as the second half of the season gets underway this coming weekend.
Instead of diving into the Power Rankings as normal this week, we're doing something different. It's mid-semester report card time. The red marker pen is out in force and we're grading each NWSL team for how they have performed over up to Matchweek 11. Pre-season expectations, style of play, consistency, mentality, roster depth, attack, defense and general vibes will all be taken into account. So, let's get to it!
San Diego Wave FC: A
The reigning NWSL coach of the year Casey Stoney has picked up exactly where she left off. After a third-place finish in their inaugural season, the expectations were high but Wave FC is delivering.
In 2022, San Diego did things that expansion sides have never been able to do in this league and have followed up that historic year with aplomb. The key has been a steely backline and goalkeeper, that ranks second in the league for goals conceded (11), and has the joint most shutouts (five).
Concerns may still remain about the team’s over-reliance on goals from Alex Morgan, who leads the club with five. But the continued growth of teenage superstar Jaedyn Shaw, who has three goals and one assist so far in her second season with the Wave, shows there is plenty of quality beyond the U.S. women’s national team legend.
Washington Spirit: A+
Head coach Mark Parsons had a year off from the NWSL. After five seasons with the Portland Thorns, he took charge of the Netherlands women’s national team for a campaign of mixed results between October 2021 and August 2022.
On returning to the U.S. league, he hasn’t lost his touch for what it takes to win in the NWSL. He won the shield in his final season with the Thorns in 2021. And at the halfway point in 2023, the Spirit has the fewest defeats (one) of any club. They have been a mainstay near the top of our Power Rankings summit and are arguably the most consistent team. With fresh investment up and down the club behind the scenes, Washington is top of the class in many ways.
Portland Thorns: B-
No team is capable of keeping up with Portland when it comes to scoring goals. The Thorns have scored 27 goals in 11 matches; the next-best team, the OL Reign, only has 19.
But, defensively, it’s been shambolic at times for Portland. While 14 goals in 11 matches doesn’t sound dreadful, 12 of those have come in just the past seven matches. Becky Sauerbrunn's fitness issues have meant Mike Norris’ has had to tinker with his backline. In addition to those personnel choices, Kelli Hubly, who was imperious in 2022, has seen her form fade.
The 2022 NWSL Champions have the pedigree and the top-tier talent to beat anyone in this league and go on a playoff run. But how long can Norris keep putting his team out there to play aggressive attacking soccer while his defense is struggling to reach their standard?
OL Reign: B
If you were to isolate the best 90-minute performance of any NWSL team this season it could well be one of the Reign’s showings. The 4-1 banger-a-thon against Angel City comes to mind, the icy and patient 2-0 away win to Gotham FC is also up there, and there’s the unforgettable 5-2 passing session with the Chicago Red Stars.
However, it’s been high highs and low lows for Laura Harvey’s team. Inconsistency has been an unfortunate theme in 2023. Still, to be one point off the top of the table shows that even a talented, well-organized but erratic team can go and win the shield.
What the Reign do better than anyone else is adapt their system to who they are playing and still manage to keep their attacking style fluid. It’s just about whether they can bring the same intensity and execution each week.
NJ/NY Gotham FC: A
After such a disappointing 2022, Gotham’s fans are likely to be the happiest at the halfway point. The resurrection at Red Bull Arena has been striking. Record crowds, high-pressing and counter-pressing soccer, speed, joy, and a comeback story for the ages in forward Sinead Farrelly (who returned to the NWSL after years away from the professional game). Yes, the good vibes are off the charts in New Jersey.
Without wanting to rain on the parade, some metrics forecast Gotham regressing to the mean in the back half of the season. Juan Carlos Amoros’ team has the fewest big chances of any club (seven) and will be without their World Cup-bound top goalscorer Lynn Williams, who has been on fire so far with five goals. The team will need to get more creative and remain just as efficient.
North Carolina Courage: A-
The Courage has a good case for being the biggest surprise package of the NWSL season so far. It’s not just that they are picking up results, despite a significant roster rebuild. It’s that they are also playing the most expansive passing soccer too.
Sean Nahas’ team leads almost every passing metric in the NWSL at midseason: Average possession (59%), passes/completed passes per match (543/430), and passes into final third per match (32). The notable absentees are progressive passes, key passes, and passes into the penalty box, which are all led by the Thorns.
Like many other teams in this league, the Courage could struggle when MVP front-runner Kerolin heads off to the World Cup with Brazil. There’s a cohort of young players on this team who will be thrust into contributing this summer. Can they hit a level even close to the Brazilian?
Houston Dash: B
In 2023, Houston was billed as having one of the most electrifying frontlines in the NWSL. In head coach Sam Laity’s own words, it would be “devastating.”
The concept of a fast-paced, unrelenting, and high goalscoring Dash hasn’t quite emerged. But overall, this has been a team that has improved as the season has gone on.
It’s going under the radar that Houston currently has the joint-best defensive record in the NWSL. Katie Lind and Sophie Hirst have quietly had brilliant seasons at center back and holding midfielder respectively. Both were not starters for the first few weeks of the season, and the club’s fortunes changed almost immediately when they came into the starting XI.
Laity hasn’t quite figured out how to get both star center forwards Diana Ordonez and Ebony Salmon on the pitch at the same time, but is that essential to win matches? With Michelle Alozie bursting onto the scene as a right winger, the Houston head coach has found a system that works.
Orlando Pride: B+
While the crowded top of the NWSL will get most of the attention, the sudden breakout of Pride as a competitive outfit in this league is a huge storyline. With a new head coach and general manager, Orlando was viewed as a project this past offseason — full of potential, but also needing time to develop.
The Florida troupe looks ahead of schedule midway through 2023. With a desolate start to the season behind them, four defeats in their first four matches, the Pride have bounced back to win four of their last seven matches.
Rookie Messiah Bright has also looked every bit as pro-ready as many people figured she would be prior to the NWSL draft. Her canny pick-up by head coach Seb Haines in the second round has aged very well for Orlando. The Texan’s three goals so far this season are tied with Alyssa Thompson for most goals by a rookie.
Racing Louisville: C+
It’s another season where Louisville made some eye-catching acquisitions, has appeared improved, and yet cannot make any really significant headway up the standings. There’s a feeling of deja vu. The club is standing still as others around them race past.
At the midway point of the 2021 season, Racing had three wins and 11 points. At the same point in 2022, they had two wins and 10 points. This year, two wins and 12 points.
A couple of positives have been the addition of Emily Fox as a new starting left back, and the return of attacker Thembi Kgatlana, from a long-term injury that curtailed her 2022 season. The issue is that both are expected to visit Australia and New Zealand for this summer’s World Cup. Could standing still turn into a slide even further down the standings?
Chicago Red Stars: D
There are big-picture issues in Chicago, so it’s hard to be too harsh on this group of players and staff. The club is still up for sale and currently operating without a general manager. That probably puts a pin in any serious investment during 2023 to turn the ship around. In short: Bad vibes in the Windy City.
The Red Stars’ best results this season have come when it scores early and then drops into a low block to defend for its life in the second half. It’s unsustainable, but it can work from time to time. You just sometimes need a lucky pinecone. However, it doesn’t provoke much confidence in Chicago’s ability to break down the opposition or control a match.
Ultimately, losing Mal Swanson for the season with an injury erased the prospect of the Red Stars once again upsetting the apple cart. She is irreplaceable.
Angel City FC: C-
Perhaps the most infuriating team in the NWSL after 11 matches resides in Los Angeles. Only goal differential is keeping Angel City off the bottom of the table, and it shouldn't be this way.
Angel City has shown flashes this season that they can be a competitive and talented team. The soccer has been attractive, and the squad is packed full of stars. But there appears to be a mentality issue. When the going gets tough, ACFC has a penchant to cave in. We’re yet to see this team stand up to adversity or put two complete halves together without mental errors.
Last week, after LA’s most recent defeat to Washington Spirit, defender M.A. Vignola said there had been some “negativity” around the camp as it embarked on a disappointing run of one win in 12 matches. Head coach Freya Coombe felt like her team had once again been “rattled” when the opposition scored against the run of play.
Something’s got to change. But is it a different method of preparation and mental compartmentalizing — or perhaps a new person in the head coaching position? The pressure is on Coombe and general manager Angela Hucles to save the season.
Kansas City Current: D-
Despite facing the media to talk about the reasons behind firing head coach Matt Potter after just three matches of the 2023 season, it still feels like a mystery as to why general manager Camille Ashton decided to act so swiftly.
“The lack of collaboration and partnership that we would otherwise expect with our head coach with management and ownership,” is how Ashton chose to explain the grounds for Potter’s dismissal back in May.
Potter had worked wonders in 2022, taking Kansas City from last place in the standings to the NWSL Championship game. This year, the club had been incredibly unlucky with injuries. Many of Ashton’s high-profile offseason signings were unavailable at the start of the year and it felt like Potter wasn’t given a truly fair attempt to turn it around with a full squad.
Since Caroline Sjöblom took over as interim, there was a slight bounce in fortunes before normal play resumed. This is a disorganized team that doesn’t know its best XI or preferred style of play. It has a slew of new and young players still acclimating and is struggling to find a consistent goal threat.