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Seriously, it might be time to start playing bubble soccer. Emily Olsen here with Asli Pelit Basker, Tamerra Griffin and Meg Linehan — welcome to Full Time!
We Were Wrong
New No. 1 team in NWSL
Welp, last week’s newsletter didn’t age well.
The Orlando Pride is no longer perfect, and Angel City has hit a serious bump in the road despite announcing a new head coach. Oh, and Trinity Rodman’s back is back in the news. Let’s start with the unusual fall of the Pride, which also means there’s a new No. 1 in the league.
The closer we got to the weekend, the more it seemed like Orlando would walk into its fifth win of the season against an injury-riddled Washington Spirit:
- Eleven Spirit players were ruled out for the match, including Rodman (more on that later), Casey Krueger for the second consecutive game and Croix Bethune, who is back in training but faced a setback while recovering from a meniscus injury. Four of the injuries have carried over from last year.
- Another key player, midfielder Leicy Santos, was listed as questionable due to an ankle injury. She was a second-half substitute but needed medical attention for her lower leg during the game.
- With an already depleted roster, Washington watched its leading scorer, Ashley Hatch, exit the field after an hour to be evaluated for a potential concussion.
Earlier in the week, head coach Jonatan Giráldez said the team was looking into the injury issues, but also noted it was time for other players to step up.
That is exactly what the team’s newest signing, Gift Monday, did in the 63rd minute.
The win puts Washington level on points (12) with Orlando as their budding rivalry gains more steam. Both teams now sit three points behind the Kansas City Current. Unfortunately for the Spirit, the injuries don’t seem like they’re relenting any time soon.
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On Saturday, Washington confirmed Rodman is stepping away from team activities indefinitely to address her continuing back issues. The 22-year-old is reportedly headed to London to meet with a doctor, but also attended the BMW Open in Munich, Germany, over the weekend where her boyfriend, Ben Shelton, fell to No. 1-seeded Alexander Zverev in the tennis final.
Angel City’s missing Ferrari
On Thursday, Angel City hired Bayern Munich’s Alexander Straus as its head coach. The Norwegian will join the team on June 1 after a surprising early exit from his German club, which he’ll leave just 11 months into a two-year extension. He led Bayern to back-to-back Frauen-Bundesliga titles in 2023 and 2024. But the 49-year-old’s announcement comes at a turbulent time for his new club.
While things weren’t completely blown off course with Friday’s 4-0 loss to Gotham FC, Angel City looked lost without Alyssa Thompson leading the way. The 20-year-old missed the game with an upper leg injury, but interim head coach Sam Laity said she will be fine. More specifically, he said:
🏎️ “She’s a Ferrari, right? We’ve got to keep Ferraris in the squad.”
This seems like a good time to remind you we also have a free F1 newsletter that you should definitely check out, called Prime Tire.
Honorable mentions: Rivalries and bangers
Asli watched NWSL all weekend long, and the Cascadia rivalry was her top match. Here’s why:
The Cascadia rivalry match isn’t just a game for Seattle Reign and Portland Thorns; it’s a feud stretched over 174 rainy miles of I-5. Think UNC vs. Duke, but with pine trees, a light drizzle, coffee and soccer. The Reign and Thorns have been clashing since the league’s first whistle, and even with legends like Megan Rapinoe and Christine Sinclair fading into the rearview mirror, the rivalry is evergreen and was on display Friday night.
Four minutes into the match, rookie Maddie Dahlien scored her first career goal, leading the Reign to its 16th Cascadia win — and its first victory over the Thorns since 2022.
For me, the moment of the weekend was a tie between Kiki “I-only-score-bangers” Pickett and the silver platter service from Midge Purce to Geyse for the forward’s first NWSL goal. The latter gave us a second consecutive weekend with a Brazilian backflip.
QUE GOLAÇOOO, GEYSE 🔥
What a way to score your first NWSL goal! pic.twitter.com/XlQnj13JVq
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) April 19, 2025
Meg’s Corner: NWSL’s pipeline problem for women coaches
The final coaching domino remaining from this offseason has finally fallen, as the ink drys on Straus’ contract to take charge of Angel City. While poaching him from Europe feels like a decent coup for sporting director Mark Parsons, it also highlights the continued lack of female coaches across the NWSL.
Angel City was quick to mention how the hiring process was gender balanced, with its shortlist equally split between men and women. Right now, the NWSL is facing the same issue it had a decade ago: the coaching pipeline isn’t producing at the rate it needs to.
The league hasn’t been ignoring this problem, either. They’ve put players through coaching license programs, codified into the new CBA at a $25,000 stipend every calendar year. There are promising candidates across the teams now serving as assistant coaches and goalkeeping coaches, such as Angela Salem (Bay FC) and Yolanda Thomas (Orlando Pride), but would they be given as long a runway as a man if hired? Becki Tweed and Freya Coombe are back as assistant coaches after stints in charge.
The other big question I’m looking at right now is how expansion will play a role. As Denver and Boston enter the league in 2026, that’s another two full technical staffs to build out. Will they find qualified candidates here in the U.S., or will they have to poach from abroad? Right now, it’s looking like the latter.
In the News
Busy watching more soccer
Do you wish you had more North American soccer to watch? Well, you’re in luck, because we’ve got two new leagues starting up.
On Tuesday, the Cleveland Soccer Group announced it was joining a new second-division soccer league, WPSL Pro, as a founding member. The league, set to start in April 2026, looks to fill the talent-to-opportunity gap that WPSL president Sean Jones believes still exists.
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The next day, Canada’s Northern Super League kicked off with Vancouver Rise defeating Calgary Wild 1-0 to officially launch the country’s inaugural women’s professional soccer league. Former NWSL midfielder and league founder Diana Matheson hopes that the domestic league will help grow the Canadian national team.
Is the salary cap hurting NWSL?
U.S. women’s national team captain Lindsey Heaps thinks so.
The Lyon midfielder spoke ahead of her European club’s semifinal win over Arsenal, saying the NWSL’s salary cap was an “ongoing issue” that factors into NWSL players going overseas.
A small wave of Americans left the NWSL recently to test the waters in Europe. U.S. defender Naomi Girma headlined the group, becoming the first million-dollar transfer in women’s soccer. U.S. teammates Jenna Nighswonger and Emily Fox both left NWSL to play for Arsenal, while Chelsea pair Mia Fishel and Catarina Macario bypassed the American league altogether to play for Champions League teams.
“I wanted to come play in Champions League again,” Heaps said when asked about her own journey. “I wanted to play for a big club like (Lyon).”
Top European teams in pole position
Speaking of Lyon, the first leg of the Champions League semifinals this weekend showed the dominance of last year’s finalists, Lyon and Barcelona. Both secured victories over their English opponents, with Lyon winning 2-1 against Arsenal and Barcelona 4-1 over Chelsea.
It was young strikers on both teams who made the difference: Lyon’s Melchie Dumornay, 21, and Barcelona’s Claudia Pina, 23.
Neither Arsenal nor Chelsea is a stranger to overcoming multi-goal deficits, each having outscored their quarterfinal opponents in the second leg. Doing the same against higher-ranked teams is a different assignment, but muscle memory for the extraordinary could be their weapon next weekend.
Full Time First Looks
Keeping it local: Less than five years after the Miller Family sold the Utah Jazz for a reported $1.66 billion, they are back in the sports ownership game — but this time it’s soccer. On Friday, the family and Miller Sports & Entertainment finalized their majority holding acquisition of the Utah Royals and Real Salt Lake (MLS) from David Blitzer for a reported $600 million.
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Crucial questions: Does the NWSL know what its fans want? We asked four leaders of NWSL supporters groups. Watch the full podcast here.
Money talks: Chelsea is the most valuable women’s team in world soccer. They were sold for $265 million, surpassing the $250 million Willow Bay and Bob Iger paid to buy Angel City in 2024. But what exactly does that eye-popping number mean? The Athletic explains.
Honored: Carli Lloyd reflected on what it means to be in the National Soccer Hall of Fame last week. “I never played for glory,” she said. “I played purely for the love of the game.”
P.S. Don’t forget to dance like no one’s watching.
Pirouettes on grass? Leave it to Lo LaBonta 🩰 pic.twitter.com/KL5kjSi8XP
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) April 20, 2025
📫 Love Full Time? These stories can also be found on Yahoo’s women’s sports hub, in partnership with The Athletic. Also, check out our other newsletters.
(Top photo: Mike Watters / Imagn Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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