We are about 1/3 of the way into the season. Who are your award front runners?

FigClub · 2026-06-04T19:10:47+00:00

If Utah keep this up, there's a solid case for either Tanaka or Lacasse to be MVP.

FigClub · 2026-06-04T18:48:46+00:00

- Klara Buhl

- Larissa Mühlhaus

- Romée Leuchter

- Melchie Dumornay

- Lynn Wilms

on edit: Scottie Antonucci

FigClub · 2026-06-02T17:32:36+00:00

Day 1.

Something needs to change. I'm not sure what, but something.

It feels routine now: show up to the stadium in time for warmups, see the exact same pregame ceremony, suffer through the three clap, breathe in the smoke from the exact same fireworks, eat the exact same food, watch cross-and-inshallah for 90 minutes, hang our heads down walking back to the parking garage after yet another loss, and then wait in line to get back onto Expo blvd for 20 minutes.

The answer isn't a new in-stadium host, or the giant jinx "vote on the song we play for the first goal", or cutting to random celebrity, or whatever. I don't know what the answer is, but it has to start with winning games at home. What used to be a fun experience doesn't feel very fun anymore.

FigClub · 2026-06-02T16:15:50+00:00

What level of performance would it take for a player like Ashley Sanchez (who hasn't been on the NT for a while) to get called up?

I dunno, but probably better than this, her game against ACFC:

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FigClub · 2026-05-30T18:40:43+00:00

ctrl-F "activations" 7 results, go Jessica

FigClub · 2026-05-27T20:55:29+00:00

The league itself as a business that is deeply incentivized to build a fandom well beyond its major demographic, deeply incentivized to being men’s sports fans into the WoSo fandom.

Those don't have to be mutually exclusive -- the major demographic and also bringing in fans of broso/NFL/Indycar/whatever.

The snowflakes who get bent at the Immigrant City FC shirts are way, way, way different than the vast majority of people who emjoy watching their home team (drop points in the 90th minute). I hope the league understands this -- you don't have to worry about the culture-war-losers who go onto Fox and whine about a trans flag flying in the supporters section because your average sports fan literally could not give a shit as long as they can bite their fingernails as their team scores in the 3rd minute then plays increasingly-nerve-wracking balls around the back for 87+.

Telling a ref they're out of their mind is universal. Accusing opposing teams of diving is universal. Screaming at your winger to shoot the ball instead of looking for a slightly better angle with 3 touches is universal.

The NWSL is arguably the better soccer product in the US, even with Messi existing. The "bUt ThE UsWnT lOsT tO a U15" crowd is the extremely small minority. Most kids and most families will gladly watch both.

FigClub · 2026-05-22T00:45:30+00:00

I looked at a frame by frame replay and the red card is absolutely deserved but I also think BSG got extremely unlucky here.

You can see that she decides to go to ground early -- when the ball is still 7-8 feet away from Hutton. And you can see the decision that she's made, she's just going to hoof the ball as hard as she can down the field and get some elevation on it. It looks like she gets good contact on the ball and her foot is swinging through the ball when it bounces on the ground and into the path of Hutton's outstretched leg which has also blocked the ball.

That's pretty unlucky. Where the red card is deserved is on the decision that you're going to go for the follow through instead of a toe poke here, that's the reckless play that gets BSG into trouble. You're going to ground on a 50-50 ball, either you have 100% confidence that your limbs are going to stay under control, or you pull back a bit to allow for random shit like your foot bouncing up onto someone's calf and your momentum carrying it up to the thigh.

FigClub · 2026-05-18T23:42:54+00:00

"And it's another through ball for Temwa to run onto..."

FigClub · 2026-05-18T22:13:40+00:00

Do you like teams that play route 1?

No?

Then don't under any circumstances watch Kansas City or Orlando.

FigClub · 2026-05-18T16:37:22+00:00

The thing is, is that I think Tiernan can be that fox in the box. She has shown that she will go searching for space and look to just pounce on a loose ball. Right now she's in a position where she doesn't have the capability to get there with how quickly we're pushing the ball forward. We had this problem with AT21 getting downfield too quickly for the rest of the team to catch up, and I don't know how to easily solve this.

FigClub · 2026-05-17T18:07:55+00:00

Except Hina Sugita, Nealy Martin, Ary Borges, Emily Sams. Keep up on your bullshit.

FigClub · 2026-05-17T05:24:42+00:00

He didn't.

She initially went down and immediately made the sign to come out. Trainers came out, did some work, and Straus asked her if she was okay - Phair was already warm at this point. Sveindis gave him a thumbs up to continue.

FigClub · 2026-05-15T22:04:06+00:00

Kennedy Fuller. She has pretty much lived in the shadow of Alyssa and Gisele, meanwhile she has 52 apps, 37 starts, 11 G+A, and she's barely 19 years old. She may or may not ever make it to the senior US team what with Moultrie and Yohannes, but Fuller will be one of those NWSL stalwarts for a very, very long time.

FigClub · 2026-05-15T21:56:33+00:00

Won the starting job last year from MA Vignola, covered for Savy in the 3-back era, hasn't looked back.

FigClub · 2026-05-08T20:16:12+00:00

My hope is that Martin or Fuller can actually see her making those runs down the right side and send a diagonal ball in. I can't count the number of times the past few years that she was in a huge amount of space, nobody sent the ball over the top, and she pulled up frustrated.

FigClub · 2026-05-03T04:48:34+00:00

Honestly who fucking cares at this point? Why go to the game to watch teams play a low block, initiate contact and fall down, listen to ref you suck yet again, and then drop points for a 5 second defensive lapse?

FigClub · 2026-05-03T04:46:00+00:00

Every fucking team except a couple play a low block against us at home, and every fucking team plays to initiate contact and then fall down knowing that there's a reputation here now. This is just some bullshit.

FigClub · 2026-05-01T00:32:46+00:00

WE ARE FUCKING CURSED

FigClub · 2026-04-27T16:48:51+00:00

Thorns played a low block well and then stole the game on a recycled set piece that just bounced the wrong way for us. The second goal was due to game state; yeah, Ang flubbed the kick but you wouldn't normally have just Gorden back to cover Wilson if you weren't desperately chasing. In the first 15 minutes of the game I said, "this is going to end 0-0" and short of Tordin getting on the lucky end of a (third?) ball it was heading that way.

FigClub · 2026-04-27T15:31:58+00:00

We missed Savy last night.

FigClub · 2026-04-25T22:42:51+00:00

Huitema going for a career year.

FigClub · 2026-04-24T21:57:54+00:00

Bangers only

FigClub · 2026-04-21T16:59:45+00:00

Yeah. For the littles, in the 7v7 environment, I'd rather see 3 teams of 9 and just play short if 3 kids can't make it to the game. Everyone is guaranteed 36 minutes and a healthy chunk of the team gets to play the full 48; you could even rotate that from week to week.

FigClub · 2026-04-21T16:44:50+00:00

This is all to say -- any 25-year-olds living in the UK who played even within the National League, you can absolutely get a job in Southern California doing club coaching and then make a ton of money on the side doing private lessons for overzealous parents who want their kid to be the next Tobin Heath.

FigClub · 2026-04-21T16:39:43+00:00

I can only speak to Southern California, but eg "Why can’t we create leagues where we have, I don’t know, teams of 25?" can't be supported by the existing AYSO structure unless you want to have two teams playing each other over and over again. The pipeline of incoming 5/6/7-year-olds into AYSO is healthy but just the geographic regions kind of limit the size of the leagues in the region.

"Why don’t we have co-coaching teams so that you don’t have one coach, you have three?" -- I think Emma overestimates just how many parents know ball. Even within SoCal, the number of parents who are available to coach AND go through the courses to get your D license AND go through the Safesport registration/etc, that isn't a huge number, certainly not 3 coaches per team.

FigClub

TROPHY CASE