After a chaotic weekend of results, parity in the NWSL is alive and well
Angel City FC defeated the Washington Spirit 4-3 away off a stoppage-time winner. Seattle Reign FC and Portland Thorns pulled off 1-0 wins over the Kansas City Current and Orlando Pride, respectively, who sit at the top of the standings. The Chicago Stars, who just fired their coach after a 1-5 start, picked up a 0-0 away draw against NJ/NY Gotham FC on Sunday.
For years, parity has been part of the NWSL's claim to fame — something that sets it apart from the European leagues. While the richest European clubs (Barcelona, Arsenal, Chelsea, etc.) dominate their respective leagues, the NWSL's salary cap keeps everyone on an even footing.
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Any team can win the league in a given year; any team can get an upset in a given week. The league's unpredictability is a unique feature, something that Spirit forward Esme Morgan called "really appealing" in an interview with Yahoo Sports in March.
"You don't go into any games thinking it's gonna be an easy game, or you're gonna win comfortably. Every game, you have to be at your very best," Morgan said at the time.
And yet the start of the NWSL season put some of that equality into question. In the first match of the year, the Orlando Pride — the reigning champions and NWSL Shield winners — dominated the Chicago stars with a 6-0 win. That same weekend, the Washington Spirit and Kansas City Current also earned strong wins, giving three of the four best teams from the 2024 season a victory to open the year. (NJ/NY Gotham FC, the other dominant force last season, ended with a 1-1 draw away.)
Now, though, things have returned to being delightfully unpredictable. After seven regular-season games (out of 26 total), eight of the 14 teams are within four points of each other in the standings.
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The Spirit-Angel City game on Friday probably best exemplifies the parity argument. Despite taking place at Washington's Audi Field — a raucous home environment dubbed "Rowdy Audi" — Angel City controlled the pace in the matchup. ACFC finished with 59% of the possession, held a 77% passing accuracy, got twice as many shots as the Spirit and three times as many shots on goal ... all for it to come down to a stoppage-time goal from Riley Tiernan.
The Current and Pride, meanwhile, have five wins each in seven games, but their away losses this weekend made their lead at the top of the table a bit more narrow. On Friday, the Reign got the win over Kansas City by notching a first-half goal — a beauty from Lynn Biyendolo in the 37th minute, marking her first with the team — and then holding strong on defense against one of the best offenses in the league. Portland got its win over Orlando on Saturday in much the same way: Reyna Reyes scored a banger in the 16th minute, and then the Thorns controlled possession for the rest of the match.
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The wins saw Angel City, Seattle and Portland soar up the standings into what would be playoff positions if the season ended today. Notably, the weekend also shook things up for the San Diego Wave, who started the season with somewhat low expectations after the departures of players like Jaedyn Shaw and Naomi Girma. San Diego's 2-1 win over Bay FC — off another stoppage-time goal from a rookie, this time from 17-year-old defender Trinity Armstrong — sent the Wave up to the No. 3 spot, putting the team in excellent position moving forward.
But more importantly, these shakeups bode well for the rest of the season. There are some notable matchups in the coming months that will have big implications heading into the international break in July: May 16, for example, will have both Gotham-Wave and Pride-Current.
But the beauty of an unpredictable NWSL is that any of the games in between may also shake up the table. We've got a long way to go until the playoffs in November, and every team could still be in the running.
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Where do you think that the the league itself can sort of improve to get awareness up when it comes to some of those other items like attendance? Yeah, I think there's just still a lot of work to be done within markets, right? I mean, this is kind of the challenge is you're going up against men's leagues that have had decades to grow, right, and to become the teams that everybody knows and loves. There's generational fandom and for a league that's still under basically 15 years old, you just need time on that front. So there's time, but I still think that there's work to be done on the marketing side. I mean, this year, the NWL kind of honestly made headlines just for having a Times which I think most other leagues would look at and be like, yeah, well, why, why weren't you doing that before, right? So there are still some of those just basic things, but they've got to, they've got to get the knowledge up within the markets that they have because also we're looking at 16 cities across the US, so compare that to NFL or most other major leagues, that's about half. So it's really time, investment, all of those things that aren't necessarily like the most appealing to talk about, but are just necessary to the growth of any league. Yeah, and as someone who's followed the league for so long, what do you see as helping that, right? What, what ultimately leads that success, right? And I ask because, uh, I moved to Charlotte a couple of years ago, and they obviously have an MLS team and a lot of people go to the MLS games. I mean, the first game of the season always gets 40, 50, 60,000 people, a little bit less for the rest of the it feels like they had a lot of successes just getting people to the games, and then it becomes sort of this regionalized thing, similar to the NWL MSL MLS, etc. where you're getting people to the games and then it's regional rather than national like the NFL. Do you see that attendance is a big factor in sort of driving that fandom? Yeah, I definitely think if you go to a game, it's really hard to not want to follow the NWL in general. I think that's, that's the whole reason why after this international break this summer, teams are actually trying to get fans in the door by offering if you've never been to an NWL game before, they will give you free tickets to come in because they are so confident that once you're in the door, you're going to want to stay in the door. So that I think is a I also don't think it's a bad thing to want to be regionalized. Like I, you know, I'm up in Burlington, Vermont. Our local soccer team is USL too. They just won the national championship. It is extremely, if you're in Burlington, Vermont, you know Vermont Green, right? They're trying to start a women's team, all of these things. Being super community focused is not a bad thing, but when you're the NWL as a want that national recognition, you want to have the cultural influence that the WNDA has, for instance, then regional will only get you so far. The challenge is straddling that line of what will keep your dedicated fans and your, your community fans in the door without sacrificing like what makes the NW so special, and that's like such a big question to try to have to grapple with as a league. Yeah, it feels like every league is sort of trying to determine the national reach versus the regional, and, and some leagues are doing it well. Some, some are certainly focusing on one over the other, but you mentioned expansion teams earlier, and there's a couple of new teams who are going to be joining the league in 2026 in Boston and Denver. What do you think of the league's expansion process overall and sort of how they've run that uh over the last couple of years? Yeah, Boston is not actually going to be a new market for the NWBL. There was an end of the sell team when the league started in Boston that was forced to fold. So it is a return for the NWBL to this market that honestly, like, they did have a hard time cracking it the first time around. I mean, Boston is a team that love is a city that loves its sports. There are multiple teams to compete with, so it's going to be really interesting to see if the current version of the NWL and that product is going to have anEasier time cracking that market. Denver, we all know within the women's soccer world as like a hotbed of youth soccer, has produced like insanely talented stars. So Denver to me seems like a market that's going to have a really easy time of, you know, getting a foothold in that community, immediately becoming part of the sports landscape. But from an NWL higher level perspective, what is really interesting is they don't seem content to be stopping at the challenge is finding a timeline where you can continue to add teams, continue to bring in, you know, these multi multimillion dollar expansion fees without sacrificing the quality on the field, and Commissioner Jessica Berman has said on record like, well, why couldn't we be as big as the NFL? The challenge is getting there in the right number of years without like, you know, suddenly you've got 4 teams coming in at a time and it's just chaos. Yeah, and I think most casual sports fans at least have probably seen the Kansas City Current stadium over there. Their valuation has obviously increased dramatically because it now they have this, uh, women's specific soccer stadium. I think it was the first of its kind. What have you seen on the ownership front? Have owners been willing to invest more money in their teams and their facilities over the last number of years with sort of this boom in women's sports that we've seen? Totally. I mean, the investment is really night and day. I mean, between the expansion fees, the, the valuations, right, like the money is flowing in and Kansas City is a really interesting example of this because so much of it was privately funded, right? Like we talk about public funding on, on the men's sports side a lot in terms of teams wanting new stadiums to upgrade stadiums, whatever it may be, whereas with Kansas City, this was also, in essence, a real estate play for these owners of saying like, hey, we're going to come in, we're going to spend millions of dollars, not just to build a soccer specific also this beautiful training facility as well and watch that investment pay off basically instantaneously. They got, they were able to host the NWL championship last year. They're hosting international games. They're probably going to make a play for hosting teams during the 2026 World Cup for the men. So there is an investment piece, but we're also seeing that reward immediately come through for owners who are willing to spend in a way that we never saw in the early days of the NWSL. I saw a recent article that you wrote on the coaching change, uh, for the North Carolina Courage, and essentially for those who haven't seen the piece yet was, uh, it wasn't communicated in the best sense was my take on it. I'd love to just talk to you about that story specifically and figure out if this was sort of growing pains for the NWSL or if you think it was something different. Yeah, I mean, growing pains is, is maybe not quite the right term for it just because, you know, back in 2021 and honestly, since then, the NWBL is still grappling with this abuse scandal that hit the league and part of that was because there weren't proper reporting mechanisms, coaches were allowed to move from team to team. There were a lot of investigations like if, if people are coming into the league more recently, they've seen a lot of the results of what happened in 2021 without maybe necessarily understanding the full what is really interesting is North Carolina Courage was one of the teams that was really impacted by that abuse scandal. Their coach at that time was immediately fired following reporting that we actually did at the athletic. And so I think there's a zero tolerance thing going on in terms of potential behavior, but also we're seeing kind of the same struggle within the NWL in terms of communicating why coaches are fired, and I want to also preface this by saying,You know, there's always going to be potential legal issues when you fire anyone or a contract is ended. So there's always going to have to be some level of public transparency, not necessarily being where we would like it to be in the endWL versus things beingProperly communicated to players or staffers, whatever that is. So there's that piece of it, but the way that North Carolina Courage handled it was one of the most combative press conferences I've ever been a part of, just kind of, it was so strange and it just, it was a reminder of some of the really painful days that this league has had and one team's behavior can also reflect on the league as a whole, and that, that's where the NWL can get into trouble all of the time. Yeah, and lastly, I'd loveto just hear your, uh, your thoughts on sort of like what the NWSL can do from a growth perspective, sort of going back to what we were discussing earlier. Obviously, the men's World Cup is coming here next summer. We just had the Club World Cup this past summer. There's a lot of talk about how MLS is going to benefit from this. How do you think NWSL also benefits from just more people watching soccer in general? Yeah, I think there's always, you know, that, that mutual boost, no matter what it is. 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There's a lot of room here for the NWL to honestly force its way into the conversation around 2026, and we've started to see it too, where host cities are leaning on NWL players to be part of their committees around what host cities will be doing. So I feel encouraged, but the big challenge for the the moment of next summer is, how do they play through a men's international tournament being hosted here in the US and we haven't quite seen the answer to that yet. They're starting to trickle out some details about how they're thinking about doing this, but just from a logistical standpoint, they're going to have a tough time, but if they can figure it out and figure it out well, then they really do stand to benefit. Yeah, having that happen at the same time might actually be beneficial, but there's so much money flowing into women's sports in general, and you guys are right at the center of it at the athletics. So Meg, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. The clock is winding down here, but we have just enough time for some final buzz. According to a recent feature story from Cindy Kuzma at Front Office Sports. Endurance athletes are turning to an unexpected snack to fuel their performance. Apparently a classic snack with a little snap crackle and pop has become the go to fuel source for endurance athletes. Yes, I'm talking about Rice Krispie treats. Front Office Sports spoke to multiple endurance athletes in to confirm that the Rice Krispy Street's trend is indeed real. Professional runner Molly Huddle even told FOS that she eats a box of 16 Rice Krispy treats before running marathons. Here's the gist of it. Most runners and cyclists consume mass loads of easily digestible cars before races and training sessions to ensure that they have enough glycogen stored in their muscles that their bodies can turn the glucose into performance fuel. ManyOf these endurance athletes will also eat simple carbohydrates during competition to stay energized, sometimes between $90 to 120 carbs per hour. However, products like energy gels and chews can cost anywhere from $2 to $5 per serving, not to mention that they may not taste all that great either, and that's where Rice Krispy treats come in. At 30 cents apiece, the Kellogg's snack gives endurance athletes an affordable fueling simple carbohydrates that also happens to taste pretty good. And while there's no hard data on how much endurance athletes are spending on Rice Krispie treats, Kelenova, the parent company behind the kids snap, said in the 2024 company presentation that buyers are spending 33% more on Rice Krispy treats compared to 2018. So the next time someone tells you to put down that Rice Krispies treat, just tell them that you're fueling up for a run or a bike all out of time, so it's officially game over for this week. Thank you so much to Frank, Meg, and for all of you for joining us. Please make sure to scan the QR code below to follow Yahoo Finance podcast for more videos and expert insights and catch us every Friday wherever you get your podcast. I'm your host, Joe Pomliano. See you next content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. Related Videos PPI comes in hot: When will wholesale inflation hit consumers? Oil investors 'focusing' on fundamentals, not political noise Oil prices under pressure after IEA projects record oil surplus What Tencent Results Say About China Corporate Outlook Yahoo Finance Sports Report is developed and produced by Lauren Pokedoff. Sign in to access your portfolio
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Still just 23, the Ecuadoran has emerged as perhaps the best defensive midfielder in the world since leaving Brighton & Hove Albion for London two years ago this week — somehow exceeding the expectations that came with his $135 million price tag, the 10th-highest transfer fee of all time. Now Caicedo gets to take his ball-winning talents to the Champions League for the first time in his career, as Chelsea — which finished fourth in the Premier League last season — returns to Europe's top club competition following a two-year hiatus. Ousmane Dembele (Paris Saint-Germain) (Photo by Image) If Lamine Yamal doesn't win the Ballon d'Or, it probably goes to Dembélé, who made a strong case for the honor in leading PSG to its long-coveted first UEFA Champions League title. The 28-year-old Frenchman was close to unstoppable last season, scoring 35 goals in 53 games as the Parisians claimed a continental treble. (The 2018 World Cup winner scored just 40 times in his six full seasons with Barcelona.) Dembélé capped off 2024-25 by taking PSG to the Club World Cup final, scoring twice against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals and adding an assist and another strike in the semis versus Real Madrid. And he's off to a fast start to the new season, scoring in the shootout as PSG came back to beat Tottenham in Wednesday's UEFA Super Cup final. Desire Doue (Paris Saint-Germain) (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images) When Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. all left PSG within twelve months of each other in 2023 and '24, it was easy to wonder who would emerge and become the new faces of the club. Enter the 20-year-old Doué, who burst onto the scene last season with a breakout, trophy-laden campaign — his first at the Parc des Princes. Doué arrived in the French capital on a $58 million transfer from Rennes and immediately made his mark, scoring 16 times and quadrupling his previous career best of four goals. Two came in the 5-0 Champions League final drubbing of Inter Milan; he was named the best young player of that tourney, and of the Club World Cup six weeks later. What will Doué do for an encore in 2025-26? Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal) (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images) For three years straight, the Gunners have been the Premier League runner-up. The main reason the North London club fell short? The lack of a lethal forward like Manchester City's Erling Haaland or Liverpool's Mohamed Salah to put the Gunners over the top. Gyökeres could be that missing piece. The 27-year-old Swede arrived this summer from Sporting Lisbon for $86 million and a resume that speaks for itself. He bagged 39 goals in 33 Primeira Liga matches in 2024-25 and finished his career in Portugal with 97 strikes in 102 total appearances. "He's a proper No. 9," Arsenal all-time top scorer Thierry Henry says of Gyökeres. "You have a guy that's a killer in the box. Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid) (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images) On a personal level, Mbappé's maiden season in the Spanish capital was a triumph. The 26-year-old French superstar won the European Golden Shoe as the continent's top scorer, with 44 goals. He set a new record for goals for a first-year Real Madrid player. He was named the club's MVP. But despite scoring in Madrid's UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Intercontinental Cup wins, Europe's most decorated club team lost the Spanish title to chief nemesis Barcelona and failed to reach the final of both the Champions League and Club World Cup — a disaster by Real's lofty standards. The challenge for Mbappé and new coach Xabi Alonso this season will be to turn the forward's individual brilliance into team success. Cole Palmer (Chelsea) (Photo by Crystal Pix/) A highly-rated prospect when he left mighty Manchester City for the Blues in the summer of 2023, nobody expected Palmer — who had made 19 previous Prem appearances without scoring — to explode for 22 goals in his first season in London. Last term, Palmer found the net just 15 times. But the English winger's performance at the FIFA Club World Cup in June and July suggests he's ready to take another massive leap forward in 2025-26. Palmer scored three times in six contests as Chelsea upset PSG to win the title. Two of those strikes came in the 3-0 win in the final, after which the 22-year-old received the Golden Ball as the tournament's top player. That can't hurt Palmer's confidence as the 2025-26 slate kicks off. Christian Pulisic (AC Milan) (Photo by Giuseppe Cottini/AC Milan via Getty Images) After skipping the Concacaf Gold Cup, getting into a public war of words with U.S. men's national team coach Mauricio Pochettino and facing intense criticism from several USMNT legends as the shorthanded Americans lost the final to rival Mexico without their best player, Pulisic has plenty to prove in 2025-26. That sitting out this summer was worth it, for starters. Pulisic set career highs for goals and assists and led Milan in scoring both in Serie A and in the Champions League last season. But the American won't have to worry about the latter after the seven-time European champ finished eighth in Italy. That will allow the Rossoneri to prioritize winning the Scudetto for just the second time since 2011. It could also lead to another huge year for Pulisic, who insisted the break would help him and the U.S. heading into the 2026 World Cup. He'll get to prove it beginning with Sunday's Coppa Italia game against Bari. Raphinha (Barcelona) Photo by) Mesmerizing as Lamine Yamal was from start to finish last season, the stats say he wasn't even Barça's best player. Raphinha had 34 goals to Yamal's 18 across all competitions in 2024-25. And it's not like Raphinha can't create; the former Leeds United man also had 25 assists, same as the teenage sensation. Is this the new normal for the 28-year-old? Or was last season an outlier? The most goals Raphinha had scored in a single campaign previously was 18, when he was with Portuguese club Vitória Guimarães way back in 2017-18. He managed just 10 in each of his first two seasons at Barcelona, and 11 in his final one in the Premier League. Raphinha's form almost put Barça in the Champions League final last May. If he builds on or even matches his breakout campaign, the Blaugrana could claim their sixth European title next spring. Florian Wirtz (Liverpool) (Photo by Paul Harding - The FA/The FA via Getty Images) That the reigning English champions were willing to drop a club-record fee of more than $135 million to prise Wirtz away from Bayer Leverkusen this summer says how highly the Reds rate the German playmaker. Wirtz, 22, led Leverkusen to its first and only Bundesliga title, in 2023-24. He's already established himself with Germany's national team, having made 31 appearances already for the four-time World Cup champs. Will he live up to expectations at Anfield? After winning their 20th English title last season, Liverpool is looking to repeat as champions for the first time since 1983-84. Adding Wirtz won't hurt. Lamine Yamal (Barcelona) (Photo by) He just turned 18 in July, but the electrifying Spaniard heads into the season before his first FIFA World Cup as a legitimate global superstar. Yamal might already be the planet's best player; he's on the shortlist of favorites to win the Ballon d'Or when the award is presented in Paris on Sept. 22. Yamal helped his country to the European title last summer, then led Barça to a domestic treble. This year, both his and the Catalan titans' priority is to win the UEFA Champions League, which Barcelona hasn't done in more than a decade. Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men's and women's national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ ByDougMcIntyre . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! What did you think of this story? share recommended 2025 English Premier League Predictions: Ranking the Top 6 Teams Item 1 of 1
