After a chaotic weekend of results, parity in the NWSL is alive and well
In March, the NWSL got off to a worrying and predictable start, as some of the most dominant teams in the league picked up early wins. But a wild weekend of results has tightened the table and reinforced the NWSL's greatest asset: chaos.
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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