We also have an update on the expansion race for the 16th team which would start in 2025. Last week, in part 1, we examined the top seven teams in the league: Orlando Pride, Kansas City Current, Washington Spirit, NJ/NY Gotham FC, Portland Thorns, North Carolina Courage and Chicago Red Stars (see last week’s column: The Week in Women's Football: NWSL club review; Orlando showing genuine star power - TribalFootball.com).
2024 NWSL Regular Season Review—Part 2 (Through early July)
Bay FC (6-0-10, 18 points; Eighth—Expansion Side)
A key win on May 17 was a 2-1 fightback victory against San Diego with goals from San Camberos and a Hanna Lundqvist own goal (a Swedish international with the Wave) three minutes from time, snapping a five game losing streak for Bay FC (with only one win in their past eight games).
Three wins in their last four in May/early June left them in eighth but only two points out of a playoff berth. After the San Diego win, they lost again in San Jose the next week to the reigning champions Gotham FC 2-0. They went to Chicago and in front of a record crowd at Wrigley Field (see last week’s column: The Week in Women's Football: NWSL club review; Orlando showing genuine star power - TribalFootball.com) they came home with a 2-1 win. After a shocking loss at home to bottom side Utah Royals (0-1) they registered consecutive shutouts over Angel City (1-0) at home and then at Louisville (1-0) to sit well positioned for the rest of the season. Albertin Montoya is a veteran American women’s coach who is not panicking.
With his stellar international talent and good American veteran NWSL talent, they should not be counted out yet of a late push for the playoffs. They also benefited from three of four games (rounds 13-16) at home but squandered the opportunity with only one win and two losses in San Jose.
Bay City are simply not scoring a lot—evidenced by their pair of 1-0 wins in Round 14 and 15 above and then being shut out by Washington again at home (3-0)—but there has been progress over a horrible start to the season—losing eight games out of ten from Rounds 2-11. American Tess Boade (25) is tied with Nigerian international Asisat Oshoala (29) with three goals each and the team only is seventh in the league with 19 goals (tied with fourth place Gotham FC), which is not meeting expectations with their high-end spend to bring in major talent from Europe ahead of this season.
Racing Louisville FC (3-7-6, 16 points; Ninth)
A wild game on May 18 saw Kansas City take a 3-2 lead at home from defender Gabrielle Robinson’s (22) goal from a Temwa Chawinga (25) assist in the 92nd minute, only for Racing Louisville’s U.S. international midfielder Savannah De Melo (26) to salvage a tie in the 113rd minute of the game—when originally eight minutes of injury time was added on.
The referees’ report said: “During the planned eight minutes of stoppage, there were two goals, a substitution and multiple injuries that extended the total amount of stoppage time.”
De Melo’s critical goal came from veteran former New Zealand international defender Abby Erceg’s assist. Erceg had earlier tied the game at two-all in the 68th minute. Racing had a phenomenal fightback but the result was yet another tie for Racing, who leads the league with seven, more than any other team in the league.
DeMelo, who leads the club with five goals this season, said after the Kansas City game: “It’s so hard because to experience that atmosphere (in the new stadium in Kansas City built for the women’s football team), but for everybody in the stands to be against you, it’s a crazy, crazy experience. So just the fact that we came out and played the way we did, going up a goal, going down a goal, then going up or going down by another goal and then just coming back.
"I think it just shows what this team is made of, and it’s going to be very, very hard to beat us. I think we’re just getting better and better.” About her late game-tying goal, DeMelo said: “We played together. And when that ball went in (Current goal in stoppage), like we all knew, there were still eight minutes left in that game and we knew that we were going to get more chances. I had a couple shots. Our defense was playing lights-out. It’s just about that one chance and just being clinical in those opportunities. That’s what we did, and I think that’s why we’re walking away with a point.”
Racing had moved up nicely to one point out of the playoffs in seventh at the end of week 11 with a three game unbeaten streak—two wins and a tie—including a 1-0 win away over Chicago on May 25 and 2-0 home win over Houston on June 7. They then earned one point out of their next five games (with four losses) to enter the Olympic Games Finals break nine points out of sixth place and a playoff berth.
Rookie Reilyn Turner’s goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time saved a 1-1 draw for 10-player Racing Louisville against the Seattle Reign on June 23 at Lumen Field. The tie kept Racing Louisville in eighth place and still in a close race for a playoff position, a point ahead of San Diego, Angel City and Bay FC in the NWSL standings. Coach Bev Yanez’s team pulled back the late goal despite playing 80-plus minutes down a player after Arin Wright’s red card in the ninth minute and Bethany Balcer converted Seattle's ensuing penalty shot in the 10th minute.
Racing lost midfielder Taylor Flint, who exited the match just before halftime with an apparent head injury; Flint joined Racing this season from San Diego Wave and has started 14 games. Turner (21) has four goals with two assists this season in her first professional campaign from UCLA, where she won a NCAA title in 2022 and is also a U.S. youth international. Nigerian international Uchenna Kanu (27) has four goals in ten appearances this season, tied with Turner, but has not scored since a Round 5 win at home over Utah (5-1).
Defender Emma Sears was rewarded after a strong start to her rookie season with a new three year contract, keeping her at the club through the 2026 season. She has more security over her rookie one-year contract (with a player and team options for 2025) and better terms and bonuses. She played at Ohio State University, scoring 25 goals with 15 assists in 83 appearances across five seasons.
She sits 11th all-time on Ohio State’s career points list. She helped lead Ohio State to four NCAA Tournament berths, including a second-round appearance in 2022, when she scored the game-winner in an opening-round win over Bucknell. She has three goals in 16 matches with Racing. Head Coach Bev Yanez said: “We are extremely excited to extend Emma’s contract. She is committed to her growth and works hard every day in the environment. Her ability on the ball and work ethic off have been impressive early on. We are grateful she’s in lavender (the main color of the Racing uniform)!” Her first professional goal of the season came after a 50-yard slalom against Utah in Round 5 in a 5-1 win.
The team was forced to make some changes in the net as goalkeeper Olivia Sekany (25), in her second season with Racing, was placed on the 45-day disabled list to undergo a procedure to clean damage from chronic patellar tendinosis in her left knee. She played collegiately at the University of Washington. She has not yet made a regular season appearance for Racing, but she came on in the second half of the TWC Colombia semifinal in the preseason to seal a shutout and win over America de Calí.
Rookie goalkeeper Madison White (22) signed a two-year contract with the club. A fourth-round NWSL Draft pick in January, White joined Racing as the club’s fourth goalkeeper through preseason. She traveled with the team to The Women’s Cup Colombia and played in several exhibitions and team scrimmages. She was an All-American at Texas Tech University and is the school’s all-time leader in goalkeeper wins (52) and shutouts (39). She was a collegiate teammate of Racing Louisville forward Kirsten (Davis) Wright.
Off the field, the final line-up was set for the Women’s Cup later this season when Colo-Colo of Chile confirmed their participation, joining Juventus of Turin, Italy and Palmeiras of Sao Paulo, Brazil and Racing. The games will take place on August 9 with the semifinals matching Racing and Palmeiras and Colo-Colo facing Juventus and the placement games on August 13. Colo-Colo has won the Chilean women’s league 15 times. Like Palmeiras, Colo-Colo Femenino has won the Copa Libertadores Femenina title for South American club football in 2012, the first team outside of Brazil to do so.
Chilean national team legend Yanara Aedo (30) has over 50 caps and is currently the Chilean Campeonato Nacional Fútbol Femenino’s leading scorer, leading an undefeated Colo-Colo. Aedo mostly played for clubs in Spain but won a USL W League title with the Washington Spirit Reserves in 2015—the last championship before the league folded before being relaunched in 2022. She was on the Spirit roster again in 2017 and 2018 but did not play in any regular season games.
San Diego Wave (3-6-7, 15 points; Tied for Tenth)
The Wave has struggled all season and have compiled double the number of ties and losses (each separately) than wins. Their last win was in early May over the hapless Utah Royals (2-0), with five ties and two losses coming in their next seven games. It led the Wave management—somewhat surprisingly—to terminate the contract of English coach Casey Stoney on June 24.
The rope for NWSL coaches just keeps gets shorter and shorter and Team President Jill Ellis explained that many in management now look at six month intervals for coaches, focused on the current season, even though the Wave won the NWSL Shield as regular season champions last season and made the playoffs in both seasons under Stoney, who was the franchise’s original coach. Stoney (42) had also signed a contract extension with the Wave in January through the 2027 campaign, with an option for 2028.
Ellis emphasized that the team had not won in seven matches and were ninth in the table at the time. In a press conference with the media shortly after the decision, Ellis said: “We are immensely grateful to Casey for her commitment to our club and the positive impact she has had both on and off the pitch. The decision to part ways was very hard and not made in haste, but given the ambition of this club, and where we are in our season, we felt a change was necessary at this time.”
Ellis added that there were concerns that they could finish out of the 2025-26 CONCACAF Champions League reckoning if things didn’t improve quickly: “We’re an ambitious club. We want to compete domestically and internationally. Right now, to qualify for the (CONCACAF) Champions League, there’s three criteria: win the league (NWSL Shield for the regular season champion), finish second in the league, or win the championship.
"Where we sit at the moment, we are limiting opportunities. It’s never all about numbers. It’s also about how it looks, how it feels, and for sure how it performs. And in sport we don’t live in the past; it’s how we perform in the moment. And in this moment, we felt—again, it’s very hard. We needed an inflection point, so we made a very hard decision to change our head coach and begin a search for a new one.”
Stoney, who played for Arsenal, Charlton, Chelsea, Lincoln City and Liverpool and won over 125 caps for England in a long playing career, became the first manager of Manchester United’s relaunched team in 2018, leading them to the Championship (Division 2) title in their first season, which gained them promotion to the Women’s Super League. This year, Stoney attempted to overhaul the Wave’s style of play from a direct, counterattacking approach to one that kept more possession. The adjustment has been difficult.
San Diego has scored only 12 goals in 16 games, the third-worst mark in the league. U.S. international Alex Morgan and high-money signing Mexican international Maria Sanchez each have no goals this season. Makenzie Doniak has three goals to lead the club—the same total she has scored each season since joining the Wave in 2022. Stoney will certainly be in demand for other coaching positions—something which Ellis emphasized as well—and some speculation is that she will move back to a WSL club in England. However, there are reports that she could move two hours up the road to Angel City, which has been struggling this season under fellow British coach Becky Tweed (see more below).
As far as a permanent head coach, this reporter was told by a source that current U.S. WNT assistant coach Twila Kilgore—who headed the national team as an interim head coach until Emma Hayes was free of her Chelsea responsibilities in May—is a prized choice by Wave management. Whoever is appointed needs to get a talented strike force firing goals to have any hope to salvage a season which is quickly looking lost, though the team will play in the first CONCACAF Champions League later this season.
Ellis, a former coach for many years at UCLA and the only woman to win two World Cups—in 2015 and 2019—also stressed that new General Manager (as of June 12) Camille Ashton (see more below), who joined from Kansas City where she had the same role for two seasons (see last week’s column: The Week in Women's Football: NWSL club review; Orlando showing genuine star power - TribalFootball.com), had no part in this coaching change decision.
Paul Buckle, who served as an interim assistant coach for the Wave in 2022 and took his U.S. Soccer Pro License course with Ellis, was named as the Wave’s interim head coach as the club searches for a permanent replacement. Buckle was a member of the coaching staff for the Wave in 2022 as an interim assistant coach, when he helped the club to a 10-6-6 (W-D-L) record as they became the first-ever NWSL expansion team to reach the playoffs.
Buckle was the former Head Coach and Technical Director of Sacramento Republic FC of the USL Championship (men’s Division 2) for three seasons (2015-17), when he led the club to playoffs each year, including winning the Western Conference in 2016. He holds a UEFA Pro Coaching License and U.S. Pro Coaching License. Unfortunately, the Wave lost its first two games and were shutout under their new interim head coach, losing to Chicago 3-0 at home on June 28 and then in Portland 1-0 on July 5. At the Olympic Games break, the Wave has gone nine games without a win (five ties and four losses) and not scored in their last three matches.
The Wave has named Camille Ashton as its sporting director and general manager. Since the start of 2022, she was the GM at Kansas City Current which made the NWSL Championship Final that season, losing out to the Portland Thorns. At the Wave, she will lead player acquisition and scouting, manage the coaching and technical staffs and development programs, as well as oversee the soccer operations budget and the team salary cap.
Ashton said about her new position: “I am honored to join San Diego Wave FC and excited to contribute to the club’s success. This is a club with a clear vision for success and a commitment to excellence. I look forward to working closely with Jill, Casey (well—maybe not now), the coaching staff, support staff, players, ownership and front office to help this club win more trophies and make a lasting impact in this city. Being a part of the Wave and the vibrant city of San Diego, with its passionate fan base, is truly special.”
Ashton replaces previous GM Molly Downtain, who left in April to pursue other challenges, after coming from U.S. Soccer for the 2022 expansion season.
Ashton played in the NWSL (2014-17) for Sky Blue FC, Orlando Pride, and the Houston Dash. Additionally, Ashton spent several years playing internationally for top tier Swedish, Norwegian, Italian and Australian clubs. She retired from professional soccer at the end of 2018. Ashton also spent four years at Stanford where she scored 14 goals and made 22 assists in her time as one of the team’s most versatile players. Ashton captained Stanford to the program’s first ever National Championship in 2011. She was named to the NCAA’s first team All-American team her senior year as well as the NCAA College Cup All-Tournament team in 2010 and 2011.
Angel City FC (4-3-9, 15 points; Tied for Tenth)
Last year’s great story of a long unbeaten run to make the playoffs with interim coach Becky Tweed winning the position on a permanent basis in the off season, is looking ever more distant in the rear view mirror. From Weeks 8-12 they earned only two points from 15 possible and, after a 3-2 exciting win at home against Louisville on June 19 in Round 13, they scored only once in three losses ahead of the Olympic Games break.
They are tied with Seattle Reign for team goals with 16 from 16 games and allowed 26 goals for eleventh in the fourteen team league. Scottish international Claire Emslie (30) has been strong with six goals to lead the club while former U.S international Sydney Leroux has four but then three players have only one goal. This team needs more scoring, but an L.A. area coach who watches the team frequently also feels that the defense has played too deeply at times and needs help in central areas to stop the opposition. Look for more support to come in during the summer transfer window.
Goalkeeper Hannah Stambaugh (25) of Japan is third in the rotation in her first year in the NWSL, behind regular starter and Bosnia-Herzegovina international DiDi Haracic (32), who has played in 13 matches, and second year American Angelina Anderson (23), who has appeared in three matches. Anderson was a U.S. youth international who played collegiately at the University of California-Berkeley. Stambaugh was acquired in January 2024 after three seasons with Omiya Ardija Ventus in Japan. During the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, she competed alongside Angel City forward Jun Endo on the U-20 Japan Women’s National Football Team. She also played for four seasons with INAC Leonessa, a club in the Nadeshiko League of Japan.
Staying with goalkeepers, starter DiDi Haracic told Tribal Football.com in a media call on July 5 that she was not going to play for Bosnia & Herzegovina for the July EURO Qualifiers (at home against Portugal and away against Northern Ireland) because she wanted to focus on Angel City games. She replied to my question about her status with the national team for the EURO qualifiers: “I won’t go into full detail about it. I just think right now my path is to stay with Angel City and to win games and tomorrow is another opportunity for us to bring out the best in each other and we want to win tomorrow and go into this international break. My focus is Angel City and staying with the club.”
I followed-up and asked: “But you are not discounting that you could play again with them (B&H) in the future?”
She replied: “I’ve already made that decision that I am not going to.”
I seemed to have hit a nerve but didn’t want to press the issue on a call about a game the next day (which Angel City lost at home to Gotham FC 2-1 in a close match) with a few other journalists. Bosnia and Herzegovina currently sit fifth in their six team Group J for the 2025 European Championship Qualifiers with 9 points from 3 wins and 7 defeats, behind undefeated Portugal (30 points), Slovakia (22 points)—who are either in or well placed to qualify for the Finals for the later—with Luxembourg (17 points), Iceland (10 points) and Bosnia and Herzegovina set to go into the playoffs for the last three spots via the Nations League.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s WNT has been improving and even made the UEFA playoffs for the 2023 WWC, losing to Wales 1-0 in Cardiff, though they did benefit that Russia was suspended from invading Ukraine and they captured second in Group E behind an undefeated Denmark but ahead of Montenegro, Azerbaijan and Malta in a close group. Haracic did not play in the playoff game and has not appeared for the side for a few years, but we do see sometimes that smaller European women’s national teams will not bring in a player from the Americas or Asian due to the expense of the trip and the resultant jet lag.
Houston Dash (3-5-8, 14 points; Twelfth)
This is another floundering team but I think ex-Celtic of Scotland head coach Fran Alonso will have a longer shelf life as head coach than Casey Stoney (see above) in San Diego or Amy Rodriguez in Utah (see below) as he implements his playing style. There have been some improvements of late, but their team scoring total of 11 goals in 16 games is second worse in the league to Utah (8 goals scored).
Houston finally won their first home game of the season on May 24 against NC Courage (3-0), with goals by Swiss international Ramona Bachmann (her first goal of the season), second year Venezuelan international Barbara Olivieri (her first NWSL goal) and Mexican international Diana Ordonez (who has four goals this season). Olivieri has played for Venezuela at youth and full levels; she was raised in the States, played at Texas A&M University and Monterrey in Liga MX Femenil before joining the Dash last season.
This club could be in the market during the summer transfer window for more attacking support and needs to replace Mexican international winger Maria Sanchez, who left the club just before the transfer deadline (see: The Week in Women's Football: NWSL review; Sanchez expectations at San Diego; watching Minnesota Aurora pitch - Tribal Football). One embarrassment for the team is that team sponsor Shell Energy has continued to run a national advertising campaign with Maria Sanchez front and center. It’s a nice advertisement, but Sanchez is no longer with Houston and I find it befuddling that Shell Energy not its advertising agency did not have a backup plan.
In defense, first year Brazilian international Tarciane (21) has only played in five matches since moving over from Corinthians of Sao Paulo and was not included on Brazil’s 2024 Olympic Games Final roster. One good thing for the Dash defense is that the club signed American goalkeeper Jane Campbell (29) to a contract extension, keeping her with the club through the 2027 season, with an option for 2028.
She has been with the Dash her entire career, since being drafted with the number 15 selection (second round) in the 2017 draft from Stanford University. She has started 162 games for the club in all competitions is tied for fifth with the most clean sheets in league history with 35; she has six this season. Campbell is an alternate for the U.S. WNT at the Paris Olympics this summer.
Seattle Reign (2-5-9, 11 points; Thirteenth)
Seattle has fought hard in games but had one win and one tie in 11 matches beginning with the second game of the season. The Reign surrendered 15 goals in four losses in games from weeks 9-12 (scoring two goals in three of them and being shut out) against:
Portland away (4-0)
Orlando at home (3-2)
Washington Spirit (3-2)
Kansas City Current (3-2)
They then had a three game undefeated run from Rounds 13-15, but only scored two goals with a home tie against Portland (0-0) on June 16, a 1-1 tie at home against Racing Louisville on June 23 and on the road against Gotham on June 30 (again a 1-1 result) as New Jersey/New York put the ball through their own net for the Reign’s goal in the 96th minute.
American Bethany Balcer (27) leads the team with five goals, with American striker Veronica Latsko (28) next with three goals and Canadian international Jordan Huitema (23) is third with two goals. Unfortunately, with the club under new ownership (see below), there are reports that head coach Laura Harvey is on the hot seat—which is unfair as she is as the long-time Reign coach who took the side to the NWSL Championship game last season, the third of her Reign tenure. Harvey’s contract does extend through the 2025 season.
Off the field, the Reign was sold by French company OL Group—owner of Olympique Lyonnaise—for $58 million to a local group comprised of MLS Seattle Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer and investment firm Carlyle as the prime leaders. OL Reign bought the side five years ago in 2019 for only $3.5 million.
The Reign has named longtime Sounders executive Maya Mendoza-Exstrom as chief business officer. General manager Lesle Gallimore (a long time women’s coach at the University of Washington in Seattle) remains in her position. The Reign finally coming under the Seattle Sounders umbrella—one of the best run clubs in North America and arguably beyond—is a really important move for the club and could have happened in year one, at least through a working relationship, but then owner Bill Predmore was obstinate that the Reign could go it alone.
They did—playing in a central though run-down narrow stadium under the iconic Space Needle—then in Tacoma for a few years and being owned by a French club that was clear that they never really wanted the team in the State and was constantly exploring opportunities to move it. This is a very important move for the future of the team and the league in the Pacific Northwest.
Utah Royals (2-3-11, 9 points, Fourteenth—Expansion Side)
The Royals had a lone tie and nine losses from Round 3-12. They can take heart, that unlike leagues in Europe and around the world, there is no relegation in the NWSL so at least they don’t have to worry about that. The key now is gaining some momentum and roster consolidation for the rest of the season. The nadir came during a 6-0 loss to the Orlando Pride on June 21. In their next game, they tied the Portland Thorns (0-0) at home on July 29.
However, that point didn’t save head coach Amy Rodriguez’s job as she was fired the next day. The long-time USWNT forward is universally liked, but many felt that she had too little coaching experience—only a short stint as an assistant at USC in L.A. where she played. Once Casey Stoney was let go in San Diego (above), it was clear that Rodriguez would not survive the season. Goalkeeper coach Maryse Bard-Martel was also dismissed and Jimmy Coenraets took over as interim head coach. He joined the team in early June as an assistant coach.
The native of Belgium came to the NWSL from the Belgian Women’s Super League, where he coached OH Leuven since 2020. Loeuven won 77 out of 115 games during his time there and finished runner-up to Anderlecht in three consecutive seasons and third in 2023-24.
Rookie Ally Sentnor (20) has had an impressive rookie season with three goals and three assists to lead the team in both categories. Ana Tejeda (22), born and raised in Logroño, Spain, joined the Royals this season with extensive club and international experience. She played the last five seasons with Real Sociedad in Liga F in Spain. She has also played with Spain’s youth national teams, winning the Euro’s and the World Cup with the U-17’s and also winning the FIFA World Cup with the U-20 team. She has one cap with the senior team.
NWSL Expansion News
FC Cincinnati of MLS has submitted a bid to join the NWSL, which was confirmed by team officials to the Cincinnati Enquirer in a statement, which said: “Jeff Berding, president and co-CEO, FC Cincinnati, and the FCC controlling ownership group and management team, with support from a cohort of women executives, are exploring an NWSL bid to bring the first professional women’s sports team to Cincinnati. As accomplished leaders in business and sport, with a demonstrated commitment to inclusivity and community impact, and a belief that our sports teams must lead, inspire and unite, this dynamic group is well-positioned for success.”
FC Cincinnati was hugely successful in the stands and competitive in the USL second division from 2016 to 2018 before joining MLS in 2019 as an expansion franchise, where they won the Supporter’s Shield as the regular season champions in 2023. FCC play in a purpose built soccer stadium (TQL), holding just over 25,000, that was opened in 2021 and built at a cost of US$250 million.
Other competitors mentioned frequently for the NWSL’s 16th franchise for 2025 include groups in Cleveland and Minnesota, according to Sports Business Journal. Groups in Atlanta, Nashville, Denver and Jacksonville were also listed as possible contenders.
Cleveland Professional Soccer, which has already been awarded an MLS Next Pro team, confirmed it has submitted a bid to bring an NWSL franchise to Northeast Ohio. The bid calls for the construction of a new $150M stadium as part of a $283M public-private partnership. The group has committed $193M, or 68% of the funding, and is seeking $90M in public money, according to Jeff Kassouf, the publisher of Equalizer Soccer.
In Minneapolis/St. Paul, the Minnesota Aurora submitted a bid and has talked with Minnesota United of the MLS to play at their Allianz Field in St. Paul, but United is not part of the investment group.
Among the other cities interested in a NWSL franchise, in Denver, a group called For Denver FC has been politicking to bring an NWSL team to the city but did not confirm that they had submitted a bid. Ben Hubbard, the CEO of Denver-based insurance company Parsyl and a former Chief of Staff at the United States Agency for International Development in the Obama administration, has said that the group would build its own soccer-specific stadium (likely smaller in capacity than Dick’s Sporting Goods Park where the MLS Rapids play) and training facility for the NWSL franchise. Denver has also investigated the new USL Super League as well so the city will likely be open for professional women’s football for some time.
The Jacksonville Armada is an incoming MLS Next Pro club, while in Nashville, the MLS team Nashville SC has not confirmed if they are involved in a bid.
One city which had shown interest but which is no longer in the bidding process is St. Louis, Missouri. The MLS expansion side in 2023 made the playoffs and drew well in a historically soccer-mad city, but a team spokesperson said that the current time was not right for the organization to pursue a women’s team as they consolidate in MLS, but they want to continue to have discussions in the future with the NWSL.
- Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey