At press time, Dallas Trinity scooped NWSL sides to sign U.S. youth international and University of Texas star Lexi Missimo, quite a coup for the team and the league. Jacksonville has announced that it will join the S League for 2025-26; it is expected that at least one other team will join the loop for its third season.
USL Super League 2024-25 Fall Season Review
If this were the true end of the season, Brooklyn FC, Dallas Trinity, Carolina Ascent and Fort Lauderdale United FC would be in the playoffs, with Tampa Bay Sun only one point behind their fellow Florida side in fifth place. The first season has definitely turned into one top team in Brooklyn, followed by four teams grouped together and separated by only four points, and three points lagging behind with only two/three wins, but only seven/eight points out of a playoff spot with another two rounds of 14 games still to play.
Brooklyn FC (9-2-3—29 points; First)
Arguably the surprise performance of the first half of the season as Brooklyn was late to name a coach and had trouble finding a field to play on early in the season, but ended the fall season at the top of the table. They have been the class of the league thus far this season, holding a six point lead over second place Dallas, with a four point gap between the second and fifth place sides. They earned four consecutive shutouts in their last four games and sailed to wins in their last six games, scoring 13 goals and allowing only two goals in those half-dozen games, leading to a comfortable first-place lead.
American Jessica Garziano (23)—who played at St. John’s University and was a late round draft choice by Angel City in 2024 but was not signed—and Brazilian U-20 international forward Luana Grabias (24) are joint top of the team in scoring with four goals, while American Isabel Cox (24) has three goals in 14 goals. Cox scored three goals in 13 A-League Women matches in 2023-24 for Wellington Phoenix. Garziano scored Brooklyn’s first ever goal from the penalty spot in a 1-1 tie with Spokane Zephyr on September 8. Grabias started the Super League season with Ft. Lauderdale but moved early in the season to the New York side. Brooklyn is tied for third in the league in scoring with 19, just one goal behind joint leaders Dallas Trinity and Lexington SC.
Brooklyn has the stingiest defense in the league, allowing only eight goals in 14 games, with Carolina next best with 11 allowed. Puerto Rican international goalkeeper Sydney Martinez (25) has played in nine games, with four shutouts, while U.S. U-17 and U-20 youth international Neeku Purcell (21) has played in five games, with three shutouts. Purcell was with the U-20 WWC Finals side in 2022 and called into the U.S. WNT Futures camp in January, which is Emma Hayes attempt to develop more national team players who are 23 or younger. She sees the U.S. as having a serious gap of players with national team experience who are 23 or under compared to European teams and this first camp was a way to address that and provide more games for younger players beyond the U-17 and U-20 national teams.
Hayes told the media early in January: “I love developing (players). I think when you consider how little programming some players have actually had, I almost feel like we’ve had a little bit of a lost generation that might not have had some of the exposures that some of the top nations (have had). So I’m desperate to look at ways to bridge that gap, because we can’t whole-heartedly just rely on domestic play to do that. We have to give international experiences to players.”
Hayes cited the U.S. 2-1 victory over the Netherlands at the end of last year as a key reason for fast-tracking the development of younger American players: “I was thinking about the number of times that (Daniëlle) van de Donk (Lyon of France), Jill Roord (Manchester City of England) and Jackie Groenen (Paris St.-Germain of France) had played together from youth level upwards. Well, I’d expect them to boss a number of teams off of the pitch when you’ve got that cap accumulation, that experience together… That’s why, for me, the under-23 program is significant, because I might be able to help develop some of those experiences to see what they’re like against international level and caliber at their own age but, at the same time, have a core group of players that I know will be an integral part of our planning for 26, 27, 28.”
Moroccan international Salma Amani, who has played for years in France and was with Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia last season—scoring four goals in eight games—has only played 44 minutes across two games thus far this season. She was on Morocco’s 2023 WWC Finals side that made it to the Round of 16 in their debut at the senior tournament.
Dallas Trinity (6-5-3—23 points; Second)
Dallas is tied—surprisingly—with joint bottom side Lexington SC for the team lead in goals with 20. American Alexis Thornton (27) was second in the league in scoring during the first half of the season with six goals. She won Belgium league titles the last two seasons with Anderlecht and has also played in France. This is a good veteran team that is not easily flustered and led in the back by veteran American defender Amber Brooks, who has played in all 14 games and scored twice. English-born Chioma Ubogagu (32) has complemented Thornton up front with two goals in 12 games. Ubogagu spent a lot of her youth in Dallas-Ft. Worth and has played in the WSL with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, in Spain with Real Madrid/CD Tacon, in Australia with Brisbane Roar and in the NWSL with Orlando and Houston. She scored 27 goals in 89 games at Stanford University and was a U.S. youth international at multiple levels before joining England’s WNT in 2018.
Seattle Reign loanee Sam Meza (23)—who played at the University of North Carolina—was on the league’s Team of the Month for November, playing every minute of all four games when the Trinity was undefeated, with three wins and one tie. Meza was grateful for the opportunity to play in the league, stating that: “I’m really thankful that the USL Super League was created to provide plenty of more opportunities for women to play. It has allowed me to get some games in, get some more experience in, because you can never out-beat playing. You can train all you want, but the playing experience is awesome.”
American goalkeeper Madison White (23) has five shutouts, second most in the league behind Megean McClelland of Carolina, who has six. On December 9, the NWSL North Carolina Courage waived defender Julia Dorsey (24), who was on loan to the Trinity. Dorsey was a third-round pick out of the University of North Carolina by the Courage, where she was a two-sport athlete. She missed her senior soccer season due to an injury she suffered while playing lacrosse the previous spring and did not appear in any games for the Trinity in the Fall. It is assumed that she will be back with the Trinity for the spring season.
At press deadline late in January, the Trinity announced that they had signed midfielder Lexi Missimo to a three year contract. She played at the University of Texas in Austin and left the school as their all-time career leader in points (176), goals (56) and assists (64). She is one of the most revered players at the youth level in the country—despite not playing in a FIFA youth final as she was not selected for the 2018 U-17 WWC tournament and the 2021 edition was cancelled due to COVID, while she did not play in the 2022 U-20 finals to concentrate on her college season.
She was called into the U.S. U-23 team last season and was at the recent USWNT Futures Camp for national team prospects. She was raised in the Dallas area and her father and youth coach is Derek Missimo, who played for the U.S. at the first ever FIFA Under-16 World Cup in 1985 and finished his college career as the University of North Carolina’s all-time leading scorer in 1990. Her mother Susan played for four seasons at Texas Christian University. Despite the Dallas connection, her signing blindsided many who thought she would automatically sign with a NWSL side. Dallas Trinity has been a trailblazer, bringing Barcelona to Dallas for a friendly, and now has signed a top talent. It shows also the USL Super League—which is a division 1 football league in the U.S.—can compete for top talent.
Carolina Ascent (5-6-3—21 points; Third)
Carolina has the second best team defense in the league as they have allowed only 11 goals, behind Brooklyn (8). On offense however, they are averaging only one goal a game, scoring 14 goals for sixth best in the league. The Ascent started on an 11-match unbeaten streak (5 wins and 6 ties) before losing its last three matches: 2-1 to Tampa Bay and 2-0 to Ft. Lauderdale, both in Florida, and 1-0 to Dallas at home.
Mia Corbin leads the team with three goals in 14 games. She scored eight goals in 22 matches with Brisbane Roar in 2023-24 in Australia and played the previous season with Parma in Italy’s Serie A. American-born Colombian international Jaydah Bedoya (22) has two goals in 11 games as does American Ashlynn Serepca (24), with her two goals coming in 11 games. Bedoya was born and raised in Massachusetts and played at the University of Connecticut and West Virginia University. Serepca played at the Universities of Virginia and Alabama and scored 16 goals in 12 games for FC Pinzgau in Austria’s second division, a side that we will profile later this spring, as they have been a nice launching pad for Americans and others in starting their professional careers.
Midfielder B Hylton (17) of England, who has played in three Ascent matches in the fall, was called up late last year for England’s U-19 WNT for first round qualifying in the 2025 UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship. England’s U-19 side advanced to the next round in April 2025 by defeating Turkey (2-1), Italy (1-0) and losing to Poland (1-0), with the latter hosting the European finals next summer in four cities in the southeastern region of the country. All three teams tied for the group lead with six points and all three advanced to the next round. Hylton grew up in Charlotte.
Hylton was the first player to join Carolina Ascent on a USL Academy contract. USL Academy contracts allow Academy products at USL clubs to sign, train and compete in matches with professional senior teams without affecting their eligibility to play college soccer, thus playing as amateurs.
Goalkeeper Meagan McClelland (24) has played in all 14 games this season with six shutouts—the best total in the league—and has won a league title in the NWSL with the NJ/NY Gotham FC in 2023. She played on short-term contracts with Chicago, San Diego and Gotham in 2023. She then joined Odense in Denmark’s second tier, helping them win promotion this past summer, and played collegiately at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
For the spring season, the Ascent signed forward Riley Mattingly Parker (24) from the Tampa Bay Sun, where she started six of her 10 appearances. She played five seasons at the University of Alabama, recording 25 goals and 13 assists in 74 appearances from 2018-2022. She was signed by Racing Louisville for the 2023 season, went on loan to UANL Tigres for the 2022-23 Clausura, scoring twice in eight games. Louisville released her in August of 2023.
Fort Lauderdale United FC( 6-2-5—20 points; Fourth)
Ft. Lauderdale jumped into the playoff frame with three consecutive wins to end the fall season: 2-1 over Dallas, 2-1 over Spokane and 2-0 over Carolina. Ft. Lauderdale captured 10 points out of 15 in their last five games—all at home. The team had started strong with two wins but then hit a rough patch of earning one point from five matches, before their three game winning streak to end the fall season.
American forward Addison McCain (26) led the team and the league with eight goals—she played from 2021-2023 in the NWSL with Kansas City and Chicago after time with Texas A&M University. American forward Jasmine Hamid (23) is next with three goals. Hamid played at Towson University in Maryland and was with BK Hacken of Sweden early in 2024, playing in 17 matches. Hamid was the League’s Player of the Month in December with one goal and two assists in their three games—all wins—to end the fall season. Her goal against Dallas Trinity FC in the second minute of a 2-1 home win on December 1 was the fastest recorded goal in league history.
Defender Laveni Vaka (23) played with Tonga in Oceania’s WWC qualifiers for the last 2023 WWC Finals; she grew up in Utah and has been key for the team’s defense this season, starting in all 13 games that she has played in.
Midfielder Anele Komani (26) was born and grew up in London and is a South African national. She played at the University of West Alabama and professionally for Kdz. Ereglispor in Turkey, Hapoel Petah Tikva in Israel, Clube De Albergaria in Portugal and Chelsea in England.
Ft. Lauderdale’s head coach Tyrone Mears (41) was born in Sierra Leone and grew up in England; as a player he won the MLS Cup (league title) with the Seattle Sounders.
Tampa Bay Sun (5-4-4—19 points; Fifth)
American Carlee Giammona (24) of the U.S. had five goals in the fall season, tied for third in the league with Madison Parsons (24) of Lexington SC. Giammona scored eight goals in 11 games last season with Glasgow City in Scotland’s Premier Women’s League. She is followed closely by two imports: Natahsa Flint (28 ) of England and Cecilie Floe (23) of Denmark, each with four goals. Floe scored four goals in 24 games with Koge last season at home.
Their two Canadians—defender Vivianne Bessette (22) and midfielder Jordyn Listro (29)—have both played in 13 games this season. Bessette played at the University of South Florida and with Canada at the U-20 WWC in Costa Rica in 2022. She played for Bulgaria at the U-17 level and with the U-19 team during European qualifying. She grew up in Montreal. Listro, from Toronto, also played at USF in Tampa. Listro played in Spain with Tenerife and then quit the game to work in medical sales, but returned to the field and played with Kansas City and Orlando Pride in the NWSL from 2020-23.
American forward Parker Goins (26) was signed in January for the 2025 spring season. She previously played for Racing Louisville FC in the NWSL, where she made 36 appearances from 2022-2024. Goins spent five seasons with the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, where she totaled 40 goals and 38 assists in 96 appearances. The club also recently signed defender Jordan Zade to her first professional contract, finishing her college career in 2023 at the University of Nebraska, appearing in 74 games.
D.C. Power (3-4-7—13 points; Sixth Place)
The top five teams have opened a sizeable gap over the bottom three, with D.C. in sixth place and six points behind fifth place Tampa Bay. They have only scored seven goals in 14 games, six fewer than Spokane who have scored 13 goals for seventh best in the league. More offense is paramount for D.C. to be competitive in the spring season. Their leading scorers with two goals are two Americans: Madison Wolfbauer (25)—who played the last three seasons in Iceland after college at the University of Illinois and Bowling Green State University in Ohio—and Allie Flanagan (18), who has scored two goals in only four games—both coming in a 2-1 home win at Audi Field on October 25 against Lexington.
Australian international goalkeeper Morgan Aquino has four shutouts in 12 matches (see: The Week in Women's Football: A-League preview P1; exclusive chat with Morgan Aquino - TribalFootball.com). Shortly after our interview, in mid-November she was called by the Matildas for a full national team camp for the first time. She had previously played for the U-17, U-20 and U-23 national teams. She was one of 36 players brought in for four international team matches against Brazil (3-1 and 2-1 losses) and Chinese Taipei (3-1 and 6-0 wins) in four international friendlies between November 28 and December 7. She did not play in either match against Chinese Taipei, but Australia plays in the SheBelieves Cup in February, so she might have an opportunity for her first cap in that tournament, if head coach Tom Sermanni brings her in again.
French native and long-time D.C. area resident and original Power head coach Fred Brillant was let go as head coach before their last match of the fall. D.C. Power was (3-4-6 W-D-L) under Brillant, who was appointed as the team’s first ever head coach on May 20. Ironically, Brillant had led the team to a last minute win over Fort Lauderdale FC (1-0) on November 23 in his last game as coach. He has been in the D.C. area since 2018, playing and coaching with D.C. United of MLS. He was an assistant coach with the NWSL Utah Royals before taking the Power job.
D.C. assistant coach Phil Nana, a long-time local coach, is originally from Cameroon and played at Frostburg State University and with minor league teams in the States. He has coaching licenses from U.S. Soccer and UEFA. He led the team in their final match of the fall portion of the season against Lexington SC on December 14th—a 3-0 defeat. The team is now searching for a new permanent head coach. Team management hopes that the change in coaches will turn around their season in order to compete for a playoff spot. They need to find some quality scorers to pull out of their blue funk in front of the opposing net.
Lexington SC (3-3-8—12 points; Tied for Seventh Place)
Lexington has the opposite problem to D.C.—their scoring has been tremendous, with their 20 team goals leading the league along with Dallas Trinity, while their 30 surrendered is the most in the fall season, 12 more than the next lowest sides: Spokane and D.C. (18 each). They were bottom of the league for most of the season but a 3-0 win at home over the Washington Power on the final match day on December 14 pulled them into a tie with Spokane for seventh.
Americans Madison Parsons (24) has five goals—tied for third in the league’s Golden Boot Race—while teammates Marykate McGuire (24) and Sydney Shepherd (25) both have scored four goals each. Parsons played at Cal State-Chico; following the end of her collegiate career she began playing for Yuba FC in the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) (division four amateur league) from 2023-24, becoming the club’s leading goal scorer as team captain.
She then joined CDA, also in the UPSL, before signing with Lexington SC after taking part in open tryouts for the inaugural Super League season. McGuire played at Duke University and the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and spent time at multiple youth national team camps. Shepherd played at the University of Michigan and also was a trialist for the club in preseason before being offered a contract. The trio has scored two-thirds (13 of 20) of the team’s goals this year.
Canadian international (youth and senior) forward Amanda Allen (19), on loan from the Orlando Pride of the NWSL, was placed on the NWLS’s Season Ending Injury List. Her loan to Lexington was terminated and she will undergo surgery in Orlando. She started all nine games she played in while on loan in Kentucky. Allen sustained a torn labrum in her right shoulder.
Pride VP of Soccer Operations and Sporting Director Haley Carter said: “This is an unfortunate situation for Amanda, as she was gaining valuable experience and meaningful match minutes with Lexington, but we are confident she will come back a stronger athlete following this setback."
She joined the Pride in 2023 and, in two campaigns in the NWSL, has appeared in 17 matches and earned one assist across all competitions.
Another import, Na-yeong Shin (25) of Korea Republic, has been an ever-present in defense for Lexington, starting all 14 matches in the fall. She played at home in the K-League with Amazones FC and Changnyeong WFC and has been capped by Korea Republic at the U-17 and U-20 levels.
For the 2025 spring season, Lexington SC has acquired Colombian youth international defender Sintia Cabezas (18) on loan from the NWSL’s San Diego Wave, who signed her for two years. She made her professional debut at the age of 16 with her hometown club América de Cali in the Colombian first division. Since 2022, she has made 47 appearances, contributing two goals and one assist. The team won the Liga Femenina title in Colombia 2022 and America of Cali finished in third place at the 2022 Copa Libertadores Femenina. She has 24 caps for Colombia’s U-20 WNT, which made the quarterfinals as last summer’s FIFA U-20 WWC at home. Cabezas started all five matches of the tournament in defense as the team recorded four consecutive clean sheets through the group stage and into the knockout rounds.
Spokane Zephyr (2-6-6—12 points; Tied for Seventh Place)The Zephyr has more ties (along with Carolina) with six, and combined with the fewest wins (two) in the league, have left them at the bottom of the table at the end of the fall season. We profiled this club late last year (see: The Week in Women's Football: Spokane Zephyr in focus; how the USL Super League franchise exceeding expectations - TribalFootball.com) and they are not far off putting together a string of results and moving up the table, as five of their six losses were by one goal, with the other being an early season loss to Carolina by a 2-0 score. Emina Ekic (25), a full international for Bosnia & Herzegovina, leads the side with three goals while American midfielder Taylor Aylmar (26) and defender Haley Thomas (25) have two each. Ayler played at Rutgers University and with clubs in Finland and the NWSL (Gotham, D.C. Spirit and Racing Louisville). Thomas is from Eastern Washington, played collegiately at Weber State in Utah and Boston College and has previously played in Iceland and Germany.
Hope Hisey (23), who started the season as backup to Isabel Nino (25)—who played all 22 games in 2023-24 with Newcastle Jets in the A-League in Australia—took over as the lead goalkeeper for the last seven games. Hisey was named to the League’s Top 11 players list for November, allowing one goal in three games with two shutouts. Unfortunately, Spokane only scored once in November and gained three standing points from the three games. Hisey played at the University of Arizona and was drafted by the Kansas City Current in the fourth round of the 2024 draft.
The team received some good news late in January when two key players—both raised from Oregon—have extended their contracts with the Zephyr. Forward McKenzie Weinert (26), who had been on loan from Seattle Reign of NWSL, and midfielder Sophia Braun (25), formerly of the NWSL’s Kansas City Current and a current Argentinian international who scored in the 2023 WWC Finals, both became full-time Zephyr players over the league’s winter break. Braun played locally at Gonzaga University and Weinert played at Oregon State and the University of Washington. Both players started in nine of their total of 11 appearances in the fall season.
For the spring season, Zephyr brought in forward Ally Cook (24) who played for the Chicago Red Stars, making 15 appearances in the 2024 campaign. In college, she played in the West for three seasons at the University of Oregon and two at UCLA, where she won a national championship.
Jacksonville will join the Super League for the 2025-26 season
SC Jacksonville is joining the Super League for the 2025-26 season and will play at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium. It hopes to secure a permanent home stadium for its men’s and women’s teams (the men are slated to begin play in the USL Championship—second tier behind Major League Soccer—in 2026).
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