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Full Time Newsletter 
| This is The Athletic’s weekly women’s soccer newsletter. Sign up here to receive Full Time directly in your inbox.
The song “Man I Need” has been stuck in my head for days, which isn’t entirely my fault — it’s everywhere. Here’s your soccer connection: The artist, East Londoner Olivia Dean, is a massive West Ham supporter and had a fan moment when she received a video from the team.
Today in Full Time:
Ali Riley retires
Player power in WNBA and women’s soccer
Champions League kicks off
Let’s start with the goodbyes …
Angel City’s reason to push for playoffs
Tonight, Angel City FC hosts the Kansas City Current, who have already wrapped up the top spot in the NWSL with four weeks to go (10:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports). Sprinting to the finish, a staple of the Los Angeles club might have just given the team the emotional push needed to battle from No. 11 in the standings into one of the eight postseason spots.
After nearly two decades in professional soccer, Angel City and New Zealand captain Ali Riley is calling time on her professional playing career. Last Tuesday, the 37-year-old announced this season would be her last. While she’s a world-class defender, Riley has spent her career showing that leadership matters just as much as talent.
Riley started her pro career in the WPS, the NWSL’s predecessor, earning rookie of the year honors with FC Gold Pride before the team, and later the league, folded due to financial pressures. Like many players, she soon looked overseas for more opportunities.
The Los Angeles native returned to the U.S. in 2020, joining the Orlando Pride before fulfilling a career-long dream of playing professionally in her hometown when she joined Angel City in 2022.
The American represented New Zealand (through her father’s heritage) five times at the World Cup and four times at the Olympics. But a chronic nerve injury forced Riley to pull out from her fifth Olympics last summer and has sidelined her for much of this NWSL season.
A beating heart of the Football Ferns, she has earned 163 caps and captained the team in its first World Cup win in 2023 against Norway in front of a sold-out crowd in Auckland, New Zealand. After the match, Riley gave one of her signature heartfelt postgame interviews, laying her emotions bare about how important the win was for her and the country.
Riley is a leader, a culture-builder and a fearless advocate for mental health, identity and equality. Her vulnerability, including this year when her family lost its home in the L.A. fires, has made her a go-to figure in the sport. She is also one of the most commercially successful players in the league, with 11 active brand deals.
Whether it’s expanding her “BFFR” podcast with teammate Sydney Leroux, stepping into advocacy work or moving into commentary, Riley has the world at her feet — if not a ball.
A permanent part of Portland history
Speaking of passing the torch, 20-year-old Olivia Moultrie scored a brace in the Portland Thorns’ 2-1 win over Bay FC on Saturday — a night when the club named Canadian soccer legend Christine Sinclair as its first hall of fame inductee. Portland also retired Sinclair’s iconic No. 12 jersey.
The 42-year-old spent over a decade cementing Portland as one of the most successful clubs in the NWSL, captaining the team to three NWSL championships and two Shields. Sinclair is international soccer’s leading goal scorer and boasts three Olympic medals, including the gold she won with Canada at the Tokyo Games.
As Portland teammate Sophia Wilson expressed in a postgame interview last year, it’s hard to put into words just how much Sinclair means to Portland and to women’s soccer:
“She’s the best for a reason and, I mean, she is Portland, and it’s not going to be the same.”
Now, no matter how far she is from the city, there will always be a piece of “Sinc” in Providence Park.
Even as the Las Vegas Aces have taken a commanding 2-0 lead in the WNBA Finals over the Phoenix Mercury, Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier’s callout of league leadership is reverberating through the world of women’s sports.
We don’t have nearly enough space to get into all of my thoughts on the fallout from the statement Collier delivered after the Lynx’s exit from the playoffs, but there’s one line in particular that has been stuck in my brain:
“The league has a buzzword they’ve rolled out as talking points for the CBA as to why they can’t pay players what they’re worth,” Collier said. “That word is ‘sustainability.’”
Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.
I can’t help but compare how Collier and the WNBA players are using the public sphere to maximize their leverage as collective bargaining negotiations edge closer to a standoff to what I’ve covered over the past decade in women’s soccer.
Sustainability, in this context, is an instant red flag. That word has been used as a shield and intentionally weaponized by those in power to defend a lack of investment and unequal working conditions, and to justify deflating player salaries. In the NWSL, we’ve seen firsthand how years of prioritizing sustainability bred an environment that allowed for systemic abuse.
In the soccer world, however, we’ve also seen the players win, time and time again, thanks to their solidarity and how they harnessed public sentiment and used their platforms. New CBAs for both the USWNT and NWSL players earned wins, from equal pay and free agency to improved working conditions and player safety.
I don’t expect anything different for the WNBA players. It’s a matter of when, not if.
Three questions with Jaedyn Shaw
A month ago, Gotham FC acquired U.S. forward Jaedyn Shaw from the North Carolina Courage for a record $1.25 million transfer fee, more than doubling the previous record. The 20-year-old has quickly made a home with the club, scoring an emotional goal in her first game with Gotham against her first NWSL team, the San Diego Wave, on Sept. 12.
Shaw sat down with Melanie Anzidei last Friday for a wide-ranging interview. Three hard-hitting questions you’ll only get in this newsletter:
Jaelin Howell recently talked about how there are now two “Jaes” in Gotham’s midfield. Do either of you have a new nickname?
“We’ve been trying to figure it out. It’s kind of hard. We’re trying to do the last name thing, but my last name is kind of awkward to say. … She’s got Howie from Howell, but I don’t know if anything’s gonna stick. I’m like, ‘You know what? We can figure this out in the offseason.’”
Do you have a favorite thing about New Jersey yet?
“I went to this really cute coffee shop yesterday that was called Ladyfingers Bakery that I liked. But other than that, I literally went grocery shopping yesterday, and that was about it.” *Laughs.*
Any game day traditions or superstitions?
“I try to steer away from superstition because, if I can’t do it, then it’s really gonna mess with me. I typically try to just be very free-flowing on game day and do whatever I feel is necessary.”
Up next for third-place Gotham? A showdown with Kansas City on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET (Ion).
Champions League’s tense new format
This week, we enter a new era of Champions League soccer. The women’s format now has each team playing six games without repeating an opponent, intended to increase competitiveness and participation.
Marquee matchup: The reigning champions Arsenal host eight-time Champions League winners OL Lyonnes tomorrow in Meadow Park (3 p.m. ET, Paramount+).
As is typically the case for the French side, Lyonnes, who are top of their league table, Arsenal should pose their steepest competition yet. If the thought of a battle between Tarciane and Olivia Smith, or Mariona and Lily Yohannes, doesn’t induce goosebumps, you have my sympathy.
Arsenal got some good news today, even if it won’t matter tomorrow. England international Leah Williamson, 28, is expected to return from injury before Christmas after a knee issue ruled her out of the start of the season.
Also circle Barcelona against Bayern Munich tomorrow (3 p.m. ET, Paramount+), plus Wednesday’s Real Madrid versus Roma (12:45 p.m. ET, Paramount+) and PSG versus Wolfsburg (3 p.m. ET, CBS Sports) matchups for your viewing choices. Now that teams only have one shot to gain points on their opponents, I’m expecting all-out performances. Lucky us.
Get plenty more on this Champions League season on the latest episode of the “Full Time” podcast.
— Tamerra Griffin
Making moves: Boston Legacy signed Brazil international and 2025 Ballon d’Or nominee Amanda Gutierres through 2029. The 24-year-old will join the team for its inaugural season.
Smile for the runway: Manchester City and Australia forward Mary Fowler, 22, became the first female professional soccer player to walk at Paris Fashion Week. She walked off the L’Oréal Paris runway right into a new contract with City that is expected to keep her at the club through 2027.
Making waves: As the San Diego Wave cling to their spot in the NWSL postseason, the club’s billionaire owners have sued their former president, Jill Ellis, accusing the former USWNT coach of lying about her intentions to stay with the club during their purchase negotiations last year.
Building community: The Washington Spirit opened their gates to hundreds of furloughed federal workers this weekend amid the current government shutdown, offering free and discounted tickets to those affected.
Hi, Barbie: Just in time for the holiday season, the world’s most-followed rugby player, Ilona Maher, will be getting her own signature Barbie doll from Mattel.
Love Full Time? These stories can also be found on Yahoo’s women’s sports hub, in partnership with The Athletic. Also, check out our other newsletters.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
NWSL, Full Time Newsletter
2025 The Athletic Media Company
Continue reading...
| This is The Athletic’s weekly women’s soccer newsletter. Sign up here to receive Full Time directly in your inbox.The song “Man I Need” has been stuck in my head for days, which isn’t entirely my fault — it’s everywhere. Here’s your soccer connection: The artist, East Londoner Olivia Dean, is a massive West Ham supporter and had a fan moment when she received a video from the team.
Today in Full Time:
Ali Riley retires
Player power in WNBA and women’s soccer
Champions League kicks off
Let’s start with the goodbyes …
Goals Galore
Angel City’s reason to push for playoffs
Tonight, Angel City FC hosts the Kansas City Current, who have already wrapped up the top spot in the NWSL with four weeks to go (10:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports). Sprinting to the finish, a staple of the Los Angeles club might have just given the team the emotional push needed to battle from No. 11 in the standings into one of the eight postseason spots.
After nearly two decades in professional soccer, Angel City and New Zealand captain Ali Riley is calling time on her professional playing career. Last Tuesday, the 37-year-old announced this season would be her last. While she’s a world-class defender, Riley has spent her career showing that leadership matters just as much as talent.
Riley started her pro career in the WPS, the NWSL’s predecessor, earning rookie of the year honors with FC Gold Pride before the team, and later the league, folded due to financial pressures. Like many players, she soon looked overseas for more opportunities.
The Los Angeles native returned to the U.S. in 2020, joining the Orlando Pride before fulfilling a career-long dream of playing professionally in her hometown when she joined Angel City in 2022.
The American represented New Zealand (through her father’s heritage) five times at the World Cup and four times at the Olympics. But a chronic nerve injury forced Riley to pull out from her fifth Olympics last summer and has sidelined her for much of this NWSL season.
A beating heart of the Football Ferns, she has earned 163 caps and captained the team in its first World Cup win in 2023 against Norway in front of a sold-out crowd in Auckland, New Zealand. After the match, Riley gave one of her signature heartfelt postgame interviews, laying her emotions bare about how important the win was for her and the country.
Riley is a leader, a culture-builder and a fearless advocate for mental health, identity and equality. Her vulnerability, including this year when her family lost its home in the L.A. fires, has made her a go-to figure in the sport. She is also one of the most commercially successful players in the league, with 11 active brand deals.
Whether it’s expanding her “BFFR” podcast with teammate Sydney Leroux, stepping into advocacy work or moving into commentary, Riley has the world at her feet — if not a ball.
A permanent part of Portland history
Speaking of passing the torch, 20-year-old Olivia Moultrie scored a brace in the Portland Thorns’ 2-1 win over Bay FC on Saturday — a night when the club named Canadian soccer legend Christine Sinclair as its first hall of fame inductee. Portland also retired Sinclair’s iconic No. 12 jersey.
The 42-year-old spent over a decade cementing Portland as one of the most successful clubs in the NWSL, captaining the team to three NWSL championships and two Shields. Sinclair is international soccer’s leading goal scorer and boasts three Olympic medals, including the gold she won with Canada at the Tokyo Games.
As Portland teammate Sophia Wilson expressed in a postgame interview last year, it’s hard to put into words just how much Sinclair means to Portland and to women’s soccer:
“She’s the best for a reason and, I mean, she is Portland, and it’s not going to be the same.”
Now, no matter how far she is from the city, there will always be a piece of “Sinc” in Providence Park.
Meg’s Corner: The power of players, from WNBA to women’s soccer
Even as the Las Vegas Aces have taken a commanding 2-0 lead in the WNBA Finals over the Phoenix Mercury, Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier’s callout of league leadership is reverberating through the world of women’s sports.
We don’t have nearly enough space to get into all of my thoughts on the fallout from the statement Collier delivered after the Lynx’s exit from the playoffs, but there’s one line in particular that has been stuck in my brain:
“The league has a buzzword they’ve rolled out as talking points for the CBA as to why they can’t pay players what they’re worth,” Collier said. “That word is ‘sustainability.’”
Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.
I can’t help but compare how Collier and the WNBA players are using the public sphere to maximize their leverage as collective bargaining negotiations edge closer to a standoff to what I’ve covered over the past decade in women’s soccer.
Sustainability, in this context, is an instant red flag. That word has been used as a shield and intentionally weaponized by those in power to defend a lack of investment and unequal working conditions, and to justify deflating player salaries. In the NWSL, we’ve seen firsthand how years of prioritizing sustainability bred an environment that allowed for systemic abuse.
In the soccer world, however, we’ve also seen the players win, time and time again, thanks to their solidarity and how they harnessed public sentiment and used their platforms. New CBAs for both the USWNT and NWSL players earned wins, from equal pay and free agency to improved working conditions and player safety.
I don’t expect anything different for the WNBA players. It’s a matter of when, not if.
Full Time Exclusive
Three questions with Jaedyn Shaw
A month ago, Gotham FC acquired U.S. forward Jaedyn Shaw from the North Carolina Courage for a record $1.25 million transfer fee, more than doubling the previous record. The 20-year-old has quickly made a home with the club, scoring an emotional goal in her first game with Gotham against her first NWSL team, the San Diego Wave, on Sept. 12.
Shaw sat down with Melanie Anzidei last Friday for a wide-ranging interview. Three hard-hitting questions you’ll only get in this newsletter:
Jaelin Howell recently talked about how there are now two “Jaes” in Gotham’s midfield. Do either of you have a new nickname?
“We’ve been trying to figure it out. It’s kind of hard. We’re trying to do the last name thing, but my last name is kind of awkward to say. … She’s got Howie from Howell, but I don’t know if anything’s gonna stick. I’m like, ‘You know what? We can figure this out in the offseason.’”
Do you have a favorite thing about New Jersey yet?
“I went to this really cute coffee shop yesterday that was called Ladyfingers Bakery that I liked. But other than that, I literally went grocery shopping yesterday, and that was about it.” *Laughs.*
Any game day traditions or superstitions?
“I try to steer away from superstition because, if I can’t do it, then it’s really gonna mess with me. I typically try to just be very free-flowing on game day and do whatever I feel is necessary.”
Up next for third-place Gotham? A showdown with Kansas City on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET (Ion).
What To Watch
Champions League’s tense new format
This week, we enter a new era of Champions League soccer. The women’s format now has each team playing six games without repeating an opponent, intended to increase competitiveness and participation.
Marquee matchup: The reigning champions Arsenal host eight-time Champions League winners OL Lyonnes tomorrow in Meadow Park (3 p.m. ET, Paramount+).
As is typically the case for the French side, Lyonnes, who are top of their league table, Arsenal should pose their steepest competition yet. If the thought of a battle between Tarciane and Olivia Smith, or Mariona and Lily Yohannes, doesn’t induce goosebumps, you have my sympathy.
Arsenal got some good news today, even if it won’t matter tomorrow. England international Leah Williamson, 28, is expected to return from injury before Christmas after a knee issue ruled her out of the start of the season.
Also circle Barcelona against Bayern Munich tomorrow (3 p.m. ET, Paramount+), plus Wednesday’s Real Madrid versus Roma (12:45 p.m. ET, Paramount+) and PSG versus Wolfsburg (3 p.m. ET, CBS Sports) matchups for your viewing choices. Now that teams only have one shot to gain points on their opponents, I’m expecting all-out performances. Lucky us.
Get plenty more on this Champions League season on the latest episode of the “Full Time” podcast.
— Tamerra Griffin
Full Time First Looks
Making moves: Boston Legacy signed Brazil international and 2025 Ballon d’Or nominee Amanda Gutierres through 2029. The 24-year-old will join the team for its inaugural season.
Smile for the runway: Manchester City and Australia forward Mary Fowler, 22, became the first female professional soccer player to walk at Paris Fashion Week. She walked off the L’Oréal Paris runway right into a new contract with City that is expected to keep her at the club through 2027.
Making waves: As the San Diego Wave cling to their spot in the NWSL postseason, the club’s billionaire owners have sued their former president, Jill Ellis, accusing the former USWNT coach of lying about her intentions to stay with the club during their purchase negotiations last year.
Building community: The Washington Spirit opened their gates to hundreds of furloughed federal workers this weekend amid the current government shutdown, offering free and discounted tickets to those affected.
Hi, Barbie: Just in time for the holiday season, the world’s most-followed rugby player, Ilona Maher, will be getting her own signature Barbie doll from Mattel.
Love Full Time? These stories can also be found on Yahoo’s women’s sports hub, in partnership with The Athletic. Also, check out our other newsletters.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
NWSL, Full Time Newsletter
2025 The Athletic Media Company
Continue reading...
