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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 summer break is ending, but that doesn’t mean you have to turn off our NWSL songs of the summer playlist. Players are back, but you still have a couple more months to lounge by the pool in between games (or during, we don’t judge).
In today’s Full Time:
A trophy and star for Gotham
Cleat coverup
Speaking to an icon
But first, it’s time to get back to the NWSL …
Back to School
Where did we leave off?
While some NWSL players and coaches found relaxation in their four weeks away (shoutout Hal Hershfelt), others did the rounds promoting the game at the men’s World Cup (hi, Lindsey Heaps, Trinity Rodman and Leicy Santos).
We don’t blame you if you’re a little foggy on where things left off. We’re here with what you need to know for the second half of the season:
The league lead is razor-thin. The top six spots are separated by just four points. San Diego Wave is on top with 25 points, followed by the Utah Royals, who are tied with the Portland Thorns on 24 points. The Washington Spirit, Gotham FC and Kansas City Current are hot on the chase with 21 points apiece. However, of this group, only the Royals and Gotham are on unbeaten streaks of more than two matches.
Barbra Banda entered the break with pure dominance. She scored a brace in the Orlando Pride’s 3-1 win over Bay FC and extended her lead in the Golden Boot. (She did leave the match due to injury. We’ll be keeping our eye on that.) The 26-year-old’s 11 goals are ahead of two-time MVP Temwa Chawinga and Ashley Sanchez (seven each). Sanchez is a dark horse for multiple end-of-year awards after her resurgence this season.
Summer signings could be the difference. Gotham officially announced it signed Sam Kerr today on a deal that sees the 32-year-old among the highest-paid players in the league. We will be doing the math in the coming weeks to see how exactly this is possible. If anyone can work the cap, it’s recently promoted president of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West.Meanwhile, Heaps will finally land in Denver next month after signing with the Summit earlier this year. Watch U.S. women’s coach Emma Hayes tell Denver coach Nick Cushing exactly what he’s getting from the national team captain. We’re also still wondering when Wave signing Catarina Macario will get her first minutes for the SoCal side.
Here’s where the table stands heading into this weekend:
Sixteen things to watch
Earlier this month, we welcomed Meg back, and she had plenty of questions after being away for the first part of the season: Are the Royals for real? Will the Spirit finally break their runners-up curse with the championship match coming to D.C.? And can the salary cap keep up with a league growing faster than anyone expected?
While we don’t have all the answers yet, here are 16 things we are keeping our eye on as the league returns to play:
Let’s start with 1) which hairstyle Rodman will be rocking against the Houston Dash on Friday after sporting a blonde bob at the World Cup and a longer Hannah Montana-esque look during the Spirit’s bar crawl (yes, you read that right). More seriously, 2) will the Spirit build on the chemistry they found at the end of the first half? Their last win wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done. Meanwhile, 3) the Dash’s young players are overperforming this season — will it be enough to get through to the postseason for only the second time in team history? 4 and 5) Denver’s clash with Kansas City on Friday. Will KC bounce back from its Challenge Cup loss, or will Denver start heating up while it waits for Heaps to become eligible July 14?
To round out Friday night, 6) Angel City FC will play their first game since firing coach Alex Straus, versus Orlando. 7) And how does Ally Sentnor fare at her third club in three years? Of course, 8) we will always be on Banda watch.
We also have 9) appointment viewing with San Diego versus Gotham on Saturday. What makes this one interesting: 10) Both teams made major signings this year with Macario and Kerr. Now 11) it’s a race to see which player makes an impact first. Also on Saturday, 12) we’re watching for Sanchez’s stealthy Golden Boot push with North Carolina.
13) Fourteenth-placed Boston Legacy are spreading their wings (check out their 44-foot swan), especially with the addition of defender Lilly Reale. 14) They’ll need her to keep their goals-against tally low, though that might not be an issue this weekend against Bay FC, who have only scored nine goals this season.
15) Will playing the Chicago Stars in the Windy City be a trap game that jeopardizes Utah’s current run? We doubt it, but it’s worth watching just in case. And last, but certainly not least, 16) Portland Thorns hosting Racing Louisville to cap the weekend as the top-versus-bottom-of-the-table clash. Sophia Wilson loves to score, especially at Providence Park.
It’s a lot, we know, so here’s the full schedule.
Meg’s Corner: Is NWSL still the best league for U.S. players?
Last week on the “Full Time” podcast, I asked a question: For all the angst around the U.S. women’s early exit from the 2023 World Cup, and the implications it carried for the NWSL and its club environments, has the league adapted enough to impact the team for 2027?
That’s related to the NWSL’s quest to be the best league in the world, a position it held by default for about a decade. No league can claim the top-to-bottom parity of the NWSL, but plenty of words have been written on the competition from top European clubs like Chelsea, Barcelona and OL Lyonnes. One of the clearest outcomes for NWSL from that U.S. failure in 2023 has been a stronger focus on attracting top international talent.
The NWSL does not exist in a vacuum for producing or developing USWNT talent, but the league remains the primary source for Hayes’ roster.
For the June friendlies against Brazil, 21 of the 26 players came from NWSL clubs. (To be fair, other national teams also rely on the league to prepare their players, Brazil most prominently.)
With Hayes spending a full year sifting through the U.S. depth pool, poking her way through the NWSL clubs, we have seen an increased trust in young players like Claire Hutton, Avery Patterson and Claudia Dickey. As much as youth national team experience has also shaped these players, the week-to-week NWSL environments have a much greater role in the build-up to 2027.
We’ll have to wait until next summer to find out if the NWSL adequately responded to the wake-up call it got in 2023 and if the USWNT is ready to run the gantlet of teams like Spain, Japan and Brazil.
More USWNT: You can listen or watch as I discuss what we know about the team one year out from the World Cup with fellow “Full Time” hosts Jillian Sakovits and Tamerra Griffin, as well as The Athletic’s Melanie Anzidei.
Notables
NWSL Challenge Cup
Congratulations to Gotham, who grabbed what could be just their first trophy of the year against the Current in the seventh annual Challenge Cup on Friday. Columbus, the home of a 2028 expansion team, played host at a rainy ScottsMiracle-Gro Field.
Esther González opened the scoring in the 37th minute, calmly converting from the penalty spot. And then Jordynn Dudley, Gotham’s rising star, put the game away with a solo run that made KC’s defense look like Swiss cheese.
This competition has been many things since its inception: a tournament to allow the league to play in a bubble during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, a one-off match hosted by the NWSL champions and now a neutral-site affair. In all the fun, we still wondered, what’s the point?
It might be less about the result and more about the marketing opportunity, as Meg writes.
More news
Keep a close eye on cleats this weekend. The NWSL launched a new footwear sponsorship framework that limits brand visibility to those who sign deals with the league, or companies will be forced to pay a fine.
Amid reports of Alexia Putellas’ agreement to join London City Lionesses, the former Barcelona midfielder confirmed that she and her family were safe after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela last week, where they were on vacation in Caracas.
Lazio women must pay $78,000 in compensation to former player Maja Gothberg after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the Italian team unlawfully ended her time at the club due to her pregnancy.
Real Madrid signed striker Felicia Schroder, 19, from BK Hacken for what the Swedish side is calling a women’s-record transfer fee. Helpfully, neither club provided details on the financials involved.
Switzerland captain Lia Walti could be headed back to England. Charlotte Harpur was first to report that Brighton & Hove Albion are working on a deal to sign the 33-year-old from Juventus.
First Looks
Free, free falling: The NWSL free-agency window opens Wednesday. Clubs have to exercise their club, player or mutual options, or their 2027 free agents will officially be allowed to negotiate with other teams. Spotrac has a really helpful interactive list of next year’s class, which includes Wilson in Portland, Vanessa DiBernardo in Kansas City and Santos in Washington.
Words from a GOAT: Mia Hamm knows what it takes to capture a nation with World Cup buzz. Asli Pelit spoke to the legend about this moment for the men’s team, the 2027 World Cup and how Brazil could have its own 1999 moment.
Flashback: Now that it’s official, we will leave you with the last time Kerr played for Gotham (then Sky Blue). The year was 2017, and Kerr was voted league MVP with a record 17 goals in 22 games. Her career total at the time was 43 goals.
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.
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