Stories are beginning to take shape across the NWSL, people. Looking just to last weekend, we had revenge goals and own goals alike. And hey, woah, the Houston Dash finally won another game!
To take the pulse of the league, we’re zooming in on one thought for each team.
Onwards, in order of the current standings.
Kansas City Current
The future can still be now
Debinha scored the Current’s lone goal in their weekend win over the Courage, turning a rebound from a Temwa Chawinga into a 1-0 victory. But the real star of the show in that goal’s creation? 18-year-old Claire Hutton.
In a span of 15 seconds, Hutton…
- Correctly reads the pass that’s North Carolina will make
- Breaks on said read and dispossesses Ashley Sanchez to start an attacking move
- Carries the ball through space, making the correct decision to pass when a defender closes
- Keeps finding space and puts a through ball between two defenders to create a good look for Chawinga on net
This was a player that should be graduating right about now – not college, high school. We’re still too early for this, but the U.S. women’s national team is always looking for new options to help fill out the midfield, and Hutton has shown flashes of a potential emergence as the sort of box-to-box disrupter profile the program doesn’t have a ton of at the moment.
She needs more time to refine her game, but Hutton is a defensive stats beast who has started every game this season for one of the best teams in the league. It doesn’t feel far-fetched to wonder, should she keep up her level of play, if she’ll be receiving some calls from Emma Hayes by the end of the year.
Orlando Pride
The underrated reason why the Pride are soaring
It’s not a new concept that offensive firepower is a little more marketable than rock solid defense.
For the Pride, then, it’s been the attack that’s earned a lot of love: Orlando have scored the fourth-most goals in the league and have an early MVP frontrunner in Barbra Banda. But their real strength comes along the backline.
The Pride’s defense has been nothing short of incredible this season.
