Breaking down the NWSL's 2-player MVP race. Plus, U.S. teens thrill on the world's stage

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Staying up past bedtime is worth it. Stick around for a recap of the U.S. U-20’s heart-pounding comeback and meet the newest member of our team. Emily Olsen here with Meg Linehan, Steph Yang and Jeff Rueter — welcome to Full Time!

NWSL News

The two-player NWSL MVP race

This weekend, the Washington Spirit joined the Orlando Pride as the first two teams to clinch a spot in the NWSL postseason. As much as the story of this season has been about the Pride and the league having to hit pause on its favorite buzzword, “parity,” there are also plenty of narratives heading into these final few weeks about the individual awards. (And there is a new award on the table this season: midfielder of the year.)

Heading into the final months, the big debate remains: KC Current’s Temwa Chawinga or Pride’s Barbra Banda? They’re leading the way when it comes to the golden boot race, but they’re also the two clear candidates for this year’s MVP award.

The case for Banda:

Leads the league with five game-winning goals
33% of her touches are in the box — the only player above 20%
Gets a boost from Orlando’s unbeaten 2024 and their turnaround narrative

The case for Chawinga:

Leads the league in goals (15) and goals + assists (21)
Her consistency: 12 games in a row with a goal scored
Kept the KC attack clicking after losing Bia to injury

We also have a healthy debate brewing about how much Orlando’s performance is going to influence this awards season. Expect it to heavily influence at least three other categories as well.

Houston, we have a problem

The Houston Dash suffered a 3-0 defeat against the Washington Spirit on Sunday, leaving them winless and having scored just two goals in nine games — and at the bottom of the standings with 14 points. With only six games left in the regular season, including one against the league-leading Pride, it doesn’t look likely that the Dash will escape the elimination zone. Bay FC currently occupy that eighth spot in the standings with 25 points.

This has been, perhaps, the worst season of the Dash’s existence. The team has never been a high flyer in the league, making playoffs just once (in 2022 with a fourth-place finish in the regular season standings). But this season the team has had to combat a maddening amount of off-field factors, including player shuffling, an absentee head coach and a general manager firing. Players voiced their frustration after the loss this weekend and Steph broke down the team’s biggest issues.

Commissioner talks power balance in NWSL

Last week, ESPN published an anonymous survey of all 14 NWSL general managers. In it, a few of the GMs expressed concerns that the league’s reforms for players have “gone too far.”

NWSL Players Association executive Meghann Burke said she completely rejected “the narrative that players have too much power.”

While attending the Spirit-Dash game on Sunday, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman addressed the survey and the league’s hiring of new sporting senior director Sarah Gregorius. She described her view of the player and team power balance as “inextricably intertwined”:

“When we read that, obviously, that’s something that we need to pay attention to and listen to. We want to make sure that our technical staff feels supported. That shouldn’t be at the expense of players. They both deserve to have an environment where they feel supported and recognized and understand that externally, there’s been a tremendous amount of focus on the players themselves.”

Meg’s Corner: The nuance of Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer

Netflix’s latest “Untold” series focuses on USWNT goalkeeper Hope Solo.

The streaming service describes the episode as covering “the human struggle behind the headlines,” and says it “charts Solo’s life and career from a complicated upbringing in rural Washington to the pinnacle of sports stardom as she became the greatest national team goalkeeper in soccer history.”

That’s not exactly what the episode accomplishes, though. The thesis of this episode of “Untold” is Solo’s own, that she was “blackballed” by U.S. Soccer for “getting into the money.” There’s little in the episode to test that thesis and part of the problem here is that so many people declined to participate. The documentary provides a list of over a dozen USWNT players who turned them down, as well as former USWNT head coach Jill Ellis.

Solo’s story is one that requires plenty of context and nuance, and that doesn’t always feel like the case when it comes to this “Untold” — especially around the equal pay fight and the facts at hand. There’s no mention of the new collective bargaining agreement agreed to in 2022, for instance, though it is the key document in the USWNT achieving equal pay moving forward.

There’s two sides to every story. For the first time, Hope Solo tells how her fight for equal pay led to a falling out with the national team. Untold: Hope Solo vs US Soccer, is now streaming only on Netflix pic.twitter.com/NKoy9RZGgg

— Netflix (@netflix) September 4, 2024

The bright spot for me was the thoughtful contributions from Solo’s former college coaches, Lesle Gallimore (now GM of the Seattle Reign) and Amy Griffin (head coach of the U.S. women’s deaf national team). They both spoke to Solo the player, and Solo the human — and understood why a lot of other people didn’t want to speak at all.

The episode is flawed, but perhaps a good test of media literacy and a useful entry point to tackle some larger issues. We’ll be discussing the documentary at greater length on this week’s episode of Full Time — so if you have thoughts, let us know at [email protected].

The Kids Are Alright: U.S. thrills at the U-20 World Cup

The kids are keeping things exciting down in Colombia for the U-20 Women’s World Cup. First, the USYNT needed overtime to get a round of 16 victory against Mexico, after taking the lead twice then giving up that lead during regular time. But they survived and advanced, facing off against Germany in the quarterfinals.

Raise your hand if you turned off the match when Germany scored in stoppage time to make it 2-0. It’s hard to blame you if you did because the 92nd-minute goal from Germany’s Loreen Bender had all the markings of the final dagger. But with eight minutes of stoppage time, American Jordynn Dudley got it done again (she had the game-winner against Mexico too) to make it 2-1. Then Utah Royals’ Ally Sentnor managed to find the back of the net in the ninth minute of stoppage time, making it 2-2 and sending the game into overtime.

The equalizer from Sentnor!! #U20WYNT

🎥 » @TelemundoSports

pic.twitter.com/g0RjyH1Da5

— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) September 16, 2024

Tired legs meant penalty kicks, and the U.S. came up big for the first time in its U-20 World Cup history. Germany had a shootout they’ll want to forget, but goalkeeper Teagan Wy put the final exclamation point with a leaping save to send the U.S. through to the semifinal. Not even a review to check Wy’s foot on the line could dampen the celebrations.

The U.S. will face North Korea on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. ET. The game is on FS2 in the U.S.

Hi, My Name Is … The Athletic’s new women’s soccer writer

We are excited to introduce you to Megan Feringa! (Yes, we have a Meg and a Megan now.) She’s a triplet born in New Orleans and Aaron Ramsey’s brace for Wales against Hungary in 2020 had a major influence on her career. She will be covering the Women’s Super League and global women’s soccer. But, enough from us, here’s a quick intro from Megan herself:

The COVID-19 pandemic left me stranded in the UK in a small apartment by myself for a year. Football became my lifeline, specifically women’s football. The manner in which something could not only survive so many decades of neglect and maltreatment but return stronger tugged at something visceral inside of me at a time when I felt wholly abandoned.

You can read Megan’s journey to The Athletic here, but the WSL kicks off this weekend, so it’s time to get straight to business with a Q&A:

What storyline should we keep our eye on this season in WSL?

This season is all about the space vacated by Emma Hayes. Will the long-time Chelsea manager’s exit signal the end of the established hegemony and offer Arsenal, Manchester City or Manchester United room to succeed? Or will new Blues boss Sonia Bompastor take Hayes’ dominance to the next level?

Who is poised for a breakout?

Liverpool’s Mia Enderby (19) and Olivia Smith (20). Both have impressed with the England and Canada youth teams respectively and are expected to be handed more responsibility by Reds manager Matt Beard. If the club are to build on last season’s historic fourth-placed league finish, these two players will need to make waves.

Dare I ask for an early champion prediction?

Even with Hayes’ exit, it feels naive to bet against Chelsea so soon. But Manchester City look the real deal this season — and need to after losing the title so cruelly last term. To bet against a side with Bunny Shaw (the golden boot winner) and Vivianne Miedema (the reigning WSL GOAT) feels like a fool’s errand.