@thisweekinwoso
A weekly newsletter on what to watch, why, and how in the world of women's football by rowan.monster. Subscribe at https://this-week-in-womens-soccer.ghost.io/ Support Rowan at https://www.patreon.com/totalmassacre
Spirit fans, would you like roster news, injury updates, thoughts on WAFCON from Deb Abiodun & Gift Monday, & a deep dive from Haley Carter on a whole lot of things?
Well, here's the 1st Green Line Soccer Spirit notebook of 2026!
This one is free (and long), but the rest will be for subscribers:
"haha, but what if, "
I'm completely ruined by "watching movies without subtitles." only queer in portland
Hocking deal makes perfect sense to me based on this, KC lost Bia and Prince in the offseason and their replacement plan was "hope Sentnor can do it" combined with unproven youngsters
well thanks Kansas City, for rendering a notable chunk of my preview obsolete
There's some mind bending logic trying to pick holes in the Current's thought process.
Cooper and Chawinga are still recovering, and the latter is going to miss a big chunk of the year at WAFCON. Three of their depth forwards are rookies (or close to it in Long's case)!
(she's still gaslighting because she's pretending that's about the good of the league, not protecting owners for their bad decisions)
I actually think she's correct here, because one thing we know about team owners is that given any salary cap possibility they will instantly overspend on mediocre veterans
Claudia Dickey basically single-handedly got a Seattle team that wasn't notably better than you into the playoffs. That doesn't mean Silkowitz is bad, just that expecting her to be as good as Claudia Dickey would maybe have been a bit much
nice! thank you
I believe Nantes vs Fleury will be streamed on the Akrema Premiere Ligue YouTube channel.
stasbourg.....
Following my requests, DAZN has added another French league match on tomorrow....but it's not Fleury vs Nantes (2nd v 4th). Still, Paris FC vs Stasbourg is 5th vs 6th so that's not bad
2026 HINGES ON… Flukes. Utah is betting that the first half failures of the last two seasons have been the flukes, while the second half successes are real. If it turns out that's the wrong way around, well, things might get embarrassing for the Royals.
Finally, Utah. The last two years they've been bad in the first half of the season and good in the second. The club is clearly betting that the "bad" part is the Fluke, but....what if it's the "good" part?
2026 HINGES ON… Class. I like a lot of Bay's players, but they were almost all miscast as like, third-best players on a team when they should have been fifth-best players. Hutton and Girelli are great improvements to positions of need, but I think this team needs one or two more stars to do anything more than "maybe sneak into the playoffs."
#BayFC just needs on the field upgrades all over. They added one genuinely World-Class player in Claire Hutton, and I'm intruiged by some of their other signings, but I feel like they just need to keep upgrading.
2026 HINGES ON… Leadership. I mean really it hinges on the midfield, but that's generally the case in soccer. Ownership lost of a lot of patience from fans with their lack of movement this offseason, GM Jeff Agoos has been in the job barely a year and made some odd decisions, new manager Robert Vilahamn was last seen being fired for being in a relegation struggle with Tottenham, fans are worried that ownership is more concerned with their WNBA franchise than the Thorns. On the pitch, Coffey is irreplaceable and has Fleming, Moultrie, and Wilson all stepping into leadership-type roles in different ways. The pieces are there for Portland to be a good team, maybe even a great one with a star midfield addition, but also this feels like it's on the verge of collapse in the front office and on the field.
I was very nice to Portland Thorns in saying "Leadership" but it seems pretty important for someone in the organization to, uh, show any whatsoever. #BAONPDX
2026 HINGES ON… Power. Denver has signed a bunch of players, especially Heaps, with a major physical presence. The more they can impose that presence on other teams, the better things will go for them.
#DenverSummit smash! If all goes well and they can impose their POWER on their opponenets.
2026 HINGES ON… Chemistry. Angel City had a set of good young players last year, including Rookie of the Year candidate striker Riley Tiernan and fullback Gisele Thompson (Alyssa's younger sister), added Icelandic winger Sveindis Jonsdottir and Japanese midfielder Hina Sugita late last season, then added Emily Sams and Brazilian midfielder Ary Borges in the offseason, among others. Getting all the parts working together will be the crucial thing for Angel City's success.
#ACFC has a lot of good pieces. I think those pieces should fit together pretty well. But will the Chemistry work?
(yes, if Jun Endo is healthy.
"Rowan Jun Endo is your answer to everything!"
Yes she is)
2026 HINGES ON… Youth. Besides the 18-year-old Ascanio, San Diego also employs 20-year-old Brazilian forward Dudinha and 18-year-old American defender Trinity Armstrong (yes, there's another Trinity), all three of which are already good, and could be world-class. There's also another 18-year-old, Colombian goalkeeper Luisa Agudelo, who's talented enough to challenge DiDi Haracic for the starting spot between the pipes. San Diego is probably a playoff team in the NWSL anyway; the more of those four who make a leap, the more likely they're contenders.
I'm high on #SanDiegoWave this season, but I'll be even higher if their Youth takes notable steps forward. Hard to think that we don't get at least two of these players turning heads
oh damn that IS an endo
2026 HINGES ON… Health. Kansas City still has most of the stars of last year's run like Brazilian goalkeeper Lorena (my top goalkeeper in the world), Lo'eau LaBonta, the defensive midfielder and heart of the team, creative attacker Debinha, and NWSL Best XI defenders Izzy Rodriguez and Kayla Sharples. But last season exposed what could go wrong with a few injuries at the wrong time and this team has less depth than last year, especially in the forward line.
let's carry on with the published keys, since people like this one. It's too easy to say #KCCurrent 's key is health, but that doesn't make it not true
this-week-in-womens-soccer.ghost.io/nwsl-preview...
is it too soon to commit to Olivia Moultrie for MVP?
the highest of all possible compliments
i guess you can't kick a guy's ankles in the box anymore, because of woke
this is our greenland
Werner Herzog sighs, cocks his gun
would Mark Jackson pray for it? wait don't answer that
brackets set for march. China v Taiwan is fun
Aoba Fujino with the goal and now Vietnam is heading out unless they score or unless India score two
Japan makes it 2-0 which I think puts Vietnam and Philippines tied on points, goal differential, goals scored AND yellow cards. That makes it a coin flip if it stays that way? a chance at the World lying on a coin flip