An end to NWSL’s decision day: Full Time

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 09: An NWSL ball is displayed during Media Day at Venue 808 on November 09, 2023 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
By The Athletic Staff
Jan 31, 2024

There are a lot of logistics to get through, but stick around for a bonkers story from the Conti Cup in the UK. I’m Emily Olsen here with Meg Linehan and Jeff Rueter — welcome to Full Time!

This is the digital version of Full Time. If you want it earlier, start every week with Full Time delivered to your inbox. Sign up here. 

Advertisement

NWSL Season Prep: A boost to coaching

The 2024 season is less than two months away and we have a schedule! But with preseason officially underway for all 14 teams, who is leading them?

Half of the teams in NWSL will be under the leadership of a new coach in 2024, and Becki Tweed will get her first chance as head coach of Angel City after serving as the interim manager last year. Sure, two of the 14 teams are new to the league and would have needed a new coach no matter what, but that’s still a lot of room for opportunity.

  • The Washington Spirit and Houston Dash followed Gotham FC’s example and hired Spanish coaches. The Spirit in particular will get a Champions League-winning manager when Jonatan Giráldez joins in June. In the meantime, Adrián González will lead the team on an interim basis before transitioning to an assistant role with Giraldez’s arrival.

Add all of that to the fact that Casey Stoney signed a contract with San Diego through 2027 and Seattle Reign FC coach Laura Harvey still says Seattle is her home despite links to Chelsea, and you get one of the best collections of coaches that this league has ever seen. With the transfers coming into the league from abroad this offseason, it seems like players are taking notice too.

The schedule is finally here

So when will we see these coaches and players in action?

Things kick off with the new one-off Challenge Cup match between reigning champions Gotham FC and Shield-winning San Diego Wave on March 15. The 2024 regular season begins on March 16.

Last Thursday, the league also released television and streaming assignments for all of this year’s regular season matches across its various new broadcast partners — and formally introduced its own free streaming service, unimaginatively titled NWSL+.

  • Fourteen teams will play 26 games each — 13 home and 13 away — during the regular season.
  • There will be six playoff games and the NWSL Championship in November.
  • This brings the total to 189 games.
  • Of those games, 121 will make it to various channels and streaming options across ABC/ESPN, CBS, ION and Amazon Prime Video. The rest will be on NWSL+.
TeamABCCBSESPNESPN2Prime VideoIONCBSSNNWSL+
0
3
1
0
6
8
4
4
0
0
1
0
3
12
2
8
0
1
2
0
2
6
0
15
0
1
1
2
4
7
0
11
1
4
2
0
4
7
1
7
0
4
2
5
1
3
1
10
0
1
0
1
2
7
2
13
0
0
1
1
6
4
0
14
1
3
0
1
5
10
2
4
0
0
2
1
1
10
2
10
0
2
1
0
5
8
2
8
0
1
0
3
5
3
1
13
0
0
0
2
2
8
2
12
0
2
1
2
4
7
1
9

With the schedule came individual team announcements on social media. Some were good, some were strange and some I just did not understand. I’ll leave you to suss out which is which:

Meg’s Corner: No more decision day

Intellectually, I understand the biggest story coming out of last week’s NWSL schedule reveal revolves around how the league’s media rights deals will work and the massive project ahead for building viewership habits across multiple channels and streaming options. But in my heart, the one thing I still can’t get over is the early sunsetting of the league’s decision day after how impossibly good it was to close out the 2023 season.

Advertisement

I know why it’s gone. You have appointment TV nights on Fridays and Saturdays now, and four media partners who are going to want final games on their platforms. But it wouldn’t have been impossible to save the big finish to the end of the regular season — and, best of all, maybe provide some oomph to the league’s streaming platform, NWSL+, that will launch this season.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Breaking down the 2024 NWSL schedule

For a league that prioritizes parity and flags down every single quote from international players about competitive balance, last year’s decision day was the perfect selling point for why the league loves parity so much. In an alternate universe where this priority wins out for a single weekend, the NWSL could have kept all of the final games of the year on a single day with simultaneous kickoffs, keeping it on their own platform with a whip-around show (or heck, one of those media partners could take that off their hands).

Money’s going to drive a lot of decisions for the NWSL, and we’ve already seen that throughout the years. But when the league gives up on a major event that was also a good product for fans and casual viewers alike, it’s a discouraging reminder that the money always wins.

Offseason Moves

Last week, we highlighted some of the movements happening in NWSL. You can expect a couple more announcements later this week, specifically on the West Coast, but here are a few more that have already happened:

  • NWSL rookie of the year candidate Messiah Bright heads to Angel City from the Orlando Pride. General manager Haley Carter explained more on X, saying it was a “very difficult decision, but necessary as we respect and prioritize our athletes as people, first and foremost.”

  • A two-parter went down when Racing Louisville FC acquired $60,000 in allocation money from Gotham FC in exchange for defender Julia Lester. Reign FC then acquired Lester and $20,000 in allocation money from Gotham FC in exchange for defender Sam Hiatt.
  • Goalkeeper Cassie Miller made the move to Gotham FC from KC Current.
  • Forward Deyna Castellanos, who played four years at Florida State University, left Manchester City for Bay FC for a reported $1.8 million deal guaranteed over four years, according to ESPN. For more on this:

Deyna Castellanos trades Man City for the Bay

It can be very difficult to project how any expansion team will play in the months before they first take the field. That’s especially true for Bay FC, as head coach Albertin Montoya has done the bulk of his work as either an assistant coach or leading a youth team. However, signing Deyna Castellanos will almost certainly be at the heart of anything good Bay FC does in the final third.

Bay signed the Venezuela international from Manchester City, as her playing time seriously regressed in the first half of the 2023-24 WSL season. She played far more last year, logging nearly 1,100 minutes as City finished fourth. She isn’t shy to put in a shot from outside the box, as she did on 21 of her 42 attempts last season. Even if those 18+ yard fliers have a low conversion rate, they’re valuable to ease the pressure on the forward line as they work into the box since defenders will have to consider the long-range alternative.

—Jeff Rueter

Full Time First Looks

We are getting closer to finding out who will host the 2027 Women’s World Cup. This week, FIFA began conducting inspection visits to the countries that have confirmed their bids to host:

  • Belgian, German, the Netherlands (joint submission) – Jan. 30-Feb. 2
  • Brazil – Feb. 20-23
  • Mexico, U.S. (joint submission) – Feb. 26-29

How is the USWNT pool doing outside the U.S.? Just fine, really. Over the weekend, Emily Fox, in her second appearance for Arsenal, was crucial in creating both goals in their 2-0 win over Liverpool. She earned player of the match and helped keep Arsenal on pace with Chelsea in the WSL standings. Meanwhile, at Chelsea, Mia Fishel has scored again, this time in Champions League play against Paris FC.

We thought the NWSL was chaotic, but the group stage of the Continental Cup in England got pretty interesting. When Aston Villa’s Noelle Maritz came on in the second half of the 7-0 win over Sunderland, the full-back had already played in this season’s competition for former side Arsenal, which is contrary to competition rules. After the match the Football Association chose chaos. They deducted three points from Aston Villa for fielding the ineligible player, resulting in Sunderland qualifying for the competition’s knock-out stages at Manchester United’s expense. Aston Villa still progressed as one of the two best-placed runners-up. United can hardly catch a break these days. At least this time it wasn’t totally their fault.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Man Utd out of Conti Cup after Villa lose three points for fielding ineligible player

Sign up for our other newsletters:

The Bounce 🏀 | The Windup ⚾ | Prime Tire 🏁 | Until Saturday 🏈 | The Pulse

(Photo: Meg Oliphant, Getty Images)

Get all-access to exclusive stories.

Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Try a week on us.