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I hope this email finds you refreshed after a long weekend. Maybe you spent hours by the pool listening to the recently relaunched podcast “Full Time with Meg Linehan”, featuring new co-host Tamerra Griffin. We’re back and better than ever with episodes dropping every Thursday. This week will include plenty of talk about Emma Hayes’ official first days as USWNT boss ahead of Saturday’s debut.
I’m Emily Olsen here with Meg Linehan, Steph Yang and Melanie Anzidei — welcome to Full Time!
NWSL News
Pride and Current top the table
Happy international break! The Orlando Pride and Kansas City Current remain undefeated atop the NWSL table, continuing two of the best storylines this season. The Pride kept its streak going in style, setting a new NWSL record for most consecutive victories with eight, plus a vintage performance from Marta and a brace from Barbra Banda to send them past the Portland Thorns.
13 – Marta was directly involved in 13 shots, including 7 chances created, in @OrlPride’s win on Friday, the second-most by a player in any #NWSL match this season. Vintage. pic.twitter.com/a5Ov4DR3eo
— OptaJack⚽️ (@OptaJack) May 25, 2024
Banda’s two goals put her even with Sophia Smith at eight in the Golden Boot race (Smith, who was absent for the Thorns due to a leg injury, still has the edge in assists for the lead). It’s definitely within the realm of possibility that we see a new single-season record this year, one held by Sam Kerr, who scored 18 goals in the 2019 season (24 games compared to 26 in 2024).
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The Current picked up a record of its own this week when Elizabeth Ball scored the game-winning goal against the Utah Royals. Ball is the 15th different player on the Current score sheet — the most the NWSL has ever seen. And it’s only June! There’s still time for the Current to get goalkeeper AD Franch one, I’m just saying.
The Houston Dash earned another crucial three points and got revenge against the North Carolina Courage. If you remember, the Courage absolutely smashed the Dash 5-1 in the season opener, but this time it was Houston’s turn with a 3-0 win.
And one more incredible Croix Bethune stat, which is now a weekly tradition: she’s already sitting at eight assists following this weekend’s game. She’s the fastest player to reach that number, sneaking past Lauren Holiday and Kim Little. What record will she break next? Stay tuned.
Hi, My Name Is…
Not that they need much introduction, but I think it’s a fine time to take a look at two standout performers dominating the NWSL.
NWSL’s record-breaking assist leader
We’ve already been over this: Croix Bethune, 23, is a record-breaker. Steph Yang caught up with the Spirit forward ahead of her flight to Colorado to join the USWNT as a training roster player.
When Bethune showed up for the Spirit’s blackout game on April 20 in black Nike Air Force Ones, she said that meant it was “demon time.”
GO DEEPER
Croix Bethune on her USWNT call, record-breaking rookie year in NWSL and 'demon time'
“If someone’s wearing black Forces, then that person is dangerous and you need to like, approach with caution,” she said. “This is business. It’s gonna get scary out there. So I would watch out.”
Croix Bethune y’all 🤷♀️ pic.twitter.com/HHvU3YznFR
— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) May 25, 2024
The Spirit won that game against reigning NWSL champions Gotham FC 2-0, with Bethune scoring the go-ahead goal in the 41st minute. Since then she:
- Scored another goal
- Racked up an astonishing eight assists in six games, including three assists in one game
- Became the league’s assist leader, ahead of Sophia Smith, Vanessa DiBernardo, and teammate Trinity Rodman
Pride’s leading goal scorer
The Pride had to wait over a month after making Banda its marquee signing for her to finally take the field in late April. Her prodigious scoring prowess — 53 goals from 60 international caps — made it through customs without delay.
Banda has been the archetypal center forward in her first seven NWSL games. Her eight goals have come within eighteen yards of the net, each nestled in the central third of the box. Half have been headed home, while she has knocked in two goals with each of her feet. Banda calls herself a “small part” of Orlando’s ongoing eight-game run.
Anyone who’s seen Orlando in past years will know she’s underselling her impact. Orlando has gone from a team that often fades from playoff contention before the season’s end to the league’s current table-topper.
Meg’s Corner: What to expect from USWNT head coach Emma Hayes
The Emma Hayes era has officially started. Steph and I are traveling to Colorado and Minnesota for the first two friendlies of her tenure (with Jeff Rueter joining in St. Paul, of course). Despite being asked plenty of times what to expect from these two games, I still don’t quite know the answer.
Maybe I’m a little closer after sitting with Hayes for an hour last week, but not really. She is a charmer, but Hayes also didn’t want to dig into too many specifics without actually meeting the players first, seeing them in training with her own eyes, and having one-on-one conversations. Mostly, we learned more about Hayes as a person than as a coach — and that’s not always what you get from the boss of the USWNT.
GO DEEPER
USWNT's Emma Hayes: 'You’re never gonna get anybody with a personality like me'
So what to expect from this camp? I think we’ll see a clear step up in competitiveness. These two games might be the only time for players to stand out in the USWNT environment before an Olympic roster is made, though Hayes made it crystal clear that — coming in as club coach — she won’t overlook performances there.
Emma on the job 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/0Bju0PaU5G
— U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (@USWNT) May 28, 2024
Hayes might have been obfuscating, but based on what she said on Thursday, it doesn’t sound like we should expect radical changes on the field.
It feels fair enough to hope for that new coach bump though. Hayes sang interim head coach Twila Kilgore’s praises, especially considering the somewhat thankless task she had as an interim. If anyone has a shot at using their magnetism to gel a team, it’s Hayes. We’ll find out soon enough if all the pieces will come together.
More USWNT News
Highlights from Emma Hayes’ media tour
Emma Hayes landed at Newark airport on Wednesday. She started early Thursday morning with a whirlwind media tour full of charm and dancing around the topic of what color Olympic medal to expect, plus dishing out plenty of instant classic Hayesian quotes at a small media roundtable at the NWSL office in NYC.
If you missed the big takeaways we have those here. Hayes detailed the past few months of learning the role from a distance, provided plenty of thoughts about the American women’s soccer ecosystem and issued a reminder that the Olympic roster is in no way set.
But the best moment came after Sandra Herrera of CBS asked Hayes what she’d bring to the USWNT head coaching role that no one else could. Maybe Hayes had expected the question or maybe the response really did come to her at that instant, but her reply was quick:
“Oh, you’re never gonna get anyone with a personality like me!”
Honoring a USWNT legend
On Thursday, the NWSL honored former USWNT midfielder Lauren Holiday by renaming its yearly player service award, formerly the Nationwide Community Impact Award, the Lauren Holiday Impact Award. Steph Yang spoke to Holiday about the honor and the importance of community, which you can read it here. As someone who remembers Holiday fondly from her Boston Breakers days, we wanted to know what Steph’s lasting impression of the former captain is:
I have a lot of memories of Lauren Holiday, née Chendawg per her teammates. It’s hard not to given the success of her career, both for club and country, for the Boston Breakers (RIP) in Women’s Professional Soccer and for FC Kansas City (RIP) in the NWSL. She was one of the best midfielders in the world for most of her professional career. You felt total trust in her ability to command the field and the players around her. She was a spiritual predecessor to Sam Mewis in that way. Her retirement in 2015, at 27, felt premature.
I distinctly remember feeling as though the USWNT midfield would never be the same. Obviously, it wasn’t premature for her. It was her decision to make, but as a fan, it felt striking that she was clearly still at the peak of her powers on the field and wanted something different in life. It was such a humanizing decision that emphasized that for how much we valorize athletes and romanticize their performances, in the end, they are doing a job by playing a game. A player being able to choose to leave exactly when she wants, why she wants, is a good thing.
(Top photo: Brad Smith/Getty Images for USSF)