Will KC or Orlando ever lose again? Plus: Reflecting on Alex Morgan’s Olympic snub

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Now playing: “Changes” by David Bowie.

“Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.”

I’m Emily Olsen here with Meg Linehan and Steph Yang — welcome to Full Time!

NWSL Leaders: A high-stakes clash in Kansas City

Two teams on the precipice of an NWSL record will battle it out this weekend. While it’s very possible both could walk away with another game in their unbeaten streaks, tying the 2014 Seattle Reign, the match between the Kansas City Current and Orlando Pride on July 6 might outdo the Independence Day fireworks.

The history: In the 2014 season, the Reign went on a 16-game unbeaten streak en route to winning the NWSL Shield. Today? Both the Current and Pride sit on 15-game unbeaten streaks at the top of the league table and reached this point after massive turnarounds from 2023.

Orlando ended last year in seventh place with a 10-1-11 record and -1 goal differential.
KC was in eleventh with an 8-2-12 record and -6 GD.

Multiple factors led to each team’s turn of fortune, but both were undeniably boosted by golden boot, MVP-contending, all-around scoring powers. Barbra Banda in Orlando and Temwa Chawinga in Kansas City have gone toe-to-toe in the league’s goal scoring category. (We may have mentioned this before.)

After a two-goal weekend from Chawinga and another tally from Banda, the leaders are tied at 11 goals apiece. But if water hazards counted as a tiebreaker, Chawinga would be ahead … or behind? … after she knocked a shot over the confines of CPKC Stadium into the Missouri River. (Don’t worry, someone went in and fished out the league’s unofficial first river ball.)

Another angle of the first river goal in @thekccurrent history!

📺 @SportsonPrime pic.twitter.com/vPEiBZilRL

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 29, 2024

Also worth noting: The Pride and Current have taken slightly different routes to get here.

Orlando has benefited from the culmination of longer-term efforts from general manager Haley Carter and head coach Seb Hines to build a competitive roster, adding Banda while also enjoying a rejuvenated Marta. The Pride built on their mid-table 2023 campaign and hit the ground running this season.
KC, meanwhile, has more rapidly ascended by bringing in former U.S. women’s national team coach Vlatko Andonovski, who went from perhaps his lowest professional period following the 2023 World Cup to gleefully diving into his forte: the meat and potatoes of day-to-day club management. The Current also benefited from their own high-profile signing of Chawinga, who leads in shots and shots on goal, and is third overall in assists with six.

If nothing else, Saturday could be an incredible display from two of the best forwards in the world right now. Watch it: 7:30 p.m. ET on ION.

Coaching Carousel: Time to fail and fix?

A week after the San Diego Wave fired head coach Casey Stoney for the sake of the club’s “ambition,” the Utah Royals followed suit by releasing head coach Amy Rodriguez and goalkeeper coach Maryse Bard-Martel. The Royals, who sit last in the league, also said president Michelle Hyncik will leave the team to transition to a “new opportunity” within club owner David Blitzer’s office. Some key facts:

Utah is 2-2-11 in league play.
The team has a -20 goal differential, scoring seven goals and conceding 27.
Most recently, the Royals battled to a scoreless draw with the Portland Thorns, but the effort wasn’t enough to save Rodriguez’s job.

Utah will start fresh with one game left, against Seattle, before the Olympic break. As an expansion team with new owners, new coaching staff and new players, the only person at the club with multiple years of NWSL experience in their role was the equipment manager, according to Rodriguez. Last month, she joined Meg and Tamerra on the Full Time podcast and expressed the challenges of leading an expansion team.

Rodriguez didn’t get much time to figure it out. And while Stoney had more of a runway in San Diego, her time was also as quick as a Bomb Pop melting on a hot summer day in the grand scheme of things.

We’ve seen plenty of coaching changes in the past with the NWSL. For a very unfortunate stretch, teams were regularly firing employees for misconduct. And while that still happens — including this season with Houston Dash assistant coach Matt Lampson — the head coach firings this year have all appeared to be results-based.

These recent moves have made us wonder, though, whether female coaches are given the chance to fail and fix. I’ll toss it over the Meg for more on that …

Meg’s Corner: Is the NWSL tougher on female coaches?

Every head coach is aware of the precarity of their job, but this NWSL season is already one for the books when it comes to teams opting for change. We’re only about halfway through, and we’re up to three head coaches gone … and it feels like we still could see some more before the end of the summer.

With the news this week about Stoney and Rodriguez, though, I kept thinking back to an interview Steph did with former Boston Breakers head coach Lisa Cole (who’s now a part of Emma Hayes’ USWNT technical staff) in 2019.

Cole said then: “I just think there’s different standards for women. We’re let go easier and it’s harder for us to get hired.”

It’s not a perfect summary of what’s happened so far this season — Mike Norris was the first head coach to go after the Thorns’ rough start, but he was also moved into a new role, not fired outright. Stoney and Rodriguez were outright dismissed, and from the outside, the root problems with both the Wave and the Royals feel more roster-related than tied to decisions by either manager. Utah struggled to sign any major international talent leading up to its inaugural season, and the Wave had a quiet offseason without any major additions until the Maria Sanchez trade.

At the same time, results are results. Rodriguez’s tenure ends in a 2-11-2 record, but I also expected more loyalty to a former player. Stoney’s departure remains even more baffling as San Diego’s struggled to score goals this summer. Considering her record, Stoney should be in high demand for her next role, at least — but Rodriguez might hit that wall Cole described when it comes to getting hired again.

At the end of the day, the NWSL is back down to just three women among the 14 head coaches across the league right now. That’s a rough stat.

Roster Ruminations: Alex Morgan’s Olympic snub and the passing of time

The introduction of Emma Hayes to the USWNT has been both a necessary change and an abrupt wake-up call.

As much as this is no longer the team that failed at the 2023 World Cup or 2021 Olympics (or 2016, for that matter), it’s also not the team that won the 2019 or 2015 World Cups. Or the one that clawed its way to gold at the 2012 Olympics. In fact, Hayes’ 18-player roster for Paris, plus four alternates, does not feature a single Olympic gold medalist.

“Turn and face the strange,” as the late, great David Bowie once sang — and few things will be stranger than not seeing Alex Morgan star in a major international tournament, something she’s done since 2011.

Now that the dust has settled, I hope we can agree: While the initial shock of Hayes leaving the World Cup co-captain off the Olympic squad was fierce, it was an inevitable reality based on both Morgan’s current form and Hayes’ not-so-subtle move toward youth. This illustrates the first point:

A slightly deeper dive into the youth aspect:

Hayes named the youngest Olympic roster for the USWNT since 2008, when the team won gold in Beijing.
The current roster’s average age: 26.8, four years younger than the team that went to Tokyo in 2021 and settled for bronze.
The average caps per player in 2021 was 111; for this team, the average is only 58.

Even though Morgan’s omission makes sense, it doesn’t take the sting away. So on this, the day before her 35th birthday, at least we can relive some of Morgan’s best highlights on the international stage. 🥹

Full Time First Looks

Not playing games: The Olympics are inching closer every day. Outside of the Morgan news, Hayes backed Korbin Albert as one of the midfielders to nab a coveted roster spot. The 20-year-old’s inclusion on the Olympic roster was not necessarily a given, for both on- and off-the-field reasons including her previous incidents of sharing anti-LGBTQ+ content on her social media — something she later apologized for after pressure from current and former players, as well as fans. Elsewhere, defending champion Canada and Australia announced their rosters for the tournament this summer.

Making moves: Manchester United’s woes continue as England goalkeeper Mary Earps, who led the team to a World Cup final appearance last year, is moving on. Earps has joined Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer, signing a two-year contract. The two-time Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper will surely add some stability to PSG’s backline next season. Jessy Parker Humphreys explained what the blunt break-up says about United.

Global aspirations: Michele Kang’s quickly growing dominance in the global game is no secret. Since acquiring the Washington Spirit in 2022, Kang has bought controlling stakes in Lyon and the London City Lionesses. And she’s not exactly slowing down. Last week, Kang’s Lionesses named former PSG boss Jocelyn Precheur as head coach and added forward Kosovare Asllani. Katie Whyatt detailed the promise and pitfalls of an intriguing project.

(Top photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck / USA Today)