2025 NWSL Previews: NJ/NY Gotham FC and KC Current
/Hello and welcome to our 2025 NWSL previews. We’ve got some new writers, some old writers, but lots of exciting analytical insights coming at you ahead of a very exciting 2025 season. You can read all of them here!
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The Batties Go Back to Basics
Gotham FC began the year in full Thanos mode, collecting Infinity Stones in the form of USWNT stars: Rose Lavelle, Crystal Dunn, Emily Sonnett, and Tierna Davidson, to assemble quite the squad. While Gotham’s endgame was likely winning the Championship, they stuck with the Thanos story-arc and wiped out half their squad.
The aforementioned signings of Lavelle, Dunn, Sonnett, and Davidson, added to a roster already comprising stars like Lynn Biyendolo (née Williams), Midge Purce, Ester González, and 2023 NWSL Rookie of the Year Jenna Nighswonger, created much buzz around Gotham as it seemed they were building a “super(hero)-team”. Avengers assemble anyone? Okay I’ll stop now.
This transfer window has seen Lynn Biyendolo, Yazmeen Ryan, Delanie Sheehan, Jenna Nighswonger, Crystal Dunn, Cassie Miller, Maitane López, and Sam Hiatt all depart.
Gotham now has the second-fewest returning minutes played for the 2025 season, with only four players remaining at the club from the 2023 Championship game starting XI.
Lost Lynn, but who is waiting in the wings?
The biggest loss has to be Lynn Biyendolo. A marquee signing by Juan Carlos Amorós two years ago, Biyendolo epitomized the relentless pressing style he prefers. Biyendolo and Gotham seemed like a match made in heaven. She is an NWSL legend who brings a wealth of experience and goals to any team, with four championships to her name, and holds the league’s all-time leading scorer record. Despite reduced playing time last season due to the Olympics and a recurring calf injury, she was one of Gotham’s most dangerous forwards. I could wax lyrical about Biyendolo, but since Gotham dropped the ball there, it feels a bit like salt in the wound. (Take a look at Sebastian Bush’s Utah preview to read more good things about Biyendolo - trust me, it will make sense once you’re there!)
Naturally, you may wonder how Gotham replaces Biyendolo’s output. Maybe they don't have to look too far from home. That’s because Ella Stevens had a real coming of age season at Gotham last year and even outperformed Biyendolo across a number of metrics. She finished last season ranked eighth in the league in G+ by ASA’s numbers, and the highest amongst Gotham players.
The returning Midge Purce, who was out last season with an ACL injury, can also hopefully share the burden if she puts up similar numbers to her 2023 season. The diminutive yet highly effective Esther González will be strongly relied upon too. She was the team’s leading goal scorer last season. The Bats are also banking on Gabi Portilho, a new signing from Brazilian side Corinthians, finding her feet quickly in a new league and hopefully chipping in with a few goals.
Rookies? I’ll take 5 please.
But Gotham has lost a lot more than Lynn Biyendolo. How do you replace a whole championship team? With youth. Gotham FC has signed a whole host of rookies: Lilly Reale, Khyah Harper, Ryan Campbell, Sofia Cook and Sarah Schupansky. Gotham’s squad average age last season was 28.5y, their current roster’s average age is 25.5y.
And what about the kids? The Bats have snagged themselves two of the best forward prospects out of college this season in Harper and Schupansky. Of the college cohort of forwards signed by NWSL clubs this year, Harper is the best ranked in npxG+xA/96 and npxG as well as box touches. Schupansky is best ranked for xA, dribble%, box passes and forward passes. Maybe the kids are alright.
Brickwalls and defenders who can’t defend
The focus on youth (albeit the best of the youth) may just be because this is all Gotham can afford considering their embarrassment of riches of experienced internationals already on the books. You don’t have to look much further than their backline for examples of this. Ann-Katrin Berger was an inspired signing last season and went on to win NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year while also bringing home a Bronze medal at the Olympics where she exemplified her reputation as one of the best penalty-saving keepers in the game.
Add in Jess Carter, Tierna Davidson and Emily Sonnet and you have a couple hundred more international caps in that back line to help fortify it. The signing of Lilly Reale is also an inspired one—a standout center back at college, she is an exciting prospect to watch out for in the upcoming season. A four-year starter for the UCLA Bruins, Reale became the only player to win consecutive Pac-12 Defender of the Year awards and the second to win twice overall after Naomi Girma.
Using Howell’s 2023 season as comparison since she played too few minutes in 2024.
Gotham was the joint-stingiest defense in the league last season (with Orlando Pride) and had the second-lowest xGA (only Kansas City Current were better). Having sold four defenders in Dunn, Nighswonger, López, and Hiatt, it remains to be seen if Gotham has done enough in the market to cover their defense. Right now, they have two center backs on the books (Sonnett and Davidson), two fullbacks (Bruninha and Mandy Freeman), and a player who can play anywhere (Carter) and a rookie (Reale). To be honest, it is tempting to remove the defender label from Bruninha after watching Trinity Rodman torment her in the playoffs last season. But whether we include her or not, Gotham looks a little light in defense.
In midfield, Gotham has one of the best in Rose Lavelle. But given her injury history, Gotham shouldn’t become over-reliant on her to be the difference maker. Delanie Sheehan is not the flashiest of players, but she covered a lot of ground for Gotham and, given their playing style, that is very useful - she will be a big miss as a reliable engine in the midfield as she takes the field for the Dash this season. Jaelin Howell will add some more bite in midfield in comparison, but that won’t make up for the loss of some of Sheehan’s link-up play.
Take super out of ‘superteam’ and maybe you actually have A team?
A lot of change at once is a little unsettling for all of us. The one thing that certainly has not changed, though, is Juan Carlos Amorós. That means we already know exactly what Gotham is going to look like come match day one. The personnel may change, but the football philosophy does not. Gotham still has some fantastic talent amongst their squad. I think the playoffs are well within their grasp again. And then there’s the kids. The supporting cast of youngsters offers another great storyline if they can hit the ground running. But we all know you don't win anything with kids. Right?
Chawin-going back to back?
By Kim McCauley
The Kansas City Current are running it back, and why not? Even though they ended the season fourth in the table, KC were tied with double winners Orlando on goal differential, at +26. They actually had the league’s best expected goals differential, at +29.2 according to FBRef, which sources its data from Opta. ASA’s model, goals added (g+), had them by far the best team in the league at +26 by goals added difference. This team has every reason to believe that they have a chance to be the best in the league with minimal roster changes.
If you’ve been following NWSL over the last season, I don’t need to convince you that Kansas City are going to be good this season. Instead, this preview is going to dig into some of the things that could go wrong for the Current. Not because I’m a Negative Nancy — I believe this team rocks, and will be competitive for trophies — but because it is the interesting thing to talk about with this team in particular.
An optimistic Current preview would be one sentence: If things stay pretty much the same as last year, they’ll be the best team in the league. But line does not always go up. Occasionally, sadly, line go down.
If Temwa Chawinga does this again, she’s actually the GOAT
Last year’s league MVP was rightfully given the award after racking up 20 goals and five assists, with none of those goals coming on penalties. She didn’t run outrageously hot and her counting stats ended up pretty close to her underlying numbers — Chawinga had 23.2 npxG + xA, according to FBRef.
Goals added loved Chawinga perhaps even more than the xNumbers (as it did Orlando’s Barbra Banda, who was off the charts). She was a plus shooter and receiver, but her dribbling was where she really shined above even other superstar wide forwards. To put this in context, Chawinga’s +0.46 g+ above average is the highest goals added number of any player to play 1500 minutes in the entire ASA dataset. Not just NWSL, not just 2024, every league, every season.
Something that’s really difficult to sort out as a data analyst, but fun to think about as a fan, is figuring out Chawinga’s potential output for this season. We can’t make any kind of regression to the mean argument because we don’t know what her mean is. She’s had one season in a league that we have consistent data collection for. She’s only 26 years old. Her goals and assists were pretty well in line with her xG + xA.
I said there was going to be a lot of discussion of potential problems for KC, and yeah, it certainly wouldn’t be weird if Chawinga was a little less productive this season. But it would be equally not weird if she became a neutral passer instead of a slight minus one, if her shooting got a little crisper, and she put up even bigger numbers. I don’t have an actual case to make for Chawinga being anything less than MVP level again, she owns.
Nice AMs you got there, would be a shame if they got old
Debinha, Vanessa DiBernardo, Lo'eau LaBonta and Kristen Hamilton are the most impressive group of No. 10-like substances ever assembled in NWSL. They are also all north of 30 years old.
Hamilton (32) only ended up playing 113 minutes all season, while LaBonta (31) and DiBernardo (32) mostly played in deeper roles and have adjusted well to them. I was really impressed with DiBernardo’s ability to play 1531 minutes last season, but given her previous injury issues, it would be pretty remarkable to see her duplicate that this season.
Debinha (33) was still an effective attacking midfielder, but is already showing signs of slowing down. The former league MVP produced a very solid three goals and six assists in 1642 minutes, but no longer has the ability to dribble past opponents at will.
Rocky Rodríguez was acquired in the offseason, and gives the team a midfield option with younger legs and more mobility. But there will be times this season where Kansas City ends up fielding three midfielders in their 30s with limited pace at the same time, something a more athletic team might be able to exploit in all phases of play.
If you’d like an example of how quickly and dramatically this can become a problem, please check out: the 2024 Seattle Reign.
How fast can Bia come back?
With Bia Zaneratto up top, the Current attack was dynamic and unpredictable. Without her, they ran through a slew of imperfect solutions, including quite a bit of Debinha as a false No. 9. They clearly identified that they had a problem during preseason and decided to trade for Haley Hopkins of North Carolina, which I’d call a band-aid over a laceration that needs stitches.
Bia starts the season on SEI, but KC said in a press release that “the club expects her to be cleared and ready to play soon.” In any event, someone else is playing striker in week one. Perhaps Hopkins, who put up a pedestrian 3.5 xG in 1464 minutes last season. Or perhaps Debinha, who is a lot slower than she used to be. Or perhaps one of their many wingers who have some center forward experience — like Nichelle Prince or Michelle Cooper — who were moved to the wing because they’re great dribblers and crossers, but average shooters.
One of the great mysteries for KC over the first month of the season is going to be who starts up top, and whether they can be a plus contributor. It’s kind of nuts that a team without a recognized above average center forward can be thought of as a title contender, but that’s just how good Chawinga was last season.
Additional food for thought
The Current yeeted their entire GK room and signed three new ones. Adrianna Franch was unfortunately well short of her normal standard last season. Almuth Schult was solid in her nine games, but left the club. Brazilian league stats are unfortunately still a bit inconsistent, so I don’t have an opinion on how Lorena will fare.
Center back Gabrielle Robinson (96th percentile dribblers tackled, 84th percentile aerials won, +0.01 G+ p90) is “progressing in her return to play process,” according to the club, but they did not offer up an optimistic timetable for her activation from SEI like they did with Bia. Without her, KC will need a big turnaround from Alana Cook, who had the weakest campaign of her career last season (38th percentile dribblers tackled, 31st percentile aerials won, -0.07 G+ p90).
19-year-old Claire Hutton doesn’t necessarily pop on g+ (-0.01 p90), but I thought she was excellent for a rookie and impressed in her USWNT debut. I expect her to take a step forward this season as a passer. The way g+ thinks about passing, even a small step will drastically improve her g+ in 2025.