2025 NWSL Previews: Angel City FC and Utah Royals FC
/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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Christen-derella Story: Angel City 2025 Preview
As CEO of Disney, Bob Iger’s role was to blend the magical with the mathematical, crafting the perfect formula to bring smiles to fans and shareholders alike. Now, as majority owner of Angel City FC alongside his wife, Willow Bay, Iger will look to transform a club that has struggled to match its off-field success with on-field results. Angel City is ready for their Cinderella story.
Like any seasoned executive stepping into a new role, Iger has begun by evaluating his leadership team. He’s been patient in this phase of the rebuild, perhaps too patient. The club waited until after the 2024 season to part ways with Head Coach Becki Tweed, missing an opportunity to hire from a broader pool of candidates. After a late season run where Angel City probably out-performed their mediocre +0.04 xGD per 96 to sneak into the playoffs in 2023, Tweed followed up with a 2024 season in which they turned in a dismal -7 xGD. With the season quickly approaching and no permanent head coach in place, Angel City have turned to Mark Parsons for answers.
Parsons arrives in a hybrid Sporting Director and General Manager role, a significant commitment from ownership that signals trust in his vision, and trust he’s rightly earned given his history of success in the NWSL. Without a permanent head coach, much of the club’s football philosophy will likely be shaped by him, and there’s a need for true tactical evolution.
If there was any guiding principle to the roster building done in the first three years of Angel City’s existence it was dead simple; buy local. The farm to table approach to team building and tactics has left Parsons with a hodge-podge of stars and styles to fold into a broader play philosophy. Then there’s the struggle of needing to incorporate tactical input from across the building. Parsons has spoken of how Willow Bay wants Angel City’s style to be energetic but CEO Julie Uhrman wants the team to be controlling. Ultimately it seems the only thing the front-office, technical staff, players and fans are united in is wanting the team’s style of play to reflect the vibrancy and energy of the city. No small feat. The first step in getting there? Refining the roster.
Strengthening the Spine
Angel City have made big investments in the squad, signing three players on senior national team rosters. The arrival of veteran center back Alanna Kennedy strengthens the spine of the squad, though how she fits into a crowded defensive unit remains to be seen. She’s a significant acquisition that demands significant minutes and will likely spell trouble for Megan Reid’s role. Outside back Miyabi Moriya showcased her excellent positioning at the SheBelieves Cup, notably intercepting a long grounded pass off Tara McKeown while playing against the US. While Moriya was challenged defensively by Jaedyn Shaw in that match, her potential as an attacking option is clear and she should be expected to start at right back. The last of the international signings is Julie Dufour, a young French forward who offers creativity and technical skill. She’s sneaky fast with an excellent first touch, and fans will likely see the similarities to Alyssa Thompson’s game inside the box quickly. D1F is an awkward transition at the best of times, but Dufour found herself putting up pretty gargantuan numbers for firmly-third-best Paris FC. Small minutes (750ish), yes, but 0.88 xG+xA per 90 equally balanced between the two per FBRef is huge.
One of ACFC's more intriguing off season signings is Savy King, a SoCal native picked second overall at last year's draft by Bay FC. She's a physical defender and excels at winning challenges by controlling space with her body, but the step up to senior football was evidently a challenge and her minutes were pulled back as the season went on. She's a young player still developing her game and could do very well learning under the tutelage of Sarah Gorden.
The Kids are Alright
While fielding new players Parsons will also be looking to continue developing Angel City’s bounty of young talent, but surely he must be pleased with the progress the club has achieved here to date. The 2024 season saw Kennedy Fuller recorded key minutes and carve out a clear role for herself in a league that continues to elevate year after year, after a slow start Gisele Thompson returned from the U20 WWC campaign with newfound confidence to build on, and draft pick Madison Curry progressed so well over the course of the season that she forced a difficult decision concerning her contract, with Seattle ultimately choosing to sign the free agent.
But of all the young players with impressive 2024 resumes, Alyssa Thompson's surely stands out the most. She had a breakout season, recording five goals and seven assists off of a solid 0.44 xG+xA per 96, meaning she was involved in creating almost half of the club's goals. While she’s been deployed on both wings, the vast majority of her production has come on the left wing where she looks at home cutting inside to create. Thompson's continued performance in that position raises questions about Jun Endo’s role. While Endo remains sidelined by a season ending injury, she’ll likely be ready to return in the first quarter of the new season, and ACFC have shown their willingness to play roster roulette and activate players midseason. A unique left-footed talent, Endo is too good to not be on the pitch but booting Thompson out of the left wing spot could be risky for production. Parsons will need to find a creative solution while ensuring Thompson’s development. Her receiving g+ declined somewhat from her rookie season indicating her improved production cost her in efficiency. Finding a solution for her to use her pace in behind is imperative for Angel City’s attack in 2025.
The return of Christen Press also looms over roster decisions. While she may no longer be the foundation of the squad, her presence on the field will likely remain a measure of success for both players looking for leadership and for a fanbase eager to see one of the club’s original stars contribute. There were glimpses of what could be last year, but without meaningful minutes it’s hard to tell if she’s prepared for the speed of play the 2025 NWSL offers. Where she is most certainly prepared is with her touch, at her best she’s able to create unbelievable moments out of a single considered touch. In her first minutes back she mishit a lovely set ball in a meaningless Summer Cup match against San Diego, but that was truly the worst of it. By the end of the season she’d bagged herself a goal with an incredibly simple but deft fake shot in her setup, the woman clearly remembers how to use her touch to create for herself.
It’s almost 12, Cinderella
Findings roles for Endo and Press are ultimately great problems, but the real challenge for Parsons and the front office is building a footballing identity and transforming these individual pieces into a team with a definable style. The club has talent, but without a clear tactical vision the path to a winning NWSL season is still being paved with mostly good intentions.
For Iger and Bay, balancing the spectacle that engages fans and the nitty-gritty of roster building will be essential to success. The atmosphere at BMO Stadium remains one of the best in the league, but if Angel City wants to be more than a marketing juggernaut, the product on the field has to match the ambition off it. The 2025 season will be a crucial test - can Angel City find their magic?
Is it really goals “added” if they’re giving ‘em out for free?
Let me paint you a picture: It’s a hot, sticky night in Piscataway, New Jersey, and Lynn Biyendolo (née Williams) is starting for the North Carolina Courage as they go up against Sky Blue FC. The game ends 1-1, a simple draw, but Biyendolo puts up a legendary number: 1.59 raw goals added (g+), an NWSL single-game record that would stand for less than a year. In July of 2018, it’s Biyendolo who breaks that benchmark with a resounding 1.75 g+ against the same exact team after slotting three into the back of the net. It’s a hat trick on the scoresheet but a brace in the record books: Biyendolo holds the number one and number two spots in g+ legend, a stat that will last for over five years — a stat that will be broken in the first few months of the 2024 NWSL season by two very talented players and one embarrassingly bad defense.
By the time late May rolled around last season, the Utah Royals were in a bit of a bad spot. With four points out of a possible 30 and head coach Amy Rodriguez’s job seemingly in jeopardy, it was time to start turning things around. The team had to get results out of their next four games, but it wasn’t going to be easy: KC Current (home), Washington Spirit (home), Bay FC (away), and Orlando Pride (away). Only one of those games was remotely winnable, but the Royals had to try, nonetheless, and it all had to start with a good home showing against one of the best teams in the league. The opposite occurred:
Despite the modest scoreline, it was a domination of epic proportions, with Temwa Chawinga leading the line for the Current. It’s hard to understate just how horrendous the Royals’ defense was, though. Conceding 0.17 xG per shot across an entire game? Bad. Conceding 24 of those shots? Yeah, that’s not a great sign. In the end, 1.71 g+ was the score for Chawinga, and Biyendolo’s ASA trophy cabinet went from gold and silver to gold and bronze.
Just a few weeks later, after a second 1-0 loss to the Washington Spirit and a hard-fought win against Bay FC, the Royals faced their greatest challenge yet: the Orlando Pride. This was the result:
Barbra Banda COOKED. Two goals and two assists from the Zambian, plus a whopping 1.65 g+. It was a masterclass, or a disaster-class, depending on how you look at it. For the second time in a month, the Royals conceded more than four xG in a single game, but this time, a hell of a lot more shots went in. Just 58 passes in Orlando’s half and 11 touches in the opposing box; it wasn’t even close for Utah.
And, thus, Biyendolo’s incredible Piscataway performance was pushed to fourth place in the all-time single-game g+ standings, thanks to a Royals defense finding previously-unheard-of lows. It’s fair to say that the first half of the 2024 season saw Utah become one of the worst NWSL teams of all time. The question was: after hiring a new coach and making a huge new signing, could they turn things around?
Cloé and Conraets teach the team how to take (better) shots
The Utah Royals before August 31 2024, and after August 31 2024 are two very different teams, both on the box score and in terms of the way they played. Perhaps the biggest addition to the squad over the summer break was Cloé Lacasse from Arsenal, who, injury aside, hit the ground running.
The impact was almost immediate: not only did the Royals start winning games, but their xGD evened out to non-catastrophic levels. The cause for that? The types of shots their defense was allowing and the types of shots their offense was taking. Prior to August 31, the Royals were in a deep, deep hole. Using xG shot categories from the Where Goals Come From project, we can see that 11% of the shots the Royals were conceding were considered “Great.” That’s almost twice what you’d expect! On the flip side, they were also taking a lower than average number of great shots, suggesting a difficulty in creating high-quality chances. To take this a level deeper, let’s consider where those shots were coming from. In the 17 games prior to 8/31, the Royals had 40 shots and one goal from progressive passes. In the subsequent nine games, they took 37 shots and scored four goals from progressive passes — a massive increase. While the resulting offense clearly wasn’t perfect, it was a huge step forward.
In fact, if we plug those post-August 31 stats into Jamon Moore’s handy-dandy season simulation model and run it 500 times, we can get an idea of what a whole season worth of improved shot-taking could look like for the Royals. The result? Instead of looking like a bottom-table side (as a reminder, the Royals were averaging 0.7 points per game prior to turning things around), they could be on track to finish in a playoff spot. The simulation suggests that if the Royals are able to keep up the pace they finished last season with, they could reach over 40 points next season, which would be a massive improvement and, based on last season’s points totals, good enough for fifth place.
No queen, but an expanded court
Unfortunately, the Royals will be starting their season without Cloé Lacasse after she tore her ACL in late October. This will shift some of those attacking responsibilities to other players, notably Ally Sentnor. While Sentnor is an exciting prospect with a bright future ahead of her, she will need to improve her goal-scoring and shot-taking for this team to succeed. Last season, despite leading the team in shots taken per 96’ (minimum 600 minutes), Sentnor scored just three goals and averaged 0.07 xG per shot. That won’t cut it in a league as competitive as the NWSL. While we saw glimpses of what she could do in the SheBelieves Cup with the United States women’s national team, how well she will be able to translate that to the Royals and perform consistently week-in and week-out remains to be seen. It’s undeniable that she can score some absolute bangers, though.
The Royals also have some new players to look forward to. With the additions of Mia Justus (GK, 22), Ana Guzmán (FB, 19, Loan), and three more former college players on short-term contracts, the Royals have somehow made themselves younger than they already are. They’ve also added a couple of important players in their prime: Alex Loera from Bay FC for $25,000 in intra-league transfer funds and Aisha Solórzano from Club Tijuana for an undisclosed fee. These two players will likely be massive for the Royals in the coming season. Loera, a top-tier defensive midfielder coming off an ACL tear from early in the 2024 season, will be looking to bounce back and help improve that aforementioned disaster of a defense. Solórzano, on the other hand, will be tasked with putting the ball in the back of the net. Prior to making her big move from Liga MX Femenil, Solórzano was sitting on 16 goals in 16 matches and was the joint-top scorer in the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup after notching a hat-trick against the Seattle Reign and another goal against her future club.
If the Royals can get the most out of these players while keeping their late-season momentum from last year, the future looks promising for them. While there’s certainly a chance of this group flopping, the bar was set low last season, and I have little doubt they’ll surpass it. Best case scenario? The Royals stick to a solid, mid-table pace and hopefully see the return of Cloé Lacasse heading into the playoffs. While I’m not sure they have the quality to make a deep run, I could see them coming in sixth or seventh and maybe even winning a first-round playoff game if they’re lucky. Worst case scenario? The team without Lacasse reverts to sloppy shot-taking, and they fail to make the playoffs after finishing the regular season one or two spots out of eighth.
No matter what, this team must, and will, improve.