by JJ Duke

It’s been a running joke with one of my roommates at school for a few years now. He has an old Paul Rodriguez hat that he never wears anymore but has dubbed it his “hat-trick” hat. Reason why was when he was younger, he went to a hockey game at Madison Square Garden and wore that hat for the first time. A New York Ranger player scored a hat-trick that night but he was sitting too far away from the ice to throw it. So he dubbed the hat his “hat-trick” hat and wore it to every game that he went to since that point, hoping for a hat-trick so he could finally toss it. It’s been a few years since that night and he still has the hat and has opened the qualifications to wearing the hat for any sport where a player can score three goals in a game. Unfortunately for my roommate, he would not be anywhere close to Somerville, Mass on Saturday night where the first three-goal performance was ever recorded in NWSL history. Lets take a look back at Week Four of NWSL action: Read more

Week Three brought out the scoring in the national team allocated players. Through the first two weeks of the season, the players distributed to the NWSL teams by the United States, Canadian and Mexican national team combined for six goals. But this weekend’s slate alone, that total was equaled including an impressive brace by Heather O’Reilly. More importantly fans are being treated to more offensive play, something that was absent in the first two weeks of the season. Yes, those two weeks were really used for having the teams still figure out how to play with each other on the field and it was expected that there would be a lack of goals. But this weekend fans saw a precursor for what is to come this season: great offensive flow, great moments of goalkeeping and some nicely worked goals. So let’s take a look back at Week Three of the National Women’s Soccer League: Read more

It’s not as catchy as the ghost voice speaking to Kevin Costner in the Field of Dreams saying “If you build it, they will come.” But I feel the same concept can apply to week two of the National Women’s Soccer League action. After the first week of action where goals weren’t flowing as one would hope, the play in the two matches this week was quite a step up in quality and pace. There were late match dramatics, scene setters, injury scares and a rivalry that has been born. Plus with exceptional crowds at both the Maryland SoccerPlex and Jeld-Wen Field (standing room only crowd at the ‘Plex and overflow seating at Jeld-Wen to boot), it made for great play. As keeping form from week one, here are this week’s top players, the little things and some things to watch in the future: Read more

It has been a long build up to get to this point: Team rosters have been amended and finalized, preseason trainings and matches have been completed and fans aired their thoughts on the process to get to this week. But after the month long preseason, the first weekend of the National Women’s Soccer League is upon us. While there are going to be more than a few questions answered after this opening slate of matches about the quality of play and what type of passion the teams will bring to the table, let’s take one final look at where the teams stand and some early expectations on where they will finish. Read more

By JJ Duke

With the first kick of the NWSL season about only a few weeks away, teams have begun their preseason friendly schedules playing a plethora of different college teams. And for one team, a trip to Japan to play three matches against professional clubs was in store. Here is a recap of all the matches played through this past weekend including video highlights from some matches: Read more

by JJ Duke

Starting last week, the NWSL teams have commenced pre-season training camps. While the majority of the allocated national team players still yet to arrive to camps, teams are underway in season preparations and will be looking forward to the return of the national team players this week. Also a number of teams have added pre-season trialists to allow the managers an opportunity to find the last missing parts of the puzzle. With only one month to go until the first round of play, here is a break down of what has been happening up to this point with team rosters and some questions that need to be answered. Read more

With only days remaining before the first weekend of matches in the National Women’s Soccer League, all eight teams have submitted their final rosters for the regular season. After the National Team Player Allocation, College Draft, Free Agency signing period, the Free Agent Supplemental Draft and preseason trialists, the teams announced their final rosters today.

List goes by player name, process by how they ended up on the team, position, college and last professional team if applicable: Read more