Season Preview Series: How the Teams Stack Up, 14-1
A quiet offseason almost everywhere leads to very few changes in the league's hierarchy
The Thorns begin their 2025 season this weekend! Thorn Town is previewing the year ahead every day this week. Yesterday, a look into the league’s surprisingly quiet offseason in talent acquisition. And today: a power ranking of all 14 NWSL teams.
Would ya look at that: Thorn Town is celebrating an anniversary. It’s been one year since I power-ranked the 14 NWSL teams before the 2024 season. And how did those rankings go? I’d say: I got kinda-right on two teams; I pretty much nailed the fates of five teams — and then I completely missed on how seven teams would do. That’s right: a whole half of the league, predicted completely incorrectly. With my credentials, uh, “established,” here we go again!
I do think that, for the most part, my own predictions for 2025 are pretty close to the general consensus. The hierarchy of the league feels especially locked-in heading into 2025 in particular. Specifically, it feels like teams 14-6 are comparatively weak, while teams 5-1 are especially strong. But, the championship is never decided on paper. Everything, as always, will be settled between the lines.
Tier 5: Developing for 2026
14. San Diego Wave
Months after their nightmare season in 2024, the Wave regrouped by pivoting to a clear youth movement, with nearly half the roster making their NWSL debuts. San Diego will look more like an expansion team in 2025 than they did in 2022, when they actually were an expansion team.
13. Seattle Reign
The Reign at least made something happen this offseason, swinging a trade for Lynn Biyendolo (formerly known as Lynn Williams) of Gotham FC. Then again, Biyendolo’s scoring rate from 2024 — 0.39 goals per 90 minutes — was already in the range of what Bethany Balcer was scoring for Seattle last year (0.42). And, Seattle was scuffling along both before and after they traded Balcer to Louisville in August. The Reign finished 11th in the league in goals scored in 2024, and it’s hard to see where the goals come from to get significantly higher in 2025.
12. Racing Louisville
Louisville did have a slight improvement last year after their August trades for veteran scorers Bethany Balcer and Janine Sonis (the former Thorn, formerly known as Janine Beckie). But: emphasis on the slight improvement. After the trades, Louisville went: four wins, six losses, and had a negative cumulative scoreline of 12-17. All that, and the price to make those trades were the team’s most recent two first-round draft picks, Reilyn Turner (who is now a Thorn) and Jaelin Howell. While the floor has never fallen out underneath Louisville, the ceiling here remains very low.
11. Angel City FC
Angel City re-signed free agents Christen Press and Sydney Leroux, who have both been with the team since its inaugural 2022 season. But, in their six total seasons with the team (three apiece), Press and Leroux have combined for a total of 12 goals. Angel City spent the offseason mostly re-assembling last year’s 12th-place finisher, and are starting the year with an interim head coach.
Tier 4: Chaos realm / Still under construction (?)
10. Portland Thorns
An earlier draft of this post had the Thorns in the five-seed. And then, the news struck that four of their rotation players will be out for the entire year — Marie Müller, Nicole Payne, Morgan Weaver, and Sophia Wilson. Portland does have more roster resources than any other team in the league, and could make significant additions on the eve of the season. But, at this exact moment, the Thorns do not have the offensive juice to get into the playoffs. In 2024, the team scored 1.69 goals per 90 minutes with Wilson on the field, and 0.90 goals per 90 minutes when she was off the field. And Wilson is going to be off the field until 2026, due to pregnancy/maternity leave. Without some big deals in, like, the next few days, the Thorns could easily dip lower than 10th. For a Portland fanbase that is used to winning, this could turn into an unfamiliar summer of waiting for promising glimmers from young prospects.
Tier 3: Kind of in the playoff mix — but a lot of teams are in the playoff mix
9. Chicago Stars FC
The franchise didn’t exactly launch into their name change with a ton of enthusiasm this offseason, and everybody will probably still be saying “Red Stars” for many months to come. That lack of enthusiasm seemed to apply to the team’s roster changes this offseason as well, with the Stars having probably the quietest set of transactions in the entire league. This team leapt from last place in 2023 and into the playoffs in 2024. Staying so still heading into 2025 feels like an author throwing away a book they’re halfway through writing.
8. Houston Dash
With a potential ownership change on the horizon, stability remains hard to come by in Houston. However, new head coach Fabrice Gautrat feels like a strong hire. And, the Dash have spent the offseason quietly gathering some of the league’s most underrated players, like former Thorn Yazmeen Ryan. Up to this point in the article, no team has added as much talent as the Dash this offseason. For that reason, let’s predict that Houston surprises and jumps all the way up into the playoff seeds.
7. Bay FC
Bay gave up 41 goals last year, which was 11th in the league, and the worst among the eight playoff teams. While the defense improved last year after the emotionally galvanizing addition of Abby Dahlkemper, it didn’t take a gigantic leap forward. The team went from allowing 1.65 goals per game without Dahlkemper, to 1.44 goals per game with her. Bay FC made almost no changes to their roster, so, let’s say there is no change to their place in the standings. If the arrow is pointing anywhere, though, it’s pointing down, with coach Albertin Montoya currently under league investigation over complaints about workplace conduct.
6. Utah Royals
In 11 games under new head coach Jimmy Coenraets last year, the Royals very quietly went 5-4-2. Or: they earned 1.55 points in the standings per game. Last year’s 5-seed, the North Carolina Courage, earned 1.50 points per game across the entire season. The Royals haven’t made offseason additions to put themselves over the top, like the Orlando Pride did last year with Barbra Banda. But expect this team to continue a very solid, Orlando-like, multi-year climb up the standings.
Tier 2: Strong playoff teams who could bust into the championship picture
5. Gotham FC
This offseason, we finally saw the cracks in the facade from Gotham’s Dream Team-style 2024 roster. The last few months saw a huge wave of players leave town, most likely because they couldn’t all fit underneath the salary cap: Sam Hiatt (to the Thorns), Lynn Biyendolo, Crystal Dunn, Yazmeen Ryan, Jenna Nighswonger, Delanie Sheehan. That’s more than half of a strong starting lineup, all out the door. Gotham still feels loaded with stars, and the team plays with such phenomenal attention to detail, they still should be in the semifinal picture. But, if the team underwhelms, it won’t be a surprise why.
4. North Carolina Courage
In a league full of coaching instability, its longest-tenured coach, Sean Nahas, has proven his ability to get playoff results out of rosters with very few big names. North Carolina’s leading scorer last year, Ashley Sanchez, only scored five goals — but Nahas still had the team locked into the fifth seed for months. The addition of 20-year-old Jaedyn Shaw should give the team an explosive scoring option to boost them up the rankings from there.
3. Kansas City Current
The Current offense screamed through the rest of the league last year with an a dominating 57 goals. With the unstoppable Temwa Chawinga now re-signed to stay in Kansas City for the long-term, this team should produce historic offensive fireworks once again. It’s the other end of the field that has to be seen before it can be believed. The Current were fifth-best in the league in goals allowed last year, with 31. That’s still a significant gap behind the microscopic 20 goals allowed by league-best units in Gotham FC and Orlando. Here at the business end of the standings, those small margins are everything. And it’s the reason why Kansas City didn’t make the final last year, giving up a big three goals to Orlando in a semifinal loss.
Tier 1: See you in November (again)
2. Orlando Pride
Were the Pride a one-year wonder, or have they built an unstoppable juggernaut? A team that had never won a playoff game in their history was in a tier by themselves the entire 2024 regular season. Then, they ripped through the playoffs with a cumulative 8-3 scoreline. Virtually the entire gang is back together again — including 38-year-old Marta, who signed a two-year contract instead of retiring on top, as many presumed she would. The only games Orlando lost in 2024 were games where they intentionally started reserves. We don’t even know what it would look like to see this team struggle.
1. Washington Spirit
The Spirit were NWSL Finalists last year — and they were the league’s most-injured team on their way there. By the time the championship game rolled around, not only was Trinity Rodman visibly dealing with an injury, but the Spirit were also down breakout NWSL debutants Ouleymata Sarr (8 goals, 2 assists) and Croix Bethune (5 goals, 10 assists). At the moment, a rematch in the final between Washington and Orlando feels — well, not inevitable. But, there is the feeling that something unexpected would have to happen to prevent a rematch. Let’s predict that a healthier Spirit team emerges on top this time, by a fingernail.