Is the NWSL losing its chaos?
Full Time: A show about women's soccer
The Athletic
4.8 • 808 Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The NWSL has always prided itself on chaos. A league where anyone can beat anyone.
But five weeks into the 2025 season, things are looking awfully similar to 2024. Four teams (Kansas City Current, Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit, and NJ/NY Gotham FC) are breaking away at the top of the standings, sweeping the other 10 teams in their path.
This week, Full Time hosts Tamerra Griffin and Meg Linehan discuss whether the NWSL is losing its chaos. What has happened to the parity in the league? Should fans, broadcasters or the league itself be concerned? And, what are these four elite teams doing so right to blaze ahead? The Athletic's staff writer Jeff Rueter, also joins the debate to help analyze the past, present, and future of the NWSL's competitive balance.
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Articles mentioned on the show:
USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps says salary cap issue to blame for NWSL departures
State of the League: Before the NWSL can take on the world, it must find its place in the U.S.
Depleted Spirit defeats reigning NWSL champion despite Trinity Rodman’s absence
Put the Washington Spirit in bubble wrap. Plus, NWSL’s coaching pipeline problem
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HOSTS: Tamerra Griffin, Meg Linehan
GUESTS: Jeff Rueter
PRODUCER: Theo Lloyd-Hughes
VIDEO PRODUCER: Lia Griffin
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Emily Olsen
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | He's having a blinder. He's clipped the post. He's looking formidable. Then... |
| 0:09.0 | His game might be over, but yours isn't. |
| 0:14.0 | With Betfair's safe so, your bet simply rolls onto the player coming on. |
| 0:18.0 | Playing a different league with BetFair. |
| 0:24.6 | Balladon selected leagues and markets only applies to singles, multiples and bet-builder bets on qualified player outcome selections does not apply to odds, boosts, |
| 0:27.6 | season, exclusions apply 18 plus gamblerware.org. Hello. Welcome back to full-time presented by Amazon Business. I am Tamara Griffin, and this week on the show, we are wondering what happened to parody in the NWSL. |
| 0:55.9 | This is the most competitive league in the world. We've heard so many times. And yet, we look at the table and we are seeing the same four teams that we saw dominating the top of the table last season. I'm talking about the Kansas City Current, the Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit, and |
| 1:11.2 | Gotham FC. So we're going to look into that this week. We are looking at how we got here. |
| 1:16.9 | How unprecedented is this? Is it something we've seen in the history of this league? What does it |
| 1:21.9 | say about the state of the league that clearly these teams are doing something right if they're |
| 1:26.7 | able to repeat what they've |
| 1:27.7 | done last season. And of course, looking forward, what does this mean? Is the league going to get |
| 1:32.2 | less interesting? Is it going to feel a little bit less like itself? Are we going to lose some of that |
| 1:36.7 | precious chaos that nobody else in this world is able to sort of achieve? It's a lot of questions. And in order to help get at the answers, |
| 1:46.6 | we've invited our friend of the pod, Jeff Ruder of the Athletic, to join us in that discussion. |
| 1:51.2 | But first, I am joined, as always, by my co-host, Meg Linnahan. Meg, how are you doing? |
| 1:56.4 | I'm good. I'm getting over a cold that my wife gave me. So, you know, that little springtime start to the season. |
| 2:03.2 | But yeah, other than that, it's just, yeah, it's a real time for women's soccer and big picture |
| 2:09.3 | thinking, I think. So I don't know, 2025 has been an interesting season so far, even though maybe it feels like it isn't because Kansas City is doing |
| 2:18.7 | Kansas City things. And so were the Orlando Pride until this past weekend. That spirit game was |
| 2:24.3 | nuts. And I don't think anybody saw, even if they predicted the spirit to win, nobody saw it coming |
| 2:29.8 | that way. Speaking of NWSL chaos. Yeah, seriously. And just also like Orlando, I'm not Orlando, |
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