The NWSL is kind of caught in a mid-season slog.

So I thought I'd play GM and blow everything up.

Hi, everybody.

It's Claire Watkins.

Welcome to this week's edition of The Late Sub.

It is Wednesday, August 20th.

And after a myriad of draws in the NWSL over the last two weeks,

I decided to play GM a little bit, move some players around, and propose

some trades. There are teams that have a couple of openings that I think could really put them

over the top, as everyone is in the race for second behind Kansas City. And none of this is too

serious. This is more just kind of creating the world I would like to see. But I do wonder if

there is some motion for some midseason excitement as the secondary

transfer window closes next week.

Let's dig in.

So the secondary NWSL transfer window closes next week.

And I think the league could frankly use a little bit of a shot in the

arm after two weeks of many draws, a lack of true changes in the standings. We're seeing a lot of

deadlocks. We're seeing a lot of straight heats, not a lot of differentiation between these teams. We are seeing

obviously high performers perform high. We're seeing teams outside the playoff line struggle to move

up. So I was sitting and kind of looking at all of this after this weekend. And I think there

are a lot of factors to why we're seeing so many draws. I actually think, frankly, the weather,

as people know, might be a big part of it. But it also gave me sort of an itch to play GM a little

...