Sophia Smith’s Golden Boot battle, Alex Morgan’s form & 10 things to look out for as the NWSL returns

As USWNT stars return from a triumphant Paris 2024, there’s plenty to look out for as NWSL gets back in action

• Getty Images

  1Olympians to be honored

  Angel City was the only NWSL club not represented at this summer’s Olympics, with the 50 stars the league sent to the Games expanding to a total of 58 via the mid-season transfer window. Twenty-nine of those landed on U.S. soil this month with an Olympic medal to show for their efforts, and they will get a chance to show off those prizes over the next few weeks.

  Gotham has plans to welcome back its seven Olympians on Saturday when it plays the Portland Thorns. The Washington Spirit is going to celebrate its representatives over the course of its next three home games and there are more and more plans being unveiled by clubs across the league as the NWSL prepares to resume.

• USA Today Images

  2Golden Boot race

  Among those returning Olympians are two names in the mix for the NWSL Golden Boot, with Barbra Banda and Sophia Smith both out to pick up where they left off in the battle for that accolade.

  Banda is tied at the top of the goal-scoring charts with Temwa Chawinga, having scored 12 goals in 12 games. She exited the Olympic tournament earlier than she would’ve liked, as Zambia crashed out in the group stage, but she did maintain her fantastic form with four goals in three games and will hope to continue that with the Orlando Pride.

  Creeping up behind the two African superstars is Smith, who won the accolade last year and has 10 in 2024 for the Portland Thorns. She could be at a disadvantage in this race because the USWNT’s gold medal-winning efforts will likely mean she gets a longer break and might not be back this weekend. However, you’d be brave to count the 24-year-old out of what, with 10 games to go, promises to be a thrilling battle to be crowned the NWSL’s top-scorer.

• USA TODAY Sports

  3Orlando Pride’s unbeaten streak

  No team in NWSL history has ever gone unbeaten for an entire season – but the 2024 Orlando Pride has as good a chance as any at becoming the first. Through the first 16 games of the year, it is yet to lose, winning 11 of those matches and drawing five.

  The best season in league history was achieved by the North Carolina Courage in 2018 when it lost just once, beating the Seattle Reign's record of twice from 2014.

  It’s been a remarkable year so far for the Pride, with the franchise on the brink of qualifying for the playoffs for just the second time ever after years of underachievement. But could it be record-breaking? It’ll take something special to beat this team and it’ll be fascinating to watch on and see if that happens in these next 10 games, or if Orlando can hold on and do something truly historic.

• USA TODAY Sports

  4Alex Morgan’s form

  When Hayes unveiled her USWNT roster for Paris 2024, the big news was that it did not feature Alex Morgan, the two-time World Cup winner and 2012 Olympic champion. Though she had been involved with the U.S. throughout the year and shown, on and off the pitch, some glimpses at how she could contribute, there was just no room for the veteran in an 18-player squad.

  Still, it doesn’t feel like that omission means Morgan has no future with the USWNT. She is a quality player with plenty of experience that this young group can benefit from – but if she wants to get back into the picture, she’ll need to get back into form.

  The 35-year-old has yet to find the back of the net in the NWSL this season in what has been a tough year for the San Diego Wave, the 2023 NWSL Shield winner sitting 10th after 16 games. However, there’s no doubt that Morgan’s absence from Hayes’ latest roster will only motivate her more to turn things around.

• Imagn

  5Vlatko Andonovski’s revenge

  Vlatko Andonovski’s name was uttered plenty over the course of the Olympics, as many noted the marked improvement the USWNT made from the historically bad World Cup campaign he oversaw last summer in order to emerge from Paris 2024 with a gold medal. But as the NWSL returns, Andonovski has long put all of that behind him to help the Kansas City Current sit in a fantastic position when it comes to picking up silverware in 2024.

  Regarded among the best coaches in the league when he was appointed by U.S. Soccer in 2019, the 47-year-old is showing why his failings in that international role should not tarnish his reputation in the club game. The Current has lost just one game this year, to the Orlando Pride, to leave it just three points off the pace in the battle for the NWSL Shield. It is also in the final of the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup.

  With two NWSL Championship titles to his name, Andonovski’s experience could give the Current an advantage in the postseason, too, as he continues to show why one shouldn’t judge him simply on his stint in charge of the USWNT.

• Imagn

  6A rookie on the brink of history

  Since 2016, Tobin Heath has held the record for the most assists in a single NWSL season, racking up 10 for the Thorns as they won the Shield. Eight years on, that piece of history is on the brink of being surpassed.

  In the 14th game of her rookie season, Croix Bethune, the third overall pick in this year’s draft, registered her ninth assist of the season for the Washington Spirit. Sitting alongside five goals, such form was too good for Hayes to ignore and the coach selected the 23-year-old for the U.S. Olympic squad. Now, she’s back from that remarkable experience and, with 10 games to go, surely primed to overtake Heath in the NWSL record books.

• Imagn

  7Christen Press’ comeback

  There was a fear that Christen Press might never play soccer again. The USWNT icon suffered an ACL injury in June 2022 and has required four surgeries over the last two years in one of the most complicated rehabs any player is ever likely to endure.

  There have been false dawns on that journey, moments in which Press believed she was close to a comeback only for a setback to come along and dash those plans. This month, though, she returned. Some 781 days after her injury, the forward came off the bench for Angel City in the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup to make her first appearance in more than two years.

  Now, Press is in line to return to the NWSL for the first time since that ACL rupture. With Angel City sitting three points off the playoffs with 10 games to go, her experience and ability to make a difference from the bench could give the team a little spark in its bid to make the postseason.

• Getty Images

  8Landon Donovan's NWSL debut

  While some of the USWNT's gold medallists are celebrated across the NWSL this weekend, a USMNT legend will also turn a few heads as Landon Donovan is set to make his NWSL debut as interim head coach of the San Diego Wave. His appointment has been one of the most interesting news stories of the mid-season break – and it is one that raises further questions of just why the club saw it fit to part ways with Casey Stoney back in June.

  That the Wave is still looking for a permanent replacement for the former England defender, who won the Shield and the Challenge Cup during a very successful three years, underscores the lack of planning. It also leaves qualifying for the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, something club president Jill Ellis talked about when explaining Stoney’s sacking, an even more distant possibility than it was when the change was made.

  San Diego’s hunt for a new coach will be one of the storylines to keep an eye on throughout the coming weeks, and the same goes for the Utah Royals. The expansion side is currently bottom of the NWSL standings but has made some good off-season signings in a bid to avoid being there at the end of the year. A new coach will help in that regard too, following the sacking of Amy Rodriguez earlier this summer.

• Imagn

  9New faces galore

  It’s not just new coaches that have joined the league this summer, with plenty of players also in line to make NWSL debuts this weekend thanks to a busy mid-season transfer window.

  As the league continues to show it can hang with the best in the world, a flurry of stars have arrived from Europe – including France star Delphine Cascarino, World Cup champion Claudia Zornoza, three-time Champions League winner Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic and a trio of England’s Lionesses, in Esme Morgan, Jess Carter and Katie Zelem.

  There are two new Matildas in the league, courtesy of Cortnee Vine and Mackenzie Arnold; more Brazilians continue to flock to the NWSL, with Olympic silver medallist Ludmila and wonderkid Aline Gomes the latest; and Nigeria’s Nicole Payne, Japan’s Mina Tanaka and Haiti’s Nerilia Mondesir add further star power to what is a wonderfully international league.

  There have been some intriguing switches regarding U.S. talent, too, with senior internationals Alana Cook, Bethany Balcer and Jaelin Howell all on the move ahead of the second half of the NWSL season getting underway.

• Imagn

  10Continental competition

  There are three main things on the line in these next few weeks in the NWSL: the Shield, given to the team that ends the regular season at the top of the standings; qualification for the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, which is granted to the teams in first and second place; and then, via the playoffs, the Championship - the winner of which will also get a place in the new continental competition.

  What role, then, could the ongoing Champions Cup have in deciding which teams have success? The tournament, in its inaugural season, kicked off this week and will continue through October, giving the U.S. representatives – Gotham, Portland and San Diego – something extra to focus on, as well as the league.

  With trips to Costa Rica, Jamaica and Panama in the cards across that trio, adding a wrinkle of travel as well as some extra midweek games, managing team selection well will be key for all three. Given the ambition of each franchise, they will all be targeting – one could even go as far to say expecting – exactly that, too.