August...The Odd Uneven Time

This started off as a single issue, and has now become the August issue. Life has lifed for me more than I can explain, which is a wild thing to say as a writer. Getting old is a gauntlet, and I am the everyday contestant on American Gladiators, trying to win against elite, muscled athletes. When I was a kid, I always thought I’d excel in that competition. Now, I know better. But that’s okay, because I like this kind of sickly version of myself. She’s hard fought and well earned. Mostly, I want to take the time in this issue to celebrate our wonderful contributors and a Shea Butter Ballers, who have benn showing out since the NWSL restart. All the Black in Actions and Anatomies of a Goal you love, but you’ll get more than one this issue. And, yes, we’ll talk about that lady and her being bad at her job. It may have come up in recent weeks, I don’t know. As always, let’s get to it.

_{*title is part of a quote from Sylvia Plath}

We have merch!

Hello faithful Squad Members. Skye and I are in the process of reevaluating and overhauling our merch options. We want to make sure we’re always giving you quality, and that what we offer you is a reflection of our business and the community we’ve built. We have been overwhelmed with your support for our merch, and we promise to be back soon with new offerings, as well as a few classics like DPOTB. Meanwhile, our Pride kit in collaboration with Olive & York is still available for purchase. Otherwise, keep your eyes and ears peeled to our socials and this newsletter for more information.

Match Recaps and Notable Goal Scorers

*_{note, all names listed in italics are players that scored, the number beside their name indicates the minute they scored their goal. (P) = goal scored was a penalty kick}

The month of August has given us some golazos, some stoppage time madness, and the emergence of Ludmila and the Cardiac Tsars. There is no shortage of goals to celebrate this month, and that’s why we’re here. We’ll go by Match Day for this one, so you can go back and watch all your favorite highlights. Also, the greatest match I’ve seen this decade happened at the beginning of August. Shoutout to Brazil, and Marta, for surviving Copa and coming away with yet another title. It looked like Colombia had finally cleared a mental hurdle, and that may still be true. But, the result did not fall their way. They do, however, make the Olympics, and should be the favorite for World Cup qualifying, with Brazil not having to qualify for the tournament as the host nation. What a game!

National Women’s Soccer League - Match Day 14

Kansas City 2, Racing Louisville 0 - Temwa Chawinga 65, Elizabeth Ball 72

Bay FC 2, Houston 2 - KiKi Van Zanten 72

Washington Spirit 2, Portland 1 - Gift Monday 17, Trinity Rodman 90+2

Orlando Pride 1, Utah Royals 1 - Prisca Chilufya 72

National Women’s Soccer League - Match Day 15

Houston Dash 2, North Carolina Courage 1 - KiKi Van Zanten 39

Kansas City Current 1, Utah Royals 0 - Temwa Chawinga 82

Portland Thorns 4, Seattle Reign 2 - Reilyn Turner 26

National Women’s Soccer League - Match Day 16

Washington Spirit 2, Racing Louisville 2 - Rose Kouassi 90+10

Houston Dash 2, Gotham FC 1 - Michelle Alozie 90+3

Seattle Reign 3, Chicago Stars 3 - Ludmila 73

National Women’s Soccer League - Match Day 17

Houston 1, Seattle 1 - Yazmeen Ryan 47

Kansas City 2, Portland 0 - Temwa Chawinga 71

Angel City 1, Orlando Pride 0 - Alyssa Thompson 86

Washington Spirit 3, Bay FC 2 - Croix Bethune 39, Rachel Kundananji 45+5

Chicago Stars 3, North Carolina Courage 3 - Ludmila 76, 81, 86, Jaedyn Shaw 83

Copa America Femenina Final

Brazil 4(5), Colombia 4(4) 1 - Linda Caicedo 25, Marta 90+6, 105

Black In Action: Trinity Rodman

Normally, I’d give you some frilly words here, but one, you can see what it means, and two, I’m turning this section over to Riss. It’s a combo recap and the musings of a diehard Spirit fan. This moment meant something to DC fans, they deserve to tell you that.

Spirit vs Portland

 Trin’s Back, Alright!

by Riss Willet  

Shout out to the 90’s kids! If you don’t understand the title this week, you are indeed too young. Haha. The NWSL has finally returned from the international break, and that means the Spirit were back too. Rowdy Audi was full of fans ready to see their team play. The theme being for the match was “Throwback,” so it was a must to give a nod to it with our title this week. We had an exciting game on Sunday to say the least. To start with the Spirit’s availability report was down to 6 players and only 3 of those were injuries. The Spirit took on Portland in their second and final regular season meeting and after losing to them on the road, this was a game to “get their lick back”. This game was also the first for permanent head coach Adrian Gonzalez after being an assistant to Giraldez, who made the move back to Europe before the break. Washington really came out of the gate running in the first half as the really dominated the Thorns in their own half for a majority of the first half, mainly on the right side with Esme, Gabby and Rose. When it came to defending Kouassi, the Thorns really had trouble keeping up with her, specifically Obaze who got turned every which way to try and hold her off. They had some chances right off the bat and one just moments before the actual first goal arrived, with Kouassi being called offside after sending a pass to Gift Monday in the box. That first goal in the 17th minute which was started by one Gabby Carle who sent the ball up on the right to Kouassi who again battled with Obaze. She megged her and sent the cross into the box to Gift Monday who was able to get the ball in from close range. That was Monday’s 5th goal of the season for the Spirit and Rose’s 4th assist of the season as well. From then on the Spirit had a ton of shots on Portland’s side as they ook a total of 11 shots in the first half, but only 3 of them to be on target. In the first half Washington held their own with 54% possession to Portland’s 46% and it showed until we got to the end of extra time and Portland’s Olivia Moultrie scored with an assist from Jessie Fleming to send them into halftime tied 1-1.  The second half kicked off and Spirit continued to hold possession, but Portland had more chances from Turner and Linnehan. Courtney Brown subbed in for Kate Weisner, and Brown who we spoke to on the pre-match presser and talked about on of her strengths being a versatile player and playing in different positions, did just that in this game. It would lead to a few chances on goal for her.

However, the moment a lot of fans had been waiting for in the game was the return of a certain player, one Trinity Rodman, after being out since April with a recurring back problem. Rodman subbed on in the 76th minute for Kouassi and Audi field erupted in excitement for her long-awaited return that would soon become much more than that. Trinity made her first attempt on goal outside the box with an assist from Morgan only for it to be blocked. The game reached 90 minutes and had an additional 9 minutes of extra time. In extra time, in the 92nd minute, Brown won the ball from Portland on the left side and crossed it into the box to Bethune who flicked it back for Rodman who got there first and booted it into the goal. The emotion Trinity expressed in that moment with tears in her eyes as her team ran to celebrate with her as her first game back, was felt throughout the stadium. I will not lie to you as I sat at home watching I had tears in my eyes watching her score and celebrate such a huge moment, after all the hard work she did away from the team to heal herself mentally and physically. It was joyful to watch in real time. The Spirit won that game 2-1 with Trinity’s goal being the game winner. In the post-match interview, she was emotional and she mentioned “ being back especially at home with the crowd behind her scoring that goal she missed the team and missed doing what she loved, just joy”. It was an emotional game for Rodman and Spirit fans, even fans of other teams were emotional watching her score. Rodman said in the post-match presser “ I haven’t  had a bad cultured team like I’ve always felt that support on the Spirit and every day we get closer”. Washington kicked off the second half of the season with an emotion filled win, and they hit the road this week to play Gotham with a possible return from Paige Metayer and maybe even new signee Sofia Cantore.

Anatomy of a Goal: Marta

Why analyze when you can just watch the GOAT keep her team alive with the last strike of the ball in regulation. There will be books written about her greatness one day, but this is just a pure strike off of a deflection. If you took a still of this shot, it’d be the logo of some league (NWSL, can I interest you in a logo change). But, seriously, the beauty of footy is sometimes, you can just let the moment live. Enjoy this on a loop, please.

Anatomy of a Goal: Rose Kouassi

This goal is all about individual effort. Kouassi has been a goal creation machine, with some of the best contribution numbers in the league this season. But she has struggled to put chances away since entering the league last season. This goal, in which she disposes Ary Borges, and then makes a fantastic central run and megs the defender to go top right corner in a match where her team needed a result, may be the turning point for Rose. She’s a lethal winger, and now defenses have to respect her shot making ability after a pressure goal like this one. Seeing her put it together like this definitely has the league on notice, and makes her a standout player on a team with a lot of big name internationals. This is goal scorer’s goal, and it’s a cinematic ending.

Hidden Figures: 72 and 100

A return to NWSL brought us a funky statical anomaly, where three (3) different Shea Butter ballers all scored in the 72nd minute of their matches. KiKi Van Zanten (with her first NWSL goal), Elizabeth Ball, and Prisca Chilufya, all scored in the 72nd minute, with Van Zanten and Chilufya salvaging a point for their sides with their goals. And, speaking of Elizabeth Ball, congratulations to her on her 100th NWSL cap. Scoring in that cap, as a defender, was truly a storybook moment. On a juggernaut team, she has been a constant for the franchise, and it is nice to see her get her flowers.

Hidden Figures: Fastest to Three

In Week 17, Ludmila became the NWSL player with the fastest hattrick, which she accomplished in 10 minutes of play, in a match in which she subbed on. Not only did she break the record, but she did it with a perfect hattrick, and entered herself into the Golden Boot race, where she now sits with 8 goals, tied with Barbra Banda. She is Chicago’s best player and goal scorer, so expect her to keep pace in the race while the Stars never say die.

Cultural Cuts: The Current Moment and Diaspora United

We’ve got a two for one this week. First up, Thom brings you the latest The Current Moment episode with Vince, Racing Louisville fan and overall ball knower. They discuss the Kansas City Current vs Racing Louisville match. I highly recommend it for the laughs and the fantastic football talk.

I also wanted to give a shoutout to Diaspora United, who has an awesome new episode up that discusses both the instant classic Copa Femenina Final, but, more importantly, talks about anti-trans policy and the reemergence of gender testing in sports. It’s definitely worth a listen.

Look Back At It: Our Midseason Extravaganza

We’re four weeks into the second half of the NWSL Season. Take a listen back to our marathon of three episodes, discussing all 14 teams and where they may be headed for the last thirteen matches. We were correct? Is there late climber? Of the seven or eight guests we had, you’re likely to agree with something one of us said.

Shea Butter Midseason Chop Up Part 1: The Bottom 5

Diaspora United Midseason Chop Up Part 2: Monie in the Middle (The middle 5)

The Current Moment Midseason Chop Up Part 3: The Top 4

Final Thoughts: Respectfully, You Shouldn’t Be the Commissioner

Barbra Banda was placed on SEI for the Orlando Pride this past weekend. She suffered a full thickness avulsion of the right adductor longus tendon, which is an injury most of us didn’t know existed until this weekend. Basically, her tendon, and bone, fell off the bone. It is a deeply painful and rather uncommon injury, and not one that an athlete gets from the wear and tear of playing their sport at an elite level. We cannot say for certain if this injury was caused by a lack of a proper warmup in the match against Orlando, but it isn’t something that can be ruled out completely. What we do know is that the game and the league has lost one of its stars for the remainder of the season. Orlando used the word “devasted” and that seems appropriate for them. Despite the record signing of Lizbeth “La Maga” Ovalle from Tigres, there is no replacing Banda.

I wrote about the Kansas City vs Orlando match being the tipping point for many in and around the league in calling for accountability and/or a resignation from Jessica Berman. 2025 has been a banner year for her for all the wrong reasons. Losing a superstar when it may have been preventable seems like the last straw, even though the last straw should have come several times in the past eight months. Below is a link to a piece I wrote prior to the Banda announcement. If this is the August issue, the theme of August is clear. #BermanOut is the refrain for the rest of the season. The league, the players, and the fans, deserve better.

Every Blade of Grass: Protect Your Players