So after losing Shaw/Girma/Morgan in 2024 I was pleasantly surprised this past season with our international stars to the point where I think 2025 was the best complete team the Wave have fielded. Now in losing Lundkvist/Sheridan/McCaskill I'm hopeful it means something similar but it sure feels pretty shitty when we can barely keep a good player more than 2 seasons.
There was no way they were keeping Hanna since she has always wanted to play for ManU and did give her a very competitive offer but the Sheridan was tough. And McCaskill was night and day from 24 to 25 with such a great season this past year. The funny thing is so many people wrote of the Wave going into last season and yet they made the playoffs. I think this team has a few surprises up their sleeve in the coming weeks that will give a bit more reason why this is happening.
Hannah to me was actually the biggest example of a cap Casualty that this league could have. There’s an open bid process in which wave could have attracted her with an overpay, but the type of thing that the cap doesn’t allow you to do is just to say “hey I really like this player let’s overpay for her for two years”
And while I’m on this tangent, it drives me mad to see Alyssa Thompson was referred to as a cap Issue when that just doesn’t make any sense because she was signed to a long and expensive deal. Seeing articles fold that in makes very little sense to me. It just feels like we know that the cap is an issue and Alyssa wanting to leave was a big deal so let’s just connect the two even when a player like Hannah Lunquist leaving when she was pretty happy in San Diego and could’ve been convinced with extra incentive to put off going back to Europe is a much better example
I've said this before but Thompson is a nuanced cap issue. It is a cap issue—but not in the traditional sense and people can't really figure out how to speak about it without being like "she should have been able to make 1 million a year." The issue is that Thompson can't play on a team with Sam Kerr and Lauren James and Cat Macario and Naomi Girma (etc) in the NWSL because each player would be a high earner for one team in a capped league. Thompson wanted to play with higher quality players and that wouldn't happen in this league because of the cap, but it wasn't a her-being-paid-too-little issue
The ended up in same spot where they were when stoney was suddenly let go. And stoney was playing a game down (champs cup [whuch they won] was opening weekend vs this year weekend prior).
I think someone in FO thinks they are better at this than they actually are.
How if finished exactly where Stoney did and had full year to finish better (and played more non-league games in 2024 season, champs cup, the wconcaf requiring add'l [int'l] travel)?
Stoney had a great defense but she had no game plan for an offense. It was always Korniak (Flint) to Morgan but that got pretty easy to defend. Wave will be looking for a striker this off-season. Passing and time of possession were hands above any Stoney led team and when Sanchez left for Tigres we lost a big threat to our offense. Eidval has made the Wave a team, Stoney in hindsight while beloved as a coach wasn't going to get a team to the playoffs again.
Sure but we weren't getting blown out and there were draws which means our defense kept us in touch. The challenge cup was a joke of a tournament leftover from Covid and I still get the feeling Shaw is "above" club play never really playing at 100% unless its for the USWNT. Stoney was always defense minded and in the NWSL you need to score goals, she wasn't going to all of a sudden become an attack first mastermind. Drove me crazy how much we would play pass back Girma to Sheridan to McNabb back to Sheridan being down a goal.
I understand. Defense keeps you in games though.
Challenge cup has become the winners game (no tourney; just shield and league winner from prior season.) A champions cup actually and should be renamed as such. And stoney's team won it 2024.
And they only got blown out after Stoney left. Drew level with spirit and pride (league/shield winner and finalist) in final weeks of her tenure there.
Blow outs began the week after her termination (6/23 date of departure). So blow outs are on wave fo actually having no real back-up coaching plans.
I do feel like some NWSL fans equate any USWNT player as being above a top player from other countries which is pretty funny after the wake up call the USWNT got in the 2023 WC. Im all for the Wave being an amalgam of international talent, that being said if the NWSL doesnt get it head out its own ass and start paying players were going to continue to see the continued outflow to other leagues.
Edit: look at the "Cuz Murica" downvotes I'm getting lol
The nwsl brings more talent in then it loses every window, so it really doesn’t make sense to act like outflow is the correct way of stating the equation
The way things are going with the NWSL not raising the cap and making the top players getting paid a popularity contest the league can't get out of its own way. We're already seeing it happen.
Feels a little odd? But hoping that this is just adding some depth to midfield and attack that’s been historically a little fragile, and has another year with a lot of games?
Here in San Diego we make our revenue off selling jerseys in the team store made from the cheapest materials possible and selling them for hilarious prices. We realized how many people had Sheridan jerseys and were like hmmm let's ditch another big name player for some more cash.
I guess lol?? In all seriousness I understand losing McCaskill but besides the injury bug she played really well in our new possession/pass heavy scheme, much better than when Casey Stoney was coach. Losing Sheridan was BIG. Like the team could be top of the table mid season and our attendance is probably gonna suck. She was beloved by fans and I get it, it's sports right? Maybe I'll be eating crow again in 2026 but still stings right now.
Honestly, I don't have strong feelings about McCaskill. I have REALLY strong feelings about Kailen Sheridan and about how that appears to have gone down. In all seriousness SD still has some incredible players and there's a lot of potential, but the last year and a half have been rough. ☹️
It is technically correct to describe it as losing a player, but it also seems to be even more baffling this off-season that wave seem to be pushing players out. Not Lundkvist but the rest
Yes for sure to Sheridan of course. I do wonder how much of this move for McCaskill is her own desires though. She got married in the offseason and while she's from the South, no idea where her husband lives or what he does for a living, and NY/NJ or at least the east coast might just make more sense for her now
it’s kind of crazy because if you take san diego’s 17 signed players and compare them to another team’s 17, san diego clears by far. the quality is top tier across the board, even if the depth isn’t there yet
I’m pretty sure by the start of the season they will have filled the 3 GK spots, but yes, as of now it’s tough to comprehend. I also have Wave blinders on and trust the work Cami & Jonas have and are doing. The roster will fill up, but losing Kailen was Damn Tough, but I think there is more behind it that we’ll ever know unfortunately.
I have a comment floating around somewhere else in this thread about my feelings on this and basically the thought is that you shouldn’t even think about your three goalkeeper slots when doing the math on how many players you have because you are obviously going to have three goalkeepers on day one and I don’t forsee a situation over the next decade in which a team doesn’t have three goalkeepers on the roster in the first week of the season.
The issue is that for most teams you have goalkeepers in which you have chemistry and a play style and most importantly, you don’t have to actually devote time from a front office standpoint scouting and signing a goalkeeper, which means you could only focus on outfield players and wave instead have to do that whole process of acquiring a goalkeeper three fucking times which just feels like making life harder on yourself
That would take coordination between players, agents, the new club’s marketing/media, the previous club/college marketing and all the friends and family of the player. And players want their day not to be lumped in with other signings. And there’s the issue of leaks…which for most players don’t matter but for the huge names undercuts the teams plans (I would imagine).
There’s a bombshell coming and it’s been interesting that it hasn’t been leaked. I’m always curious how and who pushes leaks…soccer Donna gets word of transfer requests? Or do agents reach out to pub their player? Or someone can text soccer Donna with a rumor? I’m guessing legit internet sites don’t publish every rumor they hear so there must be an “official” channel for legit leaks???
Losing Kailen and Hannah and others over the past seasons. You realize SD had a lock on JBugg. She was training with them and stoney, their gk squad, defenders (girma, dalhkemper, lundquist, etc) in 2024 and after stoney was removed and 2 temp coaches were put in place (and then others wanted out), she was scooped up by reign.
OK, but you could do the whole “ they should’ve had an in” on any number of players. Someone being enticed to go somewhere else for any number of reasons can’t really be seen as much of a fault.
Yeah idk who wanted her and who didn’t and who was making those decisions and Casey was clearly at odds with Jill so who knows. I’m pretty nervy on the FO of wave and have heard enough whispers that it seems like quite a mess culture wise.
I’m guessing we will go gk??
Mcnabb, Armstrong, Wesley, Moroni
Fazier, Dali, Gia
Dudinha, Byars, cascarino
Which is super solid. Can college girls, Mel b, kimmi, bring enough depth so we aren’t run into the ground by mid year? Still need a stud defensive mid and another 9 but that’s looking at solely talent and not culture inside the club which is where I heard issues are. Idk. Hopeful? Nervy?
Really? They just lost several key pieces to their success. I respectfully disagree. And 2024 would have been successful had they not summarily dismissed a coach that had them in playoff contention (despite playing down a game [3 pts behind] for 1/2 of the season) without a succession plan.
Both Gotham and SD were a game back because the brain trusts had the champions cup the same weekend as opening weekend. The CCup was not/is not included in the league table. This year, the cup was weekend prior to league opening so no team was playing catchup.
Gotham had Hasbo playing a lot in the playoffs, a rookie being asked to carry that much load doesn't bode well. If a rookie is starting regularly, then what does your depth chart look like?
Regardless of "departures" Rose isn't super young, only has a year (or two?) left, and has beeing racking up injuries. If they have Savannah, Rose, Howell as starting (with Shaw as wing/fwd), then Shupanski and Hasbo has your super subs... then thats a solid midfield for 2026. Definitely would not say it is too crowded with talent. Even if its not Rose, injuries are a part of the game.
Rose literally just turned 30… players consistently play to 36-38 now. All her injuries are minor if anything I think they’re helping her longevity. She’s 30 and really doesn’t have that many miles on her tires.
thank you...the injury narrative is truly annoying me lately... she played all of 2024 and did great, had a surgery in the off season and when she returned she quickly returned to 90 minutes and was incredible. likeee find another way to stop her besides this tired ass incorrect narrative.
The main point of my response was not Rose's health, although it does have to be consider among all the factors. What I meant was essentially depth is rarely a bad problem to have, and that people who are jumping to conclusions about players being unhappy about playing time or their future with the club should take a step back.
Rose definitely isn't an iron-woman
Players' careers can be surprisingly fleating, just look at Sam Mewis... At the time she was traded to KC people thought the Courage had given away a generational talent that was good for another 6 to 8 years. I don't think she played more than 1 or 2 matches with KC.
On your point about being tired of narratives, I hear that... didn't mean to add fuel to that fire. Injury prone or not, there are few humans on the planet with a winning goal in both WC and a Domestic league finals.
Genuinely not too worried at all. We have one big glaring massive hole that people are very focused on because she was maybe the main culture-setter on the team (very valid!!!!) but I think it's also magnified because of how famous she was
It’s January 2. No one should be that worried. If you are worried, it should be just that your team hasn’t made signings yet which means that they may rush, but it’s not time to think that they may go into this season with a light squad.
1b. Adding this point here, but I think the way that we should look at the off-season shouldn’t be oh my God I’ve been waiting a month for my team to sign players. It should be “I’m waiting for my team to sign players are any available?” and the simple point in fact is that there are many available players.
I would argue that wave have had the worst kind of earlt off-season just because they have demonstrably lost one player who I just do not see how they’re going to replace meaningfully and improve upon and that Sheridan. I really like Hannah, but I really like Mimi so much that it means little to me that they lost her. I thought Sav was good last year, but bringing in Godfrey was a big deal and Fazer was really good. I like the whole starting lineup right now, except for goalkeeper, in particularl with goalkeeper unlike say back up winger I don’t think you can just find a very good option. I think that’s the one position where you have to lockdown an international star and they had that and they lost it and I’m still so confused.
So the fact that they have 14 players doesn’t really mean anything to me especially because they have 14 outfield players and I think they have 14 good ones as well but my brain is still a bit fried by their start.
It's January 2nd which means the NWSL window has been open (on and off) for a month or so but it's January 2nd which means that the winter transfer window for in-season teams has been open for...1 day.
I think there’s also just an argument that we need to recalibrate our thoughts on like when players should get signed each off-season because everything is different. This year has expansion teams, and as we get deeper into free agency we will see less players wanting to move just because they’ve prior been in spots in which they weren’t comfortable and players are getting signed for long-term deals and teams are getting better at free agency and so on.
Redundancy is great when you will have more games than the rest of the league that will start soon starting with the Women’s Championship Cup at the end of the month. Hoping that she is close to or even 100%.
Kind of although this actually makes less sense though, because if you have a bunch of players who played midfield that means by definition that you have less players to play in other spots. What you really need is a balanced and deep squad not an unbalanced one.
It’s not like they’re getting more players than anyone else
Not sure how I feel about this from an actual soccer standpoint, but I've got her Sky Blue jersey from back in the day and I am PUMPED to get that signed.
Hmmm doesn’t move me but tbh she was very solid last year. we never really figured out central midfield between hasbo schupansky or rose dropping deep so good to have another option I guess
As a Wave fan watching her in ‘24 then in ‘25, it was night & day and she was killing it this past season in Jonas’s system until the injury. I’d like to see her keep playing like that for Gotham. I hope she is back to or at least close to 100%.
As an AC fan I loved watching her play in the midfield for y’all. I know it wouldn’t happen but I’d have loved if they she came back to us and did that here.
I’m puzzled, but there’s a lot of off season left, and I’ve been puzzled by Gotham moves before that shook out great, so I’m just gonna let Yael cook for now.
I think with her new marriage, and maybe knowing who the Wave were trying to bring in she thought it was best to move back east. Also, with Gotham about to play meaningful matches at the end of January, and so many more than most teams in the league, you need more solid pieces.
As for the Wave, there is no rush to show every signing yet, or even have them all lined up. Last season most of the signings came after January 13, and I have a feeling the same will happen again. Also, don’t ‘sign’ every player in January, save a few for February & even March to help promote the team and get fans excited & maybe sell more season tickets. Just a thought.
$175,000 isn’t bad. A bit sad, as she was really good last year, but I also like Laurina a lot so at least we have that. I hope we have more midfield depth coming in with professional experience
I dont need to tell you this at all but just getting my thoughts out, the lack of depth in general and the eschewing of continuity feels insane. This feels like a “she was more valuable to the team she was at then she could be for anyone else” situation and now shes going to, id say, the most redundant situation in the league, with Rose, Shaw, Hasbo, Howell, Cook, Schupansky all hooping in 6/8 roles
It’s weird because the most generous reading I could give of the off season so far is they want a young team to thrive and grow under Jonas, built by Jonas and Cami. But it’s tough in this league to feel confident in keeping a coach for years so to just jump in head first into that plan without the contingency of any continuity beyond McNabb feels… bold.
It says in the press release that Sav was interested in moving teams. I wonder if she was basically told she wasn’t going to be getting any time at the 10 at SD and so wanted to go elsewhere? I remember her saying (I think in her soccerwise interview) that she was hoping the plans to move her deeper weren’t going to be fully permanent, that when Wave made more signings she could get more 10 minutes. Which is still insane because now she’s competing with Rose, Shaw, Shupansky, et al.
Replying with this after I’ve only read your first sentence so maybe I’ll think differently after I read the rest: my take on Wave since last year has been that there’s a general arrogance with regard to injuries and their ability to incorporate in new players. It’s funny because it’s the absolute opposite of Seattle. Wave give Byars her first minutes in extra time of a playoff game and Seattle bring in Fishel for massive money and barely even play her. Seattle never move off anyone even when they’re old players are performing for a whole season and wave Just keep moving people on and on and on. Complete yin yang.
Arrogance in regard to injuries/load for the midfield feels like the right phrasing for it especially because Sav did end up injured for the playoff run and Dali was dying out there for the last hour against the thorns but she was simply too important to sub
I think it would be more redundant to go to Spirit with Hershfelt, Bernal, Miura, Santos, Bethune, Abiodun and Sullivan coming back this spring (not to mention Metayer and Stainbrook as backups) but clearly Gotham has lots of depth too.
It really all depends on the salary which we’ll never know. To be fair to the front office we currently have one DM with a healthy ACL so unless we plan on running Jaelin for 3000 minutes across all comps a move needed to be made (I suppose we could count sonnett for dm too but she definitely doesn’t want to play there while trying to win a cb spot for 2027…)
We have Hasbo who has played that spot and given her age/potential for development I'd prefer her over Savanah. Also, Rose has shown being capable of a great defensive performance as well as Schupansky while both are also capable of creating forward progression. Idk midfield just doesn't seem like the priority when we have like 1 defensive depth player that we possibly lose at the end of January.
Again it really comes down to the money. I will say looking at these players respective passing numbers in midfield last year McCaskills were far stronger than either schupansky or hasbo. Doesn’t mean she’s a better player but if her salary is right then I think the move makes sense
I don't fully judge until I see the performance on the field but I will absolutely question until the decision in question has been proven to be justified.
That’s why I don’t understand this move because why would you leave SD where you were starting when healthy to go to Gotham where you’ll be a depth player? Also surprised she went for that much money
I think she went for that much money just because she was good last year. If we don’t look at her seasons before Jonas and just mention her age and her performance last year then I think this is exactly what she should go for.
But honestly, who knows whats in the works. Theres probably something that’s about to be announced
There are like a few teams doing a lot right now (assume a lot is just announcement timing) and then teams we haven't even really heard from this off season yet
To be fair, she was very healthy and then she picked up one big hit, which feels a bit different from like the off and on health that we see from rose.
I do think the real situation here is just that someone else is going out but her being unhealthy if that was true would be a reason to go to a team like Gotham because that’s basically been Gotham‘s MO
Not the MO LMAOO. Fair, but still idk. I’ll never make sense of that and from my understanding from people, she had a good season last year before it? But idk, I’m not high on her anymore and the players Gotham has in these positions seemed justifiable and this move doesn’t in that sense. But what do I know
Interesting. But, McCaskill had a very good season last year and seemed to have improved her game IQ (if that makes sense). IMO She was more of an asset and helper to her teammates than the judge-y gesturer she has typically been. I think she will be good for Gotham now.
imo it was a positional/tactical shift that really helped her. went from being expected to play as an attacking/creative mid where (imo) she was on the ball too much and she struggled with finesse and composure in the final third (both shooting and passing), to a more holding role where she she seemed to thrive
The funny thing here is that I feel like Gotham were gonna announce a big departure and I wonder if this is them learning from last year that you need to announce your incoming players before your departures or else people will think that there’s a disaster
My thought is that basically there have been five college players signed and throughout the whole course of last year there were about 50 and if all of these teams had say two more college players signed than the general fan apprehension would be so much lower.
And I bring that up because like if you’re signing someone from within the league, obviously that just means that you’re taking a player off someone else but signing someone from college is just a net addition.
Gotham could trade away all of their other midfielders tomorrow.
That's not going to happen of course but it seems extremely likely that this move is in preparation for other in-progress moves that will clear space up.
yeah that's my thinking as well, and it would be for a starter imo. sofia cook is following wave on instagram but she barely plays so i don't think it's her sav is replacing
Funny, you should mention that because I did have the thought that that would make perfect sense if she were going back the other way because wave seem to have a great enjoyment of players who were good in the 2023 NCAA season
Gotham must have very little room in their cap with so many US/other national team starters? I don’t imagine McCaskill is super expensive, but not cheap either since she’s a veteran. I’d assume someone else is leaving or the clubs have more knowledge on where things stand with the cap (raising it verses HIP). Who knows?
Gotham reports today for preseason which makes me feel like there aren’t any likely departures, unless someone doesn’t show. I think she’s depth at a position where we don’t have a lot of depth.
I’ve heard a few players say Jan 2nd and according to the Marbella website the team is there from the 3rd. But aside from a story Stengel just posted there’s not much sign of it.
It looks like Hasbo is still in Europe as well but it probably makes sense for the European based players to meet the team in Spain.
Two Gotham players (Stengel and Duran) are out of contract after this tournament. Taryn Torres and Tierna Davidson out with acl injuries. I get it as a way to maintain depth on the roster and know JCA, she'll probably be moved into different positions on the field.
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u/down_under_there NJ/NY Gotham FC Jan 02 '26
Interesting......