Alison Gale

I should add Spokane to the map to increase the reach

Probably would be possible to do on the county level. Would need coordinates for each county and the population. My guess would be Houston is the densest but definitely curious

Map of the contiguous US with concentric circles marking the locations of all the NWSL teams. It highlights for each point which team is closest to those folks. With Boston and Denver added, some of the big gaps were filled.

Updated the map of which #NWSL team is closest to each point in the US. Boston fills in New England and Denver fills the large gap between Utah and Kansas City

Picture of a short eared owl flying towards the camera with its wings out in front of a frosty field

Happy Superb Owl Sunday to all who celebrate!

Burn It All Down was my favorite podcast and now more than ever I miss their smart commentary and sharp critiques. Check out their Kickstarter so we can hopefully get more great content!

Google decided to stop paying for the data 😭

Taking a look at the distribution of NWSL games this season. An early break for the Men's World Cup but then an uninterrupted break until October

Chart comparing goals against with last season. Seattle and Kansas City both conceded way fewer goals while Chicago and North Carolina conceded more

Kansas City's dominant performance this season was due to the decrease in goals conceded. Seattle also saw a similar improvement

Chart comparing goals scored in the NWSL by teams between 2024 and 2025. THe top 3 teams from 2024 all scored fewer goals this season while the bottom teams all scored more goals. Kansas City is still on the top for goals scored.

The top goalscoring teams from 2024 all scored fewer goals while the bottom all scored more to make this a competitive season

Chart showing NWSL team goal differential between 2024 to 2025. KC improved by 10 and was 25 higher than the next highest team. The other teams were pretty close but Chicago was the lowest with -22 followed by Bay FC with -15. Gotham, Spirit, and Orlando all saw drops in goal differential while San Diego and Seattle saw strong improvements.

Here is how each teams' goal differential compared to last season. Kansas City pulled way ahead of all other teams

Chart comparing nwsl points between 2025 and 2024. Kansas City increased form 55 to 65 points. Spirit, Orlando, and Gotham all fell a bit while Portland, Seattle, San Diego, and Lousiville improved which led to a tight middle of the table.

Comparing #NWSL points between 2024 and 2025. Seattle Reign and San Diego Wave saw the biggest improvements while Orlando and Gotham fell the furthest

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As you'll hear on today's episode, we are working towards a relaunch next year. To that end, there are 3 things we'd love from our listeners:

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Nobody came close to them since basically week 1 which I had forgotten about. Even other standout teams had some competition for the first 5 game in past seasons

Point swirl visualization showing all teams in the NWSL and how teams cumulative points increased. In 2024 there were 4 teams at the top and then the rest were much lower. In 2023 all teams were very close. In 2024, Kansas City is far above all other teams, but the other teams are reasonably close.

Here is the updated #NWSL point spirals after the 2025 season. It really shows how quickly Kansas City took the lead without any other team coming close. Remaining teams were pretty tight on points

Here are what the #NWSL tables look like when split into the first half of the season and the second half. Kansas City is consistent, while Utah and Houston wish we could have skipped the first half

Thanks to @nix.ai for finding the bug! Here is the straight line version: bsky.app/profile/nix....

Moving window points to highlight trends over the season. KC was pretty constant. Orlando had a big dip but then recovered. Utah had a huge climb and then fell later. Louisville struggled but then came back. Teams like Angel City and Bay FC were declining towards the end.

Corrected version of 5-game moving average of points for all #NWSL teams.

Deleted the previous post after I realized it had cut off the last few points of each chart and the sorting was slightly off. Some teams really turned it around in the last 5 games while others struggled.

That's a good catch, thanks! I looked over the script and looks like the last few points got cut off. Will post the updated one now

Louisville head coach Bev Yanez officially becomes the first person to make the NWSL playoffs as both a player and coach 👏

📸: @racingloufc.com

Week 26 NWSL bump chart. KC remains on top. Portland jumped over Orlando, Seattle, and San Diego. Louisville jumped over Gotham. The bottom of the table remained unchanged.

Louisville makes the #NWSL playoffs (and 7th seed) for the first time with a win. Two other playoff teams won this weekend: KC continued their dominance and Portland jumped to 3rd

NWSL Playoffs Explorer Play around with how the NWSL standings will look for different game outcomes in the final weeks.

Play around with different decision day results to see what the #NWSL table would look like: playoffs.alisongale.com

Chart showing where teams can finish. Spots 3-8 are up in the air with Orlando, Reign, San Diego, Portland, and Gotham fighting to host a playoff game. Louisville and North Carolina are fighting for the last playoff spot.

Heading into the final weekend, spots 3-8 are very much up in the air. Louisville and North Carolina are fighting for the final playoff spot.

* Note that some of these finishes would require 10-0 score lines so possible does not mean probable

Exactly, we are basically speed running the enshittification process 🙃

The Storm have but not the Reign lol

Yeah that sounds right. Its a bigger factor for some of the other teams I think

For the Reign does goal differential come into play too? Lots more scenarios if you run all those options

For Reign fans there are four decision day games that matter for seeding and first-round playoff opponent (Reign/Pride; Wave/KC; Thorns/Dash and Gotham/Courage), so 81 possible W/L/D outcomes among those four. If the Reign win they finish third; any other outcome could see them drop as low as 7th.

Gotham can clinch a top 4 spot with a win next week combined with a loss/draw for San Diego AND Portland.

Since Reign and Pride play each other, as long as Gotham picks up the 3 points they’re guaranteed to leapfrog one of them on goal differential.

Portland clinches 9th straight NWSL playoff spot with 2-0 win at Angel City. Thorns have made playoffs every year but 2015.

1 spot left — either North Carolina or Louisville. We'll know on Decision Day Nov. 2!

Chart showing where teams can finish. Spots 3-8 are up in the air with Orlando, Reign, San Diego, Portland, and Gotham fighting to host a playoff game. Louisville and North Carolina are fighting for the last playoff spot.

Heading into the final weekend, spots 3-8 are very much up in the air. Louisville and North Carolina are fighting for the final playoff spot.

* Note that some of these finishes would require 10-0 score lines so possible does not mean probable