The day before the San Diego Wave opened their 2024 season with a win over NJ/NY Gotham FC in the NWSL Challenge Cup, Alex Morgan and Jaedyn Shaw fielded a seemingly innocuous question: What would it take for their team to improve upon last season’s finish, when they won the NWSL Shield and made it to the semifinals of the playoffs?
Morgan said it would require a further embrace of the club’s ethos since a winning culture has essentially been in place since the team’s first game in 2022. Shaw agreed but had an additional comment.
“That, and staying healthy,” she told CBS Sports. “We all gotta stay healthy.”
Shaw, and players like her, are not just worried that her team’s ambitions will be derailed by the bad luck of injuries, in large part because a spell on the sidelines no longer feels like it’s up to chance. Women’s soccer players have started to notice the increasing demands as the game rapidly evolves, chiefly through the addition of new competitions, raising concerns that their teams — and the sport as a whole — are not structured properly for them to successfully bear the load.
Look no further than the schedule Gotham are poised to face in 2024. In addition to the 26 regular season games on the…
