The NWSL offseason is generally busy, but news usually breaks in bursts. Lynn Biyendolo’s December trade from NJ/NY Gotham FC to the Seattle Reign, for example, came just eight days before Yazmeen Ryan left the same club for the Houston Dash, which happened just three days before Olympic silver medalist Gabi Portillo joined Gotham from Corinthians. There was a different flurry of news that captured as much attention, if not more, a month later – the choice of three U.S. women’s national team players to leave the NWSL altogether. In a span of four days, Naomi Girma, Jenna Nighswonger and Crystal Dunn swapped clubs in the U.S. for counterparts in Europe, completing moves just as the transfer deadline closed across the Atlantic Ocean. That set of moves unintentionally set the tone for the rest of the NWSL offseason, transforming the usual preseason conversations about intraleague dynamics to discussions about where the American falls in the global landscape as women’s soccer continues its rapid growth.
That narrative continues to follow the NWSL like a shadow ahead of the 2025 regular season, which begins on Friday. A quote from the Washington Spirit’s Trinity Rodman, arguably the league’s biggest star, in…
