Full Time Newsletter ⚽| This is The Athletic’s weekly women’s soccer newsletter. Sign up here to receive Full Time directly in your inbox.
Seriously, it might be time to start playing bubble soccer. Emily Olsen here with Asli Pelit Basker, Tamerra Griffin and Meg Linehan — welcome to Full Time!
New No. 1 team in NWSL
Welp, last week’s newsletter didn’t age well.
The Orlando Pride is no longer perfect, and Angel City has hit a serious bump in the road despite announcing a new head coach. Oh, and Trinity Rodman’s back is back in the news. Let’s start with the unusual fall of the Pride, which also means there’s a new No. 1 in the league.
The closer we got to the weekend, the more it seemed like Orlando would walk into its fifth win of the season against an injury-riddled Washington Spirit:
- Eleven Spirit players were ruled out for the match, including Rodman (more on that later), Casey Krueger for the second consecutive game and Croix Bethune, who is back in training but faced a setback while recovering from a meniscus injury. Four of the injuries have carried over from last year.
- Another key player, midfielder Leicy Santos, was listed as questionable due to an ankle injury. She was a second-half substitute but needed medical attention for her lower leg during…
