Photo Copyright Rob Gray for USA TODAY Sports
The National Women’s Soccer League is dark this weekend for a FIFA window. With all 14 teams having played either 10 or 11 games, that means the season is more than one-third complete but less than halfway. That makes it a good time to check in, team by team, and offer grades on the clubs to this point. I’ll list the teams in order of how they stand and not necessarily in order of the grades.
Orlando Pride (8-0-4, 28 pts), A
The Pride are for real. Early in the season it looked like they had turned a corner but the arrival of Barbra Banda has turned them into live contenders. They now have many different ways to beat you, partially because Banda individually has so many ways to beat you. She instantly made other players better, notably Ally Watt. But she has created space in the attack and uncertainty on opposing back lines.
The final areas of development for the Pride is in their own back line which has been good but occasionally leaky, and Anna Moorhouse is still prone to…
