Summer season is almost right here, and the warmth is beginning to flip up within the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League MVP race. Welcome to the newest model of ESPN’s NWSL 2025 MVP Tracker.
Similar to final yr, we’re checking in on the race for the league’s coveted particular person award after each 5 rounds of league play. We’re 10 video games into the season because the NWSL returns from the worldwide break, and our record is a mixture of the standard suspects and unheralded stars.
The MVP race leaders stay out in entrance, however change might be on the horizon. Our first in-season tracker had a Kansas Metropolis Present participant main the league-wide race. And identical to final yr, our early favourite has sustained an harm that may considerably have an effect on the award.
The pattern dimension can also be nonetheless barely small, however we’re beginning to see which gamers are carrying their groups. The again half of this record has modified significantly since our first MVP Tracker of the season.
Let’s get to it.
A rookie tied for third within the league in scoring? On this financial system?!
Extra critically: Tiernan may be one of the best story within the NWSL this season. She went from a non-roster invitee in preseason to one of many high scorers within the league in a race that features a number of former NWSL Golden Boot winners and a World Cup winner.
Sure, Tiernan is a “purpose poacher,” however her most up-to-date purpose towards Racing Louisville confirmed a degree of sophistication and approach to attain from distance. U.S. girls’s nationwide staff head coach Emma Hayes is watching, too: Tiernan obtained the call-up and earned important minutes with the U23s for a pair of video games towards Germany.
Defensive midfielders do not get lots of love, however Coffey has managed to show heads for membership and nation together with her composed two-way play. She ranks fifth within the NWSL in probabilities created, even from a deep-lying place, and she or he is fifth within the league in ball recoveries, based on ESPN International Soccer Analysis.
Coffey is the two-way, scrappy midfielder most coaches want they needed to anchor the backbone of their squad.
10. Kayla Sharples | Defender | 27 | Kansas Metropolis Present
What number of defenders can say they shut down Barbra Banda 1-v-1 a number of instances persistently over a 90-minute recreation and helped their staff earn a shutout? Sharples’ efficiency in Kansas Metropolis’s current 1-0 victory over the Orlando Pleasure exemplified her significance to the Present, and the way a lot her recreation has developed since her early years in Chicago and on a number of abroad loans.
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Sharples is the co-anchor of the league-leading Present, who’ve solely conceded seven targets in 10 video games (additionally a league finest). She is a part of what Kansas Metropolis was lacking final yr, when the Present additionally began the season on hearth however have been susceptible defensively. Sharples is about to get examined much more with the current information of a season-ending knee harm to Alana Prepare dinner, her associate within the heart of protection.
The 2017 NWSL Golden Boot winner returned to her scoring methods with targets in every of the Spirit’s previous two video games, tying her for second within the league with six complete. Washington continues to slog via accidents and can now take care of a training transition, however Hatch is a continuing. She additionally ranks third within the league in anticipated targets, per ESPN International Soccer Analysis.
Hayes stated the information does not like, and she or he’s proper: Dickey leads the NWSL in post-shot anticipated targets minus targets towards (PSxG-GA, a measurement of shot-stopping capacity) by a large margin over the subsequent closest goalkeeper.
That has contributed to Seattle conceding solely 9 targets, second finest within the NWSL. It is a good factor, too: The Reign have solely scored 9, so Dickey is doing her half to take care of the high-quality margins. She simply earned her first USWNT call-up as a reward.
5.1 – Claudia Dickey’s 5.1 targets prevented is almost double every other goalkeeper within the #NWSL this season (2nd – Mackenzie Arnold – 2.6). Fact. pic.twitter.com/TVztEwEZh4
— OptaJack⚽️ (@OptaJack) Could 20, 2025
Dali is tied for the league lead with seven goal-creating actions, per FBRef. The France worldwide is one a part of San Diego’s double pivot alongside Savannah McCaskill, a duo that has managed video games in entertaining and efficient style. The Wave are surprisingly second within the league proper now.
Dali is one essentially the most integral gamers to that success, and she or he’s among the many finest gamers within the NWSL proper now.
The place would Gotham be with out Esther? She simply helped the staff win the primary Concacaf membership title and e-book a ticket to imminent inaugural FIFA world occasions (together with the primary Ladies’s Membership World Cup in 2028). These video games do not depend towards the official MVP information for league play, however they’re a continuation of what is occurring again residence.
Esther is Gotham’s do-everything ahead. She is tied for the league lead with seven targets, however she drops barely from our final MVP rating as a result of she hasn’t scored in her previous three league video games.
5. Barbra Banda | Ahead | 25 | Orlando Pleasure
Banda registered the quickest hat trick in league historical past final month when she scored thrice towards Utah. The catch is that it got here towards the Royals, who’ve been terrible defensively, however it was a reminder of how distinctive Banda is — and it moved her right into a tie for the league lead in targets. This season may nonetheless change into a repeat of 2024, when Banda was in a two-player race for MVP and Golden Boot. With whom, you ask? Glad you requested …
4. Temwa Chawinga | Ahead | 26 | Kansas Metropolis Present
Final yr’s MVP is simply off to a gradual begin if you happen to maintain her to her personal record-breaking scoring requirements — and even at that, Chawinga is tied for second within the league in scoring with six targets. Few, if any, gamers within the league change a recreation like Chawinga. She is again on one other sizzling streak, too, with targets in Kansas Metropolis’s previous three video games.
3. Alyssa Thompson | Ahead | 20 | Angel Metropolis
Guess who ranks second within the NWSL in probabilities created (key passes plus assists)? It is Thompson, based on ESPN Analysis. Sure, Thompson is second on her staff in targets scored behind Tiernan, however she creates extra probabilities, and she or he has change into one of many main 1-v-1 artists within the NWSL. She’s one of the best lively American ahead within the NWSL proper now.
Cascarino is loving life in San Diego. She leads the league in assists, and she or he is without doubt one of the most transformative technical gamers within the league. Magic occurs when the ball involves her ft. San Diego is a enjoyable staff to observe due to Cascarino, whose particular person talent is world class.
1. Debinha | Ahead/midfielder | 33 | Kansas Metropolis Present
Is that this the curse of the ESPN NWSL MVP Tracker? Final yr, Kansas Metropolis ahead Bia Zaneratto debuted at No. 1 earlier than sustaining a significant harm. This yr, Debinha was our early-season chief however now has an unspecified harm that may probably hold her out till at the very least the resumption of play in August.
Nonetheless, for now, she has solely missed one recreation — and if she will get wholesome, she might find yourself solely lacking 4 complete — so she is stays atop our MVP Tracker.
Debinha appears like herself circa 2018: an all-world playmaker who leaves defenses guessing with each contact. She nonetheless ranks first within the NWSL in probabilities created, per ESPN Analysis.
Combating for inclusion on the record: Gisele Thompson (Angel Metropolis), Marta (Orlando Pleasure), Taylor Flint (Racing Louisville), Lorena (Kansas Metropolis Present), Reward Monday (Washington Spirit), Savannah McCaskill (San Diego Wave), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorns)
