NWSL MVP Tracker: Thompson leads USWNT in rating, however different internationals dominate

The 2025 NWSL season is already 5 weeks previous, which might solely imply one factor: the return of ESPN’s NWSL MVP Tracker!

We shall be checking in on the growing MVP race periodically all through the season because the type of high gamers ebbs and flows. Who’s positioning themselves to be the league MVP? We’re right here to inform you, all season lengthy.

Our methodology is a mix of not simply knowledge, however commentary as a result of (1) numbers aren’t all the story, and (2) it permits us to research gamers throughout all positions.

Sure, goal-scorers inherently get a lot of the eye and sometimes win the MVP award. There actually wasn’t any arguing with Kansas Metropolis Present ahead Temwa Chawinga claiming the award final 12 months after she set a brand new league scoring file, however all gamers are eligible to win the MVP award and may earn a spot on our shortlist.

Whether or not historical past repeats itself and one other goalscorer is called the MVP on the finish of the 12 months stays to be seen, however undoubtedly, there are a bunch of acquainted names on our first in-season version of those rankings. (A number of of our preseason MVP predictions appear to be good shouts early on).

Of notice: There are outstanding gamers who we count on to make their means onto this listing when or in the event that they get wholesome. To this point, nevertheless, their time on the sphere cannot warrant inclusion — Washington Spirit ahead Trinity Rodman, whose again issues have resurfaced, is the highest participant that listing.

With that, let’s get to the rating!

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11. Rebeca Bernal, Washington Spirit defender

The arrival of Bernal added depth and flexibility to a Spirit workforce that got here inside a whisker of successful the NWSL Defend and NWSL Championship final 12 months.

The Mexican worldwide can play as a centerback or a holding midfielder, offering the Spirit with the pliability to line up in a three-back or four-back formation, and likewise permitting head coach Jonatan Giraldez to make mid-game changes with out essentially burning a substitution. All of that has been needed contemplating the Spirit’s harm listing has grown to what could possibly be a aggressive beginning 11 by itself.

Bernal ranks third within the league in clearances and eighth in aerials, per TruMedia. She’s nonetheless adapting to the league and will solely get higher in time.

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10. Lorena, Kansas Metropolis Present goalkeeper

This time final 12 months, Kansas Metropolis was successful video games whereas bleeding targets. The Present’s again 4 was a multitude and there have been uncertainties in web. Lorena, together with a solidified unit in entrance of her, has made positive that Kansas Metropolis’s excellent begin to 2025 is a holistic offensive and defensive effort.

The Brazilian newcomer leads the league in targets in opposition to, having conceded solely as soon as in 5 video games. She has her protection to thank for that, partly, however she has additionally been otherworldly when known as upon to make jaw-dropping saves, as she did within the workforce’s finest win of the season so far, over the Washington Spirit.

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If you happen to thought this listing can be with out a stalwart box-to-box midfielder who embodies a lot of what the NWSL is about, you should be new right here.

Haley McCutcheon will not be a reputation that can soar out to any informal fan. She gives neither the aptitude nor the statistical tally of teammates Barbra Banda and Marta, however McCutcheon is the do-everything midfielder for an Orlando workforce crammed with stars. She has more and more gotten on the rating sheet relationship again to final 12 months.

McCutcheon is a jack of all trades, rating within the seventy fifth percentile or higher in virtually each offensive statistical class tracked by TruMedia. The kicker? Roughly the identical may be mentioned about her defensive metrics.

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8. Lo’eau LaBonta, Kansas Metropolis Present midfielder

Retaining with the theme — and to not sound like a damaged file from final 12 months — Kansas Metropolis’s midfield is so spectacular not due to the way it controls possession, however due to how productive and incisive it’s. LaBonta is the chief of that effort.

Sure, she is authoritative from the penalty spot and all the time entertaining within the celebration that follows, however she can be the guts and soul of a Present workforce that (cease me in the event you’ve heard this earlier than) appears unstoppable proper now. Kansas Metropolis wins video games in transition, and LaBonta is the two-way midfielder orchestrating these game-changing moments on either side of the ball.

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7. Ashley Hatch, Washington Spirit ahead

The 2021 NWSL Golden Boot winner is again in type after a disappointing couple of years on a private stage.

Three of her 4 targets to this point this season have been game-winners, which has helped Washington maintain tempo within the Defend race regardless of their many accidents. Her brace in opposition to Bay FC in late March was significantly spectacular as she adjusted her physique to seek out the ball and evoked reminiscences of the poaching goal-scorer that has given NWSL defenses matches.

Washington has been with out Ouleye Sarr and (principally) Trinity Rodman, which has positioned extra of the scoring burden on Hatch. To this point, she has delivered. She can be useful on the defensive aspect of the ball because the Spirit’s first line of confrontation.

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6. Barbra Banda, Orlando Satisfaction ahead

Banda has three targets and one help, which is simply in regards to the tempo to be anticipated from one of many league’s finest forwards. She stays a game-changing participant who can slip behind defenses and drift off of the shoulders of defenders to complete performs spectacularly, and her relationship with Marta continues to show fruitful.

The Washington Spirit’s defensive mixture of Bernal and Tara McKeown did nicely to close down Banda in final week’s NWSL Championship rematch, however Banda remains to be each bit the dominant participant she was final 12 months, and she or he’s more likely to keep proper close to the highest of this listing all season lengthy.

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Is any participant extra improved 12 months over 12 months than Alyssa Thompson? The Angel Metropolis ahead has three targets and one help in 4 video games as she has menaced opposing defenses on the dribble and in transition.

Thompson is adept at slipping behind defenders on the again shoulder, sharp on the dribble, and more and more correct at taking pictures from distance. Her upper-90 banger in opposition to the Seattle Reign a couple of weeks in the past was the exclamation mark to her ascent, and do not forget: She’s nonetheless solely 20 years previous.

To the purpose about her worth: Take a look at how Angel Metropolis struggled with out her final week. They misplaced 4-0 at house to NJ/NY Gotham FC, they usually have been with out a solution for the right way to fill the void left by Thompson.

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4. Temwa Chawinga, Kansas Metropolis Present ahead

Final 12 months’s league MVP is simply as harmful within the new 12 months. Chawinga leads the NWSL with 4.3 anticipated targets, per TruMedia, and she or he has scored 3 times. She stays the one most distinctive participant within the NWSL who can change video games, a ahead who makes virtually everybody else on the sphere appear to be they’re standing nonetheless.

This 12 months appears lots like final 12 months to this point, to the tune of Chawinga lately matching her personal earlier file of scoring in eight straight video games (a streak that started in 2024).

Chawinga will problem for each the Golden Boot and MVP award once more. If she will be able to put collectively a season remotely near final 12 months’s 20-goal output, she’s going to insert herself into Sam Kerr territory as arguably the league’s most dominant participant. She’s definitely off to the appropriate begin on that journey.

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There actually is not any different ahead like Esther Gonzalez. She scored one other brace final week in opposition to Angel Metropolis — her second in as many video games — all whereas persevering with her pattern of being probably the most free-flowing ahead within the league. At one level within the first half, she was actually nearer to her personal purpose than all 11 Angel Metropolis gamers, taking part in a 1-2 passing mixture along with her centerbacks.

Esther is an anomaly, a proverbial unicorn. She continues to attain targets along with her head regardless of her listed 5-foot-5 body, she’s exceptionally gifted on the ball, and she or he has a imaginative and prescient for the sport that permits her to see performs develop earlier than most different gamers.

She’s additionally essential to Gotham’s success. The “Tremendous Staff” designation barely lasted a 12 months, and Gotham obtained off to a barely shaky begin this season, however Esther stays the fixed, dependable chief who will get issues carried out.

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We advised you to be careful for Cascarino in our preseason rankings, and she or he has confirmed why to this point. Her brace over the weekend added to 3 assists on the season for among the best wingers — and gamers — within the NWSL proper now.

San Diego appears vastly improved this 12 months below new head coach Jonas Eidevall after half a season of no course (or coach) in 2024, and Cascarino is likely one of the main beneficiaries. She’s electrical on the flanks, continuously beating defenders to the endline and mixing with Gia Corley and Kenza Dali, two different names to look at going ahead.

In the end, Cascarino could possibly be the rationale San Diego returns to the playoffs.

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1. Debinha, Kansas Metropolis Present ahead/midfielder

One of many nice injustices of the NWSL’s historical past is that Debinha, who was a focus for arguably the best workforce in league historical past (the 2018-19 North Carolina Braveness) has by no means been named MVP. She was among the many finest gamers on the planet on the time.

It might be harsh to name final 12 months a relative battle for Debinha, however undoubtedly, the eye on the Present was elsewhere, specifically with Chawinga.

5 video games into the brand new 12 months, the 33-year-old Debinha has pulled a web page from Brazilian compatriot Marta’s e book of anti-aging. Debinha is again to her prime, and she or he’s setting the tempo within the MVP race. She leads the league in probabilities created (16), per TruMedia, and she or he has added to her recreation by enhancing defensively in a Kansas Metropolis system that calls for lots from its entrance six. Look solely to her purpose on opening day, when she expertly pressured two Portland Thorns midfielders to win the ball and begin the transition sequence, as proof.

It is the opening stretch of a marathon season, however Debinha has set the tempo.