The Wait Is Over

NWSL Season Preview (Part 1)

The Boston Breakers are holding a viewing party for tonight's NWSL Season Preview show on Lifetime at the Russell House Tavern in Cambridge. Sam and Abby's interview with Kristie Mewis and Steph McCaffrey, done by Kate Markgraf, is supposed to be in the first half of the show, after the Eastern Conference segment. Ryan is of course taking pictures and video of the event.

Narrator: Every team starts the season perfect, like the number ten. No losses on the record, no yellow cards, no red cards, no goals allowed. Perfect. As the National Women's Soccer League embarks on Season Ten, a look back at the previous nine campaigns shows less-than-perfect champions and perfect storms that propelled underdogs to the top of the league mountain. In Year Ten of the league, will another ragamuffin bunch of scrappers grab the brass ring, or will a team be able to take on all challengers and turn them back, leading from start to finish and proving that perfect is achievable?

Dalen Cuff: Welcome to Lifetime's preview of the 2022 NWSL season. I'm Dalen Cuff and we're coming to you live from Toyota Park just outside Chicago, the site of the league's first game this year, tomorrow afternoon between the Red Stars and the Philadelphia Charge, which can be seen here live beginning with the pre-game show at 3:30pm Eastern. It will also host the final game of 2022, the NWSL Final on October 15th. I am surrounded by a plethora of soccer talent. On my far right, Lifetime's lead play-by-play announcer, Jenn Hildreth. Next to her is Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion, Kate Markgraf. On my left is former US National Team midfielder, Aly Wagner. We are joined via satellite by former US National Team defender, Cat Whitehill, from Boston, and in Vancouver, the ever loud-and-proud former Canadian National Team goalkeeper, Karina Leblanc. Ladies, this off-season leading into Year Ten of the NWSL saw more movement than we had seen in some time. Between the draft day trades involving at least half of the fourteen teams in the league, the big moves during the opening week of preseason, and the selection of thirteen of seventeen players designated for assignment last week, fans will definitely need a scorecard to keep up with who's playing for their favorite teams. What was the most surprising move from this off-season for each of you?

Jenn: I would say Christen Press coming to Atlanta on loan was a bit of a shocker given that loans are rare in the league and the Olympias are coming off a conference final appearance in their first season in the NWSL.

Kate: The biggest surprise to me was all the movement Washington did after falling just short in the NWSL final in October. They dispatched their starting goalkeeper and half the back line to two other teams on Draft Day. The sale of the club to the DelMarVa Soccer Foundation was in my opinion a good thing, because it will bring some fresh eyes to the table and perhaps roll back the mistakes made this off-season.

Aly: Washington dealing the #1 pick to North Carolina put them behind the eight-ball for the rest of the preseason as the pieces they acquired haven't looked to have been worth giving up that spot in the draft along with a solid defender from a conference championship side.

Cat: The biggest surprise for me was how fast Chicago and Boston seized opportunities on Draft Day to make significant improvements to their already-solid teams. Chicago snagging Houston's #2 pick earlier in the week to eventually draft Sophia Smith makes their losing Sarah Hagen for the season a less-troublesome occurrence, plus the move on Tuesday afternoon to send Rebecca Moros to North Carolina for a pair of solid if unspectatular players in Sam Witteman and Courtney Niemiec shores up the depth issues they had. John Herdman and Lee Billiard's massive sucker job on Jim Gabarra will go down in Draft Day lore as the one of the finest examples of knowing your opponent and exploiting their weaknesses. The Breakers upgraded both positions they declared were slightly below championship standard in one swoop with the addition of Labbe and Dahlkemper, and spirits are high here in Boston that they will finally end the curse of being the longest-running professional women's soccer franchise in the United States to have never won a title.