#Brianna Pinto

[the-physicality]

how to pick an nwsl team:

angel city fc (Los Angeles): if you like Christen Press. Very famous ownership group (politically concerning). The team is struggling but has bright young talent. Beckintweed is in her first season as head coach after bringing the team to the playoffs last year as interim.

notable players: christen press, Alyssa Thompson, Gisele Thompson, Messiah bright, Claire Emslie, Sarah Gorden

noteable injuries: Press- extended acl recovery, Jun Endo preseason acl

bay fc (San Jose/Bay Area): if you are an optimist/want to be an early adopter. a lot of exciting internationals, but struggle to win games. First year expansion team so also trying to define themselves. notable players: Rachel Kundananji, Princess, Asistat Oshoala, Deyna Castellanos, Tess Boade, Caprice Dydasco

notable injuries: Alex Loera - acl, Melissa Lowder gk #1 preseason acl

Chicago red stars: if you want to see a redemption story. coming back from a bad season, USA phenom mal Swanson is back to lead attacking talent. Also has USA gk #1 Alyssa naeher. Lorne Donaldson (who coached Jamaica wnt in the 2023 wwc as well as Sophia smith and mal Swanson at a youth level) is in his first year as head coach

notable players: Alyssa Naeher, Mal Swanson, Sam Staab

Houston dash fc: if you like rooting for an underdog and won't get discouraged. a team that has struggled historically but is still fun to watch. A lot of international talent, did very well in the draft. The team has a new head coach Fran Alonso who just came over from the Scottish women’s league. You can watch the team work to implement their new style in real time. Jane Campbell #3 gk for the uswnt as of late won goalkeeper of the year last year. Lost a lot of players to free agency and is rebuilding with rookies, trades, and transfers. somehow both the straightest team and the gayest team at the same time.

notable injuries/abscences: Kiki Van Zanten ankle/ lower leg sei, 3 players on maternity leave

notable players: Jane Campbell, Diana Ordonez, Sophie Schmidt, Paige Nielsen, Tarciane (incoming), Michelle Alozie

Kansas City current: if you like watching bangers. one of the top teams to beat this season. With Malawi sensation Themwa Chawinga this team is difficult to stop and has a lot of attacking prowess. Has some defensive liabilities. Coached by former uswnt head coach vlatko andonoski. Has signed a good number of u18 players

notable players: debinha, lo’eau labonta, themwa chawinga, Vanessa dibernardo, bia zaneratto

New Jersey/New York Gotham fc: if you like the uswnt. recently picked up 4 uswnt players in free agency. Also just got Ann Katrin Berger gk from Chelsea on a transfer. She is very good. Head coach Juan Carlos Amaros won coach of the year last year and the team won the championship. They have struggled with injuries this year and scoring more than one goal in a game.

notable injuries: Midge Purce acl , Abby Smith sei from 2023

notable players: Lynn Williams, Ann Katrin Berger, Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle, Tierna Davidson, Esther Gonzalez, Jenna Nighswonger, Emily Sonnett, Midge Purce, Yazmeen Ryan

North Carolina Courage: if you are ok waiting . traditionally a very strong team, has struggled a bit this season without Kerolin who tore her acl on the last regular season game in 2023.

notable injuries: Kerolin acl (Nov 2023)

notable players: Casey Murphy, Brianna Pinto, Tyler Lussi, Manaka, Narumi, Ashley Sanchez, Kerolin

Orlando pride: if you like the brazil women's national team. aka brazil fc. Has gone from a team that struggled to one of the top teams this year, in part due to the players brought in over the offseason, many of whom play for Brazil. Recently brought in Barbra Banda a Zambian striker, who has been very productive.

notable players: Marta, Barbra Banda, rafaelle, ally watt

Portland thorns: if you like soccer dynasties. traditionally one of the most successful teams in the nwsl with a lot of local support, the h th orbs struggled in the first few games with their worst start to the season ever. Following the firing of their head coach, the team has won 6 in a row in interim hc rob gale. Has a lot of strong attacking talent but is vulnerable on defense. The home field is turf.

notable players: Sophia smith, Olivia Moultrie, Christine Sinclair, Janine Beckie, Becky Sauerbrunn

Racing Louisville: if you want to watch a team turn around. a team that has struggled historically has put together a solid team in the offseason under new head coach bev yanez. Got some very good rookies in the draft and is off to a decent start.

notable players: Savannah Demelo, Reilyn Turner, Emma Sears, Uchenna Kanu, Ary Borges

San Diego wave fc: if you like to watch a team underproduce. very successful for a team established in 2022. Has a very strong system but has struggled with injuries as of late. The home field is shared with San Diego state football and is not always in the best condition.

notable injuries: Jaedyn Shaw, Alex Morgan (lower legs out tbd)

notable players: Alex Morgan, Jaedyn Shaw, Kailen Sheridan, Naomi Girma, Abby Dahlkemper, Maria Sanchez

Seattle reign: if you want to watch a team figure out their identity without US national team players. historically successful team that lost a lot of impact players in the offseason to retirement or free agency. Previously owned by the ol group, had to be sold because its owner Michelle Kang also owns the Washington Spirit. Dropping the OL, the brand got a massive upgrade. Is struggling this season. The home field is turf.

notable injuries: Claudia Dickey #1 gk

notable players: Jess Fishlock, Lauren Barnes, Quinn, Bethany Balcer, Alanna Cook, Ji So-Yun, Jordyn Heuitema, Veronica Latsko

Utah royals fc: if you live in utah. a new expansion team that is struggling quite a bit. First time head coach Amy Rodriguez selected ally sentnor as the first draft pick. Has a racist kit and stadium sponsor. Does not have a full roster.

notable injuries: Imani Dorsey Achilles

notable players: Mandy haught, Ifeoma Onumanu, Ally Sentnor

Washington spirit: if you want to watch rookies make magic. owned by Michelle kang, not afraid to make big moves and spend $$$ for a strong team. Has found success recently. Operating under interim hc Adrian Gonzalez until Barcelona head coach Jonathan Giraldez arrives after the end of their season. Croix Bethune is doing very well her rookie season.

notable players: Trinity Rodman, Croix Bethune, Casey Kruger, Andi Sullivan, Ashley Hatch, Hal Hershfelt

[rmfantasysetpieces1]

En nomine stade , et pele et spiritus mane.. garrincha

thank you nwsl, the college draft is one of the most financially and organizationally corrupt while perfectly legal actions in usa sports

totally criminal in nature and essense

ARTICLE

The NWSL is scrapping its collegiate draft because it's the only sports league out there with sense Story by Mike D. Sykes This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time. Folks, somebody has finally done it. There's a league out there who finally had enough courage to say, "You know what? We don't need a stinkin' draft!"

It's the NWSL.

The burgeoning soccer league unveiled its new collective bargaining agreement on Thursday morning, with changes that I'd argue make it the most pro-labor CBA in sports today. But the biggest change was this: Eliminating the collegiate draft.

Like most American sports, the NWSL brought in talent through a draft system. Like most other drafts, the selection order was based on team record at the end of the previous regular season. The worst teams pick first.

Now, players entering the NWSL will enter free agency immediately upon entering the league and pick their teams, as they should. This is how it's supposed to work, folks!

Look, I know you're probably bristling at what I'm saying here. We love our drafts. They're great theater! Leagues like the NFL, NBA and NHL essentially turn them into pageants for us all to consume and we eat it up.

From the countless super-early mock drafts to the scouting combines that can get creepy and uncomfortable to the ceaseless reporting on rookie workouts and team trade negotiations, we lap it all up.

All that aside, the NWSL had to do this. The league was losing out on talent to leagues worldwide that didn't have drafts. This and other pro-player provisions in the CBA should theoretically curtail that.

Plus, drafts are unfair to players. That's not how entering the workplace should be, right?

I could bore you here by discussing the free market principles drafts violate, but I won't.

Instead, imagine this: You graduate from college at the top of your class. You're on your way into the world and ready to go to the coolest company you've been looking at. It's located in a city you've dreamed of living in for a long time.

But, surprise! You get a phone call from another company. Definitely not a cool one. But they just drafted you. Get ready to learn not-cool-company, buddy. That's where you're headed. It's not over. On top of that, you have to talk about how it's a dream come true to work at this precious company you had no desire to work for yesterday.

I'm sure some of you will yell at me about how this impacts parity in sports and how bad teams will never be good again because all the good players will already go to the good teams. But that's not exactly true!

Different players have different desires. Some players will want to play for good teams, sure. But not every good team has enough playing time available for you.

For example, Brianna Pinto of the North Carolina Courage told Vanity Fair that she may not have gone to Gotham FC if she had the choice as a rookie because she didn't get enough playing time.

“Maybe there were other opportunities to get on the field right away,” she said. Those are the things incoming rookies will have to make decisions on and those decisions won't always lead to stacking the decks on a particular team.

Sometimes, it might! But, in the end, it's the player's choice. And that's what matters most. Shoutout to the NWSL for recognizing that.

The rest of the American sports leagues should pay attention. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/the-nwsl-is-scrapping-its-collegiate-draft-because-it-s-the-only-sports-league-out-there-with-sense/ar-AA1pfMuV?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=TBTS&cvid=05fe2e58b21d49bf9745baedd7c21591&ei=59

IN AMENDMENT collective bargaining agreement of the nwsl is arguably the most pro labor in usa sports, even over legendary baseball https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/national-womens-soccer-league-agreement-draft#:~:text=Under%20the%20new%20CBA%2C%20which,choose%20which%20team%20they%20join.

#rmsoccer

[team-mew-s-a]

Expansion Draft Step 3: Mock Draft

So here’s how I think it would go (or how it would go if I were in charge of every single team in the league).

Bay selects Sam Hiatt from the Reign

Reign protects Elyse Bennett

Utah selects Sarah Griffith from Chicago

Chicago protects Jenna Bike

Bay selects Ryanne Brown from the Reign

Reign is out of the draft

Utah selects Amanda Kowalski from Chicago

Chicago is out of the draft

Bay selects Kyra Carusa from Wave

Wave protects Sofia Jakobssen

Utah selects Thembi Kgatlana from Louisville

Louisville protects Paige Monaghan

Bay selects Tyler Lussi from North Carolina

North Carolina protects Tess Boade

Utah selects Julia Lester from Louisville

Louisville is out of the draft

Bay selects Rachel Hill from Wave

Wave is out of the draft

Bay selects Katelyn Rowland from North Carolina

Draft is over

I feel pretty comfortable with the first two selections (although Griffith and Bike could be swapped), but then Bay’s second selection is where it really could go anywhere - I think there’s a ton of good forwards available to them from teams that Utah doesn’t get to pick from, so they would probably go for an outside back or maybe a goalkeeper in this round, but that could be Ryanne Brown or Jill Aguilera, or even Laurel Ivory or Maia Pérez.  If they were to take Aguilera instead, I would say that Utah probably takes Shae Homes as their second choice and then things generally stay the same from there, and if Bay were to take a goalkeeper from Reign instead of an outside back, they would probably then take Haley Hopkins or maybe Brianna Pinto as their second choice from North Carolina.

Two things worth noting:  first, pretty much across the board, if a player that I expect to be the extra protected player doesn’t get that designation, I think they will be taken as the second drafted player.  Second, I think the decision not to protect Thembi Kgatlana initially is baffling, unless a) she wanted to leave, or b) the approach was simply to determine protected/unprotected based on how many regular season minutes each player played in 2023 to reduce locker room tensions.

[kr-grace-p]

Brianna Pinto Logo Contest, 2nd Place, 2022

[exclusivenyc]

hello mwf?

Hello! Straight from our members, we'd love to see the following faces:

Emmy Raver-Lampman, Genesis Rodriguez, Natacha Karam, Brianna Baker, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Maya Hawke, Maia Mitchell, Viola Davis, Laverne Cox, Gina Torres, Natasha Lyonne, Uzoamaka Aduba, Kirstin Maldonado, Liv Tyler, Hunter Schafer, Natacha Karam, Nathalie Kelley, Punam Patel, and Freida Pinto

Hope that helps anon!

[nwslfever]

[uswntpoc]

blackwplayercollective It has always been our goal to provide role models and build a strong community of powerful black women to empower the next generation of leaders.

We are partnering with Voice in Sport to elevate young black women and girls through mentorship, content, and advocacy

Join us! Check out the Voice in Sport page on our website. Link in Bio.

[arnau16]

El XI ideal del mes de Marzo en la NWSL

El XI ideal del mes de Marzo en la NWSL

Ha empezado la NWSL Challenge Cup y las estrellas ya brillan, analizamos el once ideal del mes de marzo (more…)

[t-diggitydawg]

loss or not, no way she would be joining gotham this week. hopefully by the third week in the season she’ll be with them.

[newbiesquadgoals]

U.S. U-20 WNT Player Brianna Pinto addressed FIFA Congress as part of the United 2026 World Cup bid presentation.

[team-mew-s-a]

Expansion Draft Step 1:  Best Available Players

Ok, I’ve tried to run through a predicted expansion draft and I keep second guessing myself, so I’m going to break it down step-by-step.  First of all, for teams that are not fully protected, here are who I think their four most valuable unprotected players are, regardless of expansion team needs:

Reign*:

Sam Hiatt (defender - center back)

Elyse Bennett (forward - center forward)

Shae Holmes (defender - center back/left back)

Ryanne Brown (defender - left back)

*I don’t think it would be controversial to say that Lauren Barnes and Jess Fishlock were better players than these four this season, but the context - that they are both basically Reign lifers and any expansion team selecting them would be tanking any goodwill towards themselves throughout the league/fan base, as well as inviting potential early retirement announcements - makes them, on the whole, less selectable.

Chicago:

Sarah Griffith (forward - winger)

Jenna Bike (forward - winger)

Jill Aguilera (defender - outside back)

Amanda Kowalski (defender - center back/outside back)

Louisville:

Thembi Kgatlana (forward - winger)

Paige Monaghan (forward - winger)

Uchenna Kanu (forward - center forward)

Julia Lester (defender - center back/outside back)

North Carolina:

Tyler Lussi (forward - winger)

Tess Boade (forward - center forward)

Brianna Pinto (midfielder - defensive or attacking midfielder)

Katelyn Rowland (goalkeeper)

Wave:

Rachel Hill (forward - winger)

Kyra Carusa (forward - center forward)

Sofia Jakobssen (forward - winger)

Sierra Enge (midfielder - defensive midfielder)

[padfootnprongs21]

Allie still 🐑 OTP: Tobin + Orange backpack Lynn –> Pressi

[voices-from-above]

List of People who Deserve Better:

Morgan Brian Jane Campbell Crystal Dunn Ashlyn Harris Tobin Heath Lindsey Horan Julie Johnston Ali Krieger Rose Lavelle Carli Lloyd Allie Long Kelley O'Hara Alex Morgan Jessica McDonald Sam Mewis Alyssa Naeher Christen Press Brianna Pinto Mallory Pugh Becky Sauerbrunn Casey Short Emily Sonnett Lynn Williams And everyone watching it too.

[uswntpoc]

[arnau16]

Las estrellas del Draft Universitario en la NWSL

Las estrellas del Draft Universitario en la NWSL

El Covid- 19 no nos privará de presenciar una vez más un Draft Universitario que llegará cargado de talento rumbo a la NWSL. Continue reading

[t-diggitydawg]

😔 i always feel bad for players when they lose games like this, especially when it’s their last game for the team. i hope she transitions well into the nwsl.