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Happy New Year! We have some news about the upcoming NWSL season and head-coaching changes, plus a bittersweet update of our own.

Emily Olsen here with Meg Linehan. Meanwhile, Steph Yang joins us for one last ride — welcome to Full Time!

NWSL 2025 Footprint

‘Meg, is the schedule out?’

A question we get a lot.

The answer is: sort of. While the NWSL schedule isn’t out yet (and no, Meg doesn’t know yet when it will be), the league did share a framework today for what’s ahead, including key dates, updated roster rules and what’s going to happen this summer.

After the most recent CBA, all signed players are on guaranteed contracts and players out of contract are free agents, including incoming post-college eligible players. New in 2025, the NWSL has eliminated trade windows, meaning trades may occur any time before the Thursday, Oct. 9, roster freeze. (Per the CBA, all trades require player consent).

The NWSL is also taking two breaks this summer:

From June 23-29 during the FIFA international window, as mandated by the CBA.

All of July. The league will not conduct another NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup, leaving teams able to participate in non-league matches during that time. While the U.S. women don’t have any major tournaments, some other players will head to international duty for events like the Women’s European Championship, the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, Copa América Femenina and Oceania’s Women’s Nations Cup.

The broadcast schedule, spread across the league’s four media partners, will be similar to last year’s layout.

Friday night games on Prime Video are back.

Saturday doubleheaders will be on ION.

CBS has its own package of games, with a yet-to-be-determined lineup that will span CBS, CBS Sports Network, Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network. The same goes for ESPN, across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.

Other key schedule highlights include:

Jan. 15 to Feb. 5 — The window in which teams must start preseason camps.

Jan. 28 to March 24 — The primary transfer window.

March 7 — The return of the Challenge Cup. Because Orlando won the NWSL Shield and championship, the one-off game will be a rematch of the final against the Washington Spirit at Inter&Co Stadium.

March 14 — Regular season begins.

July 1 — The 2026 free agency period begins.

July 1 to Aug. 25 — The secondary transfer window opens.

Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 — Final regular-season weekend.

Nov. 7 to 22 — NWSL postseason (championship will take place Nov. 22).

Saying thank you to one of our own

As we look ahead to the season, we have to pause for another goodbye — this time to one of our own. Last week was Steph’s final one with. We will deeply miss our exceptional colleague, but I’m excited for Steph as she embarks on a new opportunity.

Steph has brought compassion, critical thinking and excellent reporting to the soccer desk for more than three years. From her recent reporting on refereeing interference in MLS and NWSL to countless profiles filled with empathy, Steph has covered it all. In the last two years, she’s written about five career “obituaries” for retiring players, each with thoughtful reflection. In addition to her reporting, I’ll miss Steph’s quick wit and endless collections of memorabilia.

Please join us in wishing Steph well on her next adventure! But first a message from the legend herself …

Steph’s Set Piece

Reflecting on my time at The Athletic

I started freelancing for this site in 2018. In the years since, I came on board as a full-time writer, traveled the world, met incredible people and had plenty of experiences that had me cutting my eyes sideways at the closest friend or coworker as if to say, “Can you believe we’re here?”

Writing about soccer has enriched my life so immeasurably in experiences alone — I’ve stood on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, gawked from the Eiffel Tower and watched the sunset from an Auckland, New Zealand, beach. I’ve gotten in and out of so many travel scrapes, from the hotel room next to a crime scene still covered in tape to the missing travel paperwork in Mexico City that I had to replace on the fly (only to find the originals at the bottom of my backpack some months later). And the telephones in hotel bathrooms — why were there so many telephones in hotel bathrooms?

But there’s also the people. There’s a line from the novel “Dune” that goes, “Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place.”

I will actually miss the place, but really the people I’ve met are what endure. I’ve formed decade-long friendships with people through writing about soccer, from commiserating over assignments and sleeping on couches for road games to the infamous 27 Fireball shots night after a Boston Breakers (RIP) game.

But it feels like the right time to try something new. I may find my way back to the journalism side again in the future, but for now I’m going to see if I can build something a little different, and hopefully a little better. And just know, if you ever left me a mean comment, I truly never saw it, and if you left me a nice comment, odds are my wife read it aloud to me because she was always tickled to see that someone liked my work.

Coaching Changes

Recent hires highlight lack of women coaches in NWSL

The NWSL coaching carousel continues to turn. Six NWSL teams will start 2025 with a different head coach from a year ago.

Last week, the Houston Dash officially named former North Carolina Courage assistant Fabrice Gautrat as their head coach. Former Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall is expected to be announced as the San Diego Wave’s head coach soon, leaving just Angel City with an ongoing search for a long-term coach after recently firing Becki Tweed.

It also means only two NWSL teams could begin 2025 with women leading their teams on a permanent basis: Bev Yanez with Racing Louisville and Laura Harvey with Seattle Reign (Eleri Earnshaw is currently the interim at Angel City).

This isn’t a new phenomenon. The Wave fired Casey Stoney in June, only days before Utah Royals cut ties with Amy Rodriguez. Both teams’ next hires were men. At the time, Meg had this to say:

“I kept thinking back to an interview Steph did with former Boston Breakers head coach Lisa Cole (who’s now a part of Emma Hayes’ USWNT technical staff) back in 2019.

Cole said then: ‘I just think there’s different standards for women. We’re let go easier and it’s harder for us to get hired.’”

While it is a results-based job, it’s hard to see this trend as anything other than a pipeline’s failure to get more women into coaching roles at the top levels. Without opportunities, how is anyone supposed to prove themselves?

Full Time First Looks

More than a symbol: Celine Haidar, 19, has already been called up to the Lebanese national team, won her league with Beirut Football Academy and been labeled a “prodigy” by her coach. But shortly after celebrating her team’s unbeaten season, Haidar was struck by shrapnel during the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Critically injured and still in a coma, Haidar has become a symbol of war, but her family just wants her home. Megan Feringa spoke with Haidar’s loved ones about the one they call “Little Captain.”

Movement in the Mile High City: Denver’s bid to join Boston as an NWSL expansion team in 2026 appears all but done, with an official announcement expected soon. The team is set to join the league for a record-setting $110 million in expansion fees, according to a source. That’s double the $53 million Boston paid to join. Denver has produced multiple USWNT talents, including Portland Thorns forward Sophia Smith, so it could be an instant attraction. (Sorry, Thorns fans. I’ll only whisper that last line.)

Memory lane: There’s a certain instinct to become a bit of a pack rat with memorabilia collected over the years, whether it’s programs, ticket stubs, merchandise or even little scraps from game day (like the confetti from championship cannons). As we say goodbye to Steph, we thought it only fitting to have her and Meg go through their favorite junk — I mean treasure — for their most coveted items from years of women’s soccer coverage.

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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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