This NWSL offseason marks a new era, and it was ushered in by U.S. emerging talent Jaedyn Shaw requesting a trade from the San Diego Wave and being dealt to the North Carolina Courage.

As of Wednesday, Jan. 15, teams can no longer trade players without their consent under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) — negotiated for and ratified by the league, players and clubs last year. Gone are the days of trade windows, rookie drafts and restricted free agency. Deals can happen at any point until October’s roster freeze deadline. 

These changes have mostly been observed in spirit already. There has been no 2025 NWSL Draft, previously held around this time of year, with college players signing directly with clubs after surveying the interested parties. Even players with only one year of professional experience were able to hit the open market, finding the best fit for the next step of their careers. In some cases, players weren’t traded against their will. 

Welcome back to Moves I Like, a series that surveys transaction trackers to find the best moves. While many NWSL teams have yet to truly execute their roster retooling, a quartet of early-winter moves have given clubs hope they’ll improve in 2025. 

All data comes from TruMedia via Statsbomb (Opta). 

Jaedyn Shaw to NC Courage

Midfielder Shaw is a player on the rise, having only turned 20 years old in November, and has already established herself in the U.S. women’s national team. While the new CBA allows players to have significantly more say in the direction of their careers, there has long been an unwritten loophole that those in the USWNT pool could call their shots more freely than peers in the league.

Shaw’s move puts some pressure on her to justify the dramatic breakaway from San Diego. It’s rare for a player so young to be able to demand a trade in any league, although the current state of the Wave does help explain a wantaway stance. 

Shaw began 2024 as an emerging talent on the USWNT, forcing her way into interim head coach Twila Kilgore’s lineup for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and SheBelieves Cup before earning a place on coach Emma Hayes’ squad for the Olympics in France. 

Although she can play on the wing or up top, she is at her best as a playmaking No 10. Shaw is a savvy reader of the game, comfortable with absorbing pressure and using it as momentum to push on with her attacking movement. She can shoot and create.

San Diego’s overall falloff from 2023 to 2024 impacted all players, Shaw included. Her chance creation rate dipped slightly, as did her goal contribution tallies. A drop in service quality led to more speculative shooting, which dinged her accuracy and volume. 

There were some signs of her game developing in the underlying numbers, though.

Shaw improved as a take-on artist, succeeding with 46.7 per cent of her dribbling attempts (up from 40 percent). She found ways to get the ball in more dangerous areas, increasing her volume of touches in the attacking third and the opponent’s box.

Most encouraging was a trend corresponding with her chance creation, as she traded some volume for a considerable uptick in producing big chances — which Opta defines as situations where an attacker should reasonably be expected to score — from 17.5 percent to 26.9 percent last year.

Despite logging just one assist, it’s easy to see the havoc Shaw could wreak operating in the central channel. Those passes almost always end up in a more dangerous position than their origin, either working far upfield or squaring from the half-spaces into the center of the field. It’s hardly Shaw’s fault that her recipients couldn’t finish more of these chances.

I like this move for North Carolina.

By specifying the Courage as her ideal destination, Shaw clearly sees a role she can own in Sean Nahas’ side. Along with Ashley Sanchez, the pair could be a lethal two-headed creative machine, each capable of taking their shots. With former league MVP Kerolin moving on, Brazilian prospect Aline Gomes, Tyler Lussi and Bianca St-Georges are among the options along the forward line with a stocked cabinet of supporting attacking options. 

Yazmeen Ryan to Houston Dash

After impressing in Gotham FC’s triumphant 2023 season, Ryan took the next step in her development as a player last year.

She cemented a role in Gotham’s line-up and worked her way into Hayes’ USWNT plans. Although Gotham fell to the Washington Spirit in the NWSL semifinals, Ryan put in a good shift operating in the right channel in tandem with Rose Lavelle to set up Esther Gonzalez’s opening goal. Throughout the season, Ryan led New Jersey-based Gotham with six assists and 54 chances created, all while scoring five goals of her own.

Now, she’ll take on a very different challenge, heading from a recent contender to a team consistently at the bottom of the standings.

The Houston Dash are among those clubs the NWSL seems to have left behind, having failed to keep stride with increased investment in rosters around the league. Last year was nothing short of disastrous, with head coach Fran Alonso leaving in October after months of uncertainty around his status amid an extended absence from the team. Again, the Dash finished last in the standings.

Ryan may not have Shaw’s level of hype, nor is she the type of player who will easily rack up 10 or more goals. Instead, she’s a do-everything player who can play as a box-to-box midfielder, a creative playmaker, or a winger on either flank. Ryan has a tireless motor and is a confident dribbler who can maze upfield to break a defensive structure at her will. 

I like this move for Houston.

Players with Ryan’s versatility and consistency are in short supply, and having her on a fresh contract bodes well for the Dash’s long-overdue rebuild. I also like that Houston has brought Delanie Sheehan in from free agency, ensuring Ryan’s acclimation is sped up thanks to the pair’s familiarity from their time at Gotham.

Madison Curry to Seattle Reign

When the initial list of players eligible for free agency dropped in September, I spotlighted Curry as someone emblematic of the newfound freedom young players can enjoy in the NWSL.

As a rookie, Curry was among the bright spots of a difficult season for Los Angeles-based Angel City, immediately becoming one of the most consistent left backs in the league at age 23. Seattle acted quickly to secure her signature, locking her into a three-year deal in early December.

Curry made a strong first impression last year. She’s eager to get stuck in defensively, as shown in her defensive action grid above. She can switch sides as needed, an invaluable trait as teammates pick up injuries (although left back is almost always a thinner depth chart than the right). 

The next step for Curry will be improving her crossing, as Angel City didn’t ask her to do much in the final third. She attempted 14 crosses in 1,595 minutes last season, a low total for a starting fullback. She’ll have capable targets for her distribution this year, with NWSL record goalscorer Lynn Williams joining aerial threat Jordyn Huitema in Seattle’s forward line. 

I like this move for Seattle.

The Reign took a major step backward last season after reaching the 2023 final, an understandable consequence of seeing Emily Sonnett and Lavelle depart and Megan Rapinoe retire. Curry enters as a proven NWSL starter at a young age in a position traditionally scarce in terms of high-end talent — job well done. 

Gabi Portilho to Gotham FC

While Ryan and Shaw were able to approve their destinations and Curry hit the open market sooner than young players previously, Gabi is the kind of signing that has always been en vogue. Gotham FC couldn’t retain its title last season, seeing many players return from the Olympics in July and August with knocks and ample rotation heading into the postseason. The forward partnership between Williams and Esther never quite found its stride, with both players fitting a similar archetype of being all-around center forwards rather than complementing each other’s style.

With Williams now in Seattle, Gotham acted quickly to bring in a new strike partner, replacing one 2024 Olympic medalist with another.

The Brazilian’s goalscoring record in her homeland’s Serie A1 doesn’t jump off the page, netting 16 goals in 4,777 minutes since 2019. However, the real head-turner came last summer, as she helped Brazil win silver at the Games in France. Most impressive were her performances in the knockout stage. She scored the only goal in a quarterfinal win over the host nation before adding a goal and an assist in the statement 4-2 semifinal defeat of heavily favored 2023 World Cup champions Spain. 

Teams seldom buy players solely off of tournament performance, but members of Brazil’s side last summer have seen a bit of a glow-up. Fellow forward Ludmila signed for the Chicago Stars during the tournament, while goalkeeper Lorena joined the Kansas City Current this winter. Three players hardly make a trend, but it’s still 13.6 per cent of Brazil’s Olympic squad coming stateside.

I like this move for Gotham.

While Gabi’s league goalscoring record is meager, her diminutive stature should play well off of Esther. She’s also used to being an auxiliary attacking option, which could help declutter attacking patterns in the box if she can supplement rather than look to accumulate a high number of shots.

This is the most speculative fit of the four, but a 29-year-old forward like Gabi should have the game awareness to fit into Juan Carlos Amorós’ system.

She has big shoes to fill as Williams’ replacement, to say nothing of Ryan’s departure, but has the right profile to fit into Gotham’s starting lineup.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Houston Dash, North Carolina Courage, OL Reign, Gotham FC, Soccer, NWSL, UK Women's Football

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