Showing posts with label Barbra Banda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barbra Banda. Show all posts
ShePlays NWSL Week 2 Team
NWSL Weekend Roundup: Week 10
Here's a roundup of analyses and rankings from Week 10 of the 2025 NWSL season, featuring standout performances, tactical breakdowns, and more:
🕵️ Match Reviews
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NWSL Review: Matchweek 10 – Women's Football Talk
Victories for all the top four teams but defeats for Angel City and Seattle Reign, plus the winless runs go on for Utah Royals and Chicago Stars. This is our review of Matchweek 10 in the NWSL.
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NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Racing Louisville on the move, Wave and Spirit impress
The NWSL was all gas, no brakes over the weekend, with 27 goals across six games. We break down how Racing, the Wave, and the Spirit notched wins.
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📊 Power Rankings
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2025 Week 10 NWSL Power Rankings – It's me, Brian!
Another week, another shake of the table. While Portland and Gotham got a breather from NWSL action, the rest of the league delivered fireworks. Barbra Banda recorded a first-half hat trick. San Diego dropped five on North Carolina. Racing and Bay fought through chaos for valuable points. The model kept humming underneath it all, picking up trends and recalibrating expectations.
👉 Read more(Revised) 2025 Week 10 NWSL Power Rankings – It's me, Brian!
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NWSL Power Rankings: San Diego Wave starting to look ominous – ESPN
It's Monday, and another week of NWSL action is in the books, which means it's time for ESPN's Power Rankings. Who's climbing the table? Who's in free fall? Our writers studied the action from across Matchday 10 to come up with this week's order of all 14 teams in the league. Let's dive in.
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NWSL Power Rankings Week 10: Barbra Banda is back and the San Diego Wave hits hard – All for XI
10 weeks have been completed in the National Women’s Soccer League. Who are the contenders? Who are the pretenders? Find out on this week’s NWSL power rankings.
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📈 Statistical Deep Dives & Tactical Analyses
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Outliers: Matchday 10 – Stateside Stats
An analytical look at standout statistical performances and anomalies from the week's matches.
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2025 NWSL Week 10 xG Race Charts & Pass Networks – BTVC
Detailed visualizations of expected goals and passing patterns, offering insights into team strategies.
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🎭 Vibe Check
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Week 10 Vibe Ranking – Blonde Ponies
A unique take on team energies and morale, offering a fresh perspective beyond traditional stats.
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ShePlays NWSL: Week 2 Team
Week One is in the books. I hope your team was full of points. Congrats to those who rostered ("owned" makes me uncomfortable) Banda, or better yet, captained her.
I ended up with 140 points, good for 20th overall. Banda, Marta, Abello, and Chawinga were my big hitters, with everyone else between 5 and 8 points.
Looking forward to week 2, I have a general plan. First, to note that the top four teams -- Orlando, Washington, KC, and Gotham -- play each other. That's great for viewing, but lousy for fantasy. I'm considering benching some players from those teams and playing the matchups.
ShePlays NWSL Fantasy: Second Draft Team
Challenge Cup Overreaction Edition
The NWSL starts this Friday, which means it is GO TIME for fantasy managers. Importantly, we've had an actual match — the Challenge Cup, where the Washington Spirit got a little bit of revenge on the Orlando Pride for last year's playoff final.
It's no surprise that one bit of "hard data" is going to sway fantasy managers. It's so hard to get good information about the league that a lot of our work is guessing. This week will be dedicated to finding any team and league previews that I can. I'll try to collate them and post a collection of them here.
But for now, how did my fantasy team change from the first draft? Let's see.
NWSL Double Gameweek Round 8
That was something else!
Wednesday night's matches brought goals, goals, goals. And fantasy points. As discussed on this here blog, and on BlueSky, I made two changes to my fantasy team for a cost of five points. I brought in the Orlando duo of Barbra Banda and Summer Yates. I have to admit: Yates was a disappointment. She started both matches, but didn't notch a return and came off early in the second match for a returning-from-injury Adriana. I think here time in the team will be short-lived.
That being said, she returned 15 fantasy points! It was that kind of week.
Banda came through with 40 points off three goals and two assists. Just incredible scenes. My only concern now, is can I bench her with just the one match (home against Bay FC) this week. Spoiler alert: No way.
Overall, my fantasy team scored 203 points -- the large majority on that crazy Wednesday night -- and I'm up to seventeen overall. I'm really happy I attacked the double gameweek.
Which brings us to this week: double gameweek, part deux. I would love bring in as many players with two matches as possible, but I'm less optimistic on this round than I was last week. Let's look at why.
First, you have the team playing twice: KC, Seattle, Gotham, Utah, San Diego, and Houston. Save for the second placed Current, that's 9, 10, 11, 13, and 14 in the standings. None of them are scoring even one goal per game! Whom do you target with those stats?
Well, obviously you target the Kansas City Current (at Seattle, NC Courage). I have Bia Zaneratto and Vanessa DiBernardo in my team at the moment. I want to bring in Temwa Chawinga, and in fact I will indeed be bringing her in for Mallory Swanson. The diffuculty lies with Bia's status. She missed the Houston match with a foot injury. I don't expect to see her in midweek, which means at best she's a one-gamer. I would love to swap her for Chawinga, but I need the money from selling Swanson for another move. I'm likely to just bench her instead of selling for a minus five points. It's not the worst problem in the world to be over-invested in the Current right now. However forward spots are precious and with Sophia Smith and Barbra Banda demanding to be picked, that leaves only one spot for a Current forward.
But that's a problem I'm happy to push to next week and just hope that my sit/start decision works out.
Let's look at the other matchups and see what we can do with them.
Houston Dash (Gotham, @Angel City)
The Dash have shored up the backline over the last few weeks and that's reflected in their best fantasy asset being the goalkeeper Jane Campbell. She made 12 (12!) saves against the Current and I wouldn't argue against bringing her in to any fantasy team. She's on the expensive side for a keeper, but at that position, the differences are pretty small. Diana Ordoñez and Ramona Bachmann are your two forward options, but I don't think either will justify taking one of your three spots. It's a shame Bachmann wasn't classified as a midfielder, as she was in the ShePlays World Cup game. Also to note that she's picked up a card in each of her first two games. That's negative fantasy points, and is heading towards an early suspension.
San Diego Wave (Utah, Gotham)
Ah... what to do with my precious Wave? I've given up trying to understand what Casey Stoney is doing with this team this season, but I'll go on record as not liking it. They had a player advantage for 90 minutes against Seattle, but one could not tell watching the game. They were slow and sloppy, and that didn't change regardless of if it was the subs who started or the starters who subbed in. Savannah McCaskill was a favorite of my last season as a consistent fantasy midfielder. While everything on the field goes through her, there's yet to be any regular end-product from the Wave. Ordinarily I would argue for their defence but due to injuries and suspensions, it's likely to be three rookies and a second-year utility player. For me, it's a stay-away until things change. And I really, really hope things change soon.
Utah (@San Diego, @Chicago)
Fading after a good start. Ally Sentnor (She of the two Ls and two Ns) is still putting up good numbers, especially at her rock-bottom $75,000 price. She's not hitting the ceiling of some of the top forwards in the game, but is certainly a viable punt for this week.
I miss Paige Monaghan's being listed as a defender for fantasy. Those were the days.
Gotham (@Houston, @San Diego)
Ground out a win a the weekend over North Carolina, which they'll have to repeat on the road twice this week. While they, along with San Diego, have still played a game (or two!) fewer than the other teams in the NWSL, they've scored and conceeded the fewest number of goals. For fantasy, Lynn Williams is always a good pick. However, I'm more interested in their defence. I picked Cassie Miller at the beginning of the season and if you combined her scores with new signing Ann-Katrin Berger they'd be among the top fantasy keepers. With that in mind, I'm going to spend five points to move from Miller to Berger this week.
I'm not sure I can recommend any other their other players. None are bad picks, and if you think they're on the upswing then definitely get in this week. I'm hoping Berger covers me and I can wait and see who else secures a starting spot, and pops.
Seattle (Kansas City, @Portland)
Another mess of a team who gutted out a win at the weekend. Seattle are the Micheal Myers of the NWSL. I'll be fascinated to see how they try to handle the two top scoring teams in the league back-to-back. I have Sophia Huerta on my fantasy team, and I'm not excited about that. Hopefully two matches in a week means points regardless, but... ugh.
Ji So-Yun got a rest against San Diego but still came on and assisted a goal. She's a stellar midfield pick in a year without too many of those. I'm not sure it's worth five points to bring her in over a single game player, but I'm not sure I won't do it. If that makes sense.
NWSL Double Gameweek Round 7
Round 7 of the ShePlays NWSL fantasy game brings us both midweek matches — starting Wednesday, May 1 so be sure to set your lineups! — as well as out first double gameweek of the season. Here's the schedule:
| Next Round | ||
|---|---|---|
Orlando Pride 
|
1st May, 4:00 PM |
 North Carolina Courage |
Chicago Red Stars 
|
1st May, 5:00 PM |
 Washington Spirit |
Bay FC 
|
1st May, 7:00 PM |
 Portland Thorns |
Utah Royals FC 
|
3rd May, 6:30 PM |
 Angel City FC |
Seattle Reign FC 
|
3rd May, 7:00 PM |
 San Diego Wave FC |
NJ/NY Gotham FC 
|
4th May, 4:30 PM |
North Carolina Courage |
| Portland Thorns
|
4th May, 7:00 PM |
Washington Spirit |
Houston Dash 
|
5th May, 10:00 AM |
 Kansas City Current |
| Orlando Pride
|
5th May, 3:00 PM |
 Racing Louisville FC |
| Bay FC
|
5th May, 5:00 PM |
Chicago Red Stars |
North Carolina Courage - @Orlando, @Gotham
The Courage are a strong team as always, however they have two road games against tough opponents. Their defense is tops in the fantasy league, but their attack is of the "just enough" category. I would hold and happily play anyone you already own but I'm not sure I'm looking to load up on their players. Ashley Sanchez would be a great midfield pick, but unfortunately she's listed as a forward in the game.
Portland Thorns - @Bay FC, Spirit
Sophia Smith with two game? Yes, please. I'll take some of that. She's a stand-out captaincy option this week. I'm not sure of any other great picks on the team. Sam Coffey is steady if not spectacular. She has the highest floor but lowest ceiling of almost any player in the game. Olivia Moultrie is the opposite - as liable to get twenty minutes to see out a match as she is to start and score. She's on my team and I'm hoping for more of the latter especially as games this close together would have you expect Christine Sinclair's minutes to be closely managed. As for their defence, the less said the better.
Washington Spirit - @Chicago, @Portland
Croix Bethune continues to be one of the revelations among a standout rookie class. She plays so far forward to this Spirit team and has been coming up with goals and assists since settling in. Trinity Rodman is an evergreen pick while Tara McKeown is a surprising fantasy standout in their backline. Ouleymata Sarr would be a risky differential. Like the Courage, the Spirit play two road games and neither are even along the East Coast so buyer beware.
Orlando Pride - Courage, Racing
The high-flying Pride get two home matches this week. Barbra Banda has finally arrived and in two matches (only one start) she has a goal and two assists. She's probably the only player I see to rival Smith for captaincy this week. I'm likely to drop Bia for Banda, as much as that pains me. I would try to bring Bia back (in my best Justin Timberlake voice) immediately, but the extra match and the double home comforts tips it towards the Zambian. It may even be worth a minus five points to bring her into your team. I'm also looking at midfield playing at forward Summer Yates. I'm a bit worried about her minutes getting shared around with Marta and the other Pride attackers but she's been putting up fantasy points and you don't change a winning side, do you? Her being mis-classified (out of position, OOO in fantasy parlance) helps.
Chicago Red Stars - Spirit, @Bay FC
The "so close" team of the last round. They were beaten by the Thorns but they were denied by the woodwork. I have picked around all of Mallory Swanson's fantasy points so far this season so I'm hoping that going with her in the double finally works out for me. There are lots of good, and well priced, fantasy options on this team. They're not the elite of the league but could round out your team. For me, I'm hoping Maximiliane Rall is healthy to return but might consider a minus five to get someone else into the team this week. With two matches to play I would hope to gain points despite starting in the hole.
Bay FC - Portland, Chicago
The other team with two home matches, but I'm not as high on their prospects. That being said, I'll happily field my two players - Denya Castellanos and Lyianne Proulx. I'm not sure I'd bring in any other players save for perhaps Asisat Oshoala, who seems to have just had a cramp that led her to leave the Wave match the other day.
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