ShePlays NWSL: Week 7 Team

Before we get into the meat of the post, can I complain for a minute? We're all friends here, right? Ok. Thanks.

We all love ShePlays. Great game; great community. And we know it's free and volunteer run. And we respect that and appreciate all the work it takes to keep the game going. But...

I'm pretty sure I've been the overall number one team for two weeks now. But, because of delays in the game updating and mistakes in the way the double game week was handled, I haven't been able to enjoy it. First world problems right? First place problems? Anyway, I'm not proud that I feel this way, but even though I'm really looking forward to the game data being fixed, I'm sad that the moment has passed.

There's only one thing to do and that's to stay on top. I'm not sure last week's moves helped. Let me rephrase that. I KNOW last week's moves didn't help. I sold my favorite fantasy (and IRL) player, Ryan Williams who was facing the KC Current machine. I bought Rebeca Bernal. That was a good choice. But of course last week, Sean Nahas decided that move Williams to a wing back role and freed her up to attack. A goal. assist, and 17 points later and I feel pretty stupid.

On top of that, when the lineups were released on Friday I saw that Barbara Olivieri was benched for the Dash. In a last minute trade - that cost me five points - I decided to bring in Delphine Cascarino who was facing the Chicago (Red) Stars. Cascarino wasn't able to continue her form from the game against Racing Louisville and her seven points wasn't even five points more than Olivieri's four.

But onwards.

Like I said above, my transfer this week is to bring back Ryan Williams and selling Cascarino to afford. Bascially undoing the damage from last week. I hate it, but it is what it is.

Now we have news -- or to put it better, we don't have news about Temwa Chawinga's availability for tonight's match. She's questionable, after leaving last week's game at halftime. I at first thought that it was a planned move to give her and Debinha each a half. Now it seems that "she felt something and had "picked up a knock."". I remember completely missing this cycle in week two when, according to your friend and mine Nick Manser:

There was some unexpected last-minute injury news, and though Temwa Chawinga did end up playing a full 90 and scoring a goal despite being listed as questionable, many FNWSL managers were scrambling before the deadline. 

Even though the Current play tonight, they don't play early enough where we'll have their lineup before the deadline. I am going to keep her in my fantasy XI thinking that she'll either be fine and play, or she won't be risked. If she doesn't play I get Avery Patterson off the bench and I'm happy enough with that. The nightmare scenario is that Chawinga gets a token sub appearance and a point or two. That's mitigated by the fact that she's in EVERYONE's team. I would obviously keep her, but definitely don't captain her this week. 

Not that I have to tell you that you DO want to captain Esther, or whichever Gotham player you have in your team. They host a manager-less Chicago. I'm vice-captaining Sarah Schupansky, who takes set pieces, but would also consider Lily Reale who's been killing it at left fullback. If you don't have Bats in your team, and want to bring them in this week, just remember that you will have to trade them, or bench them, in two weeks when they have a blank week. Be prepared to deal with that.

As far as other suggestions, I still think the Spirit and Angel City have the best fixtures at the moment, despite them playing each other this week. Bernal, Ashley Hatch, or Gift Monday for the Spirit; Riley Tiernan, or a Thompson for the Angels. I have Kennedy Fuller on my bench, and I'm happy to hold her there this week and promote her into the starting lineup next week when it's Utah, Bay, Racing, and Chicago next.

Good luck, all. If you have any thoughts or ideas, or see something that I've missed, I'd love to hear from you in the comments or on Bluesky .