The name's Ayanami. Rei Ayanami.

(complimentary)

It never ever gets old. Play it at my funeral.

Sometimes a photo makes a sound

MLS Is Back 2: The Revenge

Jordyn Bloomer is a snub (I'd have her as runner-up), and I also had Aubrey Kingsbury comfortably ahead of AKB, but the main thing is that it'd be embarrassing if Dickey doesn't win this.

Partial seasons have gotten nominations in NWSL. Flint was at this level or slightly better last year, & if anything Bloomer not being a starter over Lund pre-injury is a mistake.

I don't have a count on Gotham or Orlando but I strongly doubt they had even 60% of the Spirit's games missed.

To put it in perspective, they "only" had 124 player-games lost in 2024, and there was still the fact that Jona was able to call on Rodman, Bethune, Santos, and Sarr in one game (the 4-1 win over KC coming out of the summer break)

Spirit lost over 200 player-games to injury/availability issues while facing play in 2 competitions, & we're talking 2024 Best 11/team leading scorer/soul of the team types making up most of that. Only had 3 games all season in which the availability report got as short as 5 players.

Most of the (genuine) arguments I'm receiving on this hinge on a read of roster quality in KC and Louisville that I don't think holds up.

Obviously KC & Spirit have stronger & deeper squads than Louisville, but the size of the gap required for that argument to work don't exist in the NWSL.

It's a regular season award. If people are deciding to vote based on one game only, they're frankly not holding up their end of the bargain.

Mike's is a pretty good answer, with the caveat that G+ only explains so much. KC's defense is a triumph of organization as much as anything, & that for me is coaching staff work.

I also don't think Chawinga is 2025 Chawinga if we swap the coaches.