Alex Morgan’s legacy can be hard to define with one sentence, as her longtime professional career included fighting for equal pay, helping to grow the National Women’s Soccer League, the sport itself, and the wider world of women’s sports.

But one part of her legacy that doesn’t get as much mention is Morgan’s fight to return to playing after giving birth to her firstborn daughter, Charlie, back in 2020. While she benefited from earlier generations of U.S. women’s national team players who paved the way in continuing to play after motherhood, Morgan herself helped secure stronger protections and standards for mothers in the sport.

“One really special moment is when we had five moms on the team at once between myself, Casey [Krueger], Julie [Ertz], Crystal [Dunn] and AD [Franch],” Morgan recalled during her retirement press conference last fall. “That was a really special moment to be able to enjoy with some of my teammates knowing how far we’ve come and the support that we now get as moms and still as professional athletes.” 

While there’s a growing acceptance for mothers returning to elite levels of sport, it wasn’t always that way. And Morgan was very much part of the generation that proved that it was possible to do both, particularly within the NWSL, and changed the way those things look for players as they return. 

The Most Valuable Player debates in the National Women’s Soccer League can often be contentious, with much debate over what should quantify a most valuable player. Could continue to perform without that player? When they do, does that hurt said player’s chances? For lesser teams, does an MVP need to go above and beyond to put themselves in the conversation?

That a team could perform well without a certain player doesn’t mean that player isn’t valuable, of course. Maybe that team has a great coach, or had a GM that build a great roster. Regardless, whether or not a team is good—and could do well without them—shouldn’t discount a player’s chances at MVP. Oftentimes, a player is great because of the teammates they have around

Some familiar names on this list have continued to stand out, while others have found themselves on our list for the first time. In the first year without the NWSL draft, one thing is clear: these rookies have come to play, and are contributing in big ways to their clubs.

Riley Tiernan – Angel City FC

Back when we did our first edition of standout rookies, Tiernan was firmly on the list with three goals and an assist through six matches. Now 13 games in, Tiernan has cemented herself not only as one of Angel City’s best players but also one of the top scorers in the league with seven goals to lead ACFC. Tiernan is not only firmly in the conversation for Rookie of the Year – and may very well be the frontrunner – but has also put herself in position to potentially win the Golden Boot, being in fourth place and just three goals behind current leader Esther González.

Her +4.4 xG leads the league, and she’s converting her shots on target. In total, she ranks in the top 10 in 11 major offensive stat categories, according to FBRef, and has been one of the league’s top-producing offensive players. After being named the May Rookie of the Month – marking back-to-back Rookie of the Month nods – and to the NWSL Team of the Month, she received a call-up to the U-23 U.S. women’s national team camp in June, and her two appearances were her first of any kind within the USWNT system. 

Trinity Armstrong – San Diego Wave FC

There were questions about Naomi Girma’s departure on what San Diego’s backline would look like in her absence. Trinity Armstrong has provided that answer. Back in early June, The Equalizer’s Sebastian Bush identified Armstrong as one of three NWSL standouts flying under the radar. Defensively, Armstrong’s abilities have continued to impress. And at just 17 years old, that makes her rookie performances even more eye-popping. She’s been a key part of San Diego’s surge into third place in the standings, allowing just 16 goals on the season. Armstrong currently holds an 88.1% pass completion rate, holding above 90% completion in each of San Diego’s last three games. 

Named as part of the league’s Best XI in May, she was the youngest player in NWSL history to be named to a team of the month. She had a goal and two assists on top of her defensive play, with her first career goal coming at a critical moment to hand the Wave a 2-1 victory over Bay FC. She’s the youngest player in league history to have a stoppage-time game-winner. While Tiernan is cementing herself in the conversation for Rookie of the Year, Armstrong is right there with her. 

While she’s only reached the U-17 squad, it’s likely that if Armstrong’s play continues, we’ll soon get to see Armstrong and Naomi Girma play together on the USWNT’s backline, which should be an enticing prospect for national team fans everywhere.

Taylor Huff – Bay FC

Taylor Huff has started in each of her 13 matches played for Bay FC, and has made an immediate impact for the Bay in its second season in the league and earned three call-ups to the USWNT U-23 team so far this year. Her passing abilities are among the best in the league, with Huff ranking fourth overall in passes into the penalty area. She’s also fifth in the league in total crosses with 58 and leads Bay. 

Huff leads all Bay midfielders in pass completion, ahead of players like Kiki Pickett, having completed 311 of her 461 passes. Her 38-shot creating actions rank first on Bay FC, and she’s also good at drawing penalties, making her a dangerous player to take your eyes off. 

Lilly Reale – Gotham FC

Lilly Reale’s play earned her her first-ever senior national team call-up in July, and her international debut to go along with it in a 4-0 win over Ireland. Named to the Best XI of the Month in April, Reale has one goal and one assist, having started in 11 of 12 matches for Gotham FC. She also played a full 90 in both of Gotham’s Concacaf W Champions Cup matches, gaining valuable minutes in the final that the team won. 

A shift from central to left back has allowed Reale’s talents to shine through and has helped the team’s backline allow just 13 goals – tied for fourth-lowest in the league alongside Seattle. 

Jayden Perry – Portland Thorns

Rookie center backs have come to play this season. While her goals have come off of penalties, the ability to score goals as a center back isn’t something you come by every day. And Perry not only has been doing that for Portland, she’s become a staple of the Thorns’ defense as a rookie. With a proven ability to adapt within games, she’s established herself not only as one of the best rookie defenders, but also one of the best across the league.

Not only does Perry know where to position herself in the box to help with clearances, she also holds a calmness under pressure that would make you think she’s a seasoned veteran – not a 22-year-old rookie. She’s been able to find her teammates and break through the first line of pressure, while also pressing on the dribble – that Perry can do both well is huge for a Portland team that aims to possess and break teams down on the ball. Plus, she’s been able to contribute offensively, with her three goals and one assist tied for the second-most points on the team behind fellow rookie Reilyn Turner, and Sam Coffey. Those three goals may be off of penalty kicks, but they also rank her first in the league for penalty kicks made, and it’s not like a penalty kick is always a guarantee.

While some teams chose more bold designs, others went a more traditional route. The Equalizer takes a look at and ranks each of the home and away kits of all 16 teams competing in Switzerland this summer.

With 81 international appearances under her belt, Biyendolo’s experience was nearly double that of the rest of the entire starting XI. Two players — Sam Meza and Izzy Rodriguez — were making their U.S. debuts. After Biyendolo, the next highest-capped player on the starting XI was Yazmeen Ryan with 11 appearances. 

“It means everything,” Biyendolo said on the broadcast ahead of kickoff. “I don’t think I ever thought I’d be in this position, but it’s truly an honor. I hope that I can lead this team well and just help bring energy and some organization to a very young side.” 

Postgame, she sang a similar tune, noting that she’s “gonna remember this day forever.”

A nine-year career with the USWNT has resulted in an Olympic gold and bronze medal. But at 32 years old, Biyendolo has spent nearly the entirety of her national team career as a bubble player who is known for not taking things for granted. She’s been open about the devastation she faced being left off the 2019 World Cup roster. Two years later, she was named an alternate to the Tokyo Olympics roster, which was later expanded as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Perhaps former U.S. and North Carolina Courage teammate and fellow podcast host Sam Mewis put it best, offering up her congratulations to Biyendolo pregame. 

“Gave me goosebumps to hear @lynnraenie talk about captaining the USWNT tonight,” Mewis wrote on social media. “It’s such a huge honor in a player’s career to have this moment — and Lynn has gone through everything you could think of to be here right now. Feeling so proud to be her friend.”

Despite the uncertainty in her career, Biyendolo has been one of those players that provides a steady and efficient presence on the field. She knows her role, often as a substitute, and knows it well. 

“She does it time and time again. You speak with her about it, she would tell you she knows how to do that role really well,” Hayes said back in June after she recorded a brace against Jamaica. “I think it’s not to be underestimated. She always contributes to the team’s performance in a profound way.”

It was the journey, and Biyendolo’s persistence, that made her captain’s debut so special on Sunday. It was made even more special when she provided the team’s opening goal in the 11th minute, marking her 13th goal as a starter for the USWNT and her 25th overall.

Perhaps even more fitting is that the assist was provided by Emma Sears, a player that has steadily grown into someone that we could one day look back on as a U.S. great. Similar to Biyendolo, Sears’ journey to the USWNT hasn’t exactly been linear. But she’s quickly established herself on the team’s front line. 

A few minutes later, Biyendolo nearly doubled the USWNT’s tally. But ultimately it was Izzy Rodriguez who would add to the tally, the 23rd player in USWNT history to score a goal in their first international cap.

Also on that list is Biyendolo, who back in 2016 scored her first international goal just 49 seconds into her first international appearance for the U.S. At the time, it was a record for the fastest debut goal in team history before Kealia Ohai (now Watt) broke it four days later. 

Yazmeen Ryan joined Rodriguez in the first international goal club, adding a third to the USWNT’s tally in the 66th minute. Subbed on in the latter half of the game, Alyssa Thompson made it two goals in two games in this international window to make it 4-0 for the U.S.

For players like Rodriguez and Ryan, Biyendolo’s story of never giving up is one that provides a valuable lesson. For Biyendolo, her veteran status comes after years of hard work and isn’t something she takes lightly.

“You just wake up one day and you’re like, ‘Oh I’m the veteran now,’” Biyendolo said during media availability last week. “And I feel like that’s happened to me. With so many new players, so much talent is in the pool and so much talent is on this team right now. But there are things that I had to learn along the way from veterans as well and so hopefully I can impart some wisdom and some experience on these younger players and hopefully it sticks with them.”

“Any time you can find yourself in a veteran seat, it means that you’ve been here for a while,” she continued. “Any time you put on the crest it’s an honor. But knowing I have been here long enough to be considered [a veteran] is something you only dream of when you’re younger.”

The win marked the USWNT’s 600th of all time.

Six weeks down in the National Women’s Soccer League season, and the rookies are already showing out. 

Let’s take a look at some of the top rookies so far this season:

Maggie Graham, Houston Dash 

Through the first six weeks of the season, Houston’s Maggie Graham has been a standout. Named Rookie of the Month for March, Graham got her first NWSL goal in the team’s opening weekend against the Washington Spirit. Then again, in the second week, the midfielder got a goal against Chicago in the team’s 2-1 win on what was essentially her first touch after being subbed in. She’s just the third rookie in NWSL history to score back-to-back goals in their first two NWSL games. 

Though National Women’s Soccer League commissioner Jessica Berman had a great deal to discuss on Friday’s state-of-the-league conference call with reporters on Friday, there was one subject that had become quite urgent.

Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle published an investigation into Bay FC, with two players alleging a “toxic” environment under coach Albertin Montoya. That same day, National Women’s Soccer League commissioner Jessica Berman said that an independent investigation has been opened into the team’s coaching staff.

The year 2025 has brought with it new blood on the United States women’s national team, with back-to-back camps featuring less well-established names and more players with the possibility for more. 

It’s something that the USWNT hasn’t experienced in what feels like a long time — if maybe ever — as coach Emma Hayes has leaned into experimenting with the roster in the time since the Paris Olympics. With no major international tournament in the cards for the USWNT until 2027, when the Women’s World Cup will take place in Brazil, there’s finally time to take a step back and take a deeper look at the team’s talent pool. It’s unprecedented, but necessary.

As the world catches up and development becomes more instrumental in senior national team success, the USWNT has lagged somewhat behind in incorporating new faces into the mix. As such, Hayes finds herself focused on fielding rosters in the aim of developing talent. 

It’s a different tune from the previous World Cup cycle, which felt at times like the team was in “go-now” mode for four straight years. With COVID-19 pushing the Tokyo Olympics back to 2021, it meant three major tournaments in the span of four years — all while the team was attempting to transition from veteran greats to young up-and-comers. The Tokyo Olympics roster featured 17 players from the 2019 World Cup out of a possible 18 — later expanded to 21 — players. Two years later, aging stars and injuries meant the 2023 World Cup roster featured a number of seasoned veterans combined with young talents like Alyssa Thompson and Savannah DeMelo — and just nine players from the 2019 World Cup team. 

Per an announcement last week, the National Women’s Soccer League is expanding to Denver, where it will establish its 16th team.

While the club’s first game is more than a year away, it’s always fun to take a look at who might be a good fit. And in Denver, where women’s soccer has long been producing some of the U.S.’s top talent, there’s no shortage of names. Currently, the NWSL counts 15 Colorado natives among its rosters, including Ryan Williams, who received her first U.S. women’s national team call-up in January. Four Paris Olympians — Mallory Swanson, Lindsey Horan, Janine Sonis (née Beckie) and Sophia Wilson (née Smith) — all call Colorado home. 

She told The Women’s Game on Tuesday that she’d had an inkling since the beginning of the year that she might retire, noting that she’d accomplished what she’d set out to do.

In a 15-year career with the USWNT, Naeher has established herself as one of the best goalkeepers to ever wear the crest. But if you ask Naeher, the thought that she wanted to play for the national team one day came in stages as she made her way through the youth system. While she knew already at the time that she eventually wanted to play professionally, playing at the U-20 World Cup, she says, was transformative for her goals. 

“To be able to go through a U-20 experience and to go to the World Cup at the youth level and to play for Tony DeCiccio at the time was incredible,” Naeher told the media on Wednesday. “You know, he treated us like he treated the 99ers and like he treated the full team. I think that prepared me, and others who were on that team, of what it would be like to be at a senior World Cup someday.”

Another formative moment Naeher cited was when Tracey Leone, who coached the U-19 USWNT from 2001 through 2004, pulled players together in a room to show them that their dreams of playing on the senior national team were close.

“She had a list written on the board of their 21 players that had gone to the previous U-19 World Cup,” Naeher said, noting that roughly 19 of those 21 players had gotten a chance to play at the senior level. “I think all of us in that room in that moment were kind of like, ‘all right, this is really cool. This is something that if we can kind of work at and keep improving and keep getting better, we can use this as hopefully, you know, something that can help us get to the senior team someday.’”

Looking back on Naeher’s career, it’s not an overnight success story. It’s a story of taking those incremental steps and being surrounded by great coaches. There’s no big moment where she proved herself; instead, lots of little ones, as she puts it. Nothing happened overnight, and now, on the tail end of her time with the national team, she leaves as one of the greatest to ever wear the crest. 

Part of it is the way that she is cool under pressure and thrives in big moments. It’s also the way she committed herself to getting better each and every day. 

“Everything came with incremental steps and trying to make small improvements around your game,” she said. “And then make sure when you got your opportunity, you were ready for it, you could grasp it, and hold on.”  

After taking the starting job from Hope Solo in 2017, Naeher has held on for the last seven years. In that time, she’s helped lead the USWNT to glory at the 2019 World Cup, the 2024 Olympics and a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. She’s third all-time in goalkeeper caps (113), starts (110), wins (88) and shutouts (68). Her four clean sheets at the Paris Olympics are the most by any USWNT goalkeeper at a single Olympics, and she’s the only U.S. goalkeeper to record a clean sheet in the final of both a World Cup and an Olympics. 

A brick wall in penalty shootouts, she’s the first goalkeeper in USWNT history to have made three or more saves in a PK shootout. She’s also been known to sink shots herself, having done so at the 2023 World Cup, as well as this year’s CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup and the 2024 SheBelieves Cup. She was the only goalkeeper to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or Féminin this year, finishing at No. 17 out of the 30 finalists.

Safe to say, it’s not easy to replace a goalkeeper of this caliber. The USWNT will have to, though, calling in Utah Royals’ Mandy Haught and Manchester United’s Phallon Tullis-Joyce to this current camp. Neither has significant experience wearing the crest, Haught with one cap and Tullis-Joyce with none. 

While there hasn’t been a lot of conversation yet between Naeher and the young goalkeepers about passing on wisdom, she said Wednesday that she has “a lot of respect for what both of them have done professionally.”

“I think they both have very high ceilings and my encouragement to them has been to just take in as much information as you can,” Naeher said. “Try to learn and be as adaptable again, find and own what their strengths are as goalkeepers, what makes them special, what makes them unique, what makes them stand out and stand apart from the others. 

“Also try to really lock in on what the team is trying to do and what the game plans are and how you as a goalkeeper can fit into the greater system within that. Because that’s obviously really important for, you know, at the end of the day, the objective of a goalkeeper is to keep the ball out of the back of the net.”

Other potential Naeher replacements include North Carolina Courage’s Casey Murphy, who has been the team’s steady No. 2 since 2022. She’s completed 15 shutouts in 20 appearances for the USWNT. Houston’s Jane Campbell could also warrant a look, having been part of the system since 2017, as well as Washington Spirit keeper Aubrey Kingsbury. 

“I’m excited about the crop of goalkeepers that we have coming up,” Naeher said. “I think what I’ve tried to at least show and instill in the future generations is just the power of preparation, the mindset going into training, the preparedness of what it looks like to be able to play at this level.

“And I think having that, we’ve always been able to have in this environment, as competitive as it is, it’s always also been very supportive.”

As Naeher makes her exit, players are singing her praises, with Sam Coffey calling her the “gold standard” of what it looks like to play for the USWNT. 

“It’s such a massive legacy,” Coffey said during a media scrum on Wednesday. “It’s another one that’s hard to put into words. It’s impossible to imagine this team without her, she is someone that embodies everything that we are. She’s the best that I think US Soccer is and has had such an incredible career.”