Shifting Sands In The NWSL: Abby Erceg & Ali Riley Both Find Themselves In Rebuild City
The United States of America has long been a nation which has attracted huge swarms of kiwi footballing prospects to its shores. Men and women alike have been flocking to the States for years to partake in the college soccer scene, combining footballing activities with a free education. Decent deal. The road to turning those college deals into NWSL/MLS gigs is less crowded but in recent years there have always been a couple of kiwi players flying the flag at those top levels.
In the NWSL scene that refers specifically to Abby Erceg. 138 games in the league. Three NWSL championships and a runners-up. Defender of the Year in 2018. She’s captained the standard-setting North Carolina Courage since the club moved there in 2017; within a squad full of major stars she’s the skipper, setting the tone, leading by example. One of the best defenders in the world, don’t even worry about it.
But these are difficult times for the NWSL. Despite being one of the world’s strongest leagues (as it should be as the domestic league of the most dominant international team out there)... the NWSL has this pesky habit of getting in its own way due to shambolic off-field stuff. From ownership dramas and clubs folding or relocating to uncapitalised sponsorship potential and a failure to translate the beloved nature of the USA national team into widespread club level fandom... to financial and footballing treatment of players that sure ain’t becoming of a professional league along with a disturbingly common rate of headline scandals.
That pattern hit a new and upsetting peak in 2021 with several coaches accused of running abusive regimes – most notable being Erceg’s NCC head coach Paul Riley who was swiftly fired after sexual misconduct allegations dating back to his time with Portland were made public. Allegations which were known about within league offices at the time and yet they went ignored as he went from one team to the next. The new league commissioner was forced to resign as the league reckoned with this past trauma.
Lots of messiness and the North Carolina Courage were smack-bang in the middle of it. The dynastic team of recent years submerged in the scandals. Paul Riley had coached them throughout their championships (including the one when the club was still Western New York Flash) – so to lose his guidance so suddenly and shockingly and in a way that cast such a heavy shadow on his reputation was a brutal blow. They were already struggling for form thanks to injuries and Olympic interruptions beforehand and it’s a credit to the squad that they still managed to sneak into the playoffs (albeit by the barest of margins), going down 1-0 in extra time to eventual champions Washington Spirit in the first round.
Ideally that drama’s all in the past now. Assistant coach Sean Nahas took over as interim boss after Paul Riley was discarded and Nahas has since been hired as the full time head coach moving forwards. As chaotic as 2021 was, they still had a roster full of international calibre talent. No need to panic. The championship vibes still permeate. Or at least they did until the club started trading everybody away...
You may have seen Lynn Williams doing her thing for Melbourne Victory recently on a short term deal, swapping one kiwi centre-back for another with Claudia Bunge in the Abby Erceg role. Barely any sooner had the American international returned to her homeland than she’d been traded... a confusing move from the North Carolina Courage who have had an odd approach towards refreshing their championship calibre squad these last couple years. So confusing that even the club captain was caught unawares.
Williams was traded to the Kansas City Currents (who recently waived Katie Bowen, the bastards) in exchange for a first round draft pick in 2023, $200k in allocation money, and goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland... whom the Courage had traded to the Currents back in July. This is hot on the heels of NCC also flipping forward Jess McDonald to Louisville in order to grab the sixth overall pick in the most recent draft – selecting striker Diana Ordoñez. Williams and McDonald had combined for 11 of the team’s 28 total goals last year. Williams has been NCC’s top scorer in all four seasons. The two share the club’s all-time assist mark. Both gone in quick succession.
That draft pick they got for McDonald was only one of three first round picks they had in that draft. They also selected third (midfielder Emily Gray) and twelfth (defender Kailtlyn Fregulia)... both of those picks acquired through trades as well. Fregulia they got in a swap with Washington Spirit that also netted them the rights to Malia Berkeley at the expense of their own seventh overall pick. Trading down and scooping up another prospect in the process. Fair enough. However Gray they got along with Kiki Pickett in a trade that sent USA star midfielder Sam Mewis to Kansas City.
If you didn’t already know, Sam Mewis is one of the finest midfielders on the planet. Her injury problems in 2021 were the single biggest issue in the Courage’s disappointing season... up until their coach was sacked after The Allegations blew everything else out of the water. During the pandemic Mewis had left NCC for a stint with Manchester City (2020-21 WSL season) during which she scored 14 goals in 29 appearances from midfield and was named to the PFA Team of the Year. She returned to the Courage after that illustrious gap year but fellow USA international Abby Dahlkemper – who had formed the single most dominant CB partnership in NWSL history alongside Abby Erceg – did not.
Dahlkemper joined Manchester City at the same time as Mewis but despite attempts by the Courage to get her released early they weren’t able to bring her back at the same time. Then when she did return to the USA a few months later it was to play for the Houston Dash in what was technically a trade, due to the league’s rules, but was in effect a short term loan. NCC only got a small dose of allocation money due to the circumstances but Dahlkemper’s contract reverted back to the Courage at the end of the season and she was then dutifully traded to expansion side San Diego Wave. The Courage received $190k allocation cash and San Diego’s 2023 first round pick from that deal. Dahlkemper apparently requested the trade to Houston and probably did the same for San Diego too having gone to university in California.
Going back slightly further, in October 2020 the Courage traded away Crystal Dunn – another regular USA international – for Casey Murphy and $140k of allocation money. They needed a new goalkeeper so they had to flip one of their best attackers in exchange. Also Jaelene Daniels had been a regular at fullback but she retired in November 2020 amidst some controversy. Daniels is very religious and had stirred up drama with some unfortunate views on the LGBT community... including once turning down a national team call-up in order to avoid wearing Pride Month jerseys. Safe to say she’s not been a popular figure in the league ever since.
Oh and one of the most savage ones of all was when they traded Kristin Hamilton, Abby Erceg’s long-term partner and a forward who had consistently given them a boost off the bench or in place of one of the regular starters whenever they needed her. Business is business but they flipped her to Kansas City (getting the impressive Amy Rodriguez in return, to be fair – this was also the trade in which keeper Rowland was moved, along with Hailee Mace) while Erceg was away at the Olympics. It was a trade that caught even Hamilton herself off balance. Within 24 hours she was playing against her old club via a coincidence in the fixture list.
Chuck all that together and there’s a long list of key players who have left this team over the last couple years. When the Courage smoked Chicago 4-0 to win the 2019 NWSL grand final, this was their starting XI:
Steph Labbé | Jaelene Daniels, Abby Erceg, Abby Dahkemper, Heather O’Reilly | Sam Mewis, Denise O’Sullivan | Crystal Dunn, Debinha | Jess McDonald, Lynn Williams
Currently only Erceg, O’Sullivan, Debinha, and Daniels are still on the roster. Daniels has recently announced that she’s come out of retirement and has re-signed with the Courage (which, once again: controversial). For the most part, the ones that have gone have only been replaced by young prospects. Especially those recent trades, the ones that have happened this current offseason. Trades which leave you pondering if you’re watching a championship dynasty being dismantled in real time. Trades which seem to favour the team they’re trading with a lot more than themselves.
Some of it was by necessity. The Dunn trade had a clear motive. The Hamilton trade was a like-for-like retooling that, in light of their lack of goals at the time, made sense even if it happened with a callous suddenness. Plus with the expansion draft coming and limitations on how many national team players could be protected, the decision to trade Mewis was partly forced upon them as a choice between getting something in return or losing her (or someone of a similar calibre) for nothing. They then traded squadies Cari Roccaro (to Angel City) and Angharad James (to San Diego) in exchange for expansion draft protection so that those clubs wouldn’t take any more of their players - this was after the Mewis trade or else they probably wouldn’t have gotten San Diego to agree to it.
The motivation is clear: the Courage are trying to retool and get younger. Half a decade of unprecedented dominance but things were allowed to slip just a little with a couple of their best departing without replacement and next thing you know they’re all in on this transitional thing. They do still have Abby Erceg. They do still have Debinha (and have just signed her Brazilian compatriot Kerolin). Denise O’Sullivan is an Irish international, Casey Murphy’s a very good goalie, Amy Rodriguez is more than capable of leading the line, plus they’ve got a number of solid complementary players. Even as the NWSL expands they should still be plotting a playoff place.
But damn this offseason has been rough so far. You can’t help but wonder if maybe those off-field dramas have played a part in players wanting out because normally when teams embrace these rebuild phases it’s with the end goal of getting to where the North Carolina Courage already were. It’s not supposed to happen the other way around. Can’t imagine this is too comfortable for someone as competitive as Abby Erceg.
Although if you think Abby Erceg’s in a weird place, spare a thought for Ali Riley. Her Orlando Pride started the 2021 season nicely by doing just enough to grind out narrow wins but when those results began to balance out their manager was fired (Marc Skinner is now in charge of Manchester United) and their veteran roster went on to miss the playoffs entirely. Live by the fine margins, die by the fine margins.
If there’s confusion about the Courage’s direction, there’s none whatsoever about the Pride’s. They’re in full-on reset mode. Since the season ended they’ve traded Alex Morgan to the San Diego Wave. In return they gobbled up the highest allocation money sum in NWSL history ($270k) as well as the aforementioned former NC Courage midfielder Angharad James (a Welsh international). A few weeks earlier they’d flipped married couple Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris to Gotham FC. Two players towards the end of their careers despite their fan favourite statuses so to get back a 2022 first-round NWSL Draft pick, another 2023 draft pick, and $50,000 in allocation money is a decent haul.
Thankfully, that reset has not come at the expense of Ali Riley. She was left unprotected in the expansion draft but didn’t get picked up, having already been offered new terms by the Pride. Though she might have kinda hoped she had been because at least the Courage are able to rebuild from a championship dynasty platform and thus still hope to contend for playoff places in the meantime. The Pride, who weren’t even a playoff team to begin with, cannot. This is a cut-and-dried squad refresh that they’re embarking upon.
Which isn’t ideal for 34 year old Ali Riley. Or for 35 year old Marta. Or for 31 year old former USA internationals Toni Pressley and Sydney Leroux. Or 33 year old Gunny Jónsdóttir. Or for 38 year old goalie Erin McLeod. Gotta think that they may not quite be done yet with some of the roster shufflings.
You want another clue about things? The Pride have hired Amanda Cromwell as their new head coach. Cromwell was a USA international during the 1990s though her coaching career has exclusively come at the college level – most recently eight years with the UCLA Bruins programme. A coach who specialises in working with and developing younger players? Rebuild material straight from the NBA/NFL playbook is what that is. Say what you will about the strategy but at least they’re being consistent with it.
Having said that, if Cromwell does want one more motivated international player with some decent NWSL experience then she could do a lot worse than current free agent Rosie White. Gotta mention her because White was actually a part of the 2013 national championship-winning UCLA team that Cromwell coached in her first season at the school. As were Sam Mewis and Abby Dahlkemper, coincidentally.
No reason for the NC Courage to miss out here either. They might as well take a look at Katie Bowen, who went to college in North Carolina, now that she’s been waived by Kansas City. That KC roster is full of ex-Courage players so it’d be fitting to see another one go in the other direction – Bowen is already great mates with Amy Rodriguez (pretty sure they used to live together in Utah). Plus Daisy Cleverley and Jacqui Hand were both annoyingly overlooked in the College Draft. Gotta get them going somewhere too. Because otherwise this 2022 NWSL season may need some salvaging as far as the Flying Kiwis stuff goes... not quite what we’ve been used to.
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