As the old saying goes, all playoff teams are alike, while all teams who came up short came up short in their own way.
OK, maybe Tolstoy doesn’t have that much application to the National Women’s Soccer League. And yet, there was something unique about how each of the six teams to miss the postseason did so. Some were undone by mediocrity (Racing Louisville); some were snakebitten by mismanagement and bad luck (San Diego Wave); others made a post-Olympics push that was too little, too late (Utah Royals); and still others flamed out in every possible way a team could (Houston Dash).
So how do each of these six teams manage to drag themselves over the playoff line next year? Let’s drill down on one thing that could make the difference between 8th and 9th place in the table come November 2025.
