There may still be a couple of weeks to go before the 2024 NWSL season gets underway, but the excitement among fans of each team and of the league in general is palpable as each outfit ramps up their pre-season preparations in search of potential glory.
The upcoming campaign could well be one of the most intriguing yet, with there being a noticeable increase in high-profile signings and coaching appointments across the league and two new teams to get acquainted with. Each has shown ambition in the transfer market as they seek to assemble as strong a squad as possible, but whilst Utah Royals have largely signed players already in the NWSL, Bay FC have looked elsewhere and have not been afraid to part with money to acquire their targets, with the most eye-catching arrival being that of Zambia forward Racheal Kundananji from Liga F side Madrid CFF for a world record fee in the women’s game (around £685,000).
Given the calibre of players that have been making the switch to San Jose, California (where Bay will play their home games), it has become increasingly clear that they could be a team to watch this season. This tactical analysis will show why by highlighting the key qualities of some of their arrivals. The scout report will detail what each adds to their tactics as individuals and how they will fit into the wider blueprint that the team set out when they first came into existence.
Alex Loera
When Bay FC announced their first-ever signing, there were many who speculated over which area of the team they had looked to fill first. In the end, the answer was a defensive midfielder in Alex Loera, who joined from Kansas City Current, and there are a number of reasons that she could play a key role in their maiden campaign.
When watching her play, what becomes immediately clear is just how strong a competitor she is and what she offers her team both with and without the ball, with her an effective shield for the back line and someone who can launch attacks from inside her own third.
It is only in the last year that she has evolved into the midfield role, though, with her starting out as a centre-back, and yet it is not a change that has been difficult for her to manage. Instead, she has relished the additional freedom that it has afforded her, with her tending to move up the pitch much more as she looks to involve herself in building attacks.
However, she has still made sure to never stray too far away from the back line, with her always ensuring that she can get back and protect them whenever they do come under pressure. In this case, that has seen her track back to close down now-retired Chicago Red Stars and Jamaica forward Cheyna Matthews, who has possession and is looking to fashion a goalscoring opportunity.
The key detail to note here is that Kansas at this stage have not got their defensive shape right and have left gaps open for Chicago to exploit, which is something that the visitors have tried to take full advantage of. However, they are unable to move the ball into the open territory on the far side of the field due to Loera getting back and slowing Matthews down, meaning that the attack led to nothing.
This is not the first time that Loera has worked to prevent an opposing advance from coming to fruition, with her succeeding in 58% of her defensive duels (winning 7.15 on average in each outing) and making 4.71 interceptions per game for Kansas last season. Therefore, when looking at what she will bring to Bay this year, her ability to recognise danger and to react, even when it appears that she might be out of position, has to be factored in.
However, it is not only about sitting in front of the back line, because Loera has also shown a tendency to drop into it when needed. Here, she has realised that Kansas have left a gap open in their efforts to close Portland Thorns down and that Christine Sinclair is moving forward to exploit it. So she has run back to plug the hole and to ensure that the former Canada captain has as little time as possible on the ball if Morgan Weaver were to send it in her direction.
On this occasion, the move didn’t lead to anything as Weaver opted to cut inside rather than to pass the ball towards Sinclair. At that point, she was tackled by Kansas’ Addisyn Merrick (who has now moved to Utah). However, the point still stands that Loera recognised the threat and moved to help her teammates out, highlighting another detail to her game and one that Bay will have been particularly interested in as they try to ensure that they can approach matches in different ways when needed.
The other thing that the league debutants will have been attracted by is the fact that Loera has shown a strong propensity for passing out from the back, with her registering an 80.4% passing accuracy for Kansas last season.
Here, she is once again deep inside her own half with the ball at her feet, and many in this position might look to send a long pass forwards in a bid to put as much territory between it and their goal. However, Loera instead shows composure and calmness and knows exactly what to do, with her waiting for then-Red Stars forward Ella Stevens to bite before passing the ball towards teammate Alexa Spaanstra, who has dropped back to provide a passing option.
Therefore, by signing her, Bay was not only bringing in someone who could win the ball back when teams were moving into their territory but who could then play it forward in a way that allowed them to launch immediate counterattacks. As a result, her individual qualities tally with their desire to build through the thirds and to play the possession-orientated style of football that head coach Albertin Montoya hopes to introduce.
The fact that Bay have such a confident passer of the ball in their backfield means that they have been able to sign other midfielders with an eye on creating chances in more advanced positions, and one of those who has come in to fit that profile is Venezuela international Deyna Castellanos, who moved from Manchester City Women in the January window.
As this graphic shows, Castellanos is a player who is at her best when allowed to stay in more advanced spaces and when not needing to drift too far back to aid with defensive duties, and so having Loera as her teammate will allow her to play in the areas in which she is at her most efficient and to focus only on the things that she is good at. Therefore, Bay is building a squad that can be effective and that keeps things simple on the field, and that, too, will really benefit them as they try to make an impact in their first-ever NWSL campaign.
Jen Beattie
Once Bay FC had secured the arrival of Loera, their attention then turned towards the makeup of their defensive unit, and it seems likely that they could take advantage of the midfielder’s ability to drop into the back line to split the centre-backs and to ask them to be more ball-playing defenders rather than simply being effective defenders. When looking at former Scotland defender Jen Beattie, who joined from Arsenal Women last month, there is no doubt that she fits that desire to a tee.
Whilst Beattie has not been a key player for Arsenal as the 2023/24 season has gone on, with her only making seven appearances before her departure (three in the league and four in the Continental Cup), her quality on the field could never be doubted. Time after time, she was the one that her teammates depended on to be aware of potential opposing threats and to be their last line of defence, and that was a task that she took to well, with her making plenty of challenges like the one here against Brazil forward Geyse Ferreira, which was crucial in preventing Manchester United Women from taking all three points.
In this case, Marc Skinner had realised that Arsenal were looking to play with a high back line and so had sent a long ball up the field through defender Maya Le Tissier, but they had not counted on the presence of Beattie and so saw this chance come to nothing due to her speed and reactions.
It is not the only time that she has won the ball in this manner, with her making 18 interceptions across her seven outings and winning 64.7% of her defensive duels, so she will be a tough player for Bay’s opponents to come up against and is someone that they will benefit from having in their backfield.
As mentioned, there are likely to be times when the centre-backs will need to move towards the wings, especially if the two full-backs look to move up the pitch to support attacks (as Caprice Dydasco, in particular, is likely to do), and that is something else that Beattie could really take to. Here, she has read the pass that Wales left-back Lily Woodham (who left Reading Women in January to join Seattle Reign) has made to then-teammate Tia Primmer and has run forward to press the latter as she tries to control the ball, with the result being that Primmer and Reading were unable to move any further up the field. Arsenal were instead able to launch their own attack from deep inside their opponents’ half.
Therefore, as much as Beattie is a competent defender when on the back foot, she is just as influential when moving around the pitch and looking to press the ball early, and her ability to recognise again where potential danger is and to get out and to prevent it from leading to anything will help Bay to play with positivity and quality as they try to dominate their games.
The other thing that Beattie possesses a strong ability in is playing out from the back, with her often the one that Arsenal tasked with shifting the ball into spaces and starting attacks from inside their own third.
This is not to say that she is perfect at it, and it might be a personal target for her to further improve this side of her game, with there being occasions when she has been caught in possession (as she was here when Tottenham Hotspur Women pressed her first through Morocco forward Rosella Ayane and then through teammate Jessica Naz).
However, the fact that she had registered a 92.3% passing accuracy for Arsenal before her move to California shows that she is someone who can be depended on to be composed with the ball at her feet in most situations. Therefore, Bay can rely on her to launch attacks from the back.
Asisat Oshoala
With it clear from the analysis just how efficient they could be defensively, Bay FC needed to ensure that they balanced that out with some strong attacking players, giving them the ability to convert the possession that they hoped to accumulate into goals and league points.
This side of the team is where they have really looked to spend big. The reason that there will be plenty of eyes on them this season is that the player that they have put their faith in to lead the line is none other than Nigeria striker and six-time African Women’s Footballer of the Year Asisat Oshoala, who they managed to poach from Barcelona Femení.
Like Beattie, Oshoala is a player who has fallen down the pecking order at her now-former club, with her making just four appearances for Barcelona this season (all of which came in cup competitions). However, her quality has never been doubted, and there is a lot that she brought to the table for them, with her a serial goal threat and someone who always carried a presence whenever she was on the field.
Her main role for the Spanish side was to play on the shoulder of the opposing back line and to stretch them out vertically where possible, and doing so gave them an alternative to their other forward options in that she tended not to involve herself in the positional rotations that have been such a prominent feature of their play.
The fact that she is such a polar opposite to their other forward options means that she has also provided alternative ways of breaking opposing sides down, which has proven helpful in matches when they have needed some structure in their play as it gave the rest of the team a target to aim for whenever progressing the ball up the field. This really came to a fore in their Champions League group game against Rosengård last year, with the Swedish side looking to put as much distance between the ball and their goal as possible.
As a result, Barcelona had to resort to building their attacks in stages, with the ball moving between the lines but without the same fluidity as would normally be expected from them. Oshoala here has provided the final pass through her ability to stay on the shoulder and to continually look for chances to get the ball moving up the pitch. Her run catches defender Athinna Lundgren out and allows Clàudia Pina to send the ball through for Barcelona to potentially get a shot away at goal.
However, Oshoala’s ability to rarely drift from these advanced spaces has helped in other ways, too, with it here pinning the Fundación Albacete Femenino defensive line back and opening up a sizeable gap between their lines. This then enables Vicky López to pass the ball forward for Giulia Dragoni to control in that space, with the Italy international having the time to turn then and pass out to Pina on the nearside of the field, maintaining Barcelona’s attacking momentum.
With so much of the Spanish side’s play being built on sequences like this, it is not unusual to notice passes like this and players moving to connect the play as Dragoni did here. However, there is no doubting that the ball would not have progressed through with as much ease without Oshoala playing her part here, and this is another reason that she was always a key player for Barcelona to have available and is another sign of what Bay can expect from her when the new NWSL season gets underway.
The other reason that the league newcomers will have been attracted to her is that, whilst staying high is her usual contribution to her team’s performances, she can drop back when needed, too. Here, she has recognised that López is hoping to instigate a one-two as she tries to break through the Levante Femenino ranks and into the space behind them, and so she has moved back to offer her that passing option.
In theory, it was a good decision to make, and the only thing that stopped it having the desired effect was the way that Levante defender María Méndez took a step away from her to close off her route back to López once the ball had arrived at her feet. However, the intent was there and it showed another dimension to Oshoala’s game, and one that highlights why she has managed to amass a 77.8% passing accuracy during her handful of appearances for the club this season.
When looking at where this will fit in with Bay’s tactics, they have signed wide attackers in Kundananji and Mexico international Scarlett Camberos, who are both known for their speed and direct attacking threat and, so there will be occasions when they need their striker to drop back a little more in order to retain the overall balance in the team.
Therefore, it may be that Oshoala needs to play a more creative role at times, taking players away from those on either side of her, and the fact that she has shown an ability to do that indicates once again how she is another player who will fit well with their tactics as the season goes on.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at some of the players who will be wearing Bay FC colours in 2024 and has highlighted why the club were so interested in adding them to their first-ever roster and what their qualities will bring to the team’s overall style of play.
When looking at the makeup of Bay’s squad list, there is no doubting their ambition and desire to fight for silverware and not simply be another team in the league. They will have taken heart from the way that San Diego Wave spent their first season challenging at the top of the table and ended up finishing as play-off semi-finalists.
However, it is also clear that there are some huge names in their squad, so there will be a need for them to gel together as a unit and get used to each other and their new surroundings, with patience the key. When they do find that cohesion, there is every reason to expect that they will be ones to watch, and it will not be long now until they get their first opportunity to demonstrate what they are truly capable of.
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