It’s awards season in the National Women’s Soccer League. While there are differences between NWSL’s and Hollywood’s award seasons, like the absence of red carpets, award shows and after parties, there are striking similarities. Like the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, the NWSL has their fair share of snubs and a general malaise over the entire process.
There’s good news, supporters – it doesn’t have to be this way. There are easy fixes that can make postseason awards exciting for both players and fans alike. Let’s take a look at how the league can make it happen, while also analyzing some of the 2021 field.
Live, from your electronic device, is the first annual Beyond Women’s Sports NWSL Awards Repair Show.
The first winner is…
Expanded Nominee Pools
The NWSL awards have a preliminary round of voting including players, coaches, front offices and non-Beyond Women’s Sports media outlets. In 2021, the Most Valuable Player and Defender of the Year awards had four and five candidates respectively. Then the Goalkeeper of the Year category includes just three nominees. It snubs one big name in North Carolina Courage’s Casey Murphy.
Gotham FC, Washington Spirit and Portland Thorns all deserved to have a nominee. Portland’s Bella Bixby led in clean sheet percentage. Gotham’s Kailen Sheridan stopped 76 shots and Washington’s Aubrey Bledsoe gave up just two goals in their final seven matches.
What would it have hurt to include Murphy? After all, Murphy led the league with 11 clean sheets. Also, Murphy is only the top shot stopper, tied with Racing Louisville FC’s Michelle Betos, with 96 saves. That’s 20 more than Sheridan and 50 more than Bixby.
The usual argument against a high save total is that a team is not great. North Carolina is a playoff team. Not only that, but a playoff team that gave up the third fewest goals in the league. The two teams in front of the Courage in this category, Portland Thorns (17) and NJ/NY Gotham FC (21) each have a nominee, so why not Murphy?
Murphy isn’t just a nice nominee to pad the list, but arguably a front runner in the race.
The second award goes to…
Award Qualifications Minimums
Coach of the year is difficult in 2021. Only four coaches that started the season are still in charge of their team. Being with a club for an entire season is a drastic minimum to meet, and that’s not what’s being proposed here. Instead, there should be some logic in selection.
The current nominee pool of Portland’s Mark Parsons and Laura Harvey of OL Reign are exceptional coaches. Parsons’ Thorns have consistently stayed near the top of the league and Harvey’s been a coaching staple in the greater Seattle area. Since stepping back into the role in July, after Farid Benstiti stepped down (which later found out was due to allegations of abuse from players), the Reign shot up to second place and are arguably the hottest team in the league.
In the final nominee place is Gotham’s Scott Parkinson. The former Chicago Red Stars assistant coach joined the New Jersey side and coached only seven matches. That’s less than a third of the season. Coaching seven matches isn’t enough to warrant an end of season award nomination.
This is no shot against Parkinson and his credentials as a first-time head coach in the NWSL. To his credit, Gotham didn’t lose any of those seven matches, but there was some help. For instance, players returned from injury, like MVP candidate Margaret Purce. Also, Gotham was in a playoff position when former coach Freya Coombe left for Angel City FC.
Parkinson didn’t pull the team up from the cellar of the league into a playoff spot. A set standard of play continued. Also, in their final three matches they gave up three straight 1-0 leads to the bottom two teams in the league.
Someone like Chicago’s Rory Dames, who lost his best defender/defensive midfielder in Julie Ertz to injury in a 0-5 opening day shellacking to the Thorns. Halfway through the season, Chicago’s starting goalkeeper, World Cup winner Alyssa Naeher, also went down for the year. Dames and the Red Stars made up that goal differential, played with a new lineup featuring multiple new players and are now hosting a playoff game.
Parkinson’s former boss should’ve seen his name on the list.
The final award of the night goes to…
More Categories
There is one thing the NWSL could take from Hollywood: more awards. The Academy and Foreign Press Association give out so many awards they need multiple shows to award them all. That isn’t to say that the NWSL should give awards to stadium light and sound, but there’s at least one obvious award that’s missing.
Why can’t there be an Offensive Player of the Year? The NWSL’s selections for Most Valuable Player show that the most valuable thing is goals. Now goals are important, this award show host isn’t saying goals are unimportant.
OL Reign’s Jess Fishlock’s five goals and four assists, while leading a new look side to a strong season is deserving of praise. Portland’s Angela Salem, who is the only player that didn’t contribute to at least eight goals, does things that don’t show up directly on the goal scoring stats.
What’s missing from the MVP race are defenders. The old adage says that defense wins championships. Look back over the last three NWSL champions. Something they have in common is they all gave up the fewest regular season goals in their respective years.
Now, there is a Defender of the Year award but why can’t the best of that category also get MVP consideration?
Gotham’s Caprice Dydasco assisted on five goals and an assist, if you still want some offensive flair. Chicago’s Sarah Gorden played every minute of the season (and hasn’t missed a minute since April of 2019). Gorden also led the same team that lost two stars by playing both fullback and center back. that are the reason their teams are in a place to compete.
Expecting the NWSL to make this last change is a difficult one when the Gorden’s own team didn’t nominate the defender for team MVP.
2021 NWSL Awards
Even if the awards aren’t perfect, it’s still important to give praise to the players competing through the 2021 season.
The NWSL wants supporters to have their voices heard in the process. Vote for who you think is the best nominee here.
Below is the full list of nominees:
Most Valuable Player, presented by Budweiser: Jessica Fishlock (OL Reign), Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit), Mallory Pugh (Chicago Red Stars), Margaret Purce (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Angela Salem (Portland Thorns FC)
Defender of the Year: Alana Cook (OL Reign), Caprice Dydasco (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Sarah Gorden (Chicago Red Stars), Emily Menges (Portland Thorns FC), Carson Pickett (North Carolina Courage)
Goalkeeper of the Year: Bella Bixby (Portland Thorns FC), Aubrey Bledsoe (Washington Spirit), Kailen Sheridan (NJ/NY Gotham FC)
Rookie of the Year, presented by Ally: Emily Fox (Racing Louisville FC), Victoria Pickett (Kansas City Current), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit)
Coach of the Year: Laura Harvey (OL Reign), Scott Parkinson (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Mark Parsons (Portland Thorns FC)
Congratulations to all those that end up winning the awards.
Follow Beyond Women’s Sports for more from the NWSL Playoffs. Thomas Costello is on Twitter too. Follow him @1ThomasCostello.
