The fifth year of the National Women’s Soccer League has come and gone. In terms of the US women’s national team, the league bore some fruit, perhaps the most prominent being Taylor Smith, but also provided a place for players not just to develop their skills in hopes of a callup, but also to continue playing and working with the next cycle of players when their own WNT callups start to slow to a trickle. It’s a give and take that seems to be working on both sides, as it was intended to, although there’s certainly argument that the WNT is not plumbing the ranks of NWSL as diligently as it should.
USWNT players in NWSL: week 22
