Anatomy of a Paradigm Shift: USWNT Tactical Evolution and NWSL Cultural Branding

We're bringing everything about the U.S. national teams, the players, the leagues, and everything else that impacts a game of soccer in these United States. I'm Donald Wyndon. It's March, and with March comes, she believes Cup. She believes Cup started on Sunday night in Nashville as the United States women's national team hope to regain the crown that they lost last year to Japan. They started out with a great win, a two-nothing victory over Argentina. We're going to talk about that. And then, of course, after the break, we're going to get into some Jersey talk because the NWSL release their line of jerseys. And yeah, we got to talk about some of them. But first, the women's national team talking about she believes Cup. They're in the middle of it right now. As I mentioned, on Sunday night, they beat Argentina 2-0 in Nashville, Lindsay Heaps and Jaden Shaw with the goals. It was a very good game. And I think the one thing about the United States women's national team is that we have so many young players in camp, but a lot of them don't play like youngsters. And in a year that's going to be very pivotal for them because they're all playing towards Olympic qualifying and World Cup qualifying. Of course, they don't have to qualify for the Olympics, but they will have the ConquerCaf W Championship, which is World Qualifying and Olympic qualifying at the end of the year. This team is trying to get more experience and to do that. They're scheduling some difficult teams. And Argentina is a team that was physical. We had a couple of injuries during that game. Trinity Rodman got hurt at the end. Emma Hayes said today on Tuesday that she is fine. She was clear the practice today. And it by all accounts would be available for selection tomorrow. Lizzie, real picked up a foot injury after she was tackled awkwardly going for goal. She has left camp to get that taken care of. And hopefully she is okay long term. But the women's national team is in this period where they're trying to figure out some combinations. And some of them are working. Some of them still have question marks because of players who aren't here, whether it be due to injury or in the case of two thirds of triple espresso, they are returning from maternity leave and getting back into full fitness so they're not in this camp. And that be that being Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson. But for some of these younger players, I think it's great to get this kind of experience. They're going to they've already seen Argentina. On Wednesday, they get Canada, which is arguably the best rivalry on the international level women's soccer. And then you have Columbia to finish things out on Saturday. And with some of these combinations, you're going to get these questions of, okay, what does a full squad look like? What does the strongest lineup look like? And I think, despite the fact that MAH has wanted to kind of say, yes, I'm bringing my strongest players, there's still some evaluation going on here with some of these combinations. And again, it's not always working 100%. But that's part of what this is about. It's about testing defenses, putting some of these players in situations that they haven't seen before that they may be uncomfortable with to see how they react. And honestly, they're all reacting very good. And some of the players, some of the younger players that I've seen have been really, really good on the field. And six games at a row. This team is kept a clean sheet. And they hope to continue that against Canada. And of course, against Columbia. They have games next month. Three of them against Japan. And that will be a big test for whoever's called into that camp. I want to single out one player because I just feel like this player has in my mind elevated so much that it's worth talking about. And that's Claire Hutton. Claire Hutton a year ago was barely on anybody's list. And she's still young. She's still my, by my account, she's still you 20 eligible. And she in my mind should start every game. That's how good she's become in the last year. She has been incredible. And she's made the off season move to BFC in a whirlwind deal that involved Cori Bethune, leaving my Washington spirit to go to Casey current. Claire Hutton leaving the current to go to BFC. That domino was one that shook the pillars of the NWSL. But Claire Hutton is the centerpiece of that. And every time she plays, I become more and more convinced that she should not be on the bench. She should be in the starting lineup for all these games. And I want to see how she reacts playing with a Sam coffee, playing with a Lindsey heaps, maybe playing with a little Lillie Uranus. You know, kind of doing the dirty work with both defense and also pushing the team forward on offense. When I'm the Kerma gets here, it plays in a game she didn't play against Argentina. But when she takes the field, how does that combination work? With Tara Rudd, how does these different players work into a system where you can almost say you kind of build around Claire Hutton and Sam coffee who has become one of the best players in the world in the last year. It's so many possibilities. And I think that's what excites me about this team is that there's so many young players mixed with some of these veterans who are coming into their prime. That you kind of have to start thinking about what these combinations look like a starting 11 that could be very different from 2023. And players who are in their early 20s dominating as opposed to the last couple of of world cups where you've had the women's national team dominated by veterans. And so Emma Hayes has her work head out for her as far as how to make everything fit together in this puzzle. But I'm liking what I've seen so far. We have two more games and she believes cup and you're looking forward to watching how the combinations change. There's definitely going to be some turnover in the starting 11 because that's what Emma Hayes likes to do in these three team three game windows. And with the end of a cell having not started yet, there's an opportunity to get everybody some playing time and make sure nobody really has any issues. I honestly, I don't know if Trinity Robin plays on Wednesday against Canada, but who knows, maybe her back is healed enough and the injury that she picked up was more of a scare, a stinger of sorts rather than something fully long term because we have to pay attention to her back issues at this point. I'm just liking what I'm seeing from from the women's team, they are playing every bit like the number one team in the world and the great thing about it is it's not the same players every time they roll out a different lineup, you get a similar result. And that's what you're looking for in this results oriented part of the business getting wins and having different players being able to step up when their number is called. So again, Wednesday night against Canada, that game going to be in Columbus and then in Harrison, New Jersey on Saturday, they close out she believes cup against Columbia, hoping to reclaim the title after losing it last year to Japan. We're going to take a quick break in the other side. I mentioned we're talking jerseys. We are talking jerseys. Don't worry, it's going to be fun. NWSL jerseys hit the hot seat to see where they fall on the ranking scale. We'll talk about it after this. Hey everyone, are you looking for the latest gear for your US national teams, Major League Soccer, the NWSL or any other team in the world soccer? The USA Soccer Cast has affiliate partnerships that are ready to help you out. Head to linktree.com, slash USA Soccer Cast where we have links to homage, genetics, the emulus store, and breaking feet. You can get the jersey, shirt, cat, or accessory you're looking for to support your team while also saving some money and helping this show in the process. Again, linktree.com slash USA Soccer Cast. Click on the links and get your gear. And we thank you as always for your support of the show. We are back and we shift our attention to the national women's soccer league. I'm very excited about the season coming up. It starts next weekend. But the best part of the preseason for me is when all the jerseys for the upcoming season are released. And that happened last week. The NWSL unveiled the 2026 jerseys for each of its 16 teams. And we saw some teams really take a swing for the fences here. And every team will receive a new jersey this year. There are expansion teams in Boston Legacy and Denver Summit. They are receiving a new set of jerseys, a home or I should say a primary and a secondary. But for the first time, the league is going to have some teams with third jerseys this year. So nine teams will keep their previous primary and secondary. And this year their new jersey is going to be a third jersey that they can utilize either on at home or on the road. And so when the league releases a full set of jerseys, we got to evaluate them. We got to decide which ones were good, which ones were bad, which ones were boring, which ones get an A for effort, which ones get an F for execution. And it's our civic duty to rank them. So that's what I'm going to do at my site, the district press. I ranked each of the 18 jerseys that were released by the NWSL for the 2026 season. And I'm just going to start going from 18 to one because that's how we're going to do it. Of course, you can look at that article and the jerseys at the district press.com. But let's start with number 18. The worst of the worst is Denver's secondary kit. It's it's bad. It's just it's boring. I get it's natural for a team that has entered as an expansion team to enter in the middle or at the end of a jersey design process. That process takes 18 to 24 months. So if you're late in the game, I get it. You're still going to have fewer templates, but there is a chance for you to make use of those templates to kind of create something that again takes at least a slight swing. And if you're going to introduce your colors in your home kit, that's fine. But the away kid can be a chance to be very zany. Denver did not do that with either their secondary kit or their primary kit. And they can mask it how they want, but there was an opportunity here for them to at least introduce some element of a design. They were not able to do that. My jersey is just the home jersey with what looks like a wet a white sweater vest over it. And that just tells me that they had an opportunity to do something more than that. And they just chose not to, but I'm very disappointed in that. And when you couple it with Boston, Boston had a secondary kit that is amazing to me. It's one of the top kids. I think in all the league this year. And they took a swing. It's it caters to their community. It's something that again, it's colorful. You're going to recognize it whenever they wear it. And sure they use their home jersey to introduce their neon green color. And it's a plain template. And that's fine. Again, their explanation just like Denver's was we're introducing our colors. And that's all that needs to happen here. But at least give us something to look for on the road. And there did that Boston did that Denver did not. And that's why they're a little bit separate. Number 17, I have the San Diego wave, their Bobo a part kit. They have some great colors, but they decided to put on a play jersey as their third. I don't agree with it. I think they could have used those colors that they did use on the sleeve cuff to make it work, but they didn't. 16 later later Liberty kit from GothamFC is Gotham took us back to the 80s, but they forgot to give us the 3d glasses that we're going to need to see this jersey. It looks like the old 3d printers stopped working. That's what it looks like. I don't understand what they were trying to do with this. I thought they probably thought they were doing something in my mind. They fell flat. Number 15, I mentioned the inaugural kit for Denver. They're a primary kit. It's at 15 number 14 Utah Royals. They had a potential here. They had aligned main with the bees coming off it, but the bees are black just like the Jersey. So you can't really see that their bees they look like flies that are how new and also the American first sponsor got to go. Not just because of the name, not just because the design of it, but because it splattered right across the design that they're trying to highlight. And so all the tension gets drawn back to the sponsor, which should not be there. That's why it's 14. It had a potential to be great. And that's what happened. 13, I have BFC their poppy kit. The poppy color I think is great, but I'm confused as to why they have insisted on putting the BFC word mark across the chest instead of their crest. They're not that old yet. They don't have the brand recognition yet. And nobody calls them BFC. So that was a little bit weird for me. That's why I have them at 13. Number 12, Seattle Reigns kit, their search kit, their third kit is actually kind of interesting. I just didn't understand the design. It felt like something was missing. And it is a third Jersey. So it can serve as a capable third Jersey, but the design just didn't flow into whatever they have going on. And I think they could have done better with that. Number 11 is one that's, I mean, people have been back and forth in this one. And that's Orlando Pride's unity kit. The inspiration behind the Jersey is to honor the victims of the pulse nightclub shooting. That is a very noble inspiration. I believe they're even raising money from the kit sales to benefit one of the funds that is going towards honoring those victims of the pulse nightclub shooting. That part terrific. That is number one. But the execution of the actual Jersey just leaves something missing because the colors are muted. And for me, I think that is a bold set of colors to make the colors on the Jersey actually bolder would have made this a righteous tribute. Don't hide the colors, especially with the meeting behind it, be bold about representing for those people for those victims and to represent the hope of something better. Those colors can be bolder to represent to kind of bring you that feeling, but the muted colors makes me feel like, hey, we're trying to link it to there, but we don't want everybody to find out. That's just how I felt. I know some people really love it. I thought it was lower because of the fact that I would have had those colors bold front of center, so that you there was no doubt what it represents. Number 10 is Portland, George, the Portland Thorns, the electric boom kit, pink and yellow. I thought it was cool. They're getting closer to that red that the fans want, but I thought the design was nice. It can definitely grow on people as they see it on the field. But it's again at 10. There's some that I thought was better. Incy Courage's kit, their third kit is number nine. They have Venus fly traps all over it, which is, you know, most people don't know this is indigenous to North Carolina. So it's something that is a local tie. And I think that's kind of cool. It just doesn't really flow because they have some yellow vote yellow and pink, but it doesn't really fit with the rest of the Jersey. It's not tied into the rest of the Jersey, but the Venus flychap part I thought was pretty cool. Incy Courage sits at nine. Number eight, I mentioned Boston Legacy's primary kit, their first light kit. Again, they're just introducing the fan base. I liked the neon green. It has a black and pink trim that really pops. I think they didn't want any frills. They explain what there was for. And I just think the Jersey looks nice with the neon green. Is it the best Jersey? No, is it the worst Jersey? Also, no, but I think the color is great. And I just when I saw the Jersey the first time I said, okay, that's cool. And that's why I said eight. Number seven is Houston dashes Houston Chronicles kit is their third kit. There's a lot about this Jersey. That's really cool. I think the use of the light blue that harcats back to Houston's old history and culture. The orange and pink trim comes through. It's not doing too much, but it's there. It's present. The crest is white and black. It could have been better with a full color crest or with some orange added to it. But I think it looks nice on the look nice on the field. I think it looks nice when you see it online. And that's why I have it at number seven. Number six. Again, one that some people had higher is angel city's primary kit. They're flour kit. The design is one of the best hands down. They're trying to conjure the daylight kit they had from when they were an expansion team. It's not quite that, but this is really cool. I think the one thing for me that drops it. And again, this might be petty of me, but that's what it is center crest suck. I don't like them band center crest. This one has a center crest. Even though the design kind of flows towards that crest. I think if you move it to the left, I think it's even better. If it's on the left chest, where crests normally are. Number five Boston legacy, their common ground kit. This is their secondary kit. Again, they went for it. They have orange and blue and green and pink and black and red. They have these colors to kind of form the neighborhoods that are surrounding their future home white stadium. I think that's a great inspiration. I think it's very colorful. Again, it's something that draws you to them. It draws you to their team when you see that jersey. And on the road, it's going to stand out. You're never going to know that that's not Boston legacy. So I really like the Jersey. Some people didn't, but I have it at number five. Number four, I think is a cool Jersey with a cool story racing Louisville has a disco kit. Why a disco kit? It's a kit that looks like the panels of a disco ball and it gives you the feeling of a nightclub situation where you're in the dark. All you see is the lights kind of flowing as the music is pulsating through your veins. Why a disco ball? 90% of all disco balls are made in Louisville. This I did not know before this jersey came out and this makes this jersey so much more cooler. I think it's a great pull, a great tie into the local heritage of not just the team, but the city. And it's one of the best designs. I really enjoyed this one. Race Louisville at number four. Number three, Chicago stars, their primary kit, the DNA kit. It's just simple. Baby blue from the city flag, a white background, vertical stripes with navy blue and red kind of trim on the side of them, trim on the cuffs and the collar. It looks terrific. And for a primary Jersey, this is what Chicago needs to be doing, tapping into that flag and taking those colors and making them pop out of Jersey. They did just that. It's very, very cool. Chicago stars, their Jersey is at number three. Number two is Kansas City current, their storm kit is their third kit. And wow, is it beautiful. I think it's a dark blue Jersey with teal that pops incredibly. The lines kind of flow together to kind of form a water runoff after like a midnight storm doesn't necessarily flow like a current, but at least has that flow where you can see kind of water trailing in different ways because that's how water travels. But I think this is something that they should have as their secondary Jersey, move the teal to their home Jersey, move this to their secondary Jersey, and then you can have the red as their third if they want to after the season. But it's that good. It's very, very cool. I thoroughly enjoyed theirs. But there's only one that I enjoyed more. And that is not a home or pick. It's the right pick. It's the Washington spirit, their spirit and blue kit, cherry blossoms. I'm just going to say cherry blossoms. They hit a grand slam. We have been asking for cherry blossoms for a full decade. But the part about it that I really enjoy is that it's kind of an art piece. If you look up close, it's just a bunch of dots of white and pink and your different shades of pink and different shades of green, some white and black involved in it. But when you pull it back, it forms the pink and white cherry blossoms, which define our district. It's also officially makes the spirit green a primary color in a memorable way. Some people call it too busy, but I think that's the point that that's unifying to form a cherry blossom. That's kind of for me defines how the cherry blossoms unite this town. And I think that part is really, really cool. And I'm really looking forward to getting mine and wearing it all season with the Washington spirit. So there you have it. 2026 and WSO jerseys from 18th to 1st Denver at the bottom, Washington at the top. If you're at the bottom, it's no disrespect. Just do better next year. Look good. Feel good. Play good. That's what we're all about here. And that will do it for episode 175 of the USA soccer cast. Thank you for listening. 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