Over the weekend the National Women’s Soccer League started its 13th regular season, marking the 19th year of top-flight women’s soccer in the US (together with the WPS and WUSA that came before it). As is typical for an ever-expanding, aspirational league that still sees itself as a “scrappy startup”, the new year set off with myriad changes, milestones, and hopes for another historic year. There are certainly signs they’ll get that.
Amid the early indications of the same dominant teams returning, marquee stars scoring again and a competition staying fierce across the table, the opening weekend featured one notable benchmark that is worth extra consideration: a 14-year-old debutant for Gotham.
