Welcome (or welcome back) to another year of Fantasy NWSL with ShePlays!
It’s Season 4 of FNWSL, and like the fourth season of all TV shows, this is when all your questions will finally be answered! With that in mind, we are going to go through a step-by-step process for building your team from scratch for Round 1 – and/or answering eight of your most pressing questions about 2025 FNWSL. Since you’ll have to pay points for extra weekly transfers throughout the season, making good choices in Round 1 is essential for your season-long success. The first round of the FNWSL season will kick off on Friday, March 14th with the Houston Dash hosting the Washington Spirit and the defending champs Orlando Pride hosting Chicago Stars FC, with a deadline of 8e/7c/6m/5p.
If you’d like to join the Mansers Answers mini-league, the code is at the bottom of the article! Read on to find out (or just scroll down).
There were a LOT of trades and transfers this off-season (both within the NWSL and between the NWSL and other leagues), so if you haven’t yet taken a look at our other pre-season content, it’s all here:
- Part 1: Fantasy impact of off-season NWSL transactions
- Part 2: Fantasy impacts of 2025 NWSL schedule
- Part 3: Replacing Girma and Nighswonger (and general DF strategy)
- Last season’s Round 1 article (in case you want to make an informed decision on how much of my advice you’d like to use)
A special welcome to those of you joining from the ShePlays WSL or UWCL fantasy leagues! If you’re new to the NWSL, the main thing to keep in mind is that there is a very high level of parity in this league, so I generally don’t focus too much on stockpiling players from certain teams, especially at the beginning of the season. That being said, three teams really stood out last year in overall fantasy production: the Kansas City Current, the Washington Spirit, and the Orlando Pride, and you’ll see more representation from those three teams on my FWNSL roster this season.
By the same token, I’m not going to worry too much about a team’s schedule when selecting my starting squad. Portland and Gotham will both have two games in Round 5, giving their players a little extra early season value, but that’s a relatively minor consideration for Round 1.
The Yearly Disclaimer: FNWSL is all about having fun and supporting women’s soccer. Put whichever players you’d like on your team! This is just a framework that may be helpful as you’re putting together your Round 1 roster.
Step 1: The Elite Forwards (or, when did all my favorite players get so expensive?)
One of the biggest challenges for FNWSL managers this season will be the increase in price of elite goalscorers. Last season, it wasn’t too difficult to stack your front line with premium forwards, but that won’t be the case in 2025. Temwa Chawinga, Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson (Smith), Barbra Banda, Lynn Biyendolo (Williams), and Mal Swanson are all priced at $500k this season, while Esther González, Maria Sánchez, and Racheal Kundananji are at $400k. However, the value of high-level individual goalscoring ability is paramount- it cannot be overstated in FNWSL. So your team should start with at least one elite striker.
Now, you can’t really go wrong with any of these players. That being said, $500k is a lot of money (1/7 of your cap space, if you want to be technical), and I want guaranteed fantasy value for that price. None of the members of Triple Espresso are on the US roster for the SheBelieves Cup, and may not be ready for the start of the NWSL season. Rodman is still working her way back from last season’s back injury, Wilson is still rehabbing her ankle injury, and Swanson is taking some time away from the Stars for personal reasons. Of the remaining three $500k forwards, I lean towards Temwa Chawinga as the safest option. Biyendolo has been playing well, but I want to see how she fits into the Seattle attack following her move from Gotham in the off-season. Banda is a close second behind Chawinga, but there were a lot of off-season moves in Orlando which may change the look of the Pride XI in 2025.
Chawinga was far and away the highest-scoring player in FNWSL last year and she also won both Golden Boot and NWSL MVP. As the centerpiece of the highest-scoring team in the NWSL, she’s the safest keystone to build your team around in 2025.
UPDATE: Sophia Wilson is pregnant and will likely miss the 2025 NWSL season. Congrats Sophia!
Step 2: The Second Premium Player (or, is $400k really that much lower than $500k?)
Next, you could just add Banda (or another elite forward) alongside Chawinga. However, I first want to make sure that I have enough money to fill in the rest of my team before committing to second $500k player. After all, if you spend $1 million on your first two players, you’ll have less than $200k per player for the rest of your team.
So let’s take a look at elite midfielders at the second tier of pricing, between $350k and $400k. Debinha ($350k) and Yazmeen Ryan ($400k) are both great options, but I’m very high on Jaedyn Shaw ($400k) this season. Following the departure of Kerolin from North Carolina, I think Shaw will feature heavily for the Courage in 2025. She has elite finishing skill, ranking in the 97th percentile among attacking mids in aerial duels and the 74th percentile in shot attempts (according to Fotmob). Equally as important, she’ll play next to Ashley Sanchez – who finished 6th in the league last year in shot-creating actions. Both Shaw and Sanchez have been reclassified this season as MF, so they won’t take up one of your all-important FW slots like last season. If you’re looking to save a little money, I wouldn’t blame you for just taking Sanchez herself at $300k.
One note on other elite midfielders (and a striker): Remember that Andi Sullivan, Croix Bethune, Ouleymata Sarr, Midge Purce, and Rose Lavelle are all currently on the injury list and likely will be inactive when the season begins. We are hoping that all of them will be back this season, but for the time being, none are available in FNWSL. If you’re planning ahead, Bethune and Purce are both in the return-to-play protocol and are likely the closest to coming back, but stay tuned for official updates as we get closer to the beginning of the season.
Step 3: For The Defense (or, what do I do without Naomi Girma?)
As is normal in the year immediately following an expansion year, we will likely see an overall decrease in goal scoring across the NWSL in 2025. That means that I’m willing to spend a little more than last year on my backline. The departures of Girma and Nighswonger really open up the FNWSL DF landscape, as they were by far the two most selected DFs in 2024. We’ve outlined three strategies for replacing them already – and I’m going to suggest a combo of the “attacking” and “clean sheet sleuth” options, starting with Tara McKeown ($350k).
McKeown is probably the closest DF in FNWSL to being a true must-have player. She’s essentially a forward playing center back on an above-average defensive team, and has perhaps the best concentration of attacker talent in the entire league on the field with her. This makes her one of the rare DFs that has both a high floor and a very high ceiling in FNWSL.
For my other starting DFs, I want to make sure I have a representative from the other two of 2024’s elite defensive teams: North Carolina and Orlando. There are multiple excellent players across both of these teams, but I’m going to go with a value approach and select Malia Berkely ($300k) and Cori Dyke ($200k). Berkely led the Courage in set pieces last year and was tied with Ryan Williams for most goal-creating actions among NC DFs, while Dyke is poised for a breakout sophomore season after starting Orlando’s final twelve games.
With these three on the roster, we’ve met the minimum requirement at DF, as all legal formations in FNWSL require at least three DFs in your starting XI. So let’s take a break from the back line, and come back to it later!
Step 4: High Value Players (or, oh dear, I’m running out of money!)
We’ve spent a LOT of money so far, so let’s change tack and look for some high-value players in the lower tier of pricing to save some budget, say between $75k and $200k. Two names stand out to me in this range: Claire Hutton ($150k) and Alexa Spaanstra ($75k).
Like Cori Dyke, Claire Hutton is moving into her second season after a strong second half in 2024. To me, she’s locked into the starting XI for Kansas City – the NWSL’s most prolific offense last season – and therefore should have a very high upside on a weekly basis.
Spaanstra is a little bit more of a swing, but, between Wilson’s injury and Christine Sinclair’s retirement, I see Spaanstra getting a lot of playing time up front for Portland over the first few weeks of the season. If she’s able to lock up a starting spot for the remainder of the season, she will provide HUGE value at the minimum price of $75k.
If you want to play it a little safer, there are two other standout players in the middle tier of pricing: MF Hal Hershfelt ($200k) and FW Morgan Weaver ($225k), both of whom have high offensive upsides as well as high floors for fantasy points.
UPDATE: As of February 26th, Morgan Weaver has been placed on the SEI list due to an ACL injury and unfortunately will miss the 2025 NWSL season.
Step 5: Some Complex Math (or, will there be enough money left for another premium player?)
After selecting a couple of lower-cost players, it may be possible to fit another $450k+ forward on the roster. First though, let’s look at some midrange players and try to fill out the rest of the starting XI, specifically at midfield. If we want another one of those $450k+ players, we can probably only spend $500k or so total on our other two midfielders.
Ally Sentnor ($250k) has a very high floor. She started every game for Utah last year (excluding her break for the U-20 Women’s World Cup) and is locked in as the focal point of the Royals attack – both in terms of goal scoring and shot creation (she led the team crosses and corner kicks last season). Like Jaedyn Shaw, she’s been reclassified to MF for 2025, giving her even more fantasy value. For the price, she’s probably the other contender (along with McKeown) for this year’s “must-have” player.
Call me an Illinois Fighting Illini homer, but I’m all in on Vanessa DiBernardo ($225k) again this season. Like Hutton, DiBernardo is a lock in the very prolific KC starting lineup, and you really want to utilize your team’s four allowed KC slots to take maximum advantage of the Current attack. She also has a high fantasy floor because she consistently racks up defensive actions and touches, so she’ll be on my team to start 2025.
Step 6: Rookies (or, who will be this season’s Croix Bethune?)
So now we’ve got 4 MFs, 3 DFs, and 2 FWs – just one outfield player and a goalie away from a starting lineup. That means we can start to fill out the bench spots.
I’m a big fan of filling these spots with first-year players. Remember, all rookies are priced at the FNWSL minimum of $75k, which means they have the potential to provide HUGE fantasy value for their cost: think Savannah DeMelo in 2022, Paige Metayer in 2023, and of course Croix Bethune last season. Also, if you’ve already filled your starting lineup, you can stash rookies on the bench to see how the first few weeks of the season go.
Taylor Huff ($75k) has a clear path to playing time at Bay. She was first-team All-Conference four years in a row at Florida State, first-team All-American as a senior, and got called up for the U23 US Futures camp alongside the senior national team in January. I also like Macey Hodge ($75k), another first-team All-American, to get immediate playing time for Angel City. Both are classified as MFs, which adds some flexibility to your bench spots.
Step 7: Goalies (or, where can I find cheap clean sheets?)
Keepers are a tricky subject in FNWSL. Long-time readers of Manser’s Answers probably know that I’m usually not a huge fan of spending lots of money on GKs – primarily because GKs generally rely on clean sheets for the vast majority of their fantasy points, and with the level of parity in the NWSL, clean sheets are notoriously hard to predict. As the season continues, we will get a better idea of which teams have the strongest defenses, but for now, I’m just going to grab a couple of lower-cost starting goalies.
The two highest-price GKs for 2025 are Ann-Katrin Berger and Anna Moorhouse at $225k, and both should be good choices if you want to spend that much money. If you do go with one of them, and are planning on playing them each week regardless of matchup, you may want to just pick a minimum price backup goalie as your second GK.
The least expensive GKs that are their NWSL teams’ projected starters are priced at $125k. Normally, I’d go with two GKs at this tier to ensure that I have two starters. However, this season, there’s another option. With the sudden retirement of Katelyn Rowland, the keeper situation is in flux for Bay FC. The only other keeper who started for Bay in the NWSL regular season was Lysianne Proulx – who transferred to Juventus last July. There are three GKs currently on the Bay roster, all of whom cost $75k in FNWSL: Emmie Allen, Jordan Silkowitz, and Melissa Lowder (who is coming off an early 2024 ACL tear). Bay’s defense really improved over the latter part of the 2024 season and logged five clean sheets from June 22 onward, so whichever of those three ends up as the starter could be a really high-value fantasy GK. Stay tuned!
That $50k savings means I’m willing to spend $50k more than usual on my other GK, so at the $175k price, I’ll go with Aubrey Kingsbury, who was the third-highest-scoring GK in fantasy last year. That being said, I reserve the right to switch to Alyssa Naeher (also $175k) so I can better emotionally handle her final season.
Step 8: Filling Out The Roster (or, can I really afford TWO $500k players?)
Yes, you can afford another second $500k player – specifically, Barbra Banda, who we’ve already mentioned is a close second to Chawinga for the best fantasy asset in the league and is therefore worth the financial commitment. If you’re still with me, we still have $650k available for our last two players, and they have to be one FW and one DF. At least one of these players will likely start for you in Round 1 (assuming you start with both rookies on the bench). For the DF, I’m going to go with Taylor Malham ($125k), who should be locked in to the Stars XI to begin the season, and brings a fifth team to my backline/GK group – maximizing the probability of clean sheets each week (plus, I need to have at least one Star on my team). With this roster, Malham will likely be the first sub on the bench. (We’ll take a deeper dive into formations and bench set-up later on, probably after Round 1).
If you’re nervous about concentrating so much money in your front line and want to spread the money out a little more evenly, I really like Ashley Hatch ($300k) to have a good season. With all of the injuries in Washington, Hatch should consistently start and get 80+ minutes each game for the Spirit – and will likely be taking PKs as well. This would let you bring in one of the other high-priced DFs with offensive upside, say North Carolina’s Kaleigh Kurtz or Orlando’s Carson Pickett (both $300k). Or, of course, my hero Tatumn Milazzo ($175k), who should immediately be a big factor in Utah.
Step 9: Start the season!
And don’t forget to join the Mansers Answers mini-league! The code is one of my favorite FNWSL expressions, “HighFloor”
Who’s on your roster to start 2025? Comment or tweet @MansersAnswers!
