The NWSL is officially on a summer break.

Thirteen weeks into the season, every team has played every other team once, with the reverse fixtures taking place after the regular season restarts on August 1.

This setup provides an ideal balance to measure how individual teams and players compare.

At the midway point, Kansas City Current are eight points clear at the top, ahead of Orlando Pride, San Diego Wave and Washington Spirit — three of those four teams were NWSL playoff semifinalists last year, with the Californians replacing Gotham FC.

Before we look ahead to the international tournaments later this summer, The Athletic takes stock of where things stand at the break…

The team in the best form

It’s the least sexy and most obvious answer, but the Kansas City Current have been the team to beat since the season kicked off. When they’re at their best, as they were against Gotham FC on June 7 (a 2-1 away win), they essentially eliminate any notion of this season’s championship going to anybody else.

Kansas City goalkeeper Lorena and her six shutouts have been key to the team’s success. (Nick Tre. Smith / Imagn Images)

From Brazilian goalkeeper Lorena’s league-high six shutouts to the amped-up defensive contributions of Kayla Sharples and the recent USWNT call-up Izzy Rodriguez, and the continued attacking supremacy of 2024 NWSL MVP Temwa Chawinga alongside the revival of Bia Zaneratto, the Current have been superlative from top to bottom.

Their biggest challengers heading into the second half of the season will be themselves and their ability to keep the momentum built up so far going over the break.

 Tamerra Griffin

The team that needs a rest

Last season, Washington choreographed a midseason coaching change from interim boss Adrián González to Jonatan Giráldez. González had taken the Spirit into the top four places in the NWSL standings, largely taking cues from what Giráldez hoped to implement upon arriving from Barcelona last June.

This year, they are hitting rewind as owner Michelle Kang appointed (or, perhaps, reassigned) Giráldez to helm another of her women’s clubs, OL Lyonnes of France. González, who had dropped down to an assistant position, was once again given the job, ensuring some continuity.

With Giráldez returning to Europe, it’s unclear how much his ideology will remain in González’s plans. In some multi-club football groups, each team tries to keep a unified ideology. If that dogma isn’t being embraced, perhaps we’ll see what style González himself wants Washington to adopt without having to hand the keys over, like last year.

Their season has also been riddled with injuries. Washington entered 2025 without vital defensive midfielder Andi Sullivan, while last year’s star rookie tandem of Hal Hershfelt and Croix Bethune only recently returned to fitness. Ouleye Sarr was placed on the season-ending injury list with a back issue, while Ashley Hatch and Trinity Rodman are also currently absent, recovering from their respective ailments.

For reasons of style, substance, and strengthening alike, the summer break could not come at a better time for Washington.

 Jeff Rueter

The move of the summer (so far)

The summer’s only just begun, but the Spirit’s signing of Italy international forward Sofia Cantore from Juventus, who were crowned Italian champions in April, has been the most tantalizing so far.

Sofia Cantore is moving to the Spirit this summer. (Emmanuele Ciancaglini / Getty Images)

Though she isn’t eligible to join the Spirit until July 1, Cantore will be the first from her country to play in the NWSL, which speaks both to the breadth of the league’s international reach and the extent of the ambitions in the Italian women’s game.

The 25-year-old plays with tenacity and a sense of adventure, which makes for an exciting complement to the likes of Gift Monday or Hatch in Washington’s attack.

Tamerra Griffin

A new opportunity with intra-league loans

It’s rare to see the general manager of a team in crisis backing their decision-making to members of the media. It’s especially rare for them to say they’re wise due to their frugality.

“We are the only team in the last 15 months who hasn’t spent a dime on the transfer market,” Chicago Stars general manager, Richard Feuz, told The Equalizer last month, before later adding: “If I want to have an economical balance, a positive economical balance, I need to trade more than spend.”

Trade value is determined by the market of potential suitors.

Chicago is one place (and one point) above the bottom of the table, with one win from 13 games. With USWNT forward Mallory Swanson out for the season due to her pregnancy, the team may not want to part with its most promising players (Jameese Joseph or Ally Schlegel, for example) or supporting stars (Julia Grosso, Sam Staab and Ludmila, to name three).

Lucky for Feuz, there’s a new mechanism coming to NWSL this summer in the form of intra-league loans, which allow teams to temporarily send their players to others within the league for the first time.

At this point, Feuz will be hoping to figure out who can be in Chicago’s core for the 2026 season and beyond. In the meantime, bringing in players on loan from other NWSL teams who need starting minutes could be a good way to raise the squad’s level on the cheap without complicating his future planning around Swanson.

Jeff Rueter

Most radical style change 

Last year, the San Diego Wave followed up their 2023 NWSL Shield win by falling to 10th in the 14-team table. Alex Morgan’s retirement and Jaedyn Shaw’s departure indicated that this would be a new era of Wave soccer — one overseen by former Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall.

Under Eidevall, San Diego has kept more of the ball than in 2024, especially in the middle third of the field. It sets the tone for a truly patient game model, one that looks to keep opponents from setting the initiative while giving ample opportunity for San Diego’s players to pick their moments to break the lull with something audacious.

It’s working wonders.

San Diego enters the break third in the standings, a point behind reigning champion Orlando and one above 2024 runners-up Washington. Forward Delphine Cascarino has set the tempo from her position at right wing, with three goals and five assists, while 13 different players have scored at least once in a very balanced squad. Even with Maria Sanchez off to Tigres of Mexico, San Diego is once again fun to watch and should still be in a playoff place at season’s end.

Jeff Rueter

Kansas City Current forward Temwa Chawinga is making a run at back-to-back MVP titles. (Jared Bundick / Imagn Images)Early MVP frontrunners

I still think it’s too early to call anyone the definitive frontrunner, but Just Women’s Sports’ podcast host and writer Claire Watkins believes Chawinga has the best shot of being the NWSL’s first back-to-back MVP after the Current cruised through the first half of the year. If an injury doesn’t keep her out of the mix for long when the NWSL returns, Chawinga’s own teammate Debinha might have a shout at the award, too. For non-Kansas City contenders, San Diego’s Cascarino has my attention.

Meg Linehan

Chawinga for a repeat.

Tamerra Griffin

I agree with Meg about it being still too early to call. While the NWSL will now enjoy a brief pause, several players are heading to major national-team competitions this summer, where anything can happen. If Debinha can avoid injury in the second half of the season, I can see her (finally) being named league MVP after earning MVP honors three times before in other forms (NWSL Championship MVP in 2019, and NWSL Challenge Cup MVP in 2021 and 2022). Her consistency as a player is what makes her great.

Melanie Anzidei 

I’m going with Esther Gonzalez in her current run of form (10 goals in 13 games for Gotham FC).

Asli Pelit

For all of San Diego’s struggles in 2024, Cascarino was largely impactful after arriving in the summer from the team now known as OL Lyonnes. She’s changed many games with her on-ball ability and generous chance creation. Tack on helping the Wave vault back from the cellar to the league’s upper level and she checks the boxes of an ideal MVP candidate.

Jeff Rueter

Midseason best XI

The Athletic created a combined best XI for the first half of the season, voting on the final placement. The formation and positioning are not exact, but the writers landed on a goalkeeper, four defenders, three midfielders and three attacking players.

(Top photo: Imagn Images)