Boston's Natasha Dowie may have made the biggest impact, but the newest Breaker isn't the only international that had a successful weekend.
Sky Blue FC still had eight games remaining when Nadia Nadim made her debut for the team. It was 2014, and Sky Blue hadn't had a bad season, but they weren't winning much, either. The Jersey club had made it into the postseason the year before, only to be quickly dispatched by the superior Western NY Flash in the first round. This season was supposed to be the second chance, but Sky Blue had instead squandered a strong start, flirting with a spot in the top four, but ultimately drawing and losing their way into the middle of the table. And then Nadim came along.
Nadim made her NWSL debut rather quietly, coming in in the second half of a 5-0 loss to FC Kansas City. But the Afghanistan-born Denmark international didn't stay quiet for long. Nadim scored seven goals and registered three assists in her six appearances with Sky Blue in 2014, but her impact on the team also went far beyond personal stats. Everyone on Sky Blue seemed better alongside Nadim. Kelley O'Hara had, at times, looked to be suffering from the same kind of general malaise that's befallen other USWNT players too - a feeling of going through the motions out of some responsibility that comes with being allocated, rather than a genuine desire to be there. But with Nadim, O'Hara suddenly came alive again. So did Maya Hayes, who'd had an underwhelming rookie season pre-Nadim.
Ultimately Sky Blue didn't make the playoffs, falling a point short of another postseason berth. But the late season turnaround -- Sky Blue lost just once more after that Kansas City game -- begged the question: what if Nadim had joined the team earlier?
That's probably a question that fans in Boston are about to be asking, too. Not about Nadim, but rather the Breakers own late-season secret weapon, Natasha Dowie. Dowie made her debut for Boston on Sunday, and the sometimes England international didn't wait long to make an impact. It was the tenth minute when Dowie picked off an errant backpass and slotted a low shot into the back of the net to give the Breakers a 1-0 lead over Orlando. The goal, Boston's seventh of the season, would be the eventual game winner. It was Boston's second win of the season, and first in more than two months.
Dowie's impact, and the win, of course ultimately do little to help the Breakers this season. Boston was already all but officially eliminated from postseason contention by the time they took the field on Sunday, a Chicago win on Saturday night the final nail.
But that the 28 year-old ended up in Boston at all bodes well for the future. Dowie had played under Breakers head coach Matt Beard at Liverpool, where she'd led the FAWSL in scoring in 2013. But following Beard's departure, Dowie left Liverpool too, heading to Australia and then back to England for a short stint with Doncaster. After leaving Doncaster at the beginning of July, Dowie was finally reunited with her old coach this week in Boston.
Dowie isn't the only one of Beard's former Liverpool players to make the journey to Boston. Former Sweden international Louise Schillgard played for Beard at Liverpool for several seasons before joining the Breakers this season.
Schillgard and Dowie are part of a growing trend in the NWSL. Players that are either from countries that failed to qualify for the World Cup or Olympics, have retired from international play, or in some cases, simply fallen out of favor with their respective national teams have become key components of many NWSL teams, especially in major tournament years.
Schillgard and Dowie both fit into one of these categories, with the former retiring and the latter having apparently fallen out of favor with England. Schillgard last played for Sweden in 2012, Dowie for England in 2014.
Beard isn't the first coach to employ this strategy, nor is he the only one using it. Seattle's Laura Harvey is perhaps the godmother of this particular movement, with players like Jess Fishlock (Wales), Kim Little (Scotland) and Manon Melis (Netherlands) all mainstays for the Reign. Harvey made another one of these moves this season, bolstering an Olympic year roster with a pair of Japanese players in Nahomi Kawasumi and Rumi Utsugi -- two major tournament-caliber players without a major tournament in which to play.
Historically, outside of allocated players from Canada, many of the league's most successful occupants of international roster spots have been from Australia. But the Matildas are also a perennial participant in both the World Cup and Olympics. There are six Australians NWSL players, from five different teams, currently in Rio.
One of those players is Houston goalkeeper Lydia Williams. Williams is one of seven Dash players from four different countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada and the U.S.) participating in the Olympics. And while Houston's season hasn't gone particularly well overall, one bright spot has been the contributions the Dash has gotten from rookie Rachel Daly. Daly made her first appearance for the England WNT earlier this summer, but with the Three Lionesses not participating in the Olympics, the Dash get to keep one of the season's most promising young players at home. Daly scored her team-leading fourth goal of the season in Houston's 3-3 draw with Western NY on Saturday.
Another England international, Lianne Sanderson, also scored a goal in that 3-3 game, though hers was for the Flash. Sanderson, who was traded to Western NY from Orlando in June, has been in and out of the England WNT picture in recent years. She was a part of the team that competed in the 2015 World Cup.
Nadim and Washington's Estefania Banini, an Argentine international, also made offensive contributions this weekend. Nadim and Banini each have five goals on the season, and both lead their respective teams in scoring.
The way teams are using their international slots now, considering availability alongside quality, is a change from the WPS days, when flash and name recognition sometimes overtook those things, often leaving teams stuck come tournament time in way that seems less prevalent -- or at least more balanced -- in the NWSL.
Of course, not every international slot gets filled by someone who ends up becoming a major contributor. There have been plenty of players over the years that have been busts for their various teams. Genoveva Anonma (Equatorial Guinea/Portland), Ketlen Wiggers (Brazil/Boston), Rafinha (Brazil/Boston), Katrine Veje (Denmark/Seattle), Nina Burger (Austria/Houston), Stephanie Roche (Ireland/Houston), Nanase Kiryu (Japan/Sky Blue FC) and Lady Andrade (Colombia/Western NY) all made it a season or less in the NWSL.
But those cases feel more and more like the exception rather than the rule. There will always be some players that just don't work out, and they'll be plenty of times in the future when teams take a risk on a name or someone that had a good season in Europe or a good performance in a tournament, but there's more consideration on the bigger picture when it comes to using those international slots now. And if this weekend was any indication, it's paying off.
Scores
Saturday
Chicago Red Stars 1 - 0 FC Kansas City
Houston Dash 3 - 3 Western New York Flash
Portland Thorns FC 1 - 0 Seattle Reign FC
Sunday
Washington Spirit 3 - 1 Sky Blue FC
Boston Breakers 1 - 0 Orlando Pride
You can find highlights of all this week's games on NWSL's YouTube page.
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