EXPECTED OWN GOALS: USWNT Star Catarina Macario Joins the San Diego Wave! Plus, the Boston Legacy's Entry to the NWSL
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Transfer news
Sportico reported this morning that Catarina Macario is moving to the San Diego Wave for a record-breaking eight million dollar total guarantee over five years and a three hundred thousand dollar transfer fee.
Player fitness/Transfer risk
It's a lot of money to commit to a player who is regularly not healthy. If there's anything we can say about Catarina Macario's track record, it is that she has had a series of varying injury problems over the course of her career.
Tactical analysis
This has every possibility of looking like Debinha with North Carolina in 2018. She is the best and probably one of the three or four best attacking midfielders in the entire world.
I think the biggest winner in this is Debinha, who will suddenly have someone to lay the ball off to confidently and also have somebody who's playing passes that open her up for scoring.
San Diego Wave strategy
San Diego has been looking for an heir apparent banner player to replace Alex Morgan and you can do a lot better than your homegrown world-class talent who wants to be there.
Catarina Macario performance projection
I think the ceiling might not be all the way to Debinha at peak right now, but it certainly could be in a year or two. I think right now the ceiling is eight-ish assists, eight-ish goals.
Chicago Stars performance
This is a bad Chicago Stars team and they played like a bad Chicago Stars team and there's no amount of James Joseph that's gonna fix that.
Boston Legacy debut
For a team of players, a lot of whom have limited to no NWSL minutes, Boston certainly played like a credible NWSL side against defending champions.
Washington Spirit tactics
I think the primary issue here is that Washington now without Croix Bethune lacks a primary ball progressor in the midfield.
NWSL match analysis
Jane Campbell is probably peak of the list cowboy in my mind. Jane Campbell went out and had herself a day against San Diego.
Rookie of the Year prediction
I feel very good about picking Jordan Dudley for rookie of the year. I think she's gonna score a lot of goals or be a part of a lot of goals this year.
