The NWSL hosted its expansion draft on Dec. 15 to fill the rosters of the two newest teams in the league — Bay FC and Utah Royals FC. 

Bay FC selected five players in the draft, in contrast to the Royals’ two selections. Utah built out its roster earlier in the offseason through trades and free agency.

Bay FC’s five players selected in the expansion draft include NWSL veteran goaltender Katelyn Rowland. Rowland has collected some impressive hardware during her eight-year NWSL career, including four NWSL championships, three NWSL Shields and two Challenge Cups. 

The San Francisco area club also selected defender Alyssa Malonson from OL Reign, forward Tess Boade from the North Carolina Courage and forward Rachel Hill and midfielder Sierra Enge from the San Diego Wave. 

The Royals’ two picks in the expansion draft were forward Alyssa Bennett from OL Reign and forward Paige Monaghan from Racing Louisville. 

Bay FC added a veteran goaltender to its already defense-heavy roster, and both expansion squads added scoring depth. 

“I love playing football with the ball… we’re going  to be a technical team who understands when to go forward and being a threat when we can,” Bay head coach Albertin Montoya said on Attacking Third after the draft.

OL Reign, the Courage and the Wave all lost two players from the expansion. Bennett in particular had a successful season for the Seattle club in 2023, with two goals and two assists, and she will help first-year head coach and former player Amy Rodriguez achieve her vision for her team. 

“This is the team we’re forming and it’s one that’s going to rest upon humility, and hard work, and passion, and intensity, very similar to how I was as a player,” Rodriguez said on Attacking Third. “This is definitely the start of something great here in Utah and we can’t wait to bring the Royals back in a second iteration because I think we’re going to be bigger and better than before.”

The NWSL is hosting its newest iteration of a two-team expansion draft at 7 p.m. ET Friday, as Bay FC and the revamped Utah Royals look to add to their growing rosters in preparation for their inaugural seasons in 2024.

Expansion drafts are unpopular affairs, both among the players bearing the brunt of the process’s uncertainty and among existing clubs not eager to part with the talent they’ve developed. So it’s not shocking then that this year’s draft has been somewhat defanged, with exemptions for free agents and U18 players and many trades for draft protection.

To summarize, only OL Reign and the Chicago Red Stars made no deals for at least partial protection prior to Tuesday’s transaction freeze, but a flurry of activity saw seven clubs bow out of the proces entirely. The San Diego Wave, Racing Louisville and North Carolina Courage all have protection from one of the two expansion sides, though each could still lose two players in the draft.

As a result, just five protection lists were released to the public, with a few with limitations on who can be selected. (Full rules can be found here.)

Ahead of expansion draft, here are a few players that stand out as possible targets for Bay FC and the Royals, both in fit and in upside:

Bay FC: Kelsey Turnbow, San Diego Wave

Turnbow has college ties to the Bay Area, as she won an NCAA title in 2021 with the Santa Clara Broncos. Coming into the NWSL as a proven goalscorer at the collegiate level, Turnbow has featured for the Wave as both a forward and as more of a playmaker in a deep-lying attacking role. But Turnbow played most of her soccer for the Wave in 2022, and she saw her minutes dwindle significantly in 2023 as other players shined in the attack. If she is looking for a fresh start, Bay FC might be a good landing spot.

Utah Royals: Sarah Griffith, Chicago Red Stars

The Red Stars leaving Griffith unprotected is somewhat puzzling considering her steady integration into the team as a rookie in 2022. But her inability to find the pitch in the latter stages of 2023 could indicate that she’s ready for a new challenge. Griffith is a versatile attacking player who played in a box midfield for the Red Stars in 2022 and even occasionally filled in at wingback. With the Royals looking for midfield options to complement Mikayla Cluff, Griffith could be a great addition.

Bay FC: Brianna Pinto, North Carolina Courage

Pinto has the tools to be a very consistent NWSL midfielder despite finding herself on the outside looking in during the second half of North Carolina’s 2023 season. The 23-year-old is a player that can aid a midfield in hold-up, possession-style football, as well as look for the final ball to break open a defense. She also isn’t afraid to turn towards goal herself, playing forward at times in college at North Carolina.

Utah Royals: Elyse Bennett, OL Reign

If Bennett is selected in the expansion draft, she’ll be moving to her third club in as many years in the league, which is more of a reflection that she’s a talent that deserves a space to get consistent playing time. Bennett was used as a game changer first in Kansas City as a rookie and then again in Seattle in 2023, and she has a tenacity in front of goal that not many young players share. Utah could use Bennett as a wide player or as a focal point at center-forward, where she could link up with wingers like Michele Vasconcelos to create a potent attack.

Bay FC: Sam Hiatt, OL Reign

Bay FC already have one piece to their center-back pairing, acquiring Emily Menges from Portland in exchange for draft protection for the Thorns. A good partner for Menges could be Hiatt, who started many matches for the Reign during their Shield-winning campaign in 2022 but moved to the bench after the club brought in Lauren Barnes as a center-back in the second half of 2023. A Stanford graduate, Hiatt has college ties to the area, and she has experience putting together staunch performances in the central defense.

Utah Royals: Paige Monaghan, Racing Louisville

Monaghan has showcased an impressive amount of versatility with both Gotham FC and then Racing Louisville, playing primarily as a winger but also showing the willingness to slot in at outside back. A steady league veteran, the 27-year-old can play wide on all three positional lines competently, with experience and a work ethic that is obvious on both sides of the ball. With the inevitable positional imbalances that can take shape for a first-year expansion team, a player with her qualities could be invaluable.

Bay FC: Kyra Carusa, San Diego Wave

Carusa has been something of a revelation since signing with San Diego in August 2023. She was used as both a starter and as a reserve off the bench throughout the second half of the Wave’s Shield-winning season. Carusa can play centrally and would interplay well with wingers such as already-signed Scarlett Camberos in the Bay FC attack. The only possible question mark for Carusa would be her desire to leave her hometown of San Diego and her possible desire to return to play in England.

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Racing Louisville forward Thembi Kgatlana's availability in the NWSL expansion draft is surprising. (EM Dash/USA TODAY Sports)

Utah Royals: Thembi Kgatlana, Racing Louisville

Kgatlana being available for selection in this draft is so surprising that it makes me wonder if she has other plans than the NWSL for 2024. But the forward’s talent upside is so high it’s impossible to leave her off this list even if she isn’t ultimately destined for Utah. The 27-year-old is an excellent goalscorer both at the domestic and international level, with a willingness to run long lengths of the pitch for service if necessary. She can fool any defender, and with the right midfield behind her, she could be a consistent scoring threat for years to come.

Bay FC: Amanda Kowalski, Chicago Red Stars

Kowalski is another strong contender for defensive depth, with experience playing both at outside back and in a three-back system. She was signed by the Red Stars in 2022 after the team lost Tierna Davidson to an ACL tear and stepped in admirably while growing into her new role as the season progressed. Depending on the system that Bay FC wants to run, Kowalski could be a player who pushes the starters in front of her or slots into multiple roles in a pinch.

Bay FC: Olivia Wingate, North Carolina Courage

What Bay FC could find in Wingate is a young player that has shown flashes of NWSL-level brilliance in one year as a professional. The 23-year-old got the bulk of her minutes in North Carolina in the middle of the 2023 season, showing an ability to create chances for both herself and her teammates. If Bay FC took a swing at a player without as much experience, what they could get in return is an attacker that can grow with the organization — and who already looks well on her way.

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Could North Carolina Courage forward Olivia Wingate, center, be on the move? (Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports)

The NWSL expansion draft for Bay FC and the Utah Royals is set to take place at 7 p.m. ET Friday on CBS Sports Network.

How long the draft will take, though, is anyone’s guess, as many teams opted to trade for draft protection rather than subject themselves to the guessing game. The Equalizer’s Taylor Vincent broke down every team’s status into a Venn diagram, showcasing who has protection from whom – and who doesn’t have protection at all.

Neither the Chicago Red Stars nor OL Reign have protection from either expansion team entering the draft. But then again, they might have had less reason to seek it.

The Red Stars’ best player, Mallory Swanson, is a free agent and has not re-signed with the team, making her ineligible for the expansion draft. (But it’s highly likely she will re-sign with the club, given that her husband Dansby Swanson signed a seven-year contract with the Chicago Cubs last December.)

OL Reign, meanwhile, has players such as Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett exploring free agency and also ineligible for the draft.

In total, seven teams acquired total protection from Bay FC and the Utah Royals:

  • Orlando Pride
    • Acquired $90,000 in allocation money and expansion draft protection from Utah in exchange for midfielder Mikayla Cluff and the No. 26 overall pick in the 2024 college draft.
    • Acquired $50,000 in allocation money and expansion draft protection from Bay FC in exchange for their natural first round pick (No. 8 overall) in the 2024 college draft.
  • Washington Spirit
    • Traded the No. 20 and No. 21 overall picks in the 2024 college draft for protection from Utah.
    • Traded defender Dorian Bailey for protection from Bay FC.
  • Kansas City Current
    • Acquired $175,000 in allocation money and protection from Bay FC in exchange for defender Alex Loera.
    • Acquired $75,000 in allocation money and protection from Utah in exchange for defender Kate Del Fava and the No. 4 pick in the 2024 college draft.
  • Portland Thorns
    • Acquired $75,000 in allocation money and protection from Bay FC in exchange for defender Emily Menges.
    • Acquired protection from Utah in exchange for $10,000 in allocation money, the No. 33 overall pick in the 2024 college draft and forward Hannah Betfort.
  • Gotham FC
    • Acquired $150,000 in allocation money and protection from Utah in exchange for goalkeeper Mandy Haught.
    • Acquired protection from Bay FC in exchange for defender Ellie Jean, while also trading the No. 28 and No. 42 overall picks to Racing Louisville in a three-team trade.
  • Angel City FC
    • Acquired $50,000 in allocation money and protection from Bay FC in exchange for forward Scarlett Camberos.
    • Acquired protection from Utah in exchange for $100,000 in allocation money and a 2024 international roster spot.
  • Houston Dash
    • Traded $50,000 in allocation money and forward Cameron Tucker for protection from Utah.
    • Traded $25,000 in allocation money and midfielder Joelle Anderson for protection from Bay FC.

Racing Louisville acquired protection from Bay FC but not Utah. Meanwhile, the North Carolina Courage and San Diego Wave FC have protection from the Royals but not from Bay FC.

All offseason transactions in the league for the 2023-24 season can be found here.

Tobin Heath is opening up about the 2020 NWSL expansion draft and the heartbreak that came with it.

At the time, Heath was playing with Manchester United in the Women’s Super League, with the Portland Thorns retaining her NWSL rights. Heath, who had been with the club since their inaugural season in 2013, was selected by Racing Louisville in the expansion draft after going unprotected by Portland.

In the latest episode of “The RE-CAP Show,” Heath called her selection by Louisville “the biggest heartbreak of my life.”

“For me, playing in Portland was one of the greatest honors of my life. It gave me a childhood dream,” she said. “It was a big surprise to me to learn I was picked up in the expansion process. And I will say, I envisioned myself playing in Portland for the rest of my career.

“I envisioned myself living in Portland for the rest of my life and putting all of my football and everything that community gave me back into the club.”

While she was playing with Manchester United during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was told “by all parties” in the NWSL that she didn’t have to worry about the expansion draft. But she knew as soon as she got the phone call that she had been picked up.

“Immediately, I was kind of in denial,” she said, noting that she told her agent to tell Racing Louisville that “there’s no way I will ever show up.” She held true to that, continuing to play overseas before her rights were eventually traded to OL Reign. She played five games for the Seattle-based club in 2022 before being sidelined by injury.

“In one way, it had nothing to do with that particular club, but it had everything to do with the club I was currently on,” she said. “I have never cried harder in my life. I couldn’t console myself.”

Both Heath and co-host Christen Press also talked more generally about the expansion draft and the effect that it can have on players.

“Sometimes players are really excited about it. Sometimes players want to move,” Heath said. “So then there’s the very opposite of that, where maybe there’s a player that has signed a long-term contract with a club, has invested time there, has put down roots there, and they are left unprotected and therefore could be picked up.

“And I think there’s a little bit of chicken and egg that happens, where clubs play some games seeing which players they can leave unprotected and still have the feeling that they won’t get picked.”

Press talked about the issue with the NWSL basing its structure, including the expansion draft, off American sports leagues such as the NBA and NHL, rather than mirroring the European soccer system.

“My issue with our league being based off those leagues is multifaceted, but one big problem, I think, when it comes to reallocating or the way that players are moved around and traded around, it doesn’t work for this league because the players aren’t getting paid enough,” she said. “All of the moving pieces, which in this case are human beings, really matter.”

Alex Loera was blindsided by her trade from the Kansas City Current to expansion team Bay FC, she wrote Wednesday in an Instagram caption.

The Current had told the 24-year-old defensive midfielder that she would be protected from the NWSL expansion draft on Dec. 15, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Instead, she was dealt to Bay FC, becoming the first player on the roster ahead of the team’s inaugural season in 2024.

In her Instagram post, Loera thanked the Current for “giving me the opportunity to live out my dream.” She was drafted by Kansas City in 2022 and made 30 appearances across her first two seasons. But the trade took her by surprise.

“I was not expecting this trade,” she wrote. “It is incredibly disheartening to know that this took place after I had expressed my feelings about the kind of loyal person I am and my desire to finish out the contract I had agreed to with KC. Nonetheless, thank you KC for everything.”

Loera’s contract runs through the 2025 NWSL season.

This isn’t the first time that Kansas City has shocked a player with a trade. The Current dealt Lynn Williams to Gotham FC ahead of the 2023 season for the No. 2 overall pick in the college draft.

Alex Loera becomes the first player to join NWSL expansion club Bay FC, arriving via trade from the Kansas City Current.

The 24-year-old defensive midfielder won the 2020 NCAA championship during her college career with Santa Clara, and she is thrilled to return to the Bay Area, she told reporters Wednesday. Bay FC cofounders Brandi Chastain, Aly Wagner, Danielle Slaton and Leslie Osborne also played for Santa Clara before starring for the USWNT.

“As soon as I heard that Bay FC could be a potential team in the league, I was so excited,” Loera said. “I was like, ‘Yep, I’m going to end up back here at some point.’ … So I am so excited. I cannot wait.”

Bay FC is set to start play in 2024, and Loera’s contract runs through 2025.

The Current received $175,000 in allocation funds and protection from Bay FC in the NWSL expansion draft on Dec. 15 in exchange for Loera. Bay FC and the Utah Royals will have the opportunity to select up to 12 players through the 12-round expansion draft, but the Current and the Orlando Pride already have acquired protection from Bay FC.

Bay FC general manager Lucy Rushton acknowledged that the team is excited to find a player with “Bay Area ties.” She also sees Loera as the perfect player with which the team can begin to build its roster.

“Alex is a competitor,” Rushton said. “She’s a winner, and she’s a leader in how she plays. So as a founding piece of our team, she really does epitomize everything that we’re looking for.”

NWSL expansion club Bay FC has hired Albertin Montoya as its inaugural head coach, the club announced Wednesday.

The league officially announced the franchise in April. Bay FC will begin play in 2024, joining the returning Utah Royals.

A longtime resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, Montoya, 48, served as interim head coach of the Washington Spirit in 2022. On Monday, he told The Athletic that his stint in 2022 gave him “the bug for the professional game again.”

“The Bay Area has been such a great area with professional sports, and how can we not have a women’s team here in Northern California?” Montoya said. “And now that the opportunity is there, I’m just honored, and it’s just a privilege, that the organization is trusting me (with this role).”

In a team statement, Montoya added that he is “honored to be a part of the foundation upon which our team’s history will be built.”

Bay FC general manager Lucy Rushton told ESPN that she had narrowed down to a list of about 40 candidates. But when traveling around the league to research best practices, Montoya’s name kept coming up in conversation.

“Every time I say I’d go to Kansas City or I’d go to Washington Spirit or wherever it was, I’d go and people would ask me about Albertin,” Rushton said. “‘Are you looking for a head coach? I mean, haven’t you got Albertin Montoya there?’ I swear everybody knows Albertin, and so it was ironic to continually find myself in these places where people were telling me to make this guy the head coach.”

Rushton added that playing style and identity will be key as the team moves into its first season, so she saw Montoya’s history of developing players as a definite plus. In addition to his time with the Spirit, Montoya coached the U.S. U-17 women’s national team from 2011-12. He also founded the Montoya Soccer Academy and Mountain View Los Altos Soccer Club.

He has lived in Northern California nearly his entire life, growing up in Mountain View and playing professionally in the area in the 1990s. He also served as co-head coach of the California Storm of the Women’s Premier Soccer League.

“I’ve been around for quite some time, so I know the players that are around the league that have the Bay Area ties,” Montoya said. “And if things come together the way we see it, we’d like to bring in some of the local talent that’s playing in other places around the league, and maybe do more of a Bay Area team. But we’ll see.”

Bay FC has its general manager in Lucy Rushton, the NWSL expansion club announced Thursday.

The hire comes after Bay FC was announced as the NWSL’s 14th team in April. The team is set to begin play in 2024.

This will be Rushton’s first position in women’s soccer after spending much of her career in MLS, most recently as general manager for D.C. United from 2021-22. She was just the second woman to become an MLS general manager. Before that, she served as head of technical recruitment and analysis for Atlanta United from 2016-21, helping the team to the 2018 MLS Cup.

“Lucy has been a barrier breaker her entire career, and she’s a perfect fit for the culture we’re seeking to build at Bay FC,” club co-chair Alan Waxman said in a statement. “We’re going to set a new standard for what a women’s professional sports franchise can be, and Lucy’s addition is a big next step towards that goal.”

She was fired in October 2022 from D.C. United at the tail end of a season in which the team finished last in the league. While on-field performance was cited as the reason for her departure, it also came three months after Wayne Rooney was named as manager and reportedly grew more involved in player matters.

For Bay FC, Rushton’s analytical mind was appealing, ESPN reported. And her experience in taking on groundbreaking roles was also a plus.

“Football has been my lifelong obsession,” Rushton said in a statement. “I’m incredibly excited to join Bay FC.”

On Wednesday, former Levi Strauss & Co. executive Brady Stewart was tabbed as Bay F.C.’s first CEO.

“We’re committed to building a world-class organization for our fans and our community, and that starts with being the best we can be on the soccer field,” Stewart said. “Lucy’s career as a trailblazer in the EPL and MLS speaks for itself. Her data, analytics and process driven approach to the game is going to set the tone for how we build this club, and I’m incredibly excited to be working with her.”

The newest NWSL team has a name: Bay Football Club, or Bay FC for short.

The club’s name was announced by retired U.S. women’s national team legend Aly Wagner during a press conference Thursday.

“There have been a lot of mascots and silly names associated with our craft. That is not the path that we wanted to go down,” Wagner said, joking that she felt “nervous excitement” ahead of the brand reveal that she hadn’t felt since her playing days.

Bay FC’s logo is a stylized “B” in gothic lettering and the club’s colors will be navy blue, red and gray.

The NWSL officially awarded the franchise its rights in April. Bay FC will begin play in the NWSL in 2024, joining the returning Utah Royals.

The club is backed by majority investor Sixth Street and is partnered with four retired USWNT stars in Brandi Chastain, Danielle Slaton, Leslie Osborne and Wagner.