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The NWSL is a league on the rise, and it’s a great time to hop on the bandwagon. On the cusp of a brand-new season comes For The Win: NWSL, a new four-part documentary miniseries on Prime Video that follows the premier North American womens’ soccer league through the 2024 playoffs and championship. The documentary blends game highlights with interviews and analysis, sharing some of the biggest stars and most exciting moments.
Opening Shot: Groundskeepers prepare the pitch and fans gather as Championship Weekend dawns in Kansas City, Missouri. A voiceover from Orlando Pride head coach Seb Hines (no relation) as players file off chartered planes and team buses: “Anyone who was here last year, you know that heartbreak came in the last game of the season. But I think that was a blessing. I think this has prepared you for today. It wasn’t our time last year. Today it is. I’ve said it every game, you have to earn it. No one’s given you fuck-all, you’ve earned it. You’ve earned every moment of it. We are not the underdogs. Be arrogant, be confident. Push your shoulders out. Go onto the field and fucking own it.”
The Gist: For The Win: NWSL is best viewed as a “What You Missed on the Last Episode of…” primer. It’s structured around a recap of the 2024 playoffs, but it doubles as an introduction to the league for the unfamiliar. Through a mix of highlights, interviews and off-the-field footage, we’re introduced to the biggest names and storylines of the league as it exists, so we can be ready to jump on board for the season that’s just about to start.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? There’s a glut of sports documentaries on the streaming market these days, so it’s easy to find points of comparison – Netflix’s recent La Liga: All Access comes to mind for soccer/football-specific ones. That said, the downside of most of those is that they’re covering subjects that already get a lot of attention. As a league on the rise, the NWSL is hungry for more quality coverage like this, and that helps For The Win: NWSL stand out.
Our Take: For The Win: NWSL starts with introductions.
The first set of introductions centers on the Orlando Pride–historically a doormat in the NWSL, we’re told, with losing records in six of their first seven seasons of existence. They’re putting their cellar-dwelling days behind them, though, with a talented roster featuring young stars like striker Barbara Banda and veterans like Brazilian superstar Marta.
“Marta is a true icon of the game,” journalist Roger Bennett explains. “Six-time world’s best player… this is a player that’s won it all. The only thing she’s never won is an NWSL title.”
True to that story, the first installment of this four-episode documentary miniseries starts with an Orlanda win–the Pride defeating the Washington Spirit 2-0 to clinch their first NWSL Shield, the trophy awarded to the team with the best record in the regular season. That’s a major accomplishment for the club, but it’s not the end of the road–there’s still the postseason, and dreams of an NWSL Championship.
There’s plenty of teams hoping to stand in their way, though.
“I don’t necessarily think winning the shield automatically means you’re going to win the playoffs,” Gotham FC forward Lynn Williams notes in an interview four weeks before the playoffs. “I’m sure Orlando, every time they go into a game, they think they’re going to win… but Gotham will be stopping them.”
Williams has plenty to back up that confidence–a decade in the league, three NWSL Shields and four championships, along with the honor of being the league’s all-time leading scorer. Her Gotham FC club enters the 2024 playoffs as defending champions, and their roster is stacked.
“Gotham, less a football team and more watching ‘Avengers Assemble!’ in cleats,” Bennett observes. “They have not rested on their laurels–in the offseason, it just felt like one massive announcement after another.” Those additions included stars Tierna Davidson, Crystal Dunn, Emily Sonnett and USWNT standout Rose Lavelle – “possibly the most natural footballer America has produced in her generation.” Gotham’s a superteam, intent on dynastic domination.
These introductions might seem a little redundant for avid fans of the league, but for casual fans–or casual potential fans, they’re fantastic stage-setting. I’ll speak for myself here: I’m interested in the NWSL. I’ve been to a couple NWSL games for my hometown team, Racing Louisville. I’d like to know more about the sport, but… well, I haven’t really known where to start! That’s not unique to women’s professional sports–I grew up avidly watching the NFL, NBA and MLB, but I don’t know a damned thing about men’s soccer, hockey, or other sports. When you don’t have context, when you don’t know the stories, it can be hard to jump into fandom.
The NWSL intends to change that, and For The Win: NWSL–released ahead of a new deal to air dozens of Friday-night games on Prime Video–is a perfect introduction for people who–like me–don’t know where to start. It’s also a perfect time to hop on the rising league’s bandwagon.
“Over the last few years, we’ve seen our league grow in attendance, in viewership, in social media following and engagement,” NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman notes. “We have doubled our salary cap, and so much credit needs to go to the players.”
It’s also a transitional period for the league, as its first generation of stars–players like Kelley O’Hara, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan–approach the end of their careers. “It does feel like the end of an era,” Morgan reflects on her own retirement,” but all good things must come to an end.
Thankfully, there’s a strong crop of young stars ready to take their place–players like Washington’s Trinity Rodman, Portland’s Olivia Moultrie, and a whole host of others featured as the series takes us through the 2024 postseason.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Gotham FC defeats the Portland Thorns in a playoff quarterfinal match in front of a raucous home crowd (one that includes minority owner and former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning). We get sneak peaks of the other quarterfinal matches–Orlando vs. the Chicago Red Stars, Washington vs. Bay FC, and the Kansas City Current vs. the North Carolina Courage–but those’ll have to wait for the next episode.
Sleeper Star: There’s a league full of stars that I could highlight here, but one of the bolder-face names in the league’s younger generation is Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman. “The first memory I ever had on the field was losing for the first time. Everyone else was there for fun, and I wasn’t. I think that’s when I knew I was going to be a sports girl, when I knew how horrible I felt after losing. So, the passion I had at four years old was kinda insane.” “Where do you think that comes from?”, her interviewer inquires. “Genetics?”, she laughs, before we confirm that yes, she is related to that Rodman–her father, Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman, a notoriously-ferocious competitor in his day.
Most Pilot-y Line: “The NWSL is the greatest telenovela in women’s sports,” journalist Roger Bennett muses. “You see laughter, joy, failure, tenacity, and then–a couple of times a game, if you’re lucky, you see the transcendence of the human spirit reveal itself, and if you’re not for that, then you haven’t got a pulse.” Okay!
Our Call: STREAM IT. If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool fan already, then For the Win: NWSL is a nice recap of a thrilling finish to an exciting season. If you’re not, though, it’s the perfect jumping-off point for building your next sports obsession.
Scott Hines, publisher of the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter, is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky.
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