FISHLOCK IN THE STATES
Photo by Lewis Mitchell [lewismitchellphoto.photoshelter.com]
Sam Southall
The Genero Adran Premier season has concluded, but across the pond the biggest league in women’s football is about to kick off for another season and there’s two Welsh players involved.
Friday, April 29th will see the National Women’s Soccer League kick off its landmark 10th year. For some, this season will mark a new beginning – the league will feature 12 teams for the first time as Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC kick off their inaugural campaigns. For others, it’ll be business as usual. But for a small collection of players, this season will mark a special 10th anniversary in a league that they have played in since it first kicked off. Only a small handful of these players will begin this season at the same club they began their NWSL journeys with a decade ago.
Three of these players are at OL Reign. These are the NWSL’s all-time appearance leader Lauren Barnes, equal rights campaigner and trade unionist Megan Rapinoe, and 2021 league Most Valuable Player Jess Fishlock. Cymru’s Fishlock became only the 7th woman to be named league MVP, joining Lauren Holiday, Kim Little (the only other Reign player to be named MVP), Crystal Dunn, Lynn Williams, Sam Kerr (the only 2 time MVP) and Lindsey Horan in the record books.
Based in the Pacific Northwest since the league’s inception, Jess Fishlock won the award in spectacular fashion, playing in 24 of Reign’s 25 games for a total of 1,880 minutes, and racking up 5 goals and 4 assists in the process. Her other stats were even more impressive – 76.4% passing accuracy, 47 key passes, 63% tackle success, 13 clearances and 21 interceptions. By the end of the season, Fishlock had been named in the NWSL Team of the Month 3 times and picked up a Save of the Week award (an award usually won by goalkeepers). Oh and she did this all on the comeback from an ACL and double meniscus tear.
Nothing quite encapsulated Fishlock’s 2021 season more than an impressive 3 game run from late July through early August. She scored against the Orlando Pride, assisted against Racing Louisville, and finally racked up a goal and assisted twice as the Reign demolished Houston Dash. But while those performances were impressive in themselves, they were doubly impressive given their context.
Jess Fishlock had been left out of Team GB’s squad for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics. After unimpressively topping their group, Team GB were dumped out of the competition in the next round by Australia. They finished in the bottom half of the table at 7th having only scored 7 goals throughout the competition – 3 fewer than the Netherlands’ Vivianne Miedema managed on her own. Team GB lacked a player of Fishlock’s style and stature, all while she was making women’s football’s premier league look like child’s play.
The Cymru centurion’s 2021 has rightfully been covered heavily covered. It was an incredibly impressive season, not least for a player now in her mid-30s and coming back from major injuries. But it’s important to put 2021 into context and look back at Fishlock’s last decade in the NWSL.
Fishlock will start the 2022 season as the player with the 8th most appearances in NWSL history and 7th in all-time minutes played. She’s one of only two non-Americans in the top 10 – the other being Canada’s Christine Sinclair, one of the best strikers of all time, who ranks one place below Fishlock in both categories. Fishlock comes in at 11th in the NWSL’s all-time leading goalscorers list as the highest placed non-forward in the list. She’s also in the top 10 for assists. While the 2021 season was the jewel in her crown, we should remember that Fishlock has been among the best players in the world for an incredibly long time, albeit as an unheralded name doing the dirty work for some of the women’s game’s best ever players.
“If you speak to most people around the league and ask the coaches if they could take one player from our team, it would always be her, I think that’s just a compliment of what she’s always brought to this team. The journey that she’s been on to get to this point has been phenomenal. I’m glad that she’s getting some recognition that she deserves.” That’s what OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey (one of the best head coaches in women’s football) said about 2021’s MVP and it’s real testament to Fishlock’s abilities. Reign’s squad has genuine world class talent in Sofia Huerta, Rose Lavelle, Quinn and Megan Rapinoe, but the player that other teams want the most is the 5’2” playmaker from Cardiff.
As the NWSL kicks off its 10th season, all eyes will be on OL Reign and the reigning MVP. The Reign have arguably been the most impressive team in the pre-season NWSL Challenge Cup, with Jess Fishlock playing in every game so far. Should their fine form continue into the season, Fishlock’s outfit may be favourites to pick up a 3rd NWSL Shield and possibly even their first NWSL Championship.
Jess Fishlock and OL Reign kick off their 2022 season away against current NWSL Champions the Washington Spirit on Sunday, May 1st. Every NWSL game will be available to watch live and on demand for free on Twitch.