Bay FC's inaugural season was a hit after reaching the playoffs, but coach Albertin Montoya wants greater than only a first-round defeat.
“I’m not going to lie to you, it hurts,” Montoya said at a season-ending press conference on Wednesday. “But it hurts because we had developed to this point. Just making the playoffs wasn't good enough. We felt we were good enough and that we had the team and the belief to make it to the semi-finals.”
Bay made the playoffs because the NWSL's No. 7 seed of their first season and led the Washington Spirit late in Sunday's game before conceding an 86th-minute goal and an own goal in time beyond regulation, ending the starting team's season.
From a rocky start wherein Bay lost seven of its first nine games to a 5-1-3 finish at the top of the postseason, the team developed a connection and have become higher at slowing down opponents.
The late August addition of Bay Area native Abby Dahlkemper further bolstered the defense following the NWSL x Liga MX Feminil Summer Cup, which Montoya praised for allowing Bay FC to experiment tactically and restart its season.
Co-captain and defender Emily Menges, who ranked fifth within the league in passes accomplished, said she was “extremely proud” to have reached the playoffs within the team’s first 12 months. Bay set an NWSL expansion record with 11 wins, albeit in the brand new 26-game league format, up from 22 last 12 months.
“I didn’t understand how difficult it really is to get a whole group together,” said Menges, who just accomplished her eleventh season within the NWSL. “Not just 26 (players), but really, if you count everyone, like hundreds of people from different stages of their lives, with different career paths and different clubs, coming and trying to do something perfect right from the start.”
Part of that journey was balancing Montoya's goal of playing entertaining, attacking football while improving the sport. Co-captain and midfielder Tess Boade said she felt the team had found that balance over the course of the season.
“You always want to play the style you want to play and you want to win,” she said. “And I think we just wanted to win at the end. Whatever it took – blocking shots, being ugly, keeping the ball – whatever it was, we just wanted to win.”
Returning from a long-term injury next 12 months are midfielder Alex Loera, who was named team captain at first of the season but then tore an ACL in Bay's fourth game, and goalkeeper Melissa Lowder, who competed with Katelyn Rowland for the starting spot in preseason.
With Loera out, Montoya looked for brand new answers in midfield and located a working trio in Tess Boade, Kiki Pickett and Dorian Bailey, none of whom had much experience in a midfield role.
“We had three players who weren’t necessarily midfielders but found a way to work together,” Montoya said. “The fact that we have that consistency and that understanding and can just add value and bring in other players is incredibly exciting.”
Bay has braced for stability as no player with greater than two starts within the NWSL season will probably be heading into free agency this winter. Under the league's latest collective bargaining agreement, there is no such thing as a draft, so any additions will probably be made via free agency or trades at first of the brand new league 12 months.
“This is a conversation that Albertin, myself and the staff are having now and will dig into a little more to see where we can improve and where the players are,” said technical director Matt Potter.
Star strikers Asisat Oshoala, who scored within the 82nd minute on Sunday, and Racheal Kundananji led the team in goals (7 and 5 respectively) after signing spectacular deals within the offseason. Both African stars are under contract until 2027 – Oshoala has a club option for this season – so the front line of Bay's attack is locked in for several years.
The ensuing defeat was emblematic of Bay's struggle against the league's top teams: It lost all nine games to the 4 teams that finished with greater than 50 points, with five losses (including Sunday's playoff game) by one goal .
“To be one of the top teams, you have to get points against the top four,” said Montoya. “Although we played well in the second half of the season this season, we didn’t necessarily get the point. So that will be one of our goals.”
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