SoccerDossier

Now that the 2024 NWSL draft is over, we can take a look at how well the Dossier performed and compare it to the previous years to see what we can learn. We’ll go round by round and look at overall performance, and talk about why we missed who we missed.

Round One

Eleven out of the fourteen players selected in the first round were on the Post-Season Dossier. The three players missed were the three early declares (Ally Sentnor, Savy King and Ally Lemos). This might be a continued problem for future lists, since these players don’t declare until a few days before the draft. But they all share youth national team experience, and that might be the best place to start for next year.

Round Two

Round Two went just as well as round one, twelve of the fourteen players taken in the second round were on the Post-Season Dossier. Olivia Smith-Griffitts is listed as a Junior on the BYU team site, so she didn’t make the Dossier, that’s not one we can learn from. Emma Sears was on the very first Pre-Season Dossier this year (The Pre-Pre Season Dossier if you will), and should have been listed after her 1st team All Big 10 season.

Round Three

Getting twelve out of the fourteen players in the third round is the best we’ve ever done. Only Julia Dorsey and Mya Jones were left off the list. Dorsey is a combination soccer and lacrosse player, and has been recovering from a knee injury all year. Definitely and interesting prospect and one with a lot of playing time as a Freshman at UNC. Mya Jones is a very good soccer player, and she was left off the list because we already had a few Canadians listed. Statistically very few non-American players are drafted because they take up international slots. Next year more Canadian prospects can be included if needed.

Round Four

Way worse here in the fourth round than in the third, a trend that has continued from year one. Let’s look at the players we missed here.

Makena Carr – Carr didn’t play much in her time at the University of Washington, but got plenty of playing time at Saint Mary’s last season and received a first team All-WCC accolade.

Hope Hisey – Hisey was on the Pre-Season Dossier but the lack of post season awards pushed her off of the Post Season Dossier. She trained with a few different NWSL clubs this offseason, and that should have been an indicator.

Alyssa Bourgeois – All-WCC honorable mention, not much playing time before her Junior season.

Courtney Brown – We began looking at total collegiate starts as a metric last year, and Brown is another player who checks that box. 90 career starts at Utah.

Alex Kerr – Kerr played a fair amount her Senior season a Vanderbilt, and then had a great year in 2023 at Texas Tech. 11 goals and 5 assists led to a 2nd team All-Conference selection.

Katie Duong – Katie didn’t play much at Stanford, but she did a great job in her Freshman and Sophomore seasons at Minnesota. She also has youth national team experience.

Talia Gabarra – Talia started 18 games in her collegiate career, 12 of those in 2023.

Overall Impressions

At the conclusion of the draft, the Post Season Dossier contained 42 of the 56 selected players (75%). A big improvement from year one, but a slight decline from last year. Let’s take a look at a comparison of Dossier performance over the years.

Round Discrepancies

Later rounds seem to trend much more toward coach or front office preference, so they don’t seem to follow the same rules as the first two rounds. Rounds one and two have proven fairly consistent over the past three years, but as more and more players declare early, a higher percentage of first rounders might be left off the list.

We looked into team preferences in last years recap article, and it was a fun exercise, so here it is again with this years results.

Over the last three seasons, 60% of the Wave’s picks have not been Dossier listed, but the rest of the league is pretty consistent. Shoutout to Chicago who haven’t made a pick that wasn’t on the Dossier in the last three years. This isn’t a telling statistic, but it is a fun tally to keep.

Conclusion

The Post-Season Dossier contained 75% of the players drafted this year and the Pre-Season Dossier contained 61%. Pretty consistent with last year, but both with space to grow.

Going into the 2025 draft, it looks like the focus will again be on the Big 7 conferences. As previously discussed, 90% of players drafted come from just seven conferences. This year was no different. In fact only three non-Big 7 players were selected (Mya Jones, Talia Gabarra, and Madison Curry).

As the USL Super League starts up this year, it will be interesting to see how they handle player acquisition and scouting. We may see a few articles that look into that as the league kicks off, so keep an eye out this summer.