Trailblazer | Part 18 | Holm Brings Her Favourite Players to America

Freja Holm brought ageing superstar striker Barbra Banda back to the NWSL in 2038 but it didn’t quite provide the spark that the Swedish manager was hoping for. Her Bay FC side finished in a record-equalling 5th, but finished the season in really poor form.

But Holm had her sight set much higher than 5th place. She began the 2038 offseason by selling on underperforming players, including starting goalkeeper Thyrrestrup to Leicester, for a profit of £1.1m. They then lost right back Cristiane to Chelsea for a massive club record sale of £2.8m, which, as far as Holm could see, was the second-biggest women’s transfer fee of all time.

In their place, Holm completed seven new signings on the day the transfer window opened. That was led by two of her favourites, her former Fiorentina winger Verena Oberdorf for £300k from Liverpool and midfielder Anastaija Zlatanovic for £450k from Leipzig. The new signings also included two Brazilians in full back Paula for £98k from Palmeiras and midfielder Natasha for £80k from Flamengo, midfielder Alice Cruttwell on a free from AFC Toronto and goalkeeper Kamila Kaliskova on loan from Spurs.

With that transfer business done, Holm stuck to the 4-3-3 that had worked well at the start of last season. Oberdorf comes in on the right, Banda and Rocío Dias will rotate up top, with Cruttwell and Natasha playing in front of holder Patricia Esperón. Paula will play higher as an advanced wingback on the right with Andisiwe Mbane tucking in as an inside full back on the left and Zlatanovic coming in at centre back.

Second Season in USA

The bookies rated Bay FC’s transfer business, predicting them to finish 9th but halving their title odds to 50/1. Angel City remain 6/5 favourites, followed by San Diego Wave (12/5), Orlando Pride (4/1) and reigning champions Portland Thorns.

Holm’s second season began well as debutant Cruttwell scored twice before Banda bagged a late winner at Washington Spirit. Brilliant play by Oberdorf put Natasha’s first goal on a plate in their home debuts against Portland and Paula created a goal for Dias, but both goals got cancelled out, before a disappointing 2-1 defeat at NC Courage. Bay FC were much improved as Oberdorf inspired a 4-2 win over Seattle before a composed 2-0 win at Boston and Cruttwell scored twice in a 4-1 domination of Chicago.

A big test of that solid start was a visit from Angel City, and they performed well as Oberdorf and Banda strikes earned a draw. They lost Banda to a hamstring strain for a couple of months, but Dias came in to score in a 3-1 win over Denver. And Bay FC headed into a two-month mid-season break sitting 2nd in NWSL, only behind Orlando, who’d won 11 out of 12.

Battling at the Top of NWSL

A big test of that theory came with a trip to Orlando to resume the season in July. And they performed well in a thriller, coming out on the wrong end of a 4-3. Oberdorf and a wonderful Banda volley earned a 2-1 win at home to San Diego and Dias earned a point at Portland. But they hit top form as Jónsdóttir inspired a 5-2 win over Washington with a goal and two assists, plus a Banda brace, before Natasha and Oberdorf doubles led a 7-2 hammering of NC Courage.

The good form continued, including Crutwell and Banda leading a 3-1 win over KC Current and an Oberdorf earning an impressive 3-2 win at Angel City, to firmly cement Bay FC in 2nd place, albeit a long way behind the relentless Orlando. But Bay FC finished the season in scintillating form, including the irrepresible Jónsdóttir’s assist hat trick inspiring a 6-1 away thumping of Utah Royals. However, they finished the season with defeats in tricky games against Orlando and San Diego.

Regardless, Bay FC recorded a club-high finish of 2nd in NWSL, finishing on 66 points after 20 wins, 6 draws and 4 defeats, scoring a league-high 82 and conceding 40. Banda was the 3rd top scorer with 19 in 25 at the age of 39! Oberdorf led the league in key passes (107) and shots on target (56), was the 2nd best player with a 7.35 average rating, scored the 10th most goals (15) and got the 5th most assists with 12, while Jónsdottir was 9th with 10 assists in just 16 games.

That sent Bay FC into another NWSL Championship campaign, which began with Oberdorf’s stunning hat trick inspiring a wild 6-3 home win over Boston Legacy. A home semi-final against San Diego followed and they started well, with great play by Banda sending Oberdorf in to race through and lift the ball over the advancing keeper. But some shocking defending allowed star striker Schroder (who they obviously left unmarked in the box) an immediate response. San Diego battered them for the rest of the first half and it died out a little after the break to finish 1-1. Completely against the run of play, a delicious deep cross was headed in at the backpost by Oberdorf seven minutes into extra time. And Ba y FC held on for a pretty undeserved 2-1 win.

Unsurprisingly, Orlando also won their playoff games to tee up a 1st v 2nd NWSL Championship Final. For which, Holm took a slightly more cautious approach to account for Orlando’s dominance, and lined up:

Kalisková; Paula, Zlatanovic, Mbane, Jónsdóttir; Esperon; Natasha, Cruttwell; Oberdorf, Saidi, Banda
Subs: Dias, Corney, Falk, Schaller, Deering, Freeman, George, Tisserand, Lopatic

Bay FC started brightly as Oberdorf fired just wide, before Jónsdóttir’s cross was powered home by former Orlando striker Banda. Winger Amina Saidi somehow hit the post from two yards out and Orlando responded with a flurry of chances, then scored an absolute worldy from 30 yards and went ahead from a wide freekick. Holm fired her team up at halftime, and they came out flying as Saidi saw two shots hit the bar and Jónsdóttir’s shot was pushed wide a few minutes later. But in the same attack, Oberdorf was pushed over and Banda slammed home the penalty. The game died down and, just as it looked like it was drifting to extra time, Jónsdóttir won the ball back, sent it upfield to Banda, and the big striker split the defence to send Saidi through to calmly bag a dramatic late winner.

Bay FC won the NWSL Championship!

Brilliant Banda Inspires American Success

Holm knew she’d put together a strong squad that was up there with the best in the USA, and so it proved as they edged a tight NWSL Championship Final. That success was very much owed to Banda, who’d been phenomenal all season, but especially brilliant in the Final against her former club, scoring two before superbly laying on the dramatic title-clinching winner.

Indeed, at the age of 39, Banda bagged 23 goals and 4 assists in 28 games, with a 7.18 average rating. That said, the wonderful Oberdorf was even better, scoring 20 goals with 12 assists and a 7.43 average rating in 32 games, and she rightly won the NWSL Rookie of the Year. Also impressive were Cruttwell (9 goals and 6 assists), Deering (8 goals and 5 assists), Saidi (8 goals and 3 assists), Natasha (7 goals and 9 assists) and Jónsdottir, who scored 5 with a club-high 13 assists and a 7.34 average rating.

Despite the positives of this season, managing in NWSL is deeply flawed in FM26. The constant trade deals are irritating, and the money doesn’t even get received by the club. It’s also next to impossible to agree a trade deal with other US clubs. Then there’s ridiculous squad registration, which sees players not in the squad automatically released by the club, which basically means you can’t have players in your youth team. Additionally, the youth intakes don’t work, and even if they did, the youth players would simply get terminated if they weren’t added to the league squad.

With that in mind, it was time for Holm to depart Bay FC with the USA added to Italy, Japan and France. So she now has seven more titles to try and win across the women’s game – although Australia and Denmark may not be possible.

Holm leaves Bay FC after 64 games in charge, of which she won 36 (56% win ratio), drew 17 and lost 11, scoring 153 goals and conceding 56.

Where would Holm end up next on her Trailblazer journey? Join us on Friday to find out!