The inaugural season for an expansion team is rarely straightforward, but even by most measurements, things were rough for Bay FC by mid-May. They were second-to-last in the NWSL after nine games, boasting the league's worst defensive records after conceding 20 goals. They had lost seven of those first nine matches, including a disastrous five game losing streak.
What a difference a few months can make, though.
Ahead of their final regular season game at the Houston Dash on Saturday, Bay FC control their fate with two playoff spots still up for grabs. A victory would see them set the NWSL record for wins by an expansion team at 11, but that's not all – a victory or draw would ensure that they become only the second expansion team to reach the postseason after the San Diego Wave did it in 2022.
"[If] you would've said that we would've had an opportunity to do that after the first two months of the season, I would have been like, 'Oh my gosh, we've got so much work to do,' but credit to all the players, the staff, the organization, the fans, everyone that believed," Bay FC head coach Albertin Montoya told CBS Sports. "They bought into it and now we're on our way, and we still have a long ways to go but as I say, we're all rolling in the same direction now and really believe in each other."
Growing pains
Expansion teams have a rough history in the NWSL, though Bay FC seemed intent on forging their own path in an evolving league. Unlike expansion teams of the past, Bay FC entered the NWSL amidst a period of rapid growth spurred by new ownership groups who were unafraid to make a splash. That includes Bay FC's majority owners, private equity firm Sixth Street Partners, who reportedly paid a league record expansion fee of $53 million and splurged in equal measure on the squad.
They broke the global women's soccer record when they signed Rachael Kundanji from Madrid CFF for a reported transfer fee of more than $800,000, and also added Asisat Oshoala and Deyna Castellanos to the roster after they excelled in Europe. It was a star-studded squad that also hoped to earn some style points; nine games in, Bay FC ranked in the league's top four for touches and possession. They also managed 13 goals in that stretch, sixth best in the league, and ranked eighth for expected goals with 12.05. There was just one problem – they were "bleeding goals," as Montoya described it, conceding 20 in their opening nine games.
Their poor start to the season offered plenty of tactical food for thought, especially as a strong attack was being canceled out by defensive lapses. There were bigger issues, though – the team, quite simply, had not clicked yet.
"You talk about time and maximizing the potential of each day, but early on, you're still trying to build fundamental human relationships and so that does take time," Bay FC technical director Matt Potter said. "I think you can pinpoint to the fact that anytime you put 20-plus staff and 20-plus players and you put them all together and you put them in a room and say, 'Let's have at it,' the first thing is about building that simple human connection and how we're going to treat each other as people before you get to seeing the true talent of a person."
Montoya leaned on his experience building FC Gold Pride during their expansion year in now-defunct WPS in 2009, though there were some obvious differences between Bay FC and the area's last professional women's soccer team.
"I joke around with the Pride, I think my entire staff – and this is including equipment manager, medical staff, everything – we were five. Five," he said. "The entire coaching staff as well. I mean, I was doing laundry with the equipment manager. It was bizarre, and this is with a team that had Marta, [Christine] Sinclair, Shannon Boxx. … In this instance, now we have 24 staff members, all absolutely incredibly talented and intelligent in what they do and so different opinions, so that takes a little bit time in getting on the same page."
In his first professional coaching gig since leaving the Gold Pride in 2010, minus a stint as the Washington Spirit's interim head coach in 2022, Montoya also had to make sure his players were understanding his self-described unconventional approach.
"I also concentrated a lot more on the attack early on," he said. "Everywhere I've gone in the U.S., almost every coach focuses on the defensive side – not that it's right or wrong. That's how they do it and I understand why, but I've always thought scoring goals is the most difficult thing to do in football and giving them a framework on how we're going to attack but letting them be creative, form relationships within the field that then allows them to be successful and then the defending – I think it's easier."
That is not the only difference Montoya identifies in his coaching style.
"There's a lot of emphasis on this structure and how you have to play and what every player is supposed to do," he said about the usual approach. "You can help them to think, to solve problems and you give them the tools so that they can solve them within the games. … But within all of these scenarios, there's not the exact same scenario. I always talk about, take what they give you and then figure out the solutions as the game's going on because they might come in a different formation.
"We're there to provide, yes, those answers but can we do training sessions and provide the tools so they can figure out the problems. That was, I think, difficult at the beginning as well because they just wanted to go, 'I just need to be told exactly what to do.' I'm like, 'Well, it's football.' It shouldn't always be that way."
Summertime reset
Things finally swung in Bay's favor when they snapped their five game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the Wave on May 18 and by the time the regular season paused for the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup in July, Bay were eighth. With four wins and three losses in their last seven, though, consistency was still elusive for the expansion side – and so was a club-wide connection.
"I'll admit that the first four, five months, I did not necessarily connect with our players and the team as well as I would have liked to and that's because of just personal reasons," Montoya admitted. "It's no excuse but it took longer for me to be able to do that and that's made a big difference now. … I have individual meetings with a lot of players throughout the week now and there's just different things going on that I didn't necessarily prioritize at the beginning of the season."
The Summer Cup, though, offered a reset button for Montoya in more ways than one.
"We didn't have this pressure of the wins and losses and we were able to implement certain things that we really wanted to work on with a little bit more freedom," he said. "They just bought in and they really felt like now, it's starting to click and the Club America game was the start," he said of Bay's 2-1 win over the Mexican side on Aug. 2, their lone win of the group stage.
Bay had a setback with a 2-1 loss at the Utah Royals on Aug. 23, but a friendly against Barcelona four days later restored some confidence that they carried into a 3-1 win at the Portland Thorns on Aug. 30 that felt like a turning point.
"We played with this freedom," he said about the Barcelona game, when they took a 2-1 lead at halftime but lost 5-2. "I was like, 'Look, we're not going to fear anyone. This is what we're going to do. Just buy into it,' and they really did and you should've seen the buzz going on after the game because in the second half, it was a little different but that first half, they just felt it and we carried that into Portland and again, one of the best franchises in the NWSL, playing away from home at Portland, which is very difficult place to play at and they carried that confidence and energy and stuck to the game plan and then we got a result and then ever since then, every game plan, you can see they're really applying it, buying into it."
Tactical shifts
Bay have hung onto eighth place since, losing just three times in eight games since their friendly against Barcelona. They have lost only to teams in the NWSL's top four teams, who have separated themselves from the rest of the pack this year, and have conceded nine goals in that eight game stretch, most of them in a 5-1 loss at NJ/NY Gotham FC on Oct. 5. Otherwise, they have not conceded more than one goal a game in that time, and are tied for sixth on points since Aug. 30, collecting 13.
Montoya was able to deliver on his promise that the defensive woes from the start of the season were fixable, but a new addition – Bay area native and Women's World Cup winner Abby Dahlkemper – slotted right in at center back.
"[The Barcelona friendly] was the first game also with Abby Dahlkemper and she's also added just this sense of calmness and experience," Montoya said. "It does help that I coached her – my wife and I coached her since she was 11 so there's familiarity and so as we were starting to play well as a team and buying into [the plan] and then you bring a player with her experience, that first half against Barcleona, I thought, was outstanding."
Bay have also tweaked their approach to possession as the regular season continued. The team that was once in the NWSL's top four for touches and possession was now in the bottom four on both statistics, finding results after that switch. The only thing that has not trended in their favor so much is goalscoring, confirming Montoya's belief that it is the hardest thing to do. They rank sixth in the league for expected goals with 13.14 but are underperforming that total with just eight goals in eight games, but their varied defensive approach has allowed them to survive that issue.
"Against [North] Carolina [Courage], we wanted to limit them going through the middle so we packed the middle and made it difficult for them to be successful in what they do well," Monotya said. "Against Kansas City [Current], it's denying service to [Temwa] Chawinga. I think we kept her to [one of] her lowest xG [at 0.12] all season long. … You set that defensively but the most difficult thing still is creating, and now we're creating and it's this next piece, which hopefully comes in playoffs or next season, is finishing and because I know that's difficult, we spend time on relationships, thinking how are you going to move, what space is created. It's recognizing space, occupying space and exposing a team's weaknesses with what they give you."
Montoya's Bay team did it faster than his Gold Pride did in WPS more than a decade ago, admitting that it took until the second season for things to finally trend in the right direction. Potter said the club has embraced an approach to "take some of the scars that we've obviously got from early decisions," which has allowed the group to bounce back from their poor start and potentially compete in the postseason.
"Albertin talks a lot about controlling space and dictating what happens so if you look at the evolution of the group, if you think of those three brackets – mentality, value the ball, control and dictate space – then I think you can see that we've grown in our ability to do all three and what has that allowed us to do?," the technical director said. "We've grown to compete in any environment we've found ourselves in. We've grown to contribute every game we've been in and results, you can see that we're either the right side of close games or the wrong side of close games but that's what's the beauty of this league."