It didn’t take long for Barcelona legend Asisat Oshoala to make her presence felt at Bay FC.
In the expansion club’s first game of its inaugural season in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), it needed only 17 minutes to score its first-ever goal against Angel City FC in Los Angeles on Sunday evening.
And it was a beauty.
Right wing Tess Boade created a turnover in the attacking third and poked it to Oshoala, who was running through the penalty area.
Oshoala, a two-time Ballon d’Or finalist over five prolific seasons with Barcelona, hit the shot on her first touch and fired a rocket upper-90, a perfect strike that bounced off the bottom of the crossbar for the club’s first-ever goal.
“My career has been all about making history, doing crazy things, and I’m very happy to be part of the history of the club,” she said during a halftime interview on the NWSL-plus broadcast. “I’ll never forget that.”
Asisat Oshoala writes her name in the history books, scoring the very first NWSL goal for @wearebayfc pic.twitter.com/t09aOiuEJl
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 18, 2024
For Bay FC, which utilized shrewd trades to acquire allocation money that helped them blow past the NWSL salary cap in its inaugural season, Oshoala represented one of their two big-time signings this offseason.
The pink-haired 29-year-old scored 107 goals in 149 appearances over five years with Barcelona, helping the historic club win two UEFA Champions League titles while earning African Player of the Year honor six times.
“I’m not here to chill or enjoy the weather, I’m here to win trophies,” she said last week. “Every club I played for except Liverpool, I made sure I won trophies before leaving. This is the same thing I want to do with Bay FC.”
Starting as the No. 9 and operating as the lone striker in a 4-3-3 formation, Oshoala is clearly the club’s center of attack as it awaits the debut of Racheal Kundananji, who is expected to miss the first two weeks with a knee injury.
Kundananji was acquired from Madrid CFF after a $800,000 transfer fee, which set a new world record for women’s soccer.
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She’s expected to play on the wing alongside Oshoala once she’s ready to return.
Even without her, Oshoala looks poised for a breakout season in her first year in the NWSL. She routinely posted up Angel City center back Sarah Gordon and created several opportunities with her physicality. An experienced player, she has a knack for being in the right place at the right time and should be Bay FC’s center of attack.
Angel City held most of the possession through the start of Sunday’s season-opener, but Bay FC seemed ready to counter attack and create turnovers on pressing opportunities that should provide Oshoala with plenty of goal-scoring chances in the club’s first season.
Bay FC held a 1-0 lead at halftime.
More to come…