Bay FC’s inaugural season was a success after making the playoffs, but coach Albertin Montoya wants more than a first-round loss.
“Not going to lie to you, it hurts,” Montoya said at a season-ending news conference Wednesday. “But it hurts because we had evolved to that point. It wasn’t good enough just making the playoffs. We felt that we were good enough and we had the team and the belief to make it to the semis.”
Bay made the playoffs as the NWSL’s No. 7 seed in its first season and led the Washington Spirit late in Sunday’s match before conceding an 86th-minute goal and an own goal in extra time, ending the startup team’s season.
From a rocky start that saw Bay lose seven of its first nine matches to a 5-1-3 finish down the stretch to make the postseason, the team developed a connection and was able to better slow down opponents.
The late-August addition of Bay Area native Abby Dahlkemper further elevated the defense after the NWSL x Liga MX Feminil Summer Cup, which Montoya credited for allowing Bay FC to experiment tactically and reset its season.
Co-captain and defender Emily Menges, who finished fifth in the league in completed passes, said she was “exceptionally proud” of making the playoffs in the team’s inaugural year. Bay set an NWSL expansion record with 11 victories, albeit in the new 26-match league format, up from 22 last year.
“I didn’t understand how hard expansion really was, bringing together a whole group,” said Menges, who just completed her 11th season in the NWSL. “Not just 26 (players) but really, if you count everybody, like hundreds of individuals from different points in their life and different career paths and different clubs to come and try to make something perfect right in the beginning.”
Part of that journey was squaring Montoya’s goal of playing entertaining, attacking soccer with mucking up the game. Co-captain and midfielder Tess Boade said she felt the team found that balance as the season wore on.
“There’s always wanting to play the style you want to play, and (there’s) wanting to win,” she said. “And I think we just wanted to win at the end. Whatever that took – blocking shots, ugly, keeping the ball – whatever it was, we just wanted to win.”
Returning from long-term injury next year will be midfielder Alex Loera, who was named team captain to start the season and then tore her ACL in Bay’s fourth game, and keeper Melissa Lowder, who competed in preseason with Katelyn Rowland for the starting spot.
When Loera went down, Montoya searched for new answers in the midfield and found a trio that worked in Tess Boade, Kiki Pickett and Dorian Bailey, none of whom had a wealth of experience in a midfield role.
“We had three players that weren’t necessarily midfielders but came in and found a way to work together,” Montoya said. “The fact that we have that consistency, that understanding and we’re only going to be able to add value and other players to come in is incredibly exciting.”
Bay has set itself up for stability as no player with more than two starts in the NWSL season is set to hit free agency this winter. Under the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, there is no draft, so any additions will be made via free agency or trades once the new league year starts.
“That’s a conversation Albertin and I and the staff will now have and dig into a little bit more to see where we can improve, where players are at,” technical director Matt Potter said.
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Star forwards Asisat Oshoala, who scored in the 82nd minute Sunday, and Racheal Kundananji led the team in goals (7 and 5, respectively) after arriving in splashy offseason deals. Both African stars are signed through 2027 – Oshoala has a club option for that season – so the front line of Bay’s attack is set for several years.
The breakdown that followed was emblematic of Bay’s struggles against the league’s top teams: It lost all nine matches against the four teams that finished with 50-plus points, with five losses (including Sunday’s playoff match) coming by one goal.
“In order to be one of the top teams, you have to get points against the top four,” Montoya said. “Although we played them well this season in the second half of the season, we didn’t necessarily get the point. So that’s going to be a goal of ours.”