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Bay FC Made the Playoffs in Year One. They Have Not Been Back.
Bay FC reached the NWSL playoffs in their first season, in 2024. Very few expansion clubs manage that.
They have not been back since, and with eight matches left they sit 15th of 16 on 22 points, twelve behind the final postseason place.
The gap is not realistically closable
Seattle Reign hold eighth on 34 points with the same eight matches remaining. Twenty-four points are available, so the arithmetic is not sealed — but it requires Bay FC to win at a rate they have not approached all year while Seattle collapse entirely.
The realistic version of this run-in is a club playing for next season.
Which makes the schedule useful
Five of the eight remaining matches are against sides currently in playoff position: Seattle on September 12, then Kansas City, Portland, Angel City and San Diego. The others are Denver, Racing Louisville and Orlando at home.
For a club whose defining problem is scoring against organized defenses, that is close to a controlled test. Eight matches, most of them against good teams, with nothing at stake but evidence.
What the offseason has to answer
Bay FC were founded in 2023 by four former United States internationals — Brandi Chastain, Aly Wagner, Danielle Slaton and Leslie Osborne — with backing from Sixth Street, and they arrived with more attention than most new clubs get.
The first season delivered on it. The two since have not, and the reason has been consistent rather than varied: this team does not score enough. That is a solvable problem, and it is a different kind of problem from an aging roster or a broken culture.
The one thing this season proves
A club that concedes at a mid-table rate has a foundation. Bay FC’s -8 goal difference is better than the two clubs below them and within four of the two above.
Third seasons are where expansion clubs stop being new and start being judged. Bay FC arrive at that point with a defensive base, a strong home market, and one obvious hole in the squad. There are worse places to be in September.
Results, table and match coverage: Bay FC news · Schedule