The Chicago Stars will finish this season last in the NWSL, and by a margin that makes the position itself the least interesting fact about it.

Sixteen points from 23 matches. Thirteen goals scored, 53 conceded. A goal difference of -40 in a league where no other club is worse than -12.

The size of the gap

Boston Legacy, in their first year of existence, have 23 points. Bay FC, 15th, have 22. Chicago are seven behind an expansion club and would need to more than double their goal output to reach the second-worst attack in the league.

That is not a squad one forward short. It is a squad that needs several things at once.

What the club has already tried

Chicago used four head coaches during the 2025 season, then hired Martin Sjögren from Hammarby for 2026 specifically to provide continuity after that.

The stability arrived. The results did not. That sequence matters, because it removes the easiest explanation — this is no longer a club being undone by turnover in the dugout.

The one asset that has not moved

Attendance. The 2025 season peaked at 26,942 against Seattle, and a 2024 match against Bay FC at Wrigley Field drew 35,038 — a figure most NWSL clubs cannot approach.

There is demand for this team in this city that two bad seasons have not eroded. Whatever the squad requires, the market is not the constraint.

What a real rebuild looks like

The honest read on 13 goals and 53 conceded is that both ends need rebuilding, and that a single offseason is unlikely to deliver both. Clubs in this position usually pick one, fix it properly, and accept another difficult year.

Given that Chicago have won every match in which they scored twice, the attack is the more direct route to points. The defending is worse, but the scoring is what turns performances into results.

Seven matches to establish a baseline

Portland, Washington, Gotham, Denver, Seattle, Houston and Washington again. None of it changes the standings. All of it is evidence for the decisions that follow.

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