NWSL Notebook

PlayersPaige Nielsen

Paige Nielsen

Paige Nielsen

Position:
Defender
Nationality:
USA
Born:
1993-10-14 (age 32)
Height:
165 cm

Career (2016–, regular seasons; 2020 excluded): 148 GP · 11,901 min · 4 goals · 1 assists

Composite 2026: 0.539 — ranked 78 of 385 Composite page →

Standard Stats

Glossary
Playing TimePerformancePer 90
RkSeasonTeamGPGSMinGlsAstPKShSoTKPPass%CrdYCrdRGls/90G+A/90
12016Reign2046000100000.000.00
22019Spirit22222224000833410.000.00
32021Spirit1913105510051183.9000.090.09
42022Angel City2014129901031475.8400.000.07
52023Angel City21211864100123877.5300.050.05
62024Dash24242159100122478.4500.040.04
72025Dash2624221510062383.1100.040.04
82026Dash1413103900010284.1200.000.00
8 Yrs1481311190141048122580.31910.030.04

Advanced Stats

Glossary
ExpectedVAEPThreat
RkSeasonTeamMinGlsxGG−xGxG/90VAEPOffDefVAEP/90xTxT/90DAxT
12016Reign4600.000.000.00-0.13-0.130.00-0.260.060.120.016
22019Spirit222400.28-0.280.011.442.46-1.020.064.820.200.820
32021Spirit105510.270.730.021.792.26-0.470.152.900.250.635
42022Angel City129900.06-0.060.00-0.361.78-2.15-0.033.510.240.352
52023Angel City186410.890.110.041.663.52-1.860.084.940.240.571
62024Dash215912.30-1.300.101.163.04-1.870.055.450.230.817
72025Dash221511.45-0.450.061.912.81-0.900.086.000.240.463
82026Dash103900.03-0.030.00-0.091.43-1.53-0.013.040.260.239
8 Yrs1190145.28-1.280.047.3817.17-9.800.0630.720.233.913

Composite Rating

Our overall player rating, unique to this site: five components — xG, ball carries, passes into the box, defensive value, and goalkeeping — combined into one score and averaged across every selection-model run of the season. Rank is her place among all rated players that year.

Glossary
Components
RkSeasonxGCarriesBox PassesDefenseGKCompositeRankPool
12022-0.2060.1090.3611.1200.0000.76316247
22023-0.990-0.016-0.5371.4010.65637240
32025-0.6550.382-0.0830.5110.291111258
42026-0.6010.3190.0170.8680.0520.53978385

Structural Roles

Start counts by role, per season — twice. Explicit is where the team sheet wrote her; Inferredis what a model reading only her on-ball events made of each start. The Read column states each season's verdict from the two most common roles.

Explicit (Team Sheet)Inferred (Event Data)
RkSeasonStartsGKFBCBDMCMAMWSTGKFBCBDMCMAMWSTRead
1201922211211played her role
22020999played her role
3202115411411played her role
42022141414played her role
52023269171016played her role
620242542171521played her role
7202524123231played her role
82026131313played her role
8 Yrs1481812912112241played her role

Similar Players

Nearest neighbors by playing-style embedding (most recent embedded season). Similarity is cosine distance in style space, not quality.

RkPlayerTeamSeasonPosSimilarity
1Ellie JeanRacing2026Defender0.900
2Katie LindStars2017Defender0.806
3Taylor Maree LeachCurrent2021Defender0.802
4Kelli HublyBay FC2025Defender0.798
5Kate Del FavaRoyals2025Defender0.788
6Natalia KuikkaStars2024Defender0.776
7Gina Loren LewandowskiGotham2022Defender0.767
8Megan ReidAngel City2022Defender0.763
9Ali KriegerPride2020Defender0.755
10Sam HiattThorns2026Defender0.747