Angel City W v Chicago Red Stars W — prediction, stats and goal analysis

NWSL (W) · Sunday, 15 March 2026. Final score 4–0 (half-time 1–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 50% for over 2.5 goals. This match is older than our frozen ratings ledger, which keeps 30 days, so that figure is a reconstruction from pre-match data rather than a number we published at the time — a distinction worth making, because only the frozen ones prove what we actually said beforehand.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals50%50%Under
Over 3.5 goals29%71%no pick
Both teams to score55%45%Yes

The result model puts Angel City W at 54%, the draw at 23% and Chicago Red Stars W at 22%, from expected goals of 1.84 and 1.11.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. NWSL (W) has produced over 2.5 goals in 44% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Angel City W have 0 in 0 this season, Chicago Red Stars W 0 in 0. Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 44% and 44%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 0 and 0 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 47% and 50%.

The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 48%.

Head to head. These sides have met 6 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 83%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 49%.

Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 56%, from expected goals of 1.84 for Angel City W and 1.11 for Chicago Red Stars W. Folding in 30% of that view gives 51%.

Season opener. One of these sides has not played a league game yet. Openers run about 2.5 points under their league's norm, measured across 2,727 of them, so the rating is docked to 49%.

Calibration. Tested against 97,729 past matches, our ratings below 55% have run consistently too pessimistic — a figure in the high 30s, for instance, has come in about four points higher. So ratings in that range are lifted part-way back, giving 50%.

This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.

Season form

TeamGamesO2.5O3.5BTTS
Angel City W0———
Chicago Red Stars W0———

Head to head

2 Nov 25Chicago Red Stars W 2–1 Angel City WO2.5
8 Jun 25Angel City W 2–2 Chicago Red Stars WO2.5
1 Sept 24Angel City W 2–1 Chicago Red Stars WO2.5
14 Apr 24Chicago Red Stars W 0–1 Angel City WU2.5
17 Sept 23Chicago Red Stars W 2–2 Angel City WO2.5
6 Jun 23Angel City W 1–2 Chicago Red Stars WO2.5

Things worth knowing

More: Angel City W season stats · Chicago Red Stars W season stats · NWSL (W) table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.