The 2022 NWSL Expansion Draft: Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC make their picks

Hello and welcome to the 2022 NWSL Expansion Draft! Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC have four picks and five picks respectively, Our guide for the draft can be found here and the NWSL website has listed all the available picks from each team.

We will update this post as each pick comes in and is confirmed.

The draft will be live today at 7pm EST on CBS Sports Network and streamed live on Paramount+ and CBS Sports HQ. The draft will also be streamed live on CBS Sports’ Twitch channel and both the CBS Sports and NWSL YouTube channels.

1. Angel City: Dani Weatherholt (midfielder, OL Reign FC)
2. San Diego Wave: Kristie Mewis (midfielder, Houston Dash)
3. Angel City: Claire Emslie (forward, Orlando Pride)
4. San Diego Wave: Kristen McNabb (defender, OL Reign FC)
5. Angel City: Jasmyne Spencer (forward, Houston Dash)
6. San Diego Wave passed on the pick
7. Angel City: Paige Nielsen (defender, Washington Spirit)
8. San Diego Wave passed on the pick
9. San Diego Wave: Kaleigh Riehl (defender, Racing Louisville FC)

Both teams have gone for league experience over youth with most of their picks. They will probably add more pieces when the trade window opens tomorrow and on Saturday when the 2022 NWSL College Draft begins.

Angel City picked up some veteran players from OL Reign, the Spirit and the Dash while also bringing in a potential player in Claire Emslie who’s currently playing for Everton FC in the WSL.

San Diego also went for experienced league players during the draft but also passed twice on selecting a player. There’s still plenty of moving pieces for the Wave and they probably will look to add international players and youth for their depth.

Let us know what you think of the picks in the comments below. Which team did a better job at drafting between the California teams?