Red Stars trade for Rachel Hill during wild NWSL Draft

To borrow a cliche, if a lot of teams were playing checkers in today’s NWSL Draft, the Chicago Red Stars were playing chess.

There was A LOT going on. Let’s take a deep breath, and break it down:

FIRST ROUND

Nearly every first round pick ran through the Red Stars at one point, but in the end the club traded away all those picks for a huge stockpile of allocation money, forward Rachel Hill from the Orlando Pride, and a 2021 first round pick.

SECOND ROUND

The Red Stars went with a pair of defenders here, taking defender Julia Bingham from the University of Southern California at 15, and Camryn Biegalski from the University of Wisconsin at 16.

Biegalski is a local product. She played at Eclipse Select, head coach Rory Dames’ club team.

For her part, Bingham seemed thrilled to join the Red Stars.

“I can’t wait to get started,” she said. “This is truly a dream.”

THIRD ROUND

With the first pick of the third round—number 19 overall—the Red Stars selected Zoe Morse, a defender and defensive midfielder from the University of Virginia.

At 24, the Red Stars took Ella Stevens, a forward/midfielder from Duke University.

FOURTH ROUND

With their final pick, the Red Stars took Aerial Chavarin from Yale. She was the Ivy League Defender of the Year, but can play all over the field.

WHAT ABOUT THAT ALLOCATION MONEY?

It’s really unclear how this works right now. In theory, the club could use it to give raises to existing players, or it could be used to pay a transfer fee to bring a foreign-based player to Chicago. But, could a team just use it on regular expenses? This is something NWSL needs to clear up.

So that’s it. We made it here, together. How are you feeling, Red Stars fans? Let us know in the comments below.