Sydney Collins finding early success in new role on resurgent Bay FC side to begin NWSL season
Bay FC have gotten off to a solid start to the NWSL season, as they’ve picked up two wins in their first three games of 2026.
After opening the season with a 2-1 win against the Denver Summit, before falling 3-1 to Angel City in their second game, they made a big statement in their third match, too. There, they managed to beat the North Carolina Courage 3-1 on the road, powered by a one-goal and one-assist performance from 18-year-old attacker Alex Pfeiffer, who is now already up to two goals and two assists on the season.
While Pfeiffer’s performance stood out, however, there were several top showings from across the Bay squad, including the play of their Canadian defender, Sydney Collins, who captained the side for a third straight game to start the season.
Deployed as a right back in Bay’s 4-2-3-1 starting formation, Collins put in a good showing on both sides of the ball, chipping in with an assist, two shots, five passes into the final third, and completing 25 out of 31 passes offensively, while also finishing with three tackles, two blocks, one interception and six recoveries defensively (via FotMob). 
Here are all of Sydney Collins' defensive interventions in this game, with tackles in orange, interceptions in pink, blocks in red and recoveries in green (SofaScore)
She struggled a bit to win her 50/50 battles, as she won just three of nine duels, but that didn’t stop her from being impactful defensively in a game where her side was pretty busy defensively, conceding 51% of possession.
Overall, though, it was a good showing for Collins, one that further confirmed that she’ll be featuring a lot more as a full back this season, which appears to be her best position. 
That’s no small detail, as by the end of 2025, Collins featured more as a centre back for Bay FC after joining the club last summer, with then-coach Albertin Montoya choosing to play her as a central defender.
With the arrival of head coach Emma Coates, however, Collins has returned to the full-back position, one she had played at the start of her professional career.
Interestingly, though, after playing more as a left back in her earlier days, Coates has continued to deploy Collins as more of a right back, something Collins had never done professionally. Per WyScout, Collins had never played an NWSL game as a right back before this year, having only done so in seven NCAA games and one CanWNT friendly against Japan last November.
Perhaps, though, the 12 minutes she played against Japan planted a seed in Coates’s mind, as seen by her decision to deploy Collins at the position.
So far, it’s been working well, though, giving her little reason to change things quite yet.
In particular, one interesting thing to watch has been how Collins has been able to develop a partnership with Pfeiffer, which was on full display during Pfeiffer’s goal. Granted, it was a goal where Collins didn’t have to do much to earn the assist, as she played a simple pass into Pfeiffer’s feet from a central position before the attacker did the rest with a nice dribble and finish, but even that small play shows what’s worked for them so far.
Alex Pfeiffer with the powerful left footer to slip it between the keeper and the post 😱 pic.twitter.com/qiQjJ82eC0
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 28, 2026
With her ability to take players on, as she’s averaging 3.43 dribbles (at a 72.7% clip!) in her 578 minutes as a professional, Pfeiffer has done a good job of proving to be a dangerous 1v1 threat as a right winger. Along with her ability to stretch the field, that’s allowed her to be quite lethal whenever she gets on the ball.
Because of that, Collins hasn’t needed to play as aggressively in possession. Instead of constantly overlapping and getting into the final third, her goal is to progress the ball to Pfeiffer and the other attackers as much as possible, and then supporting them whenever the situation allows. 
Here's Collins' pass map from this North Carolina match (with Bay FC attacking from left to right), showing what she did on the ball. As seen above, there's a lot of sideways passes to retain possession, but also a lot of progressive passes, including several line-breaking balls (WyScout)
That’s proven to be a good fit for Collins, whose best skills as a full back are more as a 1v1 defender, as well as in possession. That’s why Montoya tried to play her as a centre back, which made sense in theory - and it’s worth noting that when you dive into how Coates has deployed her, it’s not as if her new role is all that different, either. 
Here's a still from the match showing Collins, who is wearing #16 on the left side, dropping into Bay FC's back three in possession (OneSoccer)
Having averaged 85.3% of her 49.03 passes, 3.42 passes to the final third, 5.23 interceptions, 10.58 recoveries, 3.03 clearances, and 10.06 duels (at a 53.8% clip) per 90 in her 1395 minutes in the NWSL, that gives an idea of what Collins’s best skills have been as a professional.
In this new right back role, Collins sometimes operates as a wide centre back in possession, as seen by her heat map from this North Carolina Courage match. The only difference, though, is that she now has the license to push forward like a full back in certain scenarios. 
Here's Collins' heat map from this game (attacking from left to right), showing that she saw a lot of the ball in her left in the sort of positions occupied by a wide centre back, as well as higher up the pitch as more of a traditional overlapping full back (WyScout)
And, surprisingly, there are a fair amount of opportunities for Collins to do that. While Pfeiffer is good at stretching the field, she’s also quite good at cutting into central areas and getting involved there. When she does that, it can open the field for Collins to overlap as more of a traditional full back. 
Here's an example of Collins bursting forward to support her attackers with an overlapping run (OneSoccer)
Yet, to that point, look at the average position map for Bay FC’s starters from this most recent match. When looking at that map, which factors into a player's average position in possession, you can get a better idea of what Bay tries to do on the ball, which is quite fluid. 
Here's Bay FC's average positions from this game. As seen by the positioning of their front six, they were very fluid on the ball (SofaScore)
Essentially, they operate with a 3-2-2-3 box formation in possession, but instead of assigning certain players positions, they’re given the freedom to fill roles depending on circumstances.
For example, if one of the wingers cuts in and operates as one of the #10s, a full back will step up to provide width, leaving the other full back to drop into the back three. And if both full backs end up pushing forward because the two wingers cut inside, a midfielder will drop into the back three.
As long as those roles are filled, that’s all that matters, which is why Collins has sometimes looked like a wide centre back, and at other times looked like more of a full back - heck, there were moments in this game where she even slotted into midfield to help in possession. 
Here's an extended clip to show some of the work Bay FC did in possession. Watch how Collins drops into a back three at the start, and then steps into midfield, to help her team fashion a fluid attacking move that allows them to create a shooting opportunity (OneSoccer)
All in all, it’s an impressive and fluid tactical set-up, one that has helped Bay FC score six goals in three games to start the year - for context, they scored a league-low 26 goals in 26 games in 2025.
AIR DORIAN ✈️
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 28, 2026
Goal scorer Alex Pfeiffer finds Dorian Bailey in the air to put up Bay 3-0! pic.twitter.com/p3fse7BzZs
Because of that, look for Collins to keep playing a big role in this setup going forward. With her positional versatility as both a full back and centre back, she’s proven to be a good fit to play in this fluid system, and for good reason.
Certainly, CanWNT head coach Casey Stoney will be watching this development with earnest. She recently deployed Collins as a left back in Canada’s three most recent matches, which might be Collins’s best shot at earning minutes in the Canadian set-up with the presence of the likes of Jayde Riviere, Janine Sonis and Ashley Lawrence at right back.
At left back, she can compete for minutes with Gabrielle Carle, who has been excellent for the Washington Spirit over the last few seasons, in a bit of a platoon.
Given that there are some similarities with Collins’ recent deployment and how Carle has played for a Spirit side that likes to hold possession, as Carle has had to do a lot of ball progression from deeper areas for her team, that’s no small detail, one that allows Stoney to deploy both similarly in a Canadian shirt.
Since Stoney’s arrival with the CanWNT, she’s often pushed her side to build up in an asymmetrical back three in possession, one that usually asks a full back or midfielder to drop in possession. With Riviere, Sonis and Lawrence all being aggressive, overlapping full backs, they’d be likely pushed to get up the field on that side, leaving Carle or Collins to drop in a little deeper on the left, which would suit both of them.
Because of that, don’t be surprised if Collins is deployed similarly to how she has been for Bay FC in Canada’s upcoming games, just on the left instead of the right, especially if she continues to put in solid performances for a resurgent Bay FC side.
Certainly, this tactical flexibility can only help her chances of earning more significant minutes for Canada, helping her return to the heights she had started to hit in 2023 before a horrific run of injuries derailed her positive momentum.
