GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Last month, I lay in bed in Sweden with my computer tuned to the inaugural championship game of the National Women’s Soccer League. It was 2 a.m., and through sleepy eyes I watched the starting lineups walk out in Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester. I couldn’t help but reminisce about my last professional game in the United States — played in that same stadium — the 2011 championship game of Women’s Professional Soccer.

As the Portland Thorns celebrated the championship, I watched on the screen from a different place — literally (across the world in Europe) and mentally — than when I celebrated on that field in 2011 with the Western New York Flash. Since then, I have played for three different clubs: one in Russia, a W-League team in New Jersey and now for Kopparbergs/Goteborg in Sweden. All of a sudden, the new American league seemed foreign to me.

As an outside observer, the coverage of the N.W.S.L. has been excellent. The games have all been available for me to follow, although I have only caught a handful because of the time difference. As much as I do know about the league, I’ve realized there are a lot of areas in which I am out of the loop. Many of the players I know well and have played with over the years, but there were also some unfamiliar faces. Since I played in the U.S., there are also two new franchises — the Thorns and the Seattle Reign.

Playing in W.P.S. was my first professional experience, so I didn’t have much with which to compare. Now, as a slightly more experienced professional, my observations of the N.W.S.L. are influenced by my feel for European women’s soccer and how the game is growing globally, in addition to in the U.S.