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My ears are still ringing from the crowd at Audi Field amidst a great weekend for women’s soccer. Emily Olsen here to sort through the NWSL quarterfinals — welcome to Full Time!
We also recommend you listen to “Full Time Review,” where we recap the weekend’s NWSL action in 15 minutes or less every Monday.
NWSL Semifinals Are Set
The top four are still dominating
For more than half the regular season, the top four teams in the NWSL have been set. Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit, Gotham FC and Kansas City Current weaved about the top four spots from week 12 through the end of the season — with the final order going unchanged since week 19 of the 26-week regular season.
Any hope of the status quo shifting in the playoffs disappeared Sunday night when the Spirit and Gotham joined the Pride and Current in the final four of the NWSL playoffs. This year, we’ve questioned the presence of parity in this league, something that has previously been a key characteristic of the NWSL, but the results this weekend don’t necessarily prove parity is gone. It’s just different.
Only Orlando recorded an emphatic win in the quarterfinals as Barbra Banda got back to her scoring ways with two goals on Friday, leading the Pride to a 4-1 win over the Chicago Red Stars.
The other semifinalists had to weather their opponents and push through nervy moments:
- Holding a narrow 1-0 lead thanks to Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga, the Current nearly conceded an equalizer in the 33rd minute when Courage forward Manaka Matsukubo tapped in a deflected shot. The referee quickly ruled that goalkeeper Almuth Schult had five fingers on the ball, giving her possession and nullifying the goal. KC bunkered after that.
- The Spirit needed a wake-up call in the form of an 82nd-minute goal from Bay FC’s Asisat Oshoala to get its attack going. (After the game, Spirit players said they never doubted they’d come back, but the goal that kept them in contention came from an unlikely source.) Center back Tara McKeown, who was playing as a forward the last time the Spirit hosted a playoff game in 2021, found a lane four minutes later to level the score. It was her first goal of the season.
- Gotham closed out the night with a late winner after Thorns substitute Reilyn Turner equalized in the 75th minute. It took a 97th-minute game winner from Rose Lavelle to keep the top four intact.
The Spirit will host Gotham at Audi Field on Saturday, Nov. 16, at noon ET (on CBS), while NWSL Shield winner Orlando hosts the Current on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 3 p.m. ET (on ABC).
👀 What a stat: A sellout crowd of 19,251 watched the Spirit outlast Bay FC on Sunday at Audi Field. Washington last hosted a playoff game Nov. 7, 2021; the attendance was 5,379. The Spirit went on to win the NWSL championship that year.
What did the players and coaches say?
Banda had 15 goals from 1,830 minutes this season, but she didn’t score in the last five NWSL regular-season games before her brace on Friday. She could have completed a hat trick in the 56th minute when the Pride earned a penalty kick, but she gave the ball to her teammate Marta. The Brazilian legend obviously didn’t miss. After the game, Marta told Amazon she was hoping for a Banda hat trick.
🗣️ “I asked (Banda) if she wanted to take it. I want so bad to see three goals from her, to have the first hat trick for the Pride, but I hope she saves it for the next game.”
It’s no secret that Chawinga can score. Her 20 regular-season tallies for Kansas City earned her the Golden Boot for most goals in the league — a title that possibly comes with some more physical plays from opponents. Current head coach Vlatko Andonoski spoke about his frustration:
🗣️ “It wasn’t just this game. If you look at the season, every game, they’re overly physical against (Chawinga) and it’s not fair. … It’s not fair for Temwa. They’re targeting her. They’re going directly at her. And I just hope that as we go forward, she gets more protection from the referees.”
McKeown’s first goal of the season for the Spirit had a little extra emotion, beyond what comes with postseason stakes. The defender shared that she missed her sister’s wedding the day before to be with the team, a decision that made for a difficult week. The team was there to support McKeown when she needed it too. When asked about her center back partner’s goal, Esme Morgan had this to say:
🗣️ “I had a feeling when she picked it up she was going to score and when she did, I just cried! I was like (emotional), so I thought, ‘I can’t run up to the group, because I don’t want them to all see me crying,’ so I just ran back to my position and thought, ‘Compose yourself and be ready to start again.’”
🥯 A picture says a thousand words, right? After Gotham’s win, Davidson showed up to the postgame news conference in a yellow beanie with the word “bagels” on it, a gift from teammate Emily Sonnett. Apparently, the defender is fond of the classic breakfast food and earned herself a nickname of sorts.
Meg’s Corner: Gotham’s great expectations and a su-Sinc-t farewell
Red Bull Arena provided the energy Sunday to close out the quarterfinals, with 15,540 rowdy fans creating the best NWSL environment I’ve ever experienced in one of the best soccer stadiums in the country.
Gotham was the story of the offseason thanks to all those splashy free-agency signings. And while two of those signings, Davidson and Lavelle, provided the goals to send the team into the semifinals, Davidson was quick to reframe the “super team” tag that got assigned to them before the season started. The super team, for her, was Gotham’s depth of talent, with players like Delanie Sheehan stepping up in big moments.
- MORE: Gotham FC’s first playoff game showed growth on and off the field
Davidson isn’t wrong, but Sunday showed there’s still an increased expectation on this team that won the 2023 championship then swung for the fences on its roster moves trying to defend it.
For the Thorns, it was late heartbreak from the foot of Lavelle — and the final game of Christine Sinclair’s incredible professional career. The New Jersey crowd paid their respects as she subbed off in the 65th minute, the moment outweighing the playoff stakes, just long enough to pay homage.
There was no final trophy to add to the cabinet for Sinc, no underdog run to the final.
“The competitor in me hates losing,” she said after stepping into the tunnel one last time. “So that’s all I feel right now. We played pretty well tonight, hit the post. The game could have gone either way.”
I was there for her last game, waiting in the mixed zone one last time. But the final moment I’ll remember more is her final game in Portland and the way Providence Park erupted — even through the television a thousand miles away — when Sinclair scored her final goal.
🎧 The latest from the “Full Time” podcast: How the top four teams earned spots in the NWSL semifinals.
Hi, My Name Is: Trinity Rodman — but you knew that
OK, so this may not be an introduction to Trinity Rodman, seeing as the 22-year-old has been in the spotlight since her rookie of the year season with the Spirit in 2021.
And if you somehow missed her in the league, you’ve surely seen her on the international stage, including being one shot of “Triple Espresso” at this summer’s Paris Olympics:
THE USWNT IS OFF AND RUNNING. 🇺🇸
Trinity Rodman with a tidy turn and finish to open the scoring against Zambia! #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/yyorSnoMSD
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 25, 2024
But players rarely get to introduce themselves in their own words, which is exactly what Rodman did when she sat down with The Athletic ahead of Washington’s quarterfinal match. The goal scorer discussed why emotion is such a crucial part of her game, how she sees herself as an entertainer and, of course, what goes into a “Trin Spin,” which The Washington Post also broke down.
“It’s a balance because, for me, I think the emotional part of my game makes me entertaining, and I think it makes me Trinity,” she said. “I don’t ever want that to change. I don’t want to be a robot ever.”
You can read the full interview here.
Full Time First Looks
Se Acabó: A new Netflix documentary called “#SeAcabó: Diario de las campeonas” (“It’s All Over: The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football”) details the fallout from the disgraced tenure of former Spanish FA President Luis Rubiales, including the unsolicited kiss he gave to national team forward Jenni Hermoso after the team’s World Cup win. While the English-translated title doesn’t exactly capture the full documentary, The Athletic’s Laia Cervelló Herrero dives deep into Netflix’s coverage of the story she helped tell last year.
Smooth transition: Ali Krieger spoke to the Philadelphia Inquirer before the weekend to preview the NWSL playoffs, but more importantly, to talk about her transition from player to commentator as she navigates life a year on from winning the NWSL championship with Gotham.
It takes two: It took Khadija Shaw 20 seconds to score in Manchester City’s game against Tottenham this weekend. While the first goal was all her own, the next two, and another from Jill Roord, were orchestrated by Lauren Hemp. The Athletic’s Charlotte Harpur explains why Shaw and Hemp’s partnership is crucial to Man City’s title hopes.
From the heart: Former England international Steph Houghton is speaking from her heart in her new book. In it, Houghton talks about her role as an off-field leader, including her negotiations with the Football Association over contracts and bonuses.
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You can buy tickets to every NWSL game here.
(Top photo: Russell Lansford / Imagn Images)
