NWSL Review | Matchweek 9
Are the KC Current favourites now to win the NWSL Shield? Plus, there were important wins for San Diego Wave and Portland Thorns, while Washington Spirit salvaged a point late on in dramatic fashion.
A lot of 1-0’s this week in the NWSL, but still plenty of drama even if most of it came from Audi Field with Washington Spirit and Utah Royals providing many goals in the first half and some late chaos as well to go with it.
Also, it was a massively important victory for Kansas City Current who give themselves a bit of space at the top of the NWSL standings and made Orlando Pride drop down below San Diego Wave, who extended their unbeaten run as did the Portland Thorns.
Every matchweek, we will provide you with a recap of the weekend’s action from the National Women’s Soccer League, reviewing some of the match details and talking points that happened.
Gotham FC 0-1 San Diego Wave
San Diego made it four wins from their last five games this weekend with a victory in this one over Gotham FC. The Wave dominated possession but had fewer shots than Gotham FC and still found a way to win the game.
Gotham had dominated the early portion of the game, testing Kailen Sheridan in the Wave’s goal, but they weren’t able to score and then it was when the game reached the half-hour mark that Jonas Eidevall’s side took the lead through Kimmi Ascanio, with the 17-year-old netting her third goal of the season, continuing to impress in her second season with the club.
Into the final few moments, and the away side had a few chances when it came to trying to double their lead, but they couldn’t increase it. The second half was very even between the two sides with not much happening until the last ten minutes when Gotham were searching for the equaliser with chances for Ella Stevens and Sarah Schupansky but neither were able to find the back of the net meaning San Diego held on for all the points and move up to second in the standings.
For Gotham, it’s back-to-back defeats and they from being right up the table a few weeks ago, they have now fallen to 8th place now with more losses than wins or draws after ten games.
Orlando Pride 0-1 Kansas City Current
Kansas City continued to show why they are the team to beat this season as they got their seventh win of the season, beating the 2024 champions Orlando Pride at the Inter & Co Stadium.
Within the opening minutes, Orlando had three chances on their behalf with Barbra Banda having two of those, but the Current defence were resilient in holding off the Zambian forward. It had been all Orlando’s way in the opening 15 minutes, but the Current started to grow into the match as it went on, with the likes of Debinha and Temwa Chawinga having half-chances to put them ahead.
As the game went on, it was clear to see why these two sides were the best last season and so far this year in a very close battle with neither team finding that crucial breakthrough. It took until the 52nd minute for the deadlock to be broken when Temwa Chawinga scored past Anna Moorhouse to make it goals in back-to-back games for last season’s MVP. Despite the victory, there were some injury concerns for the Current as Alana Cook, Chawinga and Debinha all were replaced due to injuries.
The Current are four points clear in top spot now as they look to win the NWSL Shield, while Orlando Pride have a run of games now against those in the lower half of the table, which on paper you would think provides them the opportunity to go on a run of form.
Houston Dash 1-4 Portland Thorns
Portland Thorns have continued their impressive season after a comfortable 4-1 victory over Houston Dash. For a lot of it, the game was all one-way traffic in the first half, with the Thorns scoring three of their four goals in that first 45 minutes.
Rookie Pietra Tordin opened the scoring with a left-footed shot and then it wasfour minutes later where they doubled their lead, this time Payton Linnehan scoring her first goal of the season. The result felt sealed in the first half when Reyna Reyes was fouled by Christen Westphal and Sam Coffey stepped up to slot the ball home from the penalty spot late in added time.
It took nine minutes in the second half for Rob Gale’s side to add the fourth goal of the game, with rookie Caiya Hanks getting her second goal of the season. In the 75th minute, the Dash got a consolation goal when Sam Hiatt put the ball into her own net, but it was too little, too late for Houston who suffered a bad defeat this weekend.
Portland rise to fourth in the league and keep up the unbeaten run they find themselves on currently and perhaps they could be aiming even higher the more this continues.
Racing Louisville 0-1 Seattle Reign
Football is a game about taking the chances you get and Seattle Reign did just that in Louisville when the two teams eventually managed to play their game this weekend. The game was rescheduled from Friday night due to adverse weather and then played on Saturday, but when they did get to playing, the game was dominated by the home side.
Racing Louisville ended up having 20 shots in the game compared to just four shots for Seattle. However, Racing Louisville only managed to get one of their shots on target compared to the three efforts on target for the Reign, with one of them being the crucial one by Maddie Dahlien, who scored just before half-time with the rookie netting her second goal of the season after a quick attack by Seattle.
Racing Louisville continued to dominate in the second half, but with their chances not testing Claudia Dickey in the Seattle goal, it ended up being rather costly and they then went and lost the match and have slipped down to 11th place. It was a massive missed opportunity for them to go up into the playoff places with a win.
Seattle’s win means that they go back up the standings and despite defeat last week, they have picked up a couple of good wins by small margins this season, having scored just one goal in out of four of their last five games.
North Carolina Courage 2-0 Chicago Stars
North Carolina Courage made it three wins in their last four games with a victory over a struggling Chicago Stars. Manaka Matsukubo scored a brace for Sean Nahas’ side in the second half to seal the win for the Courage in what was a close encounter between the two sides.
Matsukubo had two early chances to score within the opening minutes of the game, but the 20-year-old saw her attempts saved by Alyssa Naeher. After that, it was a very even first half with both sides testing the keepers but neither side was able to score. Matsukubo did get her first just six minutes into the second half after a through ball from Denise O’Sullivan found her.
The Stars nearly levelled straight away, but Ludmila saw her attempt saved well by Casey Murphy. The second goal for the Courage came with just under 15 minutes left, and it was substitute Shinomi Koyama who set up her Japanese team-mate Matsukubo for the goal.
The win for North Carolina is their third this season as they go up to ninth in the standings. Chicago’s bad run only continues on, and it’s hard to see it turning around spectacularly any time soon.
Washington Spirit 3-3 Utah Royals
It wouldn’t be the NWSL if we didn’t have one crazy game across the weekend and that was the case for this one. A game that saw 38 shots, six goals, one of those being an own goal and another being a late one in the 102nd minute. This was peak NWSL drama at its finest.
Utah Royals entered the match having won only once this season, but they took a shock lead inside ten minutes when Brecken Mozingo’s right-footed shot got past Aubrey Kingsbury. However, their lead lasted less than ten minutes as Ashley Hatch drew the Spirit level with a goal, and then moments later, the game had been flipped on its head as the Spirit’s Meg Boade scored her first NWSL goal. Then the drama continued as two minutes later, Cece Kizer drew Utah level with a goal into the bottom right corner.
Ten minutes were left before half-time when Utah Royals retook the lead; this time it was Washington’s Rebeca Bernal who put the ball in her own net. Hatch was at it again as she nearly drew the Spirit level straight away, but her header went too high. That was all just in the first half.
In the second half, Washington kept searching for the leveller with the likes of Croix Bethune and Gift Monday having chances. But then in the 88th minute, the hosts were awarded a penalty after Janni Thomsen fouled Casey Krueger, but Ashley Hatch had her penalty saved by Mandy McGlynn. In that moment it seemed Washington were on for a loss, until they kept at it with the large amounts of added time. And in the 12th minute of 13 that were added on, Casey Krueger managed to head home from a Tara McKeown cross to draw the Spirit level.
Absolute chaos and Washington Spirit could almost be considered the league’s entertainers given some of the games they have been involved in lately. However, having dropped to fifth now they will have to improve defensively if they are to aim higher. Utah Royals not being able to hold on for a massive win means they stay 13th.
Bay FC 2-0 Angel City FC
Bay FC caused the upset of the weekend by beating Angel City at PayPal Park. Two first-half goals gave the hosts their third win of the season and gave Angel City their third defeat of the campaign after they had been starting very well.
The away side had the opening few opportunities with M.A. Vignola and Alyssa Thompson both missing the target. The hosts though took the lead after 23 minutes when Penelope Hocking’s right right-footed shot from the left side of the box went into the top right corner.
Moments later, they were awarded a penalty after Angelina Anderson fouled Taylor Huff. Caroline Conti stepped up and scored the penalty past Anderson for her second goal of the season, and as the game went on the away side were looking for a way back into this game with chances for Riley Tiernan and Alyssa Thompson again had an effort, but the hosts were solid at the back and every single on of their wins this season has been accompanied with a clean sheet. The result takes them 10th, while Angel City drop to 7th.
Away from the game, there was some positive news from Angel City this weekend regarding defender Savy King, who posted on social media after having heart surgery when she collapsed on the field last weekend, and now she is recovering at home with her family. We wish her all the best in her recovery and hopefully we all get to see her return to the pitch in the future.
