© Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images
The National Women’s Soccer League Championship is set and it will be an East Coast rivalry affair between the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC. Someone will emerge as a two-time NWSL champ Saturday evening in San Jose.
Here’s how the clubs shape up after quarterfinal weekend.
Finalists
Washington Spirit; (vs Thorns, 2-0): The game plan was spot on, evidenced by Olivia Moultrie being mostly invisible through the 90 minutes. And when Rose Kouassi got around Kaitlyn Torpey near the touchline to trigger a numbers-up counterattack that Gift Monday finished, it was all but over. The Spirit will be back in the final where they fell short to the Pride a year ago. This time they will be favored, and this time the possibility that Trinity Rodman will sign outside the league this winter hangs over the proceedings.
NJ/NY Gotham FC (@ Pride, 1-0): They’re at it again. Echoing last week’s comment about tinging bells of 2023, Gotham pulled out another unlikely away win and for the second time in three years, will head to California in search of a trophy. When the clock struck 90 minutes in Orlando Sunday, Gotham had yet to register a shot on goal. And then in stoppage time, Rose Lavelle drew a foul just outside the 18 and Jaedyn Shaw buried the free kick. It wasn’t quite over yet though. It took an outrageous save from Ann-Katrin Berger to keep the equalizer out in what turned out to be the final play of the day.
Tales of Woe
Orlando Pride (vs Gotham, 0-1): In the end, it was probably the absence of Barbra Banda that did in the Pride’s bid to repeat as NWSL Champions. They did not dominate Gotham by any means on Sunday but did enough that they shouldn’t have been staring at the end of their season when the full-time whistle blew. Did they have a legitimate gripe about that happening before they were able to send in a corner kick? Probably. But that’s not why they lost. A disappointing end to maybe them most interesting season of any team.
Portland Thorns FC (@ Spirit, 0-2): From the jump on Saturday, it did not go well for the Thorns. The Spirit pressed their back line into submission, took Olivia Moultrie out of the match and were unrelenting for much of the afternoon. What should really gall the Thorns through is they did not allow a goal from any of Washington’s attacking sequences. The first goal was off a Thorns corner and the second one off an attacking third throw-in. That’s a rough way to go out, even if the Spirit are the objectively better side.
Others Making News
Kansas City Current (Vlatko did what?): The Current shook up the NWSL news cycle last week when they announced that Vlatko Andonovski would transition out of his role as head coach and focus on being sporting director. His coaching tenure lasted two years and two trips to the playoffs plus a Shield and Summer Cup trophy. But it will be difficult not to think of the final game, the quarterfinal loss to Gotham that ended one of the most successful seasons NWSL has ever seen, when we think back on these last two seasons. Especially if this iteration of the club never sees a final.
Meanwhile, the Current did not announce a new head coach, so they join the Courage and Bay FC as teams in the market for a head coach. Is it fair to say this will be the most sought after coaching position ever in NWSL?
Denver Summit FC (building the roster): The Summit announced the signing of free agent center back Kaleigh Kurtz from the North Carolin Courage. Kurtz is a solid, steady figure in back and popular in the locker room. Expect her to be a top candidate to be the club’s inaugural captain. She is durable too, and will open her Summit career having played more than 10,000 regular season minutes. The last time the Courage played without Kurtz on the pitch, Paul Riley was still head coach.
North Carolina Courage (tough pills to swallow): Not only did the Courage lose Kaleigh Kurtz in free agency, but they watched Jaedyn Shaw score the goal that sent Gotham to the NWSL Championship. Shaw was the Courage’s — and the NWSL’s — prized offseason move last offseason but the chemistry was not there leading to a trade to Gotham. Compounding matters is that Gotham finished in 8th just a point ahead of the Courage who missed out on the tournament.
