Hurtling toward the NWSL playoffs, Orlando breaks through

The Kansas City Current secured a playoff spot in Week 18, a top-two finish in Week 20 and the Shield in Week 21. The Current’s season has been simply astounding. With a club-record 18 wins, they’ve matched the NWSL record, and it’s one they’re likely to break. They have not dropped a game at home. Their current unbeaten run is 15 straight matches.

And, of course, there’s the brilliant Temwa Chawinga, who now leads the Golden Boot race with 14 goals, the latest coming in a 4-1 rout of the Chicago Stars on Friday night.

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Which brings us to the Stars, the first team in the NWSL formally eliminated from the playoffs. The Stars have certainly been through a lot this season, with the coaching carousel and Mallory Swanson off on maternity leave. Hopefully the team’s new scenery at Northwestern University and new coach in Martin Sjogren will turn things around.

In the thick of the standings is the league’s defending champions, the Orlando Pride, who sit in fifth place at 9-8-5 with 32 points after a much-needed 2-1 win over the San Diego Wave on the road. (The Pride were in fourth for part of the weekend, but the Seattle Reign’s 2-1 win over the Courage moved them down a spot.)

Carson Pickett scored the game-winner in the 54th minute to snap a nine-match winless streak for Orlando. The Pride hadn’t won since June 13th.

Lizbeth Ovalle scored the other goal, her first since signing for the Pride for a league-record $1.5 million transfer fee in August. 

“I mean, it means everything. We have worked day in, day out. We’ve never turned on each other. We’ve stayed strong and we have done everything we possibly can to try and get results and it hasn’t fallen our way. I feel like we’ve been a bit unlucky,” Picket said. “So, yeah, it was a big sigh of relief when we won and the final was a blue. I think everyone just like, okay, it’s like, let’s go, we’re going to finish this strong.”

For now at least, the defending champs have home field advantage in the playoffs. And Ovalle’s goal may mean that she’s becoming more comfortable with the Pride at a crucial time as they head down the final stretch.

Coach Seb Hines echoed Pickett with his own victory-boosted confidence.

“We’ve been dying for three points so long. We’ve had some really good results and it’s come down to fine margins, even tonight, San Diego cleared one off the line and would have given us breathing space, but listen, I can’t say enough good things about the team. They stuck to the plan. They trusted the process, they were all together in the sense of wanting to get the three points. And tonight really showed that resilience.”

“Even towards the end, we’ve got a foundation of winning 2-1, players throwing their bodies on the line, doing their most to keep the ball out of the net so San Diego doesn’t score that equalizer,” Hines continued. “I’m really proud of them, to really step up. In this stage of the season, when you’re not getting the results that you deserve, it’s easy to back down. But this team’s built different and I’m really pleased for them for what they’ve done as a group. Hopefully this will be a stepping stone for us to go on and get more wins moving into last couple of games of the season.“

But Orlando is also in the thick of the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, which means they have two extra games to play between now and the end of the season, the first on Tuesday in Mexico City against Club America.

“It’s a challenge for us with a quick turnaround and the travel along the way,” Hines admitted. “But with this group, they’re very much together. Some players, they may have to play this game tonight and then the game on Tuesday, but you want to be playing games. This is why we love football. We don’t want to just train — we want to play games, we want to win football matches, we want to progress in this competition. So, like I said, there will be some rotation, but everyone knows the direction that we want to go in and that is to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup.”

LINKS

The Athletic: NWSL expansion process is a “blessing and curse”

Jeff Kassouf with a story on Alex Morgan post-retirement

Glossy: NWSL and soccer’s fashion partnerships

Olympics.com with a nice story on Lo LaBonta

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Cheryl Reeve invests in the Minnesota Aurora

78 percent of women in football have faced discrimination

The Afghan refugee team will make its debut next month

Bonmati wins her third straight Ballon d’Or

The BBC asks if Arsenal have already blown it

The Guardian’s WSL roundup

Chelsea women’s player rankings, Thompson’s first start