In a lucky twist of scheduling, Sunday’s NWSL slate featured each of the three teams still in contention for the Shield competing. Top side Gotham FC did nearly enough on their end to clinch the trophy with a win at Orlando Pride, but second-place San Diego Wave forced the issue to Decision Day next week with a draw against the Boston Legacy. The Kansas City Current played spoiler for the Washington Spirit, who fell out of Shield contention after losing in Missouri.
The day’s matches started on the east coast, where Gotham visited Orlando in hopes of rebounding from last week’s loss to Washington. The game wasn’t as star-studded as it could have been. For Orlando, Barbra Banda was unable to play due to U.S. travel restrictions. Solai Washington and Marta did their best to make up for Banda’s absence, but several monster plays by Gotham keeper Ann-Katrin Berger made Orlando sorely miss Banda’s finishing prowess. Jaedyn Shaw and Rose Lavelle were both injury scratches for Gotham, which is still adjusting to Jordynn Dudley’s season-ending injury. Gotham’s striker, Sam Kerr, was isolated without Shaw and Dudley to play off of.
It was Midge Purce, playing as a winger, who got on the board first, heading in a brilliant cross from Guro Reiten. Gotham’s captain, center back Tierna Davidson, doubled the lead in the second half by nailing in the ball after Jaelin Howell’s header glanced off the crossbar. Washington, Orlando’s rookie, hit back with a snipe of a shot to halve the deficit, but ultimately Gotham was able to hang on to the lead for all three points.
Attention then moved to the Midwest, where the Spirit had a tall task visiting the Current, who entered the match with a 31-game regular season unbeaten streak at home. The match quickly derailed into a chaos-fest in the 13th minute, when Kansas City’s routine attempt to play out of the back was disrupted by Washington striker Clara Luvanga. She made the most of a heavy touch by keeper Lorena and made no mistake putting it in the back of the net.
Kansas City seem to feed off of being scored on, and sure enough, in less than two minutes, Lo’eau LaBonta’s shot on the other end of the pitch deflected off Esme Morgan and went in for the equalizer.
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The winning goal came just a few minutes later. Spirit keeper Sandy MacIver was stripped of the ball by Kansas City striker Haley Hopkins. Hopkins passed it to former Spirit player Croix Bethune, who then served it up for Vanessa DiBernardo to send it home. It was Bethune’s 11th assist of the season, earning her the record for most assists in a season. On the same play, Hal Hershfelt went down with what looked to be a non-contact injury and exited the game. Hershfelt has been vital for the Spirit, and losing her for the playoffs would be challenging.
The match ended in a 2-1 win for Kansas City, which removed any possibility Washington would win the Shield.
San Diego hosted the day’s finale, where a scrappy Boston team was poised to play spoiler; the Legacy had defeated the Utah Royals, Washington, and the Portland Thorns within the last two months. In the first half, San Diego dictated the tempo and created a great many excellent chances. But the teams went into halftime with goose eggs on the board.
It was Boston who opened the second half with a bang. Boston deployed a short corner to Sarah Schupansky, who sent a crafty cross to Aissata Traoré. Traoré flicked it on, and while keeper Sandra Paños was smart to it, Annie Karich knocked the rebound home.
San Diego stung back just three minutes later on a counterattack in which Melanie Barcenas engineered a strike for Gia Corley. From there, it barely took any time at all for San Diego to take the lead. They patiently worked the ball around Boston’s defensive shape and captain Kenza Dali got a low cross off toward Trinity Byars. However, it was defender Laís Araújo’s foot that ultimately pushed the ball into the net, resulting in an own goal on the scoresheet.
But Boston wasn’t done yet. Alba Caño — fresh off a long-term contract extension with the expansion side — spurned her defender well outside San Diego’s box and launched a screamer into the top corner. San Diego managed to stem any further goals from Boston, but they didn’t find a winner either, making their fight for the Shield on Sunday more difficult.
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Decision Day outlook
The weekend’s results mean that every single match on Decision Day will have playoff seeding implications. At the top of the table, Gotham can beat or draw Utah to guarantee the Shield, or can hope that Bay FC defeats or draws San Diego. If San Diego wins and Gotham loses — a very real possibility — San Diego will pull level with Gotham and points and, because of tiebreakers, take the Shield.
The first tiebreaker is goal differential, and as it stands, Gotham has a higher goal differential than San Diego by just one, so San Diego beating Bay by two or more goals would do the job there. But even if San Diego beats Bay by just one goal and finishes with the same goal differential as Gotham, they would still clinch the Shield; the next tiebreaker is total wins, and right now Gotham and San Diego both stand at 17 wins on the season.
Neither third-place Washington nor fourth-place Kansas City have clinched top-four status, which would guarantee a home quarterfinal. However, they’ve clearly pleased whatever powers on high set the schedule, since they each play the teams at the bottom of the league. Washington will host the Chicago Stars and Kansas City will travel to Racing Louisville. Nipping at their heels is Angel City, who will host Boston.
In the middle of the table, there’s a three-way race for the last available playoff spot. Seattle currently sits above the line and would clinch their spot with a win, but they’ll be facing Orlando — the same team they played on last year’s Decision Day. There’s a good chance Banda will be back for Orlando, too, which should have a Maddie Dahlien-less Seattle shaking in their boots.
Vying for Seattle’s slot above the line are North Carolina Courage and Denver Summit, who, in a narratively satisfying coincidence, play each other on Sunday. If Seattle loses to Orlando, North Carolina would qualify over them with a win. A win for Denver would likely do the job, too; they’d be tied on points with the Reign but have a significantly higher goal differential. A Seattle draw would put the line out of reach for Denver, but a win for North Carolina would likely do the job, due to goal differential again. Should the Courage vs. Summit game end in a draw, Seattle will clinch a playoff spot.
All eight matches on Sunday will kick off at 5 p.m. ET.
