Week five of the NWSL regular season wrapped up over the weekend, and The IX Sports Podcast is here to get you caught up on the action. Host Kathleen Gier talks through the current standings, recaps Sophia Wilson and Trinity Rodman’s first goals of the season, and discusses the ongoing 2025–26 UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) semi-finals.
First, Gier detailed Wilson’s first goal of the season, and the road she took to get there:
“[Wilson] has played all six games for Portland since returning from maternity leave, but had not scored yet for the Thorns,” Gier explained. “She knocked in the game winner this week, actually, as the Thorns beat Angel City, and she just looked so happy. I really enjoyed watching the highlight there, I know that Trinity Rodman recorded her reaction, which was a lot of fun. And I just think there are so many people rooting for her in this comeback. And obviously it looks like she is having a great time taking [her daughter Gigi] on the road. It looks like the U.S. women’s national team really enjoyed having both of them back as well. So another great sign in her progression back to the pitch.”
Then, she discussed the Utah Royal’s 3-0 win over Seattle on the road, which happened on Sunday. Utah has finally started to pick up wins after sputtering out their first three games:
“Players are getting healthy, players are seeing the pitch,” Gier said. “Finally, their offseason trade seem to be working, especially that one with Narumi. And you know, you can’t argue with the wins. This is a season where, at least from the start, wins are at a premium. There is a lot of congestion in the standings right now, and for them to get off to this kind of hot start, even if they drop those first couple is just hopefully a really good sign that they’re here and they’re going to be able to compete on kind of a different level than we’ve seen them the last few years.”
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Finally, Gier recapped the UWCL semi-finals, and previewed the remaining rounds in the knockout phase:
“Arsenal beat Lyon 2-1, and Bayern drew with Barcelona, 1-1. The first might have honestly been more of a loss by Lyon than a win by Arsenal, they benefited from an own goal equalizer and then a failed clearance on the winning goal,” Gier said. “Again, maybe they caught a little bit of that NWSL weirdness, but I think [the Lyon-Arsenal match-up] is going to be much more difficult as they transition and go over to France for that second leg. [Arsenal] will play on May 2 for a chance to advance to the title [game] and continue their Champions League reign … Bayern was just the second team to deny Barcelona a win in Champions League this season. There was a huge jump for Bayern, they fell 7-1 in their last meeting with Barcelona.”
“The Champions League final will be held on May 23 in Oslo, so they’ll get about a month before that match … obviously a couple of U.S. women’s national team players still in the running over there, mostly Lyon at this point, although Arsenal does have a couple players as well, so lots to stay invested in. Definitely worth watching both of those games. I think they will be super competitive this weekend, and I am definitely looking forward to the final. I started following the league a lot more last year, and they’re just so many incredible players over there that it’s a lot of fun to watch, and it’s just enough different from the NWSL that it is kind of a little treat on the weekends, at least for me,” she continued.
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