The final is set: The Washington Spirit will face Gotham on Saturday in the NWSL championship at PayPal Park in San Jose.
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The Spirit earned their second consecutive trip to the championship with a 2-0 victory over the Portland Thorns on Saturday. Gift Monday tapped in the goal after Rosemounde Kouassi’s downfield sprint for the first-half lead, then Croix Bethune deftly got around goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold and scored into the empty net for the second-half dagger.
Afterward, Bethune was asked whether she wanted to face Gotham or the Pride, playing the next day, in the semifinals.
“Whoever is scared to play us,” Bethune said.
While heartbreaking for the Thorns, it felt like a deserving final match of the year for the Spirit and the fans at Rowdy Audi, given the turbulence in the Washington D.C. area this year. From the DOGE cuts to the National Guard occupation to the government shutdown, it has been a rough for the region known as the DMV (For District, Maryland and Virginia).
Esme Morgan referenced it after the match.
“We all love this city so much and we feel the passion that the people from the DMV have for this place and this team that represents them,” she said. “And so obviously it’s been a difficult year for the area. So much has happened, and I fell like we feel a responsibility as the Spirit to bring joy to people and be an event that people can look forward to. It does feel like such a community and such a family when you’re in the stands, everyone’s just pulling together as one. You feel the love from the stands when you’re on the pitch, and we try to throw that back with the heart that we play with, with our celebrations, with engaging with the fans.”
Sunday’s semifinal match between the Pride and eighth-seeded Gotham was a thriller with Jaedyn Shaw scoring on a direct free kick in the 97th minute of stoppage time. Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger made made an acrobatic save at the death to preserve the victory.
What a redemption story for Shaw, who memorably said “Underdog, my ass!” after beating the top-seeded Kansas City Current in the quarterfinals. Moments after the victory Sunday, Gotham was selling merch with the phrase.
“I mean, this team is so gritty,” Shaw said. “This team fights to the very end. This team fights for each other. And it’s contagious. I mean, I love this team so much, and I would literally do anything on the field to get the points at the end of the day. I’m just so happy to be going to the finals.”
Amid the celebrations, and the tears for the teams headed home, there was a bittersweet aspect to the last game of 2025 at Audi Field. It might be Trinity Rodman’s last in DC wearing a Spirit jersey.
While she hasn’t revealed her future plans – obviously she’s got another game left with the Spirit – there’s rampant speculation because she’s a free agent.
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“Once we get this championship, then I can start making decisions and figuring out what next year looks like for me,” she told reporters after the game.
The Athletic reported that at least three European teams have expressed interest in Rodman, and there’s no doubt that the Spirit want to keep here. But just like when players like Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson bolted for Europe, scrutiny has fallen on the league’s salary cap.
The cap is likely to draw even more attention as other players draw interest from abroad, like Sam Coffey, who reportedly rebuffed an offer from Chelsea earlier this year. And there’s Sophia Wilson, a free agent when she returns from maternity leave.
There are pros and cons to a salary cap. The main advantage is that caps help maintain competitive balance: The NBA adopted the salary cap ahead of the 1984-85 season to allow smaller market teams to compete with deep-pocketed owners who had the ability to create “super teams.”
The disadvantage is that other leagues can lure away players with big contracts. This is especially true of many of the WSL clubs who are tied to rich Premier League teams.
There could be a few solutions without totally giving up on a cap, which is currently $3.5 million per team for the 2026 season. One is to increase the cap, obviously.
The other is to create a sort of designated player rule, that allows certain exemptions. Other pro leagues have generally figured out all kinds of special rules to get around salary caps. The NWSL essentially had something akin to designated players in the early years when the federations paid the salaries of the national team stars, who were distributed throughout the league.
The NWSLPA would have to sign off on any changes to the cap.
CANADA INVESTS
While the U.S. audiences were focused on the NWSL semifinals, the first Northern Super League championship team was crowned in Toronto on Saturday.
The Vancouver Rise defeated AFC Toronto 2-1 before 12,429 at BMO Field to conclude the NSL’s inaugural season. The Rise opened the season with a 1-0 win over Calgary back in April at BC Place.
Before the game, the Canadian government pledged up to $5.45 million Canadian to help grow the league. The new funding will deliver “transformative upgrades for facilities used by the league,” with the aim of advancing NSL growth and spurring regional economic development.
“At the NSL, we’re focused on building pathways that turn dreams into reality and fuel the growth of the women’s sport industry in Canada. We’re proud to build alongside partners like the government of Canada who share that vision,” NSL founder and former Canadian national team player Diana Matheson said. “Sport has an important role to play as we invest in Canada’s future — and women’s sport, one of the fastest-growing areas in the country, is proud to invest and build in communities across the country.”
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LINKS
Not going to comment much on this because I don’t want to give it oxygen, and any reader of Soccer Monday knows I’m all about inclusion for all, but Kareligh Webb wrote for Outsports about Jennifer Sey’s ridiculous offer. To state the obvious: Anyone who takes her up on this obviously doesn’t care about their soccer career, because doing this would kill it.
Some folks can have everything they could possibly need in life, but when they find that all of it doesn’t resolve their deep unhappiness, they just find someone to scapegoat or be angry about.
Atlanta gets the NWSL’s 17th team, to kickoff in 2028.
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Marta and the honestly funny “average athlete” controversy
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