On Saturday, Sept. 25, the Portland Thorns were one win away from clinching their spot in the NWSL playoffs. All they had to do was beat the Chicago Red Stars; a team that hadn’t won against Portland in 18 straight matches. Chicago won with a dominant 2-1 result, as Portland looked lethargic coming out of the international break. Then Thursday happened.
The North Carolina Courage fired head coach Paul Riley. This came after allegations from former Riley-coached players Sinead Farrelly and Meleana Shim were released to the public, in an article from The Athletic. Harassment through verbal, mental and emotional means; on top of sexual coercion.
Accounts from Farrelly and Shim prompted every team to come to their public support, posting messages across social media. As of publishing, the weekend NWSL matches will continue. With that said, each week, Beyond Women’s Sports will share the state of NWSL playoff contention. Here are where the teams sit with only a handful of matches remaining in the regular season.
Gotham’s Rise
The first match of the weekend had Gotham FC, currently out of one of the six playoff positions, taking on the North Carolina Courage. Gotham came out of the gate in trouble, getting two yellow cards in the first 18 minutes. It got even worse when Courage midfielder Angharad James scored in the 20th minute.
Gotham fought back, thanks to a Carli Lloyd penalty kick and the return of winger Margaret Purce. Head coach Scott Parkinson’s side went into halftime up 2-1 and added a third to win 3-1. Not only did the three points keep Gotham in the race, but it was the first time they scored more than two goals in a match in nine games. Gotham still has the most matches to play, with six remaining, and get ninth place Racing Louisville FC on Friday. Of their remaining six, three are against teams currently outside of the top six.
If Gotham remains healthy, and gets into a good goal scoring rhythm, it won’t be a surprise to see them competing past the regular season.
Washington’s On-Field Success
The Washington Spirit have had a difficult season, off the field. On Tuesday, the league announced an update in their investigation into former head coach Richie Burke. The fired coach cannot work with any NWSL players in the future, and the team is banned from league governance. In other words, they can’t vote on league changes, or join league conversations, until the ban is lifted. This all stemmed from harassment towards players from Burke and the former coaching staff of the Spirit.
On top of that, the Spirit had to forfeit two straight matches, due to violating league medical protocol. Even with two 0-3 forfeits against the Thorns and OL Reign, Washington was still in the top six. For all their off-field issues, they’ve come away with on-field results, when they actually play.
Over the weekend, Washington beat Kansas City NWSL 2-1. It was 1-1 at halftime, thanks to a late penalty kick by midfielder Andi Sullivan. Off the second half kickoff, Spirit’s Tara McKeown fought through the Kansas City defense and scored the game-winner. It was a great showing of individual effort that keeps Washington in the final playoff spot.
Other Notes
The other two matches of the weekend saw OL Reign and Houston Dash win convincingly. OL defeated the Orlando Pride 3-0, which pushes the Pride down to fifth place.
Houston put four past Racing Louisville, winning 4-0. The Dash sit in seventh place, due to Washington having a better record head-to-head against Houston. Goal differential isn’t the top tiebreaker in the NWSL, like it is in other leagues.
This Weekend
There are two weekend matches to pay close attention to in the race for the NWSL playoffs:
- Courage v Spirit – Friday, Oct. 1
With Houston gaining momentum, the Spirit must keep pace. That’ll be tough to do against the Courage, even with the change of coach. A change to interim coach Sean Nahas doesn’t mean their roster with stars like Debinha or Jess McDonald forgot how to compete. It’s a dangerous squad because of the players on the field. North Carolina have two straight losses but haven’t lost three in a row in their five years as a franchise.
- Red Stars v Pride – Saturday, Oct. 2
Chicago and Orlando are flipped positions this week, with the Red Stars victory bumping them ahead of the Pride. Orlando lost big to the Reign but haven’t lost two matches in a row since July. The last time these two sides met, Chicago lost 2-0, in Chicago. However, the Red Stars are on a five-match unbeaten streak.
Also, the league’s fiercest rivalry, and first versus second place, happens Sunday night. OL Reign travels to Portland’s Providence Park for NWSL after dark action. If OL Reign wins, they’ll move into first place, but they’ll still have one less match to play than their rivals.
Follow Beyond Women’s Sports for more from the NWSL, in the lead up to the NWSL Playoffs. Thomas Costello is on Twitter too. Follow him at @1ThomasCostello.
