Dear readers, it’s the end to another week in the NWSL, and we have one question answered that we didn’t before. We know who wins the league this season, and it’s the Kansas City Current. This season, the team in teal won the league earlier than the historic Orlando Pride (more of them soon) did, and they haven’t conceded a goal since their first match with Racing Louisville on June 14th. That’s incredibly impressive, and they do not seem to be slowing down on either side of the ball. It will be interesting to see if the Current begin rotating players in hopes of keeping their very deep squad healthy for a playoff run. The Shield is important, and the first major trophy for this version of Kansas City, but they’ll want to win a double to truly be in the “best of all time” conversation by the end of the season. The Current are clearly the favorites, but the playoff race beyond second place is incredibly tight. Let’s get into it, as it looks to be the storyline that will dominate the last five (5) weeks.
#KCBABY IS YOUR 2025 @NWSL SHIELD WINNER 🏆
— KC Current (@kansascitycurrent.bsky.social) September 21, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Rising tides
We’re letting everyone know that we’re a force to be reckoned with pic.twitter.com/2LPX7FWEq9
— Utah Royals FC (@UtahRoyalsFC) September 23, 2025
There are a few teams making a late playoff push that can make the postseason an interesting one. The North Carolina Courage is currently without a permanent coach, and they lost a young superstar in Jaedyn Shaw, but they’ve won two in a row and find themselves in 8th place. This would pit them against Kansas City, but they would go into that match knowing they’re one of the two (2) teams this season to beat the Current, though it was in Cary. They have what many teams trending up have, a star chance creator. Manaka Matsukubo is one of the best players in the league right now, and she is only 21 years old. She is an excellent dribbler that can make a run with the ball at her feet. She makes incredible runs off the ball, and makes late secondary runs that allow her to score rebounds or off crosses in. She can shake her defender, and she can match the physicality of many defenders in the league. She is a complete player at a young age, and she is only going to get better. She alone may not be enough to win it for the Courage, but she is a huge part of why they’ll likely make the postseason. They are not a team I’d want to play in the first round, regardless of their position in the table.
The Houston Dash have yet to play teams at the top of the table, but they’ve taken advantage of a schedule that’s allowed them to get points, and they’ve improved their defensive shape and created enough chances to get results from all but one match in the second half of the season. Yazmeen Ryan has come on as of late for her new club, and the midfield has solidified just in time to play 90 minutes of football. I do still worry a bit about how they’ll score against the DC and KC’s of the world, and their loss to Utah was a gut check moment, but they are right in the mix and have little to lose in the next five (5) weeks. Their road is harder than North Carolina’s, but they have a real shot at the 8th seed.
The team that handed Houston its only defeat of the second half of the season may be the most in form team not named Kansas City. The Utah Royals look damn good despite losing their young star, and they still have a big piece coming in. Their new signing is going to arrive with one or two matches left in the season thanks to our every changing immigration policy, which is a reminder that sports, policy, and politics are always intertwined. Despite this setback, Utah is on a hot streak, with their last loss coming to Kansas City on August 8th, and that was a 1-0 loss where they played the best team in the league very well. Mandy McGlynn has found her form again, the backline is locked in and able to rotate, the midfield moves the ball and breaks up play defensively, and the attack is secretly one of the better ones in the NWSL. The front four of Paige Mongahan, Mina Tanaka, Cloe Lacasse, and Aisha Solorzano is as formidable as any attack in the league and is producing multi goal games for a Royals side that had just one win in the first half of the season. Most of all, they are a fun team to watch. They have the hardest road of the ascending teams, as they currently sit on 18 points with five matches to go. But they also feel like the team least likely to lose the rest of the season, and that may be just enough for them to snag the final playoff spot. If I were Kansas City, they are the team I’d want to see least in the 8th spot. With five (5) weeks to go, anything can change, but right now, I think the top teams are hoping Utah’s hole is too large to dig out of.
Treading water
so savvy sav 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/XTWSTIdNb0
— San Diego Wave FC (@sandiegowavefc) September 21, 2025
There are teams that have risen and fallen throughout the second half of the season that I feel are treading water more than rising or falling. Gotham took a big swing and cut a very large check to bring in Jaedyn Shaw. Their midfield with her, Rose Lavelle, and Jaelin Howell is very fun, and Esther is tied for the Golden Boot with Temwa Chawinga, but there are still questions about their defense and their ability to close out matches against bottom of the table competition. They have drawn with Chicago, Utah, and Bay FC since August, and they face a Portland Thorns team that is tied with them on points this Friday. Gotham has loads of talent, but their depth has been tested a bit this season, and they are in an additional competition. They will likely make the postseason and may host a first-round match, but getting the finals may solely depend on their postseason matchups. They still control their fate, and a win against the Thorns will make controlling that easier.
Speaking of the Thorns, they also seem to be treading water. The match with Gotham is a big road test, and one they also need. While a tie doesn’t hurt either team, Portland is also lean at this point in the season, mostly due to injury. Their current attackers are young and have little NWSL experience, but they will be relied upon to help get the ball in the back of the net. Portland has the pedigree that says this is the time of year they start winning, but their ceiling seems like Gotham’s in that a home playoff match and a semi-final appearance is solid outcome for their injury riddled season. Sam Coffey has played out of her gourd this season, but time will tell how far that truly takes them. Mostly, Portland just wants to keep the players that remain healthy for a real shot at the postseason.
The San Diego Wave were a major story of the first half of the season, but the second half of the season has brought them back to the mean. They over-performed statistically in the first thirteen (13) matches, and now they’re struggling to score more than one goal a match, if they score at all. They’ve also struggled against the teams closest to them in the table, including a 2-0 loss to Gotham last weekend. This weekend they managed to snag a point against Portland, but with their last five matches against Orlando, Washington DC, Utah, Chicago, and Kansas City, keeping that cushion is a daunting task. I believe they can still make the postseason, and they will need a win against Orlando to give them some breathing room, but they may not host a match in the postseason, and that is something that will matter to the Wave.
Sinking ships
Battled back in the second half, but not our night in the end.
#UTAvLOU | PNC Bank
— Racing Louisville FC (@racingloufc.com) September 20, 2025 at 6:10 AM
There are two franchises that wear purple in the NWSL, and both fall into the sinking ship category. Racing Louisville got a 1-0 victory of the San Diego Wave on August 24th and seemed to be on their way to securing their first postseason spot. Despite a brutal first four matches to start the second half of the season, Racing found themselves in 6th place after those matches and become the darling pick of those that cover the league. They have not won a match since and have other concerns now with the health of Savannah DeMelo being front and center in their minds. Worse, they are now the team that concedes from winning positions or tied positions, and that has dropped them to 10th place. They play another team on the outside looking in in Angel City this weekend, and they desperately need to win those three points to stay in touching distance of the top eight teams. A draw doesn’t hurt them, but they need a run of wins to avoid another 9th place finish.
The Orlando Pride are a team that came into the season off the back of a historic season, and one of the biggest turnarounds in sports. An organization that was a laughingstock for most of its existence, they made a run to the finals, winning the double and playing some of the best defense the NWSL had ever seen. They also scored a lot of goals last season, and they started this season with a blowout of the Chicago Stars. The second half of the season has seen them in a free fall, without a win since June. Their best chance at three (3) points was last week against Bay FC, but they only managed a point and lost again this weekend to a hungry North Caroline Courage.
They face an equally desperate San Diego Wave team in San Diego, and a loss in that match could see them miss the playoffs. My refrain all season has been that Orlando has the least pressure of any team in the league to win. However, no one thought at the beginning of the season that they’d be in danger of missing the playoffs. While this has happened before, most recently with the Washington Spirit in 2022, missing the playoffs would feel like a failure for a team without many expectations in 2025. The loss of Barbra Banda affords them some grace, but they must find a way to score goals, and quickly, before they finish below the playoff line. This weekend is their chance to show what champions are made of, for better or for worse.
Ballon d’Ont
Ranked at the 12th place for the 2025 Women's Ballon d'Or!
Marta
Orlando Pride
Brazil#ballondor pic.twitter.com/zrJn3hzf8W— Ballon d'Or (@ballondor) September 22, 2025
There isn’t an award that comes without controversy. The Ballon d’Or is not an exception to this rule. The winners of the prestigious award, awarded by French football, took place on Monday, September 22, 2025, and Aitana Bonmati won her third trophy in a row. Finishing behind her was fellow countrywoman Mariona Caldentay, and every player in the Top 10 plays in Europe, for Barcelona, Arsenal, or Chelsea, and for the Span and England national teams. In a voting period where Arsenal won the UWCL, Chelsea won a treble, and England won the Euros for a second time in a row, it makes sense to nominate players from those teams. Bonmati’s win may be her most controversial, with many rightly arguing that the runner up should have won the trophy.
But the other major discourse is about just how much the NWSL isn’t respected by voting bodies in Europe. To some extent, this makes sense. The league plays early in the morning in most of those nations, and football is not our national sport the way it is in those countries. Additionally, with major investment in a handful of teams in England, Spain, and France, the best players in Europe don’t come to the United States for college or the pros in masse as they did previously. That does not take away the sting for players with the talent of Temwa Chawinga or Barbra Banda, or a legend like Marta, who have dominated a league for multiple seasons. Marta finished the highest of any NWSL player at 12, but it feels like a slight to those of us who watch the league week in and week out. Some of the best players in the world play here, and the nominations do not reflect that. I do not expect this to change and would rather put my energy into writing about the wonderful players and stories that are found in this league each week. The NWSL is not without its flaws, but we can validate our own talent. Waiting on Europe to do this is asking us to hold our breaths until we pass out. I respect the Ballon d’Or, but it does not define the NWSL’s greatness. Greatness and chaos live together in this league, and that’s worth many awards. Until next time dear readers, go outside, let the anger of the Ballon d’Or wash away, and touch every blade of grass before you head back inside.
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Sylvia Bullock is 1/2 of Shea Butter FC and the world’s foremost Christen Press and Crystal Dunn truther. She’ll be covering the NWSL every week for Fearless SC. You can find her on BlueSky at Southern Sylvs.
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