The race to finish above the playoff line continues to tighten as only the Chicago Stars are officially eliminated with just four matches to play. Gotham, Orlando, and Seattle all scored crucial victories, while Gift Monday netted the third hat trick of the season in historic fashion.

Gotham are heating up at the right time 

Gotham FC are clicking into gear at an opportune time. Their 3-0 drubbing of the Portland Thorns extends their unbeaten run to nine matches in all competitions. The result also included a series of firsts for Gotham.

Alex Morgan’s legacy can be hard to define with one sentence, as her longtime professional career included fighting for equal pay, helping to grow the National Women’s Soccer League, the sport itself, and the wider world of women’s sports.

But one part of her legacy that doesn’t get as much mention is Morgan’s fight to return to playing after giving birth to her firstborn daughter, Charlie, back in 2020. While she benefited from earlier generations of U.S. women’s national team players who paved the way in continuing to play after motherhood, Morgan herself helped secure stronger protections and standards for mothers in the sport.

“One really special moment is when we had five moms on the team at once between myself, Casey [Krueger], Julie [Ertz], Crystal [Dunn] and AD [Franch],” Morgan recalled during her retirement press conference last fall. “That was a really special moment to be able to enjoy with some of my teammates knowing how far we’ve come and the support that we now get as moms and still as professional athletes.” 

While there’s a growing acceptance for mothers returning to elite levels of sport, it wasn’t always that way. And Morgan was very much part of the generation that proved that it was possible to do both, particularly within the NWSL, and changed the way those things look for players as they return. 

The playoff field has its first confirmed guest, and transfer rumors are swirling over Angel City. Meanwhile, the Sphere of Mediocrity grows ever larger.

Here’s how they shape up after most of Week 18:

Cream of the Crop

x-Kansas City Current (15-2-1, 46 pts; vs Courage, 2-0):  Temwa Chawinga did not score against the North Carolina Courage, but neither did the Courage. That leaves Chawinga with 11 goals while the Current have conceded only 10. Kayla Sharples continues to stay in the discussion for Defender of the Year, and even as it has taken Ally Sentnor some time to fully integrate into the attack, the defense has become a well-oiled machine, and the win over the Courage made the Current the first team to secure an official invite to the 2025 playoffs. The only bad news is that Esther Gonzalez scored for Gotham to edge ahead of Chawinga in the Golden Boot race.

The Kansas City Current’s mid-August matchup at home against the Orlando Pride was the blockbuster fixture of the back end of the National Women’s Soccer League season. It was the latest meeting in a burgeoning rivalry that promised great entertainment, given the superstar names on each team. The game unfortunately turned into a cagey 0-0 draw, likely due in part to the triple-digit heat index that ultimately delayed kickoff for more than three hours.

The match wasn’t without its moments, none more so than the season-ending injury to Barbra Banda that overshadowed proceedings for Orlando Pride. Banda exited the contest early in the first half, which swung momentum away from Orlando. Banda was able to walk down the tunnel and later appeared on the bench smiling next to defender Rafaelle, but now that we know that her race is run, questions must be asked about Pride’s attacking output in general without their star striker. All in all, how did they fare against KC Current, and what does the transfer of Lizbeth Ovalle give them in Banda’s absence?

Racing again delivered an energetic, disciplined performance with effective counter-attacks that limited Orlando’s clear chances. Missing Marta but still fielding the electric Barbra Banda, Orlando remained a side packed with pace, power, and precision. Banda’s threat in behind is a problem for most defenses, yet Racing’s structure limited much of her influence.

Two saved penalties from Racing goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer kept them ahead until stoppage time, when Orlando finally broke through to earn a point and a result that was incredibly frustrating for Racing, considering the sheer effort and tenacity they displayed until the very end. Let’s break down how Racing’s defensive shape kept the Pride at bay.

The NWSL is not a league devoid of superstars. Performances from Barbra Banda, Temwa Chawinga, Debinha, and more have set the league on fire in 2025, but what about the players not commanding the headlines? Using advanced metrics and underlying numbers as a guide, let’s take a look at the breakout players and storylines flying under the radar this season. 

All data from American Soccer Analysis unless otherwise noted.

Trinity Armstrong (CB, San Diego Wave)

Trinity Armstrong has started and played 90 minutes in seven straight matches for the San Diego Wave. In that time, the Wave have lost once, conceded just six goals (in comparison to seven in the preceding four games), and moved from 9th to 4th in the NWSL standings. Armstrong has been instrumental in that turnaround, providing exceptional attacking output while maintaining a strong defensive presence; she’s quietly become one of, if not the best, dual-threat centerbacks in the league this season. Oh, and by the way, she’s a 17-year-old rookie. 

The Orlando Pride are in the middle of a rough stretch. The defending National Women’s Soccer League shield winners and champions opened their season with a dominant 6-0 thrashing of the Chicago Stars before going on to win three-straight games and stay at the top of the standings for the first month of the season.

Since their last win on April 12 against the Seattle Reign, though, the Pride have amassed a 1W-1D-3L record that has left them winless in the month of May. Their most recent match, a physical battle against the first-place Kansas City Current, was a useful exercise to reveal what has been working for the Pride — and what has not worked as well — through the first third of the season. 

Banda as the focal point of the Orlando attack

As was clearly evident in their loss to the Current, the most fruitful attacking strategy for the Pride is any sequence that runs through star forward Barbra Banda. This should not come as a surprise for the player that leads all of the league’s strikers in offensive net goals added, which is a good measure of how much a player’s on- and off-ball play contributes to their team’s chances of scoring (or conceding!) goals (American Soccer Analysis).  

Despite the Kansas City Current’s perfect record through five games, it was the latest chapter in a burgeoning rivalry between the Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit that highlighted matchweek 5 on Saturday.

Despite Washington’s 1-0 victory on the road, the game was pretty one-sided, with the Pride pressuring the injury-stricken Spirit for most of the match. In the end, Orlando was defeated by a mixture of dogged defending and poor finishing. While they lost, their tactical plan in build-up was nonetheless effective, with their left flank benefitting generously. Most of Orlando’s chances emerged from the left, whose players constantly took advantage of the spaces between the lines.

“This behavior is unacceptable and has no place in our league or in our stadiums,” the league’s statement said in part.

Gotham says the club has reached out to the Pride to apologize for the behavior and the Pride also issued a statement supporting Banda and condemning the incident. Stadium security responded immediately when made aware of the issue.

None of the statements detailed what was said or how the situation was specifically handled. The NWSL and Gotham are working together to investigate further. Additional action may be taken under the league’s Fan Code of Conduct. According to an ESPN report, Gotham is reviewing footage of the incident.

The NWSL Players Association released its own statement Monday afternoon saying in part “There is no place for harassment or abuse in our sport, and we support efforts to address this incident swiftly and responsibly.”