The 2025 NWSL playoffs are right here and similar to within the common season, everyone seems to be chasing the Kansas Metropolis Present after the Protect-winners’ historic season. Kansas Metropolis is the simple favourite to win the NWSL Championship on Nov. 22, however traditionally, the NWSL has been something however predictable.
Might one of many different seven groups go on a run for just a few weeks and elevate the trophy? In fact? Will they? Nicely… here is why every crew will — and will not — win the NWSL Championship.
Subsequent recreation: at KC Present, Nov. 9, 12:30 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN
Why they’ll win: Expertise and techniques. Gotham isn’t your common No. 8 seed. This can be a crew that ought to have completed increased up the desk, however laid an egg on Determination Day. Nonetheless, Gotham is loaded with championship-caliber expertise: little over a month in the past, they had been lighting up the league with new arrival Jaedyn Shaw becoming a member of the wholesome, in-form Rose Lavelle and the workhorse Jaedyn Shaw.
If Esther González, along with her 13 regular-season objectives, is wholesome, she has confirmed able to carrying the crew all through the season.
Why they will not win: Defensive lapses. Solely Kansas Metropolis conceded fewer objectives than Gotham’s 25 this season, granted, however the best way wherein Gotham has conceded objectives is one thing Kansas Metropolis may feast on. Gotham endured self-inflicted errors making an attempt to play out of the again in Sunday’s loss to North Carolina, and that is precisely what occurred the primary time that Gotham and Kansas Metropolis met in June, when the Present took the lead three minutes into the match.
Subsequent recreation: at Washington Spirit, Nov. 8, 12 p.m. ET, CBS/Paramount+
Why they’ll win: A gritty identification. Louisville can play a direct, purposeful model of play and punish groups on counterattacks thanks largely to ahead Emma Sears. Their 41% common possession ranks lifeless final within the league, per TruMedia, however they produced 35 objectives and 10 wins from that. It is the kind of soccer that will not all the time win award, however may be very efficient over a 90-minute knockout recreation. And perhaps — simply perhaps — their postseason naivete may play to their benefit prefer it did for, say, the 2016 Western New York Flash.
Why they will not win: Late-game administration. Louisville had a propensity to drop factors late in video games far too usually this season, which left them to battle for a playoff berth till the ultimate moments of Determination Day as a substitute of making an attempt to host a playoff recreation. That development may creep again up on an inexperienced squad enjoying within the franchise’s first playoff recreation — and in some of the hostile environments within the league.
Subsequent recreation: at Portland Thorns, Nov. 9, 3 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN
Why they’ll win: They seize maintain of the sport. San Diego stored the ball greater than another crew within the common season — 59.4% per TruMedia, over 6% greater than next-closest Gotham FC — and that allowed the Wave to continuously dictate the move of video games. The Wave served up one other style of that within the first half of Sunday’s loss to Kansas Metropolis once they jumped out to an early lead.
The French connection of Kenza Dali and Delphine Cascarino stays electrical, and so they may very well be the difference-makers.
Why they will not win: Inconsistent ultimate product. Their possession recreation is nice, however too usually this season, San Diego has did not muster sufficient within the ultimate third. The Wave’s run of 4 straight video games with out a objective simply after the summer season break was the worst of the stretches.
They got here alive, lastly, in a 6-1 win towards the Chicago Stars on Oct. 18, however that recreation was an anomaly — and with all due respect, Chicago isn’t Portland nor another playoff crew. If San Diego must chase this recreation at Windfall Park or one other ought to they advance, that might spell bother.
Subsequent recreation: at Orlando Delight, Nov. 7, 8 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime
Why they’ll win: Expertise and resolve. Stick with me by way of the potential cliches and sure, get your ChatGPT jokes out of the best way: Laura Harvey is the winningest coach in league historical past. Sure, even the all-time nice Reign groups she coached got here up brief within the playoffs, however Harvey and the ageless Jess Fishlock maintain discovering methods to win (or rating) even when the expectations are comparatively low. They’ve overachieved this 12 months, and they’re definitely able to making Orlando sweat.
Why they will not win: They do not rating sufficient. Seattle’s 32 objectives scored this common season tied with the last-place Chicago Stars and ranks worst amongst all playoff groups. What’s worse is that, per TruMedia, the Reign over-performed from 25.19 anticipated objectives — the worst mark within the league. Their 162 possibilities created additionally ranks final within the NWSL this season. Seattle managed to grind out outcomes this season, none extra spectacular than handing Kansas Metropolis one in all its three losses in an early-season assembly.
Subsequent recreation: vs. Seattle Reign, Nov. 7, 8 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime
Why they’ll win: It is all lastly clicking. Orlando was by no means going to repeat final 12 months’s near-invincible double-trophy season. Orlando can be than their mid-season stoop prompt. The Delight enter the playoffs on a five-game unbeaten streak highlighted by a giant 3-2 highway win over the Spirit in a rematch of final 12 months’s ultimate.
What made Orlando nice final 12 months is that everybody on the roster was enjoying to their utmost potential, even the function gamers who do not get the highlight. That theme has returned on this late-season peak, with Carson Pickett, Kerri Abello and Haley McCutcheon amongst these scoring or creating objectives. Timing is the whole lot, and the Delight may really feel that it’s on their aspect.
Why they will not win: They’re trapped on the mistaken aspect of the bracket. Orlando’s path to a repeat NWSL Championship begins with a scheduling oddity and a entice recreation: a rematch of Sunday’s regular-season finale with Seattle. That 1-1 draw was a toss-up very similar to Friday’s quarterfinal will probably be, and whoever wins on Friday will possible need to go to Kansas Metropolis for a semifinal.
The percentages will not be with both crew there, and whereas Orlando has been extra productive than Seattle, the Delight nonetheless sit center of the pack within the NWSL this 12 months in likelihood creation and anticipated objectives.
Subsequent recreation: vs. San Diego Wave, Nov. 9, 3 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN
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Olivia Moultrie: I am unable to wait to proceed my journey with the Portland Thorns
USWNT’s Olivia Moultrie believes signing a contract extension with the Portland Thorns is the suitable choice at this stage in her profession.
Why they’ll win: They personal the midfield. Nicely, they’ll win if they’ll personal the midfield. Sam Coffey, Olivia Moultrie and Jessie Fleming are completely able to that. All three have been influential in Portland’s regular late-season type, and Coffey is without doubt one of the finest midfielders within the league. They’ve their work lower out for them towards fellow Midfielder of the 12 months candidate Kenza Dali and the dynamic Gia Corley.
This quarterfinal will probably be gained and misplaced in midfield and the Thorns ought to have a raucous Windfall Park crowd behind them.
Why they will not win: A disconnect reemerges. The early-season Thorns suffered from the identical points because the 2024 Thorns: inconsistency and incongruity. They’ve largely shaken that off over the previous month or two to hit their stride, however the subject of gamers being out of sync has popped up sporadically over these previous two seasons. Largely, people have carried them by way of these stretches, whether or not Sophia Wilson final season or Coffey or Moultrie this 12 months.
San Diego is nicely organized — to not point out a stacked Spirit crew probably awaiting in a semifinal — and will pressure the Thorns to stray from their identification.
Subsequent recreation: vs. Racing Louisville, Nov. 8, 12 p.m. ET, CBS/Paramount+
Why they’ll win: Consistency. The Spirit have quietly marched by way of the season in Kansas Metropolis’s shadow, however participant for participant, they really feel like they’ll stack up with the league’s finest — as ahead Trinity Rodman lately mentioned. When wholesome, the Spirit has the offensive firepower to match Kansas Metropolis, and the central mixture of Esme Morgan and Tara McKeown has largely been as much as the duty.
Very like final 12 months, when the Spirit sat within the shadow of Orlando’s dominance, Washington is the most effective crew no person is speaking about.
Why they will not win: Mounting harm considerations. Washington had nothing to play for on Determination Day and neatly opted to relaxation gamers, however the sight of solely three wholesome discipline gamers on the bench — with two goalkeepers named simply to have a authorized roster — underscored a few of the harm considerations for Kansas Metropolis’s most professional challenger. All eyes are on ahead Trinity Rodman and whether or not she returns from her sprained MCL, however how near 100% will Croix Bethune and Leicy Santos be, simply to call two different main gamers?
Rodman, particularly, needed to labor by way of the ache throughout final 12 months’s playoffs. She and a few teammates must do the identical once more this 12 months.
No. 1 seed Kansas Metropolis Present
No. 1 seed Kansas Metropolis PresentSubsequent recreation: vs. Gotham FC, Nov. 9, 12:30 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN
Why they’ll win: They’re unstoppable. That is the most effective crew in NWSL historical past. Kansas Metropolis set data for wins (21), factors (65), objectives towards (13) and shutouts (16). The Present are richly deep in expertise of their entrance six, from the regular Lo’eau LaBonta to the flashy Debinha, and so they punish groups ruthlessly and shortly on the counterattack. They management video games out of possession higher than any crew for the reason that 2018 North Carolina Braveness, and this 12 months, they’ve had the protection (for a full season) to again up their assault.
By all logic, this crew ought to beat any opponent and elevate the trophy on Nov. 22.
Why they will not win: If Chawinga is not wholesome… Discovering faults with Kansas Metropolis, who solely misplaced thrice all season, appears like splitting hairs. However one main query is the adductor harm to back-to-back NWSL Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga, who’s day-to-day and missed Sunday’s recreation, two weeks after sustaining the harm.
The pattern measurement is small to guage Kansas Metropolis’s video games with out Chawinga, however the Present are much less productive (see: 1-0 loss to Houston final month) and fewer unpredictable, as Sunday confirmed. And what if Bia Zaneratto, who left Sunday’s recreation injured, can be unavailable?