The four most recent NWSL champions are also the 2025 semifinalists. If that sounds predictable, it isn’t — at least, not entirely.
NJ/NY Gotham FC (the 2023 champions) arrive in Sunday’s semifinal against the reigning champion Orlando Pride (3 p.m. ET, ABC / ESPN Deportes / ESPN+) as the No. 8 seed that just pulled off the biggest upset in NWSL playoff history. Gotham defeated the No. 1-seeded Kansas City Current 2-1 in extra time, ending the Current’s record-breaking season for points (65) and wins (21). Kansas City won the NWSL Shield by finishing 21 points ahead of the second-place Washington Spirit.
The Spirit, champions in 2021, lost last year’s final to Orlando and finished second in the league again this season. On Saturday, they host the Portland Thorns in the other semifinal (12 p.m. ET). The Thorns have been the gold standard of the NWSL since its launch in 2013, winning three league titles, most recently in 2022, and two NWSL Shields.
These Thorns, however, are surprising semifinalists. Of the starters from that 2022 NWSL Championship, only captain Sam Coffey is currently a starter three years later. The roster has turned over due to trades and retirement, and Portland endured a wave of early-season injury blows on top of the absence of 2022 NWSL MVP Sophia Wilson, who recently gave birth to her first child.
Who will advance to the 2025 NWSL Championship in San Jose, California, on Nov. 22? Here’s how the semifinals could play out.
(4) Orlando Pride vs. (8) NJ/NY Gotham FC
Sunday, 3 p.m. ET on ABC / ESPN Deportes / ESPN+
Last year, Orlando was invincible. The Pride won the double as the regular-season and playoff champions, starting the 2024 season on a record 23-game unbeaten streak before finally losing as they rested players ahead of the playoffs.
Six-time world player of the year Marta, now 39 years old, played like she had turned back the clock a decade. Forward Barbra Banda burst onto the scene with 13 goals and scored the game-winner in the NWSL Championship. The Pride conceded only 20 goals in 26 games.
This year, however, was a struggle. Banda’s season ended in August due to injury. Marta produced only four goals and an assist. And after a flying start to the season, the Pride endured a wretched nine-game winless streak stretching from June to September.
That skid ended with a 2-1 win over the San Diego Wave on Sept. 26, and Orlando has not lost since. The Pride, even without Banda, looked like their yesteryear selves in a 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Seattle Reign FC last week. Midfielder Haley McCutcheon returned to her playoff scoring ways, Emily Sams led a stingy defensive performance, and Marta dialed back the clock again in epic 70-yard run in stoppage time to earn a penalty kick.
A passionate Marta spoke postgame about people disrespecting the Pride, who are “still the champions.”
“But at the same time, I like when people talk so much s— about Pride and don’t give credit, because it makes me feel good,” she said. “It makes me feel like I want to go and play and prove they’re completely wrong.”
Gotham enter these semifinals with even more of a chip on their shoulders. The New York/New Jersey side won the 2023 title as the No. 6 seed (lowest seed at the time) and followed it up by seriously contending for three trophies last year. Gotham won the inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup in May in Mexico to become the region’s first champion and clinch a berth in the first FIFA global club competition in January.
In that context, playmaker Jaedyn Shaw‘s postgame comments make sense: “Underdog my ass,” she said after scoring a goal and assisting the game-winner against Kansas City.
Shaw’s September arrival from the North Carolina Courage via an intra-league record $1.25 million transfer helped Gotham unlock a new gear offensively. She instantly clicked with fellow USWNT midfielder Rose Lavelle, who has crucially stayed healthy after a significant offseason ankle surgery.
Gotham now heads to Orlando riding high off the momentum of slaying the league’s best team. Player for player, Gotham is as talented as any team left in the playoffs, from Shaw and Lavelle to Midge Purce up top and intrepid German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.
The big question once again surrounds the health of Spanish striker and 2023 World Cup champion Esther González, who hasn’t played in a month due to a hip injury and watched the quarterfinal from the bench in a puffer jacket.
Esther scored 13 goals this season, two off the NWSL Golden Boot pace of Kansas City’s Temwa Chawinga. Esther practically dragged Gotham through the first half of the season as the team endured stretches of inconsistency. She scored in all five of Gotham’s wins before the summer break, registering four braces. Gotham lost four of the six games in which Esther didn’t score during that stretch.
Her presence — or continued absence — could make a difference on Sunday.
(2) Washington Spirit vs. (3) Portland Thorns
Saturday, noon ET
Speaking of injuries, let’s talk about the Spirit. The most high-profile injury saga in the NWSL and arguably women’s soccer over the past year has involved USWNT star forward Trinity Rodman.
After shining at the 2024 Olympics and helping the United States win a gold medal, Rodman labored through back pain during last year’s playoffs and into 2025. She has appeared only once for the U.S. in the 15 months since that tournament, and she missed most of the first half of the season due to the injury.
Rodman left the Spirit in the spring to rehab in London, and she returned in August with a healthy back and rejuvenated spirit, scoring a stunning, game-winning goal in stoppage time 15 minutes into her return (against none other than Saturday’s opponent, Portland). Rodman released tears of joy and endurance after that game, but another setback followed last month when she sprained an MCL.
She hasn’t played since, including in last week’s quarterfinal, and the Spirit’s injury problems have only worsened. Center back Tara McKeown left the quarterfinal in extra time with an ankle injury, and fullback Gabby Carle withdrew after a half-hour due to a hamstring injury.
Those players are crucial to Washington’s defense, and there is no hyperbole in saying that Rodman’s electric, audacious play up top changes any game she enters.
Portland knows a thing or two about injuries. The Thorns lost starting defenders Marie Müller, Nicole Payne and dynamic forward Morgan Weaver to season-ending knee injuries before the campaign even kicked off in March. Portland’s injury fortunes were so poor that it even lost forward Julie Dufour to a torn ACL less than a month after acquiring her via trade.
Combined with the absence of Wilson, one of the best forwards in the league, this looked like a lost year for the Thorns. Wilson has, in recent years, put the Thorns on her back and carried them to victories that otherwise looked unlikely. She scored the winning goal four minutes into the 2022 final and celebrated with a knowing shrug reminiscent of one of Michael Jordan’s famous celebrations.
In her absence, Coffey and USWNT teammate Olivia Moultrie have stepped up to carry the load. Combined with Canadian international Jessie Fleming, they have provided the Thorns with a solid midfield foundation even when, at different times, the goals were not flowing or they were too easily conceded on the other end.
Coffey is, in the opinion of many technical staff members around the league, one of the best midfielders in the world (inexplicably left off all the NWSL’s 2025 awards shortlists). She is a gritty defensive midfielder who also generates attacks from deep areas.
Moultrie had her best season yet as a pro, with eight goals and an assist. Seven of those came after the league’s summer break, and she assisted Reilyn Turner‘s winning goal in extra time of the quarterfinal. Moultrie is only 20 years old, but she is playing in her fifth NWSL season after suing the NWSL to sign a professional contract at 15 years old.
Coffey and Moultrie are the anchors of this new era in Portland, one without forward Christine Sinclair and defender Becky Sauerbrunn, who both retired last offseason. If the Thorns are going to win a league-record fourth championship, they will likely do it behind the stellar play of their midfield.
