By OkayGoal 
In this week’s women’s soccer news, Christen Press announced her retirement; more clubs secured an NWSL playoff spot; the San Diego Wave put together an impressive performance; and more!
High of the Week
The NWSL Playoffs are just around the corner, and more teams punched their ticket to the postseason this weekend. We already know that the Kansas City Current are the Shield winners and the top seed, and that the Washington Spirit are locked in the two spot. Now we know that the San Diego Wave, Portland Thorns, NJ/NY Gotham, and Seattle Reign have clinched their spot as well. That leaves one spot left to fight for going into the last weekend of the regular season on November 1. It’ll come down to Racing Louisville or the North Carolina Courage to earn that last spot. Racing controls its own destiny with a win. The first round of the playoffs will take place between November 7-9.
Low of the Week
This week brought tough injuries to key players in the NWSL. Trinity Rodman went down with a knee injury in the Washington Spirit’s CONCACAF W Champions Cup midweek group stage match. It was later revealed that the injury wasn’t as bad as originally expected, but she was diagnosed with an MCL sprain and could be out for a few weeks.
Then, during the Kansas City Current’s match against the Houston Dash on Saturday, Temwa Chawinga had to be subbed off after suffering a non-contact injury. Chawinga leads the Golden Boot race with 15 goals on the season. At the time of this writing the club has yet to give an update on their star forward.
Both the Spirit and the Current have clinched home playoff games with the hope of lifting the Championship, so losing two key players right before the playoffs is a huge loss.
It’s a Grade 1 MCL sprain for Trinity Rodman, with no timetable for return. “Best [case] scenario” after how it looked on Wednesday. No official word from USSF but clearly won’t play for #USWNT next week. The big unknown is #NWSL playoffs.https://t.co/bexXSFwiyc
— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) October 17, 2025
News of the Week
This week, there was a lot of retirement news to get caught up on. Angel City forward and former USWNT star, Christen Press announced that she would retire at the end of the 2025 season after a 14-year professional career.
Seattle Reign defender Lauren Barnes also announced this week that she would be retiring at the end of the season. Barnes just made NWSL history as the first player to reach 250 league appearances, and they all came with the Reign. She’s been with the club since the beginning of the league and has meant so much to Seattle. Her Reign teammate, Jess Fishlock, announced that she would be retiring from national team duty with Wales this week as well.
Team of the Week
The San Diego Wave got a massive 6-1 win against the Chicago Stars to clinch their playoff spot. They dominated every statistic in the game, and it was a really important game for the Wave, that have struggled offensively. The offense was clicking with four different goal scorers. They were led by a brace from Dudinha, but Delphine Cascarino, Kristen McNabb, and Kenza Dali all scored as well. They also forced an own goal from Chicago. It was their second straight win and just their second since the end of August. They’ll travel to Kansas City to end the regular season as they try to continue the momentum they’re building and make a run in the playoffs.
Game of the Week
This weekend, we had a 2024 NWSL Championship rematch when the Washington Spirit hosted the Orlando Pride. It was a back-and-forth match that was even throughout. In the 35th minute, the Washington Spirit got on the board first after forcing an own goal off Kerry Abello, but then just three minutes later, Abello would make up for it by scoring an impressive goal for the Pride to even the score. The Spirit would go into halftime with a goal lead thanks to Sofia Cantore’s impressive backheel just before halftime. It wouldn’t take long for the Pride to answer yet again, though, when the second half started by forcing an own goal off of Washington. The decisive goal came from a second-half penalty that Marta buried to earn the Pride all three points and secure a playoff spot.
Goal of the Week
If we had a nickel for every time that Sofia Cantore has scored a backheel goal this season, we’d have two nickels, but it’s crazy that it’s happened twice. Cantore took the cross from Paige Metayer and flicked it into the back of the net. It was a beautiful goal that we could watch over and over again.
Player of the Week
Manaka kept the North Carolina Courage’s playoff hopes alive with an impressive performance against Bay FC. She scored two goals in the first 10 minutes and then added a third to complete the hat-trick in the second half, leading the Courage to a 4-1 win. In the season, Manaka has scored 10 goals for North Carolina. She also became the youngest player to score a hat-trick in NWSL history at 21.
What To Look Forward To
This week is an international break, so the USWNT will be in action. They’ll take on Portugal in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 23 and then again in East Hartford, Connecticut, on the 26th. Then on the 29th, they’ll head to Kansas City to take on New Zealand.
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