FootyPop: Gotham Defeats Kansas City Current To Advance

While it was an exciting week in the women’s soccer world with NWSL playoffs and college conference championships, we want to take the time to recognize Mia Hamant and send love and condolences to her family and friends after her tragic passing.

Mia Hamant was a goalkeeper for the Washington Huskies. In 2024, she had a breakout junior season, but her soccer career was unfortunately put on pause when she was diagnosed with a rare form of stage 4 kidney cancer in April. Despite fighting the disease, Hamant showed up for her team and inspired many during her journey with her positivity despite the circumstances. Washington Athletics announced that Hamant passed away on November 6th.

After the news of her passing came out, the tributes from all over the women’s soccer and sports world came pouring in, and it was really incredible to see. NWSL teams wore orange, which is the color that is associated with kidney cancer,  with her initials during the playoff games this weekend, and we also saw the same tribute happen throughout college soccer.

With Mia at the forefront of their mind, Washington put together an incredible performance to win the Big Ten Tournament on Sunday. The match came down to penalty kicks, and goalkeeper Tanner Ijam came up with two saves to lead the Huskies to the win. It was a special moment to see this team come together and win after a really difficult week.

High of the Week

What a way to start the NWSL playoffs! We now know the semifinal matchups after a drama-filled weekend, with all but one quarterfinal game coming down to extra time. ​

The Orlando Pride were able to get by the Seattle Reign thanks to a goal from Haley McCutcheon and then a late penalty kick to ice the game from Luana. It was a storybook ending to the match, with Luana getting that goal after having beaten Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Marta played a massive part in the Pride’s win and kept them alive in their quest to repeat as champions.​

The Pride will host NJ/NY Gotham FC after Gotham was able to get the upset over the Kansas City Current. That match will be on Sunday, November 16, at 3 p.m. ET. These two teams have split the results this season, with Orlando winning the first meeting 2-0 and Gotham winning the latest meeting in August 2-0.

The Washington Spirit conceded a late equalizer to Racing Louisville, sending the game to extra time. After two 15-minute periods, we needed penalty kicks to separate the teams, and Washington came up huge to book their ticket to the semifinals, looking to avenge their championship loss from last season.

It took Portland until extra time to find the go-ahead goal thanks to Reilyn Turner, but it was enough to beat the San Diego Wave and send the Thorns to the semifinals. They’ll travel to the Washington Spirit for a 12 p.m. ET matchup on Saturday.

News of the Week

This week, we got some scheduling news for the 2026 season. The league revealed the home openers for both expansion teams coming next season. The Denver Summit will open their season at Empower Field at Mile High on Saturday, March 28, with the opponent to be announced later. Empower Field at Mile High is the home of the Denver Broncos of the NFL, and it has a full capacity of a little over 76,000. ​

Boston Legacy FC will have their home opener on Saturday, March 14, at Gillette Stadium. Gillette Stadium is another NFL stadium that is the home of the New England Patriots; it is also the home of the New England Revolution in the MLS. The stadium has a capacity of 65,878.

Win of the Week

Stanford won the ACC Championship for the first time in program history since joining the ACC in 2024. The Cardinals came into the ACC Tournament as the top ranked team in the nation and the one seed in the ACC with a conference record of 9-0-1 and an overall record of 14-1-1. To get to the championship game, they defeated Virginia 3-2 to set up a match with No. 2 Notre Dame for the title. ​

Stanford had a 2-0 lead in the second half, but Notre Dame battled back with two second-half goals to force extra time. With no winner in extra time, the match went to penalty kicks, where the Cardinals won 5-4.

Upset of the Week

The Kansas City Current came into the playoffs as the favorites to win the Championship. They dominated all season long, only losing three games with 21 wins on the season and 65 points, which was 21 points more than the second-place team. They came into the match against Gotham without their leading goalscorer, Temwa Chawinga, and Michelle Cooper, who plays a huge factor in their success, so there was some feeling that an upset could happen. Gotham was without their leading goalscorer as well, Esther Gonzalez, who was questionable.

Gotham got the scoring started thanks to their midseason acquisition, Jaedyn Shaw, in the 68th minute. Things were looking good for Gotham until Ellie Wheeler found an equalizer for the Current at the end of stoppage time to keep them alive. It was their extra-time substitute that made the difference for Gotham when Katie Stengel scored the game-winner in the 120th minute. Gotham came to play, and they proved that by knocking off the Current at home. It was the Current’s first loss at home all season. It was also the first time that Gotham had beaten the Current in their 12 meetings.

Goal of the Week

Alyssa Thompson scored her first goal for Chelsea this weekend, and it came at a great time. Thompson made the pass and then positioned herself in the box for the return ball, and she one-touched it into the back of the net. Her goal secured one point for Chelsea against Arsenal in their 1-1 draw.

Player of the Week

Aubrey Kingsbury played lights out for the Washington Spirit, and she came up huge during the penalty kick shootout. She made seven saves during the game and then made two saves in the shootout to send the Spirit to the next round.

Assist of the Week​