FootyPop: Morgan Weaver Makes Her Return

In this week’s women’s soccer news, Morgan Weaver made her return to the field; Jordyn Huitema suffered a season-ending injury; Laura Harvey made NWSL history; and more!

High of the Week​

It’s been a long time coming for Morgan Weaver, but she was able to make her return to the field for the Portland Thorns this weekend against Gotham. It had been 622 days since she made an appearance for the Thorns, but that changed when she came on as a substitute. It’s been a long and difficult road for the forward who last played in November 2024. She suffered a knee injury during the 2025 preseason and then faced many setbacks and complications in her recovery that kept her out for a long time. It’s huge news for Portland as they go into the final stretch of the 2026 season. Since joining the Thorns as the second overall pick in the 2020 draft, she has made 105 appearances and scored 25 goals.

Low of the Week

Unfortunately, this week there were some really significant injuries. The Chicago Stars announced that forward Jordyn Huitema will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL that she suffered in their match against Angel City. It’s a huge blow for Chicago as they just acquired Huitema at the beginning of the season and she has scored four goals on the season. For Huitema, though, this injury unfortunately will make it very difficult for her to make the Women’s World Cup squad for Canada next summer. It won’t be impossible, but she’ll be on a tight timeline trying to get back in time for the tournament.

Emily Sonnett also suffered a suspected knee injury in Gotham’s 2-2 draw with the Portland Thorns. Sonnett was stretchered off the field, and the only update given so far is that she would be evaluated when the club got back to New Jersey. Sonnett has been a huge part of Gotham’s success, and similar to Huitema, if this is an ACL injury, the timeline for the World Cup will be very tight. We’re hoping for the best for Sonnett, but the injury didn’t look good.

News of the Week

League history was made by a couple of NWSL head coaches this weekend. Laura Harvey became the first coach to secure 100 league wins with the same club. Harvey is in her second stint with Seattle; the first was between 2013-17. When she left the Reign the first time, she spent time coaching the United States U-20 and U-23 teams. As well as a brief time coaching the Utah Royals. In 2021, she came back to the Reign and has been with the club since. In a league where there’s a lot of turnover, it’s neat to see a coach get to such a milestone with one club.

Adrián Gonzalez also made history when the Washington Spirit got their 1-0 win over the Denver Summit. The Spirit head coach became the fastest coach to reach 25 wins. He took over as head coach of the Spirit last June.

Player of the Week

Katie Atkinson came up with a huge performance for the Chicago Stars, and while they did lose the match, her performance was outstanding, and she was able to keep Chicago in the game. It wasn’t until the 88th minute that the Orlando Pride were able to get a goal past her. The goalkeeper made an incredible 10 saves and was able to save a penalty kick attempt by Marta. Chicago has struggled this season, but in this game they stayed in it and showed a lot of fight.

Goal of the Week

How Renee Lyles was able to make this goal is hard to wrap your head around but it was a beautiful shot in Portland’s 2-2 draw against Gotham. The goal started with a long ball from the backline to get the Thorns into the opponent’s half of the field and then another long ball to send Lyles down the right side. She was able to  chip the ball from the far corner of the box over Ann-Katrin Berger’s head and into the left side of the net. It was a wonder goal that the rookie will remember forever; it also happened to be her first professional goal.

Team of the Week​

The Utah Royals found the back of the net four times in their win over the North Carolina Courage. It was the highest-scoring match in their club history, and the four goals all came from different goalscorers. Kate Del Fave got the scoring started early on in the 6th minute, and then Tatumn Milazzo was able to add one towards the end of the second half to double their lead. Then in the 65th minute, Mina Tanaka scored and to cap it off Cloe Lacasse converted a penalty kick in stoppage time. It was a complete team win for this Utah team that has looked really good this season. Right now they sit in third place in the standings with 30 points. Utah will head back home to take on the league-leading Washington Spirit in a big clash with a chance to inch higher up the leaderboard.

Upset of the Week

The Seattle Reign got another big win this weekend, this time against the San Diego Wave with a 2-0 scoreline. Goalkeeper Claudia Dickey came up huge for the Reign with nine saves to secure the clean sheet. Seattle got two goals within three minutes thanks to Maddie Mercado and Jordyn Bugg. The win slips the Reign into 10th place with 20 points, but they have some work to do as the season comes to an end if they want to make the playoffs.

Win of the Week

The Boston Legacy got a 1-0 win over the Kansas City Current for their third win in four games. The expansion club seems to have found their footing in recent games. Aïssata Traoré scored the game-winner for the Legacy in this one; the goal came in the 18th minute. Casey Murphy and the backline were able to get a clean sheet against a pretty impressive Kansas City offense that has 23 goals on the season. For the Current, they’ve lost two of their last three games. For Boston, getting a win against a team that has done very well in recent years is big for team morale, and it shows them that they are finding their identity.

Social Media Post of the Week

If you’re a fan of books and their show adaptations, you’ll see an NWSL mention during ‘The Five -Star Weekend’ with an Angel City storyline in the show. The show stars Angel City investor Jennifer Garner, and it’s really cool that she was able to combine both worlds and get the team included in the show. The show came out on July 9th, and it’s streaming on Peacock.