After winning two NWSL Championships as the last-place seed, Gotham FC will finally go into the postseason as the top team, securing the franchise's first NWSL Shield on the final day with a 2-0 win over the Utah Royals.
The San Diego Wave, Washington Spirit and KC Current also secured home-field advantage in the quarterfinals. The Seattle Reign held on to the eighth seed to round out the NWSL playoff teams.
The postseason is officially here, here's how we ended up here. The Athletic watched every game and the new whip-around show to compile the key moments from the NWSL's regular-season finale.
The reigning NWSL Champions clinched the NWSL Shield for the first time in club history, following their 2-0 win over Utah at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
Guro Reiten opened scoring early for Gotham in the ninth minute, finding the end of a cross from fellow forward Midge Purce. Purce carried the ball up the right side of the field, edging past Utah defender Nuria Rábano and sending the ball across Utah's goal. The ball deflected off a defender, and Reiten tapped it in before running to the corner and screaming to the fans in excitement.
Gotham maintained their momentum against a tough Utah side, despite a massive blow in the 24th minute when midfielder Jaelin Howell suffered a right ankle injury. She was subbed off and replaced by fellow midfielder Savannah McCaskill. Howell, one of the team's captains, has played the most minutes for Gotham this season, serving as an unsung hero in the center of the pitch. As a central defensive midfielder, she helps anchor the backline.
Gotham's victory was sealed in the 80th minute when Jaedyn Shaw slipped the ball past Utah goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn, off an assist from Purce. Shaw and fellow midfielder Rose Lavelle made their long-awaited returns to the pitch Sunday, after injuries forced them to the sidelines, missing recent fixtures.
— Melanie Anzidei
San Diego's missed Shield will sting, but the Wave remain title contenders.
The Wave will return home from the Bay Area stewing over their 2-2 draw with the Boston Legacy on Oct. 25, which pulled them further away from Gotham in the Shield race. Fundamentally, they didn't do much wrong in their final regular-season match against Bay FC, but the 1-0 victory proved insufficient to take home the title of winningest team in the league — a feat they accomplished in 2023.
This is a club that values the NWSL Shield and will consider this season a sorely missed opportunity in that regard. Undefeated in October and 8-1-1 in their last 10, the Wave still carry significant positives into the postseason after finishing second with crucial home-field advantage to start the playoffs. Even more crucially, they've asserted themselves as one of the most in-form teams in the league with a healthy bench. Fullback Mimi Van Zanten's goal against Bay was a timely reminder of her attacking prowess. Gia Corley has grown into the season over the last few weeks to further strengthen the Wave's midfield with Kenza Dali, Kimmi Ascanio and Melanie Barcenas. And then there's the talismanic quality of Trinity Byars at the top.
The Wave will host the Utah Royals in the quarterfinals next weekend. Two possession-oriented teams, but San Diego will have the edge on depth alone. The Wave crashed out at the quarterfinal stage last season, but they are poised to make a deep run into this postseason as all their pieces come together at the right time.
— Tamerra Griffin
Despite late drama in North Carolina, the battle between the ninth- and 10th-place sides did not matter after the Seattle Reign handled their business at home with a 1-0 win over the Orlando Pride. Defender Jordyn Bugg provided the game-winner off a corner kick, with club legend Jess Fishlock playing provider at the start of the play with a back-heel that pinged through the middle to Bugg, who then placed it perfectly in the corner.
At first, it looked as if Seattle left a door open to be pushed out of the final playoff spot after missing multiple chances, but Orlando never had any meaningful looks on goal and finished with zero shots on target. The Reign outproduced Orlando across the board in shots, shots on target, chances created and corners, but allowed the Pride the majority of possession.
The win extends Fishlock's time on the field, as the Reign will now head to Harrison, N.J., to face Shield-winning Gotham FC. The emotions were apparent at Lumen Field, both when Fishlock subbed off late in the match to a standing ovation and at the final whistle. Head coach Laura Harvey was caught on camera giving Fishlock a bear hug amid the celebrations.
— Meg Linehan
Heading into the day, North Carolina Courage and Denver Summit FC were still fighting for the eighth and final playoff spot. Their postseason hopes, however, hinged largely on Seattle's result against Orlando.
Denver entered the day with the longest odds of the three, but played with the intensity and urgency of a team determined to keep its season alive. At WakeMed Soccer Park, the Summit dominated much of the 90 minutes, pressing aggressively, crowding the midfield and repeatedly disrupting North Carolina's attempts to build from the back.
Denver created several early opportunities, only to be denied by Courage goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan. Lindsey Heaps was among those who tested Sheridan, who kept North Carolina in contention despite Denver's sustained pressure.
At the other end, forward Ashley Sanchez remained the Courage's most dangerous attacking threat, looking for opportunities to break through Denver's defense, but was repeatedly denied by goalkeeper Abby Smith. Sanchez's mission for the night was not only to score for the Courage but also to break the league's goal-scoring record. Those dreams were shattered by Denver's relentless defensive backline as the 27-year-old fell one goal short. Sanchez did, however, clinch the Golden Boot for most goals this season.
However, Carolina still took the points. The ball found Sanchez in the third minute of stoppage time in chaotic and unexpected fashion. She launched one final attack, but the ball ultimately ended up in Denver's net off defender Kaleigh Kurtz, whose own goal handed her former team a dramatic victory. Still, the Courage will take their three points into the offseason as they fell just short of the postseason.
— Asli Pelit
ESPN started Sunday in a hole thanks to the previous program ahead of Decision Day running over on its main channel. College volleyball pushed the Gotham FC's NWSL Shield chase against the Utah Royals to ESPN2 for a solid chunk of the first half. When the whip-around show returned, it felt more like a watch-along option rather than ensuring NWSL viewers were fed the most important moments of all eight games immediately after they happened.
Whip-around shows should be fast and frenetic, even if they are slightly behind live game action. ESPN's Decision Day offering was neither, however, opting for interviews and desk chatter, and cutting to reporter Jeff Kassouf with the live standings ahead of showing goals or live game action. The show opted for a three-game multiview at times, rather than a full quad box. Frequently, an individual game provided goal updates in a more helpful fashion than the whip-around show.
The show did get better in the second half across the various games, especially when it happened to be showing live game action when a goal happened. Seattle's go-ahead goal was the perfect example, where Bugg's goal happened in real time and displayed in a full-screen view. On the flip side, the show lingered with Jess Fishlock's final regular-season minutes in Seattle even as Gotham scored a second goal, rather than pausing Ali Krieger's lovely commentary, cutting to the goal, then coming back to Seattle to have that farewell for Fishlock.
Adding a whip-around show is a good and necessary investment from ESPN on Decision Day, and the first one was always going to be an experiment. If it's brought back for 2027, hopefully it contains far more actual whip and a lot fewer watch-along elements.
— Meg Linehan
Nov. 6-9:NWSL Playoffs quarterfinals
Friday, Nov. 6: No. 2 San Diego Wave FC vs. No. 7 Utah Royals FC on Prime Video at 10 p.m. ET
Saturday, Nov. 7: No. 4 Kansas City Current vs. No. 5 Angel City FC on CBS and Paramount+ at 12 p.m. ET
Sunday, Nov. 8: No. 1 Gotham FC vs. No. 8 Seattle Reign on ABC at 12:30 p.m. ET
Sunday, Nov. 8: No. 3 Washington Spirit vs No. 6 Portland Thorns on ABC at 3 p.m. ET
Both Sunday matches will also be available on ESPN Deportes, and on the ESPN app for unlimited subscribers.
Nov. 13-15:NWSL Playoffs semifinals
November 21:NWSL Championship, Washington, DC (Audi Field) at 8 p.m. ET
This article originally appeared in The Athletic .
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