By: Dee Lab | Just women’s sports
With three regular-season matches left, the still-undefeated Orlando Pride clinched the 2024 NWSL Shield with Sunday’s rainy 2-0 win over the second-place Washington Spirit.
Marta converted the 57th-minute game-winning penalty kick, securing her team’s first-ever piece of hardware with her eighth goal of the season.
“I stayed here because I want to make history with this team,” the Brazilian soccer icon, who’s been with the Pride for eight years, said afterwards. “And then we did tonight, and then we go for more.”
Though the Pride’s dominance this season is unmatched, Washington was notably without several key players. Between injuries and yellow card suspensions, the Spirit faced Orlando without Trinity Rodman, Casey Krueger, Hal Hershfelt, Leicy Santos, or Ouleye Sarr.
It took less than two minutes for Kansas City’s Temwa Chawinga to find the back of the net in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Louisville, tying former Chicago Red Star Sam Kerr’s single-season NWSL scoring record with her 18th goal.
With three matchdays to go, the Malawian striker is all but guaranteed to upend Kerr’s 2019 record.
“I think that Temwa’s ability to get behind the line and then drive towards the goal, and being aggressive going towards the goal, is something that differentiates her,” KC head coach Vlatko Andonovski said after the match. “Temwa’s just a pure goalscorer. We’re happy that she’s done it for us this season and hopefully she continues to do it.”
In other NWSL news, fifth-place North Carolina punched their postseason ticket with Saturday’s 2-1 win over San Diego. The day before, last-place Houston become the first club eliminated from the 2024 playoff picture.
Gotham’s 5-1 Saturday blowout of Bay has the defending NWSL champs achingly close to leaping second-place Washington on the table. The two clubs are tied for points, with the Spirit’s shrinking goal differential giving them the tenuous edge.
On the other hand, Saturday’s 2-1 loss to 12th-place Utah extended Portland’s NWSL winless streak to seven matches. The Thorns are remarkably still in seventh-place, but sit tied for points with eighth-place Bay FC. With lower-table teams hungry to rise above the postseason cutoff line, every match left could see Portland fall from contention.