The NWSL is no stranger to rivalries. And the one between the Portland Thorns and OL Reign rules them all.

Sure, the bad blood between the Southern California expansion clubs has all the makings of a classic. But Angel City FC and the San Diego Wave don’t have the history of the Thorns and the Reign, two franchises that date back to the start of the league.

One of the drivers of the Cascadia rivalry is Portland captain Christine Sinclair, who punctuated the Thorns’ championship celebration last November with a hearty: “F–k Seattle!”

“I would definitely say my hatred for Seattle started with Christine Sinclair,” Emily Menges told Goal in June. “She, more than anybody, did a good job of just kind of spreading that to the players who would come to the team and everybody who has come since. That’s kind of how I first realized that I should be hating Seattle.”

The Thorns have won three NWSL titles, while the Reign have yet to get over the hump, which adds another layer to the animosity between the clubs. Even as OL Reign veteran Megan Rapinoe enters her final regular-season match against the Portland Thorns at 10:30 p.m. ET Saturday, Portland players know the best way to honor her legacy.

“I think the greatest compliment that I, and we, could give her as the Thorns is to kick her ass when she comes to Providence Park,” Thorns defender Meghan Klingenberg said.

Make no mistake, the feeling is mutual. OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey told Goal – without prompting – that they “hate Portland.” At the end of last season, while celebrating the 2022 Shield with fans, Harvey went to her team’s supporters’ section, grabbed the mic and chanted to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In”: “We won the shield, we won the league, we won the league at Lumen Field, we won the league and smashed f—ing Portland!”

Meanwhile, Rapinoe is constantly needling the Portland crowd.

“Obviously the Thorns fans need no introduction — they’re incredible,” Rapinoe said after beating Portland in May 2021. “They have one big problem, though. They love me, so it’s really difficult for them to cheer against me. So when I scored, I had to go right over and talk my s—.”

The rivalry even predates the NWSL, tracing its beginnings to the established Cascadia rivalry between the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer. So from the very first season, the teams treated each meeting as a grudge match.

“In the first year, it was fun. You kind of could feel it,” said Jess Fishlock, who has spent every NWSL season with OL Reign. “The games are just electric. They are so intense. It’s just a different level of game, you know?”

Since 2013, the two teams have played 37 times across the last 11 years. OL Reign holds the edge in the head-to-head battle, with 15 wins compared to 13 for Portland. Nine of the matches were draws.

Each team has a win against the other this year, with Portland winning 2-0 on June 3, then falling 1-0 on June 28. The most recent meeting, though, ended in a 0-0 draw on Aug. 6. The latter two games were part of the 2023 Challenge Cup.

The most recent regular-season rivalry game took place in Seattle. The 2-0 victory for the Thorns marked their first road win in the series since 2017.

“Every time we play them it’s a battle,” Menges said after that game. “The messaging before the game from (head coach) Mike (Norris) was, ‘Yep, come for the battle, but don’t make it a street fight, make it a boxing match.’ … I think we rose to that occasion and I think that’s what we did.”

Even without injured Thorns star Sophia Smith, who scored a goal in that game, tension and expectations will be high. Expect Rapinoe’s final regular-season match in the Cascadia rivalry to come with fireworks.

The Las Vegas Aces took to the White House yet again on Thursday to celebrate their 2023 WNBA championship victory. 

The decorated team was hosted by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and First Lady Jill Biden, marking the first time the Bidens have welcomed the team personally.

Last year, Harris hosted the Aces after the Bidens were unable to attend due to a last minute conflict. Harris applauded the team for their 2022 win, pointing to the "grit and determination" they showcased en route to their WNBA Finals win over Connecticut. 

President Biden is ready to PLAY! 🤣

The @LVAces presented personalized jerseys for the @POTUS and @VP 🔥 pic.twitter.com/vm8iWbMpxj

— WNBA (@WNBA) May 9, 2024

The Aces won back-to-back championships in 2023, becoming the first WNBA franchise to repeat the feat since 2002. More impressively, they did so without 2022 Finals MVP Chelsea Gray and center Kiah Stokes, both of whom were sidelined with injuries for the title-clinching Game 4. Star forward A’ja Wilson ended up claiming the 2023 Finals MVP honors.

Following the team’s White House visit, the Aces will visit Wilson’s alma mater South Carolina for an exhibition game against the Puerto Rico women's national basketball team. According to head coach Becky Hammon, the unconventional matchup came about when other WNBA teams lacked interest in facing the reigning champs in preseason play.

"We just started kind of building from there," Hammon told the Las Vegas Review Journal. "It’s really cool for players to go home, and that’s where she’s from. She’s the centerpiece of our whole organization."

Kelsey Plum jokingly called Wilson the "mayor of South Carolina" before citing the trip as an opportunity to build team chemistry ahead of their season opener against Phoenix on Tuesday.

"We have some new pieces, and we’re just trying to figure out where our rhythm is," Plum said, referring to recent roster prospects like Iowa grad Kate Martin, among others. "Because when the season starts, it happens fast."

Toronto’s Professional Women's Hockey League team skated to victory Wednesday night, kicking off the league's first playoff match with a 4-0 win over visiting Minnesota.

Natalie Spooner — the league's leading regular season goalscorer with 20 goals in 24 games — opened things up with the first playoff goal in PWSHL history at 9:47 of the first period, later notching an assist in front of Coca-Cola Coliseum's 8,473 fans. Captain Blayre Turnbull followed up Spooner's efforts with two goals of her own, securing the game's final point with just 38 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

In the defensive end, goalie Kristen Campbell put a stop to all 26 shots fired her way. With game one behind them, Toronto has pulled ahead of Minnesota 1-0 in the best-of-five series.

Good soup. 🍲

Kristen Campbell locks in the first-ever PWHL Playoff shutout! pic.twitter.com/J0Ve9MjHpw

— PWHL (@thepwhlofficial) May 9, 2024

"It's what I believe I expect and I think what the group expects as well," head coach Troy Ryan said in postgame remarks. "Being everything we thought it would be, I think the atmosphere was incredible. I think our performance was pretty good and I think it's a great stepping-stone for us to continue to build on for this series and hopefully moving forward.

For Turnbull, the win came as a result of weeks of regular season preparation, adding that the team was "proud" of its execution throughout their first playoff game. 

"The whole season we’ve been building and building waiting to get into playoffs and trying to find our game every week and get better so that when players arrived, we are ready to go," Turnbull said. "I think there’s still a few areas that we can keep improving on, but overall, we’re pretty happy with where we’re at, so we’re excited to get back on the ice for game two."

The postseason outing continues a record-breaking regular season for the young league. In total, the PWHL set six attendance records for women’s hockey this year, with nearly 400,000 fans showing up to watch the inaugural teams take the ice over the 72-game season.

Toronto will face Minnesota at home once more in Game 2 of the series on Friday, before the teams move to Minnesota for Monday's Game 3. 

Former Spanish soccer federation chief Rubiales will stand trial on charges of sexual assault and coercion for his unsolicited kiss of Jenni Hermoso after last year's Women’s World Cup final, a judge confirmed this week.

Back in January, Judge Francisco de Jorge recommended that Rubiales be held accountable for his 2023 actions, calling the kiss "unconsented and carried out unilaterally and in a surprising fashion" and within the bounds of "intimacy of sexual relations." On Wednesday, Spain’s National Court ruled that Rubiales should indeed stand trial.

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Rubiales has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying the kiss was consensual. Hermoso, meanwhile, defined the incident, which occurred during the WWC medal ceremony, as "unexpected and at no time consensual."

Public prosecutors and lawyers for the Spanish Women's National Football Team star and Women's World Cup champion are seeking two and a half years of prison time for Rubiales: one year for sexual assault, and an additional 18 months for participating in coercion.

Rubiales is alleged to have pressured Hermoso into showing support for him following the kiss. Three other officials — including former women's national team head coach Jorge Vilda — are also facing coercion charges that could result in 18 months in prison. 

A trial date has yet to be set. Last October, FIFA banned Rubiales from all football activity for three years. The sentence will be in place through the 2026 Men’s World Cup, but will have expired by the time the 2027 Women's World Cup begins.

Brazil has officially become the favorite to host the 2027 Women's World Cup after FIFA’s technical inspection team awarded them a higher rating than the joint European bid. 

After the US and Mexico dropped out of the running last month, the bid from Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands had previously been pegged to win hosting rights for the next Women's World Cup. But FIFA's latest report shows that Brazil was given a score of 4.0 out of 5 in its technical evaluation, besting the European contender's score of 3.7.

Brazil ranked higher in a number of key areas, including stadiums, accommodations, fan zones, and transport infrastructure. The country is aiming to reuse 10 of the venues used for the 2014 Men's World Cup in 2027, with the final set to take place in Rio de Janeiro. 

"The Bid Evaluation Report reflects the comprehensive evaluation model that has become a hallmark of FIFA’s enhanced bidding processes for men’s and women’s flagship events, which incorporates a variety of criteria, ranging from event vision and key metrics, infrastructure, services, commercial aspects, and sustainability and human rights," FIFA wrote in a press release.

The report also highlighted the fact that this would be the first Women's World Cup in South America, noting that the decision could "have a tremendous impact on women's football in the region."

Should the EU bid win, it wouldn't be the first WWC in Europe, as Germany played host to the event in 2011 before France in 2019. There could also be further complications for the Germany-Belgium-Netherlands bid: In its report, the evaluation team regarded the bid's legal and contractual framework as "high-risk."

FIFA has promised more planning time for the 2031 Women's World Cup. While the Men's World Cup hosts have already been secured through 2034, the WWC is only three years away with a host yet to be named.

The final vote is set to take place at the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok on May 17th. It will be the first time FIFA determines a World Cup host via an open vote.