The 2025 WNBA season is finally here, with Friday's official tip-off leading an opening weekend full of tough competition and simmering storylines.
The reigning champion New York Liberty enter as odds-on favorites, but results are nearly impossible to predict after a very active offseason across the league.
This weekend's slate features new builds, regional rivalries, and plenty of fresh faces as top 2025 draft picks log their first pro minutes.
- Minnesota Lynx vs. Dallas Wings, Friday at 7:30 PM ET (ION): This year's No. 1 draft pick Paige Bueckers makes her official WNBA debut as revamped Dallas tests itself against a Minnesota team still stinging over last year's title loss.
- Los Angeles Sparks vs. Golden State Valkyries, Friday at 10 PM ET (ION): The Valkyries play their first-ever regular-season game, looking to form an identity against downstate rivals LA, led by new Sparks addition Kelsey Plum.
- Las Vegas Aces vs. New York Liberty, Saturday at 1 PM ET (ABC): The 2023 champs meet the 2024 title-winners in a heavyweight clash that sees 2024 MVP A'ja Wilson take on a confident New York team led by guard Sabrina Ionescu.
- Chicago Sky vs. Indiana Fever, Saturday at 3 PM ET (ABC): Last year's rookie headliners Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese meet again in Indiana, with the regional rivals relying on both incoming vets and young cores to write their next chapters.
Packed with great matchups, this weekend is the ideal tip-off for a 2025 season that promises to be a wild ride — no matter which WNBA team you follow.
The NWSL is back in action this weekend with a top-table match, a bicoastal battle, and some middle-of-the-pack clashes as the 2025 season enters its ninth matchday.
Parity is riding high these days, with just three points dividing the No. 1 Kansas City Current and No. 3 Washington Spirit in the NWSL standings — while only three more separate the No. 4 San Diego Wave from the No. 8 Seattle Reign.
With competition remaining tough as nails, don't expect much more daylight between teams following this weekend's tense lineup:
- No. 7 Gotham FC vs. No. 4 San Diego Wave, Friday at 7:30 PM ET (NWSL+): Coming off a two-game winless streak, Gotham is still searching for consistency as they take on a confident San Diego side that hasn't lost in four games.
- No. 9 Racing Louisville vs. No. 8 Seattle Reign, Friday at 7:30 PM ET (NWSL+): All tied up with 11 points each, Seattle will look to hold off Louisville as Racing continues to hunt the club's first-ever playoff berth.
- No. 2 Orlando Pride vs. No. 1 Kansas City Current, Friday at 8 PM ET (Prime): There's little love lost between these NWSL titans, as the reigning champion Pride takes on hosting duties in an attempt to leapfrog current top-dog Kansas City in Friday's marquee match.
In a season dominated by topsy-turvy results, the pressure to secure points week-over-week weighs heaviest on the teams who know they have the talent to rise above the rest.
This season's NWSL Golden Boot leader Esther González is sticking with Gotham, with the Spanish international extending her contract with the NJ/NY club through 2027.
After helping Gotham to a first-ever NWSL championship in 2023, González earned the league's Best XI Second Team honors last year before launching a red-hot campaign this season.
The 2023 World Cup winner has tallied seven goals in nine games for Gotham in 2025, showcasing a blistering rush of form that has her sitting two goals ahead of the next Golden Boot race contender.
"Above all, it's about how I've felt during these two and a half years with Gotham FC," González said in Thursday's team announcement. "Continuing to be happy both on and off the field is really important. To keep enjoying myself and representing Gotham's colors, which I truly identify with, is something really incredible."
Gotham's continued investment underlines the 32-year-old's case for 2025 MVP candidacy, as award frontrunners start to emerge one-third of the way through the 2025 NWSL season.
González leads the NWSL in shots on target while sitting fourth in expected goals per 90 minutes, with her scoring outpacing many of her peers.
Other players crafting strong 2025 NWSL MVP resumes include Kansas City's 2024 MVP Temwa Chawinga and comeback star Debinha, Angel City wunderkind Alyssa Thompson, and Orlando sharpshooter Barbra Banda.
Following a dominant 2024/25 campaign, Chelsea FC will look to cap their historic run by completing a domestic treble on Sunday, when they'll battle Manchester United for a third season trophy in the 2025 FA Cup final.
After securing the 2024/25 League Cup in March amidst an unbeaten run to a sixth-straight WSL title, the Blues will close out their season against the league's third-place finishers, the Red Devils, in London's iconic Wembley Stadium.
Should Chelsea secure the 2025 FA Cup, they will add a second domestic treble to their resume after clinching their first trio of trophies in the 2020/21 season. This time, however, they could do so in undefeated fashion.
"We are in a really good place, just the fact that we won the league being unbeaten," said first-year Blues manager Sonia Bompastor. "To end the season with an FA Cup final at Wembley against Man United is maybe the perfect way to end the season."
Manchester United hunts second straight FA Cup trophy
Standing between Chelsea and the treble are 2024 FA Cup champions Manchester United, who will take aim at their only trophy of the season partly behind the play of 2024/25 WSL Golden Glove winner and USWNT goalkeeper prospect Phallon Tullis-Joyce.
Man United enter as the game's undisputed underdogs, having dropped both their WSL regular-season matches against Chelsea in narrow 1-0 defeats.
Even more, the Red Devils must overcome a particular tough stretch of play, facing more than a month without a victory on their schedule.
Man United's last win was their 2-0 FA Cup semifinal victory over Manchester City on April 13th, with the Red Devils suffering a pair of losses and recording two draws to close out WSL play.
That said, United has experience downing the Blues on the FA Cup stage, ousting Chelsea from last year's semifinals en route to a club-first FA title.
Remarking that Manchester United "are a really strong team," Bompastor pointed out that the Red Devils "don't concede a lot of goals, and we need to remember that."
"You only get the trophy if you win, so we need to make sure going into the game we have the best preparation and we perform on the day."
How to watch Chelsea play Manchester United at the FA Cup final
The 2025 FA Cup final between Chelsea FC and Manchester United will kick off at 8:30 AM ET on Sunday.
Live coverage of the match will begin at 8:20 AM ET on ESPN+.
The defending champion Minnesota Frost punched their ticket to the 2025 PWHL Finals on Wednesday, keeping their dream of a second-straight Walter Cup alive by repeating semifinals history.
For the second year in a row, the lower-seeded Frost eliminated the Toronto Sceptres from the PWHL semis, adding Wednesday's 4-3 Game 4 overtime win to take the pair's 2025 best-of-five semifinal series 3-1.
Handing the No. 2-seed Sceptres an especially hefty dose of déjà vu was No. 4-seed Frost forward Taylor Heise, who netted the series-clinching goal to oust Toronto for second straight postseason.
With Wednesday's game-winning goal plus six assists across Minnesota's four semifinal clashes, the reigning Playoff MVP's seven points currently leads the 2025 PWHL postseason stat sheet — where an astounding seven of the league's top eight points-getters hail from the Frost.
Unlike Minnesota's 2024 semifinal series with Toronto, which required a full five games, the Frost completed the job early this year, earning some extra rest as they await the winner of the other 2025 semi.
Ottawa takes charge as Montréal faces elimination
Unlike the record-setting scoring that defined Minnesota and Toronto's series, defense owns the spotlight in the second set of semifinals, where the top-seeded Montréal Victoire are facing elimination, entering Friday's Game 4 against the No. 3-seed Ottawa Charge in a 2-1 series deficit.
At the center of Ottawa's success is rookie goaltender Gwyneth Philips, who stepped up in a big way after the Charge lost first-string goalie Emerance Maschmeyer to injury in March.
Since then, the third-round pick in the 2024 PWHL Draft has put together a star turn, becoming one of three 2025 Goaltender of the Year finalists and leading all postseason netminders with the top save percentage and an astoundingly low 1.18 goals-against average.
Additionally, Philips owns the only shutout of the 2025 Playoffs so far, with Tuesday's 1-0 Game 3 win over the Victoire also registering as the first postseason clean sheet by a rookie in PWHL history.
"I'm getting more comfortable and gaining confidence because I can feel that my teammates are feeling a little bit more confident with me. That's been my key to success," said Philips after Tuesday's shutout victory. "It's just knowing how much I trust my teammates and how much they give it back to me."
How to watch Ottawa vs. Montréal in the 2025 PWHL Semifinals
While the Charge aims to follow in the Frost's footsteps by booking a 2025 PWHL Finals spot in Game 4, Montréal will be hoping for a victory to send the series to a winner-take-all Game 5.
The puck drops on Friday's Game 4 at 7 PM ET, with a potential Game 5 decider set for the same time on Sunday.
Coverage of all PWHL Playoff games will stream live on YouTube.
In this week's episode of The Late Sub, host Claire Watkins examines the individual standouts of the first third of the 2025 NWSL season, offering her early shortlist of players making strong cases in the league's MVP race.
As defenses continue to find their stride, league scoring is paving the way in the 2025 season so far, leading Watkins to put forth four top attackers, calling them "the most established, the most consistent" MVP candidates.
First, Watkins digs into Kansas City's Debinha, who sits second in the NWSL Golden Boot race with five goals and an assist through eight 2025 matches.
A two-time league champion and three-time Shield-winner with her previous club, the North Carolina Courage, Debinha already owns the 2019 MVP title in addition to two Challenge Cup MVP trophies.
Calling her "the big glitzy comeback story on what is right now the best team in the league," Watkins notes that Debinha is "a killer playmaker [with] a talent for exploiting space [and] finishing her own chances, while also making her teammates better."
Joining Debinha as an early MVP frontrunner is Gotham FC's Esther. With seven goals in nine games, the 2023 NWSL champ and 2023 World Cup winner tops the 2025 Golden Boot leaderboard thanks to her ability "to score with her head and with her feet."
"Where Esther goes, so goes Gotham," says Watkins. "They haven't won a single game this season in which she did not score. That's team impact."
Top 2024 candidates keep pace with 2025 frontrunners
Last year's leaders round out Watkins' MVP favorites, including "a player that gets better when the job gets harder," Orlando's Barbra Banda.
"[Teams are] doing a better job of putting a lot of bodies on Banda to try to slow her down," causing her scoring to take a hit, but Watkins argues that Banda is still "one of the best out-and-out strikers of the ball in the entire league."
Finally, though "there's never been a back-to-back MVP in league history," Watkins says that reigning NWSL MVP and Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga is making a major case for running it back, led by the Kansas City star's "superpower of opening space where there is none."
Angel City striker Alyssa Thompson is an NWSL MVP dark horse
Finally, Watkins gives Angel City's Alyssa Thompson a unique nod, calling her the league's most improved player — an award that does not exist in the NWSL.
Remarking on Thompson's growth, Watkins points out the 20-year-old forward's leaps in consistency, poise, and her response to coaching at both the club and USWNT level.
"Her glimpses of brilliance are turning into something more consistent," describes Watkins. "She's fast.... She's a really good dribbler. She can take players on 1v1 and make them look silly, get in behind on goal, shoot, score. But she has widened her ability to connect with teammates.... She's just become a well-rounded winger in a way that we were not seeing before."
With four goals on the season, Thompson currently sits tied for fourth place in the 2025 Golden Boot race with the likes of Banda, Chawinga, Washington's Ashley Hatch, and Louisville's Emma Sears.
"Is [Thompson] in that space to to kind of overtake these really well established, consistent, dominant players [in the MVP race]?" wonders Watkins. "Maybe not. But the fact that she has made this leap to this stature in the league is huge."
About 'The Late Sub' with Claire Watkins
The Late Sub with Claire Watkins brings you the latest news and freshest takes on the USWNT, NWSL, and all things women's soccer. Special guest appearances featuring the biggest names in women’s sports make TLS a must-listen for every soccer fan.
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Big-name roster cuts dominated the WNBA headlines on Wednesday, with teams scrambling to meet the league's size and salary cap requirements before Friday's 2025 season tip-off.
The Golden State Valkyries, Minnesota Lynx, Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics, and Dallas Wings announced finalized rosters, leaving a handful of teams still weighing their options as the clock ticks down.
Expansion side Golden State caused the most Wednesday commotion, dropping 2025 WNBA Draft Cinderella story Kaitlyn Chen (UConn) and 2023 No. 8 overall draft pick Laeticia Amihere (South Carolina), among other cuts, after initially waiving this year's No. 17 overall pick Shyanne Sellers (Maryland) last week.
With this year's No. 5 overall pick Justė Jocytė (Lithuania) choosing to remain overseas for this summer's EuroBasket, the Valkyries will now make their WNBA debut without a single 2025 draftee.
The South Carolina alum scored 20 points in her preseason debut for the Valkyries and was selected 8th overall by the Dream in the 2023 Draft. pic.twitter.com/JNQVpP1twS
— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) May 14, 2025
2023 WNBA Draft Class takes a hit
The hits kept coming for the 2023 WNBA Draft class, as Atlanta's No. 6 overall pick Haley Jones (Stanford) and Minnesota's No. 7 selectee Grace Berger (Indiana) joined Amihere on the league's cutting room floor on Wednesday — leaving only five 2023 first-rounders currently on WNBA rosters.
On the flip side, the Connecticut Sun dropped 30-year-old guard Diamond DeShields on Thursday morning — just three months after signing the 2021 WNBA champion.
Ultimately, rookies, mid-career players, and veterans alike are on the chopping block this week, with teams showing little mercy for fan favorites as they hone in on what promises to be a highly competitive 2025 WNBA season.
The NWSL Players Association (NWSLPA) is advocating for an immediate change in protocol in the name of player safety, with the union voicing concerns about the handling of Angel City defender Savy King's mid-match medical event last Friday.
Following current league guidelines, the game between the LA club and the Utah Royals resumed play on Friday, picking up where they left off after King's on-pitch collapse required nearly 10 minutes of life-saving intervention from medical staff.
Amid a crowd of visibly distressed players and coaches, paramedics rushed King to an area hospital, with the 20-year-old later undergoing successful surgery to fix a previously undetected heart abnormality.
"These moments demand humanity, sound judgment, and restraint," the NWSLPA posted on Wednesday. "Any medical emergency that requires the administration of life-saving care should bring play to an end. The match should not have continued."
"Our members are elite, world-class competitors who have proven they can perform under unimaginable conditions. That does not mean they should have to," the statement continued.
"Incidents of this severity must prioritize our collective humanity and should automatically trigger suspension of the match. The Players Association is committed to making this the standard in [the] NWSL."
NWSL player safety again takes center-pitch
As the NWSL braces for rapid expansion, the NWSLPA remains laser-focused on ensuring player safety never takes a backseat, both on and off the field.
That priority was mirrored in the league's own Wednesday post.
Shortly before the NWSLPA's statement hit feeds, the NWSL issued its own statement, saying "Player Safety is paramount to the NWSL. The seriousness of this incident requires a deliberate process that is careful and methodical. That process is underway and will include necessary revisions that prioritize the consideration of player, staff, and fan well-being."
The lack of an instant protocol change doesn't sit well with NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke.
After reviewing the league's post, Burke told Front Office Sports "The reality is these decisions are made in real time. A decision needed to be made last Friday night.... Five days later, they still [haven't] decided whether or not this game should have been suspended."
"This is a human issue. The right thing to do was to call this game. It doesn't take this long to realize that."
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is Chelsea FC's newest owner, with the husband of tennis icon Serena Williams reportedly dropping £20 million ($26.6 million) on a 10% stake in the WSL champions earlier this week.
Ohanian is no stranger to investing in women's sports, from launching Angel City as the 2022 NWSL expansion club's majority owner to last year's founding of Athlos NYC, an annual women's track and field event with a $663,000 purse.
"I've bet big on women's sports before — and I'm doing it again," Ohanian posted on social media on Wednesday. "I'm proud to announce that I'm joining @ChelseaFCW as an investor and board member. I'm honored for the chance to help this iconic club become America's favorite @BarclaysWSL team and much, much more."
"These players are rewriting the game. Undefeated season. Eyes on the treble," said Ohanian about Chelsea FC's historic 2024/25 success. "But this isn't just about winning titles. It's about finally matching their talent with the resources, visibility, and respect they deserve."
Ohanian's investment comes amid soaring valuations for women's pro teams — with Chelsea's $257 million price tag ranking as the highest in all of women's soccer.
Calling Ohanian's buy-in "game-changing," Blues manager Sonia Bompastor told reporters on Thursday that "It's really important for the women's game but also for England to have someone to invest in a team like Chelsea."
"We want to be the leaders," she continued. "We want to be the team who shows to every other team how you need to perform and how you need to invest in the women's game."
Women's clubs still successful after splitting with men's teams
Ohanian's investment also indicates Chelsea's commitment to further distancing their women's team operations from their men's side, following last June's ownership move to place the women's squad under an independent subsidiary.
Though most European women's teams remain closely affiliated with their men's counterparts, severing ties is on the rise, with US billionaire Michele Kang assuming majority ownership over women's clubs Olympique Lyonnais and the newly promoted London City Lionesses in recent years.
With skyrocketing revenue — plus Kang's fleet proving that independence benefits women's teams — expect to see even more US investors eyeing women's sports opportunities abroad.
FIFA is setting a new goal for the Women's World Cup, with organization president Gianni Infantino stating this week that the governing body is aiming to generate $1 billion in revenue from the international championship tournament.
"Women's football and women in football are crucially important," Infantino said at the 2025 Saudi Arabia/US Investment Forum in Riyadh on Tuesday.
"It's growing as well, and exponentially, and we are targeting [growth] as well to have $1 billion revenue just with the Women's World Cup to reinvest in the women's game."
The public push to hit the billion-dollar mark comes after the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand became the first edition of the tournament to break even, generating a revenue total over $570 million.
The 2027 World Cup will take place in Brazil, becoming the first iteration ever held in South America, while the US — as the only bid on the table — has a near-guaranteed lock on hosting the 2031 edition.
As FIFA takes aim at its $1 billion target for the 2027 tournament, the 2031 World Cup could have a leg up in the revenue game, with FIFA expanding the competition's field from 32 to 48 teams just last week.
Consequently, that 16-team increase boosts the total matches from 64 in 2027 to 104 in the 2031, instantly creating 62.5% more inventory — a move that could help meet or potentially exceed FIFA's bold new revenue goal.