The NWSL Championship is finally here. The No. 3 Washington Spirit and No. 4 Chicago Red Stars will kick off at 12 p.m. ET on Saturday at Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, Ky.

The parallels between the teams are plentiful. Washington and Chicago haven’t met since Aug. 1, and yet their seasons have followed a similar pattern to get to this point. Each team lost seven of their first 18 games and then dominated the last six weeks of the regular season, winning 11 games apiece. Then, they each came out on top of semifinal upsets to reach the championship game.

There’s a lot to unpack with this matchup, so let’s dive in.

Season overviews

We’ll start with Washington. The Spirit won just six of their first 18 matches, most coming under former coach Richie Burke, who was fired in August after multiple players accused him of emotional abuse. Shortly after his departure, the Spirit had to forfeit two games for violating COVID-19 protocols.

In the first two weeks of September, Kelley O’Hara led a change in the team’s mindset and, under interim head coach Kris Ward, the Spirit didn’t lose a single game over the next six weeks.

Washington finished the season with nine of their 11 victories as clean sheets. They proceeded to defeat the North Carolina Courage 1-0 in the quarterfinals and claim a 2-1 upset win over No. 2 OL Reign in the semis.

Now, the Spirit are back in the final for the first time since 2016 and the second time in franchise history. Tori Huster is the only remaining player from that 2016 squad, but she will sit out Saturday with an injury sustained during the quarterfinal.

The Best! Congrats @ash_hatch33 and @trinity_rodman on making the Best XI First Team Presented by MasterCard

— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) November 17, 2021

Similar to the Spirit, the Red Stars won seven of their first 18 matches before going unbeaten in five of their last six games. They didn’t have nearly the same level of off-field turmoil that Washington did, but they had obstacles of their own, coming primarily in the form of injuries to key players.

They lost star midfielder Julie Ertz to a season-ending injury in their first game of the season, a 5-0 loss to the Portland Thorns. A couple of months later, starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher went down in the United State’s women’s national team’s Olympic semifinal loss to Canada and was sidelined for the rest of the season. Naeher’s USWNT teammate, Casey Krueger, has also been out for weeks due to illness. Mallory Pugh and Kayla Sharples missed the Red Stars’ semifinal game due to the NWSL’s COVID-19 protocol, but will return for the final after clearing protocol. Kealia Watt exited the semifinal early with a knee injury and was also ruled out for Saturday.

Despite the string of injuries, the Red Stars defeated No. 5 NJ/NY Gotham FC 1-0 in the quarterfinal sand then shut out the No. 1 Thorns 2-0 to reach their second-ever league championship game.

Rolling into Championship Week with 2️⃣ of the best around!

Congrats to @sarahlgorden on making the @nwsl Best XI First Team and @malpugh making the Best XI Second Team, both presented by @mastercard!

🔗 https://t.co/zdSuBpXDAo pic.twitter.com/JqvnnQcETI

— Chicago Red Stars (@chicagoredstars) November 17, 2021

Regular season matchups

The Spirit and Red Stars have met three times this season, with Chicago getting the better of Washington 2-0-1.

The first meeting was a 1-1 draw on June 19. Both teams were quiet in the first half. The Spirit were without 2021 Golden Boot winner Ashley Hatch after she went down with an injury in the 35th minute.

Each team switched into gear for the second half, generating multiple chances until Spirit forward Trinity Rodman (named Rookie of the Year on Thursday) broke the scoreless tie when she found the back of the net in the 85th minute off an assist from Andi Sullivan. The Red Stars responded in added time when they were awarded a penalty kick that Morgan Gautrat converted.

Their second matchup was a 1-0 Chicago victory on July 2. Washington’s Julia Roddar got credit for an own goal after deflecting Sharples’ header off of a Pugh corner kick.

And then came the Red Stars’ 3-1 win on Aug. 1. Pugh opened the scoring in the 19th minute after stealing the ball in the midfield, carrying it up the field to the outside of the box and firing a shot past keeper Cassie Miller. Rachel Hill added Chicago’s second goal off a corner in the 39th minute.

Rodman put the Spirit on the board in the 71st minute before Gautrat scored from the spot to seal the win for Chicago.

The Red Stars are 8-1-3 in their last 12 matches against the Spirit.

Team strengths

Chicago

The Red Stars’ biggest strength is their depth, especially considering how many key players they’ve lost along the way.

“The belief of the group that the next one is going to step up and do the job has been huge for us, and tactically we didn’t change anything,” said coach Rory Dames.

Their depth was put to the test last Sunday, when they played most of their semifinal against the top-ranked Thorns without leading scorers Pugh and Watt. Katie Johnson subbed in for Watt and scored the game’s first goal minutes later.

“I thought her work rate defensively was outstanding,” Dames said after the game. “Tatumn [Milazzo] certainly didn’t play like a rookie tonight. Cassie Miller — can’t say enough about Cass.”

Washington

The Spirit’s strength has been adaptability. Through a coaching change mid-season that brought with it tactical changes and new training structures, Washington has not only responded positively but thrived.

Under Ward, the Spirit often adjust their formation and strategies multiple times mid-match, and the team loves to use their subs.

“Regardless of what’s being thrown at them, they’ve been able to take it on and say, ‘OK, we can adjust to this, we can play a different formation, we can play a little higher, we could play a little lower,” Ward said. “They’re very malleable in that way.”

Four players to keep an eye on

Aubrey Bledsoe: This 2021 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year is a big reason the Spirit are here, after she made eight saves to keep her team in the quarterfinal game, which the Spirit eventually won in overtime. With a brick wall like Bledsoe as the last line of Washington’s defense, the Red Stars’ attackers have their work cut out for them.

Ashley Sanchez: An underrated player who doesn’t get enough credit while playing next to Hatch and Rodman on offense, Sanchez makes an impact all over the field. Since joining the team in 2020, the 22-year-old has secured a starting role in the attacking midfield, refined her decision-making skills and become a game-changer for the Spirit, as evidenced by her crafty goal in the semifinal.

Morgan Gautrat: The veteran has hurt Washington with two successful penalty kicks this season, but besides being a threat from the spot, Gautrat rules the center of the pitch. The semifinal Player of the Match leads an experienced midfield, which will be critical to the Red Stars’ success in a high-stakes game against a young Spirit team.

Sarah Gorden: A nominee for 2021 Defender of the Year, Gorden is versatile on defense, moving from outside back to center back when Ertz left with her injury. Most defenders don’t even think about carrying the ball in their own third of the pitch, but Gorden, Chicago’s Iron Woman, isn’t afraid to use the space when it’s in front of her.

The Spirit win if …

They get numbers into Chicago’s box. The Spirit have success when they can place accurate balls into the 18 because they’re lethal on rebounds. Hatch, in particular, always seems to be in the right place at the right time. The Red Stars’ defense has few holes, which is why long lobs over them and into the box, where Washington has some of the top goal scorers in the league, could be the tactic that turns the game in the Spirit’s favor.

The Red Stars win if …

They capitalize in the first half and play a low block in the second. The Spirit have thrived as a second-half team this season, so if the Red Stars can get an early goal or two and their defense can enter lockdown mode, the Spirit will have a hard time catching them.

Saturday’s game will be historic no matter the outcome, with the Spirit and Red Stars each looking to win their first title in franchise history. The match will be broadcast on CBS at 12 p.m. ET for the U.S. and Canada, and internationally on Twitch.

Jessa Braun is an editorial intern for Just Women’s Sports. She is also the Head of North American Content for the Women’s Sports Alliance. You can find her on Twitter @jessabraun.

25-year-old American pro golfer Nelly Korda secured her spot in LPGA history on Sunday, notching her fifth-straight title at this weekend's Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas.

Ranked No. 1 in the world by Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2005) as just the third LPGA player to rack up five consecutive tour wins. She is also the third No. 1-ranked player to capture The Chevron Championship victory since the rankings debuted in 2006, accompanied by Lorena Ochoa and Lydia Ko.

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The Florida native shot three-under 69 in Sunday's final, besting Sweden's Maja Stark despite Stark's valiant come-from-behind attempt in the 18th. Korda finished with a four-day total of 13-under 275, celebrating her two-stroke win by cannonballing into Poppie's Pond, much to the crowd's delight. She left The Club at Carlton Woods with $1.2 million from an overall purse of $7.9 million.

It wasn't long ago that the two-time major champion's current winning streak seemed unimaginable. After maintaining her No. 1 position for 29 weeks, Korda underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm in 2022. She returned to the course not long after, but failed to win a single tournament in 2023 before seeing a surge in form during the first four months of 2024. As of today, she hasn't lost a tournament since January.

Korda will attempt a record sixth-straight win at next week's JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, where she'll vie for a cut of the $3.75 million purse.

USWNT regulars Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson furthered their cases for Olympic inclusion with their respective club victories on Saturday and Sunday.

After a roller coaster of a week that saw former Thorns head coach Mike Norris reassigned and a flurry of last-minute roster reshufflings as Friday's trade window closure loomed, the NWSL sprung to life over the weekend with standout performances from ninth-place Portland and third-place Chicago, among others.

After her blocked attempt at goal set up a volleying sixth-minute opener from veteran Christine Sinclair — now the only player in history to record a goal in all 11 NWSL seasons — Smith swiftly netted her own in the 27th minute off a breakaway run that eluded Houston's backline. The goal represented Smith's third of the season as well as her 35th for the Thorns, ultimately leading to the home side's first win of the season in a 4-1 routing of the Dash.

But that wasn't Smith's only stat of the evening. The star forward also lapped former Chicago Red Star Sam Kerr to become the youngest player to reach 50 NWSL goal contributions across all games, chalking up 40 goals and 10 assists at the age of 23 years and 254 days.

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"Obviously it feels good to get a win," said Smith in a post-match press conference. "But this is the standard the Thorns have always had. So a win is great, but a win is the expectation — we're hungrier than ever after the way we started."

170 miles up the road, Lumen Field similarly showcased some promising Olympic prospect footwork on Sunday. In Chicago's 2-1 victory over the lagging 13th-place Seattle Reign, striker Mallory Swanson racked up an impressive counterattack assist on fellow forward Ally Schlegel's fourth-minute goal. Swanson went on to find the back of the net herself before halftime, lacing an explosive ball into the top corner in the 31st minute, her second of the season after returning from a lengthy sidelining injury.

Speaking of injuries, fellow USWNT favorites Alex Morgan and Tierna Davidson were not as fortunate as their national squad teammates this weekend. Each exited their club matches early, Morgan with an ankle knock in San Diego's loss to Orlando and Davidson with an apparent hamstring incident early on in Washington's win over Gotham.

LSU came out on top at the 2024 NCAA women's gymnastics championship in Fort Worth on Saturday, besting Cal, Utah, and Florida to capture their first-ever title.

The Tigers' win was far from a landslide. LSU took the first rotation handily thanks to 2024 All-Around winner Haleigh Bryant's team-leading 9.9375 backed by four additional 9.9+ scores from her teammates. But Utah then responded with three strong beam performances of their own, causing the Red Rocks to slide confidently into second place by the end of the second rotation.

By the halfway point, all four teams fell within .288 points of one another before Utah overtook the pack with a dominant floor showing after three rotations. LSU then went on to ace the beam event with Konnor McClain's meet-leading 9.9625 score, coming away with the highest collective score ever awarded to the event in NCAA championship history. The achievement propelled the Tigers to victory, ensuring them the title after the final rotation.

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"This team is full of individuals that have incredible character and integrity and love for each other and all the things you hear from coaches when they sit at a podium like this in a moment of victory, but I promise you it's a real thing," said LSU coach Jay Clark in a post-meet press conference. "I'm just so happy for them."

Contributing to Saturday's atmosphere of excitement was the absence of last year's champion and this year's heavily favored Oklahoma Sooners. Hot off earning the highest team score in NCAA history just last month, the top-ranked Norman squad suffered a shocking loss in the semifinals, where five major mistakes contributed to a third-place finish and a season-low team score of 196.6625.

With Oklahoma out, it was truly anyone's game.

"Every team was out there fighting for their lives — all four teams, it could have gone any of four ways out there," Clark told reporters. "As much as I feel for what happened to Oklahoma in the semifinals, I think it made for a championship that became so packed with emotion because every team out there believed they could do it. It was just tremendous."

LSU is now the eighth program in the sport's history to earn an NCAA women's gymnastic championship.
They share the honor with Georgia, Utah, UCLA, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, and Michigan.

Cameron Brink already has her rookie of the year pick for the upcoming WNBA season, and it’s Indiana-bound star Caitlin Clark. 

In the latest edition of Kelley on the Street, host Kelley O'Hara caught up with Brink in New York hours before the Stanford phenom went No. 2 overall to the Los Angeles Sparks at the 2024 WNBA Draft. When O’Hara asked who would win the WNBA's rookie of the year, she answered without pause.

"Caitlin Clark," she said, while a fan commented that she thought Brink would take home the award. Brink later added that the extra foul granted to WNBA players will be "good for me."

"I hope it’s me," Charisma Osborne, who was later drafted by the Phoenix Mercury, said when asked her ROY prediction. "But, I don’t know — we’ll see."

Watch more of Kelley on the Street: