Portland Thorns star Sophia Smith is the 2022 NWSL MVP.

The 22-year-old forward becomes the youngest MVP in league history. She takes home the top individual award just days ahead of the championship match, where she will look to lead the Thorns to their first title since 2017.

In her second NWSL season, Smith scored 14 goals in 18 appearances, second only to San Diego Wave striker Alex Morgan’s 15 goals — and a new single-season record for Portland. Her four braces tied her for the most in a single season in the NWSL.

Her speed and dribbling ability help her get behind opposing defenses, and her shot totals underline her offensive prowess. She leads the league with 80 shots heading into the final, 27 more than the next closest player, Chicago Red Stars forward Mallory Pugh. She also paced the league with 52 shots on goal, 19 more than Pugh in second place.

She powered a prolific Portland offense, which scored 49 goals in the regular season, third-most in league history.

“Sophia has taken up so much bandwidth from opposition backlines that it has allowed our team to have a scoring profile that has broken records this season,” Thorns coach Rhian Wilkinson said ahead of last Sunday’s semifinal. “And it’s not by chance. Her movement — they probably have training sessions that opposition have to do to just get all over her. It takes three people to stop Soph.”

🏆 YOUNGEST MVP IN LEAGUE HISTORY 🏆

In just her second professional regular-season, that’s how you do it! Let’s go, @sophsssmith! #BAONPDX pic.twitter.com/3EDfG9yFkB

— X - Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) October 27, 2022

Smith bested Morgan, who finished second in MVP voting, as well as Pugh, North Carolina Courage forward Debinha and Wave defender Naomi Girma.

Before Smith’s award win, expansion club San Diego had swept all the other individual awards: Morgan claimed the Golden Boot, Girma won the Rookie and Defender of the Year awards, Kailen Sheridan won Goalkeeper of the Year and Casey Stoney won Coach of the Year.

The No. 2 seed Thorns got the better of the No. 3 seed Wave in the semifinals last Sunday, with Crystal Dunn’s game-winning goal securing the 2-1 victory and sending Portland to the championship game. Now, Smith and the Thorns will face the Kansas City Current with the title on the line at 8 p.m. ET Saturday at Audi Field in Washington, D.C.

Smith is no stranger to the national stage. She received her first call-up to the  U.S. women’s national senior team as a 16-year-old in 2017, and she has established herself as a regular starter for the team this year.

In her college career at Stanford, Smith helped the Cardinal to the 2019 NCAA title before becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NWSL Draft. She was thrilled to be selected by Portland, the team she’ll now look to lead to a championship.

“I didn’t want to go anywhere else,” Smith said.

Angel City center back and captain Sarah Gorden and goalkeeper Angelina Anderson spoke out on Thursday, opening their gameday press conference by addressing Monday's New York Post op-ed penned by teammate Elizabeth Eddy that urged the NWSL to adopt a "clear standard" for gender eligibility.

"Questions and controversy abound over intersex and transgender athletes," Eddy wrote, suggesting the league require players be "born with ovaries" or undergo genetic testing, with a photo of Orlando Pride and Zambia striker Barbra Banda — who faced fan harassment earlier this year — as the lead image.

The article — and its originating tweet — provoked backlash online, with Angel City issuing a statement on Tuesday saying the op-ed "does not reflect the opinion of an entire organization," and that the team "has remained committed to equity, inclusion, and belonging."

ACFC captain Gorden used stronger language, saying that the article directly caused her teammates "hurt" and "harm."

"We don't agree with the things written for a plethora of reasons, but mostly the undertones come across as transphobic and racist," Gorden, who has a history of addressing social justice issues, told reporters.

Gender policy abandonment "invites harassment" of NWSL players

After quietly abandoning a 2021 policy that deemed all transwomen eligible so long as their testosterone levels mirrored those assigned female at birth, the NWSL has failed to provide official gender eligibility guidelines in the three years since — though no current league athletes identify as trans.

"The league may have hoped its silence over this lack of policy would be taken as an openness to revisiting or reworking its approach, or at least neutrality when it comes to the inclusion of trans and intersex players," wrote The Athletic’s Meg Linehan in response.

"But the league and commissioner Jessica Berman's silence have instead repeatedly invited harassment of current players — to whom such a policy would not apply in any case — especially Black and queer players."

According to an NWSL Players Association spokesperson, collective bargaining — rather than the league itself — must determine all policy matters, including guidelines surrounding gender eligibility.

As for where the players union stands on the issue, the spokesperson told The Athletic that "Any position the NWSLPA takes…is and will be the product of a thoughtful, deliberate process that engages all our members and the issues that are important to them."

World No. 5 Germany is heading to the 2025 UEFA Women's Nations League Final, advancing with a narrow 3-2 aggregate advantage after surviving a semifinals comeback bid from No. 6 France in Tuesday's 2-2 draw.

The German women will next face reigning Nations League champions and world No. 1 Spain in this winter's two-legged finale, after the perennial titans quickly dispatched No. 3 Sweden by adding a 1-0 Tuesday victory to advance on a lopsided 5-0 aggregate score.

The two-match 2025 Nations League championship will kick off on November 28th in Germany, before Spain hosts the second leg on December 2nd.

While Germany's international prowess isn't new — with the program's resume boasting two World Cup wins (2003, 2007), an Olympic gold medal (2016), and eight of the 14 total Euros titles — the German Federation is doubling down on the national team's future by making a landmark €100 million investment into the country's top-flight domestic league: the Women's Bundesliga.

The German Football Association (DFB) announced the plan last week, with the DFB General Assembly readying to vote on the funds at next month's meeting.

Once approved, the move will mark the largest single investment in German women's football history.

"We want to ensure that the women's Bundesliga can stand on its own two feet: economically, structurally, and in terms of visibility," DFB president Bernd Neuendorf told German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau. "It is an investment in the future — in equality, in opportunity, and in the growth of the women's game."

The broadcast reach of Athletes Unlimited got even stronger this week, as the pro women's sports organization scored a blockbuster media rights extension with ESPN on Wednesday, ensuring three more years of basketball, volleyball, and softball coverage.

"The growth we've seen across Athletes Unlimited's leagues speaks to the power and appeal of women's sports," said ESPN EVP of programming and acquisitions Rosalyn Durant. "We're excited to deepen our partnership and bring even more of these moments and athletes to fans everywhere."

As part of the extended partnership, ESPN will exclusively air 50 Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) games annually, including 47 regular-season matchups and the AUSL Championship Series, with the company's titan channel ABC also committed to airing the first-ever pro softball game on network television.

The broadcast giant already has a vested interest in softball's future, with the most recent Women's College World Series Finals delivering a record-high 2.2 million viewers across ESPN networks last June.

AU's basketball and volleyball footprints are also growing, with all 24 games from each competition's season now set to air live each year.

"This renewed and expanded partnership affirms the strength of our properties and reflects the growing enthusiasm for women's professional sports," said AU chief broadcast officer Cheri Kempf.

Reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers is branching out, with Deadline reporting Wednesday that the Dallas Wings guard has signed on to star in an upcoming Apple Original Film.

Dubbed Jess & Pearl, the sports drama is based on an original idea by Zahir McGhee, whose resume includes writing and producing on the hit TV series Scandal.

"Set in the world of women's basketball, the film follows two phenoms who forge an extraordinary bond as teammates until fame, competition, and the ruthless business of college athletics threaten to turn their friendship into an epic rivalry," stated Deadline.

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Middle Child Pictures will produce the film with White Lotus executive producer David Bernad at the helm along with Wasserman's Lindsay Kagawa Colas and Tommy Alter.

Along with stepping in front of the camera, Bueckers will also serve as an executive producer on the project.

Bueckers isn't the first WNBA player to dive into the world of cinema this year, after enterprising Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese made her own feature film debut with a cameo in Netflix's A House of Dynamite earlier this month.

The UConn alum is facing a packed offseason, with Bueckers adding her new Hollywood venture to a schedule that includes the star guard making her Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball debut in January.