The Portland Thorns have achieved what no other NWSL club has in the league’s 10-year history, winning their third NWSL Championship with a 2-0 victory over the Kansas City Current on Saturday night.

Thorns striker and 2022 NWSL MVP Sophia Smith scored in the fourth minute, and Kansas City allowed an own goal right after halftime to complete Portland’s shutout at Audi Field in Washington, D.C.

Smith added to her hardware collection after the game, named Championship MVP for her performance in the Thorns’ attack. As the Thorns celebrate on stage at midfield, captain Christine Sinclair received the championship trophy from commissioner Jessica Berman, nine years after winning her first NWSL title with Portland in the league’s inaugural season.

The Thorns added to their lead in the 56th minute and continued to control possession, keeping Kansas City off the scoreboard until the final whistle despite several dangerous chances by the No. 5 seed.

Ten minutes into the second half, Portland’s Raquel Rodriguez passed the ball down the flank to Yazmeen Ryan — who kickstarted much of the Thorn’s offense on Saturday. Ryan sent a low cross into the box as Smith crashed the net. The forward just missed the ball, but Current goalkeeper Adrianna Franch tipped it off defender Addisyn Merrick and into their own goal.

Everything is coming up roses 🌹 pic.twitter.com/bM1B6dBLxj

— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) October 30, 2022

Portland didn’t let up after taking a 2-0 lead. Thorns striker Morgan Weaver tested Franch in the 57th minute with a flicked header to the left post, which Franch dove to tip over the endline. One minute later, Weaver drilled a shot from outside the 18-yard box that hit off the crossbar and over the net.

In the 70th minute, Franch made her best save of the night, blocking Hinan Sugita’s curving shot with a full-extension dive to maintain the 2-0 scoreline.

Portland put Kansas City in an early hole, forcing a turnover in the midfield and pouncing on a mistake by the Current’s backline in the fourth minute. As center back Elizabeth Ball slid to try to recover a misplayed pass, Smith ran onto the ball and beat Adrianna Franch on a breakaway, cutting to the left and slotting it home.

The goal was Smith’s first of the playoffs and 15th of the season.

.@sophsssmith puts @ThornsFC up EARLY early 👀#NWSLChampionship | #BAONPDX pic.twitter.com/AJsIsB9r5S

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) October 30, 2022

The Thorns dominated possession for most of the half, holding a 56 percent advantage over the Current for the first 45 minutes. Smith had another dangerous chance in the 27th minute, splitting two defenders in the box and firing a shot just wide right of the goal.

From there, Kansas City built momentum going into halftime. Forward Kristen Hamilton sent a cross in toward Kate Del Fava at the back post in the 33rd minute, which Del Fava headed just over the crossbar. Six minutes later, Hamilton nearly split Thorns defenders Becky Sauerbrunn and Meghan Klingenberg in the box off a pass from Hailie Mace, but she slipped on the turn and the Thorns recovered.

Portland now holds the all-time record for the most NWSL Championships after winning the title in 2013 and 2017. The Thorns finished the postseason on top after conceding the NWSL Shield to OL Reign in the final weekend of the regular season, with head coach Rhian Wilkinson earning the trophy in her first season at the helm.

Sweden veteran defender Magda Eriksson is hanging up her international boots to focus on her health, with the 32-year-old officially announcing her retirement from her national team on Sunday.

Eriksson will continue competing at the domestic level for her German club, Bayern Munich.

The longtime captain sat out the most recent international window due to a head injury, watching as world No. 3 Sweden fell to No. 1 Spain in the two-leg 2025 Nations League semifinals.

"It's by far the toughest decision I've ever made," Eriksson said in her social media announcement. "But I'm listening to my body and mind instead of my heart."

"I've landed in the fact that unfortunately it's a decision that has to be made."

After an 11-year career with the Swedish senior national team, Eriksson retires as a two-time Olympic silver medalist, earning those podium finishes in Rio in 2016 and at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games.

Often leading Sweden through major tournaments where early domination dissolved into a third-place finish, Eriksson also helped her team eke onto the World Cup podium in both 2019 and 2023.

"It is heavy news," said Sweden head coach Tony Gustavsson after Eriksson announced her international retirement, calling her "one of our most important players for a long time."

"[Magda's] professionalism, courage, and heart have left a strong mark on the national team," he added.

Chelsea FC's £1 million gamble is paying dividends, as USWNT rising star Alyssa Thompson continued her goal-scoring momentum for the six-time defending WSL champs on Sunday.

The young forward found the back of the net in the ninth minute of the Blues' 1-1 Sunday draw with Liverpool, solidifying her status as a decisive attacking threat for her new club.

"You can see how much talent she has and the quality she brings to the team," Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor said of Thompson earlier this month. "She's improving game after game, becoming more connected to her teammates, and understanding the way we want to play better."

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Thompson left NWSL side Angel City for Chelsea on a then-record £1 million transfer fee in early September, with the 21-year-old going on to notch three goals and one assist in four matches across both WSL and Champions League play.

"Being able to play with players that are the best in the world is an amazing opportunity," said the striker. "I want to learn, grow, and develop a lot. I feel like Chelsea is such an amazing environment to do that in."

Beyond individual accomplishment, Thompson's success underscores Chelsea's depth as they continue to hunt domestic and continental honors on a now-34 match WSL unbeaten streak — while also looking to potentially draw more USWNT stars away from the NWSL.

Women's professional baseball has landed a home base, with Front Office Sports reporting on Monday that the newly formed WPBL will play the entirety of its 2026 debut season at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois.

The incoming league prioritized a neutral venue without an existing baseball team to house its four inaugural clubs — New York, Boston, LA, and San Francisco — for its first campaign, with barnstorming games also planned for each team market.

"Our sport is for everybody," WPBL co-founder Keith Stein told FOS. "It's for middle America, everybody. We thought, 'Our teams are on these two coasts, it would be good to be in the middle of the country.'"

Founded in 2024 as the first professional women's baseball outfit in the US since 1954, the WPBL will hold its first-ever draft on Thursday, with the league's four teams drawing from a pool of 120 eligible players.

The WPBL recently fielded an oversubscribed Series A investment round, telling FOS that they're closing a $3 million raise with another round planned ahead of its August 2026 season-opener.

Each 30-player team will operate under a $95,000 salary cap for the first year, with the league also covering living costs throughout the seven-week season as well as giving players a percentage of sponsorship funds.

How to watch the first-ever WPBL Draft

The 2025 WPBL Draft kicks off at 8 PM ET on Thursday, with live coverage streaming across the league's Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channels.

Las Vegas Aces boss Becky Hammon spoke her mind last week, telling CNBC Sport that the WNBA might need "a change in leadership" for the league's CBA talks to successfully progress.

"I just think [player relations] might be too fractured at this point, but we'll see," Hammon said, while also noting that she's had only limited interactions with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

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Citing Engelbert's "private conversations...with individual players — or lack of the conversations," Hammon described the commissioner's current relationship with players as "rocky" while describing her widely criticized leadership style.

"I don't know if she can ever regret, retract, and get that traction back from those conversations," the Aces boss posited.

"When the players speak, people need to sit up and listen," she continued. "I think [Engelbert is] sitting up and listening now."

Hammon also voiced support for Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier after the five-time All-Star described the WNBA as having the "worst leadership in the world" in her now-viral 2025 exit interview.

"I completely agree with Napheesa that the players should be making more than coaches," the Las Vegas sideline leader — who publicly earns seven figures per year — continued. "They're due for a huge increase in salary, and it's got to be something that is sustainable. That's the biggest thing you got to remember, that this league is still a young league."

Ultimately, while the 2025 WNBA season is over, CBA concerns loom large over the league's current offseason and 2026 campaign, leaving Hammon and others looking to avoid a lockout as the November 30th extension deadline nears.