As the Portland Thorns cruised to the club’s third NWSL championship on Saturday, one could be forgiven for thinking they’d been in that position many times before. Despite it being the team’s first championship appearance since 2018, they appeared calm, well-drilled and cerebral as they contained the Kansas City Current for 90 minutes in a 2-0 win.

Any championship performance is a culmination of a year of work, and first-year coach Rhian Wilkinson added her own spin to the Thorns’ pre-established culture to guide them through a tumultuous month off the field. It could be hard to tell from the outside how the significance of the Yates report, which implicated a number of Thorns executives in perpetuating a culture of abuse in the NWSL, was affecting the players on the ground.

The response seen in primetime on CBS was a comprehensive performance by Portland and a result that was never in doubt. The Thorns’ back five — led by now three-time NWSL champion Becky Sauerbrunn, who only misplaced five passes all night — didn’t take a wrong step, and the Current finished the match without a single shot on goal. Portland sustained pressure throughout the match, winning the ball and possessing to recycle attacks and force the Current into exhausting themselves while chasing.

“Honestly, just a fun game to play,” Final MVP Sophia Smith said after the match, who provided her team with a signature moment just minutes after kickoff. One of the best players in the world with the ball at her feet, Smith wasted no time when given an opportunity, giving the neutral crowd of over 17,000 fans a reason to cheer early.

Benefitting from a slip by Kansas City center back Elizabeth Ball, the 22-year-old rounded AD Franch to tap the ball into the back of the net in the fourth minute. Smith isn’t always the most demonstrative goal celebrator, but in a match of this significance, even she had to give a little shrug to the camera before being mobbed by her teammates.

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

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

Smith said that her shrug seen across the country was in response to anyone who thought she didn’t deserve to be league MVP. In the stadium, the moment also represented a certain amount of inevitability. Early goals can open things up and signal that even more goals are coming. But while Kansas City quickly pushed for an equalizer, they had trouble finding one another, and the Thorns firmly controlled the run of play for the next 85 minutes.

The Thorns’ ability to dictate the terms of the match came from veterans and young talent alike. While Portland’s established leaders have a wealth of championship experience, the starting XI for Saturday’s game looked almost unrecognizable to the group that won the team’s last title in 2017. Rookie Sam Coffey held court in the defensive midfield, and second-year forward Yazmeen Ryan provided a spark throughout the match that gave Smith room to operate.

“What can I say? Unbelievable,” Wilkinson said of the way her young players stepped up. “Sam was a rookie for a day, and then took off. And Yaz has had … I think last year she was just trying to find her feet, and then you see her coming alive.”

While her name didn’t make it onto the scoresheet, it was Ryan’s cross into the box that the Kansas City defense mishandled into the back of the net and sealed the game in the second half.

Wilkinson did make one major change to her starting XI from last week’s semifinal, reintroducing Christine Sinclair into the starting midfield in place of Hina Sugita, after the longtime captain came off the bench against San Diego. The move was purely tactical, with Wilkinson wanting to lean into Sinclair’s experience at the tip of the midfield supporting two attackers.

She joked after the match that since her team won, her slight personnel adjustment must have been the right decision. Sugita has had an excellent season for Portland, but her manager wanted very clear roles against Kansas City’s packed midfield, and Sugita mostly thrives as a box-to-box midfielder who can also drift wide. Wilkinson also thought that Raquel Rodriguez was peaking at exactly the right time, which made the No. 8 hard to drop in favor of anybody else. The Thorns dominated the midfield, proving their manager right.

“What a privilege to have Hina Sugita on the bench,” Wilkinson said, noting that the Japanese international made a huge impact in the second half. That willingness to rotate has been one of Portland’s great strengths this season. Their ability to put fresh legs into the match as Kansas City grew tired put the match out of reach long before the final whistle blew.

The moment we worked all season for.

WE. ARE. THE. CHAMPIONS. #BAONPDX pic.twitter.com/oMaE3tQEOt

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

It’s clear that Wilkinson has more than earned her squad’s respect, with Smith telling reporters after the match that it was “bulls–t” Wilkinson wasn’t nominated for NWSL Coach of the Year.

“I think it’s easy to overlook, because historically, this is a successful club,” Portland goalkeeper Bella Bixby said. “But it’s not easy to come in and implement your style of play, how you want your players to play, get player buy-in from the start, all of those things.”

Guided by Wilkinson’s steady hand, the champion Thorns also served as a reminder of the lifeblood of the NWSL: the players. On the field Saturday, Portland’s players showed the same chemistry that has carried them through a difficult year. As a club, Portland has come to represent many different things, and the players were put under a level of pressure that Wilkinson acknowledged could have warranted a full collapse.

Instead, they played for each other and for the supporters that have been with them every step of the way.

“We all love soccer,” said Smith. “So for me personally, soccer was like an escape from all the things going on. I just looked forward to going to practice every day, seeing my teammates.”

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday that the USWNT will play their last home game on July 16th in the lead-up to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

The 2024 Send-Off Match against Costa Rica will take place at Washington, DC’s Audi Field — home to both the Washington Spirit and DC United — at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 16th. The friendly rounds out a four-game Olympic run-up campaign under incoming head coach Emma Hayes’ side, with the last two set to feature the finalized 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team roster.

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Hayes will appear on the USWNT sideline for the first time this June, helming the team as they embark on a two-game series against Korea Republic hosted by Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado on June 1st followed by Allianz Stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 4th. 

The team is then scheduled to meet a talented Mexico squad on July 13th at Gotham FC’s Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, where the Olympic-bound lineup will attempt to rewrite February’s shocking 2-0 loss to El Tri Femenil in the group stages of this year’s Concacaf W Gold Cup. And while clear roster favorites have emerged from both of this year’s Gold Cup and SheBelives Cup rosters, a spate of recent and recurring injuries means making it to the Olympics is still largely anyone’s game.

Broadcast and streaming channels for the USWNT's final July 16th friendly at Audi Field include TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, and Peacock.

The USA Basketball Women's National Team is still considering Caitlin Clark for a spot on the Paris Olympics squad, says selection committee chair Jennifer Rizzotti. 

On Monday, Rizzotti told the AP that the committee will be evaluating the college phenom’s Olympic prospects by keeping a close eye on her first few weeks of WNBA play with Indiana.

The move is somewhat unconventional. While Clark was invited to participate in the 14-player national team training camp held earlier this month — the last camp before Team USA’s roster drops — she was unable to attend due to it coinciding with Iowa’s trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

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Judging by the immense talent spread throughout the league in what might be their most hyped season to date, competition for a piece of the Olympic pie could be fiercer than ever before.

"You always want to introduce new players into the pool whether it's for now or the future," said Rizzotti. "We stick to our principles of talent, obviously, positional fit, loyalty and experience. It's got to be a combination of an entire body of work. It's still not going to be fair to some people."

Of course, Clark isn’t the first rookie the committee has made exceptions for. Coming off an exceptional college season that saw her averaging 19.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4 assists per game for UConn, Breanna Stewart was tapped to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil less than two weeks after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Seattle Storm. Eight years prior, fellow No. 1 pick Candace Parker punched her ticket to the 2008 Games in Beijing just two weeks after making her first appearance for the L.A. Sparks.

In the lead-up to Paris’ Opening Ceremony on July 26th, USA Basketball Women’s National Team is scheduled to play a pair of exhibition games. They'll first go up against the WNBA's finest at the July 20th WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix before facing Germany in London on July 23rd.

While an official roster announcement date hasn’t yet been issued, players won’t find out if they’ve made this year’s Olympic cut until at least June 1st.

For the first time in history, three different WNBA teams have completely sold out of season ticket plans well before the league's May 14th kick-off.

Call it the Caitlin Clark effect, attribute it to this year’s tenacious rookie class, or look to the skyrocketing visibility of veteran players across the board. But no matter the cause, facts are facts: Tickets to the 2024 WNBA season are selling like never before. 

On Monday, the Dallas Wings became the third team to sell out of season ticket memberships in the league’s 27-year history. The announcement from Arlington came shortly after the Atlanta Dream issued their own season ticket sell-out statement, also on Monday, and almost seven weeks after the back-to-back WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces made headlines by becoming the first-ever WNBA team to sell out their season ticket allotment.   

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According to the Wings, season ticket memberships will fill nearly 40% of the 6,251 seats inside their home arena, College Park Center. The club also said that their overall ticket revenue has ballooned to the tune of 220% this year, spanning not just season tickets but also a 1,200% increase in single ticket sales. There’s currently a waitlist to become a Dallas season ticket holder, a status that comes with extra incentives like playoff presale access and discounts on additional single-game tickets. 

In Atlanta, season tickets aren't the only thing flying off the shelves. The Dream also announced that they broke their own record for single-game ticket sales during a recent limited presale campaign. Sunday was reportedly their most lucrative day, with five different games totally selling out Gateway Center Arena. Individual tickets for all upcoming matchups will hit the market this Thursday at 8 a.m., while a waitlist for season ticket memberships will open up next Tuesday at 10 a.m.

"Excitement around women's sports, particularly basketball, is at an all-time high and nowhere is that felt more than here in Atlanta," Dream president and COO Morgan Shaw Parker said in the team’s statement. "We’ve continued a record-setting growth trajectory over the past three years under new ownership — both on and off the court — and 2024 is shaping up to be our best season yet."

As of Tuesday, season ticket sales revenue for Caitlin Clark’s hotly anticipated Indiana Fever debut haven’t yet been announced by the club. But if these numbers are any indication — not to mention the explosive demand for Fever away games felt by teams around the country — it won’t be long before we see some scale-tipping figures coming out of Indianapolis.

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.