With a trio of old and new rivalries on deck, the 2025 NWSL season's fifth matchday promises budding top-table rivals, a bicoastal clash, and one of the league’s longest regional feuds.

Plus, with only two points separating the No. 5 and No. 12 teams in the standings, clubs will be focused on securing all three points as they strive to keep up with the season’s three remaining undefeated teams.

While the NWSL’s official Rivalry Week is still months away, this weekend’s key matchups provide some sneak-peek showdowns:

• Seattle Reign FC vs. Portland Thorns, Friday at 10 PM ET (Prime): In the first Cascadia Clash of the season, the Thorns — fresh off their first 2025 win — face a Seattle team trying to turn around a two-game losing streak.

• Angel City FC vs. Gotham FC, Friday at 10:30 PM ET (NWSL+): A classic East Coast vs. West Coast battle sees Gotham chasing Angel City up the table, as LA tries to keep their unbeaten streak alive against one of the league's more dangerous rosters.

• Orlando Pride vs. Washington Spirit, Saturday at 5:05 PM ET (ION): The Pride downed the Spirit at the 2024 NWSL Championship before Washington enacted revenge in the 2025 Challenge Cup, with both powerhouses now aiming for regular-season bragging rights.

As NWSL teams push for early-season positioning, this weekend’s action promises to up the stakes by tapping into rising tensions and rivalries — both old and new.

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Angel City hires new coach in Bundesliga's Alexander Straus

On Thursday, Angel City announced that the club officially filled its head coaching vacancy, hiring Frauen Bundesliga manager Alexander Straus to take over the LA team after his current season leading Bayern Munich ends on June 1st.

After more than a decade coaching in the club and youth national system of his home country Norway, Straus took charge of Bayern Munich in 2022, leading the German team to back-to-back league titles.

His 2024/25 squad is on track to claim a third straight Bundesliga trophy, and recently exited the competitive UEFA Champions League tournament in the quarterfinal round.

Following manager Becki Tweed's firing in December, ACFC tapped Sam Laity to serve as interim head coach as the club conducted an extensive global search for the permanent position.

"When we set out to hire our head coach, we looked for specific characteristics such as a dominant style of play, a proven winner at the highest level, a focus on player development, a collaborative mindset, and a leader in high performance," said ACFC sporting director Mark Parsons in a club statement. "Alex fits this profile at every measure."

Still undefeated entering the fifth matchday of the 2025 NWSL season, Angel City will continue under Laity until Straus's arrival.

The interim manager will then shift into an assistant coach capacity as Straus leads the 2022 expansion franchise as it hunts a second-ever postseason berth.

One full month before then end of the 2025 regular season, the WNBA shattered its overall attendance record, with Front Office Sports reporting that the league topped the 2.43 million fan mark last Friday.

The WNBA has sailed past the previous season-high attendance of 2.36 million set in 2002. Even more, it surpassed the record in 41 fewer games than the entire 2002 season, claiming the new mark in a total of 215 games.

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Leading the attendance charge are the No. 7 Golden State Valkyries, the No. 6 Indiana Fever, and the No. 2 New York Liberty. Both the Valks and the Fever passed the 300,000 total this week, with the reigning champion Liberty guaranteed to hit that mark on Thursday night.

Though the clamor to see the Fever is not a surprise, 2025 expansion team Golden State is somewhat unexpectedly topping the WNBA demand this season, continuing to break records by selling out every one of the Valkyries' 17 home games so far — fully packing San Francisco's Chase Center to its 18,064-seat capacity.

While this year's additional franchise plus the expanded 44-game schedule would be enough added inventory to significantly boost the league's attendance totals, overall demand is also driving the new record, with the WNBA logging a record-setting 11,000 additional fans per game throughout the 2025 campaign so far.

With 59 games still left on the 2025 regular-season docket, expect a banner year for the still-expanding league, as the WNBA is currently on track to blast through the 3 million attendance mark.

Dallas star Paige Bueckers all but slammed the door on the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year race on Wednesday, tying basketball legend Cynthia Cooper's 1997 single-game rookie scoring record by dropping a career-high 44 points in the No. 11 Wings' narrow 81-80 loss to the No. 9 LA Sparks.

Despite the Sparks officially eliminating the Wings from playoff contention, Bueckers's efficiency was on full display, tallying the highest single-game performance by any player in the league this season while shooting over 80% from the field.

"People have [seen] the struggles — the injuries, the ups and downs," Bueckers said afterwards. "For people to continue to follow me and still believe in me, it really means a lot."

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The 2025 No. 1 overall draftee leads a rookie class thriving in the pros, with the No. 10 Washington Mystics' Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen and the No. 13 Connecticut Sun's Saniya Rivers hot on Bueckers's heels.

On the WNBA stat sheet, Bueckers currently sits fifth overall in points per game and ninth in assists per game, while Iriafen is fourth in rebounds per game and Citron — who recently set a new Mystics rookie scoring record with 537 career points — is fifth overall in clutch points.

Despite the Sun's struggles, Rivers has excelled defensively, becoming the fastest-ever WNBA player to record 30 career blocks by doing so in just 31 games.

Ultimately, while Sparks guard Kelsey Plum's game-winning buzzer-beater ended Bueckers's postseason dreams on Wednesday night, the rookie's heroics continue to shine with the WNBA's end-of-season awards fast approaching.

Coming off Tuesday's 85-75 momentum-grabbing win over the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, the No. 2 New York Liberty will shoot to maintain late-season consistency against the now-eliminated No. 12 Chicago Sky in Thursday's WNBA slate.

Tied with the No. 3 Atlanta Dream at 22-13 on the year, the Liberty could benefit from the lopsided Thursday matchup, potentially adding space above Atlanta in the WNBA standings considering the Dream face an uphill battle against a motivated Lynx side.

"We're focused on the next nine games," New York head coach Sandy Brondello said following Tuesday's victory. "It's all about focusing on us and getting as high a position as we can in the standings."

The reigning champs still have work to do, however, with recent weeks seeing the Liberty post the second-worst 10-game record for any team above the playoff line — complete with three losses to their 2024 WNBA Finals rival Minnesota.

As for Chicago, the Sky are now focused on the future, bolstered by star forward Angel Reese's return from injury as they continue to build under first-year coach Tyler Marsh's system.

"I want to hoop," Reese said earlier this week. "I'm just happy to be out here to play the game I love."

How to watch Chicago Sky vs. New York Liberty in Thursday's WNBA slate

The No. 2 Liberty will host the No. 12 Sky at 7 PM ET on Thursday, tipping off live on Prime.

As the regular season winds down, the WNBA announced this year's postseason schedule on Wednesday, with the 2025 Playoffs officially tipping off on September 14th.

The latest possible finish for the 2025 WNBA Finals is October 17th, with three rounds of play standing between the eight-team postseason field and this year's championship trophy.

Notably, the WNBA is instituting two main changes to its previous Playoffs format in the 2025 schedule.

The postseason's first round — a best-of-three series — will shift from the WNBA's home-home-away format, in which the higher seeds could sweep at home, to a one-one-one structure.

With this change, the league is guaranteeing that every playoff team will host at least one home game.

Additionally, while the best-of-five semifinals will remain the same with its two-two-one hosting structure, the 2025 WNBA Finals will be the first to expand to a best-of-seven series, feeding fans' growing appetite for additional postseason clashes and offering upwards of four title-deciding matchups.

This new Finals format will see the higher seed host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7, giving each team a possible two opportunities to clinch the 2025 championship in front of a home crowd.

All games in the 2025 WNBA Playoffs will air on ESPN platforms, with matchups across ESPN2, ESPN, and ABC.

Currently, the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx are the only team to clinch their 2025 postseason berth.

On the other hand, the No. 11 Dallas Wings, No. 12 Chicago Sky, and No. 13 Connecticut Sun were all recently eliminated from playoff contention.