With their first NWSL win since July 5th, Portland ended Orlando's record 24-match unbeaten streak on Friday.

Thorns forward Morgan Weaver’s 13th-minute opening goal marked the first time the Pride trailed in a game since March 22nd.

Portland captain Christine Sinclair notched her 78th goal across all NWSL competitions to secure the 2-0 finish. The soon-to-retire legend's 55th-minute strike puts her just behind league-leader Lynn Williams, who scored her 80th goal in Gotham's 2-0 win over Chicago on Saturday.

The Pride, who secured the 2024 NWSL Shield earlier this month, notably did not start their three leading scorers: Barbra Banda, Marta, and Adriana. All entered in Friday's second half to face a Thorns side still missing top scorer Sophia Smith due to ankle injury.

Seventh-place Portland will look to clinch their postseason spot in the NWSL season's final two matchdays, a fact cheekily pointed out by Marta after the Thorns's victory.

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Chawinga bags NWSL scoring record

With her season's 19th goal in Saturday's 1-0 win over Bay FC, Kansas City striker Temwa Chawinga surpassed former Chicago Red Star Sam Kerr's 2019 scoring tally to etch her name into the NWSL record books. Like Kerr, none of the Malawian's goals in her record-setting run have come from penalties.

"[The single-season scoring record] means a lot to me because it’s a very difficult league… So I thank my teammates and I thank God for giving me this chance to be here," Chawinga said after the game.

“We know teams now are trying to close her down and close the space down in the area where she gets most of her chances,” KC boss Vlatko Andonovski told reporters after the match. “She ran out and hit a bomb.”

The all-but-guaranteed 2024 NWSL Golden Boot winner now boasts six more goals than the league's second-leading scorer, the Pride's aforementioned Banda.

The weekend's results also saw the fourth-place Current earn a first-ever home playoff match alongside second-place Washington and third-place Gotham, while sixth-place Chicago officially secured their postseason berth.

Lacasse hat trick sees Seattle eliminated from playoffs

Utah forward Cloé Lacasse's Sunday hat trick didn’t just lift the Royals 3-0 over the Seattle Reign, it also made NWSL history.

The Canadian national opened scoring off of a third-minute corner kick, tying Utah's record for the fastest goal before firing off two more before halftime.

The feat marked the first hat trick of the 2024 NWSL season as well as the first in Utah Royals history, with Lacasse joining Crystal Dunn as the only other NWSL player to ever book three first-half goals.

Now on a three-game winning streak, the victory keeps 10th-place Utah in the postseason hunt, while also eliminating Seattle from playoff contention.

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.