Trinity Rodman can still feel the jolt she received from Brooke Hendrix in the first minute of a bruising NWSL game last month.

Rodman, 18 years old at the time and playing in just her second professional game with the Washington Spirit, received a through ball from Ashley Sanchez in full stride toward Louisville’s backline. Looking to slide past Hendrix with her speed, Rodman took a touch and got a shot off just as the seasoned Louisville defender knocked her off balance.

Instead of a breakaway goal, it was a “welcome to the NWSL” moment for Rodman.

“Being so young and being so new to all of this physicality, I was going against her, trying to run behind and she gave me a big bump,” Rodman says, her voice soft and reflective while recalling the play from the May 21 game. “That’s when I realized there’s a lot of strong players in this league and I obviously need to learn to become a bigger body and be able to maneuver out of it.”

Many of those lessons for Rodman have come in real time. Since the Spirit selected her with the second overall pick in January’s draft, making her the youngest player ever drafted into the NWSL, there’s been no easing into the professional game.

Even before Rodman touched an NWSL field, people knew her name. She’s the daughter of five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman and a teenage phenom who essentially bypassed college for the pros, where the expectations have only intensified. Rodman scored in her debut for the Spirit during the NWSL Challenge Cup and has started four of five games in the regular season. She’s ranked second in the league in shots (16) and fourth in shots on goal (8).

What Rodman has accomplished in just four months in the NWSL doesn’t surprise Spirit coach Richie Burke. Rodman first came onto his radar in 2019 through Laura Harvey, Rodman’s coach with the United States U-20 team.

“She said to me, ‘Look Richie, she’s legit, absolutely legit,’” Burke says. Following that conversation, Burke had one of his assistants pull some clips so he could watch Rodman in action, including at the 2020 U-20 CONCACAF Women’s Championship, where she scored nine goals and made her case to be nominated for the U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year award.

“You can’t teach that innate instinct, that feel for the game, when the ball is going to get to certain places, or you get there a little bit before the ball arrives,” Burke says. “Her football instincts are just fantastic.”

Rodman made her professional debut for the Spirit on April 10 against the North Carolina Courage in the Challenge Cup. Entering the game in the 55th minute, she needed only five minutes to make her mark on the match with a textbook, two-touch finish. She used her pace to slice through the Courage’s backline and her technique to bring the ball down in the air and place it into the near post.

💥 @trinity_rodman is here, and she is not. messing. around. pic.twitter.com/OY6i28k3ct

— National Women's Soccer League (@NWSL) April 10, 2021

It’s those types of plays that have Rodman not only on NWSL scouting reports but on U.S. women’s national team coach Vlatko Andonovski’s watch list.

“Vlatko and the national team staff have been coming to games. She’s very much on the radar,” Burke says. “I was telling Vlatko when we were in Louisville talking about her a little bit that when you play with her and you’re around her, you realize how quickly she closes you down. She’s unbelievably fast and unbelievably quick across the ground, so when you’re in there playing with her, she changes your mind. You’re like, ‘Bloody hell!’ She’s on you like a flash.”

Running fast, cutting hard, defending until the ball is won and scoring goals have always been hallmarks of Rodman’s game. Even when she was 4 years old, growing up in Newport Beach, Calif. and just getting started in soccer, she couldn’t wrap her head around the kids who wanted to pick flowers and chat with their parents rather than attack the opposing defense.

“I would get so frustrated and try to gather the whole team while the game was going on,” Rodman says. “That’s when I knew soccer was going to be my thing.”

Rodman played for the fabled SoCal Blues soccer club her entire youth career, leading the team to a five-year undefeated streak and four ECNL national championships.

“Being on such a good club team, I got to experience the real competitive side of it,” she says. “When we started winning, my competitiveness started taking over and I was like, yeah, this is the sport I want to play. I feel the most confident and at home when I’m on the field.”

Rodman, the No. 1-ranked forward coming out of high school, intended to play at Washington State last fall. When the season was pushed back to the spring because of COVID-19, Rodman used the downtime to reconsider her priorities, eventually deciding to declare for the NWSL draft.

“I started getting impatient in a way, and I had pushed myself so hard and done so much extra work that I wanted to be at that level that I had been working hard to be at my whole life,” she says.

In her first practices with the Spirit, she realized just how much more work she had to do, starting with her strength and conditioning.

“I don’t think anyone could really be prepared for it being 18 years old,” Rodman says. “Every time at practice I got beat to the ball. I got pushed off the ball. I missed shots. Every single mistake I made, I learned from it, being around such talented and experienced players.”

Burke recalls one practice early in training camp when Rodman was having a hard time finding her rhythm in a passing square drill. As coaches examined every first touch and players whipped passes around, Rodman heard Burke’s commentary and assumed he was mad at her.

After practice, Spirit forward Ashley Sanchez spoke with Rodman and told her not to take Burke’s words so personally, that they were just his unique way of welcoming her to the team. That became official after a preseason game when Burke made up a song for Rodman, an annual tradition for his first-year players.

Rodman’s humility and constant drive to get better have endeared her to her older teammates. She mentions Andi Sullivan, Kelley O’Hara and Emily Sonnett as her biggest mentors on the team.

“I think that she could have come into preseason so big-headed — didn’t play in college, drafted high. But she’s been so professional in her approach to training and learning more,” Sullivan says. “For someone like her, she’s not just a star — she’s studying, she’s working hard and she’s showing up.”

Watching film has been integral to Rodman’s progress as a rookie. She’s noticed, for example, that her runs in the final third have been too slow and straight, making them predictable and easier for the defense to pick up, and she’s adjusted accordingly.

In the first minute of the Spirit’s game against the Orlando Pride on June 6, Rodman received the ball with her back to goal. She took a touch with the outside of her right foot and chopped it behind her back, spinning out of pressure and finding space down the right wing. She then whipped the ball across the box to Hatch, giving the Spirit their first scoring chance of the game.

“I think the greatest thing for Trinity is that she’s holding her own right now,” Harvey says. “For someone at her age to just be able to hold her own is a huge compliment right now.”

TRINITY RODMAN ➡️ ASHLEY SANCHEZ@WashSpirit jump out in front in the 93’! pic.twitter.com/mfV1ELRWlB

— CBS Sports Soccer (@CBSSportsSoccer) April 16, 2021

Although she’s improving and growing more comfortable with every training session and game, Rodman still calls her mom, Michelle, many times a day. When she has a practice that’s not up to her standards, she knows her mom will always say the right thing.

“You’re doing the best that you can do,” her mom will tell her. “If in your head you’re working your hardest, that’s all you can do and you just have to take it day by day because there’s nothing you can do about the practice you had an hour ago. Think about the next practice and how you can get better.”

The advice has stuck with Rodman, who turned 19 last month. Only five months have passed since she made history at the NWSL draft, and she feels like a different player now when she takes the field.

“I have already learned so much, and I think being able to see how much progress has happened in a short amount of time gets me excited for what’s in the future,” she says. “Before I was like, ‘Wow, I’m good.’ Now I’m like, ‘Wow I wasn’t that good.’”

Even Rodman can see she is just cracking the surface of her potential. And as her work continues to translate to the field, she’s making a name for herself.

“I’ll play the hardest I can ever play for my team,” she says. “I’ll do anything and put my body on the line so my team can succeed.”

NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman is defending the league's salary cap, addressing growing concerns about player retention this week — just days before soon-to-be free agent Trinity Rodman takes the San Jose pitch for Saturday's 2025 Championship match.

"We want Trinity in the NWSL, and we will fight for her," said Berman about the Washington Spirit star, responding to a report in The Athletic claiming that competing US top-flight outfit Gainbridge Super League has offered Rodman a contract surpassing the NWSL's current salary cap limitations.

"She is representative, or a proxy, of our broader point, which is that we want top players to play here, and we believe that we are already doing that and can continue to attract those players," Berman added.

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The NWSL's hard salary cap approach has come under fire amid recent high-profile departures of US talents like now-Chelsea FC teammates Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson, but Berman insists that the mechanism remains crucial to the league's parity.

"There are teams in other leagues that could compete in our league, but there are no leagues that could compete with our league," she explained, emphasizing the unique position the NWSL holds in the global soccer landscape.

"Compensation is not the only thing that players consider when deciding where to play," she continued. "We look at a whole host of factors, on the basis of the conversations that we have with players from our league and from players around the world."

The NWSL also confirmed Berman's multi-year contract extension this week, with executive committee chair Carolyn Tisch Blodgett saying in a statement that "[Berman's] vision for sustainable growth, along with her ability to fuel enduring momentum, has positioned the league for long-term success."

The soccer season's biggest showdown has finally arrived, as the No. 2 Washington Spirit and No. 8 Gotham FC take the pitch for Saturday's 2025 NWSL Championship match in San Jose.

Both teams enter the final steeped in postseason experience, with the Spirit winning their first title in 2021 before falling just short of a second in 2024, while Gotham lifted their first trophy in 2023.

"It feels like another NWSL game — we have competitive people on both sides," Gotham forward Midge Purce told JWS this week. "And it's fun. Stakes are high."

Despite entering as the postseason's No. 8 seed, Gotham insists they're far from underdogs, while the Spirit also view Saturday's matchup as a heavyweight bout.

"Both teams, we have different players but a similar idea — we all want to be protagonists," said Washington manager Adrián González. "Both teams want to win the ball as quick as possible. We love pressing high. I think it's going to be a good game for the fans."

"It's two teams that are very good tactically, two teams that are going to study how to counterpart each other," agreed Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amorós. "Then it's going to be those moments of brilliance — it could be set pieces — certain moments where players take responsibility."

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How to watch the 2025 NWSL Championship

The 2025 NWSL season comes down to Saturday's final between No. 8 Gotham FC and the No. 2 Washington Spirit.

This year's championship match kicks off from San Jose at 8 PM ET, with live coverage airing on CBS.

Gotham FC's Emily Sonnett would like everyone to know that her longtime teammate and close friend Rose Lavelle is a very good defender.

"Cannot forget that," she told Just Women's Sports at Thursday's NWSL Championship Media Day. "Gotta write about that."

A World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist with the US women's national team, the respect that Lavelle almost instantly garners from the opposition creates significant space for her Gotham teammates. And since joining the team in 2024, she's taken well to the club's high-pressing, quick-transition style. 

"She takes up a lot of attention," said Sonnett. "The way that she leads silently on the field, like a ghost — you don't know when she's going to get [the ball] and do something brave, and then, bam, she's there."

Gotham teammates spotlight Lavelle’s two-way brilliance

Lavelle has been a constant during Gotham’s unlikely championship run, both a locker room leader and a Fellow Gotham and USWNT star Midge Purce would also like everyone to know about Lavelle's prowess on both sides of the ball.

"It's hard to describe when you play with someone who's that good, it's just special," she said. "She can do special things on and off the ball — something she doesn't get a ton of credit for."

She's such a force, in fact, that Purce wasn't aware of the one achievement that's eluded Lavelle throughout her illustrious career — winning an NWSL title.

"Rosie, I didn't realize!" Purce exclaimed upon learning she's never won a league championship — despite being on the Gotham squad that took down Lavelle's Seattle (née OL) Reign in the 2023 NWSL Final. "She deserves the world."

From Breakers to Gotham: Rose Lavelle's winding NWSL journey

Lavelle needs little introduction to a soccer audience. A perennial winner on the international stage and a midfield maestro with the ball at her feet, the 30-year-old is a fixture of the global women's game. But her NWSL career has been a bit more nuanced. 

A Wisconsin standout with serious USWNT interest right out of college, Lavelle signed her first professional contract with the now-defunct Boston Breakers in 2018, entering a league almost unrecognizable to today's thriving NWSL ecosystem.

Boston folded the following year, sending Lavelle to Washington during a dark competitive period for the Spirit. She was later somewhat unceremoniously traded to Seattle in 2021, while playing overseas with the WSL's Manchester City. That Reign team went on to fall to none other than Gotham FC in the 2023 NWSL Championship — with Lavelle scoring Seattle's only goal.

In 2024, Lavelle got to make her own choices. She jumped ship, signing with the NY/NJ club that so silenced Seattle the previous season as part of a flashy free agency class.

How Lavelle battled injury and reclaimed her NWSL influence

Regardless of tonight's outcome, Lavelle's greatest triumph this season might simply be taking the pitch for a full 90 minutes. The 30-year-old has struggled with injuries throughout her professional career, but bouncing back from offseason ankle surgery was especially taxing. Her prolonged recovery impacted her ability to make a difference on the field, as she watched Gotham's form waver early in 2025.

"It was a pretty big surgery," Lavelle said, acknowledging that she's had to adjust her role within the team to maintain a presence off the pitch.

So she found ways to stay involved. She shared opinions in team meetings, staying connected with teammates in order to forge a seamless transition once she could handle more significant playing time. 

"She supported me for the first half of the season, when she wasn't even on the field," said rookie midfielder Sarah Schupansky. "And she didn't only support me, she supported the whole team."

Lavelle admitted that even now she doesn't feel 100%. But she also has a veteran's perspective on the bigger picture. "I still have to give myself the grace of acknowledging that it's going to be an up and down journey," she said.

"Being able to play with Rose, obviously, with the national team, has been incredible," Sonnett remarked. "But seeing the way that she's been able to train in NWSL, seeing that grit — I know she's battled through injury. [But] being able to see her train, I learn a lot from her."

Chasing the one women's soccer trophy that’s eluded her

Having won all there is to win at the international level, Lavelle's legacy doesn't ride on a single title. But her teammates would love to help check off that particular box on behalf of their locker room leader.

"I adore playing with her, and I adore her off the field," said Purce. "I definitely want to see her lift that trophy — she's going to be just fantastic."

As for Lavelle herself, the game is the fun part. And raising a trophy at the end of 90 minutes is just a benefit of the greater goal.

"This is what you play for," said Lavelle.

"This season is so long and hard. But then you get to these moments and this is the fun part, win or go home. We're all just fighting for each other, amped up, playing every single day."

Star England defender Esme Morgan made an impression on her new Washington Spirit teammates even before she set foot on US soil — just by the sound of her voice.

"Looking at Es on social media before she came, I just thought her voice was so angelic," Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury told Just Women's Sports at NWSL Championship Media Day in San Jose. "Even the first weeks, I couldn't even focus on what she was saying — I'm like, 'I am in the presence of the Queen.'"

If the former Manchester City defender wasn't already the NWSL team's quintessential English international, she cemented her prowess after winning a European Championship with the Lionesses earlier this summer. Since joining the Spirit in 2024, the center back has become a player to watch on both sides of the Atlantic, after making a bet on herself by transferring to the notoriously fast-paced NWSL in search of greater responsibility on the pitch.

A die-hard NFL fan with a bubbly personality and loyal TikTok following, Morgan immediately took to life in the US. Her proper British accent belies a fierce competitor on the field. She's a force in the locker room, fusing social connections that greatly contributed to the Spirit reaching a second straight NWSL final. And she's also good for more than a little bit of banter.

"Es is just super entertaining, she's really good at getting under my skin," added Kingsbury with a laugh. "She brings… a lot of sunshine to the locker room, and obviously is just a fun person to play with." 

But it's not all puppies and rainbows. Ceding last year's championship to the Orlando Pride still stings for Morgan. And she's turned that pain into intensity — one that's fueled her and her teammates all the way back to the precipice of NWSL glory.

How Esme Morgan energized Washington Spirit’s team culture

Washington's camaraderie is palpable, something midfielder Hal Hershfelt credits in part to Morgan's readiness to spend time with her teammates off the pitch, no matter the occasion.

"Honestly, she came to the team and we did a lot more team events and stuff like that," she said. "She's so extroverted, willing to get people together, get people grooving."

Morgan recalls a time early in the 2025 preseason, after Spirit captain Andi Sullivan announced she was pregnant with her first child ("the whole team had gone crazy," she remembered). A group of players had ridden their bikes to get ice cream, including recent signing Narumi Miura, who had only been in market for a few days.

"We were all just chatting about [Sullivan], and Rumi goes, 'I love this team!'" Morgan said. "She'd been here four days. We were like, 'Oh my gosh, Rumi, we love you too!' I think that speaks to the environment that we have."

The team's comfort with one another is also evident on the pitch, whether it's Morgan and midfielder Croix Bethune hitting Cam Ward's football celly in front of Audi Field's sold-out home crowd, or the trust permeating the defense as they confront ongoing injuries. 

"We definitely hold each other to high standards," said Kingsbury. "We all really want to win, and we all really want to do well for each other."

Esme Morgan bets on the NWSL to elevate her England career

Morgan arrived in the US on a mission.

She was named to England's World Cup squad in 2023, but spent the tournament on the bench, watching on as an unused substitute as the Lionesses finished second to Spain.

So when she got the opportunity to transfer to the NWSL the following year, proving her national team worth was front of mind. 

"She wanted to take a step forward, knowing that this league would challenge her," said Washington manager Adrián González. "I think she's done an amazing job, especially adapting herself to the type of games we have here."

The defender favors the NWSL's summer schedule, as it allows her to stay in shape for major international tournaments. And as she told JWS earlier this year, the US league's speedy, possession-oriented style has made her a better overall player. Morgan had always been good with the ball at her feet, but her time in Washington has significantly improved her off-ball positioning and ability to go toe-to-toe with the world's best attackers.

Her desire to improve only grew stronger after the Spirit fell short of last year's NWSL title. "That was something that at the time provided a huge fire inside me," she said. "I worked super hard in the off-season, doing things on the pitch that I knew would complement the areas of the game that I wanted to improve."

From Euros glory to NWSL grind: Esme Morgan returns to form

The work is paying off. She played a key role as a reserve center back in the Lionesses's successful UEFA Women's Euro defense this summer, replacing Gotham defender — and 2025 NWSL Championship opponent — Jess Carter in England's hard-fought semifinal victory over Italy. She went on to lift the trophy with her national team teammates, after avenging their World Cup loss against Spain in the European Championship final. 

Winning a major international title accomplished a childhood dream, but Morgan had to quickly re-orient herself after rejoining the Spirit in DC.

"Immediately after the Euros was when I felt the most tired. It was just like a come-down after that high," she reflected. "But I've since rallied and [felt] fresh and ready coming into the last couple of games."

How team love fuels the Washington Spirit's NWSL Championship quest

Heading into tonight's NWSL Championship, Morgan's focus on winning hasn't changed. But the source of her desire has shifted some, a full year after last year's disappointing exit. Washington faced adversity due to injury this season, in many ways mirroring their 2024 arc. But they've also continued to prioritize joy — on and off the pitch.

"We've overcome lots of challenges as a group, but stuck together throughout," Morgan said. "Now my passion and desire to win this weekend comes not from me losing out last year. It comes from the love I have for this group and the desire to win with these girls."

Another thing driving her? A victory tonight would put Morgan in rare company, completing her 2025 trophy case with both an international and league.

"I had the best time in the summer, achieved a lifelong goal. And ever since I've come to the Spirit, I've wanted to win the championship," she said. "It would be the perfect year, really."