This episode of 'The Late Sub' is presented in partnership with Visa.
In the latest episode of The Late Sub, podcast host and JWS staff writer Claire Watkins invites Bay FC center defensive midfielder Kiki Pickett into the studio to chat through the 2024 NWSL expansion's side banner first season — one, as Pickett reveals, where local support made all the difference.
"That love for women's sports is huge," the Santa Barbara native and Stanford grad says of her team's Northern California home. "And then we have the Valkyries coming in as well, so I think that's only just going to increase."
Throughout the conversation, Pickett looks back on other sources of support, including hands-on backing from team staff as well as a unique partnership with founding partner Visa that sees direct investment in current Bay FC players. In addition to investing in enhanced player benefits such as dedicated mental health support, Visa's partnership enables players to more efficiently earn the maximum amount of appearance fee compensation available under the NWSL's current CBA.
"I think that's been a huge advantage for us, knowing that they have our back on whatever it is — recovery, nutrition, mental balance," she says of Bay FC's Visa partnership. "Those are just the little details that get us above and beyond."
Bay FC's rise from shaky start to 2024 NWSL Playoffs
Pickett then walks Watkins through the team's impressive mid-season turnaround, explaining how Bay FC became the perfect NWSL underdog before highlighting some of the most memorable moments from the team's record-breaking debut year.
"Every game has helped us learn and build our blocks," Pickett continues, reflecting on the team's journey from a shaky start to making last weekend's NWSL quarterfinals. "The mindset switch was, 'If we're so focused on defense, you've got to make sure the offense is correct. If we're so focused on offense, we've got to make sure our defense is correct.' We eventually put those two together, and it just clicked."
"Maybe people aren't talking about us in the beginning because we didn't have the best record," she adds. "Now people are talking about us."
Elsewhere in the episode, Watkins also takes time to recap this past weekend's NWSL quarterfinals, talking through blowouts, surprises, empty tanks, and why the league's top four teams continue to rule the pitch this year.
About The Late Sub with Claire Watkins
The Late Sub with Claire Watkins brings you the latest news and freshest takes in women’s sports. This is the weekly rundown you’ve been missing, covering the USWNT, NWSL, WNBA, college hoops, and whatever else is popping off in women’s sports each week. Special guest appearances with the biggest names in women’s sports make The Late Sub a must-listen for every fan. Follow Claire on X/Twitter @ScoutRipley and subscribe to the Just Women’s Sports newsletter for more.
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The 2024 NWSL Playoffs are officially set, with Portland and Bay FC clinching the final two postseason spots this weekend.
The Thorns punched their ticket with Friday's 3-0 win over Angel City thanks to a trio of first-half goals from attackers Christine Sinclair, Sophia Smith, and Morgan Weaver. The victory officially extends Sinclair's pro career by at least one more match, and saw the soccer legend notch her final goal in front of a Providence Park home crowd in her 200th regular-season game.
Then on Saturday, a brace from forward Racheal Kundananji boosted Bay FC to a 3-2 win over Houston, snagging the 2024 expansion team the postseason's No. 7 seed in the process. Even more, Bay became the winningest first-year team in NWSL history with 11 wins, surpassing 2022 expansion team San Diego's 10 victories.
Top NWSL playoff teams build postseason momentum
The top four playoff-bound teams rolled through their last regular-season matches, with Orlando, Washington, Gotham, and Kansas City securing both victories and important postseason momentum.
Notably, Shield-winners Orlando snapped their two-game skid with Saturday's 3-2 win over Seattle, giving Pride fans hope for some more 2024 hardware.
North Carolina and Chicago, however, floundered in losses. Washington striker Ashley's Hatch's 37th-minute goal was the difference-maker in North Carolina's 1-0 loss on Saturday, the Courage's first home defeat since April 2023, when they also fell to the Spirit on a Hatch game-winner.
Like the Courage, the Red Stars locked up their playoff spot weeks ago, but their 3-1 Sunday loss to KC had arguably the most potent impact on the postseason picture. The combination of Chicago's defeat and victories from Portland and Bay sent the Red Stars down to eighth place on the table, their lowest standing in the league all season.
Chawinga officially clinches NWSL Golden Boot Award
The other big weekend winner was KC's Temwa Chawinga. Chawinga officially took the 2024 Golden Boot title behind her league-record 20 goals and six assists, despite sitting out the Current's Sunday victory with a knee injury.
Also impressing from the injured list this season is Spirit rookie Croix Bethune, who finished as the year's NWSL assist leader. Before her season-ending meniscus tear in August, Bethune notched 10 assists to tie the NWSL record held by Tobin Heath.
How to watch the 2024 NWSL Playoffs
The NWSL's first-ever eight-team bracket is locked up, with the quarterfinals kicking off on Friday.
No. 1 Orlando will face No. 8 Chicago at 8 PM ET on Friday, streaming live on Prime, with No. 4 Kansas City battling No. 5 North Carolina on Saturday at 12 PM ET on CBS.
Sunday's doubleheader will air on ABC, with No. 2 Washington hosting No. 7 Bay FC at 12:30 PM ET before No. 6 Portland visits No. 3 Gotham at 3 PM ET.
The NWSL's final weekend is all drama, complete with heated clashes that will determine the last two postseason berths and nearly all seeding for the 2024 NWSL playoffs.
While Shield-winners Orlando are secure at the top, the Pride will be desperate for a Saturday win over Seattle as they try and replace their two straight losses with some postseason momentum.
At the same time, Washington, Gotham, and Kansas City will all be jockeying for the No. 2 seed this weekend. While the Spirit and Current must contend with playoff-bound North Carolina and Chicago, respectively, Gotham's Friday matchup against a surging Utah looks surprisingly competitive.
Three NWSL teams battle over two playoff tickets
Seeding race aside, the final matchday's main event is an NWSL version of musical chairs in which three clubs — Portland, Bay FC, and Racing Louisville — will duke it out for the league's final two playoff spots.
The seventh-place Thorns and eighth-place Bay FC currently sit three points ahead of ninth-place Louisville, allowing both to clinch berths with either a win or a draw. If Portland and Bay walk with at least one point each, the postseason lineup will be settled before Sunday.
Should one or both teams lose, it'll all come down to Sunday's regular-season finale, where a win over San Diego plus a tie-breaking goal differential could send Louisville through to the quarterfinals.
The high-stakes elimination games
With the most on the line, Portland will shoot to extend their season — and goalscoring legend Christine Sinclair's career — against an already-eliminated Angel City side with nothing to lose on Friday. Perhaps most concerning is the fact that the up-and-down Thorns have lost three of their last four matches, while ACFC has only dropped one in the same stretch.
Bay FC arguably received a season finale gift in a Saturday visit to the Houston Dash, who finish the year at the bottom of the NWSL table. That said, one of the Dash's five wins this season came in a 3-2 Bay defeat at the end of March. Plus, with the worst goal differential of the three teams still in postseason contention, Bay will want to clinch with a Saturday result rather than gamble on potential tiebreakers.
As mentioned, a Portland or Bay loss sets up Sunday's final tilt as the weekend's biggest match, where Louisville will need to do better than their scoreless April draw with San Diego to usurp one of the West Coast squads's playoff spots.
How to watch this weekend's NWSL playoff elimination matches
Portland and ACFC will kick off the NWSL's make-or-break action on Friday at 10 PM ET on Prime before Houston hosts Bay on Saturday at 9:30 PM ET, airing on ION.
Should chaos rule the weekend, Louisville's match against San Diego will cap both the 2024 NWSL regular season and the playoff picture on Sunday at 5:30 PM ET, with live coverage on ESPN.
After an unprecedented 23-match unbeaten run, Orlando's path to the NWSL Championship appears to hang in the balance after two straight losses.
While falling to once-struggling Portland could be blamed on resting starters, last weekend's 3-1 loss to Gotham can't be ignored. The reigning champs managed to find the holes in Orlando's armor, becoming the only team this season to net three goals against the 2024 Shield-winners.
"Did they lose too late to overcome the emotions that come with the Shield win?," Claire Watkins asked on The Late Sub this week. "How do you right the ship?"
Bay, Louisville chase NWSL history in playoff pursuit
Clutch weekend wins kept eighth-place Bay FC and ninth-place Racing Louisville in the running for the final two playoff spots, with both teams also eyeing NWSL history.
Along with seventh-place Portland, Bay controls their fate, needing a win or a draw to clinch. That said, if Bay wins their last regular-season match on November 2nd, they'll not only become the second expansion team to qualify for the playoffs in their debut season, they’ll also do so with 11 victories — the most by a first-year club in league history.
Louisville faces a tougher path from three points below the cutoff line, needing both a final win and some help from a Portland or Bay loss. Should they advance, however, it'll mark the 2021 expansion club's first-ever trip to the playoffs.
The penultimate NWSL matchday has arrived, and there's no game with higher stakes this weekend than Saturday's clash between seventh-place Portland and ninth-place Louisville.
Both clubs sit three points from the postseason cutoff line, and while Louisville has everything to gain, the Thorns — who snapped Orlando’s unbeaten streak last weekend — have everything to lose.
Elsewhere in the NWSL, eighth-place Bay FC's Saturday test against the fifth-place Courage could determine multiple postseason fates. Meanwhile, ACFC hosts the surging Royals in a must-win match on Sunday.
NWSL playoff field comes down to two spots
With just two regular-season games to go, six of the NWSL's eight playoff berths are locked, while six other teams — Portland, Bay FC, Louisville, Utah, Angel City, and San Diego — are looking to punch the last two tickets.
This weekend's clinch and elimination scenarios:
- Seventh-place Portland can secure a berth with a win over Louisville, or a draw with Louisville plus a Bay FC loss.
- Eighth-place Bay FC can clinch with a win over North Carolina and a Louisville loss, or a draw with North Carolina plus a Louisville loss and a draw between Angel City and Utah.
- A Bay FC win immediately eliminates Angel City, San Diego, and Utah.
- To stay alive, 11th-place Angel City and 12th-place San Diego must win while 10th-place Utah must at least draw.
- Ninth-place Louisville can only be eliminated with a loss to Portland plus a Bay FC win or draw.
Hardware hoisters face off on Sunday
The top of the NWSL table has postseason berths and hosting duties all locked up, but even without playoff positioning on the line, Sunday's tilt between league-leaders Orlando and third-place Gotham is about more than bragging rights: The 2024 Shield-winners' visit to the 2023 champions feels like a postseason preview, all wrapped up in a Kelley O'Hara retirement party.
The Pride's response to their first season loss will unfold on Sunday's pitch while Gotham will be facing the only team to defeat them since June. Low stakes aside, this match is arguably all about momentum.
How to watch key NWSL matches this weekend
Portland kicks off against Louisville on Saturday at 7:30 PM ET before Bay FC takes on North Carolina at 10 PM ET, both on ION.
Then on Sunday, Angel City faces Utah at 7:30 PM ET, with live coverage on Paramount+.
The Pride's visit to Gotham will kick off at 5 PM ET on Sunday, with live coverage on ESPN.
Welcome back to Fast Friends with Kelley O'Hara and Lisa Leslie!
In today's episode, our hosts chat through the all-tied-up WNBA Finals, including the Liberty's Game 1 collapse, Game 2's response, and what the Lynx can do to snag a win at home.
Calling Game 1 "silk slipping through the fingers," Leslie said much of New York's implosion came because "the Liberty have some really silly turnovers."
Then, Kelley and Lisa talk all things NWSL, from the Portland Thorns getting back on track to Temwa Chawinga's record-setting goal to Bay FC's playoff chances and much more!
Coming off the success of JWS's Olympic commentary show The Gold Standard, Fast Friends features two legendary athletes serving up insider insights and unique takes on the biggest stories in women's sports every week.
Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.
With the 2024 NWSL Shield firmly in Orlando's hands, attention turns to the final three available playoff spots up for grabs as the regular season turns into the home stretch. The Chicago Red Stars, currently in sixth, could become the next team to clinch a postseason berth with a win against the surging Gotham on Saturday at 4pm ET (Paramount+).
Only Houston has been eliminated from postseason contention thus far, but Portland (7th) and Bay FC (8th) will try to hold off those below the playoff line to better their odds at a quarterfinal appearance. Racing Louisville appears poised to challenge for their own spot, sitting only three points below eighth place.
Both Portland and Bay FC will have their work cut out for them, as the Thorns take on first-place Orlando on Friday at 10pm ET (Prime), and Bay FC battles fourth-place Kansas City on Saturday at 10pm ET (ION). Amidst a losing skid, Portland is already looking toward the future after announcing this week that general manager Karina Leblanc will be transitioning out of her role at the end of the 2024 season.
Standings stragglers look to ward off elimination
With only three regular season matches left, Seattle, Angel City, San Diego, and Utah will all face elimination scenarios this weekend.
LA's playoff hopes hang by a thread after a three-point deduction due to a salary cap violation, but forward Alyssa Thompson is keeping the dream of the postseason alive. Thompson has scored five goals and registered two assists in her last seven NWSL games, including a crucial assist in a win against the Seattle Reign last weekend.
Six points off the playoff pace with three games to go in the regular season, Angel City will need Thompson at the height of her powers in their matchup against North Carolina on Saturday at 7:30pm ET (ION).
Andi Sullivan suffers season-ending ACL tear
The Washington Spirit announced on Wednesday that captain Andi Sullivan suffered an ACL tear in the team's loss to the Orlando Pride on Sunday, and will miss the rest of the 2024 season. A Spirit stalwart, Sullivan started all 21 regular season matches she appeared in for the club in 2024, tallying two goals.
Sulivan joins a growing number of injured Spirit contributors, including Croix Bethune (out for the season), Trinity Rodman, Casey Krueger, and Ouleye Sarr. The Spirit will take on Racing Louisville on Sunday at 5pm ET.
The MVP race heats up
With KC Current forward Temwa Chawinga running away with the 2024 NWSL golden boot, is there still intrigue to be found in this year's MVP race? Chawinga won NWSL Player of the Month for September, while forward Barbra Banda continued to excel with the unbeaten, Shield-winning Orlando Pride.
Banda's goal contributions are slightly off Chawinga's pace, with 13 goals and six assists to Chawinga's 18 goals and six assists. Chawinga leads the league in goals per 90 minutes, but Banda holds the title in goals and assists per 90 minutes, while both players comfortably lead the league in xG and npxG per 90.
It's been a year for blazing offense in the NWSL, personified by Chawinga and Banda's excellence. But voters will have to decide if individual contributions, playmaking, and total team success are a bigger part of the picture when deciding who will walk away with 2024 NWSL MVP.
This weekend's NWSL headliner is by far Friday's highly anticipated rematch between Orlando and Kansas City. Fresh off of clinching a playoff berth, the still-undefeated Pride will host a third-place KC squad hungry to hand Orlando their first loss of the season.
The Current have a particular axe to grind: When the pair first met on July 6th, Orlando snapped KC's own 17-match unbeaten run — one that dated back to 2023.
Current to lean on NWSL leading goal-scorer Chawinga
Seemingly on the rebound, Kansas City followed three straight losses with a 1-0 win over 13th-place Utah last weekend.
To contend with Pride sharpshooter Barbra Banda, however, the Current will rely on NWSL top-scorer Temwa Chawinga, who's now just four goals shy of breaking the league's Golden Boot record.
Bay FC on the rise in NWSL standings
While KC and Orlando strive to maintain their grip on the NWSL standings, newcomer Bay FC is climbing the table with impressive pace.
The 2024 expansion club started the season at 2-0-6, but a slate of wins against higher-table teams has rocketed them to seventh place — thanks in no small part to recent addition Abby Dahlkemper, who helped San Diego become the first expansion team to make the playoffs in their 2022 inaugural season.
However, the San Jose side's end-of-season schedule is a gauntlet, with five of seven remaining games against top-table clubs, including tomorrow's attempt to break the fifth-place Courage’s 18-match home unbeaten streak in North Carolina.
NWSL sets new single-season attendance record
Breakout talent and cutthroat clashes have led the NWSL to a new single-season attendance record, surpassing a total of 1.5 million fans last weekend. And with seven matchdays left, the league is on track to break the 2 million mark by the end of the regular season.
NWSL chaos reigned supreme this weekend, as lower-table teams walked away victorious in five out of seven matches.
Even Sunday’s 1-1 draw between second-place Washington and 12th-place San Diego was a lopsided affair, as Wave defender Kristen McNabb received credit for both goals.
The only expected result was Orlando’s 2-0 win over fourth-place Gotham on Sunday. With the victory, the Pride remains atop the standings while extending their record winning streak to 19.
Courage adds to Kansas City's loss count
On a streak of their own, now-fifth-place North Carolina added an 18th match to their home unbeaten stretch — one that dates back to 2023 — with Sunday’s 2-1 win over third-place Kansas City. The loss is KC’s third in a row, a marked departure after going undefeated through their first 15 games.
The Current's goal was unsurprisingly notched by Golden Boot race-leader Temwa Chawinga, who now sits two goals ahead of Orlando’s Barbra Banda with 14 on the season — four shy of tying ex-NWSL star Sam Kerr’s single-season record.
Mid-table movement heats up NWSL playoff race
This weekend’s upsets shook the mid-table, proving that securing a playoff berth won't be an easy task.
On Friday, Bay FC beat Portland 3-1, lifting the now-eighth-place expansion team over the postseason cutoff line while stalling the sixth-place Thorns at 27 points for the third straight week.
Extending their unbeaten streak to six matches, 11th-place Seattle defeated a restructured Louisville 3-2 on Saturday. Then on Sunday, striker Sydney Leroux’s stoppage-time winner delivered ninth-place Angel City a 2-1 win over Chicago.
With just eight regular-season matches to go, a slim four points now separate the seventh-place Red Stars from 10th-place Louisville.
International Soccer Summer isn’t over quite yet, with Bay FC hosting FC Barcelona tonight in the first of the storied Spanish side's two-match US friendly tour.
The reigning European champions will round out their trip against the just-launched USL Super League's Dallas Trinity DC in Texas on Friday.
NWSL expansion team Bay FC no stranger to bold moves
Inviting a club of Barça’s caliber for a midseason friendly is just the latest in a series of bold moves by the new NWSL franchise. The club has been all-in from the start, one-upping a record-setting expansion fee to bring the NWSL to the Bay Area before shelling out a world-record transfer fee for Zambian forward Rachael Kundananji in February.
At 10th-place in the standings with nine matches left, Bay FC is within striking distance of the NWSL's eight-team postseason cutoff. If they can close that gap, they'll become just the second expansion team to make the playoffs in their first season.
Ex-Barcelona standout Oshoala faces her former club
Tonight's match will likely feature Nigerian striker Asisat Oshoala, who joined Bay FC in February after five seasons with Barcelona. The six-time African Player of the Year helped the Spanish club to four Liga F trophies and two Champions League titles. She remains their fourth all-time leading scorer with 117 goals in 162 appearances.
When asked about playing her old team, Oshoala told reporters, "It will be weird. I hope I don’t pass it to the wrong team thinking this is my teammate. But it will be fun, I’m excited they will be here."
How to watch Bay FC play Barcelona on Thursday
Catch the international club friendly between Bay FC and Barcelona tonight at 10 PM ET, with live streaming coverage on ESPN+.