With only five regular-season NWSL matchdays left, every point counts as teams jockey for postseason seeding, with this weekend’s lineup potentially shifting the standings.
After Spirit star Trinity Rodman exited last week's match with a back spasm, the forecast for Friday's bout between 10th-place Angel City and second-place Washington went from fairly uneventful to decidedly uncertain.
Rodman's now-confirmed absence, as well as that of teammate Casey Krueger, opens the door for ACFC to capitalize and snatch the three points LA needs to catapult them over the postseason cutoff line.
Two tight top-six tilts are also on deck later this weekend. First, third-place Gotham and fourth-place Kansas City will battle for a possible second-place spot on Saturday afternoon.
Then on Sunday evening, sixth-place Chicago will try to enhance their own playoff security against a North Carolina team whose fifth-place positioning is all but guaranteed.
Golden Boot race leaders headline NWSL MVP buzz
Also catching fire entering the NWSL's final stretch are individual award races, with 2024 Golden Boot race frontrunners Temwa Chawinga and Barbra Banda leading the charge for MVP.
With 16 goals, Chawinga's on pace to lap ex-Red Star Sam Kerr's 2019 single-season scoring record of 18, while Banda's 13 goals has tied Orlando teammate Marta's 2017 franchise best and her six game-winners put her on par with the NWSL’s single-season record.
Even amid Portland's struggles, last year's Golden Boot winner Sophia Smith's 11 goals and six assists on the season can’t be discounted.
MVP race aside, despite her season-ending injury, Washington’s Croix Bethune still seems like a lock for Rookie of the Year with five goals and a league record-tying 10 assists.
Meanwhile, Pride keeper Anna Moorhouse and her single-season record 12 shutouts leads the Goalkeeper of the Year campaign.
Portland's Weaver takes this week’s top NWSL celly
Making her case for this week's top NWSL celly is Thorns striker Morgan Weaver, who capped off her 49th-minute goal with a team-wide "rockabye baby" party in Monday's 2-2 draw with Angel City.
The celebration was well-warranted: Still working back to full fitness after a May knee injury sidelined her for the summer, the goal was Weaver's first since returning to the pitch.
Weaver later told reporters that the celly was a shout out to teammate Bella Bixby's newborn daughter and assistant coach Vytas Andriuškevičius's soon-to-arrive baby.
As the NWSL heads into the Olympic break, it's time to take stock of the players currently in contention for individual accolades by season's end.
Only 10 regular season games remain after the league's August 23rd return, despite this season being four games longer than last year's campaign.
The NWSL Golden Boot award comes down to two
The league's Golden Boot frontrunners are well known, with Orlando's Barbra Banda and KC's Temwa Chawinga leading the pack.
At the moment, Chawinga has a slight edge on Banda even though both forwards are tied at 12 goals apiece: Chawinga has registered six assists to Banda's five, giving her the award's first tiebreaker. Banda, however, has racked up her goals in just 12 games, while Chawinga's tally has come over 16 games.
With 10 matches to go, Banda and Chawinga could be on pace to break former Chicago Red Star Sam Kerr's 18-goal single-season record.
NWSL MVP award is still anyone's game
While Banda and Chawinga are certainly shoo-ins for this year's MVP conversation, a few other players also deserve some attention.
Rookie of the Year favorite Coix Bethune leads the league in assists with a staggering nine while sitting tied for seventh in goals scored with five.
USWNT stars Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith should also be considered, as Rodman's passing and finishing continue to stand out while Smith's performance has resulted in 10 goals and six assists on the season.
Plenty of NWSL competition for defensive awards
Orlando and Gotham have the stoutest defenses in the league this year, with both Defender and Goalkeeper of the Year candidates in the mix.
Orlando defender Emily Sams has proven her versatility, playing outside back after entering the league as a center-back while also being called into her first USWNT camp.
Recently signed Gotham goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger might be behind in games played, but she's been statistically solid ever since joining the 2023 NWSL champions.
And don't count out two-time reigning Defender of the Year Naomi Girma, who has been consistently excellent even as San Diego's season has wavered.
The 2023 World Cup quarterfinals kick off Friday in New Zealand and Australia (9 p.m. ET Thursday in the United States), and there are sure to be fireworks. One of the most closely watched games will be Japan vs. Sweden, and not just because the winner will go on to play whoever wins the matchup between Spain and the Netherlands.
Japan midfielder Hinata Miyazawa is currently leading the race for the World Cup Golden Boot award, with five goals scored in the tournament. Sweden defender Amanda Ilestedt, meanwhile, is in a seven-way tie for third place with three goals.
WHO ELSE BUT HINATA MIYAZAWA 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/gEtJqAlFkj
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) August 5, 2023
There is a three-way tie for second place, with France forward Kadidiatou Diani, Netherlands midfielder Jill Roord, and Germany forward Alexandra Popp with four goals apiece.
All eyes will be on Miyazawa on Thursday to see if she can extend her lead, but don’t expect her to boast if she does.
“I was happy to score two goals, but this was a team effort,” she said after Japan’s 4-0 win over Spain in the group stage. “The defense did its job and I was given with the right pass at just the right time. This is what enabled me to put the ball in the net.”
Megan Rapinoe, the legendary U.S. women’s national team forward, earned the Golden Boot at the 2019 World Cup in addition to the Golden Ball, given to the top player in the tournament.
Golden Boot Tracker
Here are all the top scorers of the teams remaining in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
5 goals
Hinata Miyazawa, Japan
4 goals
Kadidiatou Diani, France
Jill Roord, Netherlands
3 goals
Eugénie Le Sommer, France
Hayley Raso, Australia
Alba Maria Redondo Ferrer, Spain
Aitana Bonmati, Spain
Jennifer Hermoso Fuentes, Spain
Lauren James, England
Amanda Ilestedt, Sweden
2 goals
Catalina Usme, Colombia
Esmee Brugts, Netherlands
Rebecka Blomqvist, Sweden
Stephani Catley, Australia
Tanaka Mina, Japan
Ueki Riko, Japan
Linda Caicedo, Colombia
Fridolina Rolfo, Sweden
One goal.
That was the difference that made Alex Morgan the talk of the NWSL over Sophia Smith at the end of the 2022 regular season. Smith finished with 14 goals for the Portland Thorns, while the San Diego Wave’s Morgan won the Golden Boot with 15. Smith and Morgan were each nominated for this year’s NWSL MVP award, along with Mallory Pugh (Chicago Red Stars), Debinha (North Carolina Courage) and Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave).
In a pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s semifinal between Smith and Morgan’s teams, Thorns head coach Rhian Wilkinson said Smith has not gotten enough praise for her production this season.
“I mean, Alex Morgan is an incredible, incredible athlete, and has won the Golden Boot,” she said. “Sophia has taken up so much bandwidth from opposition backlines that it has allowed our team to have a scoring profile that has broken records this season. And it’s not by chance. Her movement — they probably have training sessions that opposition have to do to just get all over her. It takes three people to stop Soph.”
This year, Smith set a new single-season scoring record for Portland with 14 goals, passing Lindsey Horan’s 13. Smith’s count includes four braces, tying her with Naho Kawasumi and Sam Kerr for the most braces in an NWSL season.
Smith’s ability to draw in opposing backlines with her speed and scoring touch opens up space for other Thorns attackers, such as Morgan Weaver and Hina Sugita, and that’s shown up on the scoresheet. Sugita enters the playoffs with five goals and four assists, while Weaver has seven goals and three assists.
Smith, Sugita and Weaver are three of five players to record at least three assists for the Thorns this season, along with Yazmeen Ryan and Olivia Moultrie.
With Smith playing 1,452 minutes across 18 games this year, Portland scored a total of 49 goals, the third-most in a single season in league history.
“I don’t think people recognize that off-the-ball work that [Smith’s] doing, the assists she’s creating,” said Wilkinson. “I recognize I’m biased, but when you say MVP, that is what sets her apart.
“Definitely a Golden Boot would have been amazing for her. But if you look at how many players have had really prolific goal-scoring seasons, and why that is, it’s because of the spaces she’s created. I think that hasn’t been spoken about enough, what she’s doing off the ball in the spaces she’s creating for her teammates.”
The Thorns and Wave kick off at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday at Providence Park in Portland, Ore. (CBS Sports, Twitch). The winner advances to the championship game on Oct. 29 and will play either No. 1 OL Reign or No. 5 Kansas City Current, who go head-to-head in Sunday’s other semifinal at 7:30 p.m. ET in Seattle (CBSSN, Twitch).
Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.