Racing Louisville midfielder Savannah DeMelo collapsed on the pitch during an NWSL match against the Seattle Reign on Sunday, with the late first-half medical event causing the teams to postpone the remainder of the game.
Cameras quickly cut away as trainers and medical personnel rushed to DeMelo's side and players cleared the field for an early halftime, with both sides soon announcing they were abandoning the then-scoreless match as an ambulance took DeMelo to a local hospital.
Racing later notified fans via social media that DeMelo was "stable and alert," while several reporters noted that the 27-year-old recently received a diagnosis of Graves' disease and hyperthyroidism — conditions that can cause an irregular or rapid heartbeat.
"I'm lucky to have my family with me while I'm waiting for test results to come back," DeMelo said in a club statement late Monday. "I'm extremely thankful to our whole medical staff for the quick response. They've been with me every step of the way."
NWSL decision to postpone play addresses past criticisms
DeMelo's situation is the second major medical event this NWSL season, following the mid-match collapse of Angel City defender Savy King in May.
At that time, the NWSL opted to continue play after an ambulance transported King off the pitch — a decision that the NWSL Players Association (NWSLPA) heavily criticized.
In the aftermath of that match, league commissioner Jessica Berman promised that games would not continue in any similar future situations — a shift reflected in the halting of Sunday's clash.
"Postponing the match was the right decision, as nothing is more important than the safety of players and staff on the field," the NWSLPA wrote on Monday. "This is a challenging time for all those affected, and we ask for continued respect of everyone's privacy."
"We recognize the concern this incident may cause, particularly in light of recent conversations around player safety," the league said in a statement. "The NWSL remains committed to ensuring that the highest standards of medical care and emergency response are in place at every match."
Beginning with second-half play, the conclusion of the currently 0-0 match between Racing Louisville and the Seattle Reign will be played without fans at 8 PM ET on Tuesday, though the game will be available to stream live on Paramount+ and NWSL+.
As another NWSL transfer window shutters, big-name trades, transfers, and loans are reshaping rosters ahead of the 2025 regular-season's home stretch.
On Wednesday, No. 10 Angel City announced that the LA club is transferring Australian defender Alanna Kennedy and English midfielder Katie Zelem to the WSL, with billionaire multi-team owner Michele Kang's newly promoted London City shelling out undisclosed transfer fees to add the pair to the Lionesses' roster.
Zelem joined Angel City in August 2024, while Kennedy was an even more recent 2025 offseason addition to the LA side.
Also joining the NWSL transaction fray this week is Racing Louisville, with the No. 7 club hoping to add to their firepower by picking up versatile forward Makenna Morris from the No. 2 Washington Spirit for $115,000 in allocation funds.
In her debut season, Morris notably tied teammate and Rookie of the Year Croix Bethune for the most goals from first-year players in 2024, with each attacker scoring five times despite missing multiple months due to injury.
While this year's secondary transfer window is over, teams are still able to make deals for intra-league trades and loans until the October 9th roster freeze — as well as sign upcoming free agents anytime before the end of the 2025 NWSL regular season.
Many top talents remain unattached for 2026, including a trio of USWNT vets in Spirit star Trinity Rodman, Chicago Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, and Gotham forward Midge Purce.
The NWSL is back in session beginning on Friday night, as 2025 season play returns with athletes shifting their focus from summer international tournaments back to the league's home stretch.
While WAFCON and Women's Euro participants are likely to be available this weekend, NWSL stars featuring in Saturday's Copa América final remain out of market.
The NWSL standings dominate this weekend's narrative, as No. 1 Kansas City towers over the league while lower-table teams embrace their shot at a reset after a month off the pitch:
- No. 7 Racing Louisville vs. No. 1 Kansas City Current, Friday at 8 PM ET (Prime): Though Racing currently sits in playoff position, they'll face a tough test when the high-flying Current storm through Louisville.
- No. 6 Seattle Reign vs. No. 11 Angel City, Friday at 10:30 PM ET (Paramount+): Reign fans will snag their first glimpse of new signee Mia Fishel on Friday, though Angel City will aim to ruin the welcome party as the LA club pushes toward playoff contention.
- No. 9 North Carolina Courage vs. No. 3 San Diego Wave, Saturday at 7:30 PM ET (ION): Courage forward Jaedyn Shaw takes on her former team as the Wave looks to keep the NWSL's surprise success story of the season going strong.
- No. 4 Washington Spirit vs. No. 5 Portland Thorns, Sunday at 12:30 PM ET (ABC): While Spirit fans cross their fingers for the return of injured stars Trinity Rodman and Croix Bethune, the Thorns will try to keep their steady momentum afloat in DC.
The NWSL is officially taking a breather, with the league kicking off the 2025 extended summer break after a roller-coaster weekend slate.
With half the of the 26-match regular season in the books, the No. 1 Kansas City Current extended their lead on the NWSL table to a towering eight points after defeating No. 11 Angel City 1-0 on Friday.
Helping balloon Kansas City's lead was No. 7 Racing Louisville, who kept No. 2 Orlando from claiming any points by securing a 2-0 upset win over the Pride on Friday.
With wins in five of their last seven matches, Louisville's refreshed roster has Racing entering the 2025 summer break with a 6-5-2 NWSL record, as the 2021 expansion side zeros in on a franchise-first playoff run.
"It's all about us. We're not really focused on the other team like we did a little last year," said midfielder Taylor Flint. "What are we going to do — what's our identity? I think that's a huge part of how we've been winning all these games."
On the other end of the table, the bottom four NWSL teams — Angel City, the No. 12 Houston Dash, No. 13 Chicago Stars, and No. 14 Utah Royals — will be looking for a major midseason reboot, after none managed to register a single win in the last five matchdays.
"We go from here, we break now, recharge, and we will be a very difficult opponent for a lot of teams in the second part of the season. That is our target now," said Angel City head coach Alexander Straus after Friday's loss.
There's still a lot left in 2025 NWSL play, with skidding teams banking on fresh starts while surging squads prepare to hit the ground running as soon as the season picks back up in August.
The clock is ticking in the NWSL, with just two regular-season matchdays remaining before the league hits pause on 2025 play to make way for the summer's major international tournaments.
Only five points stand between No. 2 and No. 6 in the NWSL standings, with a slim goal differential determining which club sits above the playoff line.
Bolstered by news of midfielder Sam Coffey's contract extension, the No. 7 Portland Thorns are starting to turn heads, steadily climbing the table despite star striker Sophia Wilson sitting out the season due to pregnancy.
With middle-of-the-pack teams looking to make their mark as the 2025 season approaches its midway point, plenty of heat awaits on NWSL pitches this weekend:
- No. 8 Bay FC vs. No. 2 Orlando Pride, Friday at 10 PM ET (Prime): Bay FC has once again pushed into playoff contention, with the 2024 expansion team aiming to humble the reigning champion Pride in front of a home crowd.
- No. 1 Kansas City Current vs. No. 6 Racing Louisville FC, Saturday at 7:30 PM ET (ION): Still hunting a franchise-first postseason berth, Louisville will look to prove themselves against a No. 1 Kansas City side on a four-match winning streak.
- No. 7 Portland Thorns vs. No. 3 Washington Spirit, Sunday at 4 PM ET (CBS): The league's seventh-place squad squares off against the 2024 championship runners-up, with the rising Thorns looking to steal a point — or three — off a Spirit side mired in injury and personnel shifts.
While one result could shift a team's standings spot, clubs are on borrowed time with a lengthy break awaiting the league after the next two match weekends.
San Diego Wave FC's unlikely hold on second place in the NWSL standings continued this weekend, as their new-look roster kept the team's six-game unbeaten streak alive in a rollicking 5-2 win over the North Carolina Courage on Sunday.
San Diego trails only No. 1 Kansas City in the early Shield race, with the Wave holding off reigning champion Orlando by one point on the table despite a hat trick from star striker Barbra Banda against Utah on Friday — the first three-goal showing ever recorded by a Pride player.
The Wave led the charge in a weekend goal-fest that saw 27 balls find the back of the net across six matches, continuing the 2025 season's immense attacking output.
Kansas City, Orlando, and Louisville each tallied three goals en route to weekend wins, while Utah, Chicago, and Seattle were the only teams to finish with single scoreboard contributions.
No. 8 Louisville's 3-2 Saturday win over No. 7 Angel City earned them a spot above the playoff line this week, sending Gotham below the postseason cutoff line at No. 9.
While stacking goals undoubtedly boosts excitement, there's a lot of the 2025 NWSL season left to go — and teams will likely need more than hot feet to sustain the lead.
The NWSL is back in action this weekend with a top-table match, a bicoastal battle, and some middle-of-the-pack clashes as the 2025 season enters its ninth matchday.
Parity is riding high these days, with just three points dividing the No. 1 Kansas City Current and No. 3 Washington Spirit in the NWSL standings — while only three more separate the No. 4 San Diego Wave from the No. 8 Seattle Reign.
With competition remaining tough as nails, don't expect much more daylight between teams following this weekend's tense lineup:
- No. 7 Gotham FC vs. No. 4 San Diego Wave, Friday at 7:30 PM ET (NWSL+): Coming off a two-game winless streak, Gotham is still searching for consistency as they take on a confident San Diego side that hasn't lost in four games.
- No. 9 Racing Louisville vs. No. 8 Seattle Reign, Friday at 7:30 PM ET (NWSL+): All tied up with 11 points each, Seattle will look to hold off Louisville as Racing continues to hunt the club's first-ever playoff berth.
- No. 2 Orlando Pride vs. No. 1 Kansas City Current, Friday at 8 PM ET (Prime): There's little love lost between these NWSL titans, as the reigning champion Pride takes on hosting duties in an attempt to leapfrog current top-dog Kansas City in Friday's marquee match.
In a season dominated by topsy-turvy results, the pressure to secure points week-over-week weighs heaviest on the teams who know they have the talent to rise above the rest.
The NWSL Disciplinary Committee issued new rulings on Monday, extending existing suspensions after further reviewing violations of the league's rulebook.
Racing Louisville midfielder Ary Borges earned an additional three-game suspension to her original April 27th red card offense for postgame dissent, with the committee finding that Borges "pushed the center official," per an NWSL release.
The league also handed Washington Spirit head coach Jonatan Giráldez an extra one-game suspension for his April 26th red card incident, determining that Giráldez "failed to exit the field as required by the NWSL following ejection from a match."
While the members of the NWSL Disciplinary Committee are anonymous, they're responsible for monitoring conduct that warrants review beyond punishments given on the pitch.
Borges previously apologized for her behavior during the Louisville's chippy draw against Portland, saying she let the "the emotional side of the moment" get to her amid officiating concerns.
"I'm not much of talking about referees because they are things that are beyond our control but what happened today in the match was a shame," she added.
Originally penalized for entering the opposing side's technical area in the final minutes of the Spirit's 3-0 loss to Gotham, Giráldez did not comment on his suspension.
At the time, assistant coach Adrián González told reporters, "Sometimes you have a lot of things that you cannot control… He was just trying to protect our players or coaching staff, but nothing else."
Due to the extended NWSL suspensions, Borges will sit out Louisville's next three regular-season matches — May 9th's game against Gotham, May 16th's clash with Seattle, and May 24th's visit to Angel City — while Giráldez will miss Washington's May 10th match against Chicago.
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.
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.