™The regular season is done, and Decision Day delivered exactly what it promised. Gotham lifted a first Shield with a 2-0 win over Utah, Seattle snatched the last playoff place with a 1-0 win over Orlando, and Ashley Sanchez won the Golden Boot with 20 goals in a season that still ended without a postseason for North Carolina. Eight teams remain, the quarter-finals start on Friday night, and the Shield winners carry one worry into the playoffs: Jaelin Howell left the Decision Day win with a non-contact ankle injury. Here is where all sixteen teams stand.
Gotham FC
Shield winners, and deservedly so. Guro Reiten and Jaedyn Shaw — her 11th of the season — scored in the 2-0 win over Utah that sealed a first Shield at 61 points, and Gotham did it as the reigning champions playing like reigning champions. The Howell injury is the one cloud: lose her for the playoffs and the midfield looks very different. Even so, the road to the title still runs through Harrison, starting with Seattle on Sunday.
San Diego Wave
Second place, 58 points, and the form team of the run-in: six unbeaten, capped by a 1-0 win at Bay on Decision Day. The Shield slipped away only because Gotham refused to slip, and San Diego now get a home quarter-final against a Utah side they have already beaten this season. If the Wave keep defending like this, nobody will fancy a trip to Snapdragon.
Washington Spirit
Trinity Rodman's late goal finished a 2-0 win over Chicago and a 55-point season, good for the third seed and a home quarter-final for the third straight year. The Spirit have the star power to win the whole thing — Rodman's 12 goals were tied for fourth in the league — but the draw has handed them Portland, the one opponent with the recent history to ruin a home party. Audi Field on Sunday is a proper tie.
Kansas City Current
Finished like a train: a 2-0 win at Louisville closed a 16-5-9, 53-point season and kept the winning run rolling into a home quarter-final against Angel City on Saturday. Croix Bethune's single-season assist record (11) tells you how this team plays — fast, front-foot, and ruthless when the chances come. The Current are peaking at exactly the right time.
Angel City FC
The 4-1 demolition of Boston took the unbeaten run into double figures and Angel City to 52 points and fifth place. A month ago this was a hot streak; now it is simply who they are. The quarter-final trip to Kansas City is the toughest draw of the four, but nobody in this bracket is playing with more belief right now. Whoever wins on Saturday will have earned it.
Portland Thorns
A 2-0 win at Houston closed a 50-point season and confirmed what the last few weeks have suggested: the Thorns are battle-tested and back. Sophia Wilson's 15 goals were the third-most in the league, and the defense that leaked goals earlier in the year has tightened up when it matters. Washington will not enjoy Sunday one bit.
Seattle Reign
In by the narrowest of margins, and what a way to do it: Jordyn Bugg's winner against Orlando, in Jess Fishlock's home farewell, with the last playoff place on the line. Seattle finished on 47 points and now get one more dance for a legend — but the prize for surviving is a trip to the Shield winners. Gotham are favorites; the Reign have absolutely nothing to lose, and that makes them dangerous.
Utah Royals
Through, but limping in. The 2-0 defeat at Gotham on Decision Day continued a slide that has seen Utah win just once in their last five, and now the reward is a Friday night trip to San Diego — the form team in the league. The Royals built their season on being hard to beat; they will need every bit of that stubbornness at Snapdragon.
North Carolina Courage
The cruellest story of Decision Day. A 1-0 win over Denver was not enough once Seattle won, so the Courage finish ninth on 45 points despite a plus-10 goal difference and the Golden Boot winner in their side. Ashley Sanchez's 20 goals tied the single-season league record. It is a magnificent individual season — and it deserved a postseason.
Denver Summit FC
The expansion side's first season ends at 41 points, and what a first season: 53 goals scored, a 6-1 thrashing of Louisville in the penultimate week, and a playoff race that went to the final day. The 1-0 defeat at North Carolina ended it, but nobody in Denver should be down for long. This was a debut to build a club on.
Orlando Pride
Out, and the 1-0 defeat in Seattle confirmed the worst of it: Orlando could not even play spoiler. Thirty-six points, a minus-8 goal difference, and a season from Barbra Banda that deserved far better than an early finish. The Pride spent the run-in deciding other teams' fates; in the end they could not change their own.
Houston Dash
Ended the season with a 2-0 home defeat to Portland and 33 points — a flat finish to a flat year. Houston won games in patches and never found a run, and the gap to the playoff line (14 points) tells the story plainly. Another winter of questions for a club that keeps promising more than it delivers.
Boston Legacy FC
Thumped 4-1 at Angel City to finish an expansion season on 33 points — respectable, and the 2-2 draw in San Diego late in the year showed what this side can be. Boston were competitive most weeks and occasionally excellent. Year two is about turning those flashes into a playoff push.
Bay FC
Beaten 1-0 at home by San Diego to finish on 27 points, and year two reads as stagnation, not progress. Bay had a chance to play Shield spoiler on the final day and could not take it. A long winter awaits a club that needs a clearer identity, fast.
Racing Louisville
A 2-0 home defeat to Kansas City closed a 24-point season with a minus-22 goal difference. Competitive most weeks, rewarded almost none of them — the same story as last year, and the year before that. Louisville's problem is no longer effort. It is everything after effort.
Chicago Stars
Beaten 2-0 at Washington to finish on 17 points with a minus-54 goal difference: 17 scored, 71 conceded. The worst season in the league by a distance, and it is not close. Chicago need a rebuild, not a refresh.
Quarter-finals: Friday, November 6, San Diego vs Utah (10 p.m. ET); Saturday, November 7, Kansas City vs Angel City (12 p.m. ET); Sunday, November 8, Gotham vs Seattle (12:30 p.m. ET) and Washington vs Portland (3 p.m. ET). The championship is November 21 at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. Rankings updated weekly through the NWSL playoffs. Disagree? That is the fun of it.