Orlando Pride 23 Games Unbeaten 🤯; Chawinga Stays Scoring 💥

It’s September 30th. Give us four minutes, we give you everything The Women’s Game.

Happy Monday, TWG readers! 

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Between all the games to watch, I squeezed in a beautiful hike here in Vermont. My dog, Finn, came along and proved once again that he’s the most adventurous boy in the whole world. The view at the top was beautiful — we could see the lake and there were early signs of the leaves starting to change. October is my favorite month for multiple reasons and fall foliage is one of them. My birthday is also coming up AND Halloween is my favorite holiday. Needless to say I’m thriving and looking forward to the month ahead.

We have a huge couple of weeks ahead here at TWG as NWSL playoffs approach, the WSL season ramps up, Champions League group stage games are set, and a USWNT camp approaches! I’m so excited about the content we have lined up for you in October, starting this week with an episode of Good Vibes featuring Becky Sauerbrunn AND Christine Sinclair, who just recently announced she will retire from professional soccer at the conclusion of the Portland Thorns season. Then on Thursday, we’re dropping a Friendlies episode with Bayern Munich and Lionesses midfielder, Georgia Stanway. Georgia was one of my closest friends at Man City when I played there and it was awesome to hear how much she’s enjoying her time in Munich.

With so much coming up, make sure you are subscribed to our podcast feed and YouTube channel — I don’t want you to miss anything! You can also follow along with TWG on social media at womensgamemib on IG, X, TikTok, and Threads. Keep reading for all the women’s soccer updates from this past week and thank you all for being here!

Love,
Sam

I. NWSL Matchday 22: Orlando still on top; Chawinga stays scoring for Kansas City ⚽

a. Orlando Pride defeated Houston Dash 3-1 in Orlando to maintain a seven point lead in the race for the Shield with four weeks to go. The Pride are a remarkable 23-games undefeated stretching back to last season. After standout defender Carson Pickett scored her first goal for the Pride and Angelina added a second, Houston’s 37-year-old Japanese midfielder Yūki Nagasato became the first player to score against Orlando in the NWSL since July 6 to make it 2-1. But the Brazilian GOAT, Marta, responded in stoppage time with her seventh goal of the regular season to end the night 3-1. 

More: ‘2nd biggest crowd watch Pride stifle Dash as unbeaten streak grows to 23’

b. In a battle of third and fourth place, Kansas City Current drew Gotham 1-1 at home this weekend. Kansas City’s Malawian star talent, Temwa Chawinga, scored her 17th goal of the regular season, maintaining her lead in the golden boot race.  

c. Washington Spirit kept their hold on second-place with a 2-1 win over Angel City in Los Angeles (recovering from last week’s 3-0 loss in Kansas City) despite missing star winger Trinity Rodman and multiple other starters to injury. Fortunately for Spirit fans, manager Jonatan Giráldez said Rodman’s back injury “is not a big injury”, though he didn’t specify a timeline for her return. 19-year-old Angel City forward Alyssa Thompson (who scored her fifth goal in five games last Monday) assisted Messiah Bright’s first club goal for Angel City in their loss. That’s six goal contributions in six games for Alyssa Thompson, who was part of the USA’s 2023 World Cup team, but was left off this summer’s Olympic squad. 

More: 16-year-old Melanie Barcenas scored her first NWSL goal for San Diego Wave in the club’s 2-0 win over Portland Thorns Saturday evening.

Also: Emma Hayes was in attendance to see the Chicago Red Stars take on North Carolina Courage this Sunday. North Carolina beat the home side 3-1, with the NWSL’s 2023 MVP Kerolin collecting her first goal since returning from an ACL injury.  

II. Christine Sinclair announces retirement from football 🇨🇦⚽🐐

One of the greatest to ever do it is hanging up the boots at the end of this year. Christine Sinclair, the pride of Canada and the world’s leading international goalscorer in men’s and women’s football, announced her retirement at the end of this NWSL season. The dynamic 41-one-year-old has been a mainstay of the NWSL since its inception, gracing stadiums across the nation while representing the Portland Thorns. Sinclair has won three NWSL Championship trophies and two NWSL Shields, while scoring 64 regular season goals as the Thorns’ all-time leading goalscorer. With a legacy that pervades the club and international game, Sinclair retired from the Canadian National Team with 190 goals. Portland will honor Sinclair in their final regular season home game, on Nov. 1. Our tribute to Sinc is here. 

More: All-time great Sinclair to retire after NWSL season

III. European Roundup: early title races are close, Eredivisie starts with a Lily Yohannes goal 👑 

a. Chelsea are on top of the Women’s Super League (WSL) after two matchdays following a 7-0 win over Crystal Palace. England Lioness veteran and former Barcelona right-back Lucy Bronze collected her first goal for Chelsea in the win, and Friendlies pod recent guest Guro Reiten bagged a brace. The USA’s own Catarina Macario claimed the club’s seventh goal in stoppage time. 

Arsenal and Manchester City both collected slim 1-0 wins on Sunday. Last year’s WSL topscorer, Khadija “Bunny” Shaw, made the difference for City against Brighton in a game that saw Dutch international Jill Roord sub into the match after 249 days sidelined by an ACL injury. Frida Manuum, who scored Arsenal’s first goal of the season against Manchester City last weekend, also scored the lone goal for the Gunners in their win over Leicester City. Manuum’s not the only one with two goals from two games. English midfielder Grace Clinton scored again for Manchester United, who picked up a 1-0 win over Everton to finish the weekend in second-place behind Chelsea. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

More: Chelsea vs Manchester United match postponed after scheduling blunder

Also: Check out Sam’s chat with Chelsea and Norway star Guro Reiten from this past week of Friendlies on YouTube or wherever you get your pods. 

b. USWNT captain Lindsey Horan loves a headed goal, almost as much as she loves making it a brace. The Lyon midfielder scored another brace for the French giants this weekend in a 6-0 win over Strasbourg, bringing the Golden, Colo. native to two braces from two games this Premiére Ligue season. While Lyon are one of four clubs to clinch two wins from their first two matchdays, they are currently in second-place behind Paris FC on goal differential. 🇫🇷

c. FC Barcelona Femeni are looking strong this Liga F season after beating Granada 10-1, marking their fourth win in four games. Newly signed Polish striker Ewa Pajor, signed from Wolfsburg over the summer, scored a hat-trick in the win. Those goals matter for the table standings. Barcelona are back in first-place thanks to goal differential, though they’re tied on points with second-place Real Madrid and third-place Atlético Madrid, each having four wins from four games. 🇪🇸

d. Despite going down to ten players in the 51st minute, Bayern Munich beat Werder Bremen 4-0 on Sunday with goals like this screamer from England midfielder Georgia Stanway (who just happens to be Sam’s guest on Friendlies this Thursday 👀). Bayern is the only club with four wins from four games this season, giving last year’s league champions an early head start in the title race. Undefeated Eintracht Frankfurt are just behind them in second-place, after defeating Champions League side Wolfsburg 3-0 this Sunday. Leverkusen, the league’s third and final undefeated side, is level with Frankfurt on points but falls to third place on goal differential. Frankfurt and Leverkusen have won all of their games except one, which they drew 2-2 against one another earlier this month. 🇩🇪

e. Seventeen-year-old talent Lily Yohannes of Springfield, Va. (who debuted with a goal for the USWNT in June, though remains eligible to play for either the United States or the Netherlands) scored a sweet goal for Dutch Eredivisie side Ajax over the weekend. The goal came in Ajax’s 5-1 win over Vroll in their first matchday of the season. 🇳🇱

IV. UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage is set 📅

a. The UEFA Women’s Champions League wrapped up its qualifying phase last week to confirm this year’s final group stage contenders. After losing in the first leg, Arsenal picked up a massive 4-0 win at home to progress over Swedish side Häcken (goals included this stunner from Lia Wälti and former Barcelona forward Mariona Caldentey’s first club goal). Juventus sent PSG packing with a second straight win over the French side and Manchester City beat Paris FC 3-0 to win 8-0 on aggregate. Real Madrid beat Sporting CP 3-1 to confirm their spot. And Galatasaray made history, defeating Czech club Slavia Praha to become the first Turkish team in the Women’s Champions League group stage.

More: Former Barcelona player Mariona Caldentey already has a chant from her new team, Arsenal

Also: Celtic’s UWCL Qualification massive for women’s football in Scotland

b. The group stage draw followed last week’s qualifying. Four groups of four teams will commence the group stage next week. With little time to prepare, each group features tough ties, intriguing match-ups, and continental rivalries. That includes last year’s runners-up Lyon in Group A with German giants Wolfsburg. Chelsea go toe-to-toe with Real Madrid in Group B. Arsenal will compete against the likes of Bayern Munich and Juventus in Group C. And Manchester City face reigning champions Barcelona in Group D. 

More: From Sam: “Manchester City will have to play at their full potential early in the season”

V. News and Notes 📰🗞️

a. Germany’s legendary goalscorer, Alexandra Popp, has announced her retirement from international football this year. The 2016 Olympic gold medalist has 67 goals in 144 appearances for Die Nationalelf. 🇩🇪

b. Twila Kilgore, the USWNT’s former interim manager and assistant to both Vlatko Andonovski and Emma Hayes has stepped down from her role to pursue other opportunities in the field. Kilgore steered the US through uncertain times for nine months after Andonovski resigned, and helped guide the US team into the Emma Hayes era as she remained with the team through this summer’s gold medal winning Olympics. 🇺🇲 

c. The inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup picks up the group stage with matchday 4 of 5 this week. San Diego Wave will head to Vancouver to play Vancouver Whitecaps Girls Elite (Tuesday, Oct. 1, 8:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network), Portland Thorns host Panamanian side Sante Fe (Tuesday, Oct. 1, 10:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Golazo Network), Gotham head to Jamaica to play Frazsiers Whip (Wednesday, Oct. 2, 8 p.m., CBS Sports Golazo Network), and Liga MX Femenil side Tigres hosts Costa Rican club Alajuelense (Thursday, Oct. 3, 9 p.m., CBS Sports Golazo Network). 🌎

d. Who are the best teams in the world? Opta Analyst provides a stats-backed outline of the world’s best clubs, by ranking 2,000 women’s football clubs around the world on a scale of 1-100. The Power Rankings currently list Barcelona as number one, Lyon as number two and Chelsea comes in at third. All 14 of the NWSL’s clubs are ranked in the top 34 clubs globally, and seven of them in the top 20. 📈

e. Last Monday, Gotham made history as the first NWSL team to visit the White House, honoring their 2023 NWSL Championship win. USWNT veteran and Gotham’s captain during their 2023 Championship year, Ali Krieger, gave a speech alongside President Joe Biden acknowledging the achievement. 🇺🇲 

VI. Parting Shots 🥃

Emma Hayes is making the rounds. This Sunday, the gold medal winning USWNT coach was at the Chicago Red Stars vs North Carolina Courage. A few days before, Hayes was on the sideline to watch some Thursday night (American) footy. 

VII. Good Reads 📚

a. From Katie Gornall in The BBC, ‘Can women’s football become big business?’

b. Crystal Dunn profile in FIFPRO, ‘Every woman should have the option of pursuing their career and motherhood’

c. From Sarah Burt, ‘Three years after fleeing Kabul, the Melbourne-based Afghanistan women’s national team is still fighting for recognition by FIFA’