Hello and welcome back to NWSL Crunchtime, The Cutback’s NWSL newsletter.
Well, well, well. The chaos league strikes again. The 2026 NWSL playoffs kicked off with a bang on Friday night as the Utah Royals (No.7 seed) went away and knocked off many people’s favourites to win the Championship, the San Diego Wave (No.2 seed).
This is the second consecutive NWSL quarter-final where we have seen one of the two lowest seeds cause an upset. The 2024 season is a recent exception, where all the top four seeds won in the quarter-finals, and the number one seed, the Orlando Pride, went on to lift the Championship. But in both 2023 and 2022, there were first-round upsets, and top seeds failed to make the final.
NWSL Quarter-final results:
San Diego Wave 0-1 Utah Royals
KC Current 1-0 Angel City AET
Gotham FC 1-0 Seattle Reign
Washington Spirit 4-1 Portland Thorns
NWSL Semi-final slate:
Royals ride the Wave
Royals goalkeeper and hero of the night Mandy McGlynn said it best when, after a five-save performance that secured a historic 1-0 win in San Diego, she told reporters post-match: “I was like, this is like a new season. I did not even think about our performances before the playoffs. In this league, anyone can win on any given day.”
By many metrics and popular opinion, Utah were a huge underdog. They finished 11 points and nine goals worse off than the Wave in the table. Utah also had no wins against a top four side in the NWSL this season and had lost every previous meeting with San Diego in club history. Not to mention, this was both the team and head coach Jimmy Coenraets’s first-ever playoff match.
But as McGlynn aptly put it, when the whistle goes, all that fades away. Can you win that duel, make that save, or finish that chance that will change all those statistics and history books? It turned out, Utah could.
That’s now back-to-back first-round playoff exits for Jonas Eidevall and the Wave. San Diego is yet to score in the playoffs under the Swedish coach. Questions will be asked about how he was out-coached by Coenraets and his team faded after a bright start.
When it comes to trying to quantify Utah’s upset, I actually think it could be seen as even bigger than Gotham upsetting the KC Current one year ago. While that was an eighth vs. first seed matchup, with 29 points separating them in table, KC were without star players in Temwa Chawinga and Michelle Cooper. The Royals had to go to San Diego without arguably their best player, Mina Tanaka, and still came away with a win.
Gotham’s pitch debacle
Gotham defeated the Seattle Reign in a stinky game, where, despite winning 1-0, they failed to have a single shot on goal and generated just 0.16 xG. In the fourth minute, Reign defender Jordyn Bugg was credited with an own goal after a deflected corner trickled past Claudia Dickey.
However, beyond just the poor performance, Juan Carlos Amoros and his Gotham team were denied much of celebration due to the terrible quality of the playing surface at Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey.
Unprompted, Amoros offered a sincere apology to the media in his post-match press conference. "I feel the obligation to almost apologise for the state of the pitch. I think at this level, in this kind of game, as a league we should be having a better surface," Amoros said.
Reign head coach Laura Harvey, who has been in the NWSL for over a decade, didn’t mince her words when she referred to it as “shit” and the “worst field I have played on in this league and that is saying something.”
Jess Fishlock, who played in her final match before retirement, told reporters in the mixed zone that it was “atrocious.”
Gotham have already been fined $10,000 due to the state of their pitch, which they rent from MLS team New York Red Bulls. Now, even though there is no clash with the stadium being used next Sunday, Gotham has opted to play at the 5,000 capacity Icahn Stadium in Manhattan rather than Sports Illustrated Stadium.
“What we got was a field that is not the standard this club, this league or our fans deserve,” Gotham captain Tierna Davidson said on Monday. “The quality of the game is not up for debate, so we’ve made the difficult decision to move to Icahn Stadium on Sunday.”
Also, keep in mind that NYRB had already disappointed their tenants by booking a friendly against Mexican side Club America for Saturday, 14 November, one day before the semi-final.
Due to this pitch debacle, Gotham are now playing arguably the most important home game in their history not in their proper home stadium and with a heavily reduced crowd. A severely disappointing reality, and one that yet again highlights the problems that arrive when both infrastructure and broadcast windows don’t prioritise women’s football.
Thank you, Jess
One final word on Fishlock, who bowed out after 14 seasons in the NWSL with Seattle.
Speaking through tears in her final press conference, while sipping a Modelo beer, flanked by a long-term teammate, Sofia Huerta, the 39-year-old Welshwoman talked from the heart about her love of the game and what she will miss.
Emotions flowed as she brought up her journey with the young crop of players on the books at the Reign. That dressing room environment, growth and development amongst people you love is something very very special for any footballer.
“I'm not upset that I'll never play football again, I've played enough,” Fishlock said. “But I am devastated that I do not get to spend more time with this group.”
For real this time now, Jess. What a privilege to watch you play the game. For your contribution to the sport, the NWSL and the city of Seattle, thank you. Pob lwc, a hyd y tro nesaf.
Up next
Washington Spirit vs. Utah Royals
Saturday, 14 November, Audi Field, Washington, D.C.
UK: 5:00 p.m. US: 12:00 p.m. ET
UK: TNT Sports US: CBS / Paramount+
Sunday, 15 November, TBD, New Jersey/New York
Gotham FC vs. KC Current
UK: 8:00 p.m. US: 3:00 p.m. ET
UK: TNT Sports US: ABC / ESPN app