Hello and welcome back to NWSL Crunchtime. The Cutback’s newsletter for the business end of the National Women’s Soccer League season.
If you missed the first NWSL Crunchtime, then get all caught up right here.
It was a packed week of on- and off-field action, as the majority of the league hit 23 games played. We saw the league’s longest unbeaten streak come to an end, history made in Portland, and, on Monday, some off-pitch news grabbed all the headlines yet again…
Vlatko and KC end their love affair
The Kansas City Current announced on Monday — a national holiday in the States —that it had mutually parted ways with sporting director Vlatko Andonovski.
The move comes just 10 months after Andonovski started his front office role full-time, having previously been the club’s head coach for two years starting in 2024. Under Andonovski, KC finished top of the table in 2025, earning more points than any team in NWSL history.
"Both parties determined that Andonovski’s requested transition from coaching into the Sporting Director role at the end of last season was not the right fit,” the Current said in a statement.
The bare-bones, 78-word press release that delivered the news on Monday did not mention any of Andonovski’s achievements with the club and angered players both past and present. Since then, there has been an outpouring of affection for the departed director.
Michelle Cooper took to Instagram to post all the team’s records from 2025 with the comment: “Have to include historic 2025 season since the press release missed it!”
Team captain Lo Labonta also mentioned the press release’s failure to acknowledge Andonovski’s achievements. Saying that she spoke for the locker room, Labonta said the players were “forever grateful to have had you as a coach”.
Former player Claire Hutton, now with Bay FC, said that “Kansas City’s loss won’t be yours.”
This has been described by the Current as a mutual parting of ways, and there is no public acknowledgement that Andonovski is being actively pushed out of the club. However, it would seem that his sporting director role was not what he expected it to be.
One of the key wedges between Andonovski and the Current’s ownership is how Chris Armas, his successor as head coach, was appointed. Armas has no experience in the women’s game and was an average coach in men’s Major League Soccer, before being recommended by a friend of owners Angie and Chris Long. It would not seem that he was Andonovski’s pick.
Andonovski is one of the best coaches and team builders in NWSL history, and will not doubt have plenty of offers around the league. For KC, the most important football mind in their club history is gone. Now, a new model, a new structure, needs to fill the void.
Gotham’s unbeaten run ends
The longest active unbeaten streak in the NWSL came to an end last weekend. After 10 matches without a loss, league leaders Gotham were well beaten, going down 3-0 away to the Denver Summit.
Before Sunday’s game, Gotham’s last loss was on 4 July to the San Diego Wave. Denver have now done the double over Gotham in their inaugural season, having won 2-0 in New Jersey back in March.
While anyone can beat anyone in the NWSL, this was a shock scoreline due to how defensively strong Gotham have been this year. Before heading to Denver, Gotham had conceded just 14 goals in 22 games, and hadn’t conceded more than two in an NWSL game since November 2025.
Spirit make history in Portland
After 14 winless visits to Providence Park, the Washington Spirit now have a first-ever away win at the home of the Portland Thorns.
The Spirit came back from 1-0 down to beat the Thorns 2-1 thanks to new signing Melissa Bethi’s second-half winner. The 20-year-old Algerian international made her first NWSL start for the Spirit after arriving from Nantes in July, taking her goal calmly and with aplomb.
It was the first time Portland had lost at home since September 2025, ending their club-record 13-match home unbeaten streak.
The Spirit’s win combined with Gotham’s loss closed the gap at the top of the table to two points and reignited the race for the NWSL Shield with seven matchweeks to play.
The Yolanda bounce
Yolanda Thomas won her first match in as caretaker manager of the Orlando Pride, beating the Houston Dash 3-1 at home.
Thomas took charge as the first Black woman to manage an NWSL match after the Pride decided to sack former manager Seb Hines last week. Hines was the second-longest-serving manager in the NWSL and the first permanent Black head coach in league history.
On the pitch, Barbra Banda scored her first-ever NWSL penalty to make it 2-0 to the Pride just before half-time, her 14th goal of the season.
The win keeps Orlando’s faint playoff hopes alive. The Pride are five points behind the Seattle Reign in eighth, while Orlando have played one game more.
NWSL lacking in Ballon d’Or nominees
Just four players from the NWSL were nominated for the 30-player 2025-26 Ballon d’Or shortlist: Barbra Banda (Pride), Temwa Chawinga (Current), Rose Lavelle (Gotham) and Lorena (Current).
NWSL players can struggle for relevance in Ballon d’Or voting. The league’s schedule and time-zone don’t matching many of the judges who vote for the award and it’s no surprise that only the league’s top-line players appeared on the shortlist.
Lavelle scored the winning goal in last year’s Championship final, Chawinga was the Golden Boot winner and league MVP, and goalkeeper Lorena set records for clean sheets and fewest goals conceded while topping the league.
There was a theory that Banda and Chawinga could gain more votes this year because of their impressive showings at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, but as Jon Arnold pointed out, it appears that judges are being asked not to consider that tournament in this year’s vote.
What to watch out for
Sitting in third, the North Carolina Courage have been the surprise package of the season and their incredible leap up the table over the past few weeks has been driven by the sensational goalscoring exploits of Ashley Sanchez.
Sanchez scored a hat-trick last weekend, taking her tally to 18 goals this season. That’s the most ever by an American player in the NWSL and two behind the outright league record for a season, set by Temwa Chawinga in 2024.
The must-watch game of the weekend will see the Courage head to fifth place San Diego this Saturday [6:30 p.m. ET U.S. / 11:30 p.m. BST].
Both are jostling to finish in the top four and seek a home playoff match come November. But with just six points separating them from the top of the table, a long shot at winning a Shield isn’t quite out of the question.
Weirdly, North Carolina and San Diego are yet to meet this season and will face off twice in the final seven weeks of the season. This is also the Kailen Sheridan derby, as the Courage goalkeeper makes her first return to San Diego, where she was the team’s first-ever goalkeeper and key contributor between 2022 and 2025.