First-time champion on tap
Rapinoe’s Reign to face Gotham
A first-time National Women’s Soccer League champion will be crowned Saturday at San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium.
The OL Reign will take on NJ/NY Gotham FC at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on CBS.
OL Reign put up an unremarkable 9-8-5 performance during the regular season to earn its No. 4 seed but has punched above its weight throughout the playoffs. The Reign took down Angel City FC in the quarterfinal and eliminated the 2023 NWSL Shield winner and top seed San Diego Wave in the semifinal.
US women’s national team star Megan Rapinoe is the headliner for OL Reign, and she will be playing the final game of her career. The twotime World Cup champion announced in July that she would retire from professional soccer at the conclusion of this NWSL season.
Standing in the way, however, is a feisty Gotham team that has defied its low seed. Gotham FC sneaked into the playoffs with a 8-7-7 record and has upset the tournament’s second and third seeds en route to the final. Gotham FC finished last in the NWSL standings one season ago. First-year head coach Juan Carlos Amorós was named coach of the year for his role in the turnaround.
Under Amorós, Gotham has excelled as a defensive-minded club, leading the league in possessions won (1,554) and shots faced (205). Lynn Williams leads the team with seven goals, and the offense has been spread around, with eight players having at least two goals this year.
This is the team’s third meeting this season. The teams split results in the regular season — the Reign won, 2-0, at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., in April, then Gotham won, 4-1, at Seattle’s Lumen Field in May.
Saturday’s final is the culmination of a knockout-style playoff format. Six teams advanced to the playoffs with three rounds of competition, including two first-round matches and two semifinal games.
Last month, the league unveiled a new trophy for the event that was redesigned in collaboration with Tiffany & Co.