And that is a large part of what is wrong with sports in the USA. The over emphasis of "playoffs" cheapens the regular season and makes the regular season unimportant. It is what has caused me to, many years ago, completely stop watching NFL, NBA, MLB and even most college sports. It is what we are stuck with but, fortunately, we still have some sports where they either do it right or they seem open to making the sport better by reemphasizing the competition throughout the season. If I did not enjoy watching soccer (real football) so much I would not even watch these artificial and over hyped and really meaningless tournaments. If the tournaments were truly separate entities, like they are in Europe and Asia and Africa and South America, then they would be OK. But, here, we place too much importance on the little tournaments and thereby cheapen all the work of the regular season. Regardless of the tournament result KC won the NWSL this year and someone else will win the post season tournament and nothing can take that accomplishment away form KC. They are the champions of the NWSL.
Achievement is in the eye of the beholder. For those who see sports as binary, fair enough. I am not one of those. There is achievement throughout the process. There IS a President's trophy in the NHL. There IS a Shield in the NWSL. Both trophies are given for achievement. In the US culture, the playoff winner is valued higher. For me, playing 26 games to then allow 8 of 14 teams into a playoff is the sort of choice that is made by a cartel. Gotham were closer to last than first in points. To reduce an entire seasons work to one game is also a choice.
Whilst we cannot call them the Champions of the NWSL, we can celebrate what they achieved over 26 games. Other than that, I agree with your sentiment @GoodHands By the way, with all the teams we have seen with several players who many thought were "world class", how is it that they failed to get anywhere near what Chawinga FC did? To suggest that one player is enough to do what they did is a gross oversimplification. It is a team game. KC conceded 13 goals. DId Chawinga play as a forward, midfielder, defender and GK at the same time?
I don't need to explain anything to any European Club. There are many reasons why certain teams dominate leagues. the extra 30 mins AND single elimination creates a risk reward that is skewed. Football is a game where scoring is difficult. Breaking down low, organized and athletic blocks requires some level of risk taking and potentially increasing the risk of being counter attacked. Throw in PKs as a decider and you have a game state that is very different. It goes back to my original point, for me, the Regular season defines the "best" team. the NWSL playoffs are all about moments, who is healthy and who hits "form" at the right time. If the any of the European leagues decided that the Domestic Cup winner was the League Champion, fans would call it stupidity.
It did seem that way at times. I remember a match where she was only denied a goal by a remarkable save then, on the counter, she managed to get all the way back and stole the ball at the edge of KCs 8 yard box and then passed to a midfielder and the ball was returned to her at the center circle and then she made a fantastic pass to a wide open player at the corner of the box who then calmly scored. That is in almost one continuous play she took a great shot and stole the ball in the defense distributed into the midfield received a return pass in midfield and the produced a great assist. Although I do admit that she did not play 'keeper in that sequence. I do not really look forward to the USA having to face her in a World Cup as I think she raises the level of any team she plays on by several notches. I wonder how good she will get when she finally develops a really good first touch? (I mistyped that last and left off the "T" of touch and I almost left it that way but she already has a great first ouch. )
It is interesting to compare what happend to KC with the very late-in-the-season loss of Chawinga and then Cooper with Portland's very early loss of Smith, Weaver, Hanks, Muller, and others. For Portland, in losing their players early, they had time to adapt, get other players to be familiar with each other, and build a "survivor" team mentality. For KC, they did not have that time and we never will know how good they could have been with more time to adjust.
I would caveat that to say "team" sports (mostly). Because we celebrate the Olympics with how many total medals, not how many golds. Regardless, as @Number007 said, eye of the beholder and all that. And as @blissett said, why have a regular season (trophy) if the playoff only matter?
I don't understand the statement " how good they could have been". We know how good they were! We have a 26 game sample size. That is not invalidated by the playoffs.
I think both Washington and Gotham can be said to be similar. Washington had to play a significant part of their season without Rodman, and for Gotham, Esther was on and off injured. Both teams had to adapt. What I will say is that both those teams brought in players that could fill in for the missing player, more or less. Cantore for Rodman and Shaw for Esther, respectively. But KC brought in Sentnor and even though she was not an intended replacement for Chawinga, she is not the same type of player, so KC didn't really have anybody to fill her shoes. And as you pointed out, missing Cooper was probably just as big a loss. She similar enough that she would have been able to stretch the defense the way Chawinga does, and it might have been enough to get KC through. But with both out, that changed the way any team would defend v. KC.
I think @cpthomas is talking about how good they could have been without Chawinga and Cooper and necessary adjustments.
Sounds like a great play, but by your own admission, other players were involved. Reading your post again, are you are implying that first touch is NOT required to be a one person team?
Fair enough. I choose to believe what i saw of 26g. A team who picks up key injuries at an inopportune time is unfortunate. Luck plays a big part in single game KO events which is why I don't use them as the sole basis to determine the "best" team. If Gotham go on to win the title, kudos to them.
Right, that's what I meant. We already knew that with the two of them, they were by far the best team. With more time to adjust, they might still have been the best at the time of the tournament, but we never will know.
I am always amazed by what people put into the words that were not said. First touch is very very important to every soccer player. All I meant by the first touch comment was that she could be even better if her first touch was better. It is not horrible but it is less than optimal. And no team is a one person team. She might have been the difference between KC being a top team and them being the top team but she did not single handedly make KC great. To use a cliché, she was the cherry on the top of the great sundae. And KC is the NWSL campion.
Because the season is to qualify you for the playoffs, while the playoffs are to prove that you've built the best team for all situations.
And that is how I'm looking at it. Sometimes things work well fairly quickly, as we saw in Washington with Cantore and Gotham with Shaw. And sometimes things take more time, like we saw with Fishel with Seattle and Ovalle with Orlando. And from all appearances, it looks like Sentnor with KC was more like the latter. Baring major injuries, I think next season is going to be wild.
Why do all those countries play qualifiers to get to the World Cup, and then we call the team that wins the World Cup the best in the world? Why not just have every country play a 26-34 game season and pretend that somehow tells us everything we need to know?
It a philosophical view. You see the playoffs as being the most important, other see the regular season. It is what it is.
I said no team is one person. Sounds like you agree. First touch means different things to different players. From what i have seen her touch is plenty good enough for the role she is asked to play.
Because 1. the logistics of doing that would be impossible. 2. the World Cup is a KO event played alongside domestic leagues 3. TV and Sponsorhips to name a few. Comparing professional Club soccer to International soccer makes no sense.
While Cantore's best position is probably as a wing forward, she's played mostly in the center--more of a Hatch replacement than a Rodman replacement. She's a good player, but she hasn't replaced the production that Hatch provided in the first half of the season, much less the impact that Rodman brings. At the time Shaw joined Gotham, Esther had started every match this year except for the one immediately after the Euros. Shaw wasn't brought in to fill her spot. It's unfortunate that a lot of top attacking players have been injured, but Esther scored a higher percentage of Gotham's goals than Chawinga did for KC--I don't see any reason to feel extra sympathy for the Current.
Except that club soccer is just a localized version with a longer play window. The most popular soccer in the world is the World Cup and the Champions League, both of which have group play that's similar to a small league and then knockout rounds that are an awful lot like playoffs.
They are very different in terms of funding and structure. I don't know how you define most popular. Lets agree to disagree.
@jasondcsoccer.bsky.social Spirit vs. Thorns availability report: Spirit SEI/maternity: Hatch, Jessee, Krueger, Sarr, Sullivan Out: Carle (hamstring) Questionable: Rodman (MCL) Thorns SEI/maternity: Dufour, Hanks, Muller, Payne, Wade-Katoa, Weaver, Wilson Out: Alidou (excused) Questionable: Vignola (ankle) November 14, 2025 at 6:19 PM For Washington, both Tara McKeown and Abiodun are available but Carle not. PS isn;t this a match-up between the most depleted rosters for the whole season? it seems.