u/TiredPanini

Covers games from the weekend of May 8-10, possibly including adjacent midweek games, not sure how they do their week numbering

(Midweek) Match Week 9 + Bonus CCC Schedule 5/20 (all times Pacific)

We have enough midweek games that they get their own post this week. Which games will you be watching? What are your predictions? Scores, reds, yellows, which players get G+A? 

Form is old-new L-to-R, followed by overall W-L-D record for each team, e.g. “San Diego WWWDL 3-2-1.” 

It’s week 9 instead of a half-number because the last teams with 2 games in hand (ACFC, Bay) get to game 9 this Wednesday. However, they stay 2 games in hand relative to San Diego and Portland, who play their 11th matches of the season Wednesday.

Home	Away	Field	Date/ Time	Where to watch	Notes
Houston, LDLLL 3-5-1	San Diego, WLLWW 7-3-0	Shell Energy	Wed 5p	CBSSN	SD the favorite here, but watch for rotation effects. There’s probably a better bench on SD but you never know what will happen when a player hasn’t watched the right opponent-player’s tape and gets matched up with someone they aren’t ready for. HOU has not been the same team without Robbe and Van Zanten. Which makes me sad because their defense is talented and their rookies are individually really good. Dudinha vs Patterson would be sick if we got to see it, but that’s not guaranteed since they both usually play on the left.
Portland, WWWLD, 6-2-2	Bay, LLWDD 3-3-2	Providence	Wed 7p	Victory+	Without former teenager Olivia Moultrie, can POR be the dominant force we have come to expect? BAY have a decimated back line, once again forced to play natural 6 Joelle Anderson at CB last weekend. Interesting matchup, especially as we can look for some starters to be benched in preparation for POR v KC on Sat. BAY have CHI Sat so may start starters midweek.
ACFC, LLLLD, 3-4-1	KC, WLWWW 5-4-0	BMO	Wed 7p	Victory+	ACFC finally get Maiara Niehues back from suspension Wed. Will she start? Will Sveindis’ foot be okay to play midweek? Fuller started on the bench Su so expect her in the XI Wed. KC has looked scary good since Chawinga and Coop got healthy. They’re coming off back-to-back 3-0 wins vs CHI and HOU. Is it strategic for ACFC to rest starters this game, or do we hope to see the Chris Armas rotation strategy that led to KC’s early-season LLL three game week (vs CHI, SEA, POR)?

Gotham and Washington don’t play in the NWSL this Wednesday or weekend as they have CONCACAF Champions Cup playoffs, so I’ve added those games below. All games are played at Estadio Hidalgo, Pachuca de Soto, MX. Viewing broadcasts may require a subscription, some broadcast coverage may be in Spanish.

Home?	Away?	Date/ Time	Where to watch	Notes
Club América	Gotham FC	Wed 4:30p	CBSSN, CBS Golazo, ESPN Deportes, Paramount+, fuboTV, ESPN App	Semifinal 1. América beat Orlando (only NWSL team in their group) 2-0 to knock them out before playoffs, so Gotham may face some tough competition. They are still thin on natural defenders, as Sonnett and Reale are not back to 90-minute fitness and Duran is on SEI. Fullbacks Midge Purce and Guro Reiten (can't believe I'm writing this) seem to be holding down the fort in the meantime, and Tierna Davidson scored a goal so.... let them cook, and hope Rose Lavelle gets some R&R.
Washington Spirit	Pachuca	Thu 7:30p	Semifinal 2. Pachuca tied Orlando (only NWSL team in their group), but I think 2026 Washington has the edge on 2025 Orlando. I’d pick Spirit to win this by transitive property, but anyone who watches a lot of Liga MX feel free to weigh in.

CCC coverage note from CONCACAF: “Football fans from across the Concacaf region and the world will be able to follow and enjoy the W Champions Cup Finals on the Confederation’s TV partner networks. These include CBS Sports platforms Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, and CBS Sports Golazo Network (English) and ESPN Deportes (Spanish) in the United States. In Canada, the matches will be available on One Soccer. Across Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, matches will be available on Disney+ and ESPN.” They did not specify coverage outside the CONCACAF region.

Match Week 7.5-8 5/12-17 (all times Pacific)

Another midweek matchday is upon us - just one game on Tuesday this time. Weird. Which games will you be watching? What are your predictions? Scores, reds, yellows, which players get G+A, which refs cause the most chaos? 

Form is old-new L-to-R, followed by overall W-L-D record for each team, e.g. “San Diego WWWDL 3-2-1.” 

Teams who played a midweek game are bold for their weekend games. Boston/Orlando is the only midweek game so I’m just doing one post this week.

Injury report descriptions are based on prior weekend.

* Upcoming midweek game, look for rotation here or next game

_ for games played earlier in the same week

Home	Away	Field	Date/ Time	Where to watch	Notes
Boston, LLDWD 1-5-2	Orlando, DWLLW 3-3-2	Gillette	Tue 4pm	Victory+	BOS finally getting some table points, but still last in the league. Real Welcome to the NWSL vibes. ORL is squarely mid-table and could use a few more wins to distinguish themselves as the 2024 Pride we all remember. Look for rotation in the lineups, especially as ORL’s injury list was rather long last weekend.
KC*, LWLWW 4-4-0	Houston*, WLDLL 3-4-1	CPKC	Fri 5pm	Prime	Similar results but different trajectories - HOU have been dropping off while KC have been heating up. KC will be missing Debinha, but they’ve looked decent with Croix as the advanced MF instead of on the wing, so it might end up benefiting them in terms of results.
San Diego*, WWLLW 6-3-0	Washington, WWWWW 5-1-3	Snapdragon	Fri 7pm	Victory+	José the coyote has been unstoppable. Look at them go. Both teams have a midweek game coming up, but WAS’s is outside the league. If SD can keep possession, they have a good shot at scoring. But as we saw in WAS/ORL, just scoring isn’t enough. A team has to shut down: Cantore, Rodman, Martínez, Monday, Kouassi, and Santos. Maybe ACFC can trade for one of them, yeesh.
Seattle, WDLDL 3-3-2	Gotham, LWWWD 4-2-3	Lumen	Fri 7pm	Victory+	Now that GFC has more than 1 fully healthy defender and SEA continues to produce low-scoring games at Lumen, I feel confident in saying this should be either a snoozefest or GFC walking all over SEA. SEA haven’t scored in four games, so maybe they’re due. They just look flat without Fishlock.
Bay*, WLLWD 3-4-1	Boston, LDWD_ 1-5-2 +_	PayPal	Fri 7pm	Victory+	BAY have POR midweek so they might do a rotated lineup this game. BOS have yet to win on the road, as I’m sure the commentators will remind us. Aïssata Traoré is the real deal and should be starting against an anemic/injured BAY defense who have been routinely relying on Jordan Silkowitz’ outstanding performances to stay in games.
NC, DWDLL 2-3-3	Chicago, LWLLL 2-7-0	WakeMed	Sat 3:30p	ION	NC are notoriously better at home, and Ashley Sanchez is having a hell of a season. On top of that, CHI’s injury report was at 7 last week, and of those I’d rate 5 as starters if healthy, plus 2 as subs. However, NC was missing what seemed to be their 2 starting CBs last year in Bell and Jacobs. Jameese Joseph would be a great player to take advantage of that weakness if Sjögren would ever bother to play her.
Denver, DDLLW 2-3-3	Orlando, WLLW_ 3-3-2 + _	DSG	Sat 5:45p	ION	Idk about this one. DEN just thumped HOU, on the road no less, while ORL will be coming off a midweek game vs BOS after a Friday home victory 1-0 vs NC. Momentum could favor either team, but I think Tash Flint is the key to DEN’s success. If she has a good game, so does the team.
Portland*, DWWWL 6-2-1	ACFC*, WLLLL 3-4-0	Providence	Sun 3pm	ESPN2	Providence Park is lauded as a difficult venue for visitors. However, POR beat us at home and I’m sure we’d like some payback. Their injury report last week was 4x “SEI-Knee” while we have Niehues suspended, Sugita SEI, and King out indefinitely; all likely starters if available. POR’s 3-game week goes: LA (home), BAY (home), KC (away). LA’s is: POR (away), KC (home), HOU (away). If we’re lucky and they see us and BAY as particularly weak, maybe they’ll save the heavy hitters for KC.
Utah, WWWWD 5-2-2	Louisville, LWLLW 2-5-1	America First 🤢	Sun 5pm	Victory+	This might just be the matchup of the week. McGlynn and Bloomer both in fine form, LOU just dunked on POR with a wild upset, and UTA’s finally-healthy attack is terrorizing teams across the league.

Standings going into Tuesday 5/12

RANK	TEAM	G	GA	GD	W	L	D	MP	Pts	Pts/MP
1	POR	15	9	6	6	2	1	9	19	2.11
2	WAS	15	6	9	5	1	3	9	18	2
3	SD	13	9	4	6	3	0	9	18	2
4	UTA	12	6	6	5	2	2	9	17	1.89
5	GFC	9	5	4	4	2	3	9	15	1.67
6	KC	10	14	-4	4	4	0	8	12	1.5
7	ORL	12	11	1	3	3	2	8	11	1.375
8	SEA	7	8	-1	3	3	2	8	11	1.375
9	HOU	10	12	-2	3	4	1	8	10	1.25
10	BAY	7	10	-3	3	3	1	7	10	1.43
11	LA	12	9	3	3	4	0	7	9	1.29
12	DEN	10	9	1	2	3	3	8	9	1.125
13	NC	9	11	-2	2	3	3	8	9	1.125
14	LOU	13	15	-2	2	5	1	8	7	0.875
15	CHI	4	18	-14	2	7	0	9	6	0.67
16	BOS	7	15	-8	1	5	2	8	5	0.625

It’s a tight middle to low-middle of the table, with 6th-13th place separated by only 3 points. Lots of room for shuffling in those standings, or for 11 and 12 point teams to separate from the pack, depending how this back half of May goes. The top four of Portland, Washington, San Diego, and Utah are starting to break away, with more than one game’s worth of space between them and the 12 point mark. Gotham needs a few more wins to feel secure in being part of the top tier and their trajectory towards playoffs.

Someone smart was using table-points-per-match-played (average) to sort of project which teams might make the playoffs either on r/NWSL or here. I thought it was handy so I added it to my standings table - you can see that ACFC and BAY are slightly overperforming their table standing if we compare Pts/MP to teams with more MP, but teams with 8-9 MP are roughly correctly ordered with standings corresponding to Pts/MP. 7-9 MP may still be too small a sample size to draw conclusions from. If I were being very thorough I’d add xG over/underperformance analysis but this is just a pregame post so I’m trying to limit scope.

Let me know if I made any factual errors, this was definitely a bit of a longer writeup in anticipation of not being able to post these fun weekly schedule takes for all of June.

https://proreferees.com/2026/05/09/2026-the-definitive-angle-nwsl-week-6/

LA/UTA didn't make the Inside Video Review cut from this week, but there are short writeups and links to videos of the angles with no sound for both the potential PK calls.

Match Week 6.5-7 5/6-10 (all times Pacific)

Which games will you be watching? What are your predictions? Scores, reds, yellows, which players get G+A? Buckle your seatbelts, everyone, this is a longpost.

Form is old-new L-to-R, followed by overall W-L-D record for each team, e.g. “San Diego WWWDL 3-2-1.” 

Teams who played a midweek game are in bold for their weekend games. Utah/Houston is the only midweek game so I’m just doing one post this week.

Home	Away	Field	Date/ Time	Where to watch	Notes
Utah, DWWWW 4-2-1	Houston, WLWLD 3-2-1	America First 🤢	Wed 7p	CBSSN	As the only midweek game, I am hoping this will be a fun one. As the team that just lost to UTA, I’m hoping they lose. See you in the match thread!!
Louisville, LLWLL 1-5-1	Portland, WDWWW 6-1-1	Lynn Family	Fri 3:30p	NWSL+	LOU’s whole thing relies on a very few players. If Sears and Flint can be managed, the whole team can be managed. POR has a really excellent midfield (shoutout Jessie Fleming you are working hard and I see you) so I think this could be done. However, POR is also in the middle of some serious schedule congestion - see note below.
Orlando*, WDWLL 2-3-2	NC, LDWDL 2-2-3	Inter&Co	Fri 5p	Prime	This should be fun as a neutral. Let’s hope for no weather delay and lots of goals. And a healthy Marta! Preferably on ref-cam!
Gotham, DLWWW 4-2-2	Boston*, LLLDW 1-5-1	Sports Illustrated	Sat 3:30p	ION	I see why they would market this as a rivalry game but um... BOS has 6 goals (t-2nd fewest). GFC also has only 4 goals allowed (best in league). So don’t expect a BOS upset.
Houston, LWLD_ 3-2-1	Denver, WDDLL 1-3-3	Shell Energy	Sat 5p	NWSL+	Watch for weather delays. Luckily it’s already on NWSL+, so it won’t have to be moved there last-minute. I’d probably pick DEN for this one but weather might have an outsized impact in favor of HOU.
ACFC, WWLLL 3-3-0	San Diego, WWWLL 5-3-0	BMO	Sat 5:45p	ION	With 2 games in hand vs this opponent, I would love to see ACFC make up some ground in the standings this weekend. A strong comeback off that red card loss would really set the tone.
KC, LLWLW 3-4-0	Chicago, LLWLL 2-6-0	CPKC	Sun 9:30a	ESPN/ ESPN app	CHI beat KC in the previous iteration of this matchup, but that was at home. Can they reprise the lakeside magic of that late March game to beat the reigning Shield winners, now coming off a narrow 2-1 win?
Bay, LWLLW 3-3-0	Utah, WWWW_ 4-2-1	PayPal	Sun 1p	Victory+	UTA’s healthy attacking lineup is intimidating, but so is BAY’s. However, BAY was missing two forwards last weekend and still managed to grit out a 1-0 victory against a team with a stronger-on-paper lineup. BAY will also have 2 games in hand relative to UTA, who play midweek. This is anyone’s game.
Seattle, WWDLD 3-2-2	Washington, DWWWW 4-1-3	Lumen	Sun 4p	Victory+	José the coyote, man. What else is there to say? SEA are missing Fishlock, and no one else seems able to score without her on the field. Of their 7 games, they’ve scored in only 3 (vs ORL, KCC, and LOU). Worse, they have been goal-less for the last 3 games in a row (DEN, UTA, HOU) and been lucky to tie 2 of those. Can they turn around their goal drought against a WAS team that seems to have found their 2026 groove?

*Play a Tuesday game next week, May 12th.

_ means pending Wednesday results, the overall record is left as-is from the previous weekend.

Fun facts:

• Washington, Utah, and Portland are all unbeaten in their last five games heading into this week. Personally I’m ready for some regression to the mean - these are good teams but at least one of them is overperforming (ahem, Utah).
• Interestingly, four of five remaining teams with no draws will play against each other this weekend. I make no predictions but that is another area where we might see regression to the mean as sample size grows.
• Teams who’ve played only 6 games going into this week:

ACFC, Bay, Houston 

Houston levels out with the majority of teams at 7 games after Wednesday

• Teams who’ve played 8 games going into this week:

Portland, Washington, San Diego, Gotham, Chicago 

You may notice that four of these teams are top four of the table right now, with Utah in fifth set to match this # of games after midweek and Chicago being the low-points outlier. Those games in hand right now may come back to help or haunt ACFC later in the season.

On Portland’s schedule congestion - here are their game dates this ~month: 

Sat 4/26, Wed 4/29, Sun 5/3, Fri 5/8, Sun 5/17, Wed 5/20, Sun 5/24, Sat 5/30. This requires some lineup rotation somewhere. Not sure when they will do it, the 8th is techhhhnically weekend-to-weekend, but they might be real tired coming off a three game week with a Sun-Fri turnaround. Then they get one solid week of rest (Fri 5/8 - Sun 5/17) and it’s back into another three game week. Who at league HQ hates this team? 

On Gotham heating up

Gotham scored 1 goal in their first four games and 7 goals in their second four games. They have really started to pick up some momentum (in spite of defensive injuries plaguing them) as rookie Jordynn Dudley has found her groove, scoring and assisting in the last two games; and as star striker Esthér has returned from parental leave and reintegrated with the squad. All four goals against Gotham came from just two opponents, Denver and Kansas City. No one else has broken down their cobbled-together defense or snuck one past elite German goalkeeper, she of the novelty socks, Ann-Katrin Berger.

A note on midweek matches & the calendar: 

Every team plays 3 midweek games throughout the 2026 season, it’s just a matter of which weeks. ACFC has yet to have a midweek match (our first one is May 20th vs KCC), while every other team except Bay will have had at least one. Our second and third midweek games are backloaded into August and September. 

Do we think this is an advantage, more rest & training earlier in the season while the synergy is still developing? Or a disadvantage, as player load begins to show later in the year and injury risk could be higher? 

Some teams (Portland and San Diego) will be playing their final midweek game on May 20th as ACFC plays its first. Gotham and Washington will have one extra midweek and one extra weekend game outside the league as they participate in the CONCACAF Champions Cup playoffs around May 19-24th. 

What do you think of this setup? Can the league squeeze in seven midweek games per team starting in 2028? As the league expands to 18 teams, each will need to play 34 games per year (up from 30) in the same calendar footprint in order to maintain a balanced schedule.

Match Week 6 5/1-3 (all times Pacific)

Which games will you be watching? What are your predictions? Scores, reds, yellows, which players get G+A? Does it matter if a team that has played 7 games is up against a team that's only played 5? Weigh in in the comments!

Form is old-new L-to-R, followed by overall W-L-D record for each team, e.g. “San Diego WWWDL 3-2-1.”

Teams who played a midweek game are underlined.

Home	Away	Field	Date/ Time	Where to watch	Notes
Houston, WWLWL 3-2-0	Seattle, LWWDL 3-2-1	Shell Energy	Fri 5pm	Victory+	Comparable records, both with decent schedule strength but I think SEA has more to prove in 2026. Also they’re probably going to be missing Fishlock who’s been key so far.
Orlando, DWDWL 2-2-2	Washington, DDWWW 3-1-3	Inter&Co	Sat 1pm	ION	WAS is not interested in losing or tying anymore. José the coyote and intangibles brought them to a 3-game win streak. ORL is coming off a 2-3 loss against LOU (who WAS beat 1-0 midweek). Transitive property says WAS takes this one, do you agree?
NC, DLDWD 2-1-3	KC, LLLWL 2-4-0	WakeMed	Sat 3:30pm	ION	Ashley Sanchez is on fire this season. KC is decidedly not. NC really stuck in to claw back a point after being down 2-0 to BOS in the first half Wed. KC is well rested and coming off a resounding L at Audi field. Potentially a good game if KC doesn’t overcrowd the ten space but I have exactly zero confidence in Armas at this point.
ACFC, WWWLL 3-2-0	Utah, LDWWW 3-2-1	BMO	Sat 5:45pm	ION	UTA is red hot now that they have all their players healthy again, while LA needs to get back to their winning ways. At least Miyabi & Hammond will be back to visit BMO if nothing else good comes of this game.
Chicago, LLLWL 2-5-0	Portland, LWDWW 5-1-1	Northwestern Medicine	Sun 10am	ESPN2 or app*	Can CHI find some more lakeside magic to beat the #2 team in the league? Both are on short recovery from midweek games, but one team has Sophia Wilson (scoring mode activated) plus a glut of attacking talent, and the other does not have Mal Swanson (yet).
Boston, LLLLD 0-5-1	Denver, DWDDL 1-2-3	Gillette	Sun 12pm	CBSSN	BOS still seeking a franchise-first win, though they broke a 5-game losing streak with a draw vs NC Wed. DEN are fully rested & have looked like the better team on the season, yet BOS has finally scored more than one goal in a game. Maybe if they figure out game management/defending a lead they can get some points. Would be cool for them to get that first W at home, too.
Gotham, LDLWW 3-2-2	Louisville, DLLWL 1-4-1	Sports Illustrated	Sun 2pm	CBSSN	The elves in Amorós’ brain have given us Midge Purce (right back) and Guro Reiten (left back) and still somehow won games. GFC plagued with injuries yet performing is classic. LOU meanwhile should be coming in mad at a 1-0 loss to WAS that was exciting to the last minute.
SD, WWWWL 5-2-0	Bay, WLWLL 2-3-0	Snapdragon	Sun 4pm	Victory+	SD ended a 5-game win streak vs POR Wed and will be eager to turn that momentum around at home. BAY is coming off consecutive 3-0 and 2-0 losses, so they need to find a way to start scoring. Granted BAY have difficult schedule strength here - the losses were to GFS and WAS, and now they’re up against SD.

*****may require subscription, have not tested

Match Week 5.5 4/29 (all times Pacific)

Which games will you be watching? What are your predictions? Scores, reds, yellows, which players get G+A?

Form is old-new L-to-R, followed by overall W-L-D record for each team, e.g. “San Diego WWWDL 3-2-1.” 

Home	Away	Field	Wed. Time	Where to watch	Notes
Boston, LLLLL 0-5-0	NCC, WDLDW 2-1-2	Gillette	4pm	Victory+	Three guesses who wins. I’m rooting for Ashley Sanchez & Manaka to do cool soccer, regardless of scoreline. BOS have been missing starting defenders Kaká and N. Hernández. Unsure of return timelines, but could make a big difference if they’re back.
Washington,DDDWW 2-1-3	Louisville, LDLLW 1-1-3	Audi	4pm	Victory+	Interesting matchup, with both teams coming off wins against theoretically strong teams (LOU beat ORL 3-2 and WAS beat KC 4-0).
Chicago, WLLLW 2-4-0	Gotham, DLDLW 2-2-2	Northwestern Medicine	5pm	Victory+	GFC reinvigorated after the intl break, thumping BAY 3-0; while CHI beat a long-suffering BOS 2-0 at home. Huitema seems to like her new team, scoring in 2/2 games played.
Portland, WLWDW 4-1-1	San Diego, WWWWW 5-1-0	Providence	7pm	CBS/P+	Whoever made the schedule correctly guessed this should be a fun game, and put it After Dark (TM) on the big broadcast network. Ready to see Tordin & Dudinha breaking ankles, Dali assists, MelB fancy footwork, and most importantly Sophia Wilson embarrassing a goalie other than my team’s.