Orlando, Gotham FC, Washington and KC set up mouth-watering NWSL semi-finals

Despite the top four sides from the regular season advancing to the semi-final stages of the 2024 NWSL Championship, with the exception of Orlando’s 4-1 win over Chicago Red Stars, all other games were only resolved by a single goal margin with Gotham FC needing extra time to advance against newcomers Bay FC and a late strike from Rose Lavelle ending Portland Thorns’ hopes of securing a fourth title.

Banda double sees Pride advance

The quarter-final action got underway in florida on Friday with Orlando’s Barbara Banda bagging a pair of breakaway goals in the first half as the Orlando Pride earned a 4-1 victory over the visiting Chicago Red Stars in the first NWSL quarterfinal match.

Marta and Haley McCutcheon also scored goals for the Pride, the top seed in the playoffs who finished the regular season with an 18-2-6 record and an NWSL-record 60 points. The 18 regular-season wins were the most in league history with Jameese Joseph bagging a consolation for the visitors who came into the playoffs in wretched form, losing four of their last five matches in the regular season to end up with the No. 8 seed.

In the second of the four knockout contests, an early strike from Temwa Chawinga was enough to see KC Current advance at the expense of North Carolina Current. Despite the slender scoreline, both sides had chances sharing 26 shots during the match but KC march on and will meet Orlando in the semi-final.

Spirit need extra time

An own goal in extra time gave the Washington Spirit a 2-1 victory over Bay FC in the first game on Sunday in Washington D.C.

With the game in the extra time period after the contest ended 1-1 after 90 minutes, six minutes into the additional time, a Spirit cross in front of the Bay FC goal bounced off the shoulder of defender Caprice Dydasco and landed in the back of the net. It proved to be the difference in a tense defensive battle that needed extra time to decide the winner.

The second-seeded Washington Spirit advance to the semifinals and host 2023 champions Gotham FC who too needed a late winner to see off the challenge from Portland Thorns where Rose Lavelle broke the deadlock in second-half stoppage time to lift defending champion NJ/NY Gotham FC to a 2-1 win.

NWSL semi-final games