The Wait Is Over

The Race Is On

This week's NWSL Week in Review started off with the standard highlights package and a quick rundown of the conference standings. Instead of short-form features on players or teams, the last half of the show focused on the end-of-season push around the league and a recap of predictions made during the season preview show in April.

Dalen Cuff: With four weeks left in the NWSL regular season, the three Eastern Conference playoff teams have already been decided. Orlando and Atlanta's victories this past weekend closed out any chance of North Carolina, Washington, or Sky Blue catching them. Boston's bye allowed the Pride and Storm to close the gap to the Breakers, as they are now eight and nine points behind the Eastern front-runners. At this point, the two southeast teams will be battling each other to host the Eastern Conference semifinal as the Breakers need only five points over their last four matches to lock up the top seed in the East. In the West, there is still a LOT to play for, as any of five teams can still win the conference with the right set of results. Los Angeles stands six points ahead of Chicago and eight ahead of Vancouver. Any points picked up the rest of the way by the Olympias will lock Seattle and Portland out of winning the West. The Reign and Thorns, however, are very much alive for the third playoff spot, only three points behind the Legacy. Following a short break, we will re-visit our predictions from the season preview show and see who was spot-on and who was really off-base.

Dalen: When we gathered in Chicago before the season's opening match, all of our analysts weighed in on hot topics for the upcoming campaign. With just a month left in the season, I thought we'd look back and see whether they were right or wrong, and how much they were.

1) Someone will approach Seattle's record of 51 points. Jenn and Aly thought no, Karina and Cat thought it was possible, and Kate felt Boston would fall just short of the mark. The Breakers lead the league with 39 points and should they win their last four games, a highly likely scenario considering the opponents are Sky Blue, Kansas City, Washington, and Houston, they will reach that 51-point total.

2) First coach to be fired. Karina and Jenn hit that one on the head by saying Jim Gabarra, while Cat was close in choosing Paul Riley.

3) Most likely player to be traded mid-season to a contender. Cat and Jenn landed solid choices on this one with Shelina Zadorsky and Janine Beckie.

This past week, we asked those five to give us their choices for coach of the year, MVP, top player at each position, and biggest surprise of the season to date.

Jenn: Rebecca Nolin; Christen Press; Stephanie Labbe, Abby Dahlkemper, Sarah Killion, Press; Atlanta's making the playoffs for the first time.

Kate: John Herdman; Press; Labbe, Julie Johnston Ertz, Sam Mewis, Sam Kerr; the absolute dominance of Boston's first-choice defense (no goals allowed in the run of play).

Aly: Jenny Bindon; Press; Labbe, Dahlkemper, Morgan O'Hara, Press; the on-field magic being produced by the league's teammate couples.

Karina: Herdman; Labbe; Labbe, Shelina Zadorsky, Mewis, Press; Labbe's season in net for Boston (six goals allowed, only four in the run of play, for an effective GAA of 0.29, plus eight shutouts).

Cat: Herdman; Press; Labbe, Dahlkemper, Mewis, Press; The horrendousness of FC Kansas City and Houston (eight points combined against the other 12 teams in the league).

Dalen: When we return, a preview of Week 17 and the expected release of rosters on Monday for the US/Canada friendlies in September.

Dalen: Week 17 of the NWSL schedule is highlighted by Orlando hosting Los Angeles and Chicago traveling to Atlanta. Lifetime will be on hand for the match between the Pride and the Olympias. Kickoff is at 4pm, with the pre-game show starting at 3:30 Eastern. Elsewhere, Boston looks to take another step toward history when they face Sky Blue, North Carolina hosts Washington in their first match-up since the trade between the teams that resulted in Paul Riley being fired, while Vancouver is home to Houston, Portland to Philadelphia, and Seattle to Kansas City.

On Monday, head coaches Laura Harvey and Rhian Wilkinson are expected to release their rosters for the September friendlies between the US and Canada. I wouldn't expect a whole lot of changes from the rosters we saw a couple of weeks ago against Norway and Australia. In April, when we interviewed the pair on the announcement of the series, the coaches indicated that they were taking slightly different tacts in addressing their call-ups, with Harvey planning to call up her best available players and Wilkinson taking the NWSL playoffs into account in determining who would be part of the roster and whether some players would play only the first match of the pair. We will have those, along with all the highlights from Matchday 17 on next week's NWSL Week in Review.