And then there was one – Equalizer Soccer

PHOTO: Peter Aiken

There is only one undefeated team left after the Orlando Pride and Angel City fell on the weekend. And one winless team remains after the Utah Royals eked out a stoppage time result.

Here’s how they look after National Women’s Soccer League competition in Week 5.

The cream of the crop

Orlando Pride (4-1-0, 12 pts; vs Spirit, 0-1): The Pride’s first lost at INTER&Co since August 25, 2023, was the product of an Anna Moorhouse blunder that handed the Spirit the only goal of the afternoon. But the loss also highlighted that the champs have not been sharp offensively much of the season. It just hadn’t bitten them in the form of a loss until this one.

Kansas City Current (5-0-0, 15 pts; vs Dash, 2-0): Remember, these are not power rankings. But the Current are the last team standing without dropping a match, and through five matches they look every bit the part. Lorena has now kept four-straight clean sheets and covered 401 minutes since conceding to the Thorns on Week 1. Those are both team records, and if the streaks live another week it will be time to start looking at the league marks.

The second level

Washington Spirit (4-1-0, 12 pts; @ Pride, 1-0): Was there a more appropriate player to pounce on the Anna Moorhouse mistake and score than “Gift” Monday? Pun aside though, winning in Orlando with a severely shorthanded roster and being outplayed is the result of the season through five weeks. Bigger picture though – Trinity Rodman’s back injury has moved her to fly to London to seek additional treatment. Is it time to stop waiting for the Spirit roster to get whole?

NJ/NY Gotham FC (2-1-2, 8 pts, @ Angel City, 4-0): Esther became the first player at the club with braces on consecutive matches since Nadia Nadim in August 2014. Throw in a wild own goal and an overall solid effort, and the vaunted Top 4 of a season ago seem to be right back in the same positions after five weeks. A tight week lies ahead with a Tuesday match in Portland and a Saturday afternoon tilt in Washington. The depth will be tested.

Lurking beneath the surface

Angel City FC (2-1-2, 8 pts; vs Gotham, 0-4): They announced a permanent coach — Alexander Straus, to start in late May — and promptly took the most lopsided loss in club history to Gotham.  The 4-0 scoreline may have been a bit harsh, and Alyssa Thompson was not healthy enough to suit up, but what could have been a statement win turned into a difficult setback in front of the home fans.

San Diego Wave FC (2-2-1, 7 pts; @ Louisville, 4-1): One of the signs of a team heading in the right direction is an ability to take care of business against inferior teams. That is exactly what the Wave did in Louisville, winning 4-1 in a match that looked every bit like the final score would suggest. Delphine Cascarino continues to be one of the best players in the league and Kenza Dali continues to get better.

Seattle Reign FC (2-2-1, 7 pts, vs Thorns, 1-0): A tale of two halves against their old nemesis the Thorns. The Reign got a goal out of their half on the front foot and held off the Thorns from the other end. Lynn Biyendolo became the league’s co-all-time assist leader with her 31st (tied with Jessica McDonald and Sofia Huetra) and may have added some insurance had her touch been in midseason form. They should still be better when Jess Fishlock gets back. Claudia Dickey has been excellent.

The Sphere of Mediocrity

Portland Thorns FC (1-2-2, 5 pts; @ Reign, 0-1): Credit the Thorns for turning things around in the second half in Seattle. But no matter what they did, they could not find an equalizer. It will be interesting to see who starts on the right Tuesday against Gotham after Kaitlyn Torpey got torn apart by Maddie Dahlien and had to be pulled at halftime.

Bay FC (2-2-1, 7 pts; @ Courage, 1-0): What do you do when your top offensive players are off to slow starts? Naturally, you give it to a defensive midfielder — KiKi Pickett — outside the 18 and let her blast it upper 90. Unfortunately, winning in North Carolina does not appear to be quite the feather in your cap as it was in 2024.

Houston Dash (1-3-1, 4 pts; @ Current, 0-2): Fabrice Gautrat mixed up the shape playing a flat-five-back much of the match in an attempt to thwart the Current’s sit-and-pounce tactics. It actually worked okay. They’re just not as good as the Current right now. The penalty they have up was a bit unlucky but is also a product of your opponent constantly possessing the ball inside the 18.

Swimming upstream

Chicago Stars FC (1-4-0, 3 pts, @ Royals, 0-1): You can certainly argue the penalty was bad luck, and it certainly would not have been called in the pre-VAR era. But when you have played into the 10th minute of stoppage time against a winless side and have only one shot-on-goal to show for it, there really isn’t much to complain about.

Racing Louisville FC (1-3-1, 4 pts; vs Wave, 1-4): Racing have played two games in April, both at home. They have conceded six goals and scored one, losing both games. Savannah DeMelo, whose form was in question coming into the season anyway, remains out with nary an update. There is just not a ton going well for this team at the moment.

North Carolina Courage (0-3-2, 2 pts; vs Bay, 0-1): Could anyone have predicted the Courage as the last team to crack the win column in 2025? The alarm bells that were ringing last week grew louder after a home loss to Bay FC dropped them to the bottom of the table. Their attack is anemic. Bay’s goal may have been a worldie, but it also featured several Courage players standing around rather than closing down on KiKi Pickett.

Utah Royals FC (1-3-1, 4 pts; vs Red Stars, 1-0): Results aside, the Royals at least played more of last week in midfield and the attacking third compared to being hemmed in defensively. The good news is they won and converted a late penalty for the first win of the season. The bad news is that despite some more forward play, the penalty was the only shot on frame the Royals could muster all night.

Miscellany

The NWSL spent the weekend promoting Saturday night’s ION game between the Current and Dash with the tagline that read, in part, “Michelle Cooper and the Kansas City Current.” Cooper is hardly the most recognizable Current player, so kudos for trying to widen the circle of household names. The problem was that the last time we saw Cooper, she was limping off the field injured a week prior, and she has been listed as questionable on the league’s availability report. She wound up not being included on the Current’s game day roster. Feels like a bit of an unforced error.