Soccer

San Diego Wave earn NWSL Shield in final match of the regular season

Jaedyn Shaw and Alex Morgan scored to present the San Diego Wave a 2-0 win in opposition to Racing Louisville on Sunday, incomes the NWSL Shield for greatest file and the high seed for the playoffs.

Megan Rapinoe scored two targets in three minutes at the begin of the second half as OL Reign received 3-0 at the Chicago Red Stars and completed fourth. Jess Fishlock added a 59th-minute objective for the Reign, who assured one no less than extra residence match at Seattle’s Lumen Field in the 38-year-old Rapinoe’s final season.

San Diego completed 11-7-4 and as high seed has a bye for the opening spherical of the playoffs.

Portland’s Sophia Smith received the Golden Boot with 11 targets.

Eight groups entered Sunday in competition for 4 remaining playoff spots, with each NWSL sport kicking off concurrently. The Reign, North Carolina Courage, Angel City and Gotham secured these final 4 spots.

The playoffs open on Friday with Angel City at the Reign. The winner advances to play at San Diego on Nov. 5 in the semifinals. The winner of Sunday’s quarterfinal between Gotham and the Courage in North Carolina will advance to a semifinal in Portland in opposition to the Thorns. The final is at San Diego on Nov. 11.

Before 30,312 followers at San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium, Shaw dribbled by a number of gamers and slotted into the proper nook in the twenty sixth minute for her sixth objective this season. Morgan scored from the high of the penalty space in the Forty seventh.

“It just means the world. We came into this game just acting like, if we do our job and get a little luck then we’ve got this,” Morgan mentioned. “I feel like we dominated from start to finish. It was really a complete game for this team, and I’m really proud of this team.”

Portland (10-7-5) entered the weekend in first place however misplaced 5-1 at Angel City and completed second. Hina Sugita bought Portland’s objective in the 79th minute.

The Thorns managed to get Smith into the match for half-hour as the ahead continued her return from a sprained proper medial collateral ligament sustained on Aug. 27.

Tyler Lussi’s Twenty fifth-minute objective from shut vary following a cross gave the Courage a 1-0 win at the Washington Spirit, incomes North Carolina third place and eliminating the Spirit. Trinity Rodman was given a purple card for a harmful problem in the twenty third minute.

Angel City moved up from eighth place to fifth in entrance of a sellout crowd of 22,000 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, incomes a playoff spot in its second season. Mary Alice Vignola scored in the thirty sixth and Scarlett Camberos in the thirty eighth, After Savannah McCaskill’s Forty seventh-minute objective, Sydney Leroux scored on a bicycle kick in the 51st and Jun Endo added a objective in the eightieth.

Angel City has misplaced as soon as in 11 league matches since interim head coach Becki Tweed took over on June 14.

“It’s been a tough year, and I think this is what everyone has been waiting for, a dominating performance by Angel City,” Leroux mentioned. “I’m just so happy that I got to be a part of that and do it at home. Now we’re in the playoffs and there [are] tears and all of the things. Today was amazing. You have some tough times, and then you have a day like today and you’re like, ‘OK, it’s all worth it.’”

Gotham dropped from fourth place to sixth, losing a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw at residence in opposition to the already eradicated Kansas City Current. Gotham constructed its lead on targets by Midge Purce in the sixth minute and Yazmeen Ryan in the fifteenth at Red Bull Arena, then conceded to Alexa Spaanstra in the twenty sixth minute, and gave up Jenna Nighswonger’s personal in the thirty sixth.

Gotham’s Ali Krieger performed 90 minutes in her final regular-season match earlier than retiring at the finish of the season, turning into amongst simply 4 gamers to log 15,000 NWSL minutes. She was honored in a postmatch ceremony.

“Honestly, it’s been so overwhelming in the most positive way,” the two-time Women’s World Cup winner with the U.S. national team mentioned. “All of the love and the support has been — I’m honestly speechless because you don’t realize how much you’ve impacted all of these people over the years that I’ve played. It’s so rewarding to see all the positive feedback and the love I’ve received just from playing the sport that I love.”

The Orlando Pride beat the Houston Dash, 1-0, on Marta’s 87th-minute penalty kick and jumped into seventh place. While stage on factors with Gotham, the Pride missed the playoffs as a result of their minus-1 objective differential — the first playoff tiebreaker.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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