Alexia Putellas Stays Golden

Today's Newsletter

• NWSL Playoffs

• Ballon d'Or

• Water Cooler Talk

• Champions League

NWSL Playoffs 

The first round of the playoffs did not disappoint! Both games had late game winners and records were broken.

Kansas City took the lead early when they were awarded a PK. Lo'eau LaBonta stepped up and converted it...then of course produced another fantastic celebration. The lead didn't last too long as Houston tied it up in the 21' minute of the game thanks to a Sophie Schmidt rocket. The game had nine minutes of extra time which meant surely NWSL chaos would occur and it did. Kate Del Fava scored her first ever NWSL goal in the 90+10' minute of the game to win it 2-1 for Kansas City. 

The second game of the night would go into overtime. Chicago got off to a fast start when they scored in the 10' minute off of a rare Kailen Sheridan mistake. She gifted the ball to Yuki Nagasato who easily put it in the back of the net. San Diego tied the game up in the 67' minute on an Emily van Egmond goal. San Diego dominated the first 15 minutes of overtime but weren't able to find the back of the net. They were able to get the go ahead goal five minutes into the second overtime and of course it was Alex Morgan who scored. San Diego won the game 2-1. 

Kansas City is headed to Seattle this weekend to play OL Reign in the semifinals. 

San Diego will head to Portland to face the Thorns in the semifinals. 

The turn out for both of the quarterfinal games were fantastic. Houston broke the all-time NWSL playoff record with a crowd of 21, 284. A few hours later San Diego would go on to break that record with a crowd of 26,215. 

Ballon d'Or

Alexia Putellas won the 2022 Ballon d'Or. She has now won the award in back to back years after having another great year with Barcelona. 

Here are the complete rankings:

1. Alexia Putellas

2. Beth Mead

3. Sam Kerr

4. Lena Oberdorf

5. Aitana Bonmati

6. Alex Popp

7. Ada Hegerberg

8. Wendie Renard

9. Catarina Macario

10. Lucy Bronze

11. Vivianne Miedema

12. Christiane Endler

13. Alex Morgan

14. Selma Bacha

15. Millie Bright

16. Asisat Oshoala

17. Marie-Antoinette Katoto

18. Trinity Rodman

19. Fridolina Rolfö

20. Kadidatou Diani

Water Cooler Talk

• Gotham FC have re-signed Taylor Smith until 2025.

• Reading FC set a new club attendance record. They had 3,660 people at their game.

• Manuela Zinsberger set a new record for most consecutive clean sheets. She now has 8 in a row.

• Nottingham Forest set a new attendance record. They had 5,082 fans at their game.

• Jess Carter signed a 3 three year contract extension with Chelsea.

Champions League

The Champions League group stage is here! The groups are: 

Group A: Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid, Vllaznia

Group B: Roma, Slavia Praha, St.Pölten, Wolfsburg

Group C: Arsenal, Juventus, Lyon, Zürich

Group D: Barcelona, Bayern, Rosengård, Benfica

Wednesday Games: 

• Zürich v Juventus @ 12:45 PM ET

• Bayern v Rosengård @ 12:45 PM ET

• Barcelona v Benfica @ 3 PM ET

• Lyon v Arsenal @ 3 PM ET

Thursday Games:

• Vllaznia v Real Madrid @ 12:45 PM ET

• Wolfsburg v St.Pölten @ 12:45 PM ET

• PSG v Chelsea @ 3 PM ET

• Roma v  Slavia Praha @ 3 PM ET

Bangers Only 

Niamh Charles had a fantastic solo run to goal. 

Barbara Bonansea with a beauty for her 50th Serie A goal for Juventus. 

Meme Zone

KC Current posted this after beating Houston in the playoffs. Very well played by the Current social media team. 

Sauce Factory

Unreal footwork by Amirah Ali to keep the ball in the corner at the end of the game! Also make sure to follow Nubia on twitter for really good content. 

Player Profile

Naomi Girma has been fantastic in her rookie year. She's up for Rookie of The Year, Defender of The Year, and MVP. Here's a look at some of her stats! A stat that is not on the graph but is really impressive is that she had 122 interceptions this season. 

Moment of The Week