Rockets Only In Portland

Today's Newsletter

• NWSL Playoffs

• Champions League

• World Cup Draw

• Water Cooler Talk

NWSL Playoffs

The NWSL finals are set! The Portland Thorns will take on the Kansas City Current. The game is on October 29 @ 9 PM ET.

Portland beat San Diego 2-1 in the first semifinal game. San Diego got off to a quick start when Taylor Kornieck scored in the 8th minute. Rocky Rodriquez would tie the game up in the 20th minute with a rocket volley. Crystal Dunn would go on to win it for Portland in stoppage time with an absolute laser.

What a moment it was for Dunn who just gave birth to her son 5 months ago.

Kansas City Current beat OL Reign 2-0 to advance to the finals. Alex Loera scored in the 4th minute to give KC the lead. Kristen Hamilton would go on to score in the 63rd minute to put KC up 2-0. OL Reign didn't go out without a fight though. They were close to scoring several times but AD Franch came up with some major stops. OL Reign was also stopped by the crossbar and a goal line save.

What a story for the Current though. Last year they came in last place in the league and a year later they are headed to the finals.

The attendance continued to be fantastic this weekend. 22,035 people were in attendance for the Portland/San Diego game. 21,491 people were in attendance for the OL Reign/Current game.

Also shoutout to AD Franch who has been on fire all season long in the goal. She 100% deserves to start getting called back up to the USWNT.

Champions League

The Champions League group stage started last week! Arsenal went to Lyon and won 5-1. Lyon has a long list of injured players but to lose 1-5 was still a shock. Here's a look at the results from all of the games:

Group A

• Vllaznia 0-2 Real Madrid

• PSG 0-1 Chelsea

Group B

• Wolfsburg 4-0 St. Pölten

• Roma 1-0 Slavia Praha

Group C

• Zürich 0-2 Juventus

• Lyon 1-5 Arsenal

Group D

• Bayern 2-1 Rosengård

• Barcelona 9-0 Benfica

Games this week:

• St. Pölten v Roma - Wednesday @ 12:45 PM ET

• Real Madrid v PSG - Wednesday @ 12:45 PM ET

• Slavia Praha v Wolfsburg - Wednesday @ 3 PM ET

• Chelsea v Vllaznia - Wednesday @ 3 PM ET

• Juventus v Lyon - Thursday @ 12:45 PM ET

• Rosengård v Barcelona - Thursday @ 12:45 PM ET

• Arsenal v Zürich - Thursday @ 3 PM ET

• Benfica v Bayern - Thursday @ 3 PM ET

World Cup Draw

The World Cup draw took place over the weekend! Here is a look at the groups:

Group A

• New Zealand

• Norway

• Philippines

• Switzerland

Group B

• Australia

• Ireland

• Nigeria

• Canada

Group C

• Spain

• Costa Rica

• Zambia

• Japan

Group D

• England

• Group B Playoff Winner

• Denmark

• China

Group E

• USA

• Vietnam

• Netherlands

• Group A playoff winner

Group F

• France

• Jamaica

• Brazil

• Group C Playoff Winner

Group G

• Sweden

• South Africa

• Italy

• Argentina

Group H

• Germany

• Morocoo

• Colombia

• South Korea

Water Cooler Talk

• Wolfsburg beat Bayern 2-1 over the weekend in league play

• AC Milan beat Juventus 4-3 in league play

• 7 games in and Serie A is looking very competitive. The top 5 teams are within 6 points or less of each other.

• Arsenal now has 12 consecutive wins in the FAWSL. They also have not conceded a goal since March.

• The semifinals for the U17 World Cup are set. Nigeria will play Colombia. Germany will face Spain. Both games will be played on Wednesday.

• Inter scored in the 90+2' minute to tie Sassuolo 1-1. Inter stays undefeated in Serie A.

Bangers Only

Svenja Huth with an absolute rocket.

Nikita Parris gets her first for Manchester United.

Rocky Rodriguez is unreal.

We've been waiting for this one... Lia Wälti gets her goal.  

Meme Zone

Another KC Current playoff win means another fantastic tweet from their social media team. For context OL Reign got to put their flag on top of the Space Needle for the weekend.

Moment of The Week

If you follow Lia Wälti on social media you know she doesn't like anything on the ground in her backyard. You also know she uses tongs to pick up any nature that is on the ground. Today she spent almost 2 hours making sure every single leaf was picked up.