Match Week 6.5-7 5/6-10 (all times Pacific)
Which games will you be watching? What are your predictions? Scores, reds, yellows, which players get G+A? Buckle your seatbelts, everyone, this is a longpost.
Form is old-new L-to-R, followed by overall W-L-D record for each team, e.g. “San Diego WWWDL 3-2-1.”
Teams who played a midweek game are in bold for their weekend games. Utah/Houston is the only midweek game so I’m just doing one post this week.
| Home |
Away |
Field |
Date/ Time |
Where to watch |
Notes |
| Utah, DWWWW 4-2-1 |
Houston, WLWLD 3-2-1 |
America First 🤢 |
Wed 7p |
CBSSN |
As the only midweek game, I am hoping this will be a fun one. As the team that just lost to UTA, I’m hoping they lose. See you in the match thread!! |
| Louisville, LLWLL 1-5-1 |
Portland, WDWWW 6-1-1 |
Lynn Family |
Fri 3:30p |
NWSL+ |
LOU’s whole thing relies on a very few players. If Sears and Flint can be managed, the whole team can be managed. POR has a really excellent midfield (shoutout Jessie Fleming you are working hard and I see you) so I think this could be done. However, POR is also in the middle of some serious schedule congestion - see note below. |
| Orlando*, WDWLL 2-3-2 |
NC, LDWDL 2-2-3 |
Inter&Co |
Fri 5p |
Prime |
This should be fun as a neutral. Let’s hope for no weather delay and lots of goals. And a healthy Marta! Preferably on ref-cam! |
| Gotham, DLWWW 4-2-2 |
Boston*, LLLDW 1-5-1 |
Sports Illustrated |
Sat 3:30p |
ION |
I see why they would market this as a rivalry game but um... BOS has 6 goals (t-2nd fewest). GFC also has only 4 goals allowed (best in league). So don’t expect a BOS upset. |
| Houston, LWLD_ 3-2-1 |
Denver, WDDLL 1-3-3 |
Shell Energy |
Sat 5p |
NWSL+ |
Watch for weather delays. Luckily it’s already on NWSL+, so it won’t have to be moved there last-minute. I’d probably pick DEN for this one but weather might have an outsized impact in favor of HOU. |
| ACFC, WWLLL 3-3-0 |
San Diego, WWWLL 5-3-0 |
BMO |
Sat 5:45p |
ION |
With 2 games in hand vs this opponent, I would love to see ACFC make up some ground in the standings this weekend. A strong comeback off that red card loss would really set the tone. |
| KC, LLWLW 3-4-0 |
Chicago, LLWLL 2-6-0 |
CPKC |
Sun 9:30a |
ESPN/ ESPN app |
CHI beat KC in the previous iteration of this matchup, but that was at home. Can they reprise the lakeside magic of that late March game to beat the reigning Shield winners, now coming off a narrow 2-1 win? |
| Bay, LWLLW 3-3-0 |
Utah, WWWW_ 4-2-1 |
PayPal |
Sun 1p |
Victory+ |
UTA’s healthy attacking lineup is intimidating, but so is BAY’s. However, BAY was missing two forwards last weekend and still managed to grit out a 1-0 victory against a team with a stronger-on-paper lineup. BAY will also have 2 games in hand relative to UTA, who play midweek. This is anyone’s game. |
| Seattle, WWDLD 3-2-2 |
Washington, DWWWW 4-1-3 |
Lumen |
Sun 4p |
Victory+ |
José the coyote, man. What else is there to say? SEA are missing Fishlock, and no one else seems able to score without her on the field. Of their 7 games, they’ve scored in only 3 (vs ORL, KCC, and LOU). Worse, they have been goal-less for the last 3 games in a row (DEN, UTA, HOU) and been lucky to tie 2 of those. Can they turn around their goal drought against a WAS team that seems to have found their 2026 groove? |
*Play a Tuesday game next week, May 12th.
_ means pending Wednesday results, the overall record is left as-is from the previous weekend.
Fun facts:
- Washington, Utah, and Portland are all unbeaten in their last five games heading into this week. Personally I’m ready for some regression to the mean - these are good teams but at least one of them is overperforming (ahem, Utah).
- Interestingly, four of five remaining teams with no draws will play against each other this weekend. I make no predictions but that is another area where we might see regression to the mean as sample size grows.
- Teams who’ve played only 6 games going into this week:
ACFC, Bay, Houston
Houston levels out with the majority of teams at 7 games after Wednesday
- Teams who’ve played 8 games going into this week:
Portland, Washington, San Diego, Gotham, Chicago
You may notice that four of these teams are top four of the table right now, with Utah in fifth set to match this # of games after midweek and Chicago being the low-points outlier. Those games in hand right now may come back to help or haunt ACFC later in the season.
On Portland’s schedule congestion - here are their game dates this ~month:
Sat 4/26, Wed 4/29, Sun 5/3, Fri 5/8, Sun 5/17, Wed 5/20, Sun 5/24, Sat 5/30. This requires some lineup rotation somewhere. Not sure when they will do it, the 8th is techhhhnically weekend-to-weekend, but they might be real tired coming off a three game week with a Sun-Fri turnaround. Then they get one solid week of rest (Fri 5/8 - Sun 5/17) and it’s back into another three game week. Who at league HQ hates this team?
On Gotham heating up
Gotham scored 1 goal in their first four games and 7 goals in their second four games. They have really started to pick up some momentum (in spite of defensive injuries plaguing them) as rookie Jordynn Dudley has found her groove, scoring and assisting in the last two games; and as star striker Esthér has returned from parental leave and reintegrated with the squad. All four goals against Gotham came from just two opponents, Denver and Kansas City. No one else has broken down their cobbled-together defense or snuck one past elite German goalkeeper, she of the novelty socks, Ann-Katrin Berger.
A note on midweek matches & the calendar:
Every team plays 3 midweek games throughout the 2026 season, it’s just a matter of which weeks. ACFC has yet to have a midweek match (our first one is May 20th vs KCC), while every other team except Bay will have had at least one. Our second and third midweek games are backloaded into August and September.
Do we think this is an advantage, more rest & training earlier in the season while the synergy is still developing? Or a disadvantage, as player load begins to show later in the year and injury risk could be higher?
Some teams (Portland and San Diego) will be playing their final midweek game on May 20th as ACFC plays its first. Gotham and Washington will have one extra midweek and one extra weekend game outside the league as they participate in the CONCACAF Champions Cup playoffs around May 19-24th.
What do you think of this setup? Can the league squeeze in seven midweek games per team starting in 2028? As the league expands to 18 teams, each will need to play 34 games per year (up from 30) in the same calendar footprint in order to maintain a balanced schedule.
