The NWSL playoff field is bigger than ever. Is that a good thing?

1 week ago 9

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For the National Women’s Soccer League, growth is ubiquitous. The league expanded to 14 teams this year and had record-breaking attendance, plus new performance records in goals scored and unbeaten streaks.

The playoffs are bigger than ever, too. Eight teams enter the postseason for the first time, up from six in past years. That means no byes for the top two seeds, and one more victory required to win a championship.

In its 12th year, the NWSL is known for its unpredictability and competitiveness, including quality from top to bottom in the standings. It all begs the question: Is an expanded playoff field a good thing?

Although the NWSL playoff race included some crucial moments for the final two spots, even teams at the bottom of the table showed grit in the final weekend of the NWSL regular season.

The Utah Royals they struggled in their return back to the NWSL and concluded the regular season with a 7W-15L-4D record. However, in their final few games under interim and now newly appointed head coach, Jimmy Coenraets, the club began to give teams a run for their money.

“Even for us, the fact that we were even fighting for a playoff spot was really exciting,” Utah Royals sporting director Kelly Cousins told The Equalizer. “To be a part of that fight, as much as it might have been a little bit far-fetched at times, but I just think the whole league brings different aspects of excitement. You could finish bottom of the league this season but you could win it next season, and I think that’s the most exciting thing for me, is just how competitive it is and you can actually step into every season with a goal of being successful.”

Seattle Reign FC faced challenges this season that made it look very different compared to their three NWSL Shields. The Reign ultimately finished 13th of 14 teams, with 23 points from 26 games.

Still, Seattle Reign head coach Laura Harvey knows from experience how unforgiving the playoffs are.

“I’ve said for a long time that I think that the NWSL Shield needs to have more recognition than it has and maybe I’m biased because I’ve won it three times, but to win this thing over this many games and be consistent is hard,” Harvey said. “It’s really hard but the playoffs is different. You don’t need to be consistent; you just need to win three games, and I don’t have any bias in the playoffs at all but I hope that doesn’t happen to Orlando but it could. They have been fantastic this year and it could mean nothing and that’s how harsh and how amazing this league is.”

Prior to the NWSL, Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) had a lifespan of thee seasons with a range of six to seven teams. Current Bay FC head coach Albertin Montoya has a unique role as he also previously coached FC Gold Pride in WPS when there were less than 2,000 fans at a game. His team won the WPS title in 2010 and folded a few weeks later.

Montoya, whose Bay FC squad is the No. 7 seed and faces the Washington Spirit on Sunday in the quarterfinals, sees the value in the knockout tournament.

“The exciting part about the NWSL playoffs is the quality of this league and the teams,” said Bay FC Head Coach Albertin Montoya. “At any given point in time, any team can win, so, that’s why it’s exciting to make it into the playoffs because once you make it into the playoffs, it’s like starting from scratch. If you finish in eighth, you can still beat the first-place team. So, the fact that we’re in this position is really exciting for us and we’re looking forward to it and just the growth of the NWSL and the fan base.”

Bay FC is a sign of the sport’s grown. The team’s playoff berth marks just the second time an NWSL expansion team has made the playoffs in its first season. The team has also averaged over 13,000 fans per game at PayPal Park.

“It really shows how far we’ve come and it’s only going to get better,” Montoya said.

An eight-team playoff field expands the postseason to three weekends of play instead of two, taking away the bye for the top two seeds. In the recent past, that bye hasn’t been overly beneficial.

“I think that’ll be really interesting to watch from a perspective of where did we fall short based on what do the teams in the top eight do that we don’t do?” said Angel City FC head coach Becki Tweed, whose team finished outside the playoffs. “I think what’s going to be interesting is now there’s eight teams in the playoffs and that puts one and two in the knockouts, and that’s never happened before and there were always the teams that didn’t play and the teams that did make that third through sixth, built momentum going into the playoffs space.”

This year, the Orlando Pride began the season on a 23-game unbeaten streak and finished with a total of 18 wins, which are both NWSL records. After last year’s historic parity, there was a clear top four, with the fourth-place Kansas City Current finishing 16 points ahead of fifth-place North Carolina Courage.

Despite the clear gap, the quarterfinals mark the start of a new mini-season, one which gives hope tot he lower seeds.

“To go into the playoffs, you never really know, it comes down to whoever shows up the best on that day,” said Utah Royals defender Madison Pogarch, who won a championship with the Portland Thorns in 2022 and the NWSL Shield with San Diego Wave FC last season. “Orlando and Kansas City have been having a really good year but if you think about Gotham last year, they just made it into the playoffs on decision day and went all the way through. It literally comes down to who is at their best peak performance on that day. I’m really looking forward to watching it and I think the games have been more exciting to watch. The most exciting part for me is people really catching on to the game and to see the teams competing in playoffs just continues the growth.”

With the twists and turns of the NWSL season as a whole, Bay FC’s recent NWSL Playoffs milestone was also another moment of growth as the club secured their spot in a dicey match to defeat the Houston Dash 3-2.

“Instead of whether or not we’re going to make it to the playoffs, I like to say, when we’re going to make it,” said Bay FC defender Kiki Pickett ahead of their final game. “I think the growth of the game is so huge, you see our fans in our stadium, what Kansas City has done with a sold out home stadium, you can just tell that people are so interested in watching our games on TV as well. Hopefully, we bring them the entertainment that they desire. We’ve been here and have been doing this and hopefully, we can continue to grow into the game.”

The next round of entertainment begins on Friday, when the quarterfinals kick off in Orlando.