Here we are. The regular season is over, and although it took an almost absurdly long time for it to happen, the four teams we're left with—North Carolina, Portland, Seattle, and Chicago—have emerged as the clear best teams in the league.
With the playoff teams mostly already decided,
A lot has been made about how absurdly tight the playoff race has been this season, with North Carolina spending most of the year as the only team that looked really, definitively Good, and second through seventh places looking more or less like a crapshoot.
These last few weeks, though,
If you're a fan of one of the third- through seventh-place teams, and you aren't extremely tense at all times these days, please let me know your secret? With just three weeks to go in the regular season, the playoff picture is really no clearer than it's been throughout 2018.
The playoff picture is starting, maybe, to get a little clearer after this weekend, with Seattle and Portland shutting out Utah and Orlando on the road and Chicago doing well to get a draw against North Carolina. Numerically, the race for the bottom three playoff slots is still wide open,
It was yet another wet and wild week in the NWSL, featuring all the usual hits -- a Lindsey Horan goal, a Megan Rapinoe throw-in assist -- as well as some new ones, including Christen Press getting booed in Houston and an intentional handball by Carli Lloyd. Please watch this
