The 2019 NWSL championship will take place this Sunday, October 27th at 12:30 PM on ESPN. The championship will see the return of reigning NWSL champions, the North Carolina Courage, versus first-time finalists, the Chicago Red Stars.
The Courage, previously known as the Western New York Flash, has consistently made it to the playoffs in their club history, so this isn’t their first rodeo. However, most NWSL fans root against them because of their misguided underdog mentality, despite them being anything but the underdog in this league. They also aren’t well-liked for a certain homophobic player that is on the team. So it’s safe to say that most NWSL fans will be rooting for the Red Stars this weekend, even if they’re usually not a Red Stars fan, like me.
The Red Stars have broken their semi-final curse this season. They have been able to make it to the playoffs for the last few seasons, but they have never advanced to the finals until this year. What’s interesting is that they faced off against the Portland Thorns, my favorite team, in the semi-finals this past Sunday, a team that the Red Stars haven’t beaten since 2013. But with an early Sam Kerr goal in the 8th minute, after 6 long years, the Red Stars finally beat the Portland Thorns and Kerr got her first-ever playoff goal. The Thorns weren’t able to find the equalizer because we didn’t have some of our best strikers, Hayley Raso and Midge Purce, on the pitch for the first half. Thorns head coach, Mark Parsons’ starting XI for this game had many fans scratching their heads since the semi-finals are definitely not the time to start experimenting with lineups, especially when you had a healthy Raso and Purce on the bench.
The Thorns haven’t been themselves since their September 6th match against the Utah Royals when Thorns’ centerback, Emily Sonnett, threw hands with the Royals’ Amy Rodriguez. This ripped a hole in our dimension and essentially threw off the balance of the universe. The Thorns haven’t been the same since and went on to suffer their worst loss in club history less than a week later against the NC Courage. So it’s safe to say that the Thorns weren’t looking their best entering the semi-finals. I’m disappointed that they couldn’t get it together and make it to the finals yet again, but I’m happy that the Red Stars are the ones who beat them, and I’ll definitely be rooting for them this upcoming Sunday.
