Christine Sinclair, NWSL updates, and WNBA playoff push

Christine Sinclair bids farewell

Christine Sinclair (41) has announced on September 27, 2024 that she will retire at the end of the Portland Thorns season. It feels just like yesterday when Alex Morgan announced her retirement and here we are again with another legend saying goodbye to the beautiful game. Sinclair has done so much for the soccer community and for the Canada national team which she has been representing since she was 16 years old. Sinclair has 190 goals for Canada even though she retired from international soccer at the end of 2023. In her international career, she participated in six World Cups and four Olympics. She earned two bronze medals and an Olympic gold medal in 2021. She started playing with the Portland Thorns in 2013 and has won 3 champions with them in 2013, 2017, and 2022. Her last season game is November 1st against Angel City fc, after she is only guaranteed one more game if Portland makes it to the playoffs.

NWSL

• Portland Thorns lost against San Diego Wave on Saturday 2-0. Regardless of the score, SD Wave honored Sinclair by giving her a surfboard to honor her legacy. Alex Morgan was in attendance to show support for Sinclair. Right now, Portland Thorns is in 7th place in the standings.

• The top scorer of the league right now is Temwa Chawinga with 17 goals. The 2nd (Barbra Banda) and 3rd place (Sophia Smith) players are slowly trailing behind with 13 and 11 goals. There is still a chance for them to catch up or beat Temwa Chawinga.

• Orlando Pride is still undefeated and 1st place in the standing with a whooping 54 points. Washington Spirit is 2nd place trailing by 7 points. The upcoming games for this week will be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The game to watch will be Sunday October 6th Orlando Pride vs Washington Spirit.

WNBA playoffs

The fours teams that were eliminated in the first round were Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury, Seattle Storm, and Atlanta Dream. With the second round starting on Sunday, it will be best out of 5 games. Semi-finals is Liberty vs Aces and Lynx vs Sun. With Aces and Liberty it is like the 2023 finals all over again. Liberty is coming for blood and defeated the Aces by a 10 point difference. Now up 1 game, Aces are now having to play catch up. Lynx vs Sun was the next match up of the night and this game was a game full of defensive star power. These teams match up so well and it showed with how many lead changes occurred throughout the game. In the end Sun ended up winning by 3 points after Lynx failed to score a 3 pointer to tie the game. Lynx are trailing behind 1-0. These are some intense semi-final games.
Game 2 will be on ESPN Network, Tuesday 4:30 pm PT (Aces vs Liberty) and 6:30 PT (Lynx vs Sun). Don’t miss out!