Gotham FC’s 2-1 win over OL Reign in the National Women’s Soccer League Championship on Saturday meant a lot of things to a lot of different people. For Gotham, it was the perfect ending to a miracle turnaround story; last year, the Bats had finished last in the league—by some distance—before winning it all in 2023. For fans, it was proof of the league’s unpredictable and irrational nature. In addition to the brilliant footwork and skill on display from championship MVP Midge Purce, the game saw Gotham’s goalkeeper receive a red card in the waning moments of stoppage time, which forced midfielder Nealy Martin to put on goalie gloves to defend a dangerous free kick at the very end of the game.
But most importantly, this was the storybook ending that every neutral fan wanted coming into the playoffs. Both Ali Krieger and Megan Rapinoe—two-time World Cup–winning legends of the U.S. women’s national team—announced their intention to retire after the 2023 season, so their appearance as competitors in the NWSL championship attracted a great deal of attention.
So when Rapinoe, who started for OL, went down clutching her right leg in the sixth minute of the game, it was difficult not to think of her words earlier this summer, after the USWNT exited the women’s World Cup: “a sick joke.” Even Rapinoe couldn’t help but produce a sad smile as she sat on the pitch, receiving treatment. She would experience the last game of her illustrious career on the sidelines after she, as she described it, “fucking yeeted” her Achilles.
This wasn’t the ending anyone had predicted. Rapinoe is one of the greatest players the USWNT and NWSL have ever seen. It was her last chance to make her mark in a storybook career. Sadly, it didn’t happen that way. But after her injury, Rapinoe returned to OL’s dugout, large protective boot in tow, and cheered her teammates on for the rest of the game. She even managed to jump on reserve goalkeeper Laurel Ivory’s back in celebration of the Reign’s only goal.
That the game kept its thrilling pace even after Rapinoe’s injury is a testament to how good both teams were. And, of course, with Rapinoe off the field, many people turned their attention to Krieger. Krieger, who started as the left-sided center back for Gotham, did the things that have defined her reputation as one of the best defenders in the league. The 39-year-old regularly outran players much springier than her and kept things steady for Gotham’s youthful back line.
When the final whistle went and Krieger was mobbed by her teammates and eventually embraced by a smiling Rapinoe, it was hard not to think of how much the NWSL has changed during their careers.
When Krieger graduated from Penn State in 2006, the most recent women’s soccer league (WUSA) had been shut down three years earlier, and plans for the next iteration were anything but concrete. Even when Rapinoe graduated from the University of Portland two years later, the next (and eventually doomed) domestic league, WPS, still hadn’t been launched.
By the time the NWSL was established and ready to kick off its first season in 2013, both players had left WPS for Europe and had seen America’s league fold within five years. Still, they opted to return to the U.S. and sign up for yet another shot at domestic soccer.
The ensuing 10 years saw women’s domestic soccer in the United States stabilize and then grow from eight teams to 12, but that didn’t stop both Krieger and Rapinoe from challenging the league to be better on everything from equitable pay to LGBTQ+ support. And while Rapinoe’s record of fighting for inclusion is well documented, Krieger’s efforts have a tendency to go less recognized.
A major flashpoint for Krieger came in 2016, when she was playing for the Washington Spirit. While most NWSL teams were taking steps to provide a safe space for queer players and fans, Spirit majority owner Bill Lynch seemed to be doing the opposite. The Spirit was the only organization in the league without a Pride Night (it wouldn’t hold its first one until 2019) and was the sole team that didn’t openly applaud the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage in 2015.
Krieger eventually decided to take matters into her own hands, reportedly stopping by then–Spirit chief operating officer Ashlee Fontes-Comber’s office and emphasizing how sad it was that the Spirit still didn’t have a Pride Night.
“For us to go against that and to purposely not celebrate the LGBTQ community? That’s half our team,” Krieger told the Power Plays newsletter in 2019. “And even if not just for us, [they should hold one] for the fans.”
This all came to a head later in 2016 when the Reign came to Washington for the last game of the NWSL regular season. Days earlier, Rapinoe had taken a knee during the national anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick’s protest against inequality. Just as in the NFL, Rapinoe’s gesture sparked much conversation and controversy throughout the league. And that night in Washington, it also prompted Lynch to play the national anthem while both teams were still in the locker room, claiming he didn’t want Rapinoe to “hijack our organization’s event.”
Rapinoe called the decision “fucking unbelievable” and went on record saying Lynch was “homophobic.” The event led Krieger, who was captain of the Spirit, to put together a statement from the team condemning Lynch’s actions. She was traded to the Orlando Pride after the season, as many of the other big-name players on the roster left for greener pastures.
But that night left an impression on Krieger. She wrestled with what her next steps should be and worried about Rapinoe’s future. Krieger had traditionally been reserved when it came to speaking out on social issues, but Rapinoe’s protest and the attention it produced brought something out of the star defender.
“That might have been a changing point,” Krieger told Power Plays.
Krieger came out publicly in 2019 when she announced her engagement to fellow USWNT player Ashlyn Harris, and she has since been an ardent fighter for equal rights, something that might not have happened if Rapinoe hadn’t taken her stand three years earlier.
2019 was also the year that turned Rapinoe into a global sensation. She had been a star in the game—or a pariah, depending on who you asked—for many years, but her feud with Donald Trump during the women’s World Cup opened up the floodgates of criticism. A player’s announcement that they wouldn’t visit the White House if their team won the championship was bound to start a firestorm.
But Rapinoe stood by her convictions, doubled down on her White House statement, and ended up getting the last laugh when the USWNT lifted its second consecutive World Cup. The OL Reign star has continued to use her platform to actuate meaningful change across the league and in sports in general, especially with her work fighting for equal pay.
While the equal pay fight was spearheaded by the USWNT, many of those players star for NWSL teams, and their constant push to improve standards not only for themselves, but for the generations coming after them, has seen the league make major leaps in professionalism since its inception.
We’re not that far away from when Gotham, then named Sky Blue FC, was making headlines because its facilities were so poor that other NWSL players felt sorry for the team. Problems reportedly ranged from players having to live in housing so rundown that former Sky Blue assistant coach David Hodgson said “you would not let your dogs sleep in” it, to some teams leaving games without showering because the locker rooms were so unsanitary. Now the rebranded Gotham team plays in Red Bull Arena with healthy salaries and more hygienic facilities.
Improvements have been made at Rapinoe’s Reign as well. In the past three years, the club has negotiated a deal for the team to play at Seattle’s Lumen Field, and the club’s training facilities have moved from a couple of Tacoma-area high schools to Starfire Sports, the sports complex employed by MLS’s Seattle Sounders.
That’s not to say that the work is complete. It would take many more thousands of words to describe the problems plaguing the NWSL. There are persisting issues as thorny as abusive coaching and ownership, as well as more minor complaints like how difficult it is to find a specific game on television. Still, this is the longest a domestic women’s league has lasted in this country, and the NWSL just signed a huge media deal that will bring in $60 million annually and see games broadcast on ESPN, CBS, Amazon Prime Video, and Scripps Sports. The league has come a long way since the early afternoon games were broadcast on the likes of the Lifetime Channel.
When Krieger and Rapinoe embraced after the final whistle, it really hit home that the NWSL will have to go on without two of its best ambassadors. Krieger’s words from an ESPN interview a day earlier show how important the past decade in the league has been.
“I think the first year [of the NWSL], our purpose was to help this league succeed,” she said. “We knew what was at stake, and all of us basically came together and we knew that we had to really give it our all and work really hard to get to where we are now.
“This is like an elite level now. … So yeah, I am so proud and happy to see where we’ve come. Because those were some dark days early on.”
Even though Krieger is the only one who came away with a storybook ending on Saturday, the NWSL wouldn’t be where it is today without her and Rapinoe’s fight for progress every step of the way.
