Well, we made it. The final international break of the NWSL regular season is coming to an end, and that means the final round of the 2025 Fantasy NWSL season!
Congrats to Amber Waves of Pain, which, barring a massive comeback by Esther lauders FC, will win the Mansers Answers mini-league! Huff n Puff will likely take 3rd place… followed by yours truly, who didn’t even get on the podium in his own league. Meanwhile, there’s still much to be decided in the overall leaderboard – good luck to all this weekend!
Also, a very sincere thank you to everyone who played ShePlays Fantasy NWSL this season! We are 100% volunteer-run website, and really appreciate your support of ShePlays and your support of women’s sports.
What’s different about Round 26?
The schedule for Round 26 is different than each previous week – let’s call it Decision Day Lite (Decision Daylight? hmm). Anyway, six of the seven games will all kick off at 5e/4c/3m/2p on Sunday. One match, Kansas City vs. San Diego, will begin two hours earlier to accommodate the ESPN window, making the FNWSL deadline 3e/2c/1m/12p on Sunday.
Unfortunately, unlike a true Decision Day, we won’t have every single starting lineup available before the deadline. We should, however, have full availability reports for each team. So make sure you’re taking a final look before the deadline Sunday!
Which teams have meaningful games in Round 26?
Kansas City and Washington are locked into the 1 and 2 seeds respectively, and Kansas City has already set the all-time NWSL points record, so it’s possible that both of these teams limit the minutes of key starters this weekend.
On the other end of the table, five teams are eliminated from playoff contention: Houston, Angel City, Utah, Bay, and Chicago. Utah is playing Washington, and Angel City and Chicago are playing each other, so some normal starters may see fewer minutes in those matches also.
However, with only seven points separating Orlando in 3rd from North Carolina in 9th, all the other teams have a lot to play for. The Orlando/Seattle and Carolina/Gotham matches should be especially competitive, so keep players from those teams in mind this weekend.
Who got lots of minutes in the international break?
We’re mostly playing friendlies this break, so fortunately for FNWSL, so we’re seeing a lot of rotation in national team lineups. Emily Sonnet did play the first two full matches for the US, but I believe she’s the only NWSL international that has played two full matches so far. (Remember that the Wednesday friendlies have yet to be played as of this article being posted – I’ll try to update!) So, in general, I would expect most national team players to get normal minutes in league play this weekend.
There are also three active NWSL players currently at the U17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco: Micayla Johnson, Mak Whitham, and KK Ream.
Who are the key players to start this weekend?
Olivia Moultrie and Esther are two players to really focus on this weekend, especially if you’re going to be freeing up money by transferring out some of your high-priced Current players. Moultrie is on a heater, having scored five of the last six Thorns goals, and she’s playing against an eliminated Houston Dash team.
Since North Carolina needs a win to have a chance at playoff sport, the Courage will likely be chasing the game – opening up some opportunities for Gotham attackers, especially Esther. That also means that North Carolina’s own attackers are good options this week as well (maybe Manaka Matsukubo gets another hat trick?), as well as DFs like Ryan Williams who will probably be pushing forward throughout the game.
The same can probably be said for Louisville, as Racing needs a win to be sure of a playoff berth, so consider Taylor Flint (like always), Emma Sears, and especially Janine Sonis.
As always, comment or Bluesky @MansersAnswers with any questions! And stay tuned all off-season for great ShePlays content!