NWSL Playoff Shocks: Gotham’s Big Win Over Kansas City

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00:00Illustrators, what just happened on NWSL this week?

00:03Okay, guys, that's a pretty easy question to answer.

00:06Kansas City versus Gotham.

00:08Guys, what happened?

00:09I feel like this was the upset of the entire weekend for me.

00:13Gotham coming out on top over Kansas City.

00:16Keep in mind, Kansas City was around 65 points,

00:20and I believe that Gotham was around 34.

00:22So that's almost a 30-point differential.

00:25And again, I feel like the beauty of playoffs in every single league,

00:29no matter if you're playing men's or women's,

00:30that when it comes to the playoffs, nothing from regular season matters.

00:34And yeah, it was just amazing to watch.

00:36Crazy, crazy result, my friends.

00:39Let's just refresh everybody's memory.

00:42Kansas City was number one in the standings.

00:44Gotham was the eighth place, the last one to qualify to the playoffs.

00:50They had everything against them, Nick.

00:52They were playing at one of the toughest stadiums in NWSL

00:55against a team that had lost probably one or two games in the whole season.

01:00And then they come and they said,

01:02underdogs?

01:03We are not underdogs.

01:05We are them, Nick.

01:07There is every now and then this beautiful moment in all sports,

01:11I think, as you just touched on,

01:13when the top team that's coming into the playoffs with a stellar record

01:17actually finds themselves under quite a bit of pressure then to perform and to be great.

01:23And then another team might walk in with zero pressure and just have a great night.

01:28Yeah, absolutely.

01:29While the guys on top, the ladies on top might have, you know, felt like,

01:32oh, God, I can do this.

01:34But then that pressure cracks.

01:35Yeah, absolutely.

01:36I think another important thing to touch on is who,

01:38like what teams have the best players.

01:40Kansas City, we know, was relying heavily on their top player,

01:43could be the top player of the league, Chewinga, an incredible forward,

01:47scoring most of their goals and was out injured for these playoffs.

01:52So it begs the question, how much are they relying on one,

01:55maybe two players to make the whole team?

01:57Clearly, they were relying on a lot on these players.

02:00But now, I cannot talk about NWSL without talking about a name, a big name.

02:07Marta, the goat, my friend.

02:09Because this weekend, she did what she does all the time,

02:12and she surprised the world with a 75-yard run in the 98th minute,

02:19proving that at 39 years old, she can still hang out with the 20-somethings

02:24that are trying to defend her.

02:26She gets the penalty kick and get Orlando, a team that was struggling a lot.

02:30Camila, you and I, we were discussing throughout the season

02:32how Orlando, after being the champion, were not performing,

02:36but maybe they're firing cylinders right at the right time.

02:39Yeah, absolutely.

02:40We were honestly giving them a lot of trouble

02:42for not being able to perform that well in the last couple games.

02:45I think a match like this really just showed,

02:48hey, we're still the reigning champs, and we're still here to play,

02:51and players like Marta can compete against the 20-something-year-olds from Seattle,

02:57and, if I'm being honest, dominate.

02:59Marta is Marta-ing.

03:00Yep.

03:01Marta is Marta-ing.

03:02Now, another team that is surprising everyone is Portland Thorns.

03:07Camila, talk to us about them.

03:08Yeah, actually, I know Nick knew a little bit about the Portland Thorns

03:11and San Diego game, so tell us a little bit about that.

03:14Yeah, I mean, really good match, very tight, very, I want to say cagey.

03:19It was like both teams going at it.

03:21They were hitting the woodwork quite a bit,

03:23but I don't want to give all of the credit to the posts.

03:26Both keepers were doing absolutely amazing to keep that scoreline at zero

03:30until the very end in the final minutes of the game.

03:33Man, Portland just kind of squeezing ahead.

03:35That must have been really tough for San Diego,

03:37but I do want to say something about San Diego specifically.

03:39I mean, this is a squad that, first of all,

03:42to have made it this far is quite a feat for them,

03:45and, you know, they don't get a lot of that hype,

03:47a lot of that hype, that financial backing, let's say,

03:50that other squads like Angel City might have,

03:52and they went pretty far, and they really showed out,

03:54and, you know, had this game gone a little bit differently,

03:57and hopefully it'd be them going on,

03:58but unfortunately it didn't go their way that night.

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