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If there is one theme that threaded through this past weekend in the NWSL, it was comebacks.
Start in Washington, where the Spirit didn’t just beat the Kansas City Current last Friday; they made it look easy. A 3-0 win, with Trinity Rodman back on the scoresheet. For a team that has spent stretches searching for rhythm, this felt like a reset button and a reminder of their ceiling with their front line, especially when the dynamic duo of Leicy Santos and Rodman drove at defenders instead of circling around them.
In New Jersey, Gotham FC delivered a similarly emphatic message: a 3-0 home win over Bay FC. Rose Lavelle and Esther scored back-to-back goals, highlighting the kind of performance that suggests last season’s championship DNA didn’t just vanish over the offseason.
Gotham looked organized and, most importantly, comfortable again.
Neither of those was a comeback on the scoresheet, sure, but they were in the big picture. Meanwhile:
Out west, the San Diego Wave edged the Denver Summit 3-2 in a tightly contested match that never quite opened up. Not every comeback is flashy (this one included an own goal by Denver) — some are about grinding out results and rediscovering how to win when margins are thin.
But the weekend belonged to Sophia Wilson. Her goal against Angel City wasn’t just a 95th-minute match winner. It was a moment. The first in 541 days. The first since stepping away to have her child. The first since returning to a league that rarely slows down for anyone. There’s no soft landing in this league, no easing back in, and yet, there she was, decisive when it mattered.
For the Portland Thorns, it was the boost they needed after a shaky postseason, saying goodbye to Sam Coffey and welcoming a new coach in Robert Vilahamn. And perhaps most importantly, for the league, Wilson’s goal was the proof that the pathway back from motherhood is possible, even if it’s rarely straightforward.
Four games, one theme: The league’s heavy-hitters are stirring again. After the international break, the so-called “big four” not only made their comebacks but also reasserted themselves. (We’ll get to the Champions League comeback in a moment.)
Call it a coincidence if you want. It did not look like one.
Reporters like to pretend we’ve seen it all. The mixed zone usually humbles that idea pretty quickly, and last Friday brought one of those moments.
When I (Asli) saw Spirit defender Rebeca Bernal walk out of the locker room clutching what looked like … a plastic animal, I paused. The new-mom brain, running on fumes, immediately went to: This is it, I’ve lost it. Was it a dog? A cat? Some sort of emotional-support prop I hadn’t been briefed on?
Nope. A coyote. “His name is Jose,” she told me, completely straight-faced. Of course it is.
Turns out, the team picked him up in San Jose ahead of its Bay FC matchup earlier this month, where plastic coyote decoys are scattered around training grounds to scare off the real ones. Locals swear by them. The players? They just thought it was hilarious and, importantly, kind of cute.
And here’s where it gets better: After weeks of struggling to score, Washington went out and beat Bay FC that week.
The only logical conclusion: Jose is the lucky charm. Since then, he’s been fully integrated into the squad.
Mascot, emotional-support decoy, occasional mixed-zone cameo. You’ll find him on TikTok, probably in half the locker room photos, and if this continues beyond Washington’s win over Kansas City, looming over future postgame interviews like he’s part of the media scrum.
I spend a lot of time trying to explain this league, investments, infrastructure, tactics — all the serious stuff. And then a plastic coyote named Jose walks into the mixed zone and reminds me that sometimes, the story is just … this: