NWSL: San Diego takes top spot, Washington's strea...

It's Monday and the 2026 NWSL regular season is well underway, which means it's time for ESPN's Power Rankings. Who's set for a climb up the table? Who's in danger of a free fall? Our writers studied the action from across Matchday 7 to come up with this week's order of all 16 teams in the league. Let's dive in. - NWSL Top 25: The best players of 2026, ranked - Summit and Legacy show risk and reward of NWSL expansion - Ranking the top 20 best women's club managers in the world Previous ranking: 3 Next match: vs. Washington Spirit, May 15, 10 p.m. ET The Wave beat their SoCal rivals Angel City 2-1, but it's hard to say who had the best performance on the Wave after this match. On one side of the pitch, goalkeeper DiDi Haracic came up huge time and time again to keep her team in the match. On the other hand, Brazilian star Dudinha generated in the attack consistently. She notched a goal and contributed a perfectly weighted cross into the head of Mimi Van Zanten for the go-ahead goal. San Diego has officially righted the ship after two straight losses. Previous ranking: 2 Next match: at San Diego Wave, May 15, 10 p.m. ET The Spirit defeated the Seattle Reign at Lumen Field 1-0 in the last match of the weekend. Despite coming out of this match with all three points, the Spirit weren't exactly the better side. Washington struggled with Seattle's press and as a result, barely managed to generate much in the attack. The Spirit conceded the majority of the attacking momentum to Seattle until roughly the final 10 minutes, when Claudia Martínez slotted the go-ahead goal past Reign goalkeeper Claudia Dickey. The Spirit now hold the longest winning streak of all teams with five matches and have not lost since their season opener. The Washington Spirit are now unbeaten in their last eight NWSL matches. (Photo by Blake Dahlin/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images) 3. Portland ThornsPrevious ranking: 1 Next match: vs. Angel City FC, May 17, 6 p.m. ET on ESPN2 Portland lost its second match of the season, 3-1 to Racing Louisville on the road. Though the Thorns got on the board first thanks to a Sophia Wilson goal off of an Olivia Moultrie assist, their defense did them in. The Thorns were disorganized and -- at times -- downright awful in their defensive third. While Portland is likely to have no trouble in the goal-scoring department this season, considering it is leading the league in goals already, it'll want to shore up its backline to be consistent competitors. Previous ranking: 4 Next match: at Seattle Reign, May 15, 10 p.m. ET Gotham drew the Boston Legacy at home 1-1, thanks to a Jaedyn Shaw goal that was her second in as many matches. NJ/NY went with a defend-in-possession game plan that Boston had few answers for, as Gotham notched 60% of the possession in this match. This approach has clearly been working, because Gotham had held their opponents scoreless in six of their nine games to open the year. Despite conceding a goal to Boston, they still limited the Legacy to only 21 passes in the final third and two passes into their 18-yard box. Previous ranking: 5 Next match: vs. Racing Louisville, May 17, 8 p.m. ET The Royals extended their unbeaten streak to seven after a scoreless draw with Bay FC. This is the very first time Utah has been kept off the board so far this year, and that's because Bay FC's goalkeeping was outstanding. The Royals managed breakaway after breakaway, and even clocked 61 passes into the final third in this match. Still, they had nothing to show for it. Sometimes soccer is cruel. Previous ranking: 7 Next match: vs. NJ/NY Gotham FC, May 15, 10 p.m. ET Seattle dropped all three points against the Spirit after losing 1-0 at home, yet still bumped up a spot in the rankings. This was a true heartbreaker of a result for the Reign, who were the better side for more than 80 minutes of this match. That is the fifth time Seattle has been held scoreless and the fourth straight match that it failed to get on the board this season. Is it time to start questioning what the attacking game plan is in Seattle? Previous ranking: 8 Next match: vs. Boston Legacy, May 15, 10 p.m. ET Bay FC recorded the first 0-0 draw in their history after their Sunday night match with the Utah Royals. Similar to last week, goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz was the hero in this game. Silkowitz's performance was undoubtedly the difference in this match, because the Bay midfield could not handle Utah on the counterattack nor in transition. Previous ranking: 13 Next match: vs. Orlando Pride, May 16, 8:45 p.m. ET Denver snapped its four-game winless streak after an emphatic 4-1 win against the Dash in Houston. As the scoreline suggests, Denver was dominant. Its press was organized and difficult for Houston to break down, and Houston had no answers for the Summit's attacking game plan. Case in point: Denver strung together the longest passing sequence to a goal so far this season on the way to Delanie Sheehan's score, a

NWSL: San Diego takes top spot, Washington's strea...

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