Welcome to this week’s edition of Goalside Gossip!

Week 28 was about who still has a season left. Angel City came back from two goals down in Denver to stretch their unbeaten run to eight, San Diego locked up a home playoff quarterfinal in North Carolina, Kansas City moved into the top four at Utah's expense, and Seattle climbed back into the last playoff place. Three clubs have clinched so far.

Off the pitch, both 2028 expansion clubs made their first real hire. Atlanta City took Gotham's scouting chief, and Columbus named its first general manager. Three Zambian internationals, meanwhile, are stuck outside the country on Ebola travel rules with two games to go.

Let's get into it.

Game Summaries (NWSL):

News:

Two goals down inside 18 minutes, on the road, against a side playing for its season. Angel City won anyway. That's eight unbeaten now and fifth place, and it's starting to look less like a hot run than a good team.

Denver got the start they wanted. Melissa Kössler turned in a corner in the second minute and Lindsey Heaps doubled it in the 18th.

Then came the 11 minutes that settled it. Sveindís Jónsdóttir pulled one back in the 32nd off an Evelyn Shores ball, Taylor Suarez levelled it in the 38th from a Gisele Thompson pass, and Ally Sentnor finished the comeback before the break with a strike from outside the box.

Two home games to finish: Bay FC on Saturday at BMO Stadium, then Boston Legacy on Decision Day at Dignity Health Sports Park.

San Diego have a home playoff game, and an 18 year old got them most of the way there. The Wave won 2-1 at the North Carolina Courage in front of 10,353 for a fourth straight win.

Melanie Barcenas needed four minutes. Played in by Lia Godfrey, she struck from distance off the post and in for her seventh of the season, more than any teenager has scored in a single NWSL season. Trinity Byars made it two in the 52nd, chipping former Wave goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan after Gia Corley put her through.

North Carolina got one back through Vilde Bøe Risa in the 83rd and had a look in stoppage time, but the Wave held on. San Diego outshot them 15 to 13, took a club record ninth road win, and will host their quarterfinal at Snapdragon Stadium.

Boston Legacy at Snapdragon on October 25, then away to Bay FC on Decision Day.

Kansas City didn't just beat Utah, they took their playoff place on the way out. A 2-0 win in front of 10,809 at America First Field put the Current into the top four.

Haley Hopkins opened it in the 21st, climbing above her marker to head home a Vanessa DiBernardo corner. Utah pushed before the break and got nothing for it. Lorena made the saves, and Temwa Chawinga nearly had a second on the counter but hit the crossbar.

Utah had the chances after that, a Cece Delzer header just wide among them, and no finish to show for any of it. Kansas City ended it in stoppage time when Chawinga ran clear and squared for Hopkins, who finished for her second of the night.

Utah get Seattle at home on Friday, then finish away at Gotham on Decision Day.

Seattle had to have this one, and they didn't make it hard on themselves. A 3-1 win at the Chicago Stars put the Reign back into eighth, the last playoff place, on 43 points.

The Reign had the better of the first half and saw a Jess Fishlock goal ruled out for offside before Maddie Mercado brought down a Fishlock cross and slotted it home in the 38th.

The substitutes finished it. Nérilia Mondésir scored in the 80th, six minutes after coming on, and Mercado added her second of the night and 10th of the season with an 84th minute header from a Brittany Ratcliffe cross. Simone Charley pulled one back in the 90th, far too late to matter.

Utah away on Friday, then Orlando at Lumen Field on Decision Day, with the season on the line both times.

Atlanta City FC have their first chief soccer officer. Richard Gunney, Gotham's director of scouting and roster development since 2022, starts on November 1, less than a month after the club showed off its name and crest. Owner Arthur Blank is betting on a decade of NWSL experience to set the playing philosophy before Atlanta's first season in 2028.

What he built at Gotham was a recruitment operation, run alongside Yael Averbuch West, and the signings tell the story. Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnett, Tierna Davidson and Crystal Dunn out of the USWNT pool, then Esther González, Guro Reiten and Sam Kerr from abroad. Four trophies followed while he was there: the NWSL Championships of 2023 and 2025, the 2025 Concacaf W Champions Cup, and the 2026 NWSL Challenge Cup.

He coached before he scouted, as an assistant head coach with the Portland Thorns from 2017 to 2021 and then with San Diego Wave in their first season. Atlanta are not the only 2028 club hiring this month either, which brings us to Columbus further down.

Three Zambian internationals cannot get back into the United States. Barbra Banda of the Orlando Pride, Racheal Kundananji of the Chicago Stars and Prisca Chilufya of Angel City played an Olympic qualifier in Uganda on October 8, and US rules tied to the East African Ebola outbreak now keep them out for 21 days. Uganda has reported 20 confirmed cases.

The timing could hardly be worse. Two regular season games remain, all three clubs are still fighting for position, and three front line players are gone for the stretch that decides it. Zambia won the tie 5-3 on aggregate and nobody is unwell. They could be back by Decision Day on November 1, depending on when they fly.

The league and the clubs are working with US immigration on the return. The outbreak itself started in eastern Congo in mid May and has grown to more than 9,500 confirmed cases and over 4,600 deaths, with cases now in Kenya too.

Lucy Rushton will be the first general manager of the NWSL's 18th club, in Columbus, which starts play in 2028. Backed by Haslam Sports Group, Nationwide and Drs. Christine and Pete Edwards, she runs all sporting operations and reports to Tim Bezbatchenko, Haslam's president of global soccer. Player signing windows open in January.

She has done this before, at speed. Rushton was Bay FC's first general manager in 2023 and assembled a squad inside months, and Bay FC became only the second NWSL club to reach the playoffs in its first season. She left three months into that season and went on to advise Gotham FC and the Portland Thorns. Columbus is giving her more than a year before she has to sign anybody.

Her route here ran through English football and the men's game. Seven years as a performance analyst at Reading FC, where the club went up to the Premier League in 2012, then 2016 to 2021 at Atlanta United as head of technical recruitment and analysis, winning the 2018 MLS Cup and the 2019 US Open Cup. She became the second woman to hold a general manager job in MLS when D.C. United hired her in 2021. First task in Columbus is hiring scouts.

Read the full story on the hire here.