Gotham have won their second NWSL championship in three years, proving that sometimes the best way to get what you want is just to perfect what gets you through the single elimination format.

And they did it in style.

Welcome everybody to this week's edition of the latest of.

I am your host, Claire Watkins.

It is Monday, November 24th. We've got a lot to talk

about. We're going to be getting in depth on the befores during and afters of NWSL

championship weekend where Gotham defeated Washington to take the trophy home. And then we're going

to hit some quick notes on this week's US women's national team roster for their final two

friendlies against Italy. No rest for anybody. I hope everyone is having a blast because it is

soccer city right now until it gets a little bit quiet in the end of December. So lots to jump into.

No further ado. Let's dig in.

So I am back in Chicago after another wild NWSL championship weekend, which feels a little bit more like a week these days.

You probably hear it in my voice.

Another great success in San Jose.

You know, they had the awards show. There's Media Day. You have

pre and post championship parties. The league keeps growing at these neutral site venues every year.

It feels more and more like a summit of the industry, which is very cool. I mean, I think this is getting discussed

more when you see crossover from women's sports leagues or just sports leagues in general,

where it's very helpful to have sort of these apex points for an entire league industry, as

we know with WMBA. That game, that is an all-star game thing, as opposed to a championship game thing. We always refer to, you know, like the Super Bowl maybe being the best example of that, where everyone knows where they're going. Media can invest, you know, other industry stakeholders can invest in getting everybody there, a meeting of the minds. I said it was like Wednesday to Sunday this year. I bet give it three years will be there for a whole week. It was really nice. And I say this every year and I want to give a quick shout out here just right from the beginning. I always walk away from this weekend. Very proud of my coworkers. If you were there in San Jose on the ground, if you were watching from home, if you interacted with any piece of just women's sports content and you enjoyed it, it's because my coworkers pull off miracles every single year.

It's always a blast.

It's a lot of hard work with a huge payoff at the end.

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