With only eight games left to finish the regular season, we have players cementing their MVP statuses and some late pushers.
Who is leading the race?
Here are six frontrunners:
Ashley Sanchez
I think it’s safe to say that North Carolina Courage’s Ashley Sanchez is leading the MVP race after the performances she’s put up in the last few weeks.
“Are you not entertained?”
She has scored five goals in four games in August, and in two of those games (vs Boston Legacy and Angel City), Sanchez scored two consecutive braces. That makes 4 braces total this year, equaling Sophia Wilson, Barbra Banda, Esther González and Sam Kerr, the only four other players who have registered the same number of braces in a single season.
It was another brilliant month for Sanchez and why she was chosen as Player of the Month for August.
Trinity Rodman
Washington Spirit’s engine keeps making her case for MVP this season. She’s elite on 1v1 wing play, defensive work rate, and she’s an absolute threat in the final third.
Her stats (10 goals and five assists) speak for themselves and cement her as one of the most complete attacking players not only on her club but also in the league. Her 10 goals put Rodman in 3rd place in the Golden Boot race, and she’s also ranked 3rd in Expected Goals (11.89).
However, she’s not all goal contributions. Her defensive pressing is also noteworthy, since Rodman leads all top-tier NWSL forwards in ground duels won (110) and total tackles (27), according to FootyStats.
Pietra Tordin
The Florida native is joining the race a little late, but a late push is always welcome to spice things up in this race. Tordin has certainly been a standout for the Thorns in 2026, accumulating seven goals and nine assists so far. Three of those seven tallies happened on August 9, when she scored a hat-trick, the first one of her career.
The last time she registered a goal contribution was on August 15, against the Orlando Pride, when she recorded an assist to help the team get a win (2-1). However, she was huge in Portland’s recent match on the road against Gotham, when she got the penalty kick that Sophia Wilson turned into the equalizer from the PK spot.
Evelyn Ijeh
Why aren’t we talking more about Swedish international Evelyn Ijeh?
After joining the Courage from AC Milan in a record transfer fee in Italian Women’s Serie A history, she has been delivering early in the season. And in the span of two games (July 31 and August 8), Ijeh scored five goals and was chosen as Player of the Week, and was part of the NWSL Best XI for July.
Her latest contribution was in the Courage’s latest game against Kansas, when she scored one goal. With it, that brings the total to 11 goals and three assists in 21 matches for the 25-year-old.
Barbra Banda
Although the Orlando Pride are not doing well (they just recently sacked coach Seb Hines), Barbra Banda keeps pushing.
Her 13 goals and two assists are not easy to ignore. And although Banda hasn’t scored since July 10 (she had national team commitments), she put her name on the scoresheet again in the last match Orlando played against the Utah Royals. Granted, they lost but Banda scored Orlando’s lone goal.
Can she make a late push and stay among the nominees in this last part of the season? If the Pride starts to do better now that they have an new interim coach, maybe she will.
Sophia Wilson
Maybe we are so used to Sophia Wilson doing Sophia Wilson things that by now, seeing her scoring 11 goals and registering two assists is something very common for a player like her.
Portland has come down to trying to score more goals to counteract those scored against, and Wilson is playing the part pretty well. Actually, she scored against Gotham last Friday, something that has proved to be very difficult not only for her (the last time Wilson did so before that match was in 2022) but for everybody else in the league since they are the team with the fewest goals against (14).
