On Sunday in Utah, Ashley Sanchez stood over a penalty in the first half, rolled it home, and became only the second player in NWSL history to score 20 goals in a regular season. The other is Temwa Chawinga, who did it for Kansas City in 2024 and walked away with the MVP. (Chawinga, who is from Malawi, also gave back to the game in her home country that December, delivering soccer balls in partnership with Charity Ball.)
Then the North Carolina Courage lost 2-1, their third straight 2-1 defeat, and slipped below the playoff line.
That is where the most interesting season in American women’s soccer stands with four games to play: one player on pace to own the league’s scoring record outright, and a team that might not be around to see what she does in November.
How she got to 20
The goal itself was simple. Gianna Paul drew a foul from Utah’s Nuria Rábano in the box, and Sanchez converted. Utah had already scored through Cloé Lacasse in the 17th minute, and Cece Delzer won it for the Royals in the 65th. It was not the night anybody in North Carolina wanted, but the number next to Sanchez’s name is the one people will remember.
The run that set it up is the real story. Sanchez has 9 goals in her last 7 games. On September 6 against Chicago she scored her first career hat trick in a 6-0 win: a scramble finish in the 11th minute, a penalty in the 69th, and a header in the 81st. That took her from 15 goals to 18 and past the old American single-season record of 15, which Crystal Dunn (2015) and Alex Morgan (2022) had shared.
She also had a would-be 20th taken off the board by VAR for offside against Gotham, which is why she is tied instead of already alone at the top. And she has 24 goal contributions this season, the second-most in any single NWSL campaign.
Here is the number that best explains the leap: Sanchez scored fewer goals in her first five NWSL seasons combined than she has in this one.
The position change behind the breakout
For most of her career Sanchez was a creator, not a finisher. She set the UCLA program record with 42 assists in three seasons, went fourth overall to the Washington Spirit in the 2020 draft, and helped the Spirit win the 2021 NWSL Championship as a No. 10 who made everyone around her better. Washington traded her to North Carolina in January 2024 for the No. 5 pick and $250,000 in allocation money.
This year, new Courage coach Mak Lind moved her out of the middle and onto the left wing. It is the first season she has played there, and before it she had never scored twice in a professional game. She has now done it five times, and won NWSL Player of the Month twice, in April and August.
Lind says he told her in preseason that she could score 20. She laughed. “She has herself to thank,” Lind said this month. “The only thing I’ve been doing is make sure she understands her potential.”
Sanchez tells it more plainly. “I did have a goal, and then it just kept moving,” she said. “Now, I guess it’s just 20.” And the line every defender left on the Courage schedule should hear: “This is my first year playing this position. I could do even more.”
Why the Courage are in trouble anyway
This is the first 30-game season in NWSL history, with 16 teams and the top 8 making the playoffs. Here is how the line looks after Sunday:
- 6. Angel City FC: 42 points
- 7. Kansas City Current: 41 points
- 8. Seattle Reign FC: 40 points
- 9. North Carolina Courage: 39 points
- 10. Denver Summit FC: 35 points
The good news for Carolina is that the gap is one point, and they still control their own path. The bad news is the schedule:
- Friday, October 2: at Seattle Reign FC, the team directly above them
- Saturday, October 17: home against San Diego Wave FC, second in the table
- Friday, October 23: at Portland Thorns FC
- Sunday, November 1: home against Denver Summit FC on the final day
Friday in Seattle is close to a playoff game already. Win it and the Courage jump the Reign. Lose it and they are four points back of a spot with three to play.
The strange part is that goals are not the problem. North Carolina have scored 49, the most in the league. The problem is the other end: 39 conceded, more than any team currently in the top eight. The attack has been carried by one player on a historic run, and it still has not been enough to stop a three-game slide.
The USWNT question
Sanchez has 28 caps for the United States and was on the 2023 World Cup roster, where she did not play a minute. She has not been called into a US camp since January 2025, which is why every week of this season has come with the same question: when does Emma Hayes bring her back?
Hayes has built this cycle around a deep, young attacking group, and wingers are the hardest spot on the roster to crack. We wrote earlier this month about Trinity Rodman’s two-sport week, and Rodman is the kind of player Sanchez is competing with for a place. But the league’s leading scorer, playing a new position at 27 and outperforming her expected goals by more than anyone in the NWSL, is a hard case to leave out much longer.
What to watch
Sanchez needs one goal in four games to own the record by herself. Given the last two months, that feels close to certain. The Golden Boot is all but hers too: Orlando’s Barbra Banda is second with 16, and Portland’s Sophia Wilson is third with 13.
The harder question is whether she gets to play in the postseason. The regular season ends November 1, and the playoffs run November 6 to 21. If you have not watched the Courage this year, Friday night at Lumen Field is the one to catch. It might be the biggest game of Ashley Sanchez’s season, and it has nothing to do with the record.
