NWSL playoffs begin as four teams separate themselves from the pack; Messi and Miami at risk on Saturday

Happy Friday! It is officially postseason time in the U.S. with the NWSL Playoffs kicking off on Friday and another crucial round of MLS games also taking place over the weekend. I'm Pardeep Cattry with a weekend lookahead.

📺 Footy fix

All times U.S./Eastern

Friday, Nov. 8
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 WSL: Manchester City vs. Tottenham Hotspur, 2:30 p.m. ➡️ ESPN2
🇺🇸 NWSL Playoffs: Orlando Pride vs. Chicago Red Stars, 8 p.m. ➡️ Amazon Prime Video
🇺🇸🇨🇦 MLS Cup Playoffs: LAFC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps, 10:30 p.m. ➡️ Apple TV+

Saturday, Nov. 9
🇪🇸 La Liga: Real Madrid vs. Osasuna, 8 a.m. ➡️ ESPN+
🇩🇪 Bundesliga: St. Pauli vs. Bayern Munich, 9:30 a.m. ➡️ ESPN2
🇺🇸 NWSL Playoffs: Kansas City Current vs. North Carolina Courage, 12 p.m. ➡️ CBS, Paramount+
🇮🇹 Serie A: Cagliari vs. AC Milan, 12 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 EPL: Liverpool vs. Aston Villa, 3 p.m. ➡️ Peacock
🇺🇸 MLS Cup Playoffs: Inter Miami vs. Atlanta United, 8 p.m. ➡️ Apple TV+

Sunday, Nov. 10
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 EPL: Chelsea vs. Arsenal, 11:30 a.m. ➡️ USA Network
🇺🇸 NWSL Playoffs: Washington Spirit vs. Bay FC, 12:30 p.m. ➡️ ABC
🇮🇹 Serie A: Inter vs. Napoli, 2:45 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
🇺🇸 NWSL Playoffs: NJ/NY Gotham vs. Portland Thorns, 3 p.m. ➡️ ABC
🇪🇸 La Liga: Real Sociedad vs. Barcelona, 3 p.m. ➡️ ESPN+

⚽ The Forward Line

🏆 Let the NWSL Playoffs begin

After an entertaining regular season, the largest edition of the NWSL Playoffs begins on Friday with eight teams fighting for a spot at the NWSL Championship two weeks from now.

The postseason begins with this weekend's quarterfinals, during which the focus will be on the regular season's top four teams – Shield winners Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit, NJ/NY Gotham FC and Kansas City Current. The group were far and away the best teams in the regular season, creating a 16 point gap between them and the rest of the table. The wait now is to see if they can extend that success into a deep postseason run, and perhaps a trophy when all's said and done.

The favorites for the NWSL's ultimate prize, of course, are the Pride. The team booked their first-ever playoff appearance in style, winning their first-ever trophy and setting the league's unbeaten streak at 23 games. They will host the Chicago Red Stars on Friday, who have enjoyed a solid season under first year head coach Lorne Donaldson but slid from sixth place to eighth place in recent weeks and will need to course correct against a stylistically similar, but more dominant side, as Sandra Herrera writes.

• Herrera: "Orlando will go up against a team with a similar mindset on Friday. Chicago Red Stars are also a team that prefers less of the ball and a quick clinical finish. Chicago head coach Lorne Donaldson has mostly utilized his first year with the team as an opportunity to stabilize a once unstable roster. But lately, they're more low-block and absentee goals. Tactical similarities are where things end between the two sides. Chicago is limping into the playoffs, with one goal scored in nearly a month, and will be without another scoring threat, Ludmila, who is serving game two of a three-game suspension due to a red card foul against Washington Spirit on Oct. 20."

The playoffs continue on Saturday when the Current host the North Carolina Courage, for which the focus will be on Temwa Chawinga's availability. The NWSL MVP contender leads the league with 20 goals but has been in and out of the team in recent weeks with an undisclosed injury. She came off at halftime of the Current's NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup win over Gotham on Oct. 25, but also sat out last week's win at the Red Stars in what the team described as a precautionary measure.

Though the Current will be able to find goals elsewhere, head coach Vlatko Andonovski stopped by Attacking Third this week to make the case for Chawinga's MVP credentials.

• Andonovski: "Her ability to score goals is something that makes her different, but there's so many other things. Obviously the goals are, what catches everyone's eye, the stats, the assists, but Temwa is a player that makes a team better in so many different ways. Whether it's defensively or offensively, she helps. She helps the team. Whether it's the press, or winning the ball, or helping the defense, but then on the other side, in the build-up, or creating space for the other players. She's a special player, and she's really fun to watch. I mean, obviously we see her in the minutes, or you see her 90 minutes in the game, but I see her every day in training and some of the things that she does. It's fun."

The last three NWSL champions are in action on Sunday, when the attack-minded Spirit host the defensively solid Bay FC, who are only the second NWSL expansion team to reach the postseason, and 2023 champions Gotham host the Portland Thorns, the 2022 winners.

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🔗  Midfield Link Play

🌴 Inter Miami's winner-takes-all moment

Though four teams have already booked their spots in the MLS Conference finals, another four berths are still up for grabs this weekend, when the final round of the best-of-three series comes to a close.

The most high-profile match of the weekend will take place in South Florida, when Lionel Messi's Inter Miami host Atlanta United. At the start of the series, it may have been considered the most lopsided matchup in the playoffs – Miami are the new Supporters' Shield winners, while Atlanta snuck into the postseason as the ninth seed and ended the regular season with a regular goal difference. Atlanta, though, have kept both matchups tight, losing the first game 2-1 and then notching a surprise 2-1 win at home last week to send the series to a third game.

Miami will naturally rely on their star talent to advance on Saturday, as Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba already has a goal each in this series and Messi has an assist. Atlanta played them to a fairly even game last week, though, and actually outshot Miami 13 to 11 en route to the win. They will likely aim to repeat that gameplan this weekend, which could see them knock out the MLS Cup favorites if they pull it off.

The Supporters' Shield winners are not the only top seed in danger of exiting the playoffs earlier than they'd like this week. LAFC, the top side in the Western Conference, will finish out their series against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Friday after a comPetitive first batch of Games. LAFC took the first Game in an evenly-contested Game, and though the stats were similar in the second Game last week, the Whitecaps outdid LAFC in a 3-0 win.

Elsewhere, FC Cincinnati battle New York City FC for a spot in the next round, while Orlando City will host Charlotte FC.

🔗  Top Stories

🌎 NWSL goes global: Here's how the signings of Temwa Chawinga, Barbra Banda and more international players signal the NWSL's push to evolve in an increasingly competitive women's soccer landscape.

🇪🇺 UCL rewind: Here are the latest editions of the Champions League power rankings and the team of the week after a busy round of games, which saw Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain on the wrong side of concerning losses.

👎 Mbappe's bad week: Kylian Mbappe's poor showing in Real Madrid's loss to AC Milan shows he has yet to click at his new club, though he will not have a chance to show his talents for the national team after being omitted from the France squad again.

🎠 MLS coaching carousel: Bruce Arena landed his first job since being placed on administrative leave by MLS last year, joining the San Jose Earthquakes as the head coach and sporting director. Elsewhere, the Philadelphia Union fired Jim Curtin after a 10 year spell in charge.

⚽ Must-see goal: Stanford booked a spot in the ACC Men's Soccer Championship in style, with Dylan Hooper scoring a golazo with seconds left on the clock.

💰  The Back Line

💵 Best bets

• Premier League: Liverpool vs. Aston Villa, Saturday, 3 p.m.
  💰 THE PICK: Liverpool to win 2-1 (+700) – This pick is largely inspired by recent form, with Liverpool still nearly perfect under new manager Arne Slot and Aston Villa now winless in their last four. There's little reason to bet against Liverpool in these circumstances, so expect them to take advantage of a Villa defense that has conceded 15 goals so far in league play this season. The Reds might not get out of this scot-free, though – Villa have scored 17 goals already this season and might snag another one at Anfield.
• Premier League: Chelsea vs. Arsenal, Sunday, 11:30 a.m.
  💰 THE PICK: Cole Palmer to score (+195) – With seven goals and five assists and unburdened with European competition so far this season, Cole Palmer is arguably the most in-form player who will likely play at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Expect him to play a big role for Chelsea as they aim to extend Arsenal's winless run to four games and hang onto a spot in the top four in the process.

For more picks, predictions, expert tips and the latest betting news, don't miss out on CBSSports.com's betting home page.   

📺 What's on CBS Sports Golazo Network

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🥅 Scoreline (Daily): Scoreline is the newest place for fans to catch up on all the biggest news and results impacting global Football, match highlights from the top soccer comPetitions and all the can't-miss goals from the day's action, starting Thursday and airing seven days a week.

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