Prime Video’s docuseries on the 2024 NWSL playoffs premiered on Thursday.
The release comes one day before the NWSL Challenge Cup — a rematch of the 2024 NWSL championship between the Washington Spirit and the Orlando Pride. The Pride won that 2024 game 1-0.
The Challenge Cup is the unofficial start of the 2025 season.
The docuseries, titled “For the Win: NWSL,” follows the Spirit, Pride, Gotham FC, Kansas City Current, North Carolina Courage, Portland Thorns, Chicago Red Stars and Bay FC as they pursue an NWSL title.
Two NWSL players who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have ties to Utah were among the players featured in the series: Olivia Moultrie and Ashley Hatch.
Olivia Moultrie in ‘For the Win’
In the first episode, the series briefly takes fans into the life and home of Moultrie, who became the youngest player in the NWSL at age 15.
In 2021, Moultrie filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the league and was allowed to sign with the Portland Thorns after the judge granted a preliminary injunction, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Moultrie, who was born in Utah, is shown in the new series playing a competitive game of Phase 10 with her father and younger sister.
“My family has been an enormous part of my journey. Like at the start, it was figuring out my school schedule, taking me out early, driving really far, being willing to commute to places that were far away,” she said in the episode.
Moultrie talked about her dad working in his car because he would always be on the road taking her to training sessions.
“The biggest change (came) when I was able to move to Portland. My entire family came with me,” she said.
The series then shows a flashback to Moultrie’s NWSL debut as a substitute. In the clip, she’s waiting anxiously on the sideline.
“I was so excited, like the ref’s like telling me to wait, and I’m like, ‘OK, can I go?’” she said. “I didn’t even like feel my body. I was like euphoric. Hearing the crowd in the stadium, I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool.’”
After a montage of Moultrie highlights, The Athletic’s Tamerra Griffin talks about Moultrie’s fit in Portland.
“When I think about a city like Portland and a club like the Thorns, I think for a player like Olivia Moultrie to begin her career there, and then you added the leadership and the mentorship that she was able to receive from veterans like Christine Sinclair, Becky Sauerbrunn. It’s just the legacy of the club. It’s hard to think of a better pairing,” Griffin said.
Moultrie is featured throughout the rest of the episode. She speaks about the Thorns' upcoming playoff game against Gotham, which the Thorns lost.
Ashley Hatch in ‘For the Win’
Hatch’s team, the Spirit, is a prominent part of the series from the onset. That means the show includes many clips of Hatch playing during the 2024 season and playoffs.
But Prime missed the mark when it came to Hatch.
Although the former BYU Cougar played a pivotal role in the Spirit’s playoff run, her only interview segments included in the series are of her talking about opponent Gotham FC and one of her teammates, Trinity Rodman.
Rodman is a star on the U.S. women’s national team and led the Spirit in scoring and made the NWSL’s Best XI last season. She was featured prominently in the new show.
But Hatch’s 2024 season was also rich with storylines as she made her 150th NWSL appearance, surpassed 50 goals and moved into sixth place on the NWSL’s regular season all-time scoring list.
She scored five goals in the Spirit’s final seven regular season games after coming back from an eight-game demotion to the bench.
Despite the benching, she finished the season as the team’s second-leading scorer with seven goals — one goal shy of joining a three-way tie for team leader.
Hatch fans will have to settle for watching one of the NWSL’s most underrated scorers, rather than hearing from her in “For the Win.”
The final episode of the series starts with the penalty shootout during the semifinal match between the Spirit and Gotham, and Hatch is one of the first players to be seen.
Hatch took the first penalty of the shootout, and in typical Hatch fashion, converted it.
The former BYU Cougar has only missed one regular season penalty in her career and has made her past 11, which is the longest streak in the history of the NWSL, according to OptaJack.
In the championship, fans watch as Hatch hustles, takes a beating from some tackles and fights to give Washington a chance to tie the game with two shots.
After the first Hatch shot, a header that hit the post, the show cuts to NWSL and U.S. women’s national soccer team legends Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Kelley O’Hara and retired WNBA icon Sue Bird reacting to the near goal while in the stands.
The Spirit and Pride unofficially kick off the NWSL season on Friday in the Challenge Cup, while the 2025 NWSL season officially starts on March 14.