playoffs

On one side there’s hope. On the other, history.

Three weeks is only a sliver of the NFL season; a backsliding team has plenty of time to correct its course.

That said, only seven teams in the Super Bowl era have rebounded from an 0-3 start to make the playoffs.

That’s a sobering statistic for the Chargers, Houston Texans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, all winless so far. As for the 0-3 Miami Dolphins, well, that isn’t quite as shocking.

“We’re searching for every possible way to give ourselves an advantage,” said Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, whose team lost at Buffalo last Sunday despite five takeaways and a plus-four turnover differential.

The uphill climb continues for the Chargers, who play at Seattle on Sunday, with the defending Super Bowl champions itching to respond to an upset loss at Washington in Week 3.

So far, the change at offensive coordinator to former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel has been a bust for the Chargers. Their offense has sputtered and wheezed, even as their defense has done its part to keep them in games.

Elsewhere Sunday, the Texans play host to Dallas, Tampa Bay hosts Green Bay, and Miami plays at 3-0 Minnesota.

Of those seven teams that dug themselves out of a foreboding pit, only the 1992 San Diego Chargers turned their season around after an 0-4 start — so it’s pretty much now or never for this year’s class of Sunday strugglers.

The others to make the playoffs after losing their first three games were the 1981 New York Jets, 1982 Buccaneers, 1995 Detroit Lions, 1998 Buffalo Bills, and the Texans, who pulled off the feat in 2018 and last season… and now find themselves back in that dank basement.

“We’ve been here before,” Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud told reporters this week, “so we know we can get this thing turned around.”

For those who have made that euphoric U-turn, there are life lessons to draw upon. Chief among them, don’t panic.

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh stands on the field before a loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 27.

(Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images)

Former Lions linebacker Stephen Boyd recalls the composure and calm of Detroit coach Wayne Fontes, after three losses to Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Arizona — two of those by a field goal.

After the third loss, Boyd said, “Wayne Fontes walks into the meeting room with a big smile on his face and says, `Listen, here’s the deal, we’re going to give the ball to Barry [Sanders] a little bit more, and we’re going to get this turned around.’”

Sure enough, the Lions broke through the following week with a win over San Francisco on Monday night. But there were more bumps in the road for Detroit, which by November was still a dismal 3-6. Few could have predicted the club would win its final seven games.

That set the stage for a strange wild-card game against Philadelphia in which the Eagles built a 51-7 lead and held on despite the Lions scoring 30 points down the stretch. The final score: 58-37.

Three years before Fontes kept his cool under pressure, Chargers coach Bobby Ross did the same.

“There were a lot of grumblings that this was just some college coach that didn’t know what he was doing in the pros,” recalled former Chargers linebacker Gary Plummer of Ross, hired out of Georgia Tech. “There were a lot of guys that were essentially jumping off the ship.”

That team held a players-only meeting after falling to 0-3… then got clobbered, 27-0, by the Houston Oilers in Week 4.

Ross held steady, though.

“He told us that he wasn’t changing,” Plummer said. “We were still going to have physical practices. He said that was the only way he knew how to coach.”

The Chargers responded by winning four in a row. Then, after a hard-fought, two-point loss to Kansas City, the Chargers tore off another seven wins.

Defense led the way for those Chargers, allowing just 241 points that season, the fourth-fewest in the NFL.

So far this season, these Chargers are showing similar tendencies. Last Sunday, the defense played a gem of a game, and certainly through three quarters.

Hope still has a heartbeat, but that grows fainter by the loss.

Michael Harris II hit a three-run homer in the first inning, Ray Kerr threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings and the Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2 on Thursday night in the decisive Game 3 of their National League wild-card series.

Ozzie Albies hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Matt Olson added a solo shot in the seventh for the Braves, who advance to a best-of-five Division Series against the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers.

The Braves won a postseason series for the first time since winning the 2021 World Series and earned their first playoff series win against the Phillies. Philadelphia beat Atlanta in the 1993 NLCS and the 2022 and 2023 NLDS.

Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola was pulled after giving up three runs in 1 2/3 innings. Nola walked Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson with one out in the first before giving up the homer to Harris, who hit into two double plays in Wednesday’s 4-3 loss in 10 innings which forced Thursday night’s game.

Kerr made his postseason debut in only his fourth career start. Braves manager Walt Weiss wanted a left-hander to face Phillies left-handed hitters Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper at least once.

Kerr gave up only one hit — to Schwarber in the first — and one walk — to Schwarber in the fourth. Right-hander Grant Holmes followed Kerr and gave up one run in two innings to earn the win.

Kerr left to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd and acknowledged the cheers by lifting up his arm as he approached the dugout.

Left-hander Chris Sale, the starter in Atlanta’s 5-3 win in Tuesday’s series opener, struck out Harper to end the eighth and closed out the win in the ninth by striking out Bryan De La Cruz and pinch-hitter Otto Kemp.

Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler, the winning pitcher in Sunday’s 7-3 victory over Tampa Bay that clinched the wild-card spot, walked Austin Riley in the fourth before giving up Albies’ homer to right field that gave Atlanta a 5-0 lead. Wheeler gave up two runs in four innings. Jonathan Bowlan, Philadelphia’s fourth pitcher, gave up Olson’s homer to center field.

Kerr, 32, flourished in the postseason spotlight. He pitched in only nine games after being recalled by Atlanta on Aug. 16. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2024 and didn’t pitch in 2025.

Philadelphia’s 2022 World Series loss to Houston began a streak of five straight postseason appearances with progressively quicker exits — the NL Championship Series, two NLDS exits and now the wild-card loss.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. A good Tommy Lasorda quote: “There are three types of people in the world. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder, ‘What happened?’ ”

Some random questions

While we await the winner of the Braves-Phillies series, it’s time to get a different viewpoint. I reached out to Times columnists Mirjam Swanson and Bill Plaschke to get their answers to a few Dodgers questions.

Q. Which team is the one the Dodgers would rather avoid playing in the NL playoffs?

Swanson: The San Diego Padres, actually. Weird stuff happens with rivalries. Weird stuff has happened against the Padres. Add a rivalry to the high-stakes NLCS? Guaranteed weirdness.

So the Padres concern me more than the Brewers, a talented group headlined by ace Jacob Misiorowski that nonetheless does itself in with its poor-little-us talk. The Padres have swagger — and substance — and they just finished the season on a heater, going 41-18 to close the season.

I still like the Dodgers in that series, and then against whomever comes out of the American League too.

It’s the NLDS that’s of most concern — less for who the opponent will be and more for the fact that it’s a best-of-five series. That squeezes the already small sample size of a playoff series and makes it so there’s less room for error and more room for baseball to happen.

Plaschke: The one team the Dodgers should avoid playing is the Philadelphia Phillies. They have all those left-handed starters who can shut down the best Dodger hitters. They only lost the NLDS to the Dodgers last year because one of their relief pitchers lost his mind. They have a veteran lineup that is long overdue. Play them at your peril.

Q. Does Josue De Paula find a space on the postseason roster, and what do they do with him next year, with the positions he plays seemingly taken?

Swanson: Yes, absolutely, JDP will be on the roster in the postseason. For his incredible energy. For his incredible bat. Both much-needed.

Next year? Are they going to play professional baseball next year?

OK, let’s hope they do play ball. And as long as they do, I can see the Dodgers giving De Paula run in the outfield — so long as he puts in the work in the offseason (however long that is) to train and study and make himself a playable outfielder.

His hitting is so elite, he needs only to be a competent fielder to justify his regular presence in the lineup. He’s a great young athlete and if he understands and tackles the assignment with the gusto that he approaches hitting, I don’t see what could hold him back.

Plaschke: De Paula has to be on the roster this October and in a position to take some high-leverage at-bats. I think he’s potentially good enough that you trade Teo and put him in left.

Q. How would you rank the bullpen in terms of trust (top three)?

Swanson: Roki Sasaki and Edgardo Henriquez are both coming back from injuries and basically jumping right into the postseason fire so … fingers crossed. But let’s assume Sasaki’s blister is a thing of the past, as it appears to be, and that Henriquez’s back isn’t aching, I’ll pick them and make a call for Evan Phillips, who looks great and looks like he’s feeling great; I just saw him hit 100 mph for the first time this season, striking out the San Diego Padres’ Jackson Merrill looking in the Dodgers’ loss Thursday.

Plaschke: In the bullpen I trust, in order, Roki Sasaki, Alex Vesia, and Evan Phillips. I don’t trust Tanner Scott. Would you?

Q. The Dodgers won last year despite not getting a first-round bye. So was it really important for them to get the bye this year?

Swanson: Yes! This team is “old.” They know it, everyone knows it — and they know they’ll benefit from getting off their feet for a few days. To them, it’s a reward for a job well done. As a thankful Freddie Freeman chuckled Thursday night: “Rest for all of us is always nice. We’ve been grinding since February, getting ready for the season. Then you go through a 162-game schedule. It’s a lot. So we played really good baseball for six straight months and we get rewarded for that. So we’ll take it in, rest up and get ourselves ready to go for Saturday.”

Plaschke: The bye is hugely important. This is the oldest team in baseball. This is the most exhausted team in baseball. They desperately need those five days off.

Q. Finally, predictions. Who wins the World Series this year?

Swanson: The club that won the past two World Series.

Plaschke: Milwaukee wins the World Series. Nobody beats the Miz.

Who makes the roster?

We will predict the postseason roster after we know who the Dodgers are playing, but, it appears the final two spots among position players could come down to Josue De Paula, Alex Call, Dalton Rushing and Hyeseong Kim. Which two would you choose to make the team?

Click here to vote.

The last two weeks

Who is hot and not heading into the postseason? Numbers over the last two weeks for the team:

Alex Freeland, .385/.556/.692, 18 plate appearances, 1 double, 1 homer, 1 RBI
Josue De Paula, .385/.529/.692, 34 PA’s, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 1 homers, 7 RBIs
Will Smith, .382/.488/.706, 41 PA’s, 2 doubles, 3 homers, 5 RBIs
Mookie Betts, .340/.431/.640, 58 PA’s, 6 doubles, 3 homers, 8 RBIs
Andy Pages, .333/.458/.722, 24 PA’s, 1 double, 2 homers, 5 RBIs
Kyle Tucker, .292/.393/.521, 56 PA’s, 2 doubles, 3 homers, 5 RBIs
Teoscar Hernández, .286/.352/.490, 54 PA’s, 1 double, 3 homers, 6 RBIs
Kike Hernández, .261/.292/.435, 24 PA’s, 1 double, 1 homer, 3 RBIs
Shohei Ohtani, .238/.273/.286, 22 PA’s. 1 double, 1 RBI
Miguel Rojas, .231/.310/.385, 29 PA’s, 1 double, 1 homers, 3 RBIs
Freddie Freeman, .220/.245/.220, 53 PA’s, 4 RBIs
Max Muncy, .205/.286/.364, 49 PA’s, 4 doubles, 1 homer, 5 RBIs
Tommy Edman, .186/.265/.349, 50 PA’s, 1 double, 2 homers, 8 RBIs
Alex Call, .091/.167/.182, 12 PA’s, 1 double, 1 RBI
Hunter Feduccia, .063/.286/.063, 16 PA’s, 1 RBI
Dalton Rushing, 0 for 3
Team, .265/.356/.455, 25 doubles, 1 triple, 21 homers, 4.57 runs per game

Pitchers

Emmet Sheehan, 0.00 ERA, 11.1 IP, 3 hits, 2 walks, 14 K’s
Alex Vesia, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.2 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 9 K’s
Edwin Díaz, 0.00 ERA, 5 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 9 K’s
Kris Bubic, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 4.2 IP, 4 hits, 5 K’s
Landon Knack, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 4 IP. 4 hits, 2 K’s
Roki Sasaki, 0.00 ERA, 3 IP, 2 hits, 6 K’s
Kyle Hurt, 0.00 ERA, 2 IP, 1 hit, 2 K’s
Justin Wrobleski, 1-0, 1.35 ERA, 6.2 IP. 6 hits, 7 K’s
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 1-1, 1.38 ERA, 13 IP, 6 hits, 3 walks, 11 K’s
Blake Snell, 1.80 ERA, 5 IP, 6 hits, 4 K’s
Tarik Skubal, 3-0, 1.89 ERA, 19 IP, 14 hits, 3 walks, 22 K’s
Evan Phillips, 1-0, 3.60 ERA, 5 IP, 2 hits, 8 K’s
Tyler Glasnow, 1-1, 3.65 ERA, 12.1 IP, 6 hits, 4 walks, 21 K’s
Bobby Miller, 4.15 ERA, 4.1 IP, 4 hits, 2 walks, 6 K’s
Brock Stewart, 4.50 ERA, 4 IP, 4 hits, 1 walk, 5 K’s
Blake Treinen, 4.91 ERA, 3.2 IP, 5 hits, 2 walks, 3 K’s
Tanner Scott, 0-1, 5.06 ERA, 3 saves, 5.1 IP, 5 hits, 2 walks, 10 K’s
Jack Dreyer, 5.68 ERA, 6.1 IP, 6 hits, 3 walks, 5 K’s
Seth Halvorsen, 0-1, 9.00 ERA, 3 IP, 4 hits, 3 K’s
Edgardo Henriquez, 27.00 ERA, 0.2 IP, 3 hits, 1 walk, 1 K
Team, 10-4, 2.38 ERA, 3 saves, 125 IP, 87 hits, 25 walks, 153 K’s

Bracket time

Every year around this time, this newsletter mentions Makenna Martin, who holds an online bracket (much like the NCAA bracket) where people can fill out their choices for the best-looking Dodger. She added a charitable aspect to it, raising money for a charity for women who are the victim of domestic violence.

Martin, now a college graduate, has continued the bracket, and this year is using it to raise money for “Peace Over Violence,” another charity that helps victims of domestic abuse. You do not have to donate to take part in the bracket challenge. Whether you donate or not, it’s a lot of fun to do. There’s also a raffle to raise funds, with a lot of Dodgers prizes to win. A tip of the cap to Martin and to all young people who try to make the world just a little bit better.

You can find the bracket here.

Donate and take part in the raffle here.

Up next

Saturday: Atlanta/Philadelphia at Dodgers, 1 p.m. or 6 p.m., Fox/FS1, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Sunday: Atlanta/Philadelphia at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox/FS1, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Tuesday: Dodgers at Atlanta/Philadelphia, TBD, Fox/FS1, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

*Wed., Oct. 7: Dodgers at Atlanta/Philadelphia, TBD, Fox/FS1, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

*Friday, Oct. 9: Atlanta/Philadelphia at Dodgers, TBD, Fox/FS1, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

All times Pacific

*-if necessary

In case you missed it

Who’s hot and who’s not as Dodgers prepare for the postseason

The Dodgers have an old roster. But that isn’t necessarily a drawback in October

Woeful Mets outspend the Dodgers while Rays, Guardians and White Sox win on the cheap

Dodgers Debate: Who do the Dodgers want in the NLDS?

Shaikin: How the playoffs might impact the lockout, and … unfair to the Yankees? What?

And finally

Freddie Freeman hits a walk-off grand slam to win Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. Watch and listen here.

Until next time …

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Fishlock, who has said this will be her last year playing club football, will be on duty with Reign when Wales go to Albania on Friday, 9 October and then again in the return leg in Llanelli four days later.

Should Wales overcome a side who are 36 places in the Fifa rankings – and one they beat twice in the group phase of World Cup qualifying – they will play either Norway or Romania in a two-legged play-off final in December.

Wilkinson has revealed that another recently retired former player, Kayleigh Barton, will be part of her staff for the Albania ties and then Fishlock will have a role should Wales reach the final.

Fishlock previously worked as a technical assistant for Wales’ opening game of this qualifying campaign, against the Czech Republic in March.

Wilkinson explained that Fishlock had been in touch before she named her semi-final squad on Tuesday, adding: “I didn’t appreciate her saying ‘call me up coach, I’m ready’, which I thought was mean, but [she was] a wonderful player and a great leader for us.

“If we are able to get past Albania, she’ll be coming in as a coach for us for the next round.”

Let’s get the rose-colored story line out of the way, right away.

The postseason starts Tuesday, and it could be the last we see of Major League Baseball for a long, long time. The owners expect to lock out the players when the collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, and the owners have made their pitch loud and clear: No new agreement without a salary cap, for they believe there can be no true competitive balance without one.

You’ll hear a lot about how the way this postseason sets up, or how it plays out, could impact the bargaining.

Don’t believe a word of it. Nothing that happens this October will be relevant to the new labor agreement.

Come on. The team with the lowest payroll — the Cleveland Guardians — won their division. So competitive balance can’t be completely out of whack, can it?

Cleveland hasn’t won the World Series since 1948. The opponent was the Boston Braves, who subsequently moved to Milwaukee and then Atlanta.

What about the team with the best record in the American League: the Tampa Bay Rays, who beat up on big-market bullies in the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox?

The Rays never have won the World Series.

Well, what about the Milwaukee Brewers? For the second consecutive season, the team in baseball’s smallest market posted baseball’s best record.

The Brewers got swept in last year’s National League Championship Series. They never have won the World Series.

But aren’t the Brewers the best example of a team playing beyond its payroll instead of using it as an excuse?

They got smoked last October by the Dodgers, who won the World Series and then signed Edwin Díaz and Kyle Tucker and traded for Tarik Skubal.

Isn’t that what got everyone agitated? Doesn’t everyone outside L.A. know the Dodgers have destroyed competitive balance, and the owners are trying to fix it?

The owners were ready to fight for more than a year before the Dodgers helped themselves to Díaz, Tucker and Skubal. For years, the commissioner’s office touted baseball’s competitive balance, citing in part how the league championship series and World Series matchups changed almost every year.

After the Dodgers won in 2024, the commissioner’s office redefined competitive balance as how often a small-market team won the World Series, last accomplished by the 2015 Kansas City Royals. The seeds for this winter’s labor war had been planted.

If the Dodgers flop this October, the owners are not going to suddenly back off a salary cap. If, say, the Brewers or Rays win, the owners will say that’s the exception that proves the rule.

There are ways for owners to direct more revenue to small-market teams without the salary cap the players insist they will not accept, and without limiting the definition of success to winning the World Series, which risks devaluing the product among 29 fan bases every year. Whether the owners wish to consider them without the cost certainty that comes with a salary cap will be the story line of the cold winter ahead.

The Dodgers are scheduled to open next season on March 25. Neither owners nor players would have lost any significant revenue by then — ticket sales and broadcasting rights for owners, salaries for players — so a new agreement by then is uncertain at best.

So enjoy the postseason.

So, at least for now, isn’t the postseason tilted toward the Dodgers and Yankees?

Those screams you hear are coming from New York, where Yankees fans are annoyed that their team finished with the second-best record in the AL and still could be eliminated in two or three days. The Yankees finished behind the Rays and received a wild card.

The Yankees lost 13 fewer games than the AL West champion Houston Astros and 10 fewer games than the AL Central champion Guardians, both seeded ahead of them. The Astros are a .500 team, the worst record a division champion has taken into the postseason. The Guardians get a bye, just like the Dodgers.

The Yankees drew the Red Sox, which means painful amounts of national commentary will focus on (1) how the system victimized the Yankees and the Red Sox; and (2) baseball’s most hyped rivalry.

Until baseball realigns its divisions or seeds its playoffs by wins, regardless of division, the Yankees should simply do what Aaron Judge said about how they should respond to criticism of their fundamentally frightening 2024 World Series: “Play better.” And baseball’s best rivalry will be on October display only if the Dodgers and San Diego Padres meet in the NL Championship Series.

Still laughing, though, at sanctimonious Yankees fans believing baseball is somehow unfair to the poor, gutty Yankees.

Can anyone save baseball in 2027?

We should try Pope Leo. He’s a long-suffering Chicago White Sox fan. In his first full year as pope — and after three consecutive 100-loss seasons — the White Sox made the playoffs.

Some fans call it a miracle, a reporter told the pope. Did the pope have anything to do with the turnaround?

He smiled.

“No comment,” he said, then paused.

“Great things happen in Chicago,” he said.

The Cubs made the postseason too. The Cubs and White Sox have shared Chicago since 1901. This is the fourth time both have qualified for postseason play. Deep dish pizza for all, but a World Series in Chicago this fall might truly require divine intervention.

SAN FRANCISCO — Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen is likely out for the postseason, after injuring his right shoulder warming up in the bullpen Saturday.

“I don’t know if it was a complete blowout, but really unfortunate,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 4-3 win against the San Francisco Giants.

The Dodgers plan to put Treinen on the injured list Sunday, Roberts said. And he’ll undergo imaging to diagnose the injury.

“It just popped up,” Roberts said.

Treinen, 38, is the longest-tenured Dodgers pitcher on the roster. He spent over two months on the IL earlier this season with inflammation in his right elbow. But in 36 appearances this season, he posted a 3.64 ERA.

Treinen has a history of shoulder injuries and underwent right shoulder labrum and rotator cuff repair surgery after the 2022 season.

The Sparks fired head coach Lynne Roberts, ending her tenure Friday after two seasons as the franchise continues its search for a return to championship contention.

The move comes after the Sparks finished 16-28 in 2026, missing the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season. Roberts compiled a 36-49 record with Los Angeles after being hired ahead of the 2025 season after nearly a decade leading the women’s basketball program at Utah.

The team has not announced an interim head coach but will conduct a search this offseason.

“We are grateful to Lynne for the commitment and determination she brought to the role, which was evident all the way through our last game last night,” said Sparks special advisor Farhan Zaidi. “Lynne has cared deeply about our organization and for our players and their development. We sincerely thank her for everything she has invested in the Sparks and wish her and her family the best moving forward.”

Roberts arrived in Los Angeles with a reputation as one of college basketball’s top offensive minds after leading Utah to three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and back-to-back Sweet 16 berths. The Sparks hoped she could oversee a rebuild around a young core led by Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson while making one of the league’s flagship franchises a contender again.

Instead, the turnaround never materialized.

Los Angeles struggled to find consistency on both ends of the court during Roberts’ tenure, dealing with injuries, roster turnover and uneven play while remaining outside the WNBA playoff picture. Despite flashes from its young talent, the Sparks were unable to build sustained momentum, even after acquiring All-Star guard Kelsey Plum, whom they eventually traded before the deadline in July.

The Sparks fired general manager Raegan Pebley midseason after her offseason trade of Jackson to Chicago for Ariel Atkins, a two-time All-Star who is now on a three-year deal.

Before Thursday’s loss to Golden State, Roberts said she believed she should stay the team’s head coach.

“I think what this org needs is some stability, and a vision and a direction, like a plan,” she said. “Not that we haven’t had one, but I think now that we’ve got people in place, just give us a goalpost, and we’ll march down the field in that way.”

Roberts became the latest coaching change for a franchise that has been searching for stability since its last championship in 2016 under coach Brian Agler. Since then, the Sparks have cycled through four head coaches while missing the postseason every year since 2021.

The decision raises questions about the direction of the franchise entering the offseason with several long-term deals for veterans such as Atkins and Dearica Hamby, but also one of the best young players in the league in Brink.

Goalkeepers: Eartha Cumings (Manchester City), Lee Gibson (Glasgow City), Sandy MacIver (Washington Spirit).

Defenders: Georgia Brown (Jacksonville), Jenna Clark (Liverpool), Nicola Docherty (Rangers), Sophie Howard (Como), Emma Lawton (Ipswich Town), Rachel McLauchlan (Newcastle United), Amy Muir (Glasgow City).

Midfielders: Chelsea Cornet (Birmingham City), Erin Cuthbert (Chelsea), Christy Grimshaw (AC Milan), Sam Kerr (Liverpool), Kirsty Maclean (Liverpool), Maria McAneny (Celtic), Miri Taylor (Aston Villa), Caroline Weir (Lyon).

Forwards: Lauren Davidson (Brann), Claire Emslie (Angel City), Freya Gregory (Newcastle United), Kirsty Hanson (Tottenham Hotspur), Kirsty Howat (Crystal Palace), Mia McAulay (Aston Villa), Kathleen McGovern (Newcastle United), Martha Thomas (Newcastle United).