National Women's Soccer League

National Women's Soccer League
Full name	USSF National Women's Soccer League
abbreviation	NWSL
Association	USSF
First edition	2013
hierarchy	1st League
Teams	9
master	North Carolina Courage (2nd title)
Record champions	Kansas City FC , North Carolina Courage and Portland Thorns FC (2 titles each)
Record player	Christine Nairn (150 missions)
Record scorer	Samantha Kerr (77 goals)
Website	www.nwslsoccer.com
region	United States

The National Women's Soccer League is currently the only professional women 's soccer league in the United States . It started operating in the league in 2013 with eight franchises and was gradually expanded to ten participants by the 2016 season. With the WUSA (game operation from 2001 to 2003) and the WPS (2009-2011) there were two short-lived professional women's football leagues in the USA.

The league receives financial support from the football associations of the USA, Canada and Mexico (see section Player Allocation ).

history

On November 20, 2012, the founding of a new professional league in US women's football was announced.

2013 season

The first season of the NWSL started on April 13, 2013 with the game FC Kansas City against Portland Thorns FC . The first goal scorer was the Mexican Renae Cuéllar , who scored the 1-0 in this game (final score 1: 1) and the first league leader was Sky Blue FC , which was the only club to win its opening game. The Washington Spirit made the first coaching change, releasing their coach Mike Jorden on July 1st . His successor was the previous coach of the Washington reserve team, Mark Parsons . In the further course of the season, Lisa Cole also had to vacate her post as head coach of the Boston Breakers , for the last four games of the season Cat Whitehill acted as player- coach of Boston . The championship of the regular season could win the franchise of the Western New York Flash , also moved the FC Kansas City, the Portland Thorns FC and the Sky Blue FC in the play-offs. In the final game for the first championship in the NWSL, the Portland Thorns defeated the team of the Western New York Flash on August 31, 2013 by hits from Tobin Heath and Christine Sinclair 2-0.

organization

On November 20, 2012, it was announced that eight franchises would be participating in the 2013 season. Four of them have names that have also been used by franchises participating in the WPS. For the 2014 season, the Houston Dash franchise expanded the field of participants of the NWSL, and for the 2016 season the Orlando Pride joined them.

After the 2016 season, the NWSL license of Western New York Flash was sold to the new North Carolina Courage franchise , which has been part of the NWSL since 2017. In November 2017, the FC Kansas City franchise was dissolved and the license returned to the NWSL, which granted it to a new franchise, Utah Royals FC . This has been participating in gaming operations since 2018. Before the start of the 2018 season, the Boston Breakers team was withdrawn from play for financial reasons.

Prior to the 2019 season, the Seattle Reign FC franchise moved to Tacoma, about 50 km from Seattle , and was renamed Reign FC . After the majority stake was acquired by OL Groupe, the owner of Olympique Lyon , the franchise was renamed OL Reign in 2020 .

Timeline

Teams 2020

National Women's Soccer League
team	Stadion	capacity	city	Founded	Accession NWSL
Chicago Red Stars	SeatGeek Stadium	22,000	Bridgeview, Illinois	2007	2013
Houston Dash	BBVA Stadium	22,000	Houston, Texas	2013	2014
North Carolina Courage	WakeMed Soccer Park	10,000	Cary, North Carolina	2017	2017
OL Reign	Cheney Stadium	6,500	Tacoma, Washington	2012	2013
Orlando Pride	Exploria Stadium	25,500	Orlando, Florida	2015	2016
Portland Thorns FC	Providence Park	25,218	Portland, Oregon	2012	2013
Sky Blue FC	Red Bull Arena	25,000	Harrison, New Jersey	2007	2013
Utah Royals FC	Rio Tinto Stadium	20,213	Sandy, Utah	2017	2018
Washington Spirit	Audi Field	20,000	Washington, DC	2012	2013
	Segra Field	5,000	Leesburg, Virginia
	Maryland SoccerPlex	5.126	Germantown, Maryland

• Washington Spirit will play four games in each of the three venues listed in the 2020 season. In the 2021 season, the franchise will leave the Maryland SoccerPlex and play seven games at Audi Field and five at Segra Field.

Future teams

team	Stadion	capacity	city	Founded	Accession NWSL
Racing Louisville FC	Lynn Family Stadium	14,000	Louisville, Kentucky	2019	2021
(Designation open)	still open		Los Angeles, California	2020	2022

Former teams

team	Stadion	capacity	city	Founded	Participation NWSL
Western New York Flash	Rochester Rhinos Stadium	13,768	Rochester, New York	2008	2013-2016
Kansas City FC	Swope Soccer Village	3,557	Kansas City, Missouri	2012	2013-2017
Boston Breakers	Jordan Field	4,100	Boston, Massachusetts	2008	2013-2017

Player allocation

→ The detailed results of the annual allocations can be found in the respective seasonal articles

At the beginning of the year, each of the franchises participating in the coming season will be allocated national players from the USA and Canada as part of an allocation process. The salary of these players is paid by the national associations who are responsible for them in order to keep the personnel costs of the franchises as low as possible and still enable the players to play at a professional level. The Mexican Football Association also took part in this mechanism until 2015, but none of the four Mexican players assigned to the NWSL had recently played in the league.

College draft

year	First draft pick	franchise
2013	Zakiya Bywaters ( UCLA Bruins )	Chicago Red Stars
2014	Crystal Dunn ( North Carolina Tar Heels )	Washington Spirit
2015	Morgan Brian ( Virginia Cavaliers )	Houston Dash
2016	Emily Sonnett ( Virginia Cavaliers )	Portland Thorns FC
2017	Rose Lavelle ( Wisconsin Badgers )	Boston Breakers
2018	Andi Sullivan ( Stanford Cardinal )	Washington Spirit
2019	Tierna Davidson ( Stanford Cardinal )	Chicago Red Stars
2020	Sophia Smith ( Stanford Cardinal )	Portland Thorns FC

The NWSL College Draft is held annually in January as part of the NSCAA Convention . Representatives of the franchises participating in the NWSL can sign college players there in several rounds. While in 2013 the franchise of the Chicago Red Stars surprisingly selected Zakiya Bywaters first, in the following three years the first players to be drafted were those who had already made their first appearances in the US national team during their college days.

The college draft has been open to the public since 2014, and in 2016 it was broadcast for the first time in the form of a moderated live stream on the Internet.

media

From 2013 to 2016, most games were broadcast free of charge on the Internet via the YouTube video platform . In the 2013 season, the Boston Breakers were the only franchise to charge a fee to broadcast their home games.

On April 18, 2013, the NWSL signed a contract with Fox Sports Networks to televise nine games of the 2013 season, including the three play-off games. For the 2014 season, ESPN secured the TV broadcasting rights for selected games in the second half of the season.

In June 2015, the NWSL announced the re-signing of a one-year contract with Fox Sports, which included the transmission of ten games. The contract was extended in 2016 for three regular season games and three playoff games.

On February 2, 2017, the NWSL signed a three-year contract with A + E Networks , which includes the live broadcast of a game of the week on Saturday afternoon at Lifetime . For the first time, there was a regular weekly TV broadcast throughout the season. A + E Networks also acquired a block of shares in NWSL and managed the marketing and broadcasting rights in a joint venture called "NWSL Media".

In February 2019, NWSL announced that A + E Networks had withdrawn from the TV contract prematurely and returned its share to NWSL Media. Until the beginning of the 2019 season, the NWSL was unable to conclude a new television contract. It was only in July that ESPN acquired a 14-game rights package, which also included the semi-finals and the final.

In October 2019, NWSL signed a contract with rights marketer Octagon, which will run for at least three years. On March 11, 2020, the NWSL announced the conclusion of a media contract with CBS Sports and the streaming service Twitch . In the 2020 season , CBS Sports will broadcast a total of 87 games (including the playoffs) on CBS , CBS Sports Network and CBS All Access , while Twitch will show 24 games for free in Canada and the United States. Twitch will also become the NWSL's international rights partner outside of the United States.

Cheryl Bailey, NWSL Director from 2012 to 2014.

NWSL Director / CEO

• Cheryl Bailey (Commissioner, 2012-2014)
• Jeff Plush (Commissioner, 2015-2017)
• 2017-2018 vacant
• Amanda Duffy (President, 2019-2020)
• Lisa Baird (Commissioner, since 2020)

mode

Regular season

2013 season

Each team played 22 games in the regular season and met each opponent between two and four times.

2014 season

With the addition of Houston Dash to the field , the season was extended to 24 game days. Each franchise played against each other three times, with each team having 12 match days at home.

2015 season

Due to the 2015 soccer World Cup , which took place from June 6 to July 5, the 2015 NWSL season was shortened to 20 match days and was also interrupted during the group phase of the World Cup.

2016 season

Despite the expansion of the field of participants to include Orlando Pride to a total of 10 teams, another 20 game days were played. Each team met each other twice (home and away game). In addition, each team played in an additional home and away game against a local rival. Due to the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro , the season was suspended for four weeks in August.

2017 season

In the 2017 season, each team played a total of 24 games for the first time since 2014, as no break was necessary due to a World Cup or Olympic Games . Each team played twelve home and twelve away games. Each team played three games against six teams and two games against the other three teams.

Since season 2018

Each team has played a total of 24 games since the 2018 season. Since only nine teams have participated in the NWSL since the Boston Breakers withdrew before the start of the 2018 season, each team plays a total of 3 games against each other team. Each team has twelve home and twelve away games.

Play-offs

The top four teams play the NWSL championship in a play-off consisting of two semi-finals and one final. Home rights in the play-off games are held by the team that was able to place better in the regular season. Since the 2015 season, the championship finals have been held in a stadium designated at the beginning of the season.

Awards

trophies

The first-placed franchise of the regular season receives the so-called NWSL Shield , while the winner of the final game for the championship is awarded the so-called NWSL Championship Trophy . Both trophies are decorated with the NWSL logo.

Honors

→ For the award-winning players, see the respective season articles

After the end of the regular season, the NWSL awards awards for the most successful goalscorer, the most valuable player, as well as the best young player, goalkeeper, defender and the best coach. In addition, an eleven of the season is chosen, the NWSL Best XI . Journalists, club representatives and NWSL players are entitled to vote in the election.

Title holder

Participants in the play-offs

year	First	Second	Third	Fourth
2013	Western New York Flash	Kansas City FC	Portland Thorns FC	Sky Blue FC
2014	Seattle Reign FC	Kansas City FC	Portland Thorns FC	Washington Spirit
2015	Seattle Reign FC	Chicago Red Stars	Kansas City FC	Washington Spirit
2016	Portland Thorns FC	Washington Spirit	Chicago Red Stars	Western New York Flash
2017	North Carolina Courage	Portland Thorns FC	Orlando Pride	Chicago Red Stars
2018	North Carolina Courage	Portland Thorns FC	Seattle Reign FC	Chicago Red Stars
2019	North Carolina Courage	Chicago Red Stars	Portland Thorns FC	Reign FC

NWSL Championship game

year	master	Runner-up	Result	date	Venue	spectator	Referee
2013	Portland Thorns FC	Western New York Flash	2-0	August 31, 2013, 8:00 p.m.	Sahlen's Stadium , Rochester	09,129	Kari Seitz
2014	Kansas City FC	Seattle Reign FC	2: 1	August 31, 2014, 3 p.m.	Starfire Sports , Tukwila	04,252	Margaret Domka
2015	Kansas City FC	Seattle Reign FC	1-0	October 1, 2015, 9:30 p.m.	Providence Park , Portland	13,264	Katya Koroleva
2016	Western New York Flash	Washington Spirit	2: 2 n.V., 3: 2 i. E.	October 9, 2016, 5:00 p.m.	BBVA Compass Stadium , Houston	08,255	Matthew Franz
2017	Portland Thorns FC	North Carolina Courage	1-0	October 14, 2017, 4:30 p.m.	Orlando City Stadium , Orlando	08,124	Danielle Chesky
2018	North Carolina Courage	Portland Thorns FC	3-0	September 22, 2018, 4:30 p.m.	Providence Park , Portland	21,144	Guido Gonzales
2019	North Carolina Courage	Chicago Red Stars	4-0	October 27, 2019, 3:30 p.m.	WakeMed Soccer Park , Cary	10,227	Rosendo Mendoza

Record players

Christine Nairn (2018)

Record players

rank	Player	Period	Franchises	Games
01	Christine Nairn	since 2013	Seattle Reign FC , Washington Spirit , Orlando Pride , Houston Dash	150
02	Lauren Barnes	since 2013	Seattle Reign FC / Reign FC	149
03	McCall Zerboni	since 2013	Western New York Flash , Portland Thorns FC , Boston Breakers , North Carolina Courage	147
04th	Merritt Mathias	since 2013	Kansas City FC , Seattle Reign FC , North Carolina Courage	142
05	Tori Huster	since 2013	Washington Spirit	138
06th	Nicole Barnhart	since 2013	Kansas City FC , Utah Royals FC	135
07th	Jessica McDonald	since 2013	Chicago Red Stars , Seattle Reign FC , Portland Thorns FC , Houston Dash , Western New York Flash , North Carolina Courage	134
08th	Allie Long	since 2013	Portland Thorns FC , Seattle Reign FC / Reign FC	133
08th	Katherine Reynolds	since 2013	Western New York Flash , Washington Spirit , Portland Thorns FC	129
10	Christine Sinclair	since 2013	Portland Thorns FC	128
As of October 29, 2019

Samantha Kerr (2019)

Record goal scorers

rank	Player	Period	Franchises	Gates	Games	Goals per game
01	Samantha Kerr	since 2013	Western New York Flash , Sky Blue FC , Chicago Red Stars	77	119	0.65
02	Lynn Williams	since 2015	Western New York Flash , North Carolina Courage	50	100	0.50
03	Christine Sinclair	since 2013	Portland Thorns FC	49	128	0.38
04th	Jessica McDonald	since 2013	Chicago Red Stars , Seattle Reign FC , Portland Thorns FC , Houston Dash , Western New York Flash , North Carolina Courage	47	134	0.35
05	Christians Press	since 2014	Chicago Red Stars , Utah Royals FC	45	85	0.53
06th	Carli Lloyd	since 2013	Western New York Flash , Houston Dash , Sky Blue FC	39	93	0.42
07th	Megan Rapinoe	since 2013	Seattle Reign FC / Reign FC	34	75	0.45
	Amy Rodriguez	since 2014	Kansas City FC , Utah Royals FC	34	77	0.44
09	Allie Long	since 2013	Portland Thorns FC , Seattle Reign FC / Reign FC	33	133	0.25
	Alex Morgan	since 2013	Portland Thorns FC , Orlando Pride	33	89	0.37
As of October 29, 2019

Web links

• official homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ fifa.com: Final dreams and the beginning of a new era
2. ↑ Jeff Kassouf: Official: Last-place Spirit fire coach Mike Jorden , equalizersoccer.com (English). Retrieved July 18, 2013.
3. ↑ US Soccer announces new women's professional league, Portland Timbers to operate local franchise . oregonlive.com (English)
4. ↑ Big moves for Reign FC: New venue, new city, new minority owners. In: NWSL.com. January 30, 2019, accessed February 1, 2019 . 
5. ^ Matthew Levine: OL Groupe to become majority owner of National Women's Soccer League's Reign FC. In: NWSL. December 19, 2019, accessed March 12, 2020 . 
6. ↑ NWSL: Reign FC is history. In: soccerdonna.de. March 7, 2020, accessed March 8, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Dynamo welcome NWSL expansion team: Houston Dash . Retrieved December 12, 2013.
8. ↑ Washington Spirit to play 2020 games at Audi Field, Segra Field and the Maryland SoccerPlex. In: washingtonspirit.com. November 12, 2019, accessed March 6, 2020 . 
9. ^ Steven Goff: Washington Spirit to split home matches among three venues next season. In: The Washington Post. November 8, 2019, accessed March 12, 2020 . 
10. ↑ US celebrities save for their FC Hollywood. July 22, 2020, accessed July 22, 2020 . 
11. ↑ NWSL AND ESPN ANNOUNCE NATIONAL BROADCAST AGREEMENT ( Memento from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved August 27, 2014.
12. ^ NWSL and FOX Sports announce national broadcast deal . oregonlive.com (English). Retrieved April 9, 2017.
13. ^ FOX Sports to broadcast six NWSL games in 2016 . oregonlive.com (English). Retrieved April 9, 2017.
14. ↑ Lifetime To Air National Women's Soccer League Games As A + E Networks Kicks In For Equity Stake . deadline.com (English). Retrieved April 9, 2017.
15. ^ A + E Networks, National Women's Soccer League Ink Major Deal . variety.com (English). Retrieved April 9, 2017.
16. ^ Jeff Kassouf: The NWSL's partnership with A + E is over. Now what? In: The Equalizer. February 20, 2019, accessed March 13, 2020 . 
17. ↑ Iliana Limón Romero: How to watch NWSL matches this season. In: Pro Soccer USA. April 13, 2019, accessed March 13, 2020 . 
18. ↑ ESPN to show 14 NWSL games, including playoffs, for the rest of 2019 season. In: Awful Announcing. July 4, 2019, accessed on March 13, 2020 . 
19. ↑ Octagon insists on three-year minimums for NWSL US broadcast deals, says report. In: SportsPro Media. December 4, 2019, accessed on March 13, 2020 . 
20. ^ NWSL Inks Multi-Year Deal With CBS Sports, Twitch. In: Sports Video Group. March 12, 2020, accessed March 13, 2020 . 
21. ^ Amanda Duffy named President of NWSL. In: NWSL.com. January 15, 2019, accessed February 1, 2019 . 
22. ^ Matthew Levine: National Women's Soccer League named Lisa Baird as Commissioner. In: NWSL.com. February 27, 2020, accessed on March 12, 2020 .