National Women's Soccer League 2015

National Women's Soccer League 2015
master	Kansas City FC (2nd title)
Teams	9
Games	90
Gates	258  (ø 2.87 per game)
spectator	475,416  (ø 5282 per game)
Top scorer	Crystal Dunn (15 goals)
← 2014 2016 →

The National Women's Soccer League in 2015 was the third season of the US women's soccer league National Women's Soccer League . The regular season began on April 10th and ended on September 6th, 2015. This was followed by a play-off with the four best teams of the season, which played off the NWSL championship in two semi-finals and one final. The defending champion was FC Kansas City , the 2014 regular season the Seattle Reign FC franchise came first.

Due to the soccer World Cup 2015 , which took place on June 6 , the league took a twelve-day break during the group phase of the tournament, and the end of the season was postponed by several weeks compared to previous years.

First place after the regular season was Seattle Reign FC , as in the preseason . In addition, FC Kansas City (as in 2013 and 2014) as well as Washington Spirit and, for the first time, the Chicago Red Stars qualified for the play-offs. Last year's finalists Kansas City and Seattle met in the final, with FC Kansas City securing their second title in a row with a 1-0 win.

Participating franchises

The same nine franchises took part in the 2015 season as in the previous year.

Franchises and venues

For the 2015 season, the Boston Breakers moved from Harvard Stadium to Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium , a football stadium that is also located on the grounds of Harvard University and has been renovated and expanded for this purpose. Kansas City FC moved from Verizon Wireless Field at Durwood Stadium to Swope Soccer Village . The franchise's first home game of the season was at Sporting Park , the home of the MLS franchise Sporting Kansas City .

franchise place Stadion capacity Boston Breakers Somerville , Massachusetts Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium 4,700 Chicago Red Stars Lisle , Illinois Sports Complex at Benedictine University 3,071 Houston Dash Houston , Texas BBVA Compass Stadium 7,000 Kansas City FC Kansas City , Kansas Swope Soccer Village 3,557 Portland Thorns FC Portland , Oregon Providence Park 21,144 Seattle Reign FC Seattle , Washington Memorial Stadium 6,000 Sky Blue FC Piscataway Township , New Jersey Yurcak Field 5,000 Washington Spirit Washington, DC Maryland SoccerPlex 5.126 Western New York Flash Elma , New York Sahlen's Stadium 13,768

Breakers Red stars Dash Kansas City Thorns Reign Sky blue Spirit Flash National Women's Soccer League 2015 venues

Players

Before the season, the so-called player allocation was used to allocate national players from the United States , Canada and Mexico to the nine participating franchises:

→ National Women's Soccer League 2015 / Player Allocation

This was followed by a so-called draft round, in which the teams were able to sign college players:

→ National Women's Soccer League 2015 / College Draft

mode

In the regular season, each team played a total of 20 games, ten of which were home and ten away. Each team initially played a home game and an away game against each other; an additional game was played against four teams (two home and two away games).

The four best-placed teams at the end of the season qualified for the play-offs. The semi-finals, in which the first placed fourth and the second placed third, took place on September 13th. The two winners met in the final, which was held on October 1st.

statistics

table

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Seattle Reign FC	20th	13	4th	3	041:210	+20	43
2.	Chicago Red Stars	20th	8th	9	3	031:220	+9	33
3.	Kansas City FC	20th	9	5	6th	032:200	+12	32
4th	Washington Spirit	20th	8th	6th	6th	031:280	+3	30th
5.	Houston Dash	20th	6th	6th	8th	021:260	−5	24
6th	Portland Thorns FC	20th	6th	5	9	027:290	−2	23
7th	Western New York Flash	20th	6th	5	9	024:340	−10	23
8th.	Sky Blue FC	20th	5	7th	8th	022:280	−6	22nd
9.	Boston Breakers	20th	4th	3	13	022:430	−21	15th

for the play-offs qualify

Results

In the absence of real match days, the games are given for each team in chronological order, with the results line by line from the perspective of the respective team.

team	game
	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th
Boston Breakers (BOS)	POR	HOU	WNY	CHI	POR	NJ	KC	WHAT	SEA	WNY	KC	CHI	CHI	NJ	SEA	POR	WHAT	KC	SEA	HOU
	1: 4	3: 2	1: 3	0: 3	1-0	1: 1	1-0	1: 1	2: 3	0: 2	2: 3	1: 1	1: 2	1: 3	1: 2	2: 5	2: 1	0: 3	1: 3	0: 1
Chicago Red Stars (CHI)	SEA	POR	NJ	BOS	HOU	KC	SEA	WNY	NJ	HOU	BOS	BOS	WHAT	KC	POR	NJ	WHAT	WNY	WNY	HOU
	3: 2	2: 2	1-0	3-0	2: 2	2: 1	0-0	1: 3	3-0	2: 1	1: 1	2: 1	1: 1	2: 2	1: 2	1: 1	1: 2 1	0-0	2-0	1: 1
Houston Dash (HOU)	WHAT	NJ	BOS	KC	CHI	POR	NJ	POR	WNY	WHAT	CHI	KC	WNY	KC	WHAT	NJ	SEA	SEA	BOS	CHI
	2-0	1: 1	2: 3	0: 2	2: 2	1-0	1: 1	0-0	2-0	0: 1	1: 2	1: 1	1-0	3: 2	1: 3	0: 2	1: 2	0: 3	1-0	1: 1
Kansas City FC (KC)	NJ	WHAT	SEA	HOU	WNY	WNY	CHI	BOS	POR	SEA	WHAT	BOS	HOU	HOU	CHI	WNY	POR	BOS	WHAT	NJ
	0: 1	1: 3	1-0	2-0	1-0	0-0	1: 2	0: 1	1: 1	1: 2	3-0	3: 2	1: 1	2: 3	2: 2	4-0	3-0	3-0	0-0	3: 2
Portland Thorns FC (POR)	BOS	WNY	CHI	WHAT	BOS	HOU	WHAT	HOU	KC	NJ	NJ	SEA	SEA	WNY	BOS	CHI	KC	NJ	WHAT	WNY
	4: 1	1-0	2: 2	2: 2	0: 1	0: 1	1: 2	0-0	1: 1	2: 1	0: 1	0: 1	0: 3	2-0	5: 2	2: 1	0: 3	0: 1	3: 3	2: 3
Seattle Reign FC (SEA)	WNY	CHI	KC	WHAT	NJ	CHI	NJ	BOS	KC	WNY	WNY	WHAT	POR	POR	BOS	HOU	HOU	BOS	NJ	WHAT
	5: 1	2: 3	0: 1	3: 1	1: 1	0-0	3-0	3: 2	2: 1	1: 1	4: 2	0: 3	1-0	3-0	2: 1	2: 1	3-0	3: 1	1: 1	2: 1
Sky Blue FC (NJ)	KC	HOU	WHAT	CHI	SEA	WHAT	BOS	HOU	SEA	CHI	POR	POR	WNY	BOS	WNY	HOU	CHI	POR	SEA	KC
	1-0	1: 1	1: 3	0: 1	1: 1	0: 1	1: 1	1: 1	0: 3	0: 3	1: 2	1-0	3: 3	3: 1	1: 2	2-0	1: 1	1-0	1: 1	2: 3
Washington Spirit (WAS)	HOU	KC	NJ	SEA	POR	NJ	WNY	POR	BOS	HOU	KC	SEA	CHI	HOU	BOS	WNY	CHI	KC	POR	SEA
	0: 2	3: 1	3: 1	1: 3	2: 2	1-0	2: 3	2: 1	1: 1	1-0	0: 3	3-0	1: 1	3: 1	1: 2	1: 1	2: 1 1	0-0	3: 3	1: 2
Western New York Flash (WNY)	SEA	POR	BOS	KC	KC	WHAT	CHI	HOU	BOS	SEA	SEA	NJ	HOU	POR	NJ	KC	WHAT	CHI	CHI	POR
	1: 5	0: 1	3: 1	0: 1	0-0	3: 2	3: 1	0: 2	2-0	1: 1	2: 4	3: 3	0: 1	0: 2	2: 1	0: 4	1: 1	0-0	0: 2	3: 2

¹ Due to a storm on June 20, 2015, the game was initially interrupted for more than 3 hours and finally canceled. It was rescheduled for August 16.

Legend
Home game	Away game	victory	draw	defeat

List of goalscorers

space	Player	society	number
1	Crystal Dunn	Washington Spirit	15th
2	Kim Little	Seattle Reign FC	10
	Allie Long	Portland Thorns FC	10
	Christians Press	Chicago Red Stars	10
5	Beverly Yanez	Seattle Reign FC	9
6th	Jessica Fishlock	Seattle Reign FC	8th
7th	Jessica McDonald	Houston Dash	7th
8th	Sofia Huerta	Chicago Red Stars	6th
	Samantha Kerr	Sky Blue FC	6th
	Kristie Mewis	Boston Breakers	6th
	Nadia Nadim	Sky Blue FC	6th
	Amy Rodriguez	Kansas City FC	6th

Spectator table

	society	spectator	per game	workload
1.	Portland Thorns FC	156.386	15,639	074%
2.	Houston Dash 1	64.126	6,413	069.6%
3.	Chicago Red Stars 2	42.102	4.210	076.5%
4th	Washington Spirit	40,865	4,087	079.7%
5.	Seattle Reign FC	40,595	4,060	067.7%
6th	Kansas City FC 3	30,911	3,091	067.6%
7th	Boston Breakers	28,628	2,863	060.9%
8th.	Western New York Flash	28,598	2,860	020.8%
9.	Sky Blue FC	21,889	2,189	043.8%

¹At the home games against Chicago Red Stars and Seattle Reign FC, an expanded audience capacity was available in the BBVA Compass Stadium (maximum 22,000 seats).

²The home games against Boston Breakers and Houston Dash were played in Toyota Park (22,000 seats).

³The home game against Sky Blue FC took place at Sporting Park (18,467 seats).

NWSL Championship Play-offs

The four best-placed teams of the regular season qualified for the play-offs.

Semifinals

The semi-finals took place on September 13, 2015.

	Result
Chicago Red Stars	0: 3 (0: 3)	Kansas City FC
Seattle Reign FC	3: 0 (0: 0)	Washington Spirit

final

The final was held on October 1, 2015 at Providence Park , Portland . For the first time, a neutral location was determined in which the final took place, after the better-placed team in the regular season had always enjoyed home rights in previous years.

Since both the defending champions FC Kansas City and Seattle Reign FC were able to prevail in the semifinals, the previous year's final was reissued , which Kansas City won again.

Kansas City FC		Seattle Reign FC
	final October 1, 2015 in Portland , Oregon Result: 1: 0 (0: 0) Spectators: 13,264 Referee: Katja Koroleva Match report
	Nicole Barnhart - Amy LePeilbet , Leigh Ann Brown , Becky Sauerbrunn , Rebecca Moros - Mandy Laddish (90th + 2 ' Yael Averbuch ), Erika Tymrak (88th Shea Groom ), Lauren Holiday , Heather O'Reilly , Jen Buczkowski - Amy Rodriguez (90. + 3 ' Sarah Hagen ) Coach: Vlatko Andonovski	Hope Solo - Kendall Fletcher , Stephanie Cox (77th Elli Reed ), Rachel Corsie , Lauren Barnes - Keelin Winters , Kim Little , Jessica Fishlock - Beverly Yanez , Megan Rapinoe , Merritt Mathias (72nd Katrine Veje ) Trainer: Laura Harvey
	1-0 Amy Rodriguez (78th)
	Becky Sauerbrunn
	Player of the Match: Amy Rodriguez

Honors

The nominations for the end of the regular season awards were announced on September 9th. The choice was made by the franchise owners and other officials, the coaches, the players, selected journalists and - via online voting - the fans.

	Laureate
Most successful goalscorer	Crystal Dunn , 15 goals ( Washington Spirit )

	Laureate	other nominees
Rookie of the year	Danielle Colaprico ( Chicago Red Stars )	Sofia Huerta (Chicago Red Stars)		Samantha Mewis ( Western New York Flash )
Goalkeeper of the Year	Michelle Betos ( Portland Thorns FC )	Nicole Barnhart ( Kansas City FC )		Brittany Cameron ( Sky Blue FC )
Coach of the year	Laura Harvey ( Seattle Reign FC )	Mark Parsons ( Washington Spirit )		Vlatko Andonovski (FC Kansas City)
Defender of the Year	Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City)	Lauren Barnes (Seattle Reign FC)	Kendall Fletcher (Seattle Reign FC)	Julie Johnston (Chicago Red Stars)	Amy LePeilbet (Kansas City FC)
Most Valuable Player ( MVP )	Crystal Dunn (Washington Spirit)	Jessica Fishlock (Seattle Reign FC)	Kim Little (Seattle Reign FC)	Christen Press (Chicago Red Stars)	Beverly Yanez (Seattle Reign FC)

NWSL Best XI
position	Best XI			Second team
goal	Michelle Betos	Portland Thorns FC	45 parades	Nicole Barnhart	Kansas City FC	8 games without conceding a goal
Defense	Lauren Barnes	Seattle Reign FC	1,800 minutes of use	Stephanie Cox	Seattle Reign FC	1,800 minutes of use
Defense	Julie Johnston	Chicago Red Stars	1.1 goals conceded on average	Kendall Fletcher	Seattle Reign FC	2 goals, 2 assists
Defense	Amy LePeilbet	Kansas City FC	1,800 minutes of use	Arin Gilliland	Chicago Red Stars	1.1 goals conceded on average
Defense	Becky Sauerbrunn	Kansas City FC	1.0 goals conceded on average	Leigh Ann Robinson	Kansas City FC	1,800 minutes of use
midfield	Jessica Fishlock	Seattle Reign FC	8 goals, 2 assists	Danielle Colaprico	Chicago Red Stars	1,776 minutes played
midfield	Kim Little	Seattle Reign FC	10 goals, 7 assists	Lauren Holiday	Kansas City FC	2 goals, 2 assists
midfield	Allie Long	Portland Thorns FC	10 goals, 4 assists	Carli Lloyd	Houston Dash	4 goals
Midfield / storm	Crystal Dunn	Washington Spirit	15 goals, 3 assists	Keelin Winters	Seattle Reign FC	1,654 minutes played
Storm	Christians Press	Chicago Red Stars	10 goals, 2 assists	Sofia Huerta	Chicago Red Stars	6 goals, 3 assists
Storm	Beverly Yanez	Seattle Reign FC	9 goals	Megan Rapinoe	Seattle Reign FC	5 goals, 5 assists

Web links

• Official website of the league

Individual evidence

1. ↑ NWSL ANNOUNCES HOME OPENERS FOR THE 2015 SEASON ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved January 13, 2015. 
2. ↑ Breakers announce Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium as new home for 2015 NWSL season ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , bostonbreakerssoccer.com (English). Retrieved March 15, 2015 
3. ↑ FC Kansas City to play at Swope Soccer Village in 2015 , sportingkc.com (English). Retrieved March 15, 2015
4. ↑ FC Kansas City announce 2015 home opener , fckansascity.com (English). Retrieved March 15, 2015
5. ↑ NWSL announces 2015 schedule ( memento of the original from March 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved March 15, 2015. 
6. ↑ Providence Park named host site for 2015 NWSL Championship  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved September 20, 2015  
7. ↑ 2015 NWSL Awards finalists revealed ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved September 10, 2015 
8. ↑ 2015 Danielle Colaprico voted rookie of the year ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved September 20, 2015 
9. ↑ Thorn's FC Michelle Betos voted goalkeeper of the year ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved September 20, 2015 
10. ↑ Seattle Reign FC's Laura Harvey voted coach of the year ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved September 20, 2015 
11. ↑ FCKC's Becky Sauerbrunn voted defender of the year ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved October 7, 2015 
12. ↑ Spirit forward Crystal Dunn voted NWSL MVP ( Memento of the original from October 7th, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved October 7, 2015 
13. ↑ National Women's Soccer League announces 2015 Best XI ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nwslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved October 7, 2015