National Women's Soccer League 2018

National Women's Soccer League 2018
master	North Carolina Courage (1st title)
Teams	9
Games	108 + 3 play-off games  (of which 108 played)
Gates	278  (ø 2.57 per game)
spectator	650,562  (ø 6024 per game)
Top scorer	Samantha Kerr (16 goals)
← 2017 2019 →

The National Women's Soccer League in 2018 was the sixth season of the US women's soccer league National Women's Soccer League . The regular season began on March 24th and ended on September 8th, 2018. This was followed by a play-off with the four best teams of the season, which played out the NWSL championship in two semi-finals and one final.

The FC Kansas City franchise was dissolved in November 2017 and the license returned to the NWSL, which granted it, including player contracts, draft picks and other rights, to a new franchise, Utah Royals FC . On January 28, 2018, the Boston Breakers team was withdrawn from gaming for financial reasons after negotiations with a potential investor could not be brought to a successful conclusion.

As in the previous year, the regular season ended with the North Carolina Courage as first place and thus again secured the NWSL Shield . In addition, last year's champions, Portland Thorns FC , as well as Seattle Reign FC and the Chicago Red Stars qualified for the play-offs. Portland won the first semi-final 2-1 against Seattle. In the second semifinals, North Carolina and Chicago met, with North Carolina winning 2-0. Thus , North Carolina and Portland met in the remake of last year's finals , which took place on September 22nd in Providence Park in Portland . Here North Carolina could clearly prevail 3-0 and win the franchise's first championship title.

Franchises and venues

Eight of the ten preseason franchises took part in the 2018 season, and Utah Royals FC also took over the playing rights of FC Kansas City. The Boston Breakers withdrew their team from game operations.

franchise place Stadion capacity Chicago Red Stars Bridgeview , Illinois Toyota Park 22,000 Houston Dash Houston , Texas BBVA Compass Stadium 7,000 North Carolina Courage Cary , North Carolina WakeMed Soccer Park 10,000 Orlando Pride Orlando , Florida Orlando City Stadium 25,517 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 Utah Royals FC Sandy , Utah Rio Tinto Stadium 20,213 Washington Spirit Washington, DC Maryland SoccerPlex 5.126

Red stars Dash courage Pride Thorns Reign Sky blue Royals Spirit Venues of the National Women's Soccer League 2018

Players

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

→ National Women's Soccer League 2018 / 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 2018 / College Draft

mode

In the regular season, each team played a total of 24 games, including twelve home and twelve away games. Each team played three games against each team.

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

statistics

table

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	North Carolina Courage	24	17th	6th	1	053:170	+36	57
2.	Portland Thorns FC	24	12	6th	6th	040:280	+12	42
3.	Seattle Reign FC	24	11	8th	5	027:190	+8	41
4th	Chicago Red Stars	24	9	10	5	038:280	+10	37
5.	Utah Royals FC	24	9	8th	7th	022:230	−1	35
6th	Houston Dash	24	9	5	10	035:390	−4	32
7th	Orlando Pride	24	8th	6th	10	030:370	−7	30th
8th.	Washington Spirit	24	2	5	17th	012:350	−23	11
9.	Sky Blue FC	24	1	6th	17th	021:520	−31	09

for the play-offs qualify

Results

The games are given for each team in chronological order, 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	21st	22nd	23	24
Chicago Red Stars (CHI)	HOU	POR	UTA	HOU	NJ	WHAT	ORL	NC	HOU	SEA	ORL	WHAT	POR	UTA	WHAT	NC	NJ	SEA	NC	SEA	POR	ORL	NJ	UTA
	1: 1	2: 3	1-0	3-0	1: 1	1: 1	0: 2	1: 1	2: 2	0-0	2: 5	2-0	1: 1	2-0	2-0	1: 4	3: 1	1-0	1: 1	0-0	2: 2	3: 1	5: 0 1	1: 2
Houston Dash (HOU)	CHI	UTA	CHI	ORL	NC	NJ	POR	CHI	UTA	SEA	WHAT	NC	POR	ORL	SEA	ORL	POR	WHAT	UTA	NJ	WHAT	SEA	NJ	NC
	1: 1	0-0	0: 3	0: 1	0: 2	3: 2	1: 1	2: 2	0: 1	2: 1	3: 2	1: 1	1: 3	2: 1	1: 3	3: 1	1: 3	1-0	1: 2	2: 1	4-0	0: 2	6: 1	0: 5
North Carolina Courage (NC)	POR	NJ	WHAT	SEA	UTA	HOU	CHI	WHAT	NJ	ORL	POR	HOU	UTA	SEA	ORL	CHI	WHAT	NJ	UTA	POR	CHI	ORL	SEA	HOU
	1-0	1-0	4: 2	1-0	2: 2	2-0	1: 1	1-0	2: 1	4: 3	4: 1	1: 1	0: 1	4: 1	3-0	4: 1	2-0	4-0	0-0	2: 1	1: 1	3-0	1: 1	5-0
Orlando Pride (ORL)	UTA	WHAT	POR	HOU	SEA	CHI	UTA	POR	NC	CHI	SEA	NJ	WHAT	HOU	NC	WHAT	HOU	UTA	SEA	NJ	POR	NC	CHI	NJ
	1: 1	0: 2	1: 2	1-0	1: 1	2-0	0-0	2: 1	3: 4	5: 2	0-0	3: 2	1-0	1: 2	0: 3	2: 1	1: 3	2: 1	1: 1	2: 2	0: 2	0: 3	1: 3	0: 1
Portland Thorns FC (POR)	NC	CHI	ORL	WHAT	UTA	SEA	HOU	ORL	WHAT	UTA	NC	CHI	HOU	NJ	SEA	UTA	HOU	NJ	NC	ORL	CHI	NJ	WHAT	SEA
	0: 1	3: 2	2: 1	1: 1	1: 1	2: 3	1: 1	1: 2	1-0	2-0	1: 4	1: 1	3: 1	1: 1	0: 1	4-0	3: 1	2: 1	1: 2	2-0	2: 2	2: 1	1-0	3: 1
Seattle Reign FC (SEA)	WHAT	NJ	NC	ORL	POR	NJ	CHI	HOU	NJ	ORL	WHAT	NC	UTA	POR	HOU	UTA	CHI	ORL	WHAT	UTA	CHI	HOU	NC	POR
	2: 1	1-0	0: 1	1: 1	3: 2	4: 1	0-0	1: 2	1-0	0-0	0-0	1: 4	0-0	1-0	3: 1	1-0	0: 1	1: 1	2-0	1-0	0-0	2-0	1: 1	1: 3
Sky Blue FC (NJ)	NC	SEA	CHI	HOU	SEA	NC	WHAT	SEA	UTA	WHAT	ORL	POR	UTA	CHI	NC	POR	ORL	HOU	UTA	POR	HOU	WHAT	CHI	ORL
	0: 1	0: 1	1: 1	2: 3	1: 4	1: 2	0: 1	0: 1	1: 2	0-0	2: 3	1: 1	1: 3	1: 3	0: 4	1: 2	2: 2	1: 2	2: 2	1: 2	1: 6	1: 1	0: 5 1	1-0
Utah Royals FC (UTA)	ORL	HOU	CHI	NC	POR	WHAT	ORL	HOU	POR	NJ	NC	CHI	SEA	NJ	POR	SEA	ORL	NC	HOU	WHAT	SEA	NJ	WHAT	CHI
	1: 1	0-0	0: 1	2: 2	1: 1	2-0	0-0	1-0	0: 2	2: 1	1-0	0: 2	0-0	3: 1	0: 4	0: 1	1: 2	0-0	2: 1	1-0	0: 1	2: 2	1-0	2: 1
Washington Spirit (WAS)	SEA	ORL	NC	POR	CHI	UTA	NC	POR	NJ	HOU	CHI	NJ	SEA	ORL	CHI	ORL	NC	HOU	SEA	UTA	HOU	UTA	POR	NJ
	1: 2	2-0	2: 4	1: 1	1: 1	0: 2	0: 1	0: 1	1-0	2: 3	0: 2	0-0	0-0	0: 1	0: 2	1: 2	0: 2	0: 1	0: 2	0: 1	0: 4	0: 1	0: 1	1: 1

¹ The game between Chicago and Sky Blue, originally scheduled for July 28, has been rescheduled to September 4 as Sky Blue FC's flight has been canceled.

Legend
Home game	Away game	victory	draw	defeat

List of goalscorers

space	Player	society	number
1	Samantha Kerr	Chicago Red Stars	16
2	Lynn Williams	North Carolina Courage	14th
3	Lindsey Horan	Portland Thorns FC	13
4th	Rachel Daly	Houston Dash	10
5	Christine Sinclair	Portland Thorns FC	9
	Jodie Taylor	Seattle Reign FC	9
7th	Debinha	North Carolina Courage	8th
	Crystal Dunn	North Carolina Courage	8th
	Sofia Huerta	Chicago Red Stars, Houston Dash	8th
10	Tobin Heath	Portland Thorns FC	7th
	Jessica McDonald	North Carolina Courage	7th
	Megan Rapinoe	Seattle Reign FC	7th

Spectator table

	society	spectator	per game	workload
1.	Portland Thorns FC	203.506	16,959	080.2%
2.	Utah Royals FC	113,593	9,466	046.8%
3.	North Carolina Courage	61,549	5,129	051.3%
4th	Orlando Pride	58,046	4,837	018.9%
5.	Chicago Red Stars	48,048	4,004	020%
6th	Washington Spirit	46,704 1	3,892	066.3%
7th	Seattle Reign FC	45,885	3,824	063.7%
8th.	Houston Dash	42,859	3,572	051%
9.	Sky Blue FC	30,372	2,531	050.6%

¹The home game against Portland Thorns FC took place at Audi Field in Washington, DC (20,000 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 15 and 18, 2018. The North Carolina-Chicago game was originally scheduled to take place on September 16 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary , North Carolina . Due to the impact of Hurricane Florence , the game was postponed for two days and relocated to Portland .

	Result
Portland Thorns FC	2: 1 (1: 1)	Seattle Reign FC
North Carolina Courage	2: 0 (1: 0)	Chicago Red Stars

final

The final was held on September 22nd, 2018 at Providence Park , Portland . As in previous years, a neutral location was chosen where the final will take place.

North Carolina Courage		Portland Thorns FC
	final September 22, 2018 in Portland , Oregon Result: 3: 0 (2: 0) Spectators: 21,144 (sold out) Referee: Guido Gonzales
	Katelyn Rowland - Abby Dahlkemper , Merritt Mathias , Abby Erceg , Jaelene Hinkle - Debinha (78th Kristen Hamilton ), Denise O'Sullivan , Samantha Mewis - Crystal Dunn (87th Heather O'Reilly ), Jessica McDonald (90th + 1 ' Darian Jenkins ), Lynn Williams . Trainer: Paul Riley	Adrianna Franch - Emily Sonnett , Ellie Carpenter (90th + 3 ' Margaret Purce ), Emily Menges , Meghan Klingenberg - Lindsey Horan , Celeste Boureille , Tobin Heath - Caitlin Foord , Christine Sinclair , Ana Maria Crnogorčević (68th Andressa ). Trainer: Mark Parsons
	1-0 Debinha (13th) 2-0 Jessica McDonald (40th) 3-0 Jessica McDonald (64th)
	Denise O'Sullivan, Jessica McDonald
	Player of the Match: Jessica McDonald (North Carolina Courage)

Honors

The choice for the awards at the end of the regular season was made by the franchise owners, the general managers and coaches, the players, selected journalists and - via online voting - the fans.

	Prize winner
Most successful goalscorer (NWSL Golden Boot)	Samantha Kerr ( Chicago Red Stars )
Rookie of the year	Imani Dorsey ( Sky Blue FC )
Goalkeeper of the Year	Adrianna Franch ( Portland Thorns FC )
Coach of the year	Paul Riley ( North Carolina Courage )
Defender of the Year	Abby Erceg (North Carolina Courage)
Most Valuable Player ( MVP )	Lindsey Horan ( Portland Thorns FC )

NWSL Best XI
position		Best XI				Second team
goal		Adrianna Franch	Portland Thorns FC	45 saves, 3 games without conceding a goal		Lydia Williams	Seattle Reign FC
Defense		Emily Sonnett	Portland Thorns FC	1,755 minutes of play		Merritt Mathias	North Carolina Courage
Defense		Becky Sauerbrunn	Utah Royals FC	1,720 minutes of play		Julie Ertz	Chicago Red Stars
Defense		Abby Erceg	North Carolina Courage	2,160 minutes of play		Emily Menges	Portland Thorns FC
Defense		Abby Dahlkemper	North Carolina Courage	1,710 minutes of play		Stephanie Catley	Seattle Reign FC
midfield		Tobin Heath	Portland Thorns FC	7 goals, 7 assists		Debinha	North Carolina Courage
midfield		Lindsey Horan	Portland Thorns FC	13 goals, 2 assists		Carli Lloyd	Sky Blue FC
midfield		McCall Zerboni	North Carolina Courage	1800 minutes of play, 3 goals		Christine Sinclair	Portland Thorns FC
Storm		Crystal Dunn	North Carolina Courage	8 goals, 5 assists		Lynn Williams	North Carolina Courage
Storm		Samantha Kerr	Chicago Red Stars	16 goals, 4 assists		Rachel Daly	Houston Dash
Storm		Megan Rapinoe	Seattle Reign FC	7 goals, 6 assists		Sofia Huerta	Houston Dash

Change of coach

date	society	Table position	Trainer	reason	successor	source
7th November 2017	Seattle Reign FC	5.	Laura Harvey	resignation	Vlatko Andonovski
15th November 2017	Sky Blue FC	6th	vacant	-	Denise Reddy
November 27, 2017	Utah Royals FC	new franchise	vacant	-	Laura Harvey
November 28, 2017	Houston Dash	8th.	vacant	-	Vera Pauw
August 21, 2018	Washington Spirit	8th.	Jim Gabarra	Unsuccessfulness	Tom Torres

Individual evidence

1. ^ Maria Torres: FC Kansas City women's soccer team folds, NWSL sends players to Salt Lake City. In: The Kansas City Star. November 20, 2017, accessed December 30, 2017 . 
2. ^ Statement From Boston Breakers. In: bostonbreakerssoccer.com. January 28, 2018, accessed March 4, 2018 . 
3. ^ Providence Park to host the 2018 NWSL Championship. In: nwsl.com. May 5, 2018, accessed May 15, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Chicago Red Stars vs Sky Blue FC Game postponed to a later date. In: chicagoredstars.com. July 28, 2018, accessed August 11, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Chicago Red Stars vs. Sky Blue FC Rescheduled for Sept. 4. In: chicagoredstars.com. July 30, 2018, accessed August 11, 2018 . 
6. ↑ NWSL statement on Courage vs. Red Stars semifinal. In: nwsl.com. September 12, 2018, accessed on September 22, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Courage vs. Red Stars semifinal to be played Tuesday night at Providence Park. In: nwsl.com. September 13, 2018, accessed on September 22, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Providence Park to host the 2018 NWSL Championship match on Sept. 22, 2018. In: timbers.com. May 5, 2018, accessed on September 22, 2018 . 
9. ↑ Jessica McDonald comes up big in Portland, named Championship MVP. In: nwsl.com. September 22, 2018, accessed September 25, 2018 . 
10. ↑ 2018 Golden Boot: Sam Kerr. In: nwsl.com. September 10, 2018, accessed on September 22, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Rookie of the Year: Imani Dorsey, Sky Blue FC. In: nwsl.com. September 26, 2018, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
12. Jump up ↑ Goalkeeper of the Year: Adrianna Franch, Portland Thorns FC. In: nwsl.com. September 27, 2018, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
13. ^ Coach of the Year: Paul Riley. In: nwsl.com. September 26, 2018, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
14. ↑ Defender of the Year: Abby Erceg, North Carolina Courage. In: nwsl.com. September 27, 2018, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
15. ^ NWSL MVP: Lindsey Horan, Portland Thorns FC. In: nwsl.com. September 21, 2018, accessed on September 22, 2018 . 
16. ↑ 2018 NWSL Best XI and Second XI announced. In: nwsl.com. September 20, 2018, accessed on September 22, 2018 . 
17. ^ Laura Harvey Steps Down as Head Coach and GM; Vlatko Andonovski Named Head Coach of Reign FC. (No longer available online.) In: thebold.com. November 7, 2017, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 4, 2018 .  ( 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.    
18. ↑ Denise Reddy Named Sky Blue FC Head Coach. In: skybluefc.com. November 15, 2017, accessed March 4, 2018 . 
19. ^ Laura Harvey named inaugural head coach for Utah's NWSL team. In: rsl.com. November 27, 2017, accessed March 4, 2018 . 
20. ↑ Houston Dash appoint Vera Pauw as head coach. In: houstondynamo.com. November 28, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2018 . 
21. ^ Washington Spirit parts ways with head coach and general manager Jim Gabarra. In: washingtonspirit.com. August 21, 2018, accessed September 7, 2018 . 

Web links

• Official website of the league