National Women's Soccer League 2019

National Women's Soccer League 2019
master	North Carolina Courage (2nd title)
Teams	9
Games	108 + 3 play-off games  (of which 108 played)
Gates	282  (ø 2.61 per game)
spectator	798.056  (ø 7389 per game)
Top scorer	Samantha Kerr (18 goals)
← 2018 2020 →

The National Women's Soccer League in 2019 was the seventh season of the US women's soccer league National Women's Soccer League . The regular season began on April 13th and ended on October 12th, 2019. 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 a final on October 27th. Due to the 2019 World Cup , the league took a twelve-day break during the group stage of the tournament from June 3 to 14.

The season began with a home game of the reigning champions North Carolina Courage against the Chicago Red Stars , the team of two-time top scorer and NWSL record scorer Samantha Kerr . This ended in a 1-1 draw. Due to the renovation and expansion of Providence Park to a capacity of 25,218, Portland Thorns FC played their first home game on June 2nd. With a sold out game on August 11 against North Carolina, Portland was able to set a new attendance record for the NWSL.

On June 19, it was announced that this year's championship final would be played on October 27 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary , North Carolina .

The regular season closed for the third time in a row from the North Carolina Courage as first place and thus secured the NWSL Shield again . As in the previous year, the Chicago Red Stars, Portland Thorns FC and Reign FC also qualified for the play-offs. The first semi-final between North Carolina and Reign FC was only decided in extra time , with North Carolina clearly winning 4-1 at the end. In the second semi-final between Chicago and Portland, Samantha Kerr , the top scorer of the regular season, scored the winning goal for Chicago in the 8th minute of the game. So North Carolina and Chicago met in the final. Here North Carolina finally managed a safe 4-0 victory, with which the franchise was able to secure the second championship.

Franchises and venues

The nine preseason franchises took part in the 2019 season. The Seattle Reign FC franchise moved to Tacoma , Washington in January 2019 and will operate under the name Reign FC.

franchise place Stadion capacity Chicago Red Stars Bridgeview , Illinois SeatGeek Stadium 22,000 Houston Dash Houston , Texas BBVA Stadium 7,000 North Carolina Courage Cary , North Carolina WakeMed Soccer Park 10,000 Orlando Pride Orlando , Florida Exploria Stadium 25,517 Portland Thorns FC Portland , Oregon Providence Park 25,218 Reign FC Tacoma , Washington Cheney Stadium 6,500 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 National Women's Soccer League 2019 venues

Two stadiums were renamed during the season. First, on June 4 , the company Exploria Resorts acquired the naming rights to the "Orlando City Stadium", which has since been called Exploria Stadium . Then on June 13th, the Spanish bank BBVA announced that it would operate in the United States under the name “BBVA” instead of “BBVA Compass”. In this context, the "BBVA Compass Stadium" was also renamed the BBVA Stadium .

Players

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

→ National Women's Soccer League 2019 / 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 2019 / 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	15th	4th	5	054:230	+31	49
2.	Chicago Red Stars	24	14th	2	8th	041:280	+13	44
3.	Portland Thorns FC	24	11	7th	6th	040:310	+9	40
4th	Reign FC	24	10	8th	6th	027:270	± 0	38
5.	Washington Spirit	24	9	7th	8th	030:250	+5	34
6th	Utah Royals FC	24	10	4th	10	025:250	± 0	34
7th	Houston Dash	24	7th	5	12	021:360	−15	26th
8th.	Sky Blue FC	24	5	5	14th	020:340	−14	20th
9.	Orlando Pride	24	4th	4th	16	024:530	−29	16

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)	NC	POR	RFC	UTA	NC	HOU	WHAT	POR	RFC	ORL	NJ	HOU	NC	RFC	UTA	WHAT	NJ	ORL	POR	HOU	ORL	NJ	WHAT	UTA
	1: 1	4: 4	3-0	0: 1	3: 1	2: 1	0: 2	0: 3	0: 1	3: 2	1: 2	1-0	2: 1	4-0	2-0	1-0	1: 2	1: 2	0: 3	3-0	1-0	3-0	3: 1	2: 1
Houston Dash (HOU)	RFC	NJ	NC	ORL	UTA	CHI	RFC	ORL	WHAT	POR	NC	CHI	WHAT	POR	NJ	RFC	ORL	NJ	CHI	UTA	NC	POR	WHAT	UTA
	1: 1	1-0	1: 4	1-0	2: 1	1: 2	1: 1	2: 2	0-0	1: 2	2: 5	0: 1	2: 1	0: 5	1-0	0: 1	1-0	1: 2	0: 3	2: 1	0: 1 1	0: 1	0-0	1: 2
North Carolina Courage (NC)	CHI	ORL	HOU	NJ	CHI	UTA	RFC	ORL	POR	WHAT	HOU	RFC	CHI	UTA	WHAT	POR	RFC	NJ	POR	ORL	HOU	UTA	WHAT	NJ
	1: 1	5-0	4: 1	0-0	1: 3	1: 1	1: 2	3-0	1: 1	2: 1	5: 2	2-0	1: 2	2: 1	1-0	1: 2	1-0	2: 1	6-0	6: 1	1: 0 1	3-0	1: 2	3: 2
Orlando Pride (ORL)	POR	NC	RFC	UTA	HOU	POR	UTA	NC	HOU	NJ	CHI	WHAT	POR	NJ	HOU	UTA	CHI	WHAT	RFC	CHI	NC	NJ	WHAT	RFC
	0: 2	0: 5	1: 1	0: 1	0: 1	1: 3	0: 2	0: 3	2: 2	2: 1	2: 3	4: 3	3: 4	1-0	0: 1	0: 2	2: 1	1: 2	1: 3	0: 1	1: 6	1: 1	0: 3 2	2: 2
Portland Thorns FC (POR)	ORL	CHI	NJ	ORL	WHAT	NJ	CHI	NC	UTA	HOU	RFC	ORL	UTA	HOU	NJ	RFC	NC	WHAT	CHI	UTA	NC	HOU	RFC	WHAT
	2-0	4: 4	2: 2	3: 1	1: 3	1-0	3-0	1: 1	0-0	2: 1	0: 1	4: 3	2: 2	5-0	1: 1	0: 1	2: 1	3: 1	3-0	0: 1	0: 6	1-0	0: 2	0-0
Reign FC (RFC)	HOU	ORL	CHI	WHAT	NJ	NC	HOU	WHAT	CHI	UTA	POR	NC	CHI	HOU	POR	UTA	NJ	NC	ORL	WHAT	NJ	UTA	POR	ORL
	1: 1	1: 1	0: 3	0-0	2: 1	2: 1	1: 1	1: 1	1-0	2-0	1-0	0: 2	0: 4	1-0	1-0	1: 3	1: 1	0: 1	3: 1	2: 2	0: 1	2: 1 3	2-0	2: 2
Sky Blue FC (NJ)	WHAT	HOU	POR	NC	WHAT	RFC	POR	UTA	ORL	CHI	UTA	ORL	WHAT	HOU	POR	UTA	CHI	RFC	HOU	NC	CHI	RFC	ORL	NC
	0: 2	0: 1	2: 2	0-0	2: 3	1: 2	0: 1	0: 1	1: 2	2: 1	1-0	0: 1	0: 1	0: 1	1: 1	0: 3	2: 1	1: 1	2: 1	1: 2	0: 3	1-0	1: 1	2: 3
Utah Royals FC (UTA)	WHAT	ORL	CHI	HOU	NC	ORL	WHAT	NJ	POR	RFC	NJ	POR	NC	CHI	NJ	RFC	ORL	WHAT	POR	HOU	NC	RFC	CHI	HOU
	1-0	1-0	1-0	1: 2	1: 1	2-0	0: 2	1-0	0-0	0: 2	0: 1	2: 2	1: 2	0: 2	3-0	3: 1	2-0	0-0	1-0	1: 2	0: 3	1: 2 3	1: 2	2: 1
Washington Spirit (WAS)	NJ	UTA	RFC	NJ	POR	CHI	UTA	RFC	HOU	NC	ORL	HOU	NJ	NC	CHI	POR	UTA	ORL	RFC	CHI	HOU	NC	ORL	POR
	2-0	0: 1	0-0	3: 2	3: 1	2-0	2-0	1: 1	0-0	1: 2	3: 4	1: 2	1-0	0: 1	0: 1	1: 3	0-0	2: 1	2: 2	1: 3	0-0	2: 1	3: 0 2	0-0

¹ The game between North Carolina and Houston, originally scheduled for August 16, has been postponed to September 17.

²The game between Orlando and Washington, originally scheduled for August 31, has been postponed to October 5 due to Hurricane Dorian moving towards Florida

³ The game between Reign FC and Utah, originally scheduled for September 18th, has been postponed to September 25th due to heavy rainfall due to the pitch being unusable

Legend
Home game	Away game	victory	draw	defeat

List of goalscorers

space	Player	society	number
1	Samantha Kerr	Chicago Red Stars	18th
2	Lynn Williams	North Carolina Courage	12
3	Kristen Hamilton	North Carolina Courage	9
	Amy Rodriguez	Utah Royals FC	9
	Christine Sinclair	Portland Thorns FC	9
6th	Debinha	North Carolina Courage	8th
	Carli Lloyd	Sky Blue FC	8th
	Yuki Nagasato	Chicago Red Stars	8th
	Christians Press	Utah Royals FC	8th
	Margaret Purce	Portland Thorns FC	8th
11	Crystal Dunn	North Carolina Courage	7th
	Ashley Hatch	Washington Spirit	7th

Spectator table

	society	spectator	per game	workload
1.	Portland Thorns FC	241.181	20,098	079.7%
2.	Utah Royals FC	129,288	10,774	053.3%
3.	Washington Spirit	73,661 1	6.138	074.7%
4th	North Carolina Courage	70,496	5,875	058.7%
5.	Orlando Pride	66,783	5,565	021.8%
6th	Chicago Red Stars	65,406	5,451	027.3%
7th	Reign FC	62,551	5,213	080.2%
8th.	Houston Dash	48,631	4,053	057.9%
9.	Sky Blue FC	40,059 2	3,338	043.1%

¹The home games against Orlando Pride and Reign FC took place at Audi Field in Washington, DC (20,000 seats).

²The home games against Reign FC and Orlando Pride took place at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey (25,000 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 October 20th.

	Result
North Carolina Courage	4: 1 a.d. (0: 0, 1: 1)	Seattle Reign FC
Chicago Red Stars	1: 0 (1: 0)	Portland Thorns FC

final

The final was held on October 27th at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary , North Carolina . As in previous years, a neutral location was determined where the final took place.

North Carolina Courage		Chicago Red Stars
	final October 27, 2019 in Cary , North Carolina Result: 4: 0 (3: 0) Spectators: 10,227 (sold out) Referee: Rosendo Mendoza Match report
	Stephanie Labbé - Abby Dahlkemper , Abby Erceg , Jaelene Hinkle - Debinha , Denise O'Sullivan , Heather O'Reilly (89th Cari Roccaro ), Samantha Mewis - Crystal Dunn (62nd McCall Zerboni ), Jessica McDonald (75th Kristen Hamilton ) , Lynn Williams Trainer: Paul Riley	Alyssa Naeher - Sarah Gorden , Casey Short , Katie Naughton , Julie Ertz - Danielle Colaprico (84th Brooke Elby ), Vanessa DiBernardo (75th Nikki Stanton ), Morgan Brian - Savannah McCaskill (46th Katie Johnson ), Samantha Kerr , Yuki Nagasato Trainer: Rory Dames
	1-0 Debinha (4th) 2-0 Jessica McDonald (26th) 3-0 Crystal Dunn (45th + 5 ') 4-0 Samantha Mewis (61st)
	McCall Zerboni	Vanessa DiBernardo, Julie Ertz

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	Bethany Balcer ( Reign FC )
Goalkeeper of the Year	Aubrey Bledsoe ( Washington Spirit )
Coach of the year	Vlatko Andonovski (Reign FC)
Defender of the Year	Becky Sauerbrunn ( Utah Royals FC )
Most Valuable Player ( MVP )	Samantha Kerr (Chicago Red Stars)

NWSL Best XI
position		Best XI			Second team
goal		Aubrey Bledsoe	Washington Spirit		Alyssa Naeher	Chicago Red Stars
Defense		Abby Dahlkemper	North Carolina Courage		Lauren Barnes	Reign FC
Defense		Alexandra Krieger	Orlando Pride		Abby Erceg	North Carolina Courage
Defense		Becky Sauerbrunn	Utah Royals FC		Kelley O'Hara	Utah Royals FC
Defense		Casey Short	Chicago Red Stars		Emily Sonnett	Portland Thorns FC
midfield		Julie Ertz	Chicago Red Stars		Bethany Balcer	Reign FC
midfield		Lindsey Horan	Portland Thorns FC		Crystal Dunn	North Carolina Courage
midfield		Rose Lavelle	Washington Spirit		Yuki Nagasato	Chicago Red Stars
Storm		Tobin Heath	Portland Thorns FC		Kristen Hamilton	North Carolina Courage
Storm		Samantha Kerr	Chicago Red Stars		Carli Lloyd	Sky Blue FC
Storm		Christians Press	Utah Royals FC		Megan Rapinoe	Reign FC

Change of coach

society	Table position	Trainer	separation	reason	successor	Announcement	source
Washington Spirit	8th.	Tom Torres	2nd September 2018	End of the interim period	Richie Burke	January 8, 2019
Orlando Pride	7th	Tom Sermanni	September 14, 2018	amicable separation	Marc Skinner	January 14, 2019
Houston Dash	6th	Vera Pauw	20th September 2018	amicable separation	James Clarkson	December 11, 2018
Sky Blue FC	9.	Denise Reddy	June 28, 2019	Discharge	Freya Coombe (interim trainer)	4th September 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} NWSL announces full 2019 schedule. In: NWSL.com. February 22, 2019, accessed March 1, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} North Carolina to host 2019 NWSL Championship on October 27. In: NWSL.com. June 19, 2019, accessed August 11, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Orlando City SC: Orlando City SC Announces Central Florida-Based Exploria Resorts as Stadium Naming Rights Partner. June 4, 2019, accessed October 8, 2019 . 
4. ↑ BBVA: BBVA Compass Stadium renamed BBVA Stadium with ceremonial logo unveiling. June 13, 2019, accessed October 8, 2019 . 
5. ↑ NWSL schedule. In: NWSL.com. Retrieved March 1, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Orlando Pride-Washington Spirit Match Postponed Due To Hurricane Dorian. In: nwsl.com. August 29, 2019, accessed October 8, 2018 . 
7. ^ Reign FC-Utah Royals FC Match Postponed Due To Field Conditions. In: nwsl.com. September 18, 2019, accessed October 8, 2018 . 
8. ↑ 2019 Golden Boot: Sam Kerr. In: nwsl.com. October 18, 2018, accessed November 30, 2019 . 
9. ↑ Reign FC forward Bethany Balcer named 2019 NWSL Rookie of the Year. In: nwsl.com. October 29, 2019, accessed November 30, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Bledsoe named 2019 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year. In: nwsl.com. November 1, 2019, accessed November 30, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Reign FC's Vlatko Andonovski named 2019 National Women's Soccer League Coach of the Year. In: nwsl.com. October 26, 2019, accessed October 28, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Utah Royals FC defender Becky Sauerbrunn named 2019 NWSL Defender of the Year. In: nwsl.com. October 30, 2019, accessed November 30, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Chicago Red Stars forward Sam Kerr named 2019 NWSL MVP presented by Budweiser. In: nwsl.com. October 25, 2019, accessed October 28, 2019 . 
14. ↑ 2019 NWSL Best XI and Second XI announced. In: nwsl.com. October 24, 2019, accessed October 28, 2019 . 
15. ↑ Spirit hire Richie Burke as head coach, name technical staff. In: NWSL.com. January 8, 2019, accessed February 4, 2019 . 
16. ↑ Orlando Pride and Head Coach Tom Sermanni Mutually Part Ways. In: orlandocitysc.com. September 14, 2018, accessed February 4, 2019 . 
17. ^ Orlando Pride announce Marc Skinner as head coach. In: NWSL.com. January 14, 2019, accessed February 4, 2019 . 
18. ^ Vera Pauw leaves the Houston Dash. In: NWSL.com. September 20, 2018, accessed February 4, 2019 . 
19. ^ James Clarkson named head coach of the Houston Dash. In: NWSL.com. December 12, 2018, accessed February 4, 2019 . 
20. ↑ Denise Reddy out as Sky Blue FC head coach. In: NWSL.com. June 29, 2019, accessed August 9, 2019 . 
21. ↑ Sky Blue FC Announces Coaching and Training Staff. In: skybluefc.com. September 4, 2019, accessed October 8, 2019 . 

Web links

• Official website of the league