National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) is the highest-level professional women’s soccer league in the United States. The league has 14 teams that play a regular season from March through October. The team with the best record in the regular season wins the NWSL Shield. The teams with the best regular season records qualify for the playoffs. The playoff winner is the NWSL champion. Since 2021, the NWSL also has played a tournament called the Challenge Cup each season.
The National Women’s Soccer League was founded in 2012, after Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) disbanded. The WPS had been the highest women’s soccer league in the United States. The new league began playing in 2013 with eight teams, four from the WPS. The original eight teams of the NWSL were the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Portland Thorns FC, Seattle Reign FC, Sky Blue FC (now NJ/NY Gotham FC), Washington Spirit, and Western New York Flash. FC stands for football club.
The Houston Dash was added in 2014, and the Orlando Pride began play in 2016. In 2017, the Western New York Flash relocated and became the North Carolina Courage. Before the 2018 season began, the Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City disbanded. In 2018, the Utah Royals FC was added to the league. The Utah team ended operations after the 2020 season. For the 2021 season, the league added two new teams, Kansas City NWSL (which gained the rights to the Utah Royals’ players and is now called the Kansas City Current) and Racing Louisville FC. In 2022, the league added two more teams, the Angel City (Los Angeles) FC and the San Diego Wave FC. In 2024, the league added Bay FC, which plays in San Jose, California, and the reestablished Utah Royals FC.
In 2020, the NWSL postponed its regular season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, the NWSL became the first team sports league in the United States to resume play. NWSL teams played the Challenge Cup tournament in Utah. In 2021, the NWSL played the Challenge Cup tournament in April and May. The regular season began in May and ended in October.
