Nwsl

The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) today announced it has awarded Denver, Colorado the league’s 16th franchise. The Denver NWSL team, set to begin play in the 2026 season, is comprised of a robust ownership group that includes local and national investors including Rob Cohen, Project Level, a subsidiary of Ariel Investments led by Chairwoman Mellody Hobson and former Washington Commanders President Jason Wright, FirstTracks Sports Ventures LLC (FTSV), led by siblings Jon-Erik Borgen and Kaia Borgen Moritz, Neelima Joshi and Dhiren Jhaveri and Molly Coors. Cohen will serve as the club’s controlling owner and Governor with Hobson as Denver NWSL’s Alternate Governor. Denver is the second franchise awarded by the NWSL during this round of expansion, following Team 15 in Boston, bringing the league from 14 to 16 clubs. Denver NWSL becomes the first women’s professional sports team in a major national league to call the Mile High City home.

The new Denver NWSL franchise is finalizing plans for a purpose-built stadium for professional women’s soccer and a dedicated, purpose-built performance facility for female athletes. More information will be available as these plans are finalized. Team name, crest, colors and brand identity will be announced at a later date.

“As the NWSL continues its rapid growth, we knew it was critical to launch our 16th team in a city with a passionate sports culture and vibrant fan base, and Denver is the perfect match,” said Jessica Berman, Commissioner of the NWSL. “The club’s plans for a purpose-built stadium and state-of-the-art training facility demonstrate a commitment to providing world-class environments for our players and fans alike. With this ownership group’s vision and dedication, we are confident that Denver NWSL will set new standards for excellence on and off the pitch, inspiring the next generation of players and supporters across the Rocky Mountain region.”

How would you imagine the greatest individual season in NWSL history? Our hypothetical player would need to score a lot of goals, obviously. Breaking Sam Kerr's single-season scoring record (18) would certainly get plenty of attention, so let's put that at the top of the list. How about assists? Assists are important, too. Let's say this player has ... five of those. Five sounds good.

Let's go back to the goals for a second. We know that all goals aren't created equal, and that poachers and penalty specialists can often sneak their way to the top of the leaderboard. That just won't do—we're talking about the best season in history, here—so let's make sure our player didn't score any of her goals from the spot, and is out-performing her expected goals tally by two. We need more, though. Let's get crazy and say that this player is an NWSL rookie, and arrived from Chinese Women's Super League at age 25 to blitz the NWSL with the league's first 20-goal season. We'll need a fun, quirky statistic, too, so let's say this player became the first in league history to score a goal against every team. And we need moments. Like, what if the record-breaking goal happened to be a 25-yard strike that makes a convincing case for being the hardest a soccer ball has ever been struck by a woman in a professional match? What if that goal looked something like this:

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We’re not playing, Rich. Fuck them, we’re not playing. Just tell them that we’re not playing. That’s what I heard on 10 July 2015, on a call from Christie Rampone, the captain of the USWNT. I was the executive director of the Women’s National Team Players Association, the official collective bargaining unit for the USWNT. Rampone called me five days after the USWNT’s World Cup victory. While Rampone talked with me, the team were on their way from the midtown Manhattan set of Good Morning America to the beginning of the ticker tape parade in lower Manhattan’s “Canyon of Heroes” to celebrate their title.

Just a few days earlier, on the morning after the team’s World Cup victory, Sunil Gulati, the longtime president of US Soccer, called captains Abby Wambach and Rampone to tell them that the team’s request for the weekend off was denied, and they were all going to be forced to play their National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) games.

As recounted to me by Rampone, the response from Gulati was immediate. He told Rampone that the players had to play those NWSL games. He noted that all the NWSL teams had developed huge marketing and promotional campaigns around the World Cup champions to sell out their stadiums that weekend, and that he didn’t care how the players were feeling, that no matter what, they were going to play.

...

Lynn Williams cannot be stopped.

The 29-year-old forward added another goal Sunday against the Chicago Red Stars, bringing her total for the regular season to four and tying for the league lead. With Williams leading the way, Gotham FC have won four of their first six regular-season matches, already equaling their win total from 2022.

The club also is tied for second in the league in points with 12.

LYNN WILLIAMS REFUSES TO STOP SCORING 😤 pic.twitter.com/3sXIzN6ei7
— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) May 8, 2023

For Williams, Sunday’s tally marked her 103rd goal contribution (goals and assists) across all NWSL competitions. According to OptaJack, that gives her the most in league history, as she surpasses Sam Kerr, who had 102 goal contributions in her seven NWSL seasons.

It was also her 61st regular-season career goal, giving her sole possession of the second-most goals in NWSL history. Kerr holds the record with 77 regular-season goals.

“This is a massive win. It shows the style and the winning mentality that this team has,” head coach Juan Carlos Amorós said. “Credit to all of the players, whether they played today or not, and to the staff. This is a big win for Gotham.”

This YouTube channel does really good film study of games, someone shared it on Mastodon and I've enjoyed it.

Source: https://fxtwitter.com/agale137/status/1752704825937244434

On March 16, the Kansas City Current will christen $117 million, 11,500-capacity CPKC Stadium — the first complex built by a National Women’s Soccer League team and one of the few in the world constructed for female athletes.

Happy #NWSL schedule day! For folks looking for a visual representation of the schedule, here is how the 2024 season will shake out (from @agale137 on Xitter)

I've been listening to the podcast for over a year, and I can definitely endorse it. Excited to see how well it translates to TV!

The world's about to find out about Sophia Smith, and I am hype for it.

https://www.nwslboston.com/

Honestly, Casey Stoney did nothing wrong imo -- it absolutely was a pen.

With the NWSL on break until August 18, the Challenge Cup is moving to a weekend schedule, except for its final game. Here are all the upcoming games:

Friday, 21 July

• 07:00 PM EDT Racing Louisville FC vs Chicago Red Stars
• 10:30 PM EDT Portland Thorns FC vs San Diego Wave FC

Saturday, 22 July

• 07:00 PM EDT North Carolina Courage vs Washington Spirit
• 08:00 PM EDT Kansas City Current vs Houston Dash

Sunday, 23 July

• 07:00 PM EDT Orlando Pride vs NJ/NY Gotham FC

Friday, 28 July

• 07:00 PM EDT Washington Spirit vs NJ/NY Gotham FC
• 10:00 PM EDT OL Reign vs San Diego Wave FC

Saturday, 29 July

• 07:00 PM EDT North Carolina Courage vs Orlando Pride
• 08:00 PM EDT Chicago Red Stars vs Kansas City Current
• 08:30 PM EDT Houston Dash vs Racing Louisville FC
• 10:00 PM EDT Angel City FC vs Portland Thorns FC

Friday, 04 August

• 07:00 PM EDT Orlando Pride vs Washington Spirit
• 08:00 PM EDT Kansas City Current vs Racing Louisville FC

Saturday, 05 August

• 07:30 PM EDT NJ/NY Gotham FC vs North Carolina Courage
• 07:30 PM EDT San Diego Wave FC vs Angel City FC
• 08:00 PM EDT Chicago Red Stars vs Houston Dash

Sunday, 06 August

• 06:00 PM EDT OL Reign vs Portland Thorns FC

Wednesday, 09 August

• 07:30 PM EDT NJ/NY Gotham FC vs Orlando Pride

I should probably see if any of these overlap with world cup games...---

If any of y'all #woso #nwsl peeps are interested, I'm trying to make an NWSL community happen in the #fediverse at @nwsl

#mastodonfc

Anyone got a spare $53 million I could borrow?