In semi-non-NWSL news, the season start date for MLS has been pushed back about a week, so it will now start on April 17th. This means that, for the second year in a row, the NWSL Challenge Cup will be the return of DI pro soccer in the country! While searching for other preseason info, I came across this tidbit from BlackAndRedUnited: https://www.blackandredunited.com/w...llins-kelley-ohara-emily-sonnett-richie-burke It sounds to me like NWSL will be divided into two groups of five, so I guess pool play should be 4 games (just like last year) which I guess means a three-game KO tournament after as well. Eight matchdays in a bit over a month was quite the grueling task last year, but I guess if it works, might as well stick with it? They didn't have to do cross-country travel last year, though, so this might be particularly exhausting this go-around. Oh yeah, and just to say it: that means the other group is Reign-Thorns-Dash-KC-Red Stars, so it's mostly an east/west split. I hope that means the QF are E1/W4, E2/W3, E3/W2, and E3/W1!
From an EQZ article today, the Spirit will play the first five home matches of their schedule (and thus all home games of the Challenge Cup) at Segra Field, due to the fact that Audi is unavailable to them per COVID restrictions. That is, they probably could play at Audi if they really wanted to, but having a game there seems to be contingent on letting fans in (and, I assume, the revenue associated with it).
Format update: we missed this a few days ago, but WaPo's Goff posted the following: NWSL planning to announce Challenge Cup details in “coming days.”Expecting ... 1st group: Sky Blue, DC, NC, Orlando, Louisville2nd group: Reign, POR, HOU, KC, CHI2 home games, 2 away games per team. April 9 opener on CBSSN. Top team in each group in May 8 final on CBS.— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) February 16, 2021 Sounds like a bit smaller of a TV deal this time, with the opening match not on the main CBS, plus a *much* reduced KO stage, with only a final instead of QFs-SFs-final. At least it reduces schedule congestion?
Adding to the previous post, there apparently is a decent chance that games in Portland will allow some fans -- with lots of enforced safety protocols. It is not final yet, but that is the direction it is going.
Nice! Yeah, IIRC NWSL let each team decide whether to have fans in the Fall Series last year, based on local regulations, but I thought no team decided to do so? A similar situation was happening in USL at the time, too (which was quite sad for me to see STLFC have to play as dead team walking for a few months with no fans to properly say goodbye). It would certainly be nice to see 3-5k fans in attendance at some stadiums. (I bet Louisville might be one to let fans in, because LouCity was one team in USL that did have fans at their games last fall.)
Reign website also basically confirming the groups: No times or dates listed yet, but it looks like the NWSL is getting closer to releasing more info about the 2021 Challenge Cup pic.twitter.com/EhRNJJpjUJ— Steve Voght (@voght) February 21, 2021
NEWS: @NWSL announces the 2021 Challenge Cup presented by @SecretDeodorant.*full schedule will be announced on TuesdayRules, format and more 👉 https://t.co/iO4hSeHlza#WePlayForKC pic.twitter.com/JX9I3RqQko— KC Current (@thekccurrent) March 8, 2021
Opener will be CHI @ HOU ; confiming East-West split and the single game final after pool play Three games of CBSSN, the final will be on Paramount+ as well as CBS' main network Twitch streaming every game Secret Deodorant sponsorship is continuing, including beginning a "NWSL Rookie Class" scholarship program https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/art...nge-cup-presented-by-secret-opener-in-houston
The division split is ONLY for the Challenge Cup. League will remain one table-format for the regular season.
As the league grows, I wonder 1.) If they'll continue the Challenge Cup & 2.) How they'll split up the teams? 12 teams next year split 6 & 6 is easy but then what happens when the league reaches 14 teams? 16 teams?
14 teams becomes tricky. Three groups(2 with 5 teams and one with 4 teams?). 16 teams can become 4 groups of 4 with the group winners advancing to a round-robin type of format.
I think if the league grows enough, they'll drop pool play and favor a true "Cup" format. With 14 teams, you give two teams a bye.
Good idea. Visualize this for everyone to see. 1 team in each division 1st place in standings get first round bye.
https://womenscompetitions.thefa.com/en/Article/fa-wsl-prize-fund-230819 Prize fund £500,000 up for grabs in 2019-20 Barclays FA WSL And also I’ll say again they need to include prize money. One for winning the Shield and another for winning the Champisonship.
NWSL can't create prize money out of thin air. Same reasoning that they can't arbitrarily raise salary requirements. The US - and COCNACAF in general - is honestly quite a cheap region when it comes to the lack of "prize money" for any competition. I don't see that readily changing any time soon. Try to stay on topic?
Bringing up something for another competition done in another country that has never been discussed for this competition, in general or specifically for this year, is tangential at best.
It’s okay to bring it up, no different than trying to bring European style football into MLS like promotions and relegation instead of closed franchise. Trying to think of ideas or just talk about raising up the competition no matter if it’s off topic or useless. That’s for me to decide.
So you think it's okay to bring up pro/rel in just any MLS-related thread? That's almost always going to be entirely off-topic. If the thread is about the league structure or maybe expansion stuff, sure, it's okay to bring up then. But I wouldn't bring it up in a season-specific or team-specific thread, unless there was a specific situation that made it somewhat relevant to the team or that year. (btw, discussing other NWSL competitions like the Shield or the regular playoffs in a Challenge Cup thread is similarly shooting wide unless applicable context is drawn.) ...so you admit to just thinking up possible ideas to throw into discussions without consideration for their appropriateness. I mean, that was clear already. We have a forum here with an excellent structure that allows for topics to be set up as desired. No need to throw tangential ideas into whatever topic is active that day - you can create new threads. Heck, we have a "general" thread at the top of the forum, too.
Full schedule has dropped! https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/art...l-challenge-cup-presented-by-secret-deodorant https://equalizersoccer.com/2021/03...eased-debuts-incoming-for-racing-kansas-city/ TLDR: It's generally a schedule of two-days-on-three-days-off for us viewers, with the exceptions of a three-day gameday 4/14-16 and a four-day gap 4/22-4/25. May 2nd, the final day of group play, will be the only day with three games on the same day. Byes are as follows: GD1 - NJ, RGN GD2 - NC, KC GD3 - DC, HOU GD4 - ORL, POR GD5 - LOU, CHI (This is first-glance, I'll have to take a closer look to see who has the biggest and shortest gaps between games.) Hosting trivia: BBVA will host the final group game as well as the opener Providence will host the Thorns-Reign rivalry (on CBS SN) match on GD3 Both Sky Blue and DC will be playing at secondary fields, not at the MLS venues they have normal agreements with.