https://www.concacaf.com/w-champion...caf-w-champions-cup-group-stage-player-lists/ The CONCACAF W Champions Cup 2025/26 Group Stage begins next week with four games, two each on August 19 and 20. This is the second edition, Gotham won the first last May. In the US you can watch on Paramount +, CBS Sports, and ESPN Deportes. There are ten clubs in the competition in two groups of five. The NWSL teams involved are Gotham, Washington Spirit, and Orlando Pride. Liga MX Femenil clubs are Club America, Pachuca, and Monterrey. The other four clubs are: Vancouver Rise FC (Cananda), Chorrillo FC (Panama), Alianza FC (El Salvador), and LD Alajuelense (Costa Rica). The four games next week are: August 19: Alianza hosting Washington Spirit; Pachuca hosting Chorrillo August 20: Gotham hosting Monterrey at Icahn Stadium, Randall's Island; Alajuelense hosting Club America
Just noticed something that piqued my curiosity: the Vancouver Rise FC Academy is indeed an academy and is the team from Vancouver Rise FC who are playing in this competition. Was looking at their roster and it is made-up of 20 players who were born between 2008-2009 .ie they are a U17 team that plays in the League1 BC (W). Also six of them are on the Canadian U17 team that are competing in the U17 World Cup taking place Oct.17-. Couple of notable names on the Van. Rise first team that aren't in the tournament are Quinn and Jasmyne Spencer. Guess the Club is prioritizing the League over CONCACAF CC. Just kinda weird.
Thanks @shlj yeah I still haven't read the rules but this article touches on the reason for the inclusion of the academy team--didn't even realize they were in the comp last year. https://thedistrictpress.com/2025/0...ions-cup-starting-tonight-tournament-preview/ Vancouver Rise FC Academy Vancouver Rise FC Academy, formerly known as the Whitecaps FC Girls Elite Academy, are a semi-professional team playing in League 1 British Columbia. In last year’s Cup, Vancouver defeated Alianza to advance to the group stage but only won one match in their group, finishing fourth. Note that this team should not be confused with Vancouver Rise FC, a professional team in the Northern Super League. With that league’s establishment earlier this year, we might expect to see a change in qualifying standards for Canada’s slot in the 2025-26 Concacaf W Champions Cup.
Watched the Alianza-Spirit game last night. Comfortable win for Spirit,(0-7) especially as it was their first foray into international club competition abroad. Interesting note that Coach Gonzalez took the whole first team to El Salvador, started majority of subs, brought on key starters in 2nd half after the rout was achieved, one of which, T Rodman, came in at the half, scored a goal and was subbed at '73 to preserve her for Saturday. Team is going to fly directly to San Francisco for Sat. afternoon game against Bay FC at Oracle Park--pretty sensible decision to cut down on travel fatigue. https://washingtonspirit.com/blog/2...oup-play-with-impressive-7-0-win-on-the-road/ https://www.concacaf.com/w-champion...bq5dtq99hr1n8&match=7p0gkhwru86du5aujn1eo5h5g Links above give all the write-up of the game, with CONCACAF site doing a decent job with providing game stats. Have to say this tournament will give the Spirit a chance to give important game experience to deepen their bench which is getting bigger with the return of injured players and new acquisitions. One such new player, Lauren Gogal DF, 22, out of Va Tech, signed 7/23 as National Team Replacement Player (so could be gone at the end of August) had an impactful game: played '90 had 151 touches and worked well with Sylla in making basic plays to solidify defense and keep the offense running--I'd bet she made a good impression on the coaches. Seven starters remained on the bench so team should be fresh for Sat. Kouassi still in form, had a hat-tick; Ratcliffe had a goal and 3 assists Spirit should have a smooth incorporation of the rest of the group stage with their NWSL schedule as they will be spared traveling abroad in the Vancouver and Monterrey fixtures and the away game will be against Gotham (potentially at Subaru Park! Go-figure).
I really like the fact that all confeds now do their own champions league/cup and we get to see the champions play each other every year and and every four years we get a Club Women World Cup. We don't see enough games between clubs from different confederation. I don't think Gotham winning it last year got enough publicity and respect for the achievement.
Last night Orlando in front of a very sparse crowd, beat Alajualense 3-0, their first game in the group stage, all goals coming in 2nd half. Marta, Angelina, Abello, Ovalle did not make game-day roster. In the other game, Gotham beat Allianza 0-2, with a 2nd half PK and a late 2nd goal. Gotham had more difficulty than the Spirit (who won 0-7 couple weeks ago at Allianza). The artificial turf playing surface seemed to cause Gotham issues. Gotham now is 2-0 and can clinch semis with a result against Vancouver Rise Academy later this month. Gotham left at home, Esther, Rose Lavelle, Berger and Sonnet. Just looked into the new FIFA Women's Champions Cup that will be held late next January 2026. Gotham have qualified as one of the six participants. So far, it's Gotham, Arsenal, Aukland, Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC, CAF and CONMEBOL to be decided in Nov. and Oct. respectively. Gotham will play CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina winner in the semifinals; Arsenal will play the eventual winner in the sequence starting with Aukland against Wuhan; whose winner will play CAF. So there is incentive for NWSL teams to take CONCACAF W Champions Cup seriously as it will give the winner a very good opportunity to face the best team in the world! As long as they can overcome the difficulty of playing during their preseason.
I do not know how seriously Orlando took their first match. Their starting lineup was lacking a number of players and Marta was not even dressed. They played a very weak first half and make some subs and were totally dominate in the second. If they were really serious they would have started strong and then coasted after establishing a lead but, instead, they coasted for the first half and then mostly put it together for the second. In fact the obvious player of the match was a second half sub, Carson Pickett, who came in at the half and had an assist and scored a goal within the first few minutes. Basically Orlando only even risked their better players after seeing that they were unable to score with their average players. That is I do not believe they could have scored even one goal with the starting lineup they used. And that means that they did not really take the match seriously. It also appeared that the stands were 90% empty implying that their fans did not take the match seriously either. I am not saying this was unusual at all as many teams world wide treat "Champion's league" early matches against weak teams as practice matches. It also appears that Gotham was just as ambivalent as nothing seems to have happened in the first half of that match either. But I was unable to find the Gotham match to watch but, looking at the stats for the first half, it really seemed that they just took it easy in the first half and the turned it on for the second. Neither NWSL team came out of the gate last night really putting out strong effort and did not even turn it on until the second half. That is not how teams perform if they are taking the game seriously. But both NWSL teams won pretty easily so their approach was not too far off what was needed and it shows the teams they played were well down the pecking order from where they need to be. I just hope the CONCACAF Champion's league matches improve as time wears on.
Orlando Pride were very lucky yesterday as Club America could just as easily have ended this match with a score of 5-1. The refs had mostly done good job (good calls on offsides on both ends) except missed an obvious foul in pk box (57th min) In the second half, the Mexican players were basically running circles around their opponents. In terms of tactical and physical preparation, Orlando looked very weak.
Orlando's League form has been poor recently. The Liga F Mex teams seem to be able to beat NWSL teams. 5 NWSL win 2 draws and 3 Liga Mex wins over the two seasons.
For a lot of this match Orlando looked like they simply did not care. Individually they did seem to care but collectively they just seemed disinserted. I wish my Spanish was better as the only feed I had access to was the Spanish language coverage from ESPN+. I can get by OK in conversation but understanding the raid firs Spanish from the announcers is often a bit too much, particularly when they get excited. I was not at all impressed by the adaptability of Orlando and it was quite obvious why Orlando has dropped so far in the NWSL standings. This is bad for me because Orlando has many players I REALLY like to watch but they seemed just out of it. Carson Picket is one and, mostly, even she just disappeared for a lot of the match. Maybe the NWL is too taxing for these ladies but, somehow, I just have the feeling that Orlando's coaching staff just treated this match as unimportant. While it was pretty unimportant it has enough importance to warrant a better effort level. I did enjoy seeing a number of Mexican players that I have had no chance to watch recently and, from a talent level point of view, it looks like the Mexican National Team will have a good selection of talent and become competitive again in CONCACAF. I am not up on the format for this competition but is this home/home or is it group play round robin or is it a knockout match or is it something else entirely. Again it was quite obvious that Orlando is in a struggling period and that bleads over into everything they do.
My observation so far has been that at least some of the NWSL teams do not consider these games important. Instead, they protect their players for the NWSL competition.
I've only seen highlights, but America, specifically, have looked good from what little I have seen. And while some NWSL teams seem to be taking the tournament less seriously, it is great exposure and experience for the rest of CONCACAF.
Quite interesting point of view that I fully understand, but it is a shame. Because playing international teams improve the players.
@cpthomas and @shlj yeah I share your observations, but there is a particular difficulty with these North American regional club comps with the schedule of ridiculous travel itineraries and distances. I was ticked that Orlando didn't start a better team against Club America, but apparently Marta is out with an injury, Abello and Lemos weren't brought (saved for the weekend game), Gatraut allowed to leave, they've had others injured: what was once a deep team is no longer and is in danger of not making playoffs. They also had to contend with high altitude at 8,600 feet which is a distinct disadvantage. Back to Orlando's schedule: they were in Panama Sept. 16, back in Orlando the 19th, in San Diego the 26th, in Mexico City the 30th, then finally in Houston Oct. 3rd! These travel ordeals really cut into training and game recovery, it's an inherent difficulty in this country combined with regional competitions. It reminds me of the men's CONCACAF Champions of early years like in the 2000s, MLS teams were way more invested in league games, to make playoffs, to win MLS Cup and not appreciating the benefits of competing in CCL to possibly get to World Club Cup. Besides we were so far behind Mexican Clubs even though they didn't use their best players in games against us.
Another example of travel nightmares is Gotham's schedule recently where they went to San Diego, then up to Vancouver, then back down to San Jose, CA in a period of nine days. I know that in a west coast swing in April that went from LA to Portland then finally DC, Amoros did not fly back to NY, but stayed local, even flying directly to DC from Portland, he might have done the same for this last trip.
It is a very interesting points, our UEFA teams do not travel that much and that far so fatigue is less of a problem. They do get tired when they play twice a week at high intensity and then coaches have to rotate.
America, Pachuca in Group A Gotham and Spirit in Group B qualify for the semi-finals. Orlando are out.
I think we have the four best teams making the semi-finals. Club America and Pachuca are going to provide tough tests for the two NWSL teams.
I think this shows a really good sign for Canadian youth development, since most of their players are Canadian and 17 or there abouts. The games they played against our two NWSL were not easy victories at all. Look for Canada's U17 team to be good at the WC.
The W Champions Cup Finals, including the Semifinals, Final and Third Place Match, will take place in a centralized location from May 20-23, 2026. 2025/26 CONCACAF W CHAMPIONS CUP FINALS SCHEDULE Wednesday, May 20, 2026 – Semifinals SF1: Club America Femenil vs NJ/NY Gotham FC SF2: Washington Spirit vs CF Pachuca Femenil Saturday, May 23, 2026 3rd Place: Loser SF1 vs Loser SF2 Final: Winner SF1 vs Winner SF2
https://www.concacaf.com/w-champion...arded-202526-concacaf-w-champions-cup-finals/ Estadio Hidalgo was awarded host privileges for the 2025/26 Concacaf W Champions Cup Finals following carefully considered bids submitted by the semifinalists. During its internal review, Concacaf considered key factors such as infrastructure, ticketing model, security, accommodation, accessibility to the city, commercial opportunities, and the event's visibility. For once, CONCACAF got it right.. Sounds like Pachuca as a club and also the city/community are really promoting this even: “We’re pleased to bring another exciting edition of the Concacaf W Champions Cup Finals to life as we continue the development of our region’s premier women’s club tournament. Pachuca and Estadio Hidalgo are a fantastic host venue for the final four matches, and we’re grateful to CF Pachuca and its leadership team for their dedication to this event and to women’s football,” said Concacaf President and FIFA Vice President Victor Montagliani. “For us, Pachuca is Concacaf's home in Mexico. They will always be welcome here because this event represents a dream and reflects the priority we give to women’s football. We are very proud to showcase internationally the infrastructure and the exclusive resources we have dedicated to women within football. At Grupo Pachuca, we deeply believe in women’s football, and this tournament is the best opportunity to demonstrate that,” said Grupo Pachuca President Jesús Martínez. “Pachuca, Hidalgo, continues to establish itself as the capital of football. Events like this strengthen the international momentum we have been promoting in support of the institution, the city, and the state. Football has already placed Pachuca on the world map, and now we want it to also be a destination that people visit and recognize as a host of major competitions. Hosting these finals reaffirms our commitment to continuing to elevate the name of Pachuca," added CF Pachuca President Armando Martínez.
https://www.concacaf.com/competitio.../revamped-format-for-region-s-w-champions-cup Revamped Format for Region’s W Champions Cup 5/8/2026 Instead of the 2026-2027 Group Stage being held this fall, the competition will move to the summer of 2027 and have a direct knock-out series of games that start in July and end in October of 2027. NWSL and Liga MX Femenil still get three teams each and start directly in the Quarterfinals in Sept.. The change requires Concacaf to skip what would have been the entire 2026-2027 edition. The issue that concerns NWSL is how do you select 3 teams from two seasons of competitions--2025 and 2026 and six trophies. Had they kept the old format, KC (Supporters' Shield), Gotham (NWSL Champs) and Spirit (Challenge Cup) all for 2025 would have qualified for this year's Group Stage, but now you have the 2026 winners of the same competitions to include also--it's a mess.