NWSL 2026 Regular Season Pre/In/Post Match Thread

Has there been a change to the TV contract. On the NWSL site and the ESPN schedule there are matches listed on Saturday Mar. 14 on ION but my Guides (From a local provider and Sling TV and from ION itself) show no soccer matches but NCIS is showing when several of the matches are set to play.
I hope this is simply a glitch or a delay of some kind but I like to pre-plan my soccer viewing and set some recordings when there are a lot of interesting matches upcoming and the lack of any actual indication in the guide is concerning this close to the opening matches.
The matches that are not on ION do appear as expected. Maybe ION is just slow to get their schedule correct but it is concerning that even the ION website does not show the matches, at least yet.

 

Agreed, it looks like they're showing three games on Saturday, one after the other.

 

Thanks for the encouragement and the indication that the matches will be shown but, it seems, that they do show the matches one place on their website but they do not show them on the actual guides or the data they supply externally.
What I am looking at are the guides on Sling and on a local ION feed.

I guess ION just does not update their schedules three days in advance and that means I cannot set recordings. But I have noticed that overall ION is just VERY unprofessional and cannot keep there guides up to date. I will wait to see if the glitch gets fixed. I'll take my guide suppliers to the vet tomorrow and have them "fixed."

 

After some more testing and investigating and throwing out some preconceived notions I have found at least part of the problem I was having.
It appears that ION has several different ways they provide guide data to their broadcasters. Some of those ways involve frequent updates and some do not.
For my channels that I usually use in Emby and Channels DVR I think I was using an inferior method but ION's lineup is the same everywhere, mostly, so I switched the ION guide data from the local source I was using to a California one and, suddenly, I have accurate guide data now and the way I get it even corrects for time zones so the date/time is correct. Now all my guides agree with the ION web site and I am again content.
BTW: After talking to some more knowledgeable people I have been assured that the guide source I was using would have eventually corrected itself and everything may have been fine. But the new source might be better for me. At least I can now preschedule the recordings and have the recordings available if I miss any of the matches, or nod off during them.

 

Yeah, they're all listed for my local Ion station. Been that was since some time last week.

 

https://www.nwslsoccer.com/how-to-watch

Here's how to watch the NWSL games this season. Just downloaded the Victory+ app--can't wait to see how or if they incert commercials during the game. Prime is a dilemma for me, I want to watch tonight's game but don't want to pay--how about an a la carte menu @ $1 a game?

 

Victory+ does run commercials, but I believe it's just whatever the team/league they're carrying has negotiated. I watch a lot of Dallas Stars hockey games on it and it's just like a regular TV broadcast.

 

One thing with Victory+ to keep an eye on.

They do restrict you to what's available in your area. That shouldn't be an issue with NWSL, but being in Texas I've got access to the Stars (free), Rangers (paid subscription), Texas HS football (including the state championships), and a few other items but teams like the Anaheim Ducks are blocked for me.

It seems like they're building out their product solely to be the platform that various teams and leagues use to host their streaming product, allowing for a lot of leeway from those entities themselves in how they set things up.

The Stars vs Avalanche game from last week pulled 342,000 viewers, so it seems to be catching on a bit.

 

Well, the first half of the first match of the new season between two high octane teams....was a bit of a bore.

 

I did not know you had a gift for understatement. The entire half passed without even one team having one shot on goal. I did not count but I think the total shot attempts by both teams combined was less than about six.

But Portland scores on about their first attempt in the second half.

 

The second half was pretty good. Washington seemed disorganized. Portland got better, certainly more cohesive, as the game went along.

Methinks Rodman doth complain muchly. I liked Moultie (of course), Fleming, and Reyes on the Portland side. Washington? Nobody great.

 

Although the first half may have been boring to most, to Portland fans it wasn't, after watching the Thorns pretty consistently give up early goals last year. Instead, it was nail biting and counting down the time until the half was over.

I guess expectations contribute to what one experiences as boring.

or . It all depends on your point of view.

 

Portland defeated Washington in the season opener last night on Prime, kicking off the 2026 NWSL season, leading up to decision day on November 1st with all games on ESPN.

A new streaming partner has arrived, Victory+, which for some reason isn't a complete replacement for NWSL+, but apparently will stream every game on replay, and have exclusive games on Sundays. Games will also be appearing on Disney+ for the first time, starting today as well as Paramount+ and Prime, along with continuing broadcast coverage on ABC, ESPN, CBS, and ION.

CBS preseason power rankings:

1. Kansas City
2. Gotham
3. Washington
4. Portland
5. Orlando
6. San Diego
7. Seattle
8. Angel City
9. North Carolina
10. Louisville
11. Utah
12. Houston
13. Chicago
14. Bay FC
15. Denver
16. Boston

 

Looking at the new Boston Legacy vs Gotham, I'm surprised at how well the Legacy held their own in the first half. There are only 4 players on the Legacy's starting lineup that I've ever heard of. New talent, maybe. By contrast I'm familiar with all the starting players for Gotham.

 

It is not really that Boston is playing well but rather Gotham is playing down to Boston. This is marginally a better match than last night's but the margin is quite small.
Boston has many time stopped their own attacks by trying to be cute instead of using their skill and speed to keep Gotham off balance.
It will not surprise me at all if this ends 0-0 or 1-0 like last night.
These first two matches are not good showcases for the NWSL simply because the play is slow and the teams are taking many, if any, chances in order to score.
Gotham scores because Boston just did not make the plays needed to defend a half way decent attack. But still Gotham almost gave it back because several players in attack were playing like they were afraid to even try to shoot.

This is early in the season and things may change but, so far, I am not impressed by the lack of offense in these matches.
Maybe, by the end of the day today, my feelings will have changed, the are a number of matches to come for the rest of the day, but the low speed of play in these fist two is quite concerning.

 

Tried watching, but again there's Lianne Sanderson just aggressively marble mouthing her way through nonstop talking that's often objectively wrong and now I'm watching golf instead.

 

Bad soccer announcing is a LOT better than great golf announcing. But, in this case, the speed of play is similar.

 

An extremely STUPID second yellow card has reduced Boston to ten. Although "stuff" can happen the stupidity of drawing that second yellow has pretty much assured Gotham's victory.

 

This match has shown that decent three touch soccer beats four or five touch soccer and Boston hurt themselves more than Gotham hurt them. But Boston is an expansion team and Gotham should be disappointed to only score 1.
In other words: Slow and plodding beats the near dead stop that Boston played.

 

A credible performance by Boston -- despite some really dumb fouls. That African combo of Boston's Troare and Ndjamena might be fun to watch this season. Best player for Boston: Niki Hernandez at left back. Good on both defense and offense -- and gets the best- hair- blowing -in- the-wind award on a day with hurricane-velocity winds. She went down hurt at the very end of the game. Hopefully nothing serious.

 

It looked to me like a cramp in the central part of the hamstring rather than a pull but it is quite hard to tell for sure just from observation, particularly observation colored by the TV crew trying to show anything else. Of course I do not like the TV crew to linger on injured players but that does mean that even getting a good look at any injury is next to impossible.