The 2021

NWSL Challenge Cup The NWSL Challenge Cup, currently known as the UKG NWSL Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tournament organized by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top-tier women's league in the United States soccer league system. Th ...

Championship, the final match of the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup, was a soccer match held on May 8, 2021 at

Providence Park Providence Park (formerly Jeld-Wen Field; PGE Park; Civic Stadium; originally Multnomah Stadium; and from 1893 until the stadium was built, Multnomah Field) is an outdoor soccer venue located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, USA. It was contested by

Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...

and

NJ/NY Gotham FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 201 ...

, the winners of the West and East Divisions, respectively, of the Challenge Cup. The match finished drawn 1-1 after 90 minutes, with the rules specifying that the teams would not play

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

but would instead proceed to a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

. The Thorns won the shootout 6-5 after 7 rounds, thus winning the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup.

Road to the final

won the right to host the final by finishing with the best record across both divisions. ''Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first.''

Match

Details

Portland struck first, with

Christine Sinclair Christine Margaret Sinclair (born June 12, 1983) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a forward and captains both National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club Portland Thorns FC and the Canadian national team. An Olympic go ...

winning the ball near midfield and then scoring from just outside Gotham's penalty box in the 8th minute. Portland generated several more chances in the first half but Gotham's defense successfully kept the score 1-0 until halftime. In the 61st minute,

Carli Lloyd Carli Anne Hollins (; born July 16, 1982) is an American former professional soccer player. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012), two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion (2015 and 2019), two-time FIFA Player of the Year ...

scored a header on a cross from

Imani Dorsey Imani Michelle Dorsey (born March 21, 1996) is an American professional soccer player who currently plays for NJ/NY Gotham FC in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She attended Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic High School in Olney, Mar ...

, evening the match at 1-1. That score held until the end of the 90 minutes of regulation time. Tournament rules specified that there would be no

, so the match proceeded to a

. In the first five rounds, each team had a shot rebound back off the crossbar—one by Jennifer Cudjoe for Gotham and one by

Meghan Klingenberg Meghan Elizabeth Klingenberg (born August 2, 1988) is an American soccer player who plays as a Defender (association football), defender for Portland Thorns FC, Portland Thorns in the National Women's Soccer League, National Women's Soccer Leagu ...

for the Thorns. Both teams made their sixth-round shots, but in the seventh round, Nahomi Kawasumi of Gotham had her shot saved by Thorns goalkeeper Adrianna Franch.

Morgan Weaver Morgan Victoria Weaver (born October 18, 1997) is an American soccer player who plays as a forward for Portland Thorns FC. College career Weaver played college soccer at Washington State from 2016 to 2019. She scored her first collegiate goals ...

of the Thorns scored on her seventh-round attempt, winning the game and the 2021 Challenge Cup for Portland.

Broadcasting

The match aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and

Paramount+ Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

in the United States, and on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

internationally.

JP Dellacamera John Paul "JP" Dellacamera (born January 11, 1952) is an American play-by-play sportscaster primarily for Major League Soccer with the Philadelphia Union, as well as major soccer tournaments and ice hockey. Commentary career Soccer In the 1 ...

and

Aly Wagner Alyson Kay Wagner (born August 10, 1980) is an American sports broadcaster and retired soccer midfielder who last played for Los Angeles Sol of Women's Professional Soccer and the United States women's national soccer team. She is a two-time Ol ...

served as play-by-play announcer and analyst respectively on CBS, while Josh Eastern and

Kaylyn Kyle Kaylyn McKenzie Kyle (born October 6, 1988) is a former Canadian soccer player who last played as a midfielder for the Orlando Pride in the National Women's Soccer League. She was also a member of Canada women's national soccer team, winning a ...

did the same on Twitch. Marisa Pilla was the on-field reporter.

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

soccer reporter Sandra Herrera and studio host Poppy Miller hosted the pre- and post-game shows on CBS Sports HQ along with

and

Lori Lindsey Lori Ann Lindsey (born March 19, 1980) is a retired American soccer midfielder who last played for Canberra United in the Australian W-League and was also a member of the United States women's national soccer team player pool. She played one ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2021 NWSL Challenge Cup Championship

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

2021 in American soccer leagues 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

2021 National Women's Soccer League season NWSL NWSL