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2021 National Women's Soccer League Season
The 2021 National Women's Soccer League season was the ninth season of the National Women's Soccer League, the top division of women's soccer in the United States. Including the NWSL's two professional predecessors, Women's Professional Soccer (2009–2011) and the Women's United Soccer Association (2001–2003), it is the 15th overall season of FIFA and USSF-sanctioned top division women's soccer in the United States. This season was the first in which the NWSL has been fully self-governing. After the 2020 season, the league terminated its management contract with the United States Soccer Federation (USSF or U.S. Soccer), which nonetheless continues to provide major financial support to the NWSL. Further financial backing is provided by the Canadian Soccer Association. Both national federations pay the league salaries of many of their respective national team members in an effort to nurture talent in those nations and take a major financial burden off of individual clubs. On ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Women's Soccer League
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Super League). The league comprises 14 teams (16 in 2026). It is owned by the teams and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation. The NWSL is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The NWSL was established in 2012 as the successor to Women's Professional Soccer (WPS; 2007–2012), which was itself the successor to the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA; 2000–2003). The league began play in 2013 with eight teams, four of which were former members of WPS (Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, Sky Blue FC, and Western New York Flash). Through the 2024 season, seven teams (one now defunct) have been crowned NWSL Championship, NWSL Champions, awarded to the playoff winner, and six teams (one defunct) have claimed the NWSL Shield, awarde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Women's Professional Soccer
Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 season, with continued plans for future expansion. The WPS was the highest level in the United States soccer pyramid for the women's game. On January 30, 2012, the league announced suspension of the 2012 season, citing several internal organization struggles as the primary cause. Some of these issues included an ongoing legal battle with magicJack owner Dan Borislow and the lack of resources invested into the league. On May 18, 2012, WPS announced the league folded and would not return in 2013. After the WPS folded, the National Women's Soccer League formed in 2013 and took WPS's place as the top professional women's soccer league in the United States. History Planning After the folding of Women's United Soccer Association, which p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Athletic
''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports journalism department of ''The New York Times''. It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports. ''The Athletic'' coverage focuses on a mix of long-form journalism, original reporting, and in-depth analysis. Its business model is predicated on dis-aggregating the sports section of local newspapers, and reaching non-local fans not reached by a local newspaper. ''The Athletic'' was launched by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann in January 2016 as an independent subscription-based online sports magazine. It gradually expanded its stable of writers over the next few years to provide better coverage of more teams in more markets, including in the United Kingdom. However, the magazine remained unable to earn enough revenue without advertising to make a profit, and the owners began to seek an outside buy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2021 NWSL Abuse Scandal
Players and former staff of teams in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) have leveled several allegations and formal reports of sexual abuse, harassment, misconduct, and manipulation, as well as weight-shaming, verbal and emotional abuse, and racist and sexist remarks across its history. These allegations of crossing professional boundaries with players have led to formal investigations of and by the NWSL and many of its teams and coaches, most prominently during the league's 2021 season but including events dating to the league's inception and extending to its present. Proposed causes and ramifications In the findings of former US attorney general Sally Yates' report regarding an investigation commissioned by the United States Soccer Federation, she wrote that "abuse in the NWSL is rooted in a deeper culture in women's soccer, beginning in youth leagues, that normalizes verbally abusive coaching and blurs boundaries between coaches and players." The investigations ul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portland, Oregon
Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, it is the county seat of Multnomah County, Oregon, Multnomah County, Oregon's most populous county. Portland's population was 652,503, making it the List of United States cities by population, 28th most populous city in the United States, the sixth most populous on the West Coast of the United States, West Coast, and the third most populous in the Pacific Northwest after Seattle and Vancouver. Approximately 2.5 million people live in the Portland metropolitan area, Oregon, Portland metropolitan area, making it the List of metropolitan statistical areas, 26th most populous in the United States. Almost half of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metro area. Named after Portland, Maine, which is itself named aft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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. It is the home of the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer (MLS) and Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Providence Park is currently the oldest facility to be configured as a soccer-specific stadium for use by an MLS team, and is one of the most historic grounds used by any United States professional soccer team. It has existed in rudimentary form since 1893, and as a complete stadium since 1926. Providence Park has been the home of the Timbers since 1975. The stadium has been host to several major United States soccer events including U.S. national team matches, Soccer Bowl '77, the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the 2014 MLS All-Star Game, the 2015 NWSL Champio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2021 NWSL Challenge Cup Championship
The 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup Championship, the final match of the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup, was a soccer match held on May 8, 2021 at Providence Park in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was contested by Portland Thorns FC and NJ/NY Gotham FC, 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 but would instead proceed to a penalty shootout. The Thorns won the shootout 6–5 after 7 rounds, thus winning the Challenge Cup. Road to the final Portland Thorns FC 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 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 f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NWSL Championship
The NWSL Championship is the annual championship game of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top-flight women's soccer league in the United States. It is the culmination of the NWSL playoffs, which is contested by the teams with the best record in the preceding regular season. The NWSL uses a playoff tournament following the regular season to determine its annual league champion, similar to every other major North American sports league. This format differs from most soccer leagues around the world, which consider the club with the most points at the end of the season to be the champion; the NWSL honors that achievement with the NWSL Shield. Since 2024, the top eight teams in the regular-season standings earn a berth into the playoff tournament; previously, only the top four or top six teams qualified for the playoffs. History The first NWSL Championship was held at Sahlen's Stadium in Rochester, New York, on August 31, 2013. Tobin Heath and Christine Sinclair ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NWSL Playoffs
The National Women's Soccer League playoffs (or NWSL playoffs) are a single-elimination tournament among eight teams in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) of the United States. The final round of the playoffs is the NWSL Championship. Since playoff games cannot end in draws, they are broken by two consecutive 15-minute extra time periods, followed by penalty shoot-outs of best-of-five rounds with additional rounds as required. Format Since the 2024 season, the top eight teams in the final standings at the end of the regular season qualify for the playoffs and are seeded in order of their record. The top-seed hosts the eighth seed and the fourth hosts the fifth in one arm of the quarterfinals bracket, and the runner-up hosts the seventh seed and the third hosts the sixth in the other arm. In the semifinals, teams are not reseeded and the winners within each quarterfinals arm play each other. From 2021 to 2023, the top 6 teams qualified for a three-round playoff, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NWSL Challenge Cup
The NWSL Challenge Cup is an annual supercup competition organized by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), a division 1 women's league in the United States soccer league system. The current (2025) cup holder is the Washington Spirit, who defeated the Orlando Pride 1-1 (4-2 on penalties) on March 7, 2025. The NWSL Challenge Cup was first announced in 2020 as a one-off, league-wide tournament to mark the league's return to action from the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first top-tier professional sports league in the United States to restart after COVID-19 lockdowns began. Subsequently, the NWSL announced that it would return as an annual league cup tournament. Before the 2024 season, the NWSL announced that the Challenge Cup would change from a tournament to a single-game supercup. Format 2020–2023 For the first four years of the tournament, all NWSL teams began a group stage where they played four to six games, usually split geographically. The group stage was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NWSL Player Allocation
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) federation players were players whose salaries for playing in the National Women's Soccer League were paid for by their respective national federations from 2013 to 2021. American federation players were contracted to the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) and not to their respective NWSL clubs, whereas Canadian federation players were contracted directly to their respective NWSL clubs. Federation players were sometimes known as allocated players, allocation players, or subsidized players, which occasionally created confusion with players paid using NWSL allocation money, a mechanism introduced before the 2020 NWSL season. NWSL federation players originally came from the USSF, the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), and the Mexican Football Federation (FMF), and they were distributed to the eight founding teams of the NWSL through a player allocation process in January 2013. The FMF ceased allocating players to the NWSL in 2016 before s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Soccer Association
The Canadian Soccer Association (; branded as Canada Soccer) is the governing body for soccer in Canada. Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, the federation is a full member of FIFA and governs Canadian soccer at the international, professional, and amateur levels, including: the men's and women's national teams, youth organizations, beach soccer, futsal, Paralympic and deaf national teams. The Canadian Soccer Association also administers and operates the Canadian Premier League, the Canadian Championship, and the Futsal Canadian Championship. History The Dominion of Canada Football Association, today known as the Canadian Soccer Association, was founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in July 1912. The organization joined FIFA on December 31, 1912. On June 21, 1926, the DCFA resigned from FIFA, only to rejoin on June 20, 1948. The governing body of the game retained that name until it was changed to The Football Association of Canada on June 6, 1952. The association later changed i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
