By Jeff Rueter, Meg Linehan, Melanie Anzidei and Steph Yang
Welcome to the 2024 season of the National Women’s Soccer League. This season, which kicks off with four matches on Saturday, is different from its predecessors in a few ways — primarily with the addition of two expansion teams, and the league’s biggest broadcast deal to date. The Olympics are also happening, which has prompted the league to take a midseason break and host an international club tournament while the U.S. women’s national team competes in Paris.
How you can watch the NWSL is changing in a major way this season, too. So we’ve put together this preview with everything you’ll need ahead of the regular season kickoff (and Friday night’s Challenge Cup match) from how to watch to major storylines, plus the USWNT and international connections across the 14 teams.
To keep following The Athletic’s NWSL coverage, don’t forget to follow the league and your team(s) of choice by managing your feed. And to make sure you don’t miss any of our coverage, subscribe to our women’s soccer newsletter Full Time. It’s our biggest stories paired with Full Time exclusive insights delivered straight to your inbox every week. With the season starting, we’ll be sending out each edition on Monday to make sure you’re all caught up from every NWSL weekend.
How to watch
121 of the 189 total NWSL regular season games this year have been spread out across four different partners as part of its new four-year broadcast deal: CBS, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, and Scripps’ ION (Fun fact: ION was originally launched as PAX TV, which was the original TV network for WUSA broadcasts). Each partner has their own slate of games, and the remainder of the games will stream on the league’s NWSL+ service.
We’ve laid out what you need to know to watch all the games below if you are a viewer in the United States; we’re still waiting on international broadcast information.
Prime Video
Amazon will broadcast Friday night matches.
You do not need an Amazon Prime membership to use Prime Video, although Amazon clearly wants you to get a full Prime subscription based on how difficult it is to only subscribe to Prime Video or even dig up the information that you can subscribe to Prime Video on its own.
If you do not have an Amazon Prime account, you can currently still sign up for Prime Video on its own as a regular Amazon member. If you do have Amazon Prime, then Prime Video should be included as a service, although going ad free will cost an additional $2.99/month.
Cost: $8.99 per month
To watch, log in to your Amazon account, open the drop down menu that lists all of Amazon’s services, look under “Digital Content & Devices,” and choose Prime Video. Once on the Prime Video page, under the “Home” drop down tab, and choose “Sports.”
ION
ION will air Saturday night doubleheader games at 7:30 and 10:30 PM ET.
You can either check to see if ION is on linear television in your area, or you can sign in with select existing streaming services.
Cost: If you use a TV antenna and can find ION’s broadcast signal in your area, you can watch for free.
CBS
CBS will air games on the CBS television channel or CBS Sports Network. CBS games will also stream on Paramount+, but CBSSN games will not.
Cost: $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year for the basic Paramount+ Essential plan.
ESPN
Games will be spread across ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN2, while also streaming on ESPN+. Crucially, if the game is on an ESPN channel, it will also stream on ESPN+, which isn’t the case for CBS Sports Network and Paramount+.
There are a lot of options for watching ESPN, such as logging in with your existing service provider or by bundling ESPN+ with a Disney+ subscription.
Cost: $10.99 per month or $109.99 per year for an ESPN+ subscription.
NWSL+
The league will stream the remainder of their games on NWSL+. The app can be used on iOS and Android devices, and can be added to Apple TV, Fire TV, and Roku.
Sign up here.
Cost: Free
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What’s at stake this season
Challenge Cup
The season kicks off with the Challenge Cup, which has been reformatted from a season-long tournament to a one-off game between the 2023 champions, Gotham FC, and the 2023 shield winners, San Diego Wave. It’s a smart move to decongest the schedule and create a more meaningful game for players and fans, as well as to hopefully set the tone for the rest of the season by beginning with a bang.
NWSL shield
For the rest of the season, everything will obviously be influenced by having two new expansion teams. They have historically done poorly in the NWSL by virtue of being so new and needing to work out the kinks. There are exceptions of course; the aforementioned shield winners, the Wave, played their way to the semifinals in their inaugural season and came third overall in the regular season under the stellar coaching of Casey Stoney. And with several teams having retooled themselves under new ownership, there’s a lot of hunger out there to see what they can be with a clean slate. Whether it’s the Portland Thorns, who were just one win shy of the shield, or the dead-last Chicago Red Stars, there are exciting storylines anywhere you look up and down the table.
Mid-summer Olympic tournament
The NWSL announced that they will host an international club tournament while the league takes a break from July 15 to August 18 for the Olympics. There’s no word yet on which clubs might be involved, although based on other tournaments like the International Champions’ Cup and The Women’s Cup, it’s a strong bet that the NWSL will look to clubs from England, France, and Germany. Some NWSL teams also have relationships with Liga MX Femenil clubs, potentially bringing Mexico into the running, too.
Expanded postseason
With two more teams entering the fold this season, the NWSL Playoffs will have an additional two qualifiers. The top eight teams from the regular season will advance to the postseason, playing a single-elimination knockout bracket from November 9 to November 23. In recent seasons, the top two teams enjoyed a first-round bye, but there will be no earned respite in the new format. This makes for a cleaner bracket and an increased chance for the kind of chaotic upsets we’ve all come to love.
Championship
Of course, there is a championship trophy (a very nice, upgraded one, in fact) ultimately on the line. Defending champs Gotham FC don’t have a worst-in-the-league chip on their shoulder to motivate them anymore, while heavy hitters in the Wave and Portland Thorns will be seeking dominance again. There’s also the North Carolina Courage, who seemed to be just on the cusp of becoming that team to be feared when they got knocked out of playoffs.
Big storylines
Gotham FC superteam
The reigning NWSL champions had a busy offseason. In a span of five days, and after weeks of reports, Gotham FC announced a flurry of blockbuster signings that brought national team stars Crystal Dunn, Tierna Davidson, Emily Sonnett and Rose Lavelle to NJ/NY. The USWNT regulars joined an already-stacked roster that included Lynn Williams, Midge Purce, Kelley O’Hara and World Cup winner Esther Gonzalez. Rightfully, many are calling Gotham FC the NWSL’s newest “super team” — and it’s a title the franchise is ready to defend. In a crowded room welcoming the Class of ‘24, GM Yael Averbuch West told reporters: “We enjoy that type of pressure. I think it’s a more enjoyable pressure than trying to climb from the bottom to the top.”
But stacking your roster with high-demand internationals is a gamble in an Olympic year. Already we’re seeing the double-edged sword: head coach Juan Carlos Amorós told media during the team’s preseason tournament in Colombia, “It’s no secret. We’ve got a lot of players that are not here. At the moment, we have 12 (out of) 30 players available for the team. We’ve completed the team with 10 trialists and that’s how we are operating, so we know we are doing the best we can. And I’m very, very proud and I’m very happy with how the team is developing (and) doing, despite only 50% of the player base over here.”
Expansion team performance
Two years after Angel City and San Diego furthered the NWSL’s westward expansion, the league’s geographic reach continues to grow with the debuts of Bay FC and Utah Royals FC. Both sides are beginning a coach who is untested at this level: Albertin Montoya for Bay and former USWNT forward Amy Rodriguez for Utah. Given Bay’s extreme spending on the top of its roster (more on that below), Utah following previous conventional wisdom of building around players made available by NWSL rivals and top draft selections feels modest by comparison. The NWSL is hard to predict at the start of a year, of course, and Utah will hope the lack of acclimation needed for its players can allow them to start the year strong.
NWSL competing in the global market
There have been some huge international signings this offseason. The Orlando Pride have brought in Barbra Banda and Luana and the Portland Thorns landed Jessie Fleming, Louisville added Linda Motlhalo, and the Seattle Reign brought Angharad James over from Tottenham. Bay FC alone has signed Racheal Kundananji (for a world record fee), Asisat Oshoala, and Deyna Castellanos. The Washington Spirit also went big in hiring former Barcelona coach Jonatan Giráldez.
There’s been some hand-wringing about the NWSL’s ability to keep up with the Joneses in the global market, but this flurry of offseason deals is strong evidence for the continuing ambition to keep the NWSL entertaining and competitive, as well as a signal about (some) clubs’ willingness to spend — especially with the coming salary cap increase and the ongoing injection of cash from wealthier and wealthier investors. Of course there’s an entire season to see if these clubs can turn ambition into on-field results, but if any of them manage to find the right formula of personnel, coaches, and tactics with their marquee names, it’ll push other teams across the board to keep searching for competitive advantages.
New owners, new ambitions
In addition to expansion teams, two teams will also enter the 2024 season under new ownership: Portland Thorns FC and the Chicago Red Stars. For both of these teams, it’s the long-awaited fresh start following the abuse scandal that came to light in 2021, with Merritt Paulson and Arnim Whisler first stepping back, then eventually selling their respective clubs.
In Portland, Lisa Bhathal Merage leads the new ownership group (one that also owns the NBA’s Sacramento Kings), which has promised to keep the Thorns in Portland and build a new training facility. In Chicago, Laura Ricketts’ takeover got over the line before the close of the 2023 season, but following her first offseason in charge and with new head coach Lorne Donaldson and a healthy Mal Swanson, righting the Red Stars ship is a project that is finally, truly underway.
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USWNT & international connections
The majority of the USWNT plays in the NWSL — and as mentioned above, Gotham FC is now the team stacked with a ton of both U.S. national team talent and some big international names too. While this isn’t a complete list by any stretch, watching the NWSL is essential to understanding the USWNT.
Plenty of teams carry both veteran and youth talent — just look at the San Diego Wave, with Alex Morgan leading the front line, joined by center back Naomi Girma (expected to be the heart of the USWNT’s defense for the next few cycles) and Jaedyn Shaw (who impressed at the W Gold Cup and can’t stop scoring).
Expect plenty of focus on Mal Swanson’s return to the field in Chicago, but Alyssa Naeher’s performance in goal for the Red Stars could be instrumental in her bid to stay the No. 1 option for the U.S. Over at North Carolina, Casey Murphy will be getting her own reps in goal, and Ashley Sanchez gets a fresh start with the Courage after a surprise trade from the Washington Spirit.
If you want to keep an eye on players fighting for spots for the 18-player roster for the Olympics, the Portland Thorns might be one of your better options. Sophia Smith is part of a deep forward pool, but it’s midfielders Sam Coffey and Olivia Moultrie who are still building their cases ahead of Emma Hayes’ USWNT arrival later this spring.
The NWSL is also home to some of the most notable stars in women’s soccer globally, like Brazilian icon Marta and Canada’s longtime captain Christine Sinclair, who both recently retired from the international stage. There’s a high chance this coming season could be their last at the club level too, paving the way for some emotional farewells.
In addition to the record-breaking international signings already mentioned, other players who shined on last summer’s world stage also recently found their way to the NWSL — like South Korea’s Casey Phair, who, at 16, became the youngest player to ever play in a World Cup and recently signed with Angel City, and Gotham FC’s Esther, who was part of Spain’s World Cup-winning team. A record 16 World Cup teams featured talent from the NWSL player pool, according to the league.
There’s also Mexican forward María Sánchez, who for a couple of weeks was considered the highest-paid player in the NWSL, after inking a $1.5 million deal with the Houston Dash. (That title now potentially belongs to Mallory Swanson.) Sánchez got her start in La Liga MX, like Argentina’s Sophie Braun, who recently signed with the Kansas City Current.
Other notable internationals in NWSL: Ji So-Yun (South Korea, Seattle Reign); Hannah Stambaugh (Japan, Angel City); Jen Beattie (Scotland, Bay FC); Jessie Fleming (Canada, Portland Thorns); Quinn (Canada, Reign FC); Jordyn Huitema (Canada, Seattle Reign FC); Jess Fishlock (Wales, Seattle Reign FC); Sofia Jakobsson (Sweden, San Diego Wave FC); Bruninha (Brazil, Gotham FC); Maitane López (Spain, Gotham FC); Sinead Farrelly (Ireland, Gotham FC); Emily Van Egmond (Australia, San Diego Wave FC); Adriana (Brazil, Orlando Pride); Debinha (Brazil, Kansas City Current); Mariana Larroquette (Argentina, Orlando Pride); Kailen Sheridan (Canada; San Diego Wave FC); Jun Endō (Japan, Angel City FC); Ali Riley (New Zealand, Angel City FC); Ifeoma Onumonu (Nigeria, Gotham FC)
(Top photo: Robyn Beck and Ulrik Pedersen, Getty Images; Design Eammon Dalton)
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