NWSL Challenge Cup Format with Key Dates and Times ⋆ NLS

Updated May 5, 2022

Table of Contents

Challenge Cup Format
History of the Challenge Cup
Key Dates
List of Teams
Challenge Cup Group Results

Challenge Cup Format

All twelve teams of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) will be playing in the Challenge Cup. The teams will be divided into three divisions. See the teams and their divisions below. Each team will compete in a round robin phase and the winners will advance the the knockout phase.

Round Robin

The first round of the Challenge Cup will be a round robin within their division. This means that each team will only play teams within their division in this first round. More specifically, each team will play the other three (3) teams in their division twice for a total of six (6) games.

During the round robin phase, each team will earn points based on the results of their six (6) games. They will earn three (3) points for every win, one (1) point for every tie, and zero (0) points for every loss. The team with the most points at the end will advance to the knockout round. If there is a tie within the division after six (6) games, there are certain criteria to break the tie, which you can read about here. The tie is usually decided by the team that has the largest goal differential, which is their goals scored minus the goals scored on them.

In addition to the top three (3) round robin winners, one additional team will advance to the knockout round. The final team to advance will be the second place team with best record of all second place teams. Again, if there is a tie amongst the second place teams, a tiebreaker criteria is used with the goal differential usually enough to break a tie.

Round Robin Finishes and Advancing to the Knockout Round

East Division
1st Place – goes on to semifinals
2nd Place – must have the best record of all 2nd place teams to advance
3rd Place – maybe next time
4th Place – thanks for trying

West Division
1st Place – goes on to semifinals
2nd Place – must have the best record of all 2nd place teams to advance
3rd Place – maybe next time
4th Place – thanks for trying

Central Division
1st Place – goes on to semifinals
2nd Place – must have the best record of all 2nd place teams to advance
3rd Place – maybe next time
4th Place – thanks for trying

UPDATE: OL Reign (14 points), Kansas City Current (13 points), and North Carolina Courage (12 points) finished in 1st place in their division and will be advancing to the knockout round. Washington Spirit (10 points), Portland Thorns FC (10 points), and Chicago Red Stars (8 points) all finished in 2nd place in their division. Washington Spirit will advance to the knockout round because they finished with the most points and the most goals scored.

See Results of Round Robin

Knockout Round

Once the robin robin is decided, the top four (4) teams will go on to play in a knockout phase. The knockout phase will have two semifinal games. The team with the most points from the round robin will play against the team with the third most points. This leaves the team with the second most points to play against the only second place team that advanced from the round robin phase. The winner of each semifinal game will go on to play in the final. The winner of the final game will be the Challenge Cup champion.

Semifinal Game 1

Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Leesburg, VA

OL Reign (Seed 1) – 0 (8)
vs
Washington Spirit (Seed 4) – 0 (9)

Semifinal Game 2

Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Kansas City, KS

Kansas City Current (Seed 2) – 1
vs
North Carolina Courage (Seed 3) – 2

Challenge Cup Final

Saturday, May 7, 2022
Cary, NC

North Carolina Courage (Seed 3)
vs
Washington Spirit (Seed 4)

History of the Challenge Cup

The NWSL Challenge Cup is an annual tournament that began in 2020 out of necessity. Like many things, the 2020 NWSL season was canceled due to COVID. Still wanting a season, the NWSL created the Challenge Cup to replace the 2020 season. The inaugural tournament was played in front of no fans and teams were quarantined for the duration of the games.

Seeing the opportunity of generating more buzz and fan excitement, the NWSL decided to continue the tournament in 2021 as a way to kick-off the NWSL season. The tournament is now in its third year and looks likely to stay. Not just for fans, the tournament is proving to be a great opportunity for newer and expansion teams get some additional experience prior to the season.

This year the Challenge Cup will begin with the two 2021 expansion teams: Kansas City Current vs Racing Louisville FC. The following day the two 2022 expansions teams, Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC, will make their NWSL debut.

The only two previous winners have been the Houston Dash (2020) and Portland Thorns FC (2021).

Key Challenge Cup Dates

Friday, March 18th – Sunday, April 24th, 2022: Challenge Cup round robin games. See results of group games.

Wednesday, May 4th, 2022: Semifinals with OL Reign (Seed 1) versus Washington Spirit (Seed 4) and Kansas City Current (Seed 2) versus North Carolina Courage (Seed 3)

Saturday, May 7th, 2022: Championship with North Carolina Courage (Seed 3) versus Washington Spirit (Seed 4)