This week, we review a very exciting and unpredictable 2023 NWSL Playoffs and a tremendous Championship final match.
We have looked at the 2023 NWSL Regular Season over the past few weeks (see part 1: https://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/the-week-in-women-s-football-nwsl-review-ol-reign-upset-with-man-utd-gotham-fc-celebrate-esther-coup-4475777) and part 2: https://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/the-week-in-women-s-football-orlando-s-brilliant-marta-tribute-flight-chaos-ricketts-buys-chicago-red-stars-4476543
We also look at some other NWSL news, including the Best XI and Second XI team winners, a new standard-setting four year television agreement, and the current individual team valuations and revenues. We also have some news from the USL Super League and the WISL, which are planning professional league launches over the next year or two.
NWSL 2023 Playoffs
In the quarterfinals, the fourth seed OL Reign defeated number five seed Angel City FC—who arguable were the story of the second half of the season with their long undefeated run to clinch a playoff berth on the final day of the regular season. Veronica Latsko (ex-University of Virginia, who played four seasons with the Houston Dash from 2018 through 2021 and the last two with OL Reign as well as two A-League Women seasons with Adelaide United and Sydney FC), scored the winner three minutes from time in front of a solid crowd of 12,152 fans at Lumen Field in downtown Seattle. With a clean sheet in the match, 23-year-old goalkeeper Claudia Dickey is the first Reign keeper to record a playoff shutout since former U.S. international Hope Solo in the 2015 semifinals.
In the other match, number three seed and home side North Carolina Courage couldn't overcome an ACL tear to their Brazilian WWC 2023 Finals player Kerolin in their final regular season match (a 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit). Number six seed NJ/NY Gotham FC won 2-1 in front of a small Sunday afternoon crowd of 4,612 in Cary. Delanie Sheehan (ex-UCLA) scored the winner just before halftime for the New Jersey side. Kerolin was later named the 2023 league MVP.
For the semifinals, the top seeded San Diego Wave and second seed Portland Thorns came into the fray after first round byes and hosted OL Reign and Gotham FC, respectively. Both road sides won as, on a very rainy day in Portland, American striker Katie Stengel—a late season permanent signing after a loan spell this summer from Liverpool of the WSL—scored on a brilliant turn and shot in the 107th minute of extra time, disappointing a sellout crowd of 25,218 in Providence Park.
In the other semifinal, an even larger crowd of 32,262 in Snapdragon Stadium saw their host Wave lose to the Reign 1-0, with Latsko again scoring the only goal, this time in the 47th minute, with Claudia Dickey earning her second shutout in a row. Dickey is in her second season with the Reign after playing at the University of North Carolina and the U.S. U-20 national team. After the game, Lauren Harvey explained how the Reign was able to win in all the previous games against the Wave, by presenting different looks in each game. The Reign stayed in warmer San Diego all week rather than returning home ahead of the NWSL Championship, their third but having never won a final, while for Gotham FC, it was the franchise's first NWSL final, though dating back to their Sky Blue days, they won the first WPS championship in 2009 over Marta's LA Sol 1-0.
In the 2023 NWSL Championship match in San Diego on November11 in front of a NWSL title match record crowd of 25,011, Gotham FC won their first NWSL Championship in only their third playoff appearance in 11 years in the league (in 2013 and 2021, though they did make the Challenge Cup Final in 2021), with a 2-1 defeat of OL Reign, who lost their third final (all under Laura Harvey) in their 11 seasons.
The game was stirring, with end to end action throughout. There also was lots of drama and back stories, with the top one being the "retirement final" pitting two long-time U.S. WNT stalwarts in OL Reign's Megan Rapinoe and Gotham's Ali Kreiger, who both won the 2015 and 2019 Women's World Cups with the American side. OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey said after her team's 1-0 semifinal win in San Diego: "The fairytale is Pinoe and Kriegs. It's a great story."
The story had a surprising start when Megan Rapinoe had to leave her last competitive match after only five minutes when she went down with a non-contact injury—reportedly an ACL tear—and had to be replaced. American Midge Purce was the star of the match for Gotham, winning the Most Valuable Player Award of the Championship Game, providing two assists, the first coming on the opening goal to Lynn Williams in the 24th minute, and the second on the winner from a corner kick late in first half injury time for an excellent header into the far corner by 2023 WWC Winner Esther Gonzalez of Spain. American international midfielder Rose Lavelle scored the tying goal in the 29th minute and was dangerous all game. In the 59th minute, Gotham goalkeeper Mandy Haught, subbing for starter Abby Smith, who suffered a lower leg injury at the end of summer but is expected to return for pre-season in 2024, snuffed out an excellent opportunity from Reign forward Veronica Latsko, who broke free with only the goalkeeper to beet. Haught cut down the angle and made the save to keep the game at 2-1.
Late in injury time, Haught was adjusted by VAR to have punched the ball away while it was outside the penalty area on another breakaway by Reign substitute Elyse Bennett, even though her feet were within the box. She was red-carded four minutes into injury time (out of six posted) and had to be replaced by midfielder Nealy Martin as Gotham had made all of their substitutions. Martin (25), who played at the University of Alabama and is in her first season with Gotham after two campaigns with Racing Louisville, had to immediately face a Reign free kick by Lavelle from outside the box (from which a goal would have tied up the match and likely sent the game into overtime, with a non-goalkeeper continuing for Gotham for another 30 minutes and possibly penalty kicks).
Lavelle's kick bounced of the Gotham defensive wall and was cleared away, which was the Reign's last real effort at goal. After 12 minutes of total added time played, the referee called time and Gotham FC won its first-ever NWSL Championship after finishing bottom of the league last season. Spanish native head coach Juan Carlos Amoros came in this season after helping the Houston Dash to the playoffs for the first time last season, and with talent such as Esther, Midge Purce, former U.S. WNT veterans such as Kelly O'Hara (35) and Allie Long (36), long-time pros McCall Zerboni and Kristen Edmonds (both 36), and NWSL Rookie of the Year Jenna Nighswonger (22), and Williams (30), put together a talented side that peaked at the right time Besides Rapinoe's last game, another two-time WWC winner in defender Ali Krieger played her last match and left the sport as a league champion; she played all 300 minutes of their three playoff games.
Despite their final finishing in the regular season, OL Reign in third and Gotham in sixth, both teams tied for fourth (along with Racing Louisville) with the best defense (24 goals allowed), though the two teams were different in their approaches. The Reign used a mid-block approach in their 4-2-3-1 shape to absorb pressure. Gotham tried to keep the ball in their opponents half utilizing a 4-2-3 approach, but which we saw at various points in the final, could be exploited by long balls out of the back as their defenders played a high line. Amoros' team created more turnovers in the attacking third (nine per game) than any other team in the league and utilized their high press well.
Amorós became the fourth coach to win an NWSL title in his first year with a club, joining Cindy Parlow Cone (2013, Portland), Kris Ward (2021, Washington) and Rhian Wilkinson (2022, Portland).
Lynn Williams played in her fifth final, tying Kristen Hamilton for the league record. Williams is the first player in league history to start in five finals and has now won four titles with three different teams (including WNY Flash and the Carolina Courage)
Esther is the ninth player to win the Women's World Cup and the NWSL championship in the same year and the first non-American. Gonzalez is one of four World Cup winners on Gotham FC's side: Kelley O'Hara and Krieger won world championships in 2015 and 2019, while Allie Long was a member of the USA's 2019 team. Kristie Mewis and Williams went to the 2023 World Cup with the USA.
Midge Purce joined Lauren Holiday (2014, FCKC) as the only players with two assists in an NWSL final. Purce and Holiday are the only two championship game MVPs to not score a goal.
Only four starters were with Gotham FC last season. Both Haught (back with Gotham FC after two seasons in Sweden) and Martin were 2023 arrivals, along with rookie defender Nighswonger and Maitane Lopez (a midseason acquisition from Atletico Madrid who had a strong game in the final) and midfielder Yazmeen Ryan (who came from Portland as part of a three-way trade).
2023 NWSL Championship Final
Nov. 11 in San Diego
Gotham FC 2 OL Reign 1. Goals: Williams (Purce) 24, Gonzalez (Purce) 45+2; Lavelle (Balcer) 29.
Gotham FC -- Haught; Nighswonger, Krieger, Lopez, Bruninha; Purce, Sheehan (Long 82), Martin, Gonzalez (Stengel 89), Ryan (Farrelly 69); Williams.
OL Reign -- Dickey; McClernon, Barnes, Cook, Huerta; Rapinoe (Balcer 6), Fishlock (Bennett 85), Sonnett, Lavelle, Latsko (Quinn 76); Huitema.
Red Card: Gotham FC -- Haught 90+7.
Referee: Katja Koroleva.
Att.: 25,011.
Gotham became the first winners of the league's new Championship trophy in collaboration with luxury jewelry specialists Tiffany & Company, which was made with 24-karat vermeil and sterling silver; its design attempts to 'combine modern aesthetics with traditional elegance," according to a league media release. The new trophy is a considerable improvement over the previous trophy, made from plastic and metal, which some labelled it disparagingly "the spatula".
The new NWSL Championship Trophy designed by Tiffany and Company (left) replaces the previous trophy (right), which is a definite step up in class.
Photos courtesy of the NWSL.
One of the other interesting storylines of Gotham's Final Victory was that two of the winning medalists were Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim, two teammates from the Portland Thorns in 2014 and 2015, when then coach Paul Riley targeted them with his sexual and verbal attacks. Farrelly, long retired from playing after the 2015 season, tried out for the team this year, made the squad and ended up playing with the Republic of Ireland this past summer in the 2023 Women's World Cup Final.
Shim also returned to the game after a final season with Houston in 2018, and is a practicing attorney and the chair of U.S. Soccer's Participant Safety Taskforce. She was a replacement player this summer while Gotham's WWC players were in Oceania, but was asked to stay on through the rest of the season.
She explained: "After all of the national team players came back, I had a talk with the coaches and they asked if I wanted to stay on. I called my family and my partner and they're like, 'It's gonna be hard you know, doing two jobs,' and, 'Do you think you can do it?' And I was already really drained. But I was like, 'I think this team is gonna win the championship and I'll be so sad if I'm not on the team.'"
She made the right call and Shim was buoyant after the game, saying: "The last 30 seconds of the game, rough start, what was that? Oh my god, you guys, I cried so much. … We were not chill on the sideline… Every day is enjoyable and I actually forgot how much I loved it and how much I just like, love the experience of going out and kicking the ball around with my friends."
Shim will continue her work with U.S. Soccer in trying to reform SafeSport [a national non-profit to protect athletes in any Olympic sport] and how it has not been effective in protecting athletes and investigating abuse: "I feel like it's actually the most important thing that I'm doing, because I'm representing a lot of former athletes and survivors who have been through the process and felt really hurt by it, and justice wasn't served in their cases. I want to help those people."
NWSL 2023 Mastercard Best XI Awards
The NWSL announced their 2023 Best XI First Team and Best XI Second Team awards, presented by Mastercard, during the championship week. The recognition honors the top 22 players in the league, determined by a weighted voting scale comprised of players (40%), owners/GMs/coaches (25%), media (25%) and fans (10%).
2023 NWSL Best XI First Team
Goalkeeper: Jane Campbell (HOU)
Defenders: Naomi Girma (SD), Ali Krieger (NJNY), Sarah Gorden (LA), Sam Staab (WAS)
Midfielders and Forwards: Sam Coffey (POR), Debinha (KCC), Jaedyn Shaw (SD), Kerolin (NCC), Sophia Smith (POR), Lynn Williams (NJNY)
2023 NWSL Best XI Second Team
Goalkeeper: Kailen Sheridan (SD)
Defenders: Emily Fox (NCC), Kaleigh Kurtz (NCC), Jenna Nighswonger (NJNY), M.A. Vignola (LA)
Midfielders and Forwards: Savannah DeMelo (LOU), Savannah McCaskill (LA), Denise O'Sullivan (NCC), Ashley Hatch (WAS), Alex Morgan (SD), Trinity Rodman (WAS)
Notes;
GK – Jane Campbell: the seven year league veteran who played at Stanford, made the Best XI for the first time. Campbell led all league keepers in saves (91), least goals conceded (18) and goals against average (0.83), and had the third-most shutouts (8).
M – Denise O'Sullivan: The Republic of Ireland international midfielder, who helped her nation qualify for and play competitively in the WWC Finals last summer, ranked second in the league with 195 possessions won and had a goal and an assist.
NWSL Signs Historic Media Partnership with Four Companies
During the championship final, the league announced a new four year partnership with four different media companies, providing 118 national windows on CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports. The four-year contract with each partner will generate record-breaking distribution and revenue for the league while maximizing a mix of linear and digital streaming distribution.
In a media event ahead of the 2023 NWSL Final, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman called the agreement "transformative" for the league. She added: "These partnerships fundamentally change the game for our league and the players who take the pitch each week. We have taken great care to ensure our games are discoverable by increasing our reach in order to expose new audiences to everything that makes our league special, without compromising the economic value of our product. This is the beginning of our future."
Beginning in 2024, 118 matches will be distributed across the following partner platforms:
- The NWSL will begin each regular-season weekend with Friday night matches on Prime Video.
- Each Saturday night that follows will include a double-header on Scripps'-owned ION network, available over-the-air in 123 million homes.
- A package of regular season matches will air on The CBS Television Network and stream live on Paramount+, with additional matches airing on CBS Sports Network.
- ESPN will air a package of matches across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes (Spanish). All NWSL matches on ESPN platforms and on ABC will stream live on ESPN+ in English and Spanish. The package also includes English, Spanish and Portuguese-language rights in Latin America.
The remainder of the NWSL regular-season schedule will be part of a domestic direct-to-consumer package produced and distributed by the NWSL, building on the league's 2023 season international direct-to-consumer platform which has proven successful. All matches, regardless of where they appear, will have consistent and up-leveled production quality due to increased, and uniform, investment across all platforms, which has been a constant source of criticism by fans over the past few seasons.
This is a historic agreement for the NWSL, women's football and women's sports as the media rights will total $240 million dollars over the four years, which will expire just after the 2027 WWC, which the U.S. is bidding on (with Mexico) to host along with Brazil, South Africa and Germany/Belgium/Netherlands. The NWSL will receive $60 million a year, 40 times the $1.5 million a year they earned with their previous contract with CBS (three years) and is the largest media deal ever in women's sports.
Berman added: "These partners here believe in our future. We are resetting the standards by which women's sports can be valued and we're so excited to continue to demonstrate the proof of concept."
As a reference, the WNBA earns around $40 million per year combined through its current deals with ESPN and Ion, plus additional money through a streaming-based deal with Amazon. The WNBA is expected to see a massive increase when its current deals expire in 2025, and no doubt will leverage the NWSL's new deal, which only helps women's sports visibility in America and abroad.
In other league news, Berman said that:
- The NWSL will expand to 14 teams in 2024 (with Bay City FC and the Utah Royals starting next spring) and 16 in 2026; as a result, the league will increase the playoff field from six to eight teams in 2024.
- Berman expects to have new ownership for OL Reign and the Portland Thorns by the end of the year.
- Also, the league has more than a dozen qualified investors interested in becoming the 16th league side for the 2026 season, joining Boston.
The Challenge Cup will not be held in 2024, which began in 2020 as a replacement for the COVID-cancelled regular season and was the first North American major league sports tournament to return after all sports shutdown in March because of the pandemic. This year, the tournament was held during the regular season, after being a pre-season tournament in 2021 and 2022. According to Equalizer Soccer, the league will stage a one-off game in March 2024 between this year's NWSL Shield winner (San Diego) and the NWSL Championship winner (Gotham FC) in a Super Cup format that is common for men's and women's leagues in many countries around the world, particularly in Europe.
Individual NWSL Team Values and Revenues
The huge increase in television values (see above) is a reflection of the growing value of the individual NWSL teams, according to Sportico. A few years ago, teams were selling for a couple of million dollars but now the average franchise value is $66 million. Angel City FC leads with a valuation of $180 million and their annual revenue of $31 million rivals some of the lower end teams in the men's MLS. The next most valuable team is San Diego Wave FC ($90 million), followed by the Kansas City Current ($75 million) and Portland Thorns ($65 million).
According to Sportico, their NWSL 2023 valuations and revenue were as follows:
Team Value in Millions (USD) Revenue in Millions (USD)
Angel City FC 180 31.0
San Diego Wave FC 90 16.3
Kansas City Current 75 10.1
Portland Thorns 66 9.5
Washington Spirit 54 6.0
North Carolina Courage 52 6.1
Houston Dash 50 5.0
OL Reign 49 8.0
NJ/NY Gotham FC 49 5.3
Racing Louisville 47 5.9
Orlando Pride 45 5.0
Chicago Red Stars 40 3.3
Note: With Chicago's recent sale to a group with ownership links to the historic baseball franchise Chicago Cubs (see: https://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/the-week-in-women-s-football-orlando-s-brilliant-marta-tribute-flight-chaos-ricketts-buys-chicago-red-stars-4476543), both figures should increase drastically over the next few years.
News from other planned American professional leagues
In the USL Super League, still set to start in August of 2023, two teams have finalized names. Tampa Bay selected "Sun" out of 2,500 name submissions from fans. They will play in a temporary stadium on the waterfront with a capacity of 5,000 with a FIFA-approved turf. Three to five years in the future, they plan to create a permanent stadium in the area.
At the opposite diagonal of the country, Spokane, Washington introduced their new name as the Zephyrs, which comes from Greek lore as a wind from the west (see more on the USL's Super League and an interview with one of the Spokane franchise owners in: The Week in Women's Football: Exclusive chats with Spokane owner Harnetiaux, USL Commissioner Vandervort - Tribal Football).
The Women's Independent Soccer League (WISL) is petitioning U.S. Soccer to become a Division II professional women's league. WISL managing director Lynn Berling-Manuel said in the league's application letter to U.S. Soccer's board of directors that the WISL would be: "a bridge between the uniquely American college game and the higher aspirations of literally thousands of soccer-passionate young women." Six unnamed teams are set to play in 2024 with five other commitments for the 2025 season.
Some of the owners come out of Division III men's league NISA (which launched in 2019), which has been notable for a lot of failing franchises and making little imprint on the national consciousness. Phoenix, Arizona had a team in NISA last year that was forced to fold due to bills being run up by team management that the owner was not familiar with, as well as the team allegedly contravening U.S. Visa rules when signing imports. Because of NISA's checkered history (including strong franchises Oakland Roots and Detroit City jumping leagues for the USL Championship), the only reason that this author is taking this seriously is because of Lynn Berling-Manuel, who is a class act and brings integrity to everything she does.
Besides being the former long-term Publisher of Soccer America, she headed up the United Soccer Coaches for over six years as CEO—the largest football/soccer coaches association in the world. She also wrote in the league's application: "Our goal is not to compete with others doing important work in our game but to build partnerships and synergies both 'above' and 'below' Division 2 that allow us to play above our weight."
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham is on the global game of women's football. Get your copy today.
Follow Tim on Twitter: @TimGrainey
