NWSL 2025 cheatsheet: big questions, schedule highlights and how you can see this season

It is officially an NWSL game day for the regular season.

With the Free Agency, Big Transfers and Trades, a new expansion team and the first winter without NWSL design, it is finally time to stop the forecast and get involved in a long-awaited game campaign.

The NWSL in 2025 still feels in a transition phase, even if it continues to grow from a business perspective.

Last season, another year was dominated, which was dominated by originals, which away from the field, with some planned and some very surprising pensions. You won't see Alex Morgan, Christine Sinclair, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O'Hara or Yuki Nagasato. With players like Barbra Banda, Temwa Chawinga and Trinity Rodman, the next generation not only becomes stars, but also the game, and the goat, Marta, is timeless and undertakes with Orlando's pride for a two -year expansion.

The NWSL is ready that its audience grows. The NWSL championship in 2024 was an average of 967,900 spectators, but the league is still pushing to cross this 1 million milestone. You have made new commercial offers with brands such as Elf and Alex Coopers uncomfortable and started a four -part series with first -class video in the playoffs of the past year.

While the dust settles and we find our game time troutins, you will find the big questions about the season here and everything you need as a new or returning fan.

Big questions for 2025

Will the prospective rival of last season continue to bloom?

From a neutral perspective, the last season spoiled us with two highly competitive semi -finals. After years of the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC (or previously Sky Blue FC), the clip brought the teams together for a coarse -grained game that had to be punished all the way. Elsewhere, the Orlando Pride in the CPKC stadium was literally danced on the field after an in -season against the unbeaten KPKC stadium and then supported this celebration by winning in Florida before winning his first NWSL championship in Kansas City.

All four teams will remain in dispute this time. We will see whether bad blood can be found during your regular season.

• April 26 – Spirit vs. Gotham at Audi Field
• May 16 – pride against electricity in the Inter & Co Stadium
• August 9 – Gotham against Spirit in Sports Illustrated Stadium
• August 15 – Current vs. Price in the CPKC Stadium

Can the wave comb dispersion?

Last year was brutal for the San Diego Wave. The club remained in the headlines after several former employees brought legal disputes against the then President Jill Elli's legal disputes. The team also fined fines due to the poor conditions of the Snapdragon stage.

The game standard was not much rosier because the club last ended in the overall ranking after winning the regular 2023 season. Morgan called the time in her career in summer. Jaedyn Shaw got her wish to change the clubs and the fellow star of the US women's national team, Naomi Girma, joined Chelsea to achieve a record loss transmission fee.

There is a lot for the team with which the former Arsenal manager Jonas Eisevall leads the reconstruction. Canada International Adriana Leon has also arrived from Aston Villa, while several holdovers will hope to get back from last season.

Will more etc. be followed in Europe?

Girca's transmission to Chelsea and Jenna Nighswongers movement to Arsenal started a new amount of NWSL fans, and some got a sign that it was a sign that the league fell down the women's football hierarchy. In truth, it is only natural that the transfer market becomes more competitive worldwide if more leagues increase their standards.

There will definitely be and take when these things go, but it will be interesting to see if others go over the Atlantic. Rodman said ESPN this week that it would only be a matter of time before she fulfilled her dream of playing abroad. With US head coach Emma Hayes, other players will continue to determine what is best for their career.

How are large trades accumulated?

The courage of North Carolina followed the last winter trade for Ashley Sanchez by learning Shaw from San Diego and enabling the etc. in a system that is better addressed to its strengths.

After years of irrelevance, the Houston -Dash increased its reinvention by acting against Yazmea Ryan and signing Delanie Sheehan, both were previously important regular guests for Gotham.

The Seattle government reinforced its front by acting against Lynn Biyendolo and playing a leading role to the etc.

The courage was just behind the top four leader last season and will hope that Shaw can return to a title for the first time since the win in 2019. In the meantime, Houston and Seattle will hope that they can fight on the pack of their squad removal at the night.

What can be seen

Keys early matches

• Portland, which goes to Kansas City for the opening weekend, now appears a defined tradition. While we will almost certainly not see a wild thriller with nine goals on Saturday, there is real comfort in the routine.
• Washington lived in the semi -finals in 2024 and greeted Gotham again on April 26 for an afternoon matinee in Audi Field, while the current trip will be undertaken to Orlando on May 16.
• Ryan faces a familiar enemy when Gotham goes to Houston on March 28, while Biyendolo competes against the 2023 Champs in Seattle to start the season (March 15th at 10 p.m. ET).
• Shaw will return to San Diego on May 25 and bring her back to the club that she wanted to leave this winter. North Carolina begins his season on the street and plays near Racing Louisville in the late afternoon on Saturday slit (5 p.m. ET).
• Japan International Mina Tanaka and US striker Ally Sentnor were probably the top performers in this year's Shebelieves Cup and gave the Utah Royals reason for optimism after being strongly completed last autumn. You will receive a test on April 11th when the Portland Thorns attend after the Oregon Club forced a radical transformation outside of the season with retirement, injuries and pregnancy, forcing changes.

The calendar snapshot

The schedule this year is 26 games between the 14 teams in 25 weeks, with all the usual breaks for FIFA International Windows and the prescribed break of the collective agreement (June 23 to June 29).

The NWSL has decided to break all July this time, and several confederations tournaments compete for the time of the international players in the league. It is the right call from the NWSL. The NWSL X League MX Femenil Summer Cup of last year will not return, and the clubs will be left to their own devices during this time to plan games.

An external competition to keep an eye on is the Concacaf W Champions Cup with the semi -finals and the last set for May -the final will decide on the Top Club team from North America, the same as the women's women's league for Europe. Two NWSL teams are still hunting. The Portland Thorns and Gotham FC drive to “El Vulcan” (OR, Estadio Universitario in Nuevo Leon, Mexico) against Tigres or Club America in the semi -finals. This tournament will not serve as a qualification game for the new FIFA Women's Club World Championship, which was pushed back to 2028.

The surprisingly great news is that the NWSL decision day is back with the collaboration of the media partners of the league. On Sunday, November 2, each team will play on the last day of the regular season. We saw that Playoff spots have already come on the cable and the later 2023 champions Gotham FC over the last playoff spot on the first day of the NWSL.

Here are these games:

• KC stream against San Diego Wave FC
• Chicago Stars FC against Angel City FC
• Racing Louisville FC against Bay FC
• NC Courage against Gotham FC
• Orlando Pride against Seattle Reign FC
• Portland Thorns FC against Houston Dash
• Utah Royals against Washington Spirit

The playoff quarter-finals will take place the next weekend, November 7th to 9th, followed by the semi-finals from November 14th to 16th and the championship on November 22nd. The league hopes to record the venue in the next four to six weeks.

As you can see

If you saw the NWSL in the USA in 2024, not much will change. It is still the same four Broadcast partners, with a regular terminals thanks to Prime Video on Friday evening (25 games) and Ion on Saturdays (50 games, mainly through double-headers with a triple bather).

From there it is a question of checking which games live live, where some on CBS (11), CBS Sports Network (10), Paramount+/NWSL -Simulcasts (39), ABC (3), ESPN (10), ESPN2 (4) and the proprietary streaming service of the league 30 games in 2025 30 games.

NWSL+ is free, although it requires registration (it will also serve as an international visual platform) and you have set up apps for Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire TV, although your smart TV may not have it as an option.

The league has posted its own guide for the season.

How to follow The athlete

Of course you will also be treated here.

The full -time podcast for women's football podcast has expanded in good time for the regular season. On Mondays, the host Jillian Sakovits ensures that they are caught in 20 minutes or less with full -time reviews in everything from the weekend. Wednesday, our flagship show with MEG Linehan and Tamerra Griffin will adhere to large stories and interviews with important figures from the world of women's football. And on Fridays, Jillian will be back with our new addition, full -time focus, will be prepared for the coming weekend and touch a big topic of conversation of the week.

You can follow here at full -time The athletein Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. You can also follow the show on social media with episodes on YouTube as well as on Instagram and Tiktok.

In the past few weeks we have also had many NWSL preview covers. Jason Anderson from broadcaster and former player Jill Loyden and Jason Anderson from Profo Soccer Wire helped the preview of our unofficial NWSL East teams and expected Evan Davis from Own Goal to Meg and Tamerra to drive NWSL West.

We have a free weekly newsletter about women's football, which is listed by Emily Olsen, which also arrives in your inbox every Monday. Make sure you subscribe to.

You can also follow the NWSL and every team in the league (currently the 14 active) – Denver and Boston will soon be added to our systems!) To ensure that you see the latest stories and news in your feed. Follow the league here and you can also add or update your team selections here (you can also follow certain authors). The athlete Has the schedule and the evaluation for the NWSL directly in and play statistics.

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(Top photo: Denny Medley / Imagn Pictures)