This feels like an important year for the National Women's Soccer League, which kicks off its fifth season this weekend. The league has a number of big-name, marketable stars, including young stars with breakout potential. The goal should be nothing less than making it the world's premier women's soccer league.
This is the third women's professional soccer league in America. For the most part, they have been treated as little more than intramural leagues, there to give the U.S. women's national team players something to do when U.S. Soccer didn't need them for summer tournaments or endless money-making meaningless friendlies. The league's financial setup still reflects this. U.S. Soccer pays the wages of national-team players, and allocates them to NWSL clubs for the season. Canada also pays the contracts of a handful of players.
This season, though, there is no summer international tournament to ruin the flow of the season. This is a huge opportunity for the NWSL. As long as U.S. Soccer can resist the temptation to schedule endless meaningless friendlies for no good reason, the NWSL should take center stage in the women's soccer universe.
Several teams believe they have a chance to take home this year's title. Portland, winners of last year's regular-season title, has its core back for another run at the playoffs. Orlando added Brazilian superstar Marta and standout American defender Ali Krieger to its star-studded lineup. Carolina, which won last year's championship as the Western New York Flash, is looking to repeat. Seattle and Kansas City both look ready to rebound after disappointing years last year, while Chicago is hoping that this is the year it can put it all together and win a trophy.
The league's strength in depth is unmatched anywhere in the world; most other leagues have two or three dominant teams and a bunch of also-rans.
There are enough cracks in the NWSL's facade, though, that it's impossible not to be somewhat nervous about the future. The league cut a deal to put a game of the week on Lifetime, more TV exposure than it's had in the past. But the rest of the league's games will be streamed on a Verizon app. That's terrible news for fans unless their team is on Lifetime that week, or they have a Verizon cellphone and the willingness to stare at a small screen for two hours.
Also, Commissioner Jeff Plush resigned and the league hasn't bothered to hire a replacement yet. This kind of confusion and lack of transparency feels frighteningly familiar.
American women's soccer has always been known for being world-class. This is the year to highlight that for the NWSL, to begin to cement the league as the world's best destination for women's soccer. It should be the most fast-paced, the most technically skilled, the best-attended and most-watched women's soccer league on Earth — the Premier League and La Liga and the Bundesliga all rolled into one. This is the year to begin that climb.
