The 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup was a league cup tournament that took place during the

2021 National Women's Soccer League season The 2021 National Women's Soccer League season was the ninth season of the National Women's Soccer League, the top division of women's soccer in the United States. Including the NWSL's two professional predecessors, Women's Professional Soccer ...

. It began on April 9 and ended May 8, one week before the start of the regular season. It was the second iteration of the

NWSL Challenge Cup The NWSL Challenge Cup is an annual supercup competition organized by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), a division 1 women's league in the United States soccer league system. The current (2025) cup holder is the Washington Spirit, who ...

tournament, which had started in 2020 in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and was announced as a regular event later in 2020.

Portland Thorns FC Portland Thorns FC is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Portland, Oregon, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team NWSL ...

won the 2021 final over

NJ/NY Gotham FC Gotham Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in the New York metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sk ...

in a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

Format

While the inaugural Challenge Cup took place entirely in a single "

bubble Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to: Common uses * Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid ** Soap bubble * Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying fundame ...

" location during the

, the 2021 Challenge Cup was played in home markets. The 10 NWSL teams were organized into two regional divisions of five teams each. Every team played four games within their division, with the two division winners competing in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

on May 8. The full schedule was released on March 9, 2021, along with tournament rules and regulations.

Tiebreakers

The initial determining factor for a team's position in the standings was most points earned, with three points earned for a win, one point for a draw, and zero points for a loss. If two or more teams were equal on points after completion of the preliminary round, the following criteria were applied to determine team rankings: # Superior goal difference in all divisional matches. # Greatest number of goals scored in all divisional matches. # Lowest team conduct score relating to the number of yellow and red cards obtained, where only one of the below point totals shall be applied to a player in a single match: ## yellow card: 1 point; ## indirect red card (as a result of two yellow cards): 3 points; ## direct red card: 4 points; ## yellow card and direct red card: 5 points. # Drawing of lots by the NWSL.

Final

The final was hosted by the team with the best record across both divisions. The final was 90 minutes; in the event it was tied, teams would proceed directly to a

with no

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

periods.

East Division

Standings

Games

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

West Division

Standings

Games

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Championship

won the right to host the

by finishing with the best record across both divisions. The game finished in a 1-1 draw after the regulation 90 minutes, so it proceeded to a penalty shootout. Each team missed one penalty kick during the first five rounds, both hitting a shot off the crossbar. In the seventh round, Gotham FC, shooting first, had a shot saved by Portland goalkeeper

Adrianna Franch Adrianna Nichole "AD" Franch (born November 12, 1990) is an American professional soccer player who plays for Birmingham City. She previously played for Kansas City Current, and Portland Thorns FC, winning the NWSL Championship in 2017 with th ...

, and Morgan Weaver converted Portland's try to win the tournament.

Statistics

Goalscorers

Statistics do not include penalty-shootout goals.

Discipline

A player would be automatically suspended for the next match in the tournament for the following offenses: * Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious offenses); * Receiving two yellow cards in two matches, unless the second yellow card was accumulated in the final match of divisional play; * Only direct red card suspensions would be carried over to the NWSL regular season. The following suspensions were served during the tournament:

Awards

Debinha Débora Cristiane de Oliveira (born 20 October 1991), known as Debinha Miri or simply Debinha, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or forward for the Kansas City Current of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) ...

of the

North Carolina Courage The North Carolina Courage are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acqui ...

was voted the tournament's Most Valuable Player. DiDi Haracic (

) and

Christine Sinclair Christine Margaret Sinclair (born June 12, 1983) is a retired Canadian professional Association football, soccer player who most recently played as a Forward (association football), forward for the Portland Thorns FC, Portland Thorns of the ...

(

), whose teams faced off in the

, were the other two MVP finalists.

of the

Portland Thorns Portland Thorns FC is an American professional soccer team based in Portland, Oregon, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team NWSL, which received supp ...

was voted the MVP of the championship game. She was also named

NWSL Player of the Week The National Women's Soccer League Player of the Week was a weekly soccer award given to individual players in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) from 2013 to 2023. The honor was awarded by popular social media vote to the player deemed to ...

for her play in the championship game.

Weekly awards

Broadcasting

NWSL's broadcasting partnership with

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

and

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

continued. In the US,

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

(CBSSN) aired the opener, a rematch of the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup Championship between

Houston Dash The Houston Dash are an American professional soccer team based in Houston, Texas, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The Dash began play in the 2014 season. The team plays its home games at Shell Energy Stadium. His ...

and

Chicago Red Stars Chicago Stars Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in the Chicago metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league as the Chic ...

, on April 9, as well as three additional games; the final game on May 8 was available on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

; and all other games were streamed exclusively on Paramount+. Every game was available on Twitch internationally, including in Canada when games were not on CBS Sports Network.

JP Dellacamera John Paul "JP" Dellacamera (born January 11, 1952) is an American play-by-play sportscaster primarily for Major League Soccer with the Philadelphia Union, as well as major soccer tournaments and ice hockey. Early life Dellacamera grew up in Wa ...

and Aly Wagner commentated on the opening game and the final, while Jenn Hildreth and Lori Lindsey provided commentary in three other games on

CBSSN CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

. Marisa Pilla returned to the coverage as sideline reporter. Commentators for

and

coverage included play-by-play announcers Mike Watts,

Jordan Angeli Jordan Leigh Angeli (born May 31, 1986) is an American former soccer player and current soccer commentator. Known for her versatility, Angeli played for Boston Breakers in the Women's Professional Soccer, and the Washington Spirit and Western ...

, Josh Eastern, Joe Malfa and Josh Tolle, and match analyst Lori Lindsey, Jen Cooper,

Kaylyn Kyle Kaylyn McKenzie Kyle (born October 6, 1988) is a Canadian former soccer player and member of the Canada national team, winning a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is a Right To Play ambassador and currently serves as a soccer broadc ...

, Lisa Roman and

Kacey White Kacey Dell White (formerly Burke; born April 27, 1984) is an American professional soccer midfielder and coach. She most recently played for the Atlanta Beat of Women's Professional Soccer and the United States women's national soccer team. Ear ...

References

External links

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2021 in American soccer leagues 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

2021 National Women's Soccer League season

NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...