The 2024 National Women's Soccer League season was the twelfth season of the

National Women's Soccer League 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 ...

, the top division of

women's soccer in the United States Women's soccer in the United States has developed quite differently from men's soccer. Until the 1970s, organized women's soccer matches in the U.S. existed only on a limited basis. Since changes that started in the 1970's, the U.S. has beco ...

. Including the NWSL's two professional predecessors,

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 ...

(2009–2011) and the

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the Uni ...

(2001–2003), it was the 18th overall season of

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

and USSF-sanctioned top division women's soccer in the United States. The league had 14 teams following the addition of expansion teams

Bay FC Bay Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in the San Francisco Bay Area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The team began play in the NWSL as an expansion team in the 2024 Nat ...

and Utah Royals—the latter being the revival of a team that had played in the league from 2018 to 2020. The season began with the

2024 NWSL Challenge Cup The 2024 NWSL Challenge Cup, known as the 2024 UKG NWSL Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the fifth edition of the NWSL Challenge Cup, a women's soccer competition organized by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The match was ...

, a supercup match between the reigning playoff champion (

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 ...

) and

NWSL Shield The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a ...

winner

San Diego Wave FC San Diego Wave Fútbol Club is an American professional soccer team based in San Diego, California, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The team plays its home games at Snapdragon Stadium. Founded on June 8, 2021, the Wav ...

, on March 15, 2024. The regular season began the following day and ran until November 3; it paused for a month between July 8 and August 18 for the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. Each team played 26 matches during the regular season, an increase of four from the 2023 season. The playoffs comprised the top eight teams and ran from November 9 to November 23. The

Orlando Pride The Orlando Pride are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Orlando, Florida, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The Pride began play in the 2016 National Women's Soccer League season, 2016 ...

finished in first place during the regular season, accumulating a record 60 points, and also won the playoffs, defeating the

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the USL W-League (1995� ...

in the final. In addition to league play, 2024 marked the debut of the

NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup The NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup () is a women's soccer competition between clubs from the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) of the United States and Liga MX Femenil of Mexico. The first edition took place in 2024, at venues in the Uni ...

, an international competition between clubs from the NWSL and

Liga MX Femenil Liga MX Femenil, also known as Liga BBVA MX Femenil for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in Mexico. Supervised by the Mexican Football Federation, Federación Mexicana d ...

of Mexico. The inaugural edition was played from July to October and won by the

Kansas City Current The Kansas City Current are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Kansas City, Missouri, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It was founded as an NWSL expansion, expansion team in 2021 NWSL ...

. The 2024 season was the first under new broadcast agreements 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 ...

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

and

Scripps Sports Scripps Sports is the sports division of the E. W. Scripps Company; it is responsible for the broadcasting of sporting events across its broadcast television portfolio, including local stations and co-owned networks (such as Ion Television). Hi ...

; 118 of the total 182 matches were televised or streamed nationally. Attendance averaged 11,235 per game, a record, and total attendance for the year was just over two million, also a record.

Teams, stadiums, and personnel

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and sponsorship

Note: All teams use

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

as their kit manufacturer as part of a league-wide sponsorship agreement renewed in November 2021.

Coaching changes

Regular season

Standings

Tiebreakers

The initial determining factor for a team's position in the standings is 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 tie in total points total when determining rank, playoff qualification, and seeding, the NWSL uses the following tiebreaker criteria, going down the list until all teams are ranked. # Greater goal difference across the entire regular season (against all teams, not just tied teams). # Most total wins across the entire regular season (against all teams, not just tied teams). # Most goals scored across the entire regular season (against all teams, not just tied teams). # Head-to-head results (total points) between the tied teams. # Head-to-head most goals scored between the tied teams. # Fewest disciplinary points accumulated across the entire regular season (against all teams, not just tied teams). #

Coin flip Coin flipping, coin tossing, or heads or tails is using the thumb to make a coin go up while spinning in the air and checking which side is showing when it is down onto a surface, in order to randomly choose between two alternatives. It is a for ...

(if two teams are tied) or drawing of lots (if three or more teams are tied).

Results

Positions by week

''Considering each week to end when the NWSL releases their weekly standing tweet'' Legend: Gold = first place; green = playoff position; Red = last place.

Attendance

Average home attendances

''Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.''

Highest attendances

Statistical leaders

Top scorers

Top assists

Clean sheets

Hat-tricks

Playoffs

The NWSL increased the number of teams eligible for the NWSL playoffs from the top six teams to the top eight in the 2024 season. In the semifinals, teams were not reseeded and the winners within each quarterfinals arm played each other.

Bracket

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Championship

Challenge Cup

In a change of format, the Challenge Cup will be played as a one-off

super cup A super cup is a competition, in association football, basketball, handball, volleyball and rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competi ...

, contested by the winners of the previous season's

NWSL Championship The NWSL Championship is the annual championship game of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top-flight women's soccer league in the United States. It is the culmination of the NWSL playoffs, which is contested by the teams with the ...

, and

NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup

The inaugural Summer Cup was played from July to October.

defeated

2-0 in the final.

Individual awards

Annual awards

Teams of the Year

Best XI Second XI

Monthly awards

Player of the Month

Rookie of the Month

Team of the Month

Weekly awards

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:National Women's Soccer League 2024

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

National Women's Soccer League season