| Organizer(s) | National Women's Soccer League |
|---|---|
| Founded | May 27, 2020; 5 years ago (2020-05-27) |
| Region | United States |
| Current champion(s) | Washington Spirit (1st title) |
| Most championships | North Carolina Courage (2 titles) |
| Broadcaster | Amazon Prime Video[1] |
| Website | https://www.nwslsoccer.com/ |
 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup | |
TheNWSL Challenge Cup is an annualsupercup competition organized by theNational Women's Soccer League (NWSL), a division 1 women's league in theUnited States soccer league system. The current (2025) cup holder is theWashington Spirit, who defeated theOrlando Pride 1-1 (4-2 on penalties) on March 7, 2025.
The NWSL Challenge Cup was first announced in2020 as a one-off, league-wide tournament to mark the league's return to action from theCOVID-19 pandemic.[2] It was the first top-tier professional sports league in the United States to restart afterCOVID-19 lockdowns began.[3] Subsequently, the NWSL announced that it would return as an annualleague cup tournament.[4] Before the 2024 season, the NWSL announced that the Challenge Cup would change from a tournament to a single-gamesupercup.[5]
For the first four years of the tournament, all NWSL teams began a group stage where they played four to six games, usually split geographically. The group stage was then followed by one or more knockout matches to determine the Cup winner. In2020, all nine teams were to play four games each in a single pool, with eight teams advancing to the knockout stage; however, one team had to drop out due toCOVID exposure, and the pool games among the remaining eight teams were used solely for seeding the knockout rounds.[6] In2021, the ten teams were divided into two divisions of five teams, with the two group winners qualifying for the final match.[7] In2022 and2023, the twelve teams split into three groups of four, with the best runner-up joining the three group winners in a two-round knockout tournament.[8] In2023, the format remained the same but the tournament was moved to run concurrently with the season due to player concerns about injuries.[9]
In 2024, the NWSL Challenge Cup transitioned to a single pre-season match between the winners of the previous season'sNWSL Shield andNWSL Championship, a similar structure to othersuper cup trophies worldwide such as theFA Community Shield. Should a team win both the Championship and Shield, the Challenge Cup is a rematch of the previous season's championship match.[5]
| Team | Winners | Runners-up | Years won |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina Courage | 2 | 0 | 2023, 2022 |
| Washington Spirit | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Houston Dash | 1 | 0 | 2020 |
| Portland Thorns FC | 1 | 0 | 2021 |
| San Diego Wave FC | 1 | 0 | 2024 |
| Gotham FC | 0 | 2 | – |
| Chicago Stars FC | 0 | 1 | – |
| Racing Louisville FC | 0 | 1 | – |
| Orlando Pride | 0 | 1 | – |
| Current teams | |
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| Related articles | |
