2020 National Women's Soccer League season

The 2020 National Women's Soccer League season was the eighth 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 (2009–2011) and the Women's United Soccer Association (2001–2003), it was the 14th overall season of FIFA and USSF-sanctioned top division women's soccer in the United States.

National Women's Soccer League

Season	2020
Champions	Canceled[1]
NWSL Shield	Canceled[1]
Challenge Cup	Houston Dash
Community Shield	Portland Thorns FC
← 2019 2021 →

The league was operated by the United States Soccer Federation and received major financial backing from that body. Further financial backing was provided by the Canadian Soccer Association. Both national federations pay the league salaries of many of their respective national team members in an effort to nurture talent in those nations and lighten the financial burden of individual clubs.

The season was scheduled to start on April 18 and end on October 18.^[2] The top four teams were to advance to the NWSL Playoffs, with the two semifinal matches on November 8 and the 2020 NWSL Championship on November 14 at a predetermined venue.^[3]

On March 12, 2020, the preseason match schedule was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4] As a result, the NWSL announced on March 20 that the regular season start would be delayed.^[2]

On May 27, 2020, the NWSL announced that the 2020 NWSL regular season and playoffs were canceled due to the pandemic, and that the 2020 Challenge Cup would mark the league's return to action.^[5][1] The 25-game tournament, held from June 27 to July 26, was hosted by the owner of Utah Royals FC, Dell Loy Hansen. On June 22, 2020, the NWSL announced the full rules and regulations for the 2020 Challenge Cup.^[6] The Houston Dash won the 2020 Challenge Cup.

On August 25, 2020, the NWSL announced a Fall Series, in which each NWSL team would play four games in September and October.^[7] To minimize travel and COVID-19 exposure, the nine teams were divided into three three-team regional pods. Portland Thorns FC won the Fall Series and associated Verizon Community Shield.

Teams, stadiums, and personnel

Stadiums and locations

See also: List of National Women's Soccer League stadiums

Team Stadium Capacity Chicago Red Stars SeatGeek Stadium 20,000 Houston Dash BBVA Stadium 7,000 (22,039)[a] North Carolina Courage Sahlen's Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park 10,000 OL Reign Cheney Stadium 6,500 Orlando Pride Exploria Stadium 25,500 Portland Thorns FC Providence Park 25,218 Sky Blue FC Red Bull Arena 25,000 Utah Royals FC Rio Tinto Stadium 20,213 Washington Spirit[b] Audi Field 20,000 Segra Field 5,000 Maryland SoccerPlex 4,000 The Dash do not make their stadium's entire capacity available for home games, instead restricting ticket sales at a lower level. The full capacity of this venue is included in parentheses and italics. In 2020, the Spirit were scheduled to play four games at each of the three stadiums.[8]

Red Stars Dash Courage Reign Pride Thorns Sky Blue Royals Spirit Locations of the National Women's Soccer League teams in 2020.

Personnel and sponsorship

Note: All teams use Nike as their kit manufacturer.

Team	Head coach	Captain	Shirt sponsor
Chicago Red Stars	Rory Dames	Julie Ertz	Meijer[9]
Houston Dash	James Clarkson	Jane Campbell Rachel Daly[10]	MD Anderson Cancer Center[11]
North Carolina Courage	Paul Riley	Abby Erceg	Continental AG
OL Reign	Farid Benstiti	Megan Rapinoe Lauren Barnes	Zulily
Orlando Pride	Marc Skinner	Ashlyn Harris	Orlando Health
Portland Thorns FC	Mark Parsons	Christine Sinclair	Providence Health & Services
Sky Blue FC	Freya Coombe	Sarah Woldmoe	Hackensack Meridian Health[12]
Utah Royals FC	Amy LePeilbet (interim)[13]	Amy Rodriguez[14]	Soleil Energy[15]
Washington Spirit	Richie Burke	Tori Huster[16] Andi Sullivan	CVS Health[17]

Coaching changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Ref.
OL Reign	Vlatko Andonovski	Resignation	October 28, 2019	Farid Benstiti	January 17, 2020	[18][19]
Sky Blue FC	Freya Coombe	End of interim period	December 17, 2019	Freya Coombe	December 17, 2019	[20]
Utah Royals FC	Laura Harvey	Mutual separation	January 6, 2020	Scott Parkinson (interim)	January 6, 2020	[21]
Utah Royals FC	Scott Parkinson (interim)	End of interim period	February 7, 2020	Craig Harrington	February 7, 2020	[22]
Utah Royals FC	Craig Harrington	Administrative leave of absence[a]	September 20, 2020	Amy LePeilbet (interim)	September 20, 2020	[13]

1. The Royals terminated Harrington's contract on November 9, 2020.^[23]

Attendance

See also: National Women's Soccer League attendance

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, games in both the Challenge Cup and Fall Series were played behind closed doors.

Challenge Cup

Main article: 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup

Hosted by Dell Loy Hansen, owner of Utah Royals FC, the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup featured a preliminary round and knockout rounds.^[5] In the preliminary round, all nine teams were to play four games each. The top eight teams based on results from the preliminary round were to advance to a single-elimination knockout bracket, with seeding based on position in the preliminary-round standings. Before the tournament began, the Orlando Pride dropped out because of positive COVID-19 tests, and only eight teams played.^[24] The preliminary round therefore did not eliminate any teams and was played only for seeding the knockout rounds.

Preliminary round

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	North Carolina Courage	4	4	0	0	7	1	+6	12
2	Washington Spirit	4	2	1	1	4	4	0	7
3	OL Reign	4	1	2	1	1	2	−1	5
4	Houston Dash	4	1	1	2	5	6	−1	4
5	Utah Royals FC (H)	4	1	1	2	4	5	−1	4
6	Chicago Red Stars	4	1	1	2	2	3	−1	4[a]
7	Sky Blue FC	4	1	1	2	2	3	−1	4[a]
8	Portland Thorns FC	4	0	3	1	2	3	−1	3

Source: NWSL
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Host
Notes:

1. Chicago Red Stars won the tiebreaker against Sky Blue FC on fewer yellow cards (1 to 4).

Knockout round

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	July 17 – Zions Bank Stadium
	Q1 North Carolina Courage	0
					July 22 – Rio Tinto Stadium
	Q8 Portland Thorns FC	1
					Portland Thorns FC	0
	July 17 – Zions Bank Stadium
					Houston Dash	1
	Q5 Utah Royals FC	0 (2)
									July 26 – Rio Tinto Stadium
	Q4 Houston Dash (p)	0 (3)
									Houston Dash	2
	July 18 – Zions Bank Stadium
									Chicago Red Stars	0
	Q3 OL Reign	0 (3)
					July 22 – Rio Tinto Stadium
	Q6 Chicago Red Stars (p)	0 (4)
					Chicago Red Stars	3
	July 18 – Zions Bank Stadium
					Sky Blue FC	2
	Q7 Sky Blue FC (p)	0 (4)
	Q2 Washington Spirit	0 (3)

Fall Series

The nine NWSL teams were divided into three regional "pods" of three teams each.^[7] Within each pod, the teams played a four-game, home-and-away schedule (i.e., two games against each of the two other teams) between September 5 and October 17.

Northeast	South	West
Chicago Red Stars Sky Blue FC Washington Spirit	Houston Dash North Carolina Courage Orlando Pride	OL Reign Portland Thorns FC Utah Royals FC

The NWSL announced the full schedule of the Fall Series on September 3, 2020.^[25] One day later, the NWSL announced that the winners of the Fall Series would receive the Community Shield trophy, named the Verizon Community Shield for sponsorship reasons, and a grant of $25,000 to present to their chosen community partner; $15,000 and $10,000 would be presented to community partners of the second- and third-place teams, respectively.^[26]

The Portland Thorns won the Fall Series and the 2020 Community Shield, and directed the accompanying $25,000 grant to Mimi's Fresh Tees, a Portland-area company specializing in social justice apparel. The Houston Dash were second and directed the corresponding $15,000 grant to the Houston branch of the civil rights organization NAACP. The Washington Spirit were third and directed the corresponding $10,000 grant to DC SCORES, which uses poetry and neighborhood soccer teams to help children in need.^[27]

Northeast Pod

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		WAS	SKY	CHI
1	Washington Spirit	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1	7		—	1–2	2–1
2	Sky Blue FC	4	2	0	2	6	7	−1	6		0–1	—	3–1
3	Chicago Red Stars	4	1	1	2	7	7	0	4		1–1	4–1	—

Source: NWSL

South Pod

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		HOU	NC	ORL
1	Houston Dash	4	3	0	1	12	7	+5	9		—	4–1	3–1
2	North Carolina Courage	4	1	2	1	8	10	−2	5		4–3	—	0–0
3	Orlando Pride	4	0	2	2	5	8	−3	2		1–2	3–3	—

Source: NWSL

West Pod

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		POR	OLR	UTA
1	Portland Thorns FC	4	3	1	0	10	3	+7	10		—	4–1	3–0
2	OL Reign	4	1	1	2	6	8	−2	4		1–2	—	2–0
3	Utah Royals FC	4	0	2	2	3	8	−5	2		1–1	2–2	—

Source: NWSL

Overall standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portland Thorns FC (C)	4	3	1	0	10	3	+7	10	Community Shield
2	Houston Dash	4	3	0	1	12	7	+5	9	Runners-up
3	Washington Spirit	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1	7	Third place
4	Sky Blue FC	4	2	0	2	6	7	−1	6
5	North Carolina Courage	4	1	2	1	8	10	−2	5
6	Chicago Red Stars	4	1	1	2	7	7	0	4
7	OL Reign	4	1	1	2	6	8	−2	4
8	Orlando Pride	4	0	2	2	5	8	−3	2
9	Utah Royals FC	4	0	2	2	3	8	−5	2

Source: NWSL
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(C) Champions

Individual awards

As the regular season and the playoffs were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic,^[1] regular awards (including season, team and player of the month, and weekly awards) were not awarded.