The story of the 2022 Challenge Cup should be about the North Carolina Courage. Many predicted that they would have an especially difficult task this year, reshaping their team culture after multiple personnel changes to regain their place among the NWSL’s elite.

What no one expected is that the experiment would come together so fast, with newcomers like Kerolin, Diana Ordoñez and Brianna Pinto building quick chemistry with established players Debinha, Abby Erceg and Denise O’Sullivan to reload one of the most potent and creative attacks in the league. The Courage were quick to make adjustments throughout the Challenge Cup, altering their defensive press from game to game based on rotation and fitness, buying in as a unit and finding a way to defeat the reigning champion Washington Spirit in Saturday’s final.

Though North Carolina hoisted the trophy in the end, what the physical and injury-riddled championship game came to represent is much more complicated than the final scoreline.

“That’s professional sports. No matter what happens, we’re trained to just keep our head in the game and to not worry about external things,” Erceg said after her team’s tense 2-1 victory.

The Challenge Cup has served a number of purposes in recent years. It kept the NWSL alive in 2020, as the pandemic threatened to topple the league’s infrastructure. It then provided a scheduling buffer in the early months of 2021, when no one was quite sure what the sporting landscape would look like as COVID-19 vaccines became more readily available. Now, it provides teams with competitive games during the NWSL preseason and, perhaps most significantly, it’s a revenue-driving opportunity for the league and players alike.

This year’s Cup final gave the NWSL a high-profile game to slot into CBS’s flagship network schedule rather than an early regular-season game. And on Friday, HR and workforce management company UKG announced that it would help raise the Challenge Cup bonus pool to match the equivalent men’s tournament as title sponsor. With the infusion of money and exposure, the Challenge Cup in 2022 suddenly became less of a preseason kickabout and more of a results-driven competition on the league calendar.

“In our profession, $10K changes people’s lives,” North Carolina defender Carson Pickett said after the final Saturday. “When you’re competing day in and day out, it’s nice to have some kind of bonus. It’s nice to raise a trophy, but it’s also nice to have money.”

Therein lies the tension between the Challenge Cup as incentivized, and the tournament as constructed. While the players put their bodies on the line ahead of the regular season, the league isn’t necessarily holding up its end of the bargain to prioritize the actual playing of soccer. Some of the discrepancies lie with the schedule, which rewarded Cup success with a punishing three-game week, as teams balanced their regular-season openers with their Challenge Cup semifinals.

There was also the issue of venue availability, with one scheduling snafu leading the top-seed OL Reign to spend a week on the road and host the Cup semifinal in Washington, D.C. instead of Seattle. Their circumstances became more stark when a missed handball call sent them into penalty kicks against the Spirit in the semifinals. The Reign ultimately crashed out of the Cup, with little more to show for their troubles other than their $1,500 semifinal bonuses, some extra airline miles and short rest ahead of their next regular season game (and saving the NWSL the headache of explaining a predetermined 10 a.m. PT kickoff time).

Even as the league’s handle of the competition threatened to teeter out of control, players showed up on Saturday with the energy that a championship game deserves.

The match showcased what both the Spirit and Courage are capable of at their best, and what happens when outside forces get in the way of that process. The first half brought scintillating end-to-end action, with Debinha and Kerolin linking up to open the scoring in just the 10th minute.

The Spirit then tapped into the mid-game problem-solving that led them to the 2021 NWSL championship and a 20-game unbeaten streak across all competitions. Washington forward Ashley Hatch started to drop back into the midfield to receive the ball, and while the Spirit greatly missed the defensive midfield presence of Andi Sullivan, they equalized courtesy of Hatch in the 35th minute.

After halftime, however, things began to fall apart. The humid North Carolina weather combined with short rest — each team was playing its third game of the week — turned what had begun as a fun, dynamic match into a war of attrition.

“I think the quality of the game was quite low. You could tell that the players were tired, you could tell that the fatigue was sitting in, and it was just a matter of who was more fit,” Erceg said. “And I think it’s really disappointing. For a final, I think you want to see two teams that are doing really well play the best football that they can.”

Tired legs led to clumsy tackles, and when Sam Staab’s crunching tackle on Kerolin in Washington’s penalty area in the second half received no consequences from center official Ekaterina Koroleva, the momentum of the game shifted irreparably. On the following corner kick, the Courage pulled ahead thanks to an own goal from Taylor Aylmer, in a sequence that left Spirit keeper Aubrey Kingsbury on the ground after she hit the goalpost with her head. Kingsbury cleared on-field concussion protocols and stayed in the match.

Emotions were running high on both sides of the pitch, which informed the reaction to a moment no one could have prepared for. Colliding with Debinha in the 80th minute, Jordan Baggett appeared to briefly lose consciousness before being taken off the field on a stretcher with a serious head injury.

Fans at home had the surreal experience of hearing players on both teams yell for medical staff with an increasing tone of panic. Spirit players surrounded the stretcher and helped the EMTs rush it out to Baggett. While protocol was correctly followed, the moment felt indicative of the lack of control throughout the entire knockout round of the tournament.

The collision itself reflected the game’s loose play, though Baggett’s injury didn’t happen because of a referee’s decision or the Challenge Cup schedule — sometimes accidents occur in sports that are outside of anyone’s control. But when the NWSL tries to pack too many games into a short window, and simultaneously raises the stakes with financial incentives, players become vulnerable to other issues.

“I think it’s a final, things like that happen. I think the excitement and the adrenaline for players is very, very high,” Erceg said when asked about the kick she took to the ribs immediately prior to the stoppage in play.

The competitive edge they play with regardless has the ability to be the league’s greatest strength when cultivated responsibly. And even after a game in which few things could have gone more wrong, players and coaches indicated that there are internal processes available to improve the situation.

“There’s a lot of conversations behind the scenes about some of the limitations that we have in general, in terms of how we grow the product of the league, and some of the restrictions that we get from networks,” Spirit head coach Kris Ward told reporters after the game. “There continues to be talk, both from coaches and league personnel, about how we can adjust the Cup, how we can make it the best thing possible. I just think there’s a lot of different forces that are at play sometimes.”

“I think moving forward, we’ve got some people in place that are aware of the issues, and I think they’ll be rectified,” Erceg echoed.

With a title sponsor already secured, the NWSL’s plans for next year’s Challenge Cup are surely even bigger than what we saw in 2022. Now begins the work of making sure the NWSL is ready to support its players sufficiently enough to allow the product on the field to match.

Claire Watkins is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering soccer and the NWSL. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

FIFA has set the dates for the first edition of the Women’s Club World Cup.

The first Women's Club World Cup will take place in January-February 2026, with the 16-team tournament held every four years after that, FIFA said in Wednesday's statement. Initial plans to introduce a Women’s Club World Cup were revealed in May 2021 by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who then called it was part of a plan to "revolutionize" the women’s game.

"It’s crucial, after the huge, huge success in Australia and New Zealand at the last [FIFA] Women's World Cup, where we had two million viewers in the stadiums [and] two billion around the world, that we build on that success to create new global competitions, because national team football is obviously based on club football as well," Infantino said following today's FIFA Council meeting, which occurred in advance of the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok.

🔘 Approval of the Women's International Match Calendar 2026-2029
🔘 First edition of FIFA Women's Club World Cup to take place in early 2026
🔘 Mattias Grafström formally appointed as FIFA Secretary General

All the key updates from today’s FIFA Council meeting in Bangkok:

— FIFA (@FIFAcom) May 15, 2024

The council additionally unanimously approved a new international match calendar with a focus on increased opportunities for rest and recovery for both players and coaches. The overloaded calendar in the women’s game has been a growing point of contention for players as the number of injuries — specifically ACL injuries — continue to rise.

Between summer international tournaments and delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, certain European teams had to contend with the possibility of extremely condensed playing demands. That meant balancing workloads between the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021), 2022 European Championships, 2023 Women's World Cup, 2024 Olympics, and another Euros in 2025. 

When England failed to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics in December 2023, captain Leah Williamson told the Telegraph that she and her teammates were actually a bit relieved to have the summer off.

"It's horrendous that one of the first things that popped into my head about the Olympics was, 'at least they'll probably all get another two or three years on their career now, because they'll get a summer off,'" she said. "Everyone needs a rest and now they'll get one.

"Nowadays we get to October and girls are saying, 'I'm tired,' because you're carrying so much from the previous season. We are driving ourselves into the ground with it, so some sort of solution needs to be found soon, in terms of the schedule, otherwise it's not sustainable."

It should be said that the international schedule doesn’t include club responsibilities. The NWSL season kicked off this year with a number of players sidelined due to injuries picked up while playing for their national squads. This was an issue for Gotham FC, whose coach Juan Carlos Amorós called out the international schedule after USWNT forward Midge Purce suffered an ACL tear after competing in the Concacaf Women's Gold Cup.

"We lost Midge during the game which for me is a bittersweet flavor," Amorós told reporters after Purce exited Gotham's March 24th match against Portland. "By the way, it’s another player that came from the Gold Cup. Last week, it was Debinha. We are paying the consequences of a tournament that shouldn’t have happened.

"We’re talking about protecting the players, [who shouldn't] go to play an international competition after one week of preseason. We’ve seen the consequences now. We’ve got Rose, Lynn, last week it was Debinha in Kansas [City] and now we have Midge. From my experience, the clubs are going to keep paying for that competition."

On Wednesday, Infantino said that rectifying the international match calendar is another step in enhancing the level of competition across the board.

"The Women's International Match Calendar and the subsequent amendments to our regulations represent an important milestone in our pledge to take the women's game to the next level by enhancing competitiveness across the world," he said.

"This calendar is such a critical tool to ensure we continue to drive global professionalization of women’s football," added FIFA Chief Women’s Football Officer Dame Sarai Bareman in a statement. "In many parts of the world, international football provides crucial top-flight playing opportunities for female players, and this is particularly the case in nations where domestic leagues are not yet fully professional. This calendar strikes a balance to enable the domestic and international games to grow side by side, while at the same time ensuring players will have more opportunities to rest, recover, and re-train between windows and following major tournaments."

The Las Vegas Aces celebrated their second-straight WNBA title on Tuesday with a banner raising and championship ring ceremony — as well as a pregame pep talk from NFL legend Tom Brady. 

It all unfolded before the Aces took on the Mercury in front of a sellout home crowd at Michelob Ultra Arena. 

Included in the ring design is the team’s 2023 motto, "Aces vs. Everybody," as well as 34 diamonds encrusting the team’s name to commemorate their league-record 34 regular season wins. It also features two trophies, signifying the back-to-back titles, with the trophy bases forming a reference to the franchise’s 14 playoff appearances. 

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"We're back," team owner Mark Davis announced during Tuesday's celebration. "Not only are we back, we're back-to-back world champions. All I can say is let's three-peat."

"We're so grateful to have a fan base that is supportive of us," two-time MVP A’ja Wilson told fans. "We're blessed to be in this situation. We worked our butts off to get to this point, so we just want to say thank you."

Brady’s attendance was a surprise for the players, with coach Becky Hammon saying she purposely didn’t tell players beforehand that the Aces minority owner would be visiting.

"I thought it would be cool to bring a sports figure in who's not only invested in our team, but also knows a few things about winning," Hammon said, smiling. "Just let him have the floor. He's somebody who has sat where they've sat — chasing history and trying to be the greatest.

"Those things don't just happen. You really have to be intentional about your work, your approach... And about winning the moments. We're certainly happy that he came and shared some of his knowledge and passion and really love for women's sports."

Brady shared a special message with the team ahead of the game, with Wilson adding a bit of insight after the final buzzer. The 2023 Finals MVP led the team with 30 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists in the Aces' 89-80 win over the Mercury.

"He was saying, 'The banners are always going to be there, so you don't have to try to defend that. Just go do what you've been doing,'" Wilson said. "That message made the night for me. Because I feel like we get so caught up in, 'Oh, my God, we've got to three-peat.' 

“But that banner is going to be there forever. My ring is going to be in the trophy case forever. Let me focus on getting better, and then that's when everything else flows."

And as for the ring?

"The ring is nice... It's huge," Wilson said. "I was not expecting that. It's like diamonds all the way around — bling, bling, bling, bling, bling."

Caitlin Clark is taking some lessons away from her real first taste of WNBA regular season action. 

Clark walked away from the Indiana Fever’s 71-92 loss to Connecticut with a team-high 20 points — but she also committed 10 turnovers, the most in a career debut in WNBA history. It took her until well into the fifth minute of the second quarter to score as she adjusted to the Sun’s defense.

"I'm disappointed, and nobody likes to lose, but I don't think you can beat yourself up too much about one game," Clark said after the game. "I don't think that's going to help this team.

"Just learn from it and move on," she added.

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It was Clark’s "Welcome to the W" moment, as many veterans alluded to prior to her debut. Clark admitted that the game was "physical," and that she’s growing to expect that more than she did in college.

"Just expecting physicality was the biggest thing,” she said. "I think also just like some uncharacteristic stuff. Like, I pick up the ball and travel, I dribble off my foot, I pass it on the inbound, I turn it over. So just a few things that are just — you have to be crisper.

"I thought it took me a little while to settle into the game. I felt the second half was a lot better... but just getting more comfortable... that's just going to come with experience." 

Even still, Clark finished with 20 points — a solid debut for a rookie despite the turnovers. As for Indiana, Fever coach Christie Sides was critical of her team after the loss. NaLyssa Smith was the only other player in double-digits.

"They punched us in the mouth tonight," Sides said, before offering a more stout analysis.

"We got to have people coming back to the ball and then attacking getting in the paint," she continued. "We just weren't able to get down to yield tonight at all. If we could have gotten our feet in the paint and collapsed their defense, we would have been able to, you know, get some of our shooters. We just didn't get that."

The 2024 WNBA season got off to a hot start on Tuesday, seeming to pick up right where it left off last year. 

Las Vegas got a win, Alyssa Thomas got a triple-double, and Caitlin Clark had her "Welcome to the W" moment. 

The performance from Thomas — 13 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists — continued a trend she started a year ago, when she posted up seven triple-doubles in a single season to bring her career total to 11. A finalist for league MVP last season, she dropped her name into the early MVP conversation last night.

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"I think people thought it was a fluke to put up those kinds of numbers [last year]," Thomas said after the game. "It was unheard of. But this is my game. This is how I play each and every night. Pretty much every game last season, I flirted with a triple-double."

DeWanna Bonner made her own history on Tuesday, passing Candice Dupree for fifth on the WNBA all-time career scoring list. Sun guards Ty Harris and DiJonai Carrington also emerged as game standouts, the latter of whom spent the majority of the night guarding Clark — and locked her down in the process.

Clark’s first official game was filled with highs and lows as she put up a team-high 20 points but also committed a WNBA-record 10 turnovers in her debut. 

Another finalist for league MVP last year, A’ja Wilson put up big numbers in her first game of the season with 30 points and 13 rebounds. 17 of those points came within nine minutes of one another. 

While the lead flip-flipped a bit throughout the four quarters, the defending champions ended up beating Phoenix 89-80. 

In DC, the Liberty held off Washington 85-80 behind a 25-point performance from Jonquel Jones. Reigning league MVP Breanna Stewart notched eight points and eight rebounds in her first outing of 2024.

Minnesota, meanwhile, got their season off to a winning start thanks to a 20-point, 12-rebound performance from Napheesa Collier and a 22-point performance from Alanna Smith. Nneka Ogwumike had 20 points and nine rebounds in her first official game in a Storm jersey.

Next up: The Dallas Wings square off with Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky at 8 PM ET, followed by the Los Angeles Sparks and Atlanta Dream at 10 PM ET. Both will be available to stream on WNBA League Pass.