The NWSL dropped the details of the 2025 Skills Challenge on Wednesday, laying out this year's format, broadcast info, and roster as the third-annual competition draws near.
On deck to show off their skills this year are Angel City rookie forward Riley Tiernan, Orlando Pride left back Carson Pickett, Bay FC forward Racheal Kundananji, Chicago Stars forward Ally Schlegel, North Carolina Courage midfielder Brianna Pinto, San Diego Wave winger Delphine Cascarino, and Washington Spirit midfielder Croix Bethune.
Availability is subject to change depending on semifinal results, however, with championship-bound players omitted from the Skills Challenge — meaning Pickett and/or Bethune could drop out should their clubs advance from this weekend's semis.
Sports presenter Duda Pavão will serve as host of the two-team competition, with full rosters for each squad set to drop in the coming days.
Mirroring last year's Skills Challenge, two teams will battle across three events — the Gauntlet, Relay Rumble, and Crossbar — with $30,000 in prize money on the line.
How to attend and watch the 2025 NWSL Skills Challenge
Fans can purchase tickets online to the 2025 NWSL Skills Challenge, which will take over San Jose State University's Spartan Soccer Complex at 8 PM ET on Friday, November 21st.
The full competition will then air at 1:30 PM ET on Saturday, November 29th on CBS.
On a mission to avenge their 13th-place finish last year, No. 5 Seattle will visit the No. 4 Orlando to open the quarterfinals of the 2025 NWSL Playoffs on Friday night, with the Reign laser-focused on ending the 2024 NWSL champions' title defense.
"Everyone wants to go back-to-back, everyone wants to double down on what they've done, and to become a winning club you have to do it multiple times," Orlando defender Carson Pickett said ahead of Friday's quarterfinal.
"In big games, big players step up," said Seattle head coach Laura Harvey. "One thing we know with our squad — and we've shown it all season — is what we look like at the start of the game, we're probably not going to look like that at the end of the game."
Both teams will have room for adjustments, after playing each other to a 1-1 stalemate last Sunday — with Friday's face-off becoming just the fourth regular-season finale rematch in NWSL playoff history.
The Reign will likely continue their defensive-minded five-back approach, while the Pride tries to overcome the absence of injured superstar Barbra Banda.
"The league is getting harder and harder every single year that I've played," said nine-season NWSL veteran Pickett. "It's hard to break a deadlock sometimes, especially in a moment when you absolutely have to win."
How to watch Orlando vs. Seattle in the 2025 NWSL Playoffs
The No. 4 Orlando Pride will host the No. 5 Seattle Reign in the first quarterfinals clash of the 2025 NWSL Playoffs at 7 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage airing on Prime.
The 2025 NWSL season for the No. 5 Orlando Pride has taken a sharp downturn, as the reigning league champions are now winless in their last seven games following Sunday's 5-2 loss to the No. 13 Chicago Stars at Northwestern University's Martin Stadium.
While left back Carson Pickett and defensive midfielder Haley McCutcheon each managed to take a goal back for the Pride, a leaky Orlando back line saw five different Stars players hit the back of the net — including a 10th goal on the season for Chicago star striker Ludmila.
"I apologize to the fans that were watching at home, and I apologize to the fans that were here with their support. That was not us today and we have to get it right," Pride head coach Seb Hines said following the match.
Orlando have continued to slide down the NWSL standings since their last win on June 13th, most recently logging three straight losses as the team struggles to find their form following MVP candidate Barbra Banda's season-ending injury on August 16th.
One of the Pride's rare bright spots on Sunday was record-breaking signee Lizbeth Ovalle, with the Mexican international subbing in at the half to make her NWSL debut.
Chicago, on the other hand, hasn't dropped a match since returning from the midseason summer break, with the surging Stars putting on a Sunday show in their impending lakefront home.
"I feel like it's just a really cool atmosphere, a lot more people can come now, and it's really good vibes," midfielder Julia Grosso said after the match.
Welcome back to Fast Friends with Kelley O'Hara and Lisa Leslie!
Fast Friends brought the party to Kansas City on Thursday, as co-hosts Lisa Leslie and Kelley O'Hara, plus a roster of superstar guests, kicked off the 2024 NWSL Championship Weekend in style.
Retirement, goal cellies, NWSL title predictions, and more dominated conversation as league heavy-hitters Ali Riley, Merritt Mathias, Lo’eau LaBonta, and Kate del Fava — plus reps from each of the two championship contenders, Orlando's Carson Pickett and Washington's Croix Bethune and Ashley Hatch — took to the stage in front of a live audience.
The intrepid hosts also recapped the NWSL semifinals, including a mixup that saw Leslie texting O'Hara at exactly the wrong moment.
"I didn't really understand that they were going to add more time to the clock," Leslie explained, referencing her confusion over Washington's stoppage-time equalizer against O'Hara's Gotham FC.
"I got a text that was like, 'LETS GO!,'" laughed O'Hara. "And I'm like, 'Is she cheering for the Spirit?'"
About Fast Friends with Kelley O'Hara and Lisa Leslie
Coming off the success of JWS's Olympic commentary show The Gold Standard, Fast Friends features two legendary athletes serving up insider insights and unique takes on the biggest stories in women's sports every week.
Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.
The NWSL’s second transfer/trade window opened on August 1st, setting off a flurry of rosters shifts across the league.
The summer's already seen an influx of overseas signings, while many recent moves have remained domestic.
Racing Louisville stacks roster in NWSL playoff push
Racing Louisville has emerged as a hotbed of change, adding former Portland forward Janine Beckie on Wednesday in exchange for rookie Reilyn Turner.
The swap comes a day after Louisville signed Colombian defender Ángela Barón, and two days after sending midfielder Jaelin Howell plus $50,000 in allocation money to Seattle in exchange for Reign striker Bethany Balcer.
The ninth-place club is evidently gunning for its first playoff berth, as it currently sits just outside the eight-team postseason cutoff with 10 regular season matches left.
10th-place San Diego and 11th-place Angel City are also chasing the playoffs — along with Racing, the trio sits within three points of eighth-place Bay FC.
The Wave added six-time UEFA Champions League-winning French international Delphine Cascarino to bolster its front line last month. While last week, ACFC signed English midfielder Katie Zelem, who links up with her former Man United teammate Christen Press.
Top NWSL teams eye their slice of the playoff pie
The top of the table also got in on the action, with first-place Orlando welcoming back Louisville import Carson Pickett and second-place KC bringing on longtime Seattle defender Alana Cook.
Kansas City strengthened its Golden Boot-leading offense with Kenyan midfielder Mwanalima Adam Jereko and South African forward Hildah Magaia.
Perennial contender Portland is eyeing the NWSL's top four, tacking on ex-KC forward Alexa Spaanstra and Australian goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold alongside Racing's Turner.
Every NWSL offseason comes with player movement, but the months leading up to the 2023 season reflected a new era of player choice. The league’s first free-agency period saw many top players leaving for new environments and teams making a few surprising moves themselves.
Almost every NWSL roster will look different in 2023, with the potential for dramatic returns as teams meet for the first time in the regular season.
Don’t look now, but revenge season might be upon us. Here are the games to circle on your calendar.
March 25: Kansas City Current at North Carolina Courage
The first game of the NWSL regular season wastes no time in getting into one of the most dramatic narratives of the offseason. The Kansas City Current were the big winners of the league’s free-agency period and feature heavily on this list as players take on their former teams.
First up, two-time NWSL champion Debinha returns to the home of the North Carolina Courage in her first game after a high-profile move to Kansas City. Courage head coach Sean Nahas said at the 2023 draft that they had made serious overtures to the Brazilian superstar to try to convince her to stay with her club of five years, and her playmaking ability will surely be missed in North Carolina.
The Current come into the season with high expectations. Debinha appeared to pick up a knock in preseason that might limit her availability for this game. Regardless, the opening match against her former teammates (and current Brazil teammate Kerolin) will be a battle that sets the tone for Kansas City’s ceiling in 2023.
March 26: OL Reign at Washington Spirit
OL Reign travels to Washington D.C. on opening weekend, with a few chips on their shoulder to shake off. The Spirit famously ended the Reign’s postseason dreams in 2021 before going on to win the club’s first NWSL Championship. Prior to that, Rose Lavelle found her NWSL rights abruptly sent to Seattle from Washington while playing for Manchester City, a move she said surprised her at the time.
More recently, Washington unexpectedly sent another USWNT mainstay to the Pacific Northwest, completing a draft-day trade that dealt Emily Sonnett to OL Reign. The trade came about quickly, with new Spirit head coach Mark Parsons making a move to address what he referred to as a “structural” imbalance to his roster. This is the second time Parsons has traded Sonnett to a new team, first sending her to the Orlando Pride when he was the head coach of the Portland Thorns.
The Reign had a consistent partnership between Alana Cook and Sam Hiatt in the central defense in 2022, so it will be interesting to see how Sonnett is deployed. No matter, the potential revenge factor in this one is sky high.
April 15: Kansas City Current at Chicago Red Stars
There’s nothing like facing your former captain at home. Vanessa DiBernardo was a Chicago Red Star for eight years, and most recently their captain, before leaving for the Current in her first year of free agency. She was joined by former Chicago teammate Morgan Gautrat, who had played for the Red Stars for five years.
Both midfielders played in multiple NWSL finals with Chicago but decided to sign with a stacked Kansas City roster still in search of their first piece of hardware. The Red Stars team they left behind is now rebuilding around star striker Mallory Swanson after a tumultuous few years behind the scenes. Chicago will want to prove themselves against one of the deepest teams in the league and show what life looks like after the departure of a number of their veterans.
April 30: Gotham FC at Kansas City Current
Lynn Williams never registered regular-season minutes for the Current, but this matchup has the potential for revenge nonetheless. Kansas City traded Williams to Gotham FC right as she made her return to the field with the USWNT, after a serious hamstring issue kept her sidelined in 2022.
Relinquishing Williams likely freed up salary cap space for the Current’s stacked midfield and also for rookie Michelle Cooper, whose prowess at Duke made her a clear target for Kansas City with the No. 2 pick in the draft. Cooper is untested at the professional level, meaning this particular game could become a referendum on veteran experience over rookie ceiling.
Gotham will likely be in revenge mode as a team, looking to improve upon their league-worst finish in 2022 and showcase their own offseason moves. If Kansas City is the standard, Gotham will want to rise to meet it.
May 27: North Carolina Courage at Racing Louisville
The offseason’s other surprising trade also involved North Carolina, with the Courage sending Carson Pickett and longtime captain Abby Erceg to Louisville in exchange for rising USWNT outside back Emily Fox. In soccer terms, the trade made some sense for both teams, but the unceremonious end to Erceg’s time at the club where she won multiple championships wasn’t lost on the center back.
Both teams will be eager to show off how they’ve honed their roster in the offseason, with North Carolina attempting to rise back to the upper echelon of the NWSL and Racing Louisville pushing for their first-ever playoff spot. The addition of Erceg and Pickett radically changes the outlook of Louisville’s defense, and they’ll have extra motivation to keep the Courage off the scoresheet. At the other end of the field, Fox is working her way into an assured U.S. roster spot for the 2023 World Cup and will want to excel with the same freedom on the pitch that she had in Louisville.
Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.
Emily Fox is on her way to North Carolina in exchange for the Courage’s Abby Erceg and Carson Pickett, the teams announced Monday.
The No. 1 pick in the 2021 NWSL draft, Fox has been a member of Racing Louisville since their first match. She also has played in 24 games for the U.S. women’s national team, including the team’s two wins against New Zealand to start the year.
The 24-year-old defender posted an 82% pass success rate in her second season after finishing as a Rookie of the Year finalist in 2021.
“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to head back to North Carolina,” Fox said in a news release. “Coming from UNC, the Courage were always a team I rooted for and admired. I can’t wait to get to work and represent this club.”
With the addition of Fox, the Courage continue the reshaping their roster this offseason. The departure of defensive cornerstones in Pickett and team captain Erceg comes after 2022 NWSL MVP finalist Debinha departed for the Kansas City Current in free agency.
North Carolina also has parted ways with defender Merritt Mathias and forward Diana Ordóñez. The former was traded to Angel City FC in exchange for forward Tyler Lussi, while the latter was sent to the Houston Dash in exchange for draft picks.
While Ordóñez had requested a trade, Erceg criticized the deal on Twitter, writing, “Yup, it’s official. We still suck a trades in 2023.” Still, after her own trade to Louisville, the outgoing Courage captain described herself as “shocked and disappointed.”
“The intention to see out my career with a club in which I have so many fantastic memories comes to an end, as that intention is unfortunately not a shared one,” she wrote in a statement shared via her Twitter account.
In Louisville, both Erceg and Pickett will reunite with former Courage teammate Jessica McDonald. North Carolina traded McDonald to Louisville last offseason.
Here we go 💜💜💜 https://t.co/dB82OkWNca
— Carson Pickett (@Cars_Pickett16) January 23, 2023
Racing loses Fox but receives a defender of a similar style in the 29-year-old Pickett, as well as an seasoned leader in 33-year-old Erceg.
“Obviously Emily is a player of high quality,” Racing coach Kim Björkegren said. “This trade, however, returns a great player at the left-back position in Carson and gives us a veteran central defender in Abby. Both players have great experience and talent and can help lead this team.”
North Carolina Courage defender Carson Pickett is joining the U.S. women’s national team in Europe. She will replace Emily Fox, who was ruled out due to concussion protocols, U.S. Soccer announced Saturday.
Fox left the match in the 22nd minute against England on Friday after taking a hit to the head. The USWNT will look to rebound from their 2-1 defeat to the Lionesses when they meet Spain in a friendly on Tuesday before heading back to the U.S.
Pickett has one cap with the national team from a June 28 match against Colombia in Utah. Born without a left forearm, she became the first player with a limb difference to play for the USWNT.
The fullback was a standout for the Courage this season, making three NWSL Teams of the Month. She finished the season with a goal and led the league with six assists, as the Courage just missed out on the final spot in the NWSL playoffs.
She's headed to Pamplona 🇺🇸@Cars_Pickett16 has been tapped to join the @USWNT as a replacement player for the friendly against Spain!
— NC Courage (@TheNCCourage) October 8, 2022
Carson Pickett scored her first NWSL goal Sunday, mere weeks after earning her first USWNT cap.
The North Carolina Courage defender scored the first goal of the game in the 22nd minute to achieve the feat. It was one of two goals scored by the Courage in their 2-2 draw with Chicago, the second coming from Brittany Ratcliffe in the 49th minute.
First @USWNT Cap ✔️
— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) July 11, 2022
First @NWSL Goal ✔️@Cars_Pickett16 is on FIRE this year 🔥 pic.twitter.com/dSclYN6wzi
Pickett made history on June 29 when she became the first player with a limb difference to play for the USWNT. She was born without a left hand and forearm. The 28-year-old is also the oldest USWNT player to make a national team debut since 2017.
She’s been a part of the league since 2016, when she played with then-Seattle Reign FC. She was later traded to Orlando before joining the Courage in 2021. She has also spent time in Australia and Cyprus.
While the Courage jumped out to a 2-0 lead, the Red Stars managed to get two stoppage time goals to end the game in a draw.
North Carolina remains at the bottom of the table with eight points while Chicago sits in second with 20.
Carson Pickett made history Tuesday, becoming the first player with a limb difference to appear for the U.S. women’s national soccer team.
A defender with the North Carolina Courage of the NWSL, Pickett was born without a left hand and forearm.
She’s also the fifth player to debut for USWNT in 2022 and the 15th player head coach Vlatko Andonovski to earn a first cap. At 28, Pickett is the oldest USWNT player to make a national team debut since McCall Zerboni did so at 30 in 2017.
She’s the oldest field player to ever start in her first appearance for the USWNT.
Pickett played all 90 minutes in the 2-0 win against Colombia starting in place of Emily Fox. Fox’s minutes are being limited ahead of the Concacaf W Championship as her 441 minutes played so far in 2022 are the second-most on the team.
“Carson did very well in training for us in last week and with the management of minutes for Emily Fox that we had, we felt like Carson would be a good replacement, and I’m happy that she was able to perform well for 90 minutes,” Andonovski told ESPN.
Pickett called the opportunity a “dream come true.”
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸Dream come true. https://t.co/LcDqqbsnqo
— Carson Pickett (@Cars_Pickett16) June 29, 2022
The defender, who recently made her 100th NWSL appearance with the Courage and was named to the NWSL’s Best XI for June, went viral in 2019 when she “arm-bumped” a young fan with a similar limb difference. She’s also worked with Nike to create a soccer cleat without laces.
“My parents have two hands and two arms and unfortunately they weren’t able to teach me how to tie my shoes,” Pickett told CBS Sports. “I can imagine that it does feel heartbreaking, looking at your daughter and trying to tie her shoes and it’s hard for you to be there for her. There were definitely times where I cried, and just couldn’t figure it out, and they kept pushing me. Tying my shoes was almost impossible, it did seem impossible, but I overcame it.”
Following the victory over Colombia, the USWNT now heads to Monterrey, Mexico, for the Concacaf W Championship. That tournament will determine four automatic berths to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, as well as one berth to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Pickett, though, will not join the team in Mexico. She, Sam Coffey and Jaelin Howell joined the USWNT as extra players for the two international friendlies against Colombia but did not make the 23-player roster for the Concacaf W Championship.