As the Paris Olympics rolled to a close, the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup determined its first-ever finalists: Gotham FC and the Kansas City Current. The teams will face off in the Cup’s October 25th championship game.
NWSL dominates Liga MX in Cup group stage
Playing without their Olympians, all 14 NWSL clubs plus Mexico’s top six 2023 Liga MX teams cycled through 30 group stage matches. The top four group-winning teams by points then moved on to the Cup semifinals.
Logging just three wins over NWSL teams, the Liga MX squads failed to advance to the knockout rounds.
Utah — who won Group A despite entering the Olympic break at the bottom of the NWSL table — saw their Cup bid end as the other groups' top teams recorded more points than the Royals.
Top NWSL scorers lead the way in Cup semis
Kansas City — the only team with three group stage wins — defeated semifinal challenger North Carolina 2-0 last week. KC striker Temwa Chawinga — who sits tied in the NWSL’s Golden Boot race with Orlando’s Barbra Banda — wasted no time, finding the back of the net before the two-minute mark.
Sealing the deal for the Current was Brazil Olympic roster snub Debinha, whose 77th-minute goal shot her to the top the Cup’s Golden Boot leaderboard.
In the East Coast vs. West Coast semifinal, Gotham FC beat Angel City 1-0 behind midfielder Delanie Sheehan's 48th-minute goal.
Olympic gold medalists could influence Cup final
With over two months until the October 25th Cup championship, both teams will likely compete for the crown armed with full rosters — including Gotham’s seven Olympic medalists.
The Current last played the reigning NWSL champs to a 1-1 draw on April 14th, and the teams will meet again for regular season play on September 28th — less than four weeks before the Summer Cup final descends on San Antonio, Texas.
The NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup's first match weekend is officially in the books, with most games failing to incite any cross-league fire.
NWSL clubs emerged victorious in the few interleague clashes, as Louisville defeated Rayadas 3-1, Angel City beat Club America 2-1, Washington defeated Guadalajara 2-1, and Portland thumped Club Tijuana 5-0.
NWSL offense struggles without Olympians
With so many players out due to the previous international break and upcoming Olympics, NWSL Summer Cup lineups struggled to bring the same attacking firepower that propels regular season action.
Gotham earned points against Chicago in a penalty shootout win following a 0-0 draw, while regular-season league-leaders Orlando fell in penalties to North Carolina after a 1-1 finish.
San Diego and Kansas City fared better at the offensive end, defeating Houston and Bay FC, respectively, with a 3-1 scoreline, while Seattle beat Utah 2-1.
In the only all-Liga MX Femenil match of the weekend, Tigres took down Pachuca 4-2.
NWSL and Liga MX teams square off next weekend
Next weekend's schedule might provide more intrigue, upping the number of cross-league games as each league strives for dominance.
Starting Friday, Tigres will take on Houston, Tijuana will face Seattle, Monterrey will battle Orlando, Kansas City will play Pachuca, San Diego will take on Club America, and Chicago will square off with Guadalajara in Cup play.
The Cup's three-weekend group stage will determine which teams advance to the August 6th semifinals, which take place before the NWSL season resumes on August 23rd. The subsequent Cup Final is slated for October 25th.
The Summer Cup will be competing for national attention as soon as the Olympics start, but the hope remains that the competition's unique format will spark some interest Stateside.
Where to watch the NWSL x Liga MX Summer Cup
All Summer Cup matches will air live across CBS Sports platforms including Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, and CBS Sports Network
The NWSL’s final pre-Olympic break matches are in the books, but that doesn’t mean club teams won’t get a workout before the league’s August 23rd regular season return.
All 14 squads — minus their Paris-bound teammates — will square off in the first-ever NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup beginning July 19th.
Going up against the NWSL are Mexico’s top six 2023 Liga MX teams: Tigres UANL, Club América, Chivas de Guadalajara, Rayadas de Monterrey, Pachuca, and Tijuana.
All 33 matches will air on CBS Sports platforms, with Seattle Reign FC kicking off the tournament against the Utah Royals at 9 PM ET on CBS Sports Network and Paramount+.
How the NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup works
The Cup’s 20 teams are split into five groups of four, with each group facing off round-robin style over a total of 30 group stage matches.
Only four of those five teams will advance to the August 6th semifinals. To move on, a club must both win their group and have amassed enough points to be amongst the top four winning teams, eliminating the group stage-winning team with the lowest points.
The two Summer Cup finalists will then have months to prepare for the title-winning match, set for October 25th — one week before the NWSL’s last regular season match weekend.
Interleague cups in the women's game
While interleague contests aren’t new to the women’s game — think UEFA Champions League — they’ve been relatively rare until recently.
The Women’s International Champions Cup, which featured at least one NWSL team alongside two or three international clubs, ran for four years, with its final 2022 edition including the Portland Thorns, Liga MX’s Monterrey, the WSL’s Chelsea FC, and Cup champions Olympique Lyonnais.
The inaugural edition of the W Champions Cup, which kicks off next month, will pit Gotham, the Thorns, and the Wave against eight other Concacaf clubs, all vying for a spot in the newly minted 2026 FIFA Women’s Club World Cup.
In the US and abroad, new interleague competitions are continuing to pop up in an effort to meet growing demand — though subsequent injury concerns plague the increasingly packed calendar.
Mia Fishel’s first two appearances with the U.S. women’s national team have left more questions than answers when it comes to why she was not called up sooner.
The 22-year-old forward scored in her Women’s Super League debut with Chelsea, and she scored her first international goal in just her second appearance for the USWNT. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who have been watching her in recent years. Fishel is a bonafide scorer, having led Liga MX during her time with Tigres.
And with each game Fishel plays, she’s proving former USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski wrong for not giving her a shot at the national team ahead of the 2023 World Cup. While Andonovski praised her as a “very good young player” and called her into camp in October 2020, he did not call her into any other USWNT camps over the next three years.
“Right now, after looking at everything, we decided the forwards that we have in camp are going to give us the best chance to be successful,” he said in January.
So Fishel continued to wait in the wings, finally getting called up to the national team in September – after Andonvoski’s resignation. And U.S. Soccer is still facing questions about her hiatus.
One such question came after Sunday’s 3-0 win against Colombia, with a reporter noting Fishel’s level of play over the last several years and asking “what took so long” for the national team to bring her into the fold. In response, USWNT staffer Aaron Heifetz noted that Fishel “wasn’t playing at this level, because she was playing with Tigres and not at the national level.”
Interim head coach Twila Kilgore paused, then followed up Heifetz’s statement, saying she believes Fishel “benefited” from her time with the Liga MX club.
“I know we were watching Mia with Tigres, and she did a great job with them,” Kilgore said. “We also had some other talented forwards in the mix and it wasn’t the right time for the coaching staff at the time to bring her in. I think that she’s benefited a lot from her time at Tigres.”
Kilgore, who has known Fishel “since she was a very young player,” noted that she developed her tactical skills while in Liga MX. And now she’s adding another element to her game with Chelsea.
“This is just part of her journey. And now she has a next step with her journey with us,” Kilgore said. “But I know she really values that time at Tigres and so do I. I enjoyed watching her there. … It’s a great club. She had a high impact there and now she’s on to a different chapter of her life and both have an influence in the player that she is that is now with us.”