As thousands of fans descended onto Kansas City the week of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Championship, it truly felt like a grand finale. The city was buzzing with the appropriate pomp and circumstance befitting of an American sports final.
After a long year of 26 regular season games, the Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit are ready to battle it out for all the glory and lift the coveted NWSL Championship trophy. But if you really wanted to split hairs, there was already a winner of the 2024 NWSL season, and that is first place finishers Orlando.
After clinching the top spot with three match days remaining, all eyes turned to the playoffs, and Orlando’s Shield clinching, record-breaking season, meant nothing if the team couldn’t make it to the match that matters, the match that gives you a parade in your city, and writes your name in the history books.
For Spirit defender and English international Esme Morgan, the playoff and championship structure took a bit of getting used to. After all, in the Women’s Super League, the top of the table winner is the champion. Now, she sees it as another opportunity to win after her team finished in second.
“It’s very American in that it’s trying to find more drama, whereas in England we accept whoever has done the best over the course of the season is the best team,” Morgan says. “Orlando has been the most consistent team across the whole season, can’t argue with that, but we came so close to Orlando so let’s have another go!”
The NWSL’s current playoff structure has the top eight teams face off in two rounds of knockoff games to earn a spot in the championship. The ups and downs of the regular season no longer matter, and only three games stand between a team and the ultimate trophy.
In fact, last year’s winners, NJ/NY Gotham FC, finished sixth in the final standings, just making the playoffs on goal differential, proving that the postseason is quite literally anyone’s game.
But this begs the question, is the NWSL Championship the true measure of the best team in the league? Perhaps it is time to give a little bit more respect to the NWSL Shield.
NOW it feels like Championship Week!
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) November 22, 2024
2024 NWSL Media Day presented by @Ally is in the books pic.twitter.com/bCtxcxnRpo
Lack of a Cup Competition
The NWSL is widely considered one of, if not the most competitive women’s soccer league in the world. Players come from all over to get the opportunity to play against the world’s top talent, but not all leagues are created equal. What the NWSL playoffs represent is the thrill of knockout soccer that otherwise does not exist in the league.
“I believe the shield winner is the biggest honor and the hardest thing to win, because it's done over 26 games, so I think the shield winners don't get enough credit. For me, they are the ultimate champion,” says Scott Parkinson, assistant coach at Seattle Reign. “But the one thing that's missing in the NWSL is we don't really have cup competitions where everybody has their players available.”
Although the NWSL instituted the Summer Cup this year, the competition took place during international breaks meaning teams did not have their full rosters at the ready. Coaches used the tournament instead as an opportunity to get minutes for players deeper on their roster—and in the final match, Gotham FC fielded several retired players as replacement players for their missing internationals, making it hard to take the Summer Cup seriously as a true, competitive campaign.
”[The playoffs] offer fans an opportunity to experience knockout games because there aren’t any cup competitions in the NWSL,” says Morgan. “I think that part of it is really exciting and lends itself to amazing games for both neutral fans and fans of the teams that are involved.”
No better time of year in the club game 🙌
— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) November 21, 2024
It's @NWSL Championship weekend! pic.twitter.com/iXIREcGWPR
Is the Championship Team the Best Team?
The NWSL playoffs and championship match provide the same epic thrills as cup competitions do in other leagues across the globe, but the winner of the NWSL Championship may not be the true measure of the best team in the league. As Angel City forward Christen Press sees it, the tension of the global game has combined with the American culture of playoffs to create big, climactic moments where any team can hoist the trophy on the day.
“It’s literally the perfect moment where the European influence and American culture do not line up,” Press says. “Our sport is global sport and whoever wins the league is the best team, it is very obvious to me that that is the truth, and yet it is less meaningful to fans and the players and the clubs to win the Shield.”
Orlando midfielder Morgan Gautraut sees beauty in the NWSL Championship as an American tradition, but she also feels winning the Shield is the ultimate measure of success in the league.
“To win the shield is something that I think is ten times harder to do because you have to be the most consistent team day in and day out, week in and week out, and continuously put performances together,” Gautraut says. “It’s taken every single person on our team to win the shield. For us, especially going undefeated, is insane, especially with the quality of teams in this league. Winning the shield is definitely the harder thing to do, but at the same time we also want to win the championship, because you remember who won the championship!”
Although the Pride will be fully focused on the championship match, winning the shield is no small feat for the 2015 expansion side that often finished at or near the bottom of the table for many years. After just missing out on the 2023 playoffs because of goal differential with Gotham, the Pride always seemed to be on the precipice of a strong season, and winning the shield is a true marker of just how much this team has accomplished.
Upon being crowned shield winners, legendary Brazilian midfielder Marta hoisted the trophy up on a rainy evening in Orlando in front of a record crowd, making it clear just how important this accomplishment was for her, the team and the fans.
”I waited so long for this moment,” Marta said to cheering fans that night. “This team deserves [it] because we showed we could from the first game this season, and we kept doing it, and I hope we’re going to go for more.”
"I waited so long for this moment" -@martavieiras10 🥹
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) October 6, 2024
2024 Shield Winners presented by @CarMax pic.twitter.com/CrFJxjU1Pl
The NWSL playoff structure is likely here to stay, which is a good thing. But it might be time that the championship and shield winners should at the very least be considered equals. Perhaps one day, the shield winners will get their own parades in their own cities, and write their names in the history books for truly being the best team in the league.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as It’s NWSL Championship Weekend, but Is the Winner Truly the Best Team in the League?.
