The 2025 NWSL season formally will get underway on Friday with the Problem Cup, this 12 months that includes 2024’s greatest groups – the Orlando Satisfaction and the Washington Spirit.
The Satisfaction return to play after a record-breaking 2024 season by which the crew gained their first-ever trophies, successful each the NWSL Championship and the NWSL Protect. The Spirit, in the meantime, landed in second place in each classes final 12 months however either side have an opportunity to start out recent with the Problem Cup – and acquire their first piece of silverware of the brand new season.
This is what you have to know earlier than tuning in.
Learn how to watch and odds
- Date: Friday, March 7 | Time: 8 p.m. ET
- Location: Inter&Co Stadium — Orlando, Fla.
- Reside stream: Amazon Prime Video
- Odds: Orlando Satisfaction +130; Draw +230; Washington Spirit +200
What’s the NWSL Problem Cup?
In its present iteration, the NWSL Problem Cup is a sport between the newest winners of the NWSL Championship and Protect. For the reason that Satisfaction gained each final 12 months, the 2025 version will likely be a rematch of final season’s championship, which the Washington Spirit competed in.
The Problem Cup was launched in 2020 as a return-to-play answer within the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 and 2022, it was a match that came about earlier than the beginning of the common season earlier than morphing into an in-season cup competitors in 2023. The present format was launched final 12 months, with the San Diego Wave beating NJ/NY Gotham FC within the one-off sport.
Storylines
Orlando Satisfaction: Contemporary off a record-breaking season that noticed the Orlando Satisfaction remodel from one of many NWSL’s bottom-dwellers to the cream of the crop, the large query dealing with the reigning champions is: Can they stick with it? They’re working with a really related squad to the one which accomplished a double in 2024, together with final season’s defender of the 12 months Emily Sams and MVP candidates Barbra Banda and Marta. Banda will likely be somebody particularly to maintain on after a 17-goal season in her debut NWSL marketing campaign, whereas Marta will goal to benefit from the Satisfaction’s new look so long as she will, since 2025 will doubtless be one of many closing years in her storied profession.
Washington Spirit: The 2021 NWSL champions exceeded expectations in 2024, assembling a powerful assault with a batch of the league’s greatest younger attacking skills and hitting the bottom working regardless of head coach Jonatan Giraldez’s midseason arrival. It makes them an thrilling season to observe in Giraldez’s first full season, although issues would possibly rely upon availability. Final 12 months’s MVP nominee Trinity Rodman and rookie of the 12 months Croix Bethune, for instance, traveled to Florida for the Problem Cup, although the previous has been dominated out as she continues to recuperate from a knee harm whereas the latter’s capability to play remains to be unknown after again issues have plagued her offseason.
Prediction
Something is feasible in a one-off sport between two top-quality sides, particularly as they shake the final of the preseason rust off of them. If the Spirit would not have a few of their stars accessible to them, although, anticipate this one to tilt within the Satisfaction’s favor. Choose: Orlando Satisfaction 1, Washington Spirit 0
