The NWSL, the top women’s soccer division in the United States, unveiled its 2023 schedule. The league’s 11th regular season features 12 teams, just like last year when Angel City FC and San Diego Wave joined the league.
Each club plays a balanced schedule with 11 home games and 11 away games. Therefore, each team plays every other team home and away once, just like the top leagues in Europe.
The season begins on March 25 and the regular season runs through Sunday, October 15. On the last day of the season, all 12 teams play simultaneously at 5 p.m.
However, like the major men’s leagues, the NWSL 2023 schedule slows down during the World Cup. Taking place in Australia and New Zealand, the Women’s National Soccer League doesn’t come to a complete standstill. While the NWSL is generally a weekly schedule, the Women’s World Cup is seeing the league take a bi-weekly break. Essentially, there are only two full rounds during the Women’s World Cup, but both are for the NWSL Cup, as we’ll see below.
That leads to one of the biggest changes to the NWSL schedule in the 2023 season. There are fewer midweek games this time around. The league says it wants to focus on player health and optimize fitness and performance for each game.
NWSL Cup sprayed during the season
In the past, the NWSL season would pause at some point to play the NWSL Cup. Three groups of four play in round-robin matches for a total of six matches in the cup. This season, the NWSL is extending those games from April 19. Then the semi-finals consisting of three group winners and one runner-up is on September 6, with the Final three days later.
Most NWSL Cup games occur during the Women’s World Cup. Therefore, league play is more or less unaffected outside of just a handful of matches.
NWSL season 2023 schedule has a number of big fixtures
The Cascadia Derby has four confirmed matches in the 2023 season. Two of those are in the NWSL and two are in the NWSL Cup. The Portland Thorns and OL Reign have one of the storied rivalries in the young history of the NWSL. Portland has three NWSL crowns while OL Reign has three NWSL shields as regular season winners.
Next, Angel City and the San Diego Wave, who joined the league a season ago, look to build on their record-breaking rivalry. Last season, 32,000 turned out to see these two in their debut seasons. The first game between the two Southern California teams is on Sunday, April 23.
NWSL coverage this season
CBS continues its coverage of the National Women’s Soccer League for the 2023 season. Games appear on the CBS Television Channel, CBS Sports Network, and Paramount+. More information about NWSL television coverage is coming closer to the beginning of the campaign.
