The 2026 NWSL season kicks off Friday, and the league is back and bigger than ever. For the first time, the league is up to 16 teams, with each club playing 30 games throughout the regular season and a lengthy break for the men’s World Cup in the middle of it.
It’s going to be a long, exciting season with plenty of new faces and new opportunities. Let’s break it down.
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Big moves, and big returns
The NWSL offseason has been a busy one, primarily with teams signing players from outside the league. The biggest story of the offseason was the Washington Spirit retaining Trinity Rodman with a massive contract. The deal set a new precedent, not only making Rodman the highest paid women’s soccer player in the world, but also debuting the NWSL’s new High Impact Player rule (fittingly dubbed the “Rodman Rule”).
It’s unclear whether the new structure will last: In January, the NWSL Players Association quickly filed a grievance over the rule, which was not negotiated with the union before being implemented. As it stands, the High Impact Player rule feels like a bandage to offset the NWSLPA’s longer-term goal, which is to raise the league’s restrictive salary cap. But for now it means Rodman will be staying in D.C. and keeping her star power in the NWSL.
The biggest trades of the offseason involved the movement of two rising U.S. women’s national team stars: midfielder Claire Hutton and Croix Bethune. In a blockbuster trade, the Kansas City Current acquired Bethune from the Washington Spirit in a $1 million transfer, before the Current turned around and sent Hutton to Bay FC for $1.1 million. Relocating these two young stars is likely to have a positive impact on both teams, with Hutton instantly strengthening Bay’s midfield and Bethune easily slotting into Kansas City’s attack.
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This year will also see a few key returns. The top forward in the league, Kansas City Current’s Temwa Chawinga, is set to return to the field after missing the end of last season with a leg injury. Chawinga, the back-to-back NWSL MVP, has yet to be officially removed from the season-ending injury list, but has been participating in preseason. When she does make it back onto the field, it’ll likely be with a splash: Chawinga has won the last two Golden Boot races with 20 and 15 goals in the 2024 and 2025 seasons, respectively, even without playing the final two games last year. Once she’s back to full strength, expect another top-notch campaign from the 27-year-old forward.
Other than Chawinga, the biggest return storylines will be Portland Thorns’ Sophia Wilson and Chicago Stars’ Mallory Swanson, who are both returning from maternity leave after giving birth to their daughters this fall. Wilson has already made her way back to the field, subbing into the final 15 minutes of the Thorns’ preseason game against C.F. Monterrey last week, and seems optimistic about a return to full fitness as the season progresses. Wilson has a chance to return as a top goal-scorer for Portland: In 2024, her last year before going on maternity leave, she netted 12 goals and ended third in the league’s scoring race.
Swanson’s timeline is a bit more unclear, but she is expected to return at some point this season. Once she does, she’ll be welcomed by a desperate Stars side that will need all of the help with goalscoring it can get.
The 2026 NWSL season kicks off Friday night.
(Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports)
Boston Legacy, Denver Summit FC make their debuts
Only two years removed from the last expansion, the league is adding two more teams for the 2026 season: Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC. Both Boston and Denver are coming into the NWSL field with the hope of breaking through in their inaugural seasons.
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Both teams are in the unique position of building their rosters without an expansion draft or college draft; the league eliminated drafts ahead of the 2025 season as part of the current collective bargaining agreement. As a result, the two clubs have taken very different approaches to roster construction. The Legacy are building with plenty of overseas additions and a few NWSL vets, like Casey Murphy, Nichelle Prince and Ella Stevens. The Summit, meanwhile, have a more domestic roster, headlined by USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps, who will join the team this summer after finishing the season with OL Lyonnes.
So far, Denver appears to have made the biggest splash: The Summit announced last month that their home opener in Mile High Stadium has sold over 50,000 tickets, leaving them well clear of the current NWSL attendance record of 40,091 set by Bay FC last year. But Boston will also be debuting in an NFL venue, playing their first game against Gotham FC in Gillette Stadium.
A round of coaching changes
The NWSL is a famously competitive league, and as expectations grow higher, so does the turnover rate in their head coaching positions.
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Four teams — Bay FC, Kansas City Current, North Carolina Courage and Portland Thorns — hired head coaches this offseason. But throughout the league, there has been quite a bit of movement: Nine of the current 16 head coaches were hired in the last year (including the two expansion team coaches). And NWSL clubs continue to look toward Europe when hiring coaches, with 13 of the 16 top jobs held by Europeans after this most recent cycle.
This offseason’s hires started with Bay FC bringing on former England U-23 manager Emma Coates in December, and the North Carolina Courage hiring former BK Häcken coach Mak Lind in January. The Kansas City Current also brought in longtime MLS coach Chris Armas, who replaced the recently promoted Vlatko Andonovski.
But no one came down to the wire more than the Thorns, who announced the hiring of former Tottenham manager Robert Vilahamn on March 4 — nine days before their first game of the season. It will be interesting to see how quickly Portland can adjust to the new coach, and whether the new system will come together in time to give them an edge this upcoming season.
Will Gotham FC repeat as NWSL champions in 2026?
(Caean Couto via Getty Images)
Where will NWSL teams end up this season?
Trying to guess standings for the NWSL is a nearly impossible task: The league is often too competitive and too fluid to predict with much confidence. Last season, for example, no one expected Kansas City to dominate quite like it did during the regular season, or for eighth-place Gotham FC to go on and win a championship.
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So with that in mind, here are some breakdowns of what to expect from teams this season.
The top dogs: Washington Spirit, Kansas City Current, Gotham FC
No one expects Kansas City to repeat what it did last season: an NWSL Shield with 21 wins and a historic 65 points. And with a new coach and a few key offseason losses, it’s unlikely that the Current will be at that peak again. But Kansas City and Washington still look dominant roster-wise, especially with the Spirit holding on to Rodman. And as for Gotham, the defending champs are bringing back a significant chunk of their title-winning roster, leaving them open to build on that victory.
Consistent in the middle: Orlando Pride, Seattle Reign, San Diego Wave, Portland Thorns
With these four teams, there’s a sense of a high ceiling, but a middling floor. Though these teams had some offseason changes, there isn’t a lot different about them heading into the season. The Thorns might be the exception in this group: After ending in third last season, Portland will be adjusting to a new coach who only just arrived, and may finish the lowest of these teams despite having some legitimate superstars on its roster. But the Wave lost a few starters but gained a few more, while the Pride and Reign didn’t make many changes in the offseason.
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These teams’ ability to thrive might come down to a midseason signing — say, Chelsea forward Catarina Macario, who has been linked with the Wave and could be a momentum changer for the team. Only half of the NWSL teams will make it into the playoffs, so these teams might have to keep an eye out for some of those teams on the rise below them if they want to hold on to their projected spots.
On the rise: Bay FC, Angel City FC, Houston Dash, North Carolina Courage, Racing Louisville
These five teams ended on the low end last year, with Racing Louisville eking into the playoffs over North Carolina and Houston. But this could be a brighter season across the board: All of these teams have picked up some key signings during the offseason, and all seem to have a new sense of direction from their coaching staff. A top four finish isn’t likely from this group, but some vast improvement and potentially some playoff appearances is certainly on the table.
The newbies: Boston Legacy, Denver Summit
An expansion team thriving in its first year is a tall task. Both Boston and Denver have interesting rosters and a lot of momentum coming into the season, but it’s hard to expect them to end particularly high in their inaugural season.
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The struggle bus: Chicago Red Stars, Utah Royals
After finishing in the bottom three last season, things aren’t really looking up for either Chicago or Utah. Neither team had many big signings in the offseason, and they’re still looking pretty thin on offense. It’s been a rough few seasons for both of these teams and things don’t seem to be looking up for this season.