Photo Copyright Maria Lysaker for USA TODAY Sports
Take a look through the National Women’s Soccer League’s 2024 Competition Rules and Regulations and you may find one interesting and important change. When a match is unable to be completed due to weather or other factors, it will not be declared official unless 75 minutes have been played. This is up from 45 minutes, or more specifically the end of the 1st half.
If a match does not reach the 75-minute mark and is unable to continue, it will be suspended and picked up from the point it was stopped. Every effort will be made to resume the match within 24 hours.
The old rule was on display last season when, on April 28 in Houston, a lightning storm halted the Dash match against the North Carolina Courage during the 52nd minute. After a delay of more than three hours that included a brief warmup before more bad weather was spotted, the game was abandoned and declared official. The Courage were 1-0 winners.
We can debate the merits of this change, which is certainly for the…
