Over 10 months and more than 20 bargaining sessions, the National Women’s Soccer League and the NWSL Players Association have hammered out a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Bargaining committees from each group met in person in Philadelphia from July 8 through July 11 to finalize the deal.

It was supposed to be time off for players as the league took a break before the Olympics. But five athletes forewent vacation to join the PA’s bargaining committee in person: Brianna Pinto (North Carolina Courage), Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit), Dani Weatherholt (Courage), Haley Hopkins (Courage), and Nicole Barnhart (Spirit). Including those five, 43 players served on the bargaining committee, with those unable to make it to Philadelphia joining virtually. NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke, NWSLPA president Tori Huster, two labor counsels, Deborah Willig and Jessica Caggiano, and an economist, Dr. Beth Paulin from La Salle University rounded out the team.

“We had dozens more (players) on the Zoom dipping in and out at all hours of the day and night,” Burke told The Athletic. “We were working till 2 a.m. I think our bodies ascended to another plane at one point… caffeine was having no effect on me.”

Those caffeine-fueled marathon days were just the tip of the…

On Friday, the Portland Thorns announced that interim head coach Rob Gale would remain and serve as the team’s newest head coach.

Gale has been the team’s interim head coach since April when the Thorns underwent a restructuring that elevated former coach Mike Norris into a new role. At the time, the team told The Athletic they would conduct a global search to fill the vacancy. Turns out their preferred candidate was in Oregon all along.

In a statement announcing the appointment, Gale said he was “very proud, honored and humbled” to have been selected as the Thorns’ permanent head coach.

“I would like to thank the Bhathal family for their faith in me, as well as all the staff who in such a short space of time have worked so tirelessly to create history together,” he said. “They have not only welcomed me over this past year but helped my family and me through some tough times personally.”

Gale first stepped into the role on an interim basis in April, when Norris was promoted to serve as the club’s first technical director. The team’s restructuring followed the Thorns’ worst start ever in the NWSL. They were in last place with a 0-1-3 record through the first four weeks of the season.

New boss by the numbers

• 8⃣-2⃣-2⃣ since taking…

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The Portland Thorns are restructuring their technical department, making head coach Mike Norris their new technical director, following the club’s worst start to an NWSL season. Portland is currently in last place, having only managed a single point through the first four weeks of the 2024 season with a 0-1-3 record.

Rob Gale has been named interim head coach. Thorns general manager Karina LeBlanc told The Athletic the team will conduct a global search for Norris’ full-time replacement. There is no timeline for that hire yet, as LeBlanc expressed the need for the team to get it done correctly, not quickly.

LeBlanc said multiple times the club feels the technical director role is one that Norris will succeed in, and that he has the club’s full support as they restructure. While Norris has had less success this season, last year after he took over from Rhian Wilkinson following her resignation, the Thorns were one win away from the NWSL Shield and made the playoffs (defeated in extra time by eventual championship winners Gotham FC).

“The results have not gone our way, and in a head coach position, the results do matter,” LeBlanc said on Tuesday afternoon….

The NWSL will spend its break during the 2024 Olympics playing a tournament with teams from Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, the leagues announced today.

The NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup will feature all 14 NWSL clubs and six Liga MX Femenil teams with the highest points earned in the 2023 Apertura and Clausura tournaments.

It will feature a group stage commencing on July 19 with a semifinal round ending the week of Aug. 4. The championship match will take place on the weekend of Oct. 25.

The tournament will feature five groups, with the top four teams in terms of points advancing to the semifinals.

A quick look at the NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup tournament groups and format. pic.twitter.com/TztnU0udEO

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 20, 2024

How does this impact the NWSL schedule?

Analysis by Meg Linehan

We always knew the NWSL was planning a summer tournament to overlap with this summer’s Olympic Games, and while the league deserves credit for tapping crossover appeal with Liga MX Femenil, the Summer Cup definitely feels like the 1.0 version of a standalone summer tournament.

To be fair, this has been in the works before CONCACAF announced its new qualifiers for the first FIFA Club World Cup, but three NWSL teams are about to have to pull double…

Alex Pfeiffer became the youngest goalscorer in NWSL history in a thriller Saturday, finishing the KC Current’s fifth goal in the team’s inaugural match at its new stadium., a dramatic 5-4 win over the Portland Thorns.

Pfeiffer came on as a second-half substitute and pounced on a chested-down layoff at the top of the box in the 68th minute to make the score 5-1 Kansas City.

At 16 years, 3 months and 20 days old, Pfeiffer beats the previous record for youngest goalscorer set by the Thorns’ Olivia Moultrie in 2022 by about five months.

Another bit of history today

Alex Pfeiffer becomes the youngest goalscorer in league history at 16 years, 4 months! pic.twitter.com/XgjQmumn7t

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 16, 2024

“It’s huge for any player in her generation,” Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski said after the game. “She’s proved that it’s possible, we proved that all together that it’s possible.”

Portland made things very interesting in the closing stages, scoring three unanswered to make things 5-4, but KC was able to hold on.

Who is Alex Pfeiffer?

A native of St. Louis, Mo., Pfeiffer became the fourth-youngest player to sign in the NWSL when she joined the Current last year, inking her deal at 15 years and 338 days old.

She came to…

By Jeff Rueter, Meg Linehan, Melanie Anzidei and Steph Yang

Welcome to the 2024 season of the National Women’s Soccer League. This season, which kicks off with four matches on Saturday, is different from its predecessors in a few ways — primarily with the addition of two expansion teams, and the league’s biggest broadcast deal to date. The Olympics are also happening, which has prompted the league to take a midseason break and host an international club tournament while the U.S. women’s national team competes in Paris.

How you can watch the NWSL is changing in a major way this season, too. So we’ve put together this preview with everything you’ll need ahead of the regular season kickoff (and Friday night’s Challenge Cup match) from how to watch to major storylines, plus the USWNT and international connections across the 14 teams.

To keep following The Athletic’s NWSL coverage, don’t forget to follow the league and your team(s) of choice by managing your feed. And to make sure you don’t miss any of our coverage, subscribe to our women’s soccer newsletter Full Time. It’s our biggest stories paired with Full Time exclusive insights delivered straight to your inbox every week. With the season starting, we’ll be sending out each edition on Monday to make…

The San Diego Wave will soon be under new ownership, and at a record-breaking price.

Principal owner Ron Burkle has agreed to sell the club to the Levine Leichtman family for an eventual total of $120 million – easily a record outlay for an NWSL club, at nearly double the previous record of $63 million paid by the Bhathal family for the Portland Thorns in a deal finalized earlier in 2024.

Burkle will remain as the principal owner through the end of the 2024 season as part of the deal, which will be completed over the course of two transactions, according to a source briefed on the sale who was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing deal.

The source added that the sale was voted on by the NWSL board earlier this week.

The new ownership group is comprised of Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine, who jointly manage the investment firm Levin Leicthman Capital Partners.

Sportico was first to report news of the Wave’s sale.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the Levine Leichtman family to the ownership group of the San Diego Wave,” NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement to The Athletic. “As longtime supporters of the women’s game, Arthur and Lauren know well the impact that our league can have in our society, and as savvy investors, understand the…

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In 2024, there isn’t a looming narrative hanging over the NWSL. The league is no longer in the early stages of recovering from a widespread reckoning surrounding player welfare. It’s not a World Cup year either. Yes, the Olympics are coming and the U.S. women’s national team is going through a massive transition with incoming head coach Emma Hayes arriving later this spring, but the NWSL has a bit more clean air compared to 2023.

With that clean air, the league has grown in ways public-facing and behind-the-scenes. In the four months since Gotham FC won its first NWSL Championship at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, the offseason has dominated the conversation with an expansion draft for the two incoming teams, Bay FC and Utah Royals FC, the reigning champion Gotham loading up its roster through aggressive free agency moves and teams across the league going big on international signings, bringing talent like Barbra Banda, Asisat Oshoala and Jessie Fleming to the United States.

Existential challenges also still exist, with the main one being the clash between the international schedule and the NWSL’s footprint as more and more competitions get added each year. CONCACAF alone…

Full Time Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s weekly women’s soccer newsletter. Sign up here to receive Full Time directly in your inbox.

Some days you’re more of Trinity Rodman needing space and others you’re the Truly Baby. I’m Emily Olsen here with Meg Linehan, Steph Yang, and Melanie Anzidei — welcome to Full Time!

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USWNT News

When will Emma Hayes lead the U.S.?

By the time Emma Hayes takes charge of the USWNT at the end of May, we will have officially waited six months since her hiring announcement. Now we know who Hayes will be game-planning for.

The U.S. will host two friendlies against South Korea on June 1 in Commerce City, Col., and June 4 in St. Paul, Minn.

In the meantime, the U.S. still has a trophy on the line in the Gold Cup after defeating Colombia 3-0 on Sunday.

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USWNT Gold Cup semifinal preview

Last time we talked, things weren’t going so well for the USWNT. The team had just lost to Mexico 2-0 in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup group stage finale, setting up a quarterfinal matchup with second-place finishers from Group B, Colombia.

I won’t lie, I had my doubts about the U.S.’s chances in this one. They were unfounded, as the U.S. won 3-0 and advanced to the Gold Cup semifinal against Canada. Read our instant reaction piece from Sunday here.

The U.S.’s…

It’s time for all new everything in the NWSL. On Tuesday, the league and Nike unveiled new primary and secondary kits for every single team in the league in the first coordinated launch for the NWSL. 

Nike took a more cohesive approach to the design of the kits. “The thoughtful designs reflect each club’s identity, provide a sense of joyful expression, and celebrate the energy created by the sport for the teams and their communities,” the press release reads. “While the primary kits are where the individual club’s unique stories come to life, the secondary kits, which feature a gradient shift from dark to light using club colors, speak to the strength of the collective.”

The good news? White shorts are gone entirely, and there’s no plain white away kits to be seen this year. The less good news? With every team’s secondary kit being part of a league-wide template, teams that had design ambition across the board now have that door closed to them. Is this maybe a chance for clubs to push for alternate third kits in the future? Maybe!

The NWSL will start selling jerseys, pre-match shirts and “an assortment of fan gear” on the store on Tuesday, with a full marketplace launch later in the week. The league also promises replica goalkeeper jerseys later this…