NWSL first professional US sports league to return to play. NC Courage leads the pack

The National Women’s Soccer League became the first professional sports league to return to play Saturday with the start of the NWSL Challenge Cup.

The NC Courage, reigning NWSL champions, kicked off the 23-game tournament with a 2-1 win over the Portland Thorns on Saturday and a second 2-0 win over the Washington Spirit on Wednesday night. The Courage will play the Chicago Red Stars on Sunday.

The Courage are leading the tournament with no other teams having won both of their games.

The Challenge Cup is being held in a “hub” format, with most games taking place at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah. Each of the eight participating teams will play four preliminary round games to determine seeding for the quarterfinals, when the tournament will proceed to a single-elimination format. Semifinal and championship games will be played In Sandy, Utah, at Rio Tinto Stadium. The final game is scheduled for July 26.

The Orlando Pride was originally supposed to partake in the tournament but withdrew after six players and four staff members tested positive for COVID-19. A second round of testing has revealed that five of the original tests may be false positives and at the very least are inconclusive, according to The Equalizer.

All team personnel in Utah are isolated in hotels when not practicing or at games. In a virtual press conference Tuesday, Courage coach Paul Riley said the team has undergone five or six coronavirus tests since arriving, and everyone has been diligent about wearing masks.

“I can tell everybody in the world that’s watching: ‘You have to wear a mask,’ ” he said. “We have to get through this together. I know we’re all doing it and I wish everybody in Raleigh would do it and everybody in North Carolina would to it to make it better.”

Riley also said showing that sports can return under health and safety protocols is the important part of the tournament.

“If we come out unscathed, and this is the first league to get through the tournament and stuff, it’d be fantastic for the league,” he said.

NWSL national anthem protocol changes after players kneel

Both Courage and Portland Thorns players took a knee during the playing of the national anthem at Saturday’s tournament opener. The teams also wore shirts that said “Black Lives Matter” across the front and issued a joint statement on social media.

“We took a knee to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and systemic racism against Black people and people of color in America,” the statement read.

The NWSL announced Monday that it was revising its pregame ceremonies to allow for players to be on the field or in their locker room while the anthem is being played. In a press release, league commissioner Lisa Baird said one of the league’s goals with the tournament is to “support and empower players to use their platform to make the world a better place.”

Riley revealed his personal opinion on the matter when asked how the Courage would proceed in regards to the anthem.

“I said to ownership three weeks ago — the national anthem shouldn’t be played in this because there’s no fans there,” he said. “There’s no reason to cause conflict by playing it. Unfortunately, we did play it.”

Ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the first professional athlete to kneel during the national anthem as a form of protest back in 2016, with several other NFL players following suit. Megan Rapinoe, U.S. Women’s National Team and OL Reign captain, was the first NWSL player to kneel when she did so at a league game against the Chicago Red Stars.

More players are kneeling now in the wake of — and in some places, ongoing — nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd after officer Derek Chauvin of the Minnesota Police Department kneeled on his neck for over eight minutes.

Challenge Cup opener attracts record viewership

Saturday’s tournament opener between the Courage and Thorns had 527,000 viewers, an increase of over 200% of previous NWSL record viewership set by a game between the Thorns and Houston Dash in 2014. The game was broadcast on CBS.

“I think [the viewership] bodes well for our sponsorship,” Riley said. “It bodes well for all the clubs in the league. It bodes well for expansion.”

He noted that, unsurprisingly, the top market for viewers was Portland, Oregon, but that Hartford, Connecticut and Nashville, Tennessee were also on the top-10 list. Raleigh was not.

“It’s up to us as the reigning champions to perform at our very best and keep people up, keep people interested in the games,” Riley said. “It’s about entertaining. It’s not just about the results.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2020 at 4:44 PM with the headline "NWSL first professional US sports league to return to play. NC Courage leads the pack."