Soccer Monday: The NWSL season is here! the NWSL season is here!

Our long national nightmare is over. The NWSL’s brand new regular season opens on Friday, with the Orlando Pride hosting the Chicago Stars and the Washington Spirit visiting the Houston Dash.

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Fans got a season preview of sorts when the two last teams standing ahead of last season’s championship, the Spirit and the Pride, played Friday night in the Challenge Cup. The match went to penalties, and goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury stopped Ally Lemos’ attempt before Tara McKeown converted her attempt to hand the trophy to the Spirit after a 1-1 draw.

https://www.instagram.com/washingtonspirit/p/DG7LC55sGEJ/?hl=en

Both sides looked understandably rusty.

The Pride, of course, were last season’s champions and Shield winners. Their goal came from Rafaelle, returning from an injury last July.

The Spirit were without a few key players because of injury, including Croix Bethune, Ouleye Sarr, Andi Sullivan. Trinity Rodman was available off the bench but did not play. Afterward, coach Jonatan Giráldez said Rodman is close, but the decision was made to rest her.

“We wanted to try to give our best to win a title. In the end we know these games are really tight, as what happened today. Not having a lot of players available, I am very proud, because only 13 players were available to play. It was very, very difficult to manage that, especially in the first half because the other team Orlando, did a good job in the first half. But in the second half, I think we played better.”

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In the end it was a *bit* of revenge for last season’s ending. And it was a trophy.

“Football is a cruel game, losing in penalties is never nice,” Orlando coach Seb Hines said. “I thought we did really well throughout the game. I thought our presses really looked really good and we had some good opportunities, but again we have to take into consideration this is the first game of the year.”

NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman spoke to the media before the game, in a kind of season preview. But the conversation was dominated by the report published earlier in the day in the San Francisco Chronicle about Bay FC coach Albertin Montoya and accusations of a toxic workplace.

Berman confirmed the league has opened an independent investigation.

“Our goal is to create a safe, healthy work environment for everyone and everything that we’re doing, both proactively and responsibly, is in service of that,” she said. “Based on information that has come to our attention, a review is underway by an independent third party and we’re very confident that the system we have in place will ensure that we surface the issues that need to be addressed, and that we’ll continue to work with all of our clubs, our technical staffs and our players to make sure that we’re achieving our goal of creating a safe, healthy working environment.”

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The San Francisco Chronicle’s investigation is available here. At least two formal complaints had been made about the team under Montoya, the report said. Two former players, who were not named in the Chronicle’s report, described the team environment as toxic, and two former Bay FC employees agreed with the assessment.

The team investigated one complaint and found no wrongdoing, while the status of the second was unclear, according to the newspaper. Bay FC said Friday in a statement that a third party investigated the claim and found no evidence of misconduct.

The NWSL has ordered an independent investigation of the Bay FC coaching staff after the team and league were asked to respond to a Chronicle investigation finding that two former players had described the culture under coach Albertin Montoya as “toxic.” https://t.co/m1P6ptz9qq
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) March 7, 2025

In a statement given to The Associated Press, Bay FC said it had worked to address “communications challenges” that came to light in a midseason player survey last year, and that improvement was reflected in an end-of-season survey. The club said it implemented new procedures, including executive coaching and setting a clear framework for team values and culture.

“We were recently made aware of feedback from the league about our end-of-season survey that is related solely to communication challenges. We take all feedback very seriously and are working closely with the league to review and will take the appropriate steps necessary based on findings, we were founded as a player-centric club, and we will do what we need to make sure we have a supportive environment for our players,” the team’s statement said.

The report was a reminder that the league and its teams still have work to do in creating a healthy work environment for their players.

But there is still much to celebrate as the NWSL enters the 2025 season, and one of the most striking developments is the amount of investment flowing into both the clubs and the league — as well as women’s sports in general. Sponsorships in the WNBA and NWSL are up 19 percent, according to a recent survey.

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The Portland Thorns have partnered with Ring and Alaska Airlines. Dove is a new sponsor for Gotham FC. In the past few weeks the league announced sponsorship deals with Google Pixel, Elf cosmetics and Alex Cooper’s Unwell platform.

“As a former college soccer player and someone who has long been a fan of the NWSL, I’m so excited to be kicking off this partnership,” Cooper said in a statement. “This felt like the perfect fit for Unwell as we remain committed to not only supporting our community but celebrating women who are doing incredible things. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to bring the Daddy Gang and the NWSL community together for what I know will be an incredible 2025 season.”

Michele Kang, Alex Cooper and Jessica Berman. This is our Roman Empire 👑

📸 @NWSL pic.twitter.com/9AEWq4u8Nq
— The Women's Game (@WomensGameMIB) March 8, 2025