National Women's Soccer League Quiz

Answer: Women's Professional Soccer

The first professional women's soccer league in the US was the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), but it only lasted from 2001 to 2003. In 2007, Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was founded, with play beginning in 2009. Legal troubles and some internal conflicts led to the folding of the WPS in 2012.

The establishment of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) was the result of a roundtable discussion held by the USSF after the disbanding of the WPS. The NWSL began play in 2013 with eight teams, four of which had been members of the WPS (Sky blue FC, Western New York Flash, Boston Breakers, and Chicago Red Stars).

Answer: It is given to the team with the most points.

The NWSL Shield is awarded at the end of the regular season to the team with the most points. The point scoring system is the same as the international standard scoring system: a win earns three points, a draw gets two, and a loss earns zero points. In the event of a tie in points, the Shield winner is determined by goal difference.

The Shield was first awarded in the league's inaugural season in 2013. There was a three-way tie for points, with Western New York Flash, FC Kansas City, and Portland Thorns FC all having 38 points. Western New York Flash won the Shield based on goal difference, but the team lost to Portland Thorns FC in the Championship (end of season play-off winner).

Answer: North Carolina Courage

For the 2018 season, North Carolina Courage scored a total of 57 points, with a win-loss-tie record of 17-1-6. They went on to beat Portland Thorns FC in the Championship 1-0 (end-of-season play-off series). Just one year earlier, in 2017, North Carolina Courage also won the NWSL Shield, but lost to Portland Thorns FC in the Championship. Western New York Flash was sold to the owners of North Carolina FC in 2016, and 2017 was the team's first season as North Carolina Courage.

Answer: True

Each of the three organizations agreed to pay for the salaries of the subsidized (allocated) players from their respective national teams. Originally, the US was to have 24 allocated spots, Canada would have 16, and Mexico would have between 12 and 16.

These players would be distributed to the teams through an allocation process which would try to distribute them evenly. Though all three countries originally had allocated players, Mexico's last year to allocate players to the league was 2016.

Answer: National Women's Soccer League Players Association

The National Women's Soccer League Players Association (NWSLPA) was established in 2017 with Yael Averbuch leading its development and becoming its president. The NWSLPA was officially recognized in 2018 as the bargaining representative of the NWSL players by the NWSL. Allocated players are represented by different labor unions since they are paid by the local federations from their home country. Along with Yael Averbuch, Meghann Burke, became an important contributor to the NWSLPA.

A former player, she helped form the WPS players' union, and she became the NWSLPA attorney.

Answer: Chicago only

A feature of the NWSL was that of the nine teams in the league, only three were from the largest cities in their respective states: Chicago Red Stars, Portland Thorns FC, and Houston Dash. Two entire states were represented (Utah Royals FC and North Carolina Courage), as well as the national capital (Washington Spirit). Orlando Pride represent Florida and the other two teams were not named geographically (Reign FC and Sky Blue FC).

The Chicago Red Stars was one of the original NWSL teams that were also part of the Women's Professional Soccer. The team name comes from the red stars on the Chicago municipal flag, which represent major events in the city's history, such as the Great Chicago Fire.

Answer: Tacoma, Washington and Northern New Jersey

When the NWSL formed in 2013 there were eight teams. The Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City stopped competing in the league before the 2018 season. Western New York Flash became North Carolina Courage in 2017. The Seattle Reign dropped "Seattle" in 2018 when they became Reign FC as they became based in nearby Tacoma. Sky Blue FC was based in Somerset County, New Jersey, part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Houston Dash, Orlando Pride and Utah Royals FC (Based in Sandy, northern Utah) joined in 2014, 2016, and 2018 respectively. Unusual in a national sporting league, California was not represented.

Answer: Australia

Samantha Kerr was born 1993 in East Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia. She joined theMatildas (Australian national women's soccer team) in 2009 at the age of 15. She played for the Perth Glory in the Australian W-League from 2008-2011, but she returned to the league after a few years off in 2014.

In the Australian off-season she played for the NWSL's Western New York Flash and then the Chicago Red Stars from 2017. She won International Player of the Year Award by the Football Media Association (FMA) both in 2013 and 2014.

In 2017, she was named Best Player in Australia, winning the Julie Dolan Medal. in 2018, Ms. Kerr was named 2018 Young Australian of the Year. Her brother and father were both professional Australian Rules Football players.

Answer: No

Three women's teams were all affiliated with their geographically named male team counterpart in the MLS: Houston Dynamo, Oregon Timbers, and Orlando. The Utah Royals from Sandy UT were affiliated with nearby Salt Lake FC. North Carolina Courage were associated with North Carolina FC, a team from the US second tier competition, the USL competition.

Answer: Golden Boot

Chicago Red Stars player Sam Kerr won the Golden Boot in 2018, becoming the first player to win the award twice. She also won it in 2017 when she played for Sky Blue FC. Even though she missed the first five games of the 2018 season due to having to fulfill her duty in her home country, she managed to score a total of 16 goals in the 2018 season, giving her a two goal lead over the second place scorer, Lynn Williams (North Carolina Courage) who won the award in 2016. Other winners have been Crystal Dunn (Washington Spirit), Kim Little (Seattle Reign FC), and Lauren Holiday (FC Kansas City).

The Golden Boot is also awarded in MLS. The award is determined by which player has the most goals, and the number of assists is used to break any ties. When the award was first established in MLS, a point system was used to determine the winner, with two points for every goal and one point for every assist, but it was changed to the current scoring system in 2005.