2022 NWSL schedule announced, regular season begins April 29

The wait is over. On Wednesday, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced the full schedule for the 2022 NWSL regular season.

The NWSL’s 10th season begins with the third annual Challenge Cup, which serves as a preseason tournament. The Challenge Cup begins on Saturday, March 19 and will end on Saturday, May 7.

There will be some overlap between the Challenge Cup and the regular NWSL season, which begins on Friday, April 29. As it stands now, six NWSL teams are currently slated to play regular season games on May 7, the same day as the Challenge Cup Final. The NWSL did not immediately return a request for comment about a potential contingency/priority plan if any of those six teams (North Carolina, Portland, Chicago, Washington, San Diego, and NJ/NY) qualify for the Challenge Cup Final. A spokesperson for the San Diego Wave said the Challenge Cup Final would take priority and the regular season game would be rescheduled.

The 2022 NWSL season will feature a 22-game regular season, with each of the league’s 12 teams playing both a home and away game against every other club. The regular season will run until Sunday, October 2.

The top six teams will qualify for the NWSL Playoffs. The 2022 NWSL Championship Final is slated for the weekend of October 28, 2022.

CBS has U.S. broadcast rights of NWSL games. The 2022 NWSL season will air across CBS, CBS Sports Network, and Paramount+ – with the exact TV/platform schedule set to be announced in the coming weeks. Twitch, which provides streaming for fans outside of the United States, will also “stream select games in the United States,” according to an NWSL press release.