The NWSL Challenge Cup final was ugly, and the league’s players noticed

The game was supposed to be a showcase, but instead it again revealed some of the NWSL’s player-safety challenges

The NWSL Challenge Cup final was supposed to be a showpiece event, but the league may not have been pleased that a national TV audience witnessed some of the ugliness in Saturday’s match.

The North Carolina Courage defeated the Washington Spirit 2-1 in the finale of the preseason tournament, but the final score seemed secondary after age-old issues of refereeing and player safety again stole the headlines.

The most prominent incident came near the end of the game when the Spirit’s Jordan Baggett scarily collided with an opponent and stayed down. With Spirit medical staff on the pitch, players took it upon themselves to get a stretcher out to their teammate quicker.

Spirit star Trinity Rodman was far from pleased after the game.

Two more incidents left Courage players fuming. Courage defender Abby Erceg was caught with a stud to the chest, but Erceg and goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland said the incident went unpunished because the referee (wrongly) determined it was the ball, not Ashley Hatch’s boot, that caught Erceg.

The Spirit again got away with a potentially serious challenge when Sam Staab’s tackle in the box on Kerolin was not deemed to be a penalty despite replays clearly showing Kerolin’s ankle being rolled up under Staab’s tackle.

Courage defender Kayleigh Kurtz, among others, was left fuming.

Unlike in most professional men’s leagues, NWSL referees do not have the ability to utilize VAR, which could have reversed the decisions in the incidents with Erceg and Kerolin.

NWSL players past and present weigh in

With player safety on the pitch clearly still an issue, a number of NWSL players, both current and former, took to social media after the game to voice their displeasure with what they saw.

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