The 2025 NWSL season kick-off<\/a> is here,\u00a0with all of the league’s 14 teams opening their regular-season campaigns this weekend.<\/p>\n The Orlando Pride enters as the reigning\u00a0NWSL Shield<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Championship<\/a>\u00a0winners, while Kansas City Current forward\u00a0Temwa Chawinga<\/a>\u00a0will defends her league MVP title this season \u2014 but rising contenders are bound to challenge 2024\u2019s titans.<\/p>\n “Everybody\u2019s gonna hunt after us, and we need to deal with this and find a way to keep doing our best to keep making history for this club,” Orlando captain Marta told reporters<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n “It’s exciting to know that everybody is gonna look to us and then try to make it difficult for us.”<\/p>\n After an offseason packed with coaching hires<\/a> and\u00a0player movement<\/a>, many clubs will be debuting rosters<\/a> that look decidedly different<\/a> from last year \u2014 significantly raising the stakes of the 2025 season openers.<\/p>\n While Marta’s Pride will begin their title defense against the rebranded Chicago Stars FC<\/a> on Friday and Chawinga’s Current will host the already injury-bitten<\/a> Portland Thorns on Saturday, three of the weekend’s other five matches will put some of the offseason’s most dramatic roster shifts to the test.<\/p>\n The first marquee matchup will put Houston’s revamped roster squarely in the spotlight.<\/p>\n After finishing 2024 at the bottom of the NWSL table, the Dash raided the league, signing rising stars like USWNT forward Yazmeen Ryan<\/a> and former Angel City attacker Messiah Bright in an attempt to go from worst to first this season.<\/p>\n Houston’s Friday opponent, however, is a tough task. The Dash will host 2024 runners-up Washington, who managed to win last weekend’s 2025 Challenge Cup<\/a> despite being plagued by injuries<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stealing Saturday’s stage are two teams who sat on opposite sides of one of the offseason’s\u00a0biggest trades<\/a> \u2014 Gotham FC and the Seattle Reign.<\/p>\n After helping the NJ\/NY club to their first-ever championship<\/a> in 2023 and the 2024 semifinals, USWNT star Lynn Biyendolo (ne\u00e9 Williams) requested a move to Seattle. The December trade also sent goalkeeper Cassie Miller to the Reign, with Gotham receiving promising young midfielder Jaelin Howell.<\/p>\n Closing out the 2025 NWSL season kick-off on Sunday are the league’s SoCal rivals, Angel City and San Diego.<\/p>\n Both teams enter the season as works-in-progress, as Angel City will compete under interim manager Sam Laity until June<\/a> while the Wave charts its 2025 course with both a new coach<\/a> and some recent\u00a0big-name departures<\/a>.<\/p>\n The NWSL’s 2025 season is full of potential, with 2024’s top four teams seeking to solidify their dominance as new contenders look to rise on this year’s pitch.<\/p>\n All the action begins at 8 PM ET on Friday, when both Orlando vs. Chicago and Houston vs. Washington will kick off, airing live on Prime<\/a> and NWSL+<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n Saturday will start with Kansas City vs. Portland at 12:45 PM ET on ABC<\/a>, before Racing Louisville and the NC Courage kick off at 5 PM ET on NWSL+<\/a>.<\/p>\n ION<\/a> will live broadcast Saturday’d nightcaps, with the Utah Royals taking on Bay FC at 7:30 PM ET before Seattle and Gotham face off at 10 PM ET.<\/p>\n Rivals Angel City and San Diego will cap the weekend with Sunday’s 6:50 PM ET tilt, airing live on\u00a0ESPN2<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nRevamped rosters headline 2025 NWSL kick-off<\/h2>\n
![\"Rivals](\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2155926161-1024x690.jpg\")
How to watch the 2025 NWSL season kick-off<\/h2>\n