The National Women’s Soccer League will crown a first-time champion when the Red Stars or Houston Dash end the Challenge Cup by hoisting the championship trophy Sunday in Herriman, Utah.
This is the Dash’s first trip to a league final, but the Red Stars have some experience, losing title games in Women’s Professional Soccer (2011), WPS-Elite (2012) and the NWSL (2019).
‘‘I don’t think our group feels that we’re inferior to anyone,’’ Red Stars coach Rory Dames said. ‘‘That doesn’t mean there aren’t teams that give us a hard time or accomplished more than we have. As a group, just from our mentality standpoint, we feel we can compete with anybody.’’
Nothing about the Challenge Cup has been typical. Three knockout games were decided by penalty kicks, and the top two seeds, the North Carolina Courage and Washington Spirit, were knocked out in the quarterfinals.
The rules of the tournament — with no extra time being played, specifically — set the league up for unpredictable moments, none more so than the unheralded Dash reaching the final.
The Dash have proved the skeptics wrong by battling through the preliminary stage before eliminating the Utah Royals in the quarterfinals and the Portland Thorns in the semifinals. Forward Rachel Daly has led the way for the Dash with three goals in the tournament, tied for the most with Courage forward Lynn Williams.
‘‘We’ve kept three clean sheets in six games,’’ Dash coach James Clarkson said. ‘‘We scored the most goals. We have the leading goal-scorer on our team, and we’re still not very good, apparently.’’
The Red Stars entered the tournament intending to use the preliminary stage as an opportunity to get their younger players some experience and to establish a new style of play that works best with their new faces.
Dames made it clear that winning the tournament wasn’t the main goal, but the new-look Red Stars are back in familiar territory, proving their work ethic translates no matter how the group changes.
Questions about the Red Stars’ scoring ability were put to rest in their 3-2 semifinal victory against Sky Blue. They opened an early 2-0 lead on goals by defender Bianca St. Georges and forward Rachel Hill before forward Savannah McCaskill scored what ended up being the game-winner in the 59th minute.
‘‘We’re building at the right time,’’ said McCaskill, whom Dames has called the Red Stars’ most improved player. ‘‘It’s hard to develop those relationships in a very short time. You usually have an eight-month season to build to a final.’’
Questions linger about the NWSL’s plans for the rest of 2020. Commissioner Lisa Baird said during a Zoom call that if the league can work within the restrictions of counties and states to return to play safely, it will.
‘‘We have not made any decisions about any competition format at this point in time,’’ Baird said. ‘‘That will always be guided by medical protocols.’’
