The National Women’s Soccer League semifinal playoffs schedule was announced on Monday.

OL Reign, which claimed its third NWSL Shield this season to secure No. 1 seed and a first-round bye, will host the fifth-seeded Kansas City Current, while No. 2 Portland Thorns FC, which also earned a bye to the semifinals, will welcome the No. 3 San Diego Wave FC.

The Thorns open the semifinal round against Wave FC at Providence Park on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 5 p.m. ET. OL Reign and the Current close out the day with a 7:30 p.m. contest at Lumen Field.

Both matches will air live on CBS Sports Network. Fans tuning in internationally outside the U.S. can watch the games on the NWSL’s Twitch channel.

The semifinal round comes after a quarterfinal series that saw two teams triumph in their respective playoff debuts. After the Current opened the scoring at PNC Stadium off a penalty kick from Lo’eau LaBonta, Kansas City’s Kate Del Fava scored a go-ahead goal in the waning minutes of stoppage time to secure a 2-1 victory over the No. 4-seeded Houston Dash. The game-winner was Del Fava’s first NWSL goal.

San Diego, the first expansion side to earn a playoff berth in its inaugural season, fell behind early against the sixth-seeded Chicago Red Stars before completing a comeback victory in extra time behind a late goal from 2022 Golden Boot winner Alex Morgan.

The quarterfinals saw record attendance numbers for an NWSL playoff match, with the first encounter between Houston and Kansas City drawing a record crowd of 21,284, surpassing the league-best 21,144 fans that attended the 2018 NWSL Championship between North Carolina and Portland. Hours later, San Diego and Chicago’s match overtook the top spot with 26,215 in attendance.

For the first time, the NWSL Championship, presented will air live in primetime on The CBS Television Network Saturday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. ET. The match will also be streamed live on Paramount+ and internationally on Twitch.

 

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.