The side quests continue
You're telling me there's even more games?
The Thorns have eight regular season games to go before (knock on wood) heading into the crucible of the NWSL’s single-elimination playoffs. And, now, they’re going to play some other games as well. Are these games important? Important important? Or, yes-the-Summer-Cup-is-good-for-development-so-that’s-technically-important important?
I have literally no idea.
But here’s what’s happening.
The 2026 FIFA Club World Cup
You know how the World Cup is the pinnacle of both the men’s and women’s game, featuring each national team, and it’s basically the most-watched, most-globally-unifying thing of all time? Well, FIFA has also organized a tournament where it’s not national teams, but professional teams who play. This is the Club World Cup. The first women’s edition is going to happen in 2026. There has been a men’s version since 2000.
How has it gone? Uh, this sentence from the top of the tournament Wikipedia page isn’t exactly a rave review:
Views differ as to the cup’s prestige: it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe, and is the object of heated debate in South America.
Exciting!
CONCACAF W Champions Cup
So, before teams can get to the FIFA (global) Club World Cup, each continent is hosting a tournament to figure out which teams qualify. And that’s what the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football is bringing to you right now. And, I guess we’re calling it “Champions Cup” instead of “Qualifying Tournament.” The tournament features 10 teams across the continent, including three NWSL teams.
So how did the Thorns qualify?
Basically: the American soccer federation chose them. Does that seem weird to you? Uh, well, the weirdness is not really going to end at any point here. Back to Wikipedia:
The qualification criteria, confirmed on 24 April 2024, were proposed by each member association and ratified by CONCACAF.
Or, if I can translate: “What teams from your country do you want to send? Ok, yeah, sounds good!”
America is sending Gotham FC (2023 champions), the San Diego Wave (best 2023 regular season team), and the Thorns (second-best 2023 regular season team).
I guess that’s a pretty good way of selecting NWSL teams. Although: since this tournament is being held every four years, shouldn’t the NWSL reward sustained success over the entire four years, instead of success in basically a single, random year? Qualifying for global tournaments in both the men’s and women’s game tends to be practically scientific, and isn’t normally written on the back of a napkin like this.
What happens next?
The ten teams from across the continent have been drawn into two groups of five. From now until mid-October, the Thorns will play each of the other four teams in their group, in the following games:
Club América Feminil (Mexico) at Thorns | Wednesday September 4 | 7 pm
Thorns at San Diego Wave | Wednesday September 18 | 7 pm
Santa Fe FC (Panama) at Thorns | Tuesday October 1 | 7:30 pm
Thorns at Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite (Canada) | Tuesday October 15 | 7 pm
Honestly: the Thorns really got lucky with their travel schedule. In the other group, Gotham FC will have to travel to Costa Rica and Jamaica for their games, all in the middle of the NWSL playoff push. Trips to San Diego and Vancouver is literally a best-case scenario.
So, what are the Thorns shooting for here?
There have been a lot of weird things about this tournament, but here comes the weirdest part of all.
The goal for the Thorns is to be one of the top two teams out of their five-team group, when group play wraps up in mid-October. The top two teams from both groups will advance into a single-elimination semifinal and final. And those single-elimination games are going to be held in May of next year. Yes, we are absolutely going to have forgotten about all of this by the time those games come back around.
And: how do the Thorns place well enough in the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, in order to get to that FIFA Club World Cup? Do they have to be the first-place finisher in the whole tournament? Is second place okay? Third?
Literally nobody knows, because nobody has decided yet.
Back to Wikipedia:
Set to take place in January and February 2026, the tournament [FIFA Club World Cup] will involve 16 teams and will be held every four years. FIFA has yet to unveil specific details regarding the tournament’s structure and qualification for participating teams.
So, yes: the Thorns have basically been ordered to start driving down a road that is still under construction.
And, just to cap the whole thing off: the games aren’t going to be broadcasted. CONCACAF has been posting highlights of each game on their YouTube channel, so, somebody is at least bringing a camera to the games. But, if they are actually getting a proper broadcast, then CONCACAF has buried that information too deep to be reasonably found.
So: the Thorns get this thing kicked off this Wednesday, when they host Club América Feminil from Mexico. It’s a really tough turnaround, since the team is going to be playing an absolutely crucial NWSL regular season game against Washington Spirit, on the other side of the country, just 72 hours later. If I were in charge, the Thorns’ bench, and its many new acquisitions, would be featuring in this mid-week game. But, as with literally everything about this disorganized tournament, it’s hard to know just what could, or should, be going on.