Columbus is slowly becoming a soccer city.
Columbus is already home to the three-time MLS champion, Columbus Crew, and starting in 2028, the city will also be home to a team from the National Women's Soccer League.
The city hosts the Challenge Cup on Friday, which is the first championship event of the NWSL season.
Claire Watkins is an Ohio native and host of the soccer podcast "The Late Sub." She joined WOSU Morning Edition Host Stu Osborne to discuss the Challenge Cup, the NWSL and Columbus' rising status as a soccer city.
Stu Osborne: For those who may not know, what exactly is the Challenge Cup?
Claire Watkins: So, the Challenge Cup is a single game remnant of the tournament that the league came up with in 2020 when the regular season was suspended for the pandemic. It's gone through a couple different iterations since then, but what they have landed on, and it's a really cool event, is a simple game between the NWSL shield winner from the previous season, which is the best team in the regular season versus that year's NWSC champion, which is the team that makes it through the playoffs and wins at the end. And where it lands this year, which has not always been the case, they've tried it at the beginning of the season before, but what we're doing now is having it sort of be the kickoff to the second half of the NWSL regular season after they took a little bit of a break to make room for the Men's World Cup in June.
Stu Osborne: Now for those not familiar, the two teams, Kansas City and Gotham, are they both inaugural members of the league or have they been part of the expansion process over the last couple of years?
Claire Watkins: It's an interesting question as it tends to be with these newer leagues. But so Gotham, yes, is a founding member of the NWSL. They were a part of the league when it came together in 2013 under the name Sky Blue FC. They did a rebranding, I wanna say about five or six years ago to Gotham but that is still the original club. The Kansas City Current, there was an initial team in Kansas City called FC Kansas City. That got moved for a little bit to Utah and then back to Kansas City. So this team, the Kansas City Current certainly has roots to the very beginning of the end of USL, though they are technically a newer club than that.
Stu Osborne: And how important do you think it is for not just the city of Columbus, but the league to kind of put a good showing forward, just to kind of like continue the hype and the excitement around this franchise that's coming to Columbus in a couple seasons.
Claire Watkins: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I always say that the best advertisement for professional women's soccer is just to see it on the pitch, right? And there's nothing quite like the actual game day experience, getting to see those players up close and the NWSL is lucky to have many of these sort of larger than life figures from World Cups and Olympics that people might know. And so as much as I think it's going to be a wonderful event, like I said, it's sort of this multi-day thing that the league is putting on. The proof is on the page, you know? And so I think having these two teams, which are both still very good, bringing big stars to the city, I think people are gonna be really excited.
Stu Osborne: Now, and you know, Columbus has a rich history, as we mentioned before, you know the birthplace of "Dos a Cero," and we've hosted several matches with the U.S. Men's National Team. How cool, someone being so closely associated with women's sports, like how cool is it for the women to step up and get their turn? I mean, I know we had the SheBelieves Cup here before, but this is kind of like a continuation of that snowball rolling and continuing to grow.
Claire Watkins: Yeah, I think it's awesome. I mean, like you said, central Ohio and the Crew in particular, and the history of the U.S. Men's National Team in Columbus, there's such a rich history of just being a soccer town, right? And Columbus also just as a great sports town, as we know, and I feel like for years, even like for me growing up near the area, the Crew have always held their own sort of with a different type of sports fan. And I really, I truly hope and believe that. Anyone who considers themselves a soccer fan in Columbus, it's very easy to transfer that over to the women's side. So very excited, love to see the U.S. play at Crew Stadium as much as possible, but it's different having your own NWSL team. And just even to have one of the premier women's sports leagues in Columbus as these leagues continue to grow is just really neat as well.
