Northern Super League: Canada’s new league kicks off on Wednesday

Update (16-Apr-2025): All matches will be available in the USA, either via ESPN+ or the NSL’s website (nsl.ca). Also, for those outside the USA and Canada, all matches can be streamed for free via the NSL’s website.

Canada’s first professional women’s soccer league, the Northern Super League, begins play on Wednesday, April 16. Fans in the United States will be able to watch about half of the league’s regular season matches via the ESPN+ streaming service.

For its inaugural season, the league consists of six teams: The Calgary Wild, the Halifax Tides, the Montréal Roses, the Ottawa Rapid, AFC Toronto, and the Vancouver Rise. All six teams have received a “National 1 License” under the Canada Soccer Club Licensing Program (Canada Soccer press release).

During the 2025 regular season, each team will play each other team five times, for a total of 25 matches. As the total number of matches each team will play is odd, three of the teams (Ottawa, Calgary, and Halifax) will have an extra home match. The regular season runs from mid-April to mid-October. Playoffs will also be held: The top four teams will be paired off for two-legged semifinals, followed by a single-match championship. (NSL press release).

Notable Names

The creation of the Northern Super League was spearheaded by former Canada Women’s National Team player Diana Matheson, who is now the league’s Chief Growth Officer (profile article on NSL.ca).

Other former Canada WNT players involved in the management and ownership of the league’s teams include Christine Sinclair, who is a minority owner of the Vancouver Rise (November 2024 press release), Stephanie Labbé, who is the Sporting Director for Vancouver, and Kristina Kiss, who is the Technical Director for the Ottawa Rapid.

Danish legend Katrine Pedersen, who had 210 caps for Denmark (DBU profile), is the head coach of the Ottawa Rapid.

The Sporting Director for the Montréal Roses is French legend Marinette Pichon (FFF.fr profile), who held the record for most international goals for the France Women’s National Team until 2020, when she was surpassed by Eugénie Le Sommer (FFF.fr news item). Pinchon also played for the Philadelphia Charge in the USA’s first women’s pro soccer league, the Women’s United Soccer Association.

The head coach of the Vancouver Rise is Anja Heiner-Møller, who is a former Danish international (DBU profile) and is the wife of a former Canada WNT head coach, Kenneth Heiner-Møller.

NWSL Connections

Several players in the Northern Super League previously played in the National Women’s Soccer League, while others are currently on loan from NWSL clubs.

Players on loan from NWSL clubs, by NSL team:

  • Calgary Wild: Sarah Griffith (Chicago Stars)
  • Halifax Tides: Milly Clegg (Racing Louisville)
  • Ottawa Rapid: Jyllissa Harris (Houston Dash)
  • AFC Toronto: Mya Jones (San Diego Wave), Victoria Pickett (North Carolina Courage), and Amanda West (Houston Dash)

Former NWSL players, by NSL team:

  • Calgary Wild: Meggie Dougherty Howard (Angel City)
  • Halifax Tides: Gunnhildur Yrsa Jónsdóttir (Orlando Pride), Erin McLeod (Orlando Pride)
  • Montréal Roses: Allie Hess (Kansas City)
  • Ottawa Rapid: Desiree Scott (Kansas City Current), Ngozi Okobi-Okeoghene (Washington Spirit)
  • AFC Toronto: Shaina Ashouri (Houston Dash), Sofia Manner (Orlando Pride), Croix Soto (Houston Dash)
  • Vancouver Rise: Mariah Lee (OL Reign), Quinn (Seattle Reign), Jasmyne Spencer (Angel City), Nicki Stanton (Seattle Reign)

League Details

The Basics

  • Number of Teams: 6
  • League Format: Single Table with a standard points system (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, no points for a loss)
  • Number of Regular Season Matches: 25 matches per team, 75 matches total
  • Post-Season: Top four teams, two-legged semifinals, single championship match
  • Relegation/Promotion: None

Online

The league’s website is at www.nsl.ca.

Social Media

How To Watch (Updated)

The day after this post was published, the NSL added a “How To Watch” page on their website.

In the United States

The ESPN+ streaming service (plus.espn.com) has the rights to stream at least 40 regular season and playoff matches for the inaugural 2025 season (NSL press release).

The remaining matches can all be watched for free on the NSL’s website.

The first match, on Wednesday, April 16, plus the next three matches, will all be available via the ESPN+ service:

On the league’s schedule page (www.nsl.ca/schedule), matches that will be available on ESPN+ are designated with the ESPN+ logo in the bottom right section.

In Canada

From the league’s press release for the schedule announcement:

All 75 Northern Super League regular season matches will be available nationally across multiple platforms. TSN will air 20 regular season games, while CBC will broadcast eight.

French-language coverage will be available for all Montreal Roses matches. RDS will broadcast 21 matches, while Radio-Canada will air four matches live on ICI TÉLÉ and ICI TOU.TV.

In addition to linear broadcasts, a ‘Game of the Week’ will stream on CBC Gem [gem.cbc.ca] and NSL.ca, while 24 additional matches will stream on TSN+ [www.tsn.ca/tsnplus] and NSL.ca.

The following is quoted from a more recent NSL press release:

All matches not airing on TSN or CBC will be available live on NSL.ca, with simultaneous streams on TSN+ [www.tsn.ca/tsnplus] and/or CBC Gem [gem.cbc.ca] and cbcsports.ca, depending on the match’s broadcast partner.

The league’s schedule page (www.nsl.ca/schedule) lists the broadcast partner(s) for each specific match.

Elsewhere

For those outside of Canada and the United States, all matches can be streamed for free on the NSL website.

Teams

Notes:

  • As of Sunday, April 13, teams have yet to publish official rosters.
  • The NSL website’s list of players (www.nsl.ca/players) is incomplete.
  • As of Sunday, April 13, AFC Toronto’s website is the only one with a proper roster page.
  • For the above reasons, the category lists of players for each teams may be incomplete.
  • The lists of international players for each team are intended to include only active internationals (e.g. called up in 2025 or 2024) and who thus could be called up during the NSL season.
  • For former NWSL players, only their last NWSL club is listed in parentheses after the player’s name.

Club Crests

Calgary Wild FC

Halifax Tides FC

Montréal Roses FC

Ottawa Rapid FC

  • Abbreviation: OTT
  • City/Province: Ottawa, Ontario
  • Website: www.rapidfc.ca
  • Instagram: @ottrapidfc
  • Bluesky: @ottrapidfc.bsky.social
  • x.com: @ottrapidfc
  • YouTube: n/a
  • Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Rapid_FC
  • Primary Stadium: TD Place Stadium (Google Maps)
  • Alternate Stadium: n/a
  • Head Coach: Katrine Pedersen
  • Sporting Director: Heidi Bloomfield (Chief Sport Officer)
  • Current NWSL Players: Jyllissa Harris (on loan from Houston Dash)
  • Former NWSL Players: Desiree Scott (Kansas City Current), Ngozi Okobi-Okeoghene (Washington Spirit)
  • Former CANWNT Players: Desiree Scott
  • International Players: Kayla Adamek (Poland), Lee Min-a (Korea Republic), Choo Hyo-joo (Korea Republic)
  • Other Notable Players: Johanne Fridlund, Delaney Baie Pridham (three seasons in the Damallsvenskan)

AFC Toronto

  • Abbreviation: TOR
  • City/Province: Toronto, Ontario
  • Website: www.afctoronto.ca
  • Instagram: @afc.toronto
  • Bluesky: @afctoronto.bsky.social
  • x.com: @AFC_Toronto
  • YouTube: @AFCToronto
  • Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFC_Toronto
  • Primary Stadium: York Lions Stadium (Google Maps)
  • Alternate Stadium: BMO Field (Google Maps)
  • Head Coach: Marko Milanović
  • Sporting Director: Billy Wilson
  • Current NWSL Players: Mya Jones (on loan from San Diego Wave), Victoria Pickett (on loan from North Carolina Courage), Amanda West (on loan from Houston Dash)
  • Former NWSL Players: Shaina Ashouri (Houston Dash), Sofia Manner (Orlando Pride), Croix Soto (Houston Dash)
  • Current CANWNT Players: Emma Regan
  • Former CANWNT Players: Victoria Pickett
  • International Players: Sierra Cota-Yarde (Portugal), Hong Hye-ji (Korea Republic), Esther Okoronkwo (Nigeria), Cloey Uddenberg (Saint Kitts & Nevis)
  • Other Notable Players: Jade Kovacevic (all-time leading scorer in League 1 Ontario), Leah Pais (won NCAA title with Florida State in 2023)

Vancouver Rise FC

2025 Regular Season Schedule Analysis

The inaugural season will essentially have a staggered start, as only four of the six teams will play during the opening week.

Unlike the NWSL, the Northern Super League will not take a break during July for the UEFA Women’s EURO and other confederation tournaments.

During the 2025 regular season, just 54 of the 75 matches will be played during a weekend (Friday to Sunday). Nine matches will be played on either a Tuesday or Wednesday, while 11 matches will be contested on Thursdays.

Calendar view showing the number of matches played on each day during the regular season

Summary — Number of Matches By Weekday:

  • Friday: 3
  • Saturday: 40
  • Sunday: 11
  • Monday: 2
  • Tuesday: 2
  • Wednesday: 7
  • Thursday: 10

For most of the 2025 regular season, the cumulative number of matches played by each club will be significantly unbalanced, with one team having two matches in hand compared to one or more of the other five teams. Except for the final day, all six teams will be on the same number of matches played just once (October 11).

Table showing the cumulative number of matches played by each team on every match day

With the league’s irregular schedule, some teams will have compressed stretches where they will have four or less “off days” between matches. Here, an “off day” is defined as a day where a match will not be played. Thus, if a team plays a match on a Saturday and does not play until the next Saturday, there are six “off days” between those matches. If a team plays on a Wednesday and then the following Saturday, there are just two off days between matches.

Table showing the number of “Off Days” between matches for each team, plus a summary table

Of the six teams, the Halifax Tide and the Ottawa Rapid are in the running for having the worst schedule:

  • Halifax has two stretches of four matches where they will have less than five off days before each match. The team has 10 matches with four or less off days, which is the most of any club.
  • For Ottawa, three times they will play three matches over eight days (e.g., Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday). In total, Ottawa will play eight matches with just two or three off days before those matches.

Calgary has the most regular schedule, with a series of 10 matches in a row on the same weekday (Saturday).

Vancouver also has a relatively uncompressed schedule, with a stretch of 14 matches where all but one has six or more off days before each match.