The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) kicked off its season Saturday, making it the first major sports league to begin since the coronavirus pandemic halted the season.
The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) kicked off its season Saturday, making it the first major sports league to begin since the coronavirus pandemic halted the season.
During the national anthem, players from the North Carolina Courage and the Portland Thorns FC took a knee at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah, while wearing Black Lives Matter shirts.
„We took a knee today to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and systemic racism against Black people and people of color in America,“ the players of both teams said in an online statement.
„We love our country, and we have taken this opportunity to hold it to a higher standard. It is our duty to demand that the liberties and freedoms this nation was founded upon are extended to everyone.“
Saturday’s game jump-started the league’s shortened 30-day tournament called the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup, a shift from the regularly scheduled full season, which usually runs from April to October with all nine teams scheduled to play 24 season games.
