The NWSL Challenge Cup is upon us, which means it is again time to question its purpose and future.What was created as the NWSL’s month-long return to play tournament during the summer of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Challenge Cup has been a one-off match since 2024 between the league’s championship winners and regular season winners — assuming they are two different teams. (In 2025, Orlando Pride won both titles, so NWSL Championship runners-up Washington Spirit were their opponents.)For 2026, the 2025 title-holders Gotham FC face off against the 2025 Shield-winning Kansas City Current in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday at 8 p.m. ET, streaming on Prime Video.The history of the Challenge Cup will linger in ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, even as the NWSL itself barely resembles the league that existed in the summer of 2020. Looking back at our own coverage of the inaugural tournament, held in a bubble in Utah, The Athletic — and most fans — considered the tournament a success, despite plenty of concern over player health and safety before the return to play.The NWSL was the first professional league in the United States to resume games that summer after the sports world had come to a halt that March, forcing most people to settle for historical replays on YouTube or watch competitive marble racing. The month-long tournament format benefitted the league, providing March Madness-like narratives and an easy entry point for new viewers. (It also gave us one of the best moments of NWSL lore when the Houston Dash won and Kristie Mewis celebrated appropriately.)Kristie Mewis celebrates the Houston Dash winning the inaugural Challenge Cup tournament in 2020. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)By the next year, the Challenge Cup had become a preseason tournament, already relegated to a competition without a clear purpose within the NWSL hierarchy. In 2022, the cup final between the Washington Spirit and North Carolina Courage turned ugly with increased physicality (and Spirit players sprinting for a stretcher for one of their own) after an entertaining first half. “The plot was lost in the second,” we wrote, “with the league’s problems concerning scheduling, officiating and player safety on display on big CBS.”