This was the game that everyone had been waiting for, The Challenge Cup final. North Carolina had the home advantage, but Washington won in 2021 and was looking to win for the second time in 2 years. It’s safe to say that this game lived up to what a Challenge Cup Final should be.
North Carolina got going fast. In the 10th minute, after Débora Cristiane de Oliveria (Debinha) was able to get past Kelly O’Hara, she dribbled past the halfway line, and played a perfectly placed through ball to Kerolin, one of Debinas's Brazilian national team teammates, who dribbled to the top of the 18-yard box and shot across her body; because she was moving so fast, she was able to catch Washington's goalkeeper off balance and give North Carolina the lead! North Carolina couldn’t hang on for long though. In the 35th minute, after Trinity Rodman played a through ball to Ashley Hatch, Hatch broke off from her defenders (yes she had multiple), caught up to the ball then shot across her body, putting it right inside the post! The game was all tied up! That was it for the first half, but the second half had a lot packed in. In the 68th minute, Kerolin from North Carolina received a cross and had a great opportunity to score, but a Spirit player slide tackled her, preventing the shot. There was a lot of debate if North Carolina should have received a PK, but they didn’t. Even with no PK, North Carolina made the most of what they had. After getting a corner off of the slide tackle, North Carolina was able to get their goal. After a lot of bouncing around in the box, it ended up being an own goal from Taylor Aylmer from the Washington Spirit. Although the score didn’t change the rest of the game and North Carolina would be Challenge Cup Champions, a lot more happened before the final whistle blew. On North Carolina's second goal, Aubrey Kingsbury (Washington Spirits goalkeeper) hit her head hard on the post, trying to dive to get to the ball. Thankfully she was ok. Kerolin, who had been slide tackled, had to get subbed out for an Ankle injury from the slide tackle. It was unclear if she was ok and North Carolina subbed her out to be precarious or if it was because of the injury. The biggest injury came in overtime of the game. Jordan Baggett from the Washington Spirit had a very bad collision with Debinha from the Courage and went down hard. She immediately needed medical attention and the ambulance stretcher needed to come on the field to help get her to the hospital. Baggett's own teammates ran the stretcher over to her because it was taking so long to get to her. It was never made clear what actually happened.
Although North Carolina took home the trophy, a lot of people were looking at how many injuries there were and questioning the NWSL. It was getting to the point where people were having to get taken to the hospital and the possibility of people getting serious head injuries; It concerned a lot of people about the safety of the players.
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