Despite impressive efforts from both the Seattle Reign and Chicago Red Stars in the 2018 NWSL semifinals, the final two teams standing during this 2018 NWSL season that will meet in the Championship are the same two that played in the 2017 final – the 2018 NWSL Shield Winners North Carolina Courage and the reigning NWSL Champions Portland Thorns.

This year, Portland will have a distinct advantage, as the Championship Game venue that was selected months ago will be Providence Park, home stadium of the Thorns, and home to some of the best fans in all of women’s soccer. The atmosphere is sure to create a historic night in the history of the women’s pro game in the USA.

U.S. WNT head coach Jill Ellis named her 20-player roster for the 2018Concacaf Women’s Championship on September 19, and six of those players will be on the field for the NWSL title game: Abby Dahlkemper, Crystal Dunn and Samantha Mewisfor North Carolina; and Tobin Heath, newly crowned NWSL MVP Lindsey Horan, and Emily Sonnett for the Thorns. Additionally, Adrianna Franch (Portland) and Merritt Mathias (NC) will also join the WNT for training to help the USA prepare for World Cup qualifying.

With almost a third of the U.S. WNT qualifying roster vying for the league crown on Saturday, here are a few things to keep in mind when you tune into the match:

HOW TO WATCH

The 2018 NWSL Championship will air live starting at 4:30 p.m. ET on Lifetime in the U.S. For international viewers, the game will be available on nwslsoccer.com and the NWSL app. For complete social coverage check out twitter @NWSL.

HOW THEY GOT HERE
Due to Hurricane Florence, the North Carolina vs. Chicago Red Stars semifinal had to be moved from Cary, N.C. and was relocated to Providence Park, where the courage won 2-0 to advance to the Final. North Carolina was far and away the top team in the league for the entire year. With 17 wins in a 24-game regular season, the team finished with a record-breaking 57 points – a whopping 15 points ahead of second-place Portland – and easily won the NWSL Shield for the second year in a row.However, North Carolina will be playing in front of an extremely partisan and sold out crowd at Providence Park as the Courage attempt to avenge last year’s loss. Through the first five years of the league, no NWSL Shield winner has ever won the NWSL Championship.

Portland had a rollicking but interesting year. Plagued by injuries early on, the Thorns rallied to finish strong, beating Seattle in their regular season finale to jump over the Reign and into second place in the final standings, earning the right to host the semifinal. Against their Pacific Northwest rival in the semifinal, the Thorns came from a goal down with scores from Horan and Heath to take the match 2-1 and give themselves a chance to match FC Kansas City and become the second team in NWSL history to win back-to-back NWSL titles.

2017 REWIND
The 2018 game will be a rematch of the 2017 final, which saw the Portland Thorns earn their second title in franchise history with a 1-0 win vs. the North Carolina Courage at Orlando City Stadium in Orlando, Fla. Lindsey Horan scored the lone goal of the match in the 50th minute and was named NWSL Championship MVP.

U.S. WNT IN ACTION
Portland: The 2018 season was a comeback season of sorts for WNT forward Tobin Heath. After missing almost all of 2017 and some early parts of 2018 due to injuries, Heath came back into action midway through the year and has slowly regained her form to once again become one of the most lethal players on the pitch. In the regular season, Heath finished with seven goals and seven assists – second most on the league – in just 17 appearances, and was named to the NWSL Best XI. WNT defender Emily Sonnett built on her successful 2017 with another strong season in the 2018. Also named also to the NWSL Best XI, Sonnett started all 21 games she appeared in, subbing off only twice. Perhaps nobody had a better year than 24-year-old WNT midfielder Lindsey Horan. Horan’s 2017 – for both club and country –showed promise, but in 2018 she really excelled on the field. The 2018 NWSL MVP was a key player for the Thorns all year, playing every minute in 22 regular season games she appeared in and scoring 13 goals, third-best on the league, with six of them coming on headers. Named to the NWSL Best XI, Horan led the league in total touches (1,852) and duels won (297), including aerial duels (141) and is the first MVP to not win the Golden Boot on the same season (that honor went to Australian international and Red Stars forward Sam Kerr who tallied 16 goals).

North Carolina: After recovering from an injury suffered at the end of 2017, WNT midfielder Samantha Mewis returned to the field midway through the season and slowly began to regain her form. Mewis finished the regular season playing in 18 games with 12 starts, and scored three goals. If there was any doubt of whether Mewis was feeling 100 percent, she proved that she was back to the form which saw her start every WNT game last year when she struck a world-class goal from distance against Chicago in the semifinal that clinched the game and earned her a mention on SportsCenter’s Top-10 plays.

For WNT defenders Crystal Dunn and Abby Dahlkepmer, both named to this year’s NWSL Best XI, 2018 was another excellent year. Traded to North Carolina right at the start of the season, Dunn quickly meshed well with her new team, playing in 23 games and scoring six goals with seven assists. Dahlkemper played every minute of every game she appeared in and marshalled the best defense in the league, which allowed only 17 goals – least in the league – and maintained a perfect record at home.

After two post-Olympic years of growth and progress, on Oct. 4, 2018, the U.S. Women’s National Team will begin its quest for a spot in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup when it takes on Mexico inside the confines of Sahlen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. The USA will also be pursuing a sixth Concacaf World Cup qualifying title.

• 20 Players Named for 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship

Placed into Group A at the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship alongside Mexico, Panama and Trinidad & Tobago, the USA will be looking to advance out of the group and into the all-important semifinals in Frisco, Texas.

The 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship features eight countries divided into two groups of four with each group’s top two finishers after round-robin play advancing to the semifinals. The two finalists and the winner of the third-place match will qualify directly to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France. The fourth-place finisher will earn a spot in a two-game playoff against Argentina, which finished third in South America qualifying, for a final berth to the tournament.

2018 WCQ Schedule

Top of the Region
There has been a total of seven Concacaf World Cup Qualifying tournaments contested for women’s soccer, dating back to the first one hosted by Haiti in 1991.

The USA has been crowned champion on five occasions: 1991, 1994, 2002, 2006 and 2014. In 2010, the USA lost to Mexico in the semifinal and had to win the third-place match to earn a home-and-away playoff against Italy to book its World Cup spot, which it did with a 2-0 aggregate victory. As host of the 1999 Women’s World Cup, the USA did not compete in the 1998 edition which was won by Canada. The Canadians also won the tournament in 2010.

Besides the one setback in Cancun, Mexico in 2010, the U.S. Women have been incredibly successful during qualifying. Throughout 28 total qualifying matches, it has outscored opponents 158-5, and has only lost once.

A Solid Mix Comes Together in North Carolina
Continuing the theme that has been seen on the U.S. WNT roster for the last two years, this 20-player squad brings together a mix of familiarity and novelty. Evenly split up the middle, 10 players on the roster have previous WCQ experience, while 10 are new to World Cup qualifying. Only four have never participated in any regional competition at the senior level. These players are: Defenders Abby Dahlkemper, Hailie Mace, Casey Short and midfielder Rose Lavelle. The remainder 16 players have, if not at World Cup qualifying, at least been part of a Concacaf Olympic Qualifying roster.

Of the ten players with previous Women’s World Cup qualifying experience, four have played in multiple qualifying tournaments. This will be the fourth World Cup qualifying tournament for forward Carli Lloyd, while forwards Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe and defender Becky Sauerbrunn will compete in their third.

The other players who were on the team for the 2014 qualifying tournament are: Morgan Brian, Julie Ertz, Ashlyn Harris, Tobin Heath, Kelley O’Hara and Christen Press. Crystal Dunn, who was named to the roster for the 2014 tournament before an injury ruled her out, will be playing in her first World Cup qualifying competition at the senior level. She was replaced by Julie Johnston, now Ertz, on that 2014 roster, but Ertz did not see action.

Scoring Goals Is What They Do
The six U.S. forwards on the USA’s qualifying roster have combined for 28 of the 37 goals this year. All six have played in a world championship, and five of them have played in multiple world championships. Alex Morgan leads the USA in scoring this year with 10 goals, followed by Mallory Pugh with six and Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe with four each.

In U.S. WNT World Cup qualifying history, Lloyd leads the USA with seven goals, while Rapinoe has three and Heath, Morgan and Press have two each.

Alex Morgan has scored 10 goals so far in 2018 to lead all goal scorers.

Watch it on FOX
FOX Sports, the home of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, will show 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship across the FOX Sports family of networks. For viewers on the go, matches can be streamed live via FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app.