Chawinga, trophy joy overcomes the oddity that was the Summer Cup

Naively, I didn't think confetti and a gleaming trophy could almost solve everything. All the cynicism in my body drained away. Celebrations ensued.

I was touching grass, the pitch at Toyota Field in San Antonio, Texas, to be exact. A few yards away, I watched the KC Current rejoice in their 2-0 win over NJ/NY Gotham FC in the NWSL x LigaMX Femenil Summer Cup final.

After the podium, after the fireworks, the 'Temwa Train' left the station. A snake of elite athletes danced and weaved across the pitch. A conga of sorts unfurled.

Driving the carriages was Temwa Chawinga, the Malawian sensation who had scored a brace in the final. Not just any brace but an almost identical pair of technically superb chipped finishes over goalkeeper Cassie Miller.

Showers of champagne sprayed in the direction of the victorious players and coaching staff. The confetti-rain turned into confetti-snow beneath their feet in the warm Texas night.

Joy became the overwhelming feeling. This is it. This is why we play the game.

"It means a lot to us," Chawinga told reporters, moments after celebrating with her teammates. "We have a lot of games coming now. So this cup should give us motivation, maybe to work harder to win another cup."

The Summer Cup was a flawed and abstract competition. In its inaugural year, it was used as a way for NWSL teams to to book some matches that wouldn't dilute league play during during the Olympics.

20 teams, 14 from the USA and six from Mexico, split into five groups of four where – checks notes – four group winners advance to the semifinals. Hmmmm....

Adding the six Mexican teams on paper was a fun way for the two leagues to cross-pollinate on and off the pitch. However, with the U.S. teams not traveling south of the border, this never felt particularly two-sided from a competitive fairness or a exposure point of view.

In addition to all the travel, the Liga MX Femenil cohort also had to balance squeezing matches into their Apertura season that began at the beginning of July. Club Tijuana had the near-impossible task of playing four matches in 10 days – two of those ended in heavy five-goal defeats to NWSL sides.

In terms of marketing, the competition fell flat too. Most teams saw slimmed down attendances during the Summer Cup games. Usually well supported teams, like Angel City and Washington Spirit, even moved matches away from their normal home stadiums and the cities in which they play.

Last Friday night's climax offered much of the same ill-thought out strangeness. Held during a FIFA international window, both teams were missing stars. Gotham in particular had a decimated squad and so called up seven players on one-match contracts.

Many complained that having the Summer Cup final in October made no sense. But Texas duly obliged and brought temperatures of 31c (88f) just to make sure it felt like verano.

Speaking from a media angle, there were no lanyards and I didn't even have a credential. I borrowed a piece of string (yes a piece of string) to fix the make-do paper media credential, that I filled out myself with a pen, to my lapel.

Then, there was the location. Again, a fun idea in theory. To have the final in a neutral site where there isn't much of a footprint at all of the NWSL or women's football.

For players, perhaps it added a more positive novelty. Winning captain Lo LaBonta, who confessed she had never previously been to the Alamo city before, shouted out San Antonio for being great hosts.

Current forward Michelle Cooper concurred with her captain.

"The vibe was fun," said Cooper. "I'm glad we had as many fans as we did. It would always be nice to sell out a place, but to be able to have a team from New York/New Jersey and a team from Kansas City come to neutral site and still have as many fans as we do, and they're still out here asking for signatures. They're great supporters."

The stadium was less than half full. With just over 3,500 tickets distributed, and slightly less in the ground on the night, it felt like a missed opportunity. I spoke to about a dozen attendees who ranged from locals to KC Current and Gotham season ticket holders.

The locals mostly had ties to the stadium owners San Antonio FC, or their parent owners the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA. People had either received free tickets or heard about it through local communications.

There was also people like Alex Castillo, a resident of Austin who had been at the USWNT match the night before at Austin's Q2 Stadium, and is a season ticket holder for WPSL team Austin Rise FC.

Castillo felt surprised that despite living 70 miles away, and being a self-confessed huge fan of soccer and women's soccer, she had received no marketing about the match, either physical, email, or social media. She and her friend Lauren relied on word of mouth.

"I just love to support women's soccer in any capacity. And it's really cool to see stars up front. So that's what I'm most excited about. I'm pretty neutral today," said Castillo.

Marissa and Daniel Kooser are from Topeka, Kansas, and had flown down to watch their favourite team for Marissa's birthday.

This was the couple's second time flying out for a Current game. The first was the 2022 NWSL Championship final in Washington D.C. For them, the fact this was a cup final felt like reason enough to splurge and be there to witness it.

"If they're gonna win a trophy, we have to be there," Marissa said. "It's a shame there's two NWSL teams in a way. There probably would have been a better attendance if there had been at least one Mexican team, but there's still a good noise."

Beyond the small but raucous KC traveling fans in bright red, and a smattering of Gotham stans wearing black, the most visible shirts on show were that of Mexican teams like Club America and UANL Tigres.

Travelers who came via the airport said they saw no promotion about the match. Likewise, those driving around San Antonio experienced no advertising for the final. It almost felt like a hidden secret despite billboards for everything under the sun covering the horizon.

By making it out of the group stages, into the semifinals and then the final, the Current and Gotham players played an extra five matches of first-team soccer. Of which, the compensation wasn't clear.

We do know that KC were awarded $55,000 for winning the Summer Cup, but that is to be split between a playing group of around 22-28 players. Perhaps around $2,000 to $2,500 a player.

This prize money doesn't match the 2024 Challenge Cup, which was a one-off match where players took home $3,500 each as a prize.

It also pails in comparison to the 2023 Challenge Cup that saw a record $1,000,000 shared between the semifinal teams, with the eventual winners taking home over $10,000 each.

"It's a work in progress," is how Gotham goalkeeper Abby Smith described the tournament. In the final, Smith, a Texas native, made her comeback first appearance after 433 days out with injuries.

"There's so many aspects of expanding the competition. We need to make sure that we're still playing, paying the players, and also, like providing the proper recovery. There's a lot of changes, more games to be added. And so obviously people are figuring things out as we go," Smith said.

So, underpaid, under-marketed, overly hot and put in a a window where both teams would be missing players. It doesn't scream elite competition.

But as I said at the beginning, somehow the night managed to be salvaged by tremendous moments on the pitch and revelry in the aftermath.

Not for the first time, the NWSL has managed to fashion a glimmering trophy that walks the walk. I just wish there was as much though going into the fabricating that metal as there was into everything else.

NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman not being present to talk the talk spoke for itself.

At least we had the confetti and the 'Temwa Train', deep in the heart of Texas. Joy overcomes. That I will never forget.