The Northern Super League’s first regular season was a major success, as the upstart league provided plenty of action and entertainment on the pitch while capturing the attention of soccer fans across Canada.
The NSL is the country’s first professional women’s league, featuring six clubs: AFC Toronto, Ottawa Rapid FC, Vancouver Rise FC, Montreal Roses FC, Calgary Wild FC and Halifax Tides FC.
The 25-match regular season wrapped up in late October with the top four teams in the final standings advancing to the post-season, which kicks off this weekend.
Here’s what you need to know about the 2025 NSL playoffs.
The semifinals are a two-legged, home-and-away series. If the aggregate score is tied at the end of regulation time in the second match, the game will go to extra time, and penalties if necessary.
The two semifinal winners advance to the final on Nov. 15 at Toronto’s BMO Field where they will battle for the newly minted Diana B. Matheson Cup.
The league’s championship trophy is named after Diana Matheson, a former Canadian women’s national team midfielder who played a pivotal role in the formation of the NSL. Matheson scored 19 goals in 206 appearances and won a pair of Olympic bronze medals with the Canadian women’s team from 2003 to 2020. She was inducted into the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Leg 1: AFC Toronto vs. Montreal Roses FC, Nov. 1 at Stade Boréale
Leg 2: Monreal Roses FC vs. AFC Toronto, Nov. 9 at York Lions Stadium
Leg 1: Vancouver Rise FC vs. Ottawa Rapid FC, Nov. 4 at Swangard Stadium
Leg 2: Ottawa Rapid FC vs. Vancouver Rise FC, Nov. 8 at TD Place Stadium
This should be an interesting matchup as it pits the team that boasted the NSL’s best offence against the league’s best defence: AFC Toronto scored 42 goals, while Montreal conceded just 23 times.
Toronto enters the playoffs with momentum after going unbeaten in its last five matches of the campaign (with four wins). Four of its players were named to the NSL team of the season: forward Kaylee Hunter and Esther Okoronkwo (who combined for 22 goals), midfielder Emma Regan (who played every minute of all 25 games) and defender Colby Barnett.
Montreal went winless in its last four matches of the regular season (three losses) and closed out the campaign with a road defeat in Toronto. Goals were somewhat hard to come by for the Roses – they only found the back of the net 30 times and were shut out on nine occasions.
Toronto won the Supporters’ Shield trophy as the regular season champions with a 16-3-6 record and topped the table by 12 points. Montreal (10-6-9) finished fourth, seven points above the playoff line.
The regular season series
Despite the 15-point gap between the clubs, the regular season series was quite close. Montreal ruined Toronto’s home debut in April when it posted a 1-0 win at BMO Field. Toronto ended up winning three of the next four games, including a 2-1 home decision on Oct. 19 on the final day of the season.
Toronto player to watch: Kaylee Hunter
Still only 17, Hunter is coming off an amazing campaign in which she won the NSL’s rookie of the year award and was named to the league’s team of the season. The Calgary native was a major offensive threat for AFC Toronto by scoring 14 goals (good enough for second in the Golden Boot race) and tallying three assists in 21 games. She’s carrying an injury and might only see limited minutes in the first leg. But she would still pose a threat against Montreal coming off the bench.
Montreal player to watch: Stéphanie Hill
Montreal boasted the league’s best defensive record during the regular season with just 23 goals against. Hill, a 23-year-old centre back from Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que., played a starring role in Montreal’s back line and was named to the league’s team of the season. She also proved to be an offensive weapon by scoring five goals.
Ottawa finished a distant second behind table toppers AFC Toronto, but the club from the nation’s capital is coming off a strong campaign in which it scored 41 goals (second best in the league) and conceded just 26 times (third best). Rapid won three of their final five games of the regular season, including their last two, and will be looking to give Desiree Scott a proper sendoff. The 38-year-old midfielder, who won an Olympic gold and two bronze medals for Canada, is retiring at the end of this year.
Vancouver suffered a 2-1 road loss to Calgary in its final contest of the regular season. Had the Rise collected a point from that game, they would’ve edged out Ottawa for second place and hosted the decisive second leg of the semifinals.
Ottawa finished the regular season in a tie with Vancouver on 36 points – both had identical 11-8-6 records. But the capital club edged the Rise for second place by virtue of a superior goal differential, which was the first tiebreaker.
The regular season series
Both teams won two out of the five games they played against each other, but Vancouver earned a 2-0 road win in their last encounter on Oct. 8.
Vancouver player to watch: Morgan McAslan
McAslan, a 25-year-old from Waterdown, Ont., won the NSL’s Golden Glove award for goalkeeper with the most shutouts (nine) this season. McAslan kept a clean sheet in Vancouver’s first ever game, a 1-0 victory over the Calgary Wild, and posted shutouts in two of her team’s final three outings of the season. She ended up starting in all but one of Vancouver’s 25 matches, logging 2,160 minutes in total.
Ottawa player to watch: Delaney Baie Pridham
Who was the best player during the NSL’s inaugural campaign? Look no further than Pridham, a 28-year-old who won the Golden Boot award as the league’s top scorer with 17 goals. Pridham also had three assists in 25 games for Ottawa en route to winning the league’s MVP award and the forward of the year honour, as well as being named to the NSL’s team of the season. A dual Canadian-American citizen born in California, she also led the NSL in shots (83) and shots on target (42), and scored the first hat trick in league history in June.
John Molinaro is one of the leading soccer journalists in Canada, having covered the game for over 26 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. He is currently the editor-in-chief of TFC Republic, a website dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer.
