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Shadow women’s First Team returns, joins WPSL as expansion club

Spokane SC Shadow has joined the Women’s Premier Soccer League as an expansion club, adding one of the region’s top programs in women’s soccer development into the national league’s fold beginning in 2019.

The team will be the peak of a pyramid for the Spokane Sounders and Shadow youth program, and an affiliate of Seattle Sounders FC. The club’s players are comprised of players throughout eastern Washington and North Idaho.

“We are excited to be accepted into the WPSL,” club technical director Abbas Faridnia said. “The ability for soccer fans and players in our community to be a part of the women’s game at the highest possible level is now available.”

The club is no stranger to success at this level. The Shadow’s WPSL club will join its established National Premier Soccer League men’s side, which won the Northwest Conference title during its second season in the league in 2018. In addition, the Shadow women’s side previously played two seasons in the local Northwest Premier League, winning the inaugural league championship in 2016 and tying for the regular season title the following year with a combined record of 20-2 over both seasons, 19 goals allowed and a staggering differential of +81.

The Shadow’s 2019 WPSL opponents will be revealed at this weekend’s league AGM in Las Vegas.

The WPSL is in its 22nd season and is the largest women’s soccer league in the world with more than 100 clubs from coast to coast.

WPSL rosters feature elite collegiate, post-collegiate, international and standout prep student-athletes. Many of the United States’ most accomplished women’s players have played in the WPSL, including household names such as Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain.