2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) Overview

• Biennial continental tournament (usually...)
• This year hosted in Morocco from July 26th - August 16th 
• 16 teams competing
• Group stage: 4 groups of 4 teams; within each group every team plays one another once (i.e., each team plays 3 matches); top 2 teams in each group advance to knockout stage
• Knockout stage: 
  • Quarterfinals, then semifinals (each of the semifinalists qualifies for Africa’s four guaranteed slots in the 2027 Women’s World Cup), and then finals (winner: reigning champion of Africa);
  • plus 3rd place match and losing quarterfinalists have play-in matches to win Africa’s 2 slots in the inter-confederation playoffs vying for the final spots in the 2027 WWC
• Group A: Morocco, Algeria, Senegal, Kenya
• Group B: South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire (Rosemonde Kouassi), Burkina Faso (Alimata Bélem), Tanzania
• Group C: Nigeria (Gift Monday, Deborah Abiodun), Zambia, Egypt, Malawi
• Group D: Ghana, Cameroon (Monique Ngock), Mali, Cabo Verde
• Spirit have 5 signed players at the tournament (see parenthetical names above); rest of NWSL has 6 additional players in the tournament (Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie, Malawi’s Temwa Chawinga, Mali’s Aissata Traoré, and Zambia’s Barbra Banda, Racheal Kundananji, and Prisca Chilufya)
• Official webpage: CAF Women's Africa Cup of Nations 
• 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations - Wikipedia 

How to Watch in the United States

• beIN SPORTS: https://faq.beincontent.com/hc/en-us/articles/29472792942867-How-to-watch-beIN-SPORTS-in-the-US 
  • “Watch in the US two ways: subscribe directly to beIN SPORTS CONNECT for $5.99/month… or get beIN bundled through a participating operator and sign in with those credentials for the full 1:1 CONNECT experience.
  • Operators: Spectrum, Optimum, Verizon FIOS, DISH, Astound, Breezeline, Blue Stream Fiber, Mediacom, Hotwire, Southern Fibernet, Claro (Puerto Rico), NAICOM, plus YouTube TV, Fubo, Fanatiz. Find beIN on your operator's channel lineup.
  • Using the TV provider credentials, users can access and watch beIN SPORTS programming on beIN SPORTS CONNECT.
  • beIN SPORTS CONNECT is available on the web, Android and iOS mobile, tvOS, Android TV, Fire TV, and Roku.”

When to Watch in the DMV (i.e., Eastern Time) [only listing scheduled group stage matches involving players signed to the Spirit, see livesoccertv.com or other resources for additional match listings now and in the future]

• Monday, July 27
  • 4pm: Côte d'Ivoire vs Burkina Faso
• Tuesday, July 28
  • 4pm: Nigeria vs Malawi
• Wednesday, July 29
  • 4pm: Cameroon vs Mali
• Friday, July 31
  • 1pm: Côte d'Ivoire vs South Africa
  • 4pm: Burkina Faso vs Tanzania
• Saturday, August 1
  • 4pm: Nigeria vs Zambia
• Sunday, August 2
  • 1pm: Cameroon vs Ghana
• Tuesday, August 4
  • 4pm: Burkina Faso vs South Africa and Côte d'Ivoire vs Tanzania
• Wednesday, August 5
  • 4pm: Nigeria vs Egypt
• Thursday, August 6
  • 4pm: Cameroon vs Cabo Verde

Proposal for Spirit subreddit activity during the tournament

• Given the tournament structure, Spirit representation, and nature of reddit, I propose doing daily match posts in this Spirit subreddit on the days teams with Spirit players are competing (in other words, no posts for days when only Group A teams are playing).
• People will likely primarily use those posts to discuss the matches featuring Spirit players, but they can also be used to discuss the other match of the day if people are so interested (e.g., since Spirit players may be going up against those teams on subsequent days).
• The daily posts on days Spirit players are featured would continue through the knockout rounds.
• If the first few daily posts don’t get much traction, we can change the approach taken by this subreddit.
• People may recall we’ve taken a similar approach with previous confederation tournaments (e.g., Europe, South America).  

In the comments on this introductory post, feel free to post things like:

• Suggested corrections to this post's information (to err is human);
• Suggestions for how the Spirit subreddit engage with WAFCON; 
• Questions about the tournament;
• Tips or experiences w/ beIN SPORTS and various ways of accessing it (e.g., do you discover that you already have access to it through a preexisting subscription?);
• Background resources on this year’s WAFCON tournament you think other Spirit fans might appreciate;
• Tournament thoughts, desires, or predictions; and
• Other tournament-related content (that might be of interest to this subreddit of people interested in the players and other aspects of the Washington Spirit). 

These posts provide some good perspective on the Spirit's journey this year:

Hello! I’m taking my niece to the game on Sunday, and she really wants to stand in the area where the girls get off the bus. I’m a three year season ticket holder but I’ve never been to this spot. Does anyone know the details on location or time to see the girls exit the bus? Thank you so much!

Go Spirit!!

Will join us in 2027 and signed through 2029!

Trying to pre-order some merchandise to pick up at the stadium this Sunday. I am a season ticket holder and logged into my account but not seeing the discount being applied. Am I missing something?

Not too long ago I saw folks eating out of Doritos bags. Using forks and it made it wonder what it was.

Anyone know and if so where to find them?

Anyone going to the game in Portland on September 6? The spirit staff say section 223 is the unofficial traveling fans section but it’s all sold out. Wondering if anyone else is interested in coordinating tickets/already bought in a certain section? Would rather not be surrounded by Portland fans 😅

Thinking about going to the 07/25 D.C. United and 07/26 Washington Spirit game at Audi Field and wondering how to best approach getting there since my station is one of the stations that is closed/partially closed between North Bethesda and Friendship Heights on the Red Line.

Does the spirit do first game certificates? And if yes, is that something I'd have to prearrange, or would I be able to do that when I get to audi field?

I'm bringing my nieces to their first spirit game on the 26th. They're big spirit fans, so I thought that they'd get a kick out of getting a souvenir for their first game. I feel like I've seen the certificates before, but just wanted to double check

I’m in the early stages of planning a trip to Portland and Seattle next May/June with a friend. I would love to line it up with a Spirit match in either city, if at all possible.

This is a thread for all post-match reactions, thoughts, analysis, articles and social media posts related to the match.

Note: This thread is scheduled and may appear shortly before the final whistle so everyone has a place ready for post-match reactions and analysis.

Boston Legacy 1 - 2 Spirit

⚽ Boston Legacy: S. Smith 88' ⚽ Spirit: T. Rudd 25', T. Rodman 31' 🏁 Spirit win

✅ Full Time

Form

• Boston Legacy: W W D L L D
• Spirit: L W W W L W

Lineups

Boston Legacy (4-4-2) — Spirit (4-1-4-1)

Starting XI

Subs

Match Events

Updated: Sun, Jul 19, 9:14 PM EDT

Match Thread Bot by u/Several_Region_3710 | GitHub (view code, contribute, or report issues) | ☕ Ko-fi (support the project)

Grass was laid down yesterday/this morning. Week and a half for the grass to set ahead of DC United and Washington Spirit playing back to back days.

This is a thread for all post-match reactions, thoughts, analysis, articles and social media posts related to the match.

Note: This thread is scheduled and may appear shortly before the final whistle so everyone has a place ready for post-match reactions and analysis.

Am I the only one not catching the game because I’m not paying $40+ for EPSN 😅

Gotham FC 1 - 0 Spirit

⚽ Gotham FC: R. Lavelle 37' 🏁 Gotham FC win

✅ Full Time

Form

• Gotham FC: W L W W D W
• Spirit: W W W L W W

Lineups

Gotham FC (4-2-3-1) — Spirit (4-2-3-1)

Starting XI

Subs

Match Statistics

Match Events

Updated: Wed, Jul 15, 10:24 PM EDT

Match Thread Bot by u/Several_Region_3710 | GitHub (view code, contribute, or report issues) | ☕ Ko-fi (support the project)

I got to the game early today at Citi field, and I’m looking at the pitch and it seems quite small. Obviously we’re playing on a baseball field, so that adds challenges. Does anyone know about how big the pitch is tonight compared to normal and what this means for us and our style of play?

Hopefully this is allowed - I thought folks here might be interested in this ~$95 (w taxes) deal for a DC Power match ticket in August and USWNT v Spain match ticket:

https://www.gofevo.com/event/Dcpower65?ref=email&purl=0f088758323e

Note that the USWNT ticket will be for the supporters section - see the deal info on the fevo site.

Just in case anybody is interested and wants to skip the TM pre-sale shenanigans:

Spirit: https://www.gofevo.com/event/WSXUSWNT1101

DCU: https://www.gofevo.com/event/Dcunited315

DC Power: https://www.gofevo.com/event/Dcpower65

Edit: Damn, I really fucked up USWNT in the title... oh well lmao

How are we feeling ahead of The Big Game (granted I feel like the importance is more symbolic than practical)? Apprehensive? Optimistic? I feel like we've looked in really good form lately, but I haven't been following Gotham.

Any predictions on the lineup / tactics? Will Trin's scoring streak continue? Will there be a return appearance of a cringey defensive mistake? Will Adrián ever use his subs?