The Northern Super League will make its long-awaited debut in Canada

The GIST: It’s here — the Northern Super League (NSL), Canada’s new pro women’s soccer league, makes its long-awaited debut tonight at 10 p.m. ET, with Calgary Wild FC taking on Vancouver Rise FC in the inaugural match.

• Ahead of the first whistle, here’s everything you need to know about the NSL, including how it stands to impact the Great White North’s footy landscape.

NSL will help foster CanWNT’s FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC) ambitions: The Red and White are no strangers to the international stage, having won one gold and two bronze Olympic medals. But there’s one thing every WWC–winning team has in common: a domestic league of their own.

• That’s where Diana Matheson, a former CanWNT star herself, drew her inspiration after retiring from the pitch three years ago. With the launch of the NSL, Canadian talent will now have a place to grow and develop on home turf instead of heading abroad.

• What’s more, thanks to CanWNT’s decades-long cultural impact, the NSL already has a built-in fan base of women’s footy supporters, not to mention a stacked investor roster including track & field icon Andre De Grasse and the incomparable Christine Sinclair.

Now let’s get to the teams: The NSL will feature six squads — Halifax Tides FC, Montreal Roses FC, Ottawa Rapid FC, AFC Toronto, Calgary Wild FC, and Vancouver Rise FC — for its first two seasons, with the intention of eventually expanding further across Canada.

• Tonight’s headliner will see 17 Canadian players on the pitch, among them Vancouver veteran midfielder Quinn and Calgary winger (and former GIST employee!) Christie Gray. There’s no place like home.