NWSL players kneel during the national anthem

Players for the Portland Thorns and the North Carolina Courage knelt during the national anthem Saturday when the National Women's Soccer League opened the Challenge Cup tournament in Utah.

The players wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts in warmups before the game, which was nationally televised on CBS. In addition to the anthem, the players knelt for a moment of silence before kickoff.

“We took a knee today to protest racial injustice, police brutality and systemic racism against black people and people of color in America. We love our country and we have taken this opportunity to hold it to a higher standard. It is our duty to demand that the liberties and freedoms this nation was founded upon are extended to everyone,” the Thorns and Courage said in a joint statement released before the game.

The league said Friday that it would play the national anthem before the Challenge Cup games and that it would support the players in whatever they chose to do.

The NWSL is the first professional team sport in the United States to return amid the coronavirus outbreak. The monthlong Challenge Cup opened Saturday with a pair of games at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah.

Megan Rapinoe, who plays for OL Reign but opted out of the Challenge Cup, was criticized when she knelt at a NWSL game and a pair of national team games in 2016. She said she wanted to express solidarity with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during the anthem to bring attention to racial inequality.

In response, U.S. Soccer adopted a rule that required players to stand. But that rule was repealed earlier this month amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd and racial inequity.

Rapinoe voiced her support for the NWSL players Saturday on social media: “You love to see these women using their voice, demanding better for America, and for black people and people of color.”