Washington Spirit scored twice in the first half – and held on through the second – of a long match to win their second straight victory this afternoon, finishing 2-1 against the Utah Royals.

Both teams looked even early on, with neither taking a shot in the first 10 minutes. According to interim head coach Adrián González, starting the game strong was something his team has been working on. After conceding in the first 15 minutes of each of their past two games, González said “we want to keep the game 0-0 in the first 15.” After achieving that goal, the Spirit were the first to break through with some promising attacks and saw success when Croix Bethune was fouled in the box in the 18th minute.

Washington’s typical penalty kick taker, Ashley Hatch, was out, so Andi Sullivan stepped up to the spot. Her kick was delayed by a VAR review of the penalty, causing her to have to reset and “run through my routine again” after the referee finally cleared her to kick, Sullivan said. Royals goalkeeper Mandy Haught guessed correctly, but Sullivan’s shot was powerful enough to bypass Haught’s dive, putting the Spirit up by 1 in the 21st minute.

The game was again delayed by VAR minutes later after a dangerous slide tackle against Hal Hershfelt. After about 5 minutes of review, the referee showed only a yellow to Utah’s Dana Foederer. The Spirit jumped on the opportunity that the re-start provided, going immediately on the attack.

Just one minute later, Trinity Rodman sent a high cross into the box. Ouleye Sarr jumped for it and sent a header arcing over Haught into the far right corner of the goal. Sarr’s goal would end up being the game-winner for the Spirit and earned Rodman a record-breaking 12th assist with the Spirit.

Washington controlled the game and had most of the chances for much of the second half, but Utah were eventually able to adjust and break through. In the 71st minute, rookie Ally Sentnor took a strong shot from just outside the box, slotting it past Spirit defenders and Aubrey Kingsbury to put her team on the board.

From there, the run of play evened out again, but neither team was able to score another goal and Washington won the game.

“We had opportunities to seal it, kind of, in the second half. Unfortunately we didn’t do that, and we just had to survive and defend a lot,” Sullivan said after the match. “We defended and survived, but we made it harder on ourselves than we needed to so we’re really glad that we won, but… we could be happier.”

Sitll, the Easter Sunday victory showed a lot of progress on the part of the Spirit and means they’ll go into an international break in 4th place.

Three takeaways 

• Stoppage time woes. At least three stoppages to review VAR meant that this game ran an additional 24 minutes beyond regulation, combining both halves’ stoppage time. Since VAR’s implementation in the NWSL, game times have been increasing leaguewide. After today’s match, González acknowledged the physical and mental strain this places on players. “We prepare the game to play 90 minutes,” González said. “We need to adapt now.” Both he and Sullivan expressed hope that something could be done to shorten the time it takes to review decisions.
• Ricketts mix-up. Washington didn’t help shorten the game when they unintentionally made an illegal substitution late in the second half. Chloe Ricketts took the field in the 86th minute but never got to see any play time, as it was quickly discovered that she had been left off of the Spirit’s official roster for the match. After some discussion, Courtney Brown was returned to the pitch in her place and saw out the rest of the game well, but the administrative error was no doubt upsetting for Ricketts, who would have made her season debut.
• Corner work. The game revealed one way for the Spirit to increase their goals per game: better set piece conversion. The team earned 8 corners in this match but didn’t convert any of them.

Box Score

NWSL Regular Season –  Game 3

Washington Spirit 2 (Sullivan 21′ (P), Sarr 30′)

Utah Royals 1 (Sentnor 71′)

Lineups

Washington Spirit (433): Aubrey Kingsbury (C); Casey Krueger, Annaïg Butel, Tara McKeown, Gabby Carle; Croix Bethune, Andi Sullivan (Paige Metayer 86′), Hal Hershfelt; Trinity Rodman, Ouleye Sarr (Brittany Ratcliffe 79′), Courtney Brown

Utah Royals (4231): Amanda Haught; Madison Pogarch, Kaleigh Riehl, Kate del Fava, Olivia Smith-Griffiths; Dana Foederer (Cam Tucker 83′), Frankie Tagliaferri (Ify Onumonu 45′), Agnes Nyberg; Paige Monaghan (C) (Brecken Mozingo 73′), Hannah Betfort, Allyson Sentnor

Misconduct Summary

Washington Spirit:  none

Utah Royals:  Foederer 28′; del Fava 49′

Featured image courtesy of the Washington Spirit