Ratcliffe brace, Bethune assists put Washington Spirit ahead of Chicago Red Stars, 4-2
What started out slow turned into a goal fest, as Washington Spirit took down the Chicago Red Stars 4-2 Wednesday night in Chicago.
Neither team was able to take any shots for nearly the first half hour of the match, while Washington worked on breaking down Chicago’s defensive block. By the 29th minute, they had figured things out. Seemingly ignoring Trinity Rodman’s call for the ball, Croix Bethune dribbled it up field then started to move centrally just outside the box. Her ploy tricked the Chicago player defending her, who moved to cut off a shot and opened up space for a pass in to Rodman. Rodman’s shot somehow bounced between both posts before going clearly in, netting the forward her first goal of the season.
Mere minutes later, the Spirit scored again. This time, Rodman got the assist, making a quick pass to Sarr at the top of the box. Sarr’s hard strike to the top right corner of the goal put Washington up by two at the 30th minute.
The Red Stars had a number of set piece opportunities but finished the half without a single shot on goal. Early in the second half, the Spirit controlled play and had several chances but were unable to find a third goal.
Chicago finally put a goal on the board in the 78th minute, when an error in the Spirit’s attempt to build out of the back gave Mallory Swanson got the chance to do Mallory Swanson things. With the ball at her feet, she darted around several Spirit players in the box. Aubrey Kingsbury came out of her goal to block Swanson’s shot, but Ally Schlegel was there to make sure the chance wasn’t wasted, scoring on the rebound.
Not content to take that, Washington scored another two goals in quick succession. In both, Bethune passed to Brittany Ratcliffe, who showed excellent instincts in front of goal, scoring with her first touch. Her first, in the 83rd minute, arced into the near post before bouncing in. Three minutes later, Ratcliffe slipped the ball in front of an oncoming Alyssa Naeher for a brace.
Chicago got another one in the 2nd minute of stoppage time after a poor clearance and some confusion in the box allowed Leilanni Nesbeth to chip the ball into the goal over the wall of players in front of her. It narrowed the gap, but the Red Stars would not get an opportunity to close it. The Spirit closed out the night 4-2 and will take all three points on to the next leg of their three-match away trip.
Three takeaways
- Attacking versatility. One of the secrets to Washington’s success on the attack is having so many different players who can create a threat in the goal area. Opposing teams may be able to frustrate Rodman or Ashley Hatch, but preventing any one of the seven players who’ve scored this year from getting a chance is nigh impossible.
- Croix Bethune keeps dominating. We try to mix up these takeaways each game, but it has to be said yet again that Bethune is flying in her first professional season. Her three assists tonight brought her tally to 3 goals, 4 assists in 7 matches.
- The NWSL is for goal lovers. The NWSL has often been an attacker’s league, but something feels a little different this year. The 14 teams have scored 134 goals between them as of Wednesday evening, and the season is only a third of the way in. The Spirit have scored at least two in every match but their first. If you haven’t started watching the NWSL yet, now would be a good time to start.
Box Score
NWSL Regular Season – Game 7
Chicago Red Stars 2 (Schlegel 79; Nesbeth 90+2′)
Washington Spirit 4 (Rodman 28′; Sarr 30′; Ratcliffe 83′, 86′)
Lineups
Chicago Red Stars (4231): Alyssa Naeher (C); Maximiliane Rall, Sam Staab, Natalia Kuikka, Taylor Malham (Chardonnay Curran 46′); Cari Roccaro, Julia Bianchi (Leilanni Nesbeth 78′), Jameese Joseph (Shea Groom 69′); Mallory Swanson, Jenna Bike (Penelope Hocking 59′), Ally Cook (Allyson Schlegel 46′)
Washington Spirit (433): Aubrey Kingsbury (C); Casey Krueger, Annaïg Butel, Tara McKeown, Gabby Carle; Croix Bethune (Courtney Brown 87′), Andi Sullivan (Paige Metayer 74′), Hal Hershfelt; Trinity Rodman (Brittany Ratcliffe 74′), Ouleye Sarr (Heather Stainbrook 87′), Ashley Hatch (Kate Wiesner 65′)
Misconduct Summary
Chicago Red Stars: Roccaro 53′
Washington Spirit: Butel 45′, Rodman 58′
Lots of nice stuff by the Spirit. Glad to see Rodman FINALLY get a goal (because she’s been doing so many other things right). And Radcliffe is such a great late game sub when you’re leading, the other team is leaving space behind as they push numbers forward–such a great signing.
What bothered me was how the Chicago high press gave the Spirit problems. Some times they beat it with ease. Other times they were close to a disaster or they did end up with a bad give-away. This game should have been 4-0 or 5-0.
[…] Ratcliffe brace, Bethune assists put Washington Spirit ahead of Chicago Red Stars, 4-2 (DP) […]
Also, to add a few more random thoughts: it was jarring to see Staab on the field and not wearing a Spirit uni. And I thought Kingsbury (as a shot stopper and in her positioning) was excellent. No chance on the rebound on the first goal, completely screened on the second. I’d take Kingsbury over every other NWSL keeper. And as good as the Spirit look, you can see that they still struggle mastering what Gonzalez is trying to get them to do–why he praises them but still says “we have far to go.”
The ball finally bounces right for the Spirit. Rodman’s shot hit both posts (!!!) before going in. Ratcliffe’s fantastic first curved into the right post and her second nicked the inside of the left post.
And three assists for Bethune (!!!).
Also, I should have added this to my random comments mentioning I’d take Kingsbury over every other GK in NWSL. When it comes to PKs and shootouts, Naeher is the question. But she failed to come out to narrow the angle on Ratcliffe’s first goal and I’m still surprised she didn’t “get big” and at least get a piece of Ratcliffe’s second goal, The biggest criticism of Naeher previously (and we saw it in the WC and also in the match against Mexico) is she is making poor decisions about when to come out, how far. I truly think that Murphy or Kingsbury needs to be the starting GK with Naeher there as the backup and for OT PKs
[…] The Spirit defeated Chicago 4-2 earlier this year, in a game that included two goals by Brittany Ratcliffe in the span of three […]