In their third away match in 10 days, a tired Washington Spirit scored early and held onto their lead by a thread to defeat Racing Louisville 2-1 last night in Louisville.

Reversing a bad habit of their own, the Spirit got the scoring started early with a goal off of a corner kick in the 5th minute. Andi Sullivan took the kick and directed it squarely toward Croix Bethune at the top of the box. Bethune sent a low drive toward the goal. The ball was deflected slightly but went in by the near post. The goal was Bethune’s fourth of the season, making her one of only five NWSL players to earn 4 goals and 4 assists in their first 10 matches.

About 15 minutes later, Aubrey Kingsbury got the chance to show why she’s one of the best in the league. Louisville was awarded a penalty kick, after a soft foul by Tara McKeown and several minutes of VAR review. Not only did Kingsbury save Savannah DeMelo’s kick with a dive to her left, she was able to get back up and block the rebound shot with her foot. After the match, Kingsbury attributed her first save to good scouting: Washington’s report on DeMelo showed she had been successful placing penalties to the keeper’s left.

Ouleye Sarr helped extend Washington’s lead at the 34th minute. Bethune threaded the ball between several Racing players to Sarr in the box. Goalkeeper Katie Lund was able to save Sarr’s first shot with a foot, but the Spirit striker collected the rebound and passed it back toward the goal just before it could go out of bounds. The ball found the friendly feet of Racing’s Lauren Milliet and bounced into the goal, giving Washington their eventual game-winner.

Racing was able to halve the deficit just before half time with one of several free kicks awarded just outside the box. Savannah DeMelo took the kick and shot directly toward the goal. Kingsbury dove for it but couldn’t quite stop DeMelo’s powerful shot, making the score 2-1.

Throughout the second half, Racing Louisville controlled the tempo and had the majority of the chances, with DeMelo successfully drawing several foul calls near the box and the speedy Emma Sears making several runs behind Washington’s backline. The Spirit’s defense held out, though, Substitutions may have made the difference for them here; the Spirit subbed their full allotment of players, while Racing only made one substitution and looked increasingly tired as the match wore on to its 112th minute of real time.

It was a hard-fought win for the Spirit in which they were out-shot and out-possessed by their opponents, but after three road games in a row, the team was proud to have battled through adversity and brought home another three points.

“This was a good test for us,” Kingsbury said after the match. “Today wasn’t the prettiest, but to know that we can grind out a win in, you know, not ideal circumstances, not playing our best… I think the ability to fight is really important.”

Three takeaways 

• End of the road (trip). In the past week and a half, the Spirit traveled to Chicago, Portland, and Louisville for games, and the strain showed on them a bit tonight, with even Trinity Rodman needing to be subbed out in the second half. The upside? They’re bringing home six of nine possible points from these matches and have two weeks at home to look forward to.
• Young finishers. Tired legs and knocks among the starters meant that the Spirit squad finishing the match included four rookies, two second-years, and only two players who were on Washington’s 2021 Championship-winning team. The collection of players, many of whom have played few minutes this season, rarely looked dangerous on the attack but weathered a storm from Louisville for almost 30 minutes. “We won because of them,” interim head coach Adrián González said.
• Shouting out the defenders. Louisville posed a big defensive challenge to the Spirit. Taylor Flint’s physicality and dominance in the air clearly affected the way Washington took set pieces, and Sears’s incredible speed (over 20 mph at one point!) pushed the backline to their limits. The defensive group put forth one of their best efforts in response. Rookie Kate Wiesner was especially frustrating to Louisville, winning 80 percent of her tackles and all of her ground duels.

Box Score

NWSL Regular Season –  Game 9

Racing Louisville FC 1 (DeMelo 45+6′)

Washington Spirit 2 (Bethune 5′, Milliet (OG) 34′)

Lineups

Racing Louisville FC (4231): Katie Lund; Lauren Milliet, Arin Wright, Carson Pickett, Abby Erceg (C); Savannah DeMelo, Taylor Flint, Marisa DiGrande; Kayla Fischer (Reilyn Turner 72′), Emma Sears, Elexa Bahr

Washington Spirit (4231): Aubrey Kingsbury (C); Annaïg Butel, Kate Wiesner, Tara McKeown, Gabby Carle; Croix Bethune (Paige Metayer 73′), Andi Sullivan (Courtney Brown 66′), Hal Hershfelt; Trinity Rodman (Lena Silano 76′), Ouleye Sarr (Brittany Ratcliffe 73′), Ashley Hatch (Casey Krueger 76′)

Misconduct Summary

Racing Louisville FC:  Kayla Fischer 59′, Sears 68′

Washington Spirit:  Sullivan 45+8′, Hershfelt 53′, Metayer 87′

Lead image courtesy of the Washington Spirit