Friday Night Footy brought the drama as the Washington Spirit needed a 100th minute goal to take a point from Racing Louisville. Sofia Cantore logged her first NWSL start, and marked the occasion by giving the Spirit a lead with an absurd 30-yard banger. In the end it was another banger, this time from Rose Kouassi, that recovered a point after a cruel deflection and soft penalty gifted Louisville their lead.

The first half began with the Spirit set up aggressively in attack from a base three-back formation. The idea was to keep width in attack through wingbacks Gabby Carle and Esme Morgan, while allowing Croix Bethune and Leicy Santos to drop in as dual 10s. It worked, and led to multiple instances of Carle freeing Gift Monday down the wing, or tucking in for Santos to join the interplay that would wind up with Monday, Santos, or Cantore with the ball in lots of space.

Washington huffed and puffed but only managed five shots, with just one on target in the half. The one on target, though, was an absolute stunner.

Quality pressing from Monday led to a loose ball being collected by Cantore with plenty of grass ahead of her. Louisville defenders continued to back up as Croix Bethune made a run into the box to provide an option and keep the defense honest. Cantore decided to let it rip, and hit across the ball to produce a wicked inside-out curling, dipping shot that pinged down into the goal off the underside of the bar. Vicious. Filthy. Delightful.

The Spirit went into halftime deservedly up 1-0 given the balance of play and dominance of possession. But their first half xG was only .51 (Cantore’s shot was .03). For all the possession and getting into dangerous positions, Washington managed just one big chance—a delightful cross to the far post from Santos that saw Bethune’s volley swatted away by goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer. That was a .38 chance on the ol’ xG machine, which was about 75% of the overall total.

HT | 1-0

At halftime Kate Wiesner made way for Trinity Rodman, which resulted in a change of formation for the Spirit. They shifted into a back four with Emse Morgan at right back, Gabby Carle left back, placing Tara McKeown and Rebeca Bernal as the two central defenders. The problems came higher up, with the switch disrupting Washington’s buildup. Carle and Morgan were no longer high enough to combine, as they couldn’t risk letting any of Louisville’s speedy attackers get a free run at one of two (much narrower) center backs.

This led to the Spirit no longer getting in behind Racing’s defense, and limited service to Bethune and Santos. Leicy in particular would drop deep to help facilitate buildup—which was needed—but removed an attacker from the half spaces they dominated in the first half.

Then, disaster struck. Twice. In the 53rd minute a nothing, ho-hum shot from outside the box was easily tracked by Aubrey Kingsbury, except it deflected off Bernal. It was just enough of a deflection to wrong-foot Kingsbury and find the back of the net. About twenty-five minutes later a Louisville cross from a corner would float into the box, and several bits of incidental contacts led to players being scattered on the ground once a whistle blew.

Suddenly, a VAR check was happening and the referee decided that Santos and Borges getting in each other’s way as they tracked the ball was enough contact for a penalty to be awarded to Louisville. Savannah DeMelo stepped up, and despite Kingsbury initially stepping the right way, she reversed her dive hoping DeMelo would buy the step and play the ball into her hands. She didn’t, and suddenly Washington was down 1-2.

As the Spirit tried to claw their way back they received a free kick (in what we call Leicy Santos Territory) after Ary Borges grabbed a handful of Rose Kouassi’s shirt and yanked her backwards before she could get into the box. It was very cynical, and a bit excessive, but the referee only showed a yellow. Santos’ free kick would register as a .14 xG shot (above the league average of .10) but would be caught easily by Bloomer.

Then, Rose Kouassi got her revenge.

With Borges already on a yellow card and having just taken a poor touch, Kouassi pounced. She chased the ball until she got the angle on Borges and took off toward the box. Borges was goalside, until a Kouassi nutmeg swapped their positions. Kouassi then hit a curler with her right that Bloomer leapt to claw away but could only get her fingertips to as the ball bounded into the net. Audi erupted, and the Spirit had once again pulled out a late result at Audi.

Three takeaways 

• Sofia Cantore’s magical Audi debut — Cantore showed the speed and strength that made her a solid NWSL prospect, but a 30-yard banger was unexpected. It caught her by surprise as well, she said postgame that she doesn’t really shoot from there often, but saw the defense backing up and decided to try. We are so thankful she did. She was also asked about her first start and substantial minutes in the NWSL and adjusting to the style of play, and said: “I was tired.”
• Refereeing frustrations — It’s unfortunate that we have to discuss refereeing so frequently, but we do. This time it was a referee assigned to one of the most difficult teams to manage (Racing Louisville) who only had two matches under his belt. This showed in a lack of consistency throughout the night. Postgame Trinity Rodman tried very hard not to say something that would get her fined, but was clearly frustrated by several decisions. “I think we played it well, I think there were a lot of shoulder-to-shoulder fouls that were called that aren’t normally, so that was hard,” explained Rodman. “I think it was one-sided if I’m being honest.”
• The drama continues — One day the Spirit will win a comfortable 3-0 match at Audi and it might not feel right. This team has somehow made a habit of late result-changing goals that stems all the back to last year’s playoff run to the championship game. Hal Hershfelt said postgame that they should have scored more earlier to avoid needing the late goal, but in the end a draw was better than a loss.

Box Score

NWSL Regular Season –  Game 16

Washington Spirit – 2 (Cantore 39′; Kouassi 90+10)

Racing Louisville – 2 (Bernal 53′ [og]; DeMelo 80′ [pen])

Lineups

Washington Spirit (3412): Aubrey Kingsbury (C); Rebeca Bernal, Tara McKeown (V), Esme Morgan; Kate Wiesner (Rodman, 46′), Hal Hershfelt, Leicy Santos, Gabby Carle (Metayer 86′); Croix Bethune (Ratcliffe, 82′); Gift Monday (Morris 82′), Sofia Cantore (Kouassi, 53′)

Racing Louisville (433): Jordyn Bloomer; Courtney Petersen, Arin Wright (C), Ellie Jean, Janine Sonis (V); Marisa DiGrande (Borges, 61′) , Savannah DeMelo, Taylor Flint; Ella Hase, Sarah Weber (Fischer, 61′), Emma Sears

C: Captain | V: Vice Captain

Misconduct Summary

Washington Spirit – Santos, 27′; Hershfelt, 58′

Racing Louisville – Petersen, 33′; Hase 85′; Borges 90+6

Lead image courtesy of the Washington Spirit.