Washington Spirit are bringing their first point of the year home. After allowing Racing Louisville FC to score two first-half goals in transition last night, the Spirit surged in the second half and tied with goals by Sofia Cantore and Leicy Santos.

After opening their season with a low-expected-goal loss, the Spirit used the past week working on their performance in the final third. They also made some adjustments in their tactics to play Louisville, including moving Rose Kouassi to the right and Trinity Rodman to the left, which allowed Kouassi to get more involved and create chances, ultimately assisting both goals. Their passing map also shows a narrower shape that allowed them to maintain possession and move the ball quickly to create more quality chances.

Those adjustments paid off offensively: the Spirit took 20 shots with 10 on target last night, compared with nine and three against Portland Thorns. The team showed some real defensive weaknesses in the first half, though, allowing Racing to score on both of their first two shots and in fairly predictable ways, in line with how they like to play.

First, Louisville’s Ellie Jean picked out Emma Sears on the right. Reacting to the threat, the Spirit left both Racing players in the box undefended, allowing Kayla Fischer plenty of space to receive the ball and time to line up her shot. She shot just through traffic but just to the left of Sandy MacIver, who failed to stop the ball, giving Louisville an early lead.

Then, towards the end of the half, Emma Sears got the ball on a fast break and did what she does best: driving it down the field with speed to create an opportunity. She put on an extra burst of speed in the final third to get past Tara Rudd and shot around MacIver, who had moved to cover the near post, doubling Racing’s lead.

“We cannot concede two goals like that,” Adrián González said. “We knew they were so dangerous in transitions, and I think especially the second one, we were dis-protected. Rest defense wasn’t as we were planning.”

That was adjusted at half time. “The message from me was clear that we needed to continue as we were playing because i think we were doing great things, just being aware of those, especially, situations where we were attacking in their half, controlling the rest defense,” he said. “And then we just switched Gabby [Carle] and Luci [Di Guglielmo], just to have a different rest defense” and create better 2-on-1 situations on the right with Di Guglielmo and Kouassi. Esme Morgan said she also had some advice for Kouassi on how to approach her defender.

Washington began the next half with a series of attacks and set pieces and were quickly rewarded. In the 51st minute, recycling the ball after a corner kick was cleared, Kouassi found Cantore in a central area. Cantore didn’t hesitate, lining up a powerful shot from distance and slamming it into the top corner of the goal.

“I don’t know,” Cantore said, when asked about the goal. “I just shot, and it was a good shot.” She quicky pivoted to her feeling that she should have performed better on other chances earlier in the match. Later, when asked whether, having scored two long-distance goals and two backheel goals in the league, she would ever score a normal goal, Cantore responded, “Yeah. Yeah, I would like.”

The second goal was what the Spirit should be aiming for as their “normal”: relying not on individual brilliance but strong team play. On a throw in, Rudd found a clear pass toward the goal. Hal Hershfelt was able to get a foot on it just in front of a Louisville defender, but the ball bounced behind her. Kouassi was there, collecting the ball and playing it flat across the box for an un-rushing Santos. The midfielder took a simple touch to place it into the goal and bring the Spirit level.

“Our main aim was to play the game as we wanted, and I think we’ve been very compact, not allowing [Louisville] to have a broken game,” González said. He felt his team was “very dominant” and “better than last week, especially in the last third, and creating more chances, clear chances.”

Up next: Washington have a short turnaround to their match on Wednesday, March 25 against Utah Royals.

Three takeaways 

• Rodman concussion fears. Trinity Rodman departed the match on a concussion substitution in the 69th minute. After a collision with a Louisville player, she was examined by Spirit training staff, and González ultimately decided to remove her. “To be honest, after a few minutes with a player down, I didn’t want to take any risks,” he said, “Continuing with one player down, the game as it was, and especially thinking about her health, I didn’t want to take any risk….” Update: Spirit staff said Saturday that she was removed for precautionary assessment but has been cleared. She is expected to be available for Wednesday’s game, though they will keep monitoring her.
• Remember the season is long. Fans went into halftime fearing the season was already lost. The once powerful Spirit had been held to three straight halves without a goal. But the chances had been there, even in the first half, when the team took four shots on target with an expected goal total of 0.95. González said he was happy, both with the team’s improvement last night and in training last week: “I’m a type of person who believes in long term, in a process. I know how we want to work, how we want to build what we want, and I know this is going to be a long season. We are just at the beginning.”
• Sullivan returns. After over a year away from the pitch for injury and maternity leave, midfielder Andi Sullivan returned to soccer last evening, subbing on for Leicy Santos in stoppage time. “Andi means a lot to this team and to this organization,” González said, noting she represents the values the team wants to instill: leadership, resilience, humility, hard-work. “As a coach, I always want to have players like her on the field, because tactically she’s outstanding, and she always understands what’s happening.”

Box Score

NWSL Regular Season –  Game 2

Racing Louisville FC 2 (Fischer 28′, Sears 43′)

Washington Spirit 2 (Cantore 51′, Santos 74′)

Lineups

Racing Louisville FC (4231): Jordyn Bloomer; Lauren Milliet (C), Ellie Jean, Mariann Gacioch, Courtney Petersen; Taylor Flint, Katie O’Kane, Kayla Fischer (Audrey Mckeen 89′); Emma Sears, Ella Hase (Taylor White 66′), Sarah Weber (Macey Hodge 66′)

Washington Spirit (4231): Sandy MacIver; Gabby Carle, Esme Morgan, Tara Rudd (C), Lucia Di Guglielmo; Hal Hershfelt, Rebeca Bernal (Deborah Abiodun 77′), Leicy Santos (Andi Sullivan 90+2′); Trinity Rodman (Claudia Martinez 69′), Rose Kouassi (Tamara Bolt 77′); Sofia Cantore (Gift Monday 69′)

Misconduct Summary

Racing Louisville FC:  Sears 76′, Flint 90+6′
Washington Spirit:  none

Lead image courtesy of NWSL/Jordan Prather