Washington Spirit had their unbeaten streak ended by San Diego Wave FC on Friday night. After falling behind early, the Spirit equalized with a headed set piece goal by Rebeca Bernal but were repaid in kind late in the match, losing 2-1.

Adrián González called the game “a 50-50” between possibly the top two teams in the league, which either could have won. The win pushed San Diego into first place, while dropping the Spirit into third. While there was plenty for Washington to learn from this game, González was pleased with how they performed out of possession and congratulated the Wave for a game well-played.

Both teams had opportunities early, but San Diego was the first to capitalize. After the Spirit blocked an initial foray into the box, the rebound fell to an unmarked Trinity Byars, who took a shot through traffic and was able to smash it into the net.

González thought his team reacted well to the goal, sticking to their game plan of aggressive defense, a high press, and preventing the Wave from progressing through the midfield. While a high number of foul calls made the game flow choppy, and neither team was allowing the space for a transitional push, the Spirit had the best chances of the half.

They finally succeeded on one in the 33rd minute when Bernal knocked her second goal of the season off of a corner kick. Leicy Santos aimed the ball at her location near the back post, and Bernal leapt over the Wave to head it into the goal.

Both teams made changes at the half, but the game largely remained even until fatigue started to show late in the half. Esme Morgan said both teams were “half a step behind” where they need to be for their press, beginning around the 70th minute but that she thought the Wave did a better job of exploiting the space that opened up as result.

The home side finally found their winning goal in the 88th minute, on a play that looked very similar to Washington’s goal. Defending a corner kick to the far post, Sandy MacIver left her line to punch the ball away but missed, leaving it to be headed home by Kimmi Ascanio.

“I think for the most part… it was quite an even game.” Morgan said. “I think we played a lot better than we did in Seattle, in terms of being able to build through the thirds and win the ball higher up, so that was a positive thing. I think we’ve created enough chances to have been able to get a result out of the game. I think a draw probably would have been fair, so it was frustrating to lose, but I guess we’ll learn from it.”

Up next: The Spirit have a couple of weeks off from league play but are headed to Pachuca, Mexico to play in the Concacaf W Champions Cup semifinals this Wednesday, followed by the championship or third place match next weekend.

Three takeaways 

• Streaks ended. A loss on the road to a top team should be expected, or at least understandable, in the NWSL, but it feels harder both because of the late change in the match and because of the matches that came before. The Spirit had not lost since their season opener on March 13 and had won five straight, beginning on April 5.
• Positive takeaways. The loss wasn’t all negative for the Spirit. They held San Diego to their lowest possession percentage of the season, keeping the ball for themselves 59 percent of the time, had far more touches in the opposition box (23 vs. 10), and created more expected goals (0.95 vs. 0.7). González also thought the defensive performance was strong: “We are talking about one of the best teams in possession, attacking-wise… and we’ve stopped today two of the best players that they have,” referring to Dudinha and Kenza Dali.
• Corner strategy. The Spirit largely employed traditional, long kicks on corners in this match, but short-corner haters shouldn’t get too excited. “We always analyze the opponent, and again as we always do, we want to be, in each phase of the game, we want to be dynamic and versatile. We need to have different options,” González said of the decision to kick long. He noted the value of short corners in disorganizing the opponent and creating movement and implied the Spirit will continue to vary their corner strategies.

Box Score

NWSL Regular Season –  Game 10

San Diego Wave FC 2 (Byars 7′, Ascanio 89′)
Washington Spirit 1 (Bernal 33′)

Lineups

San Diego Wave FC (4231): DiDi Haracic; Mimi Van Zanten, Kennedy Wesley, Kristen McNabb, Perle Morroni; Kenza Dali, Kimmi Ascanio, Gia Corley (Lia Godfrey 46′); Gabi Portilho (Melanie Barcenas 46′), Dudinha (Tatum Wynalda 90+1′), Trinity Byars (Ludmila 46′)

Washington Spirit (4231): Sandy MacIver; Tara Rudd (C), Lucia Di Guglielmo (Tamara Bolt 90+4′), Gabrielle Carle (Kate Wiesner 90+4), Esme Morgan; Rebeca Bernal (Andi Sullivan 66′), Leicy Santos, Hal Hershfelt; Trinity Rodman, Claudia Martínez (Rosemonde Kouassi 46′), Sofia Cantore (Gift Monday 74′)

Misconduct Summary

San Diego Wave FC:  Barcenas 73′
Washington Spirit:  Rodman 45+1′, Bernal 54′, bench 78′

Lead image courtesy of the Washington Spirit