Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Oh no, you didn’t stop me and now I have to say it. A Rose Lavelle goal gave Gotham FC the lead and win over the Washington Spirit. In a match that had questionable refereeing and a lot of stars, much of the talk centered on the spectacle that the league wanted the match to be (dubbed the Queen’s Classic), or the heat and hazardous air quality that descended upon New York City as a result of wildfires in Canada. The match went on—as the NWSL’s front office always insists that it does—and the Spirit suffered through a game that was gruelling from every angle.

Due to heat and severe air quality conditions in New York, the buildup to the match was marked with questions about whether it should be played at all. Air quality was so bad that it met the NWSL’s threshold to warrant two(!) hydration breaks per half. Of course, this is the NWSL, and primetime slots on a network like ESPN for regular season play are few and far between, so they were always going to lean on their protocols and hope for the best. However, photos from fans showed how severe the situation was on the ground.

The match began with the Spirit deploying a conservative 4231, with Hal Hershfelt and Andi Sullivan patrolling in front of the backline, but Gotham’s intensity and willingness to commit numbers overwhelmed that strategy in the early phases. The Spirit weren’t able to find outlets, and the ball kept finding its way back into their defensive third. Rookie Jordynn Dudley in particular was giving Gabby Carle the makings of a no good very bad day.

The first of two hydration breaks of the half came around the fourteen minute mark, and was one the Spirit sorely needed. After the mini break they were more settled and able to finally push high to setup their possession game a couple of times. Still, chances were rare. Some fun movement led to the Spirit’s best chance so far, as Gabby Carle got behind the line on the left to rile a shot but it was at a good height and right at Ann-Katrin Berger.

Shortly after that shot, the second hydration break of the half was called, this one at the 29th minute. Near the end of the break, Jordynn Dudley, who was down earlier after a head-to-head collision with Esme Morgan, walked to the locker room flanked by trainers.

About five minutes later, Hal Hershfelt miscontrolled a back pass and Gotham pounced. Lavelle curled away from goal as the Spirit defense recovered but she then improvised a looping shot that caught Sandy MacIver out, and dipped the shot beneath the bar into the far side netting for the game’s first goal.

A couple half chances to equalize fell to Trinity Rodman and Andi Sullivan, but they couldn’t get the ball across the line. All in all the Spirit were doing a passable—if not worrying at times—job of holding on and growing into the game, until Hershfelt’s mistake and Rose Lavelle’s ingenuity. The halftime whistle came with a narrow difference between the two on the scoreline, but a lot of work for the Spirit to do at halftime and in the second half

Halftime | 0-1

I could spend a few hundred words detailing how the rest of the match went, and trying to incite intrigue in the handful of half chances the Spirit managed, but there’s no need. The match went on the way matches against Gotham mostly do, especially once they have a lead.

Adrián González ended up using six subs, with the first being a triple sub, but finding a route through Gotham’s off ball structure never materialized. The Spirit’s 1.38 xG on 18 shots with 9 on target paint a much kinder picture than reality. Sure, the ball glazed a head or foot in a decent area on occasion, but the angle was always sharp, or the player taking the shot was off balance and/or sandwiched by Gotham players and not allowed the .5 seconds even elite players need to choose a strike and pick their spot. [stats from Fotmob]

At the very end there was a scramble in the box that had Berger slightly panicked, and a volley from Leicy Santos that didn’t quite find its mark this time. Had they managed to score, the draw would have felt like a win given how physically and mentally difficult the match was. It wasn’t to be, and the Spirit instead pick up their third loss of the season and remain one point behind San Diego at the top of the table.

Full Time | 0-1

Up Next: A trip up to Boston to face the Legacy, Sunday, July 19 at 7pm.

3 Takeaways 

• Should this match have been played? The, hm, shall I say always mercurial, espnw Instagram page did the league no favors by posting video of Trinity Rodman breathing through an oxygen mask during a hydration break. The clip was accompanied with cutesie text attempting to reframe a dangerous situation the league forced the players into.
  
  
• The Gotham dragon remains unslain. Unfortunately, it is now a thing. Gotham (and even more painfully, Rose Lavelle) seem to have the Spirit’s number. You’ll have to dig all the way back to June 23, 2024 for the last time the Spirit beat Gotham, which of course includes losing last year’s championship game to the Bats. Their style of play is almost uniquely
  
  
• Assist from the venue? Look, I doubt it was this intentional, but a team that relies on out of possession structure and lots of short sprints to apply pressure and a team that creates space with off ball movements meeting on a narrow pitch carved inside a baseball stadium is certainly an advantage for the team that wants to eat space rather than create it. It’s the way it goes, it was a cute idea, and the Spirit could have played better or adapted their gameplan. But it’s a lot easier to commit to covering space for a full 90 when the narrowness of the pitch pre-shrinks them for you.

BOX SCORE
NWSL Regular Season
MATCHDAY 14

Gotham 1-0 Spirit
[Lavelle 37′]

Lineups

Gotham FC (4231): Berger; Reiten (Freeman 78′), Davidson, Sonnett, Purce (Bruninha 78′); Howell, Schupansky Kerr 64′); Shaw, Lavelle, Dudley (Carter 34′); Esther (McCaskill 46′)

Washington Spirit (433): MacIver; Carle (Wiesner 64′), Morgan, Rudd, Lucia (Tsé 78′); Hershfelt (Abiodun 778′), Sullivan (Bernal 64′); Rodman, Santos, Kouassi (Monday 64′); Cantore (Martínez 78′)

Misconduct Summary

Gotham: Curiously, none.
Spirit: Carle 45+4′, Hal 69′, Monday 80′, Rudd 86′

Lead photo courtesy of Washington Spirit.