In dire need of a ‘Get Right’ game, the Washington Spirit headed to the Get Right Warehouse that is a match against the Chicago Stars. The job would be more complicated for the Spirit than other teams, as the Stars announced the hire of Vlatko Andonovski days before the game, giving the club, players and fans a light at the end of the tunnel. Still, Chicago had (by far) given up the the most goals in the league (54), only scored fourteen, and have conceded nineteen goals in their last five games. The Spirit ‘got right’ on the bale thanks to a 3-0 win, but it wasn’t easy, and may have also come at a significant cost.

Hal Hershfelt and Trinity Rodman put apprehensive Spirit fans at ease seven minutes into the game. A loose ball was played to Hershfelt in midfield and she immediately fizzed a throughball for Rodman behind the line. The star attacker cut inside and beat Alyssa Naeher to give Washington a rare early lead.

The lead was added to a half hour in after a lengthy VAR review showed that Bea Franklin chicken winged a ball out of play after a header from Lucia Di Guglielmo. Captain Andi Sullivan stepped up to face Naeher from the spot, who dove the right way but couldn’t prevent Sullivan’s low strike from finding the net.

Halftime | 0-2

Despite the scoreline and opposition, Washington’s attacks still sputtered before they could get started. Attempts to find Bethi in pockets in front of the defensive line were cut out by Chicago, and players attacking up the wings were out of sync on who would show to feet and who would run in behind.

As the Spirit kept trying to figure out while keeping Chicago contained, things got worse. The score stayed the same, but Mélissa Bethi was injured as she challenged Emma Egizii near the top of the box. Both players were down for a while, Egizii eventually got up but Bethi remained on the grass and was surrounded by medical staff. Eventually the stretcher came out and she was carried from the field with a stint around her leg.

Leicy Santos’s injury highlighted how reliant the Spirit’s attack is on her position, and Bethi was working on stepping into it as soon as she joined the team from WAFCON. Her status is unknown, but given the need for a cast it’s likely that this won’t be an injury that will be day-to-day, and could potentially bring her NWSL season to a premature end given that there are so few regular season games left.

The mood was lifted somewhat in the 85th minute as Tamara Bolt leaped high to connect with a cross from Rodman and redirect the ball into Naeher’s goal for a third. The goal was Bolt’s first in the NWSL, and the assist from Rodman have her seven on the year, to go with her eleven goals.

Full Time | 0-3

Securing all three points lifted the Spirit back above San Diego Wave for second on the table. Gotham, current league leaders, are five points ahead. With the regular season games dwindling, the Spirit need Gotham to stumble twice to have a shot at playing for the shield on decision day. However, while the win gives them a one point advantage over San Diego, it’s given them a four point cushion ahead of Portland and Utah in fifth and sixth.

Five matches to go, every point counts.

Up Next: Angel City at Audi Field, Saturday, September 26 at 6:30 pm.

3 Takeaways 

• Did the Spirit take advantage of playing the worst team in the league? Well, yes and no. From a strictly results-based perspective a win and three goals away is a job well done. In terms of performance, game management and chance creation, things could have been better. Perhaps even a lot better. Postgame, Trinity Rodman said “I don’t think that in a game like that, it should be a ‘management’ [situation]… I feel like we made it a lot more transitional than it needed to be.” In terms of chance creation, according to Fotmob the Spirit’s non-penalty xG was 1.34 against Chicago’s 1.15. On another day this is a much less comfortable match.
  
  
• The quest for 10/10 continues… There has never been an NWSL regular season in which a player finished with at least 10 goals and 10 assists. They’re arbitrary round numbers, but it’s a fun thing to track and speaks to a well-rounded attacker. I’ve long believed that Rodman could be the first, and her goal and assist today puts her at 11 goals and 7 assists. However, with thirty regular season games to play a number of players are close. Cloé Lacasse (7g/10a) and Pietra Tordin (7g/9a) are closest, but unlike Rodman, neither are their team’s leading scorer. Still, the race is on…
  
  
• Sofia Cantore, inverted winger. Cantore has spent most of the season at central striker due to her ability to run the channels and holdup the ball in the center of the pitch (the occasional banger doesn’t hurt either). But at Juventus Cantore was more of a winger or wide forward than target #9. With Ashley Hatch back in the fold, Adrián González shifted Cantore wide when Hatch subbed on for Rose Kouassi and stepped into her more familiar striker position. The result was something that I’d like to see more. Cantore doesn’t have the 1v1 prowess of Kouassi, but her directness and narrow positioning could help an attack that struggles to get numbers in the box at the right moments.

BOX SCORE
NWSL Regular Season
MATCHDAY 25

Stars 0-3 Spirit
[Rodman 7′, Sullivan 34′ (pk), Bolt 85′]

Lineups

Chicago Stars (442): Alyssa Naeher; Nadia Gomes, Sam Staab, Maitane López, Taylor Malham; Leila Ouahabi (Farmer 90+1′), Bea Franklin (Gasper 60′), Brianna Pinto (Dellarose 81′), Jenna Bike (Charley 81′); Julia Grosso, Michelle Alozie (Egizii 60′)

Washington Spirit (433): Sandy MacIver; Lucia Di Guglielmo (Metayer 46′), Esme Morgan, Tara Rudd, Gabby Carle; Méissa Bethi (Bolt 75′), Andi Sullivan (Gock 76′), Hal Hershfelt; Trinity Rodman, Sofia Cantore (Monday 86′), Rosemonde Kouassi (Hatch 46′)

Misconduct Summary

Stars: Franklin 33′
Spirit: None

Lead photo courtesy of Washington Spirit.