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Spirit Home Opener Breakdown
Brian Rapuano
March 31, 2025
The Washington Spirit continued their season with their sold-out home opener over the weekend against the Kansas City Current. This is their third straight home sell-out, dating back to their late win against Bay FC in November.
Despite having 57% possession, ten corners, and eleven total shots, the Spirit were unable to find the back of the net, partly due to a stellar performance from Kansas City goalkeeper, Lorena. After a lackluster night in front of goal, the Goalside Gossip team was able to talk to forward Ashley Hatch, in order to get her thoughts on the match.
“I mean, I feel like creating more opportunities is something that we're consistently working on. So I think focusing on things that we did well, I think there's a few chances that we were, like, this close from just, like, mistiming or just hitting it a little bit better, placing it instead of power …”
The Spirit excelled in the first half defensively, as goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury made a few goal-preventing saves and defender Tara McKeown locked down the reigning MVP and golden boot winner, Temwa Chawinga. Washington was auditioning a new formation in this game, playing a five-in-the-back, and, admittedly, it worked, with the only goals coming from a penalty and a stoppage time counter attack.
The second half was full of action and controversy, with three separate VAR checks occuring, each one frustrating the Spirit more than the last. An unlucky handball in the box from defender Esme Morgan led to a penalty, which put them down a goal early into the half. A minute later, star-player Trinity Rodman entered the pitch, as she continued to rehab her back injury. Almost immediately, she found the back of the net, but after a lengthy VAR check, Rodman was found to be marginally offside, leaving the Spirit to continue searching for their breakthrough. In the sixty-seventh minute, Ashley Hatch found herself in the box with a good opportunity, yet felt contact and fell to the ground. The referee pointed to the spot, but again, after consulting VAR, overturned it, capping off a frustrating ten minutes for Washington. McKeown, after the game, was able to talk to us, helping us understand the mentality of the players after that difficult sequence, saying:
“I feel like it's kind of just like how when the calls weren't going our way, … we just got to play like the next 5 minutes and [get] the next one. We can't really harp on the past. So it wasn't very fun going down, but I feel like we stepped up and we started playing better and got more chances. So next time we just got to put those away.”
The match was put to rest late into stoppage time, when Chawinga broke through on a counter-attack and got past Kingsbury, who was able to get a hand to the ball, but not enough to prevent Kansas City doubling their lead. Kingsbury, who made her 500th regular season save this game, reflected on the team’s performance and the new formation, noting:
“I think we had a great game plan against Kansas City. We really limited their chances. Chawinga was kind of a non factor until the end when we were pushing forward. And, yeah, the second half, they hardly got out of their half. So, yeah, not necessarily something we'll do every game, but, that was part of the game plan strategy coming in with how they like to put five on their back line. Yeah. I thought we did a great job of finding the space and created some great chances…”
Despite the loss, the Spirit evidently looked better than their win against Houston just a week prior. It seems that once their squad is replenished, and the players settle into the new tactics, the team will be back to winning ways. Joining the team for the rest of the season will be new signing, forward Gift Monday, a Nigerian hailing from UD Tenerife in Spain. Monday scored ten goals and provided three assists in nineteen appearances last season in Spain’s top division.
Written by Brian Rapuano