Spirit Season Comes to a Heartbreaking End

In an emotional ending, the Washington Spirit ended their season early for the season year in a row. After their loss to the OL Reign in Megan Rapinoe’s final home match, the Spirit needed the win to secure their playoff spot. However, without it, their season comes to a close. A series of unfortunate calls and some serious defense by the opponent the North Carolina Courage led to a 1-0 loss.

The game started with much energy from the crowd who wore hats that sported the word ”Spirit” in bright yellow. Noticeably absent from the game, Spirit head coach Mark Parsons with Director of Player Personnel/Assistant Coach Mike Bristol in his place. Tara McKeown was ineligible for the match due to an accumulation of 5 many yellow cards throughout the season.

Ashley Hatch began attacking early on with back-to-back attempts to score that were missed wide and high. 21 minutes into the game, the unthinkable happens, Trinity Rodman fouls Courage Denise O'Sullivan. However (in what looks like a slip) Rodman landed cleats up. After further review from the VAR, the card was upgraded to a red card ejection. Ashley Hatch had this to say post-game “Every single player upped their level once Trin was off…we still believed we had what it took to win it.”

This led to a left-footed goal from very close range to the top right corner by Courage Tyler Lussi assisted by Manaka Matsukubo. Fans booed frantically and shouted “Green team sucks” as the goal looked suspiciously close to being offside. Spirit Annaïg Butel found herself with several fouls that ultimately led to a yellow card as well.

After a series of more calls not going the Spirit’s way, they were unable to put themselves in positions to score and capitalize on them. The North Carolina Courage played extremely well defensively. 

Goalie Aubrey Kingsbury had this to say about their season-ending loss “We've got a lot of great people within this organization, who are committed to the long haul. We've seen Michelle with her level of investment, it's raised not only the standards for this club but, the entire league. o miss out now two years, two years for us to miss the playoffs with an incredibly talented team. That hurts deep. But yeah, we're we're looking forward to the future. And we have the tools for success. We are supported, we're so well supported, probably the most in the league. So that just gives us so much hope for the future that we will be back in will be better, better than this year.”

Coach Bristol told in the huddle “We’re building something here that will have deep roots, something that's built to last, and anything that is worth something, it takes a while to build a strong foundation.

As the Spirit gathered in a circle the owner of the organization Michele Kang gave words of encouragement to the team on their foundation building as they look towards the future. Players like Trinity Rodman were visibly emotional.