Washington Spirit powered by grit and rowdy fans to NWSL semifinals

After squeaking past Bay FC in a pulsating NWSL quarter-final clash, the Washington Spirit are confident their route to the championship will be paved with grit and the phenomenal boost they receive from their fans.

The Spirit looked disjointed for long stretches of the first playoff game on Sunday, especially the first half, when they failed to get into their rhythm. This could have been due in part to the rash of injuries the team had to deal with.

Rookie Croix Bethune, whose 10 assists lead the league, is out after tearing his meniscus in August. The team’s joint leading scorer Ouleymata Sarr has been out with a back injury since September, and veteran Andi Sullivan tore her ACL in October.

These injuries took their toll and the home side had four rookies in their starting line-up for the match. Goalkeeper Ashley Kingsbury acknowledged that could have played a role.

“We’re a young group so maybe it was a little bit of nerves going away in the first half,” she said. “But when we conceded, you really saw us like, ‘We’ve got to go now. There’s no time to waste, our season is on the line.’

“Hopefully we got that out and we can be a little bit sharper in the semis.”

If there’s one thing the Spirit have shown this season, it’s that they have the courage to soldier through adversity. As they navigated the tough challenge of Bay FC, striker Trinity Rodman, who forced the own goal that proved to be the winner, said the occasion might have had something to do with it.

“I think the hardest part about the playoffs is that it can get very distracting, very claustrophobic in a way,” the USWNT forward told ESPN.

“I feel like it’s a lot of emotion. There’s a lot going on and just the high level that we’re playing at. Sometimes you can get lost in it, in the momentum of the game, and sometimes it gets a little sloppy. It was definitely a different energy, but it was high energy, high intensity.

“What we need to improve is composure. We forced a lot of balls when we didn’t need to. We could have changed the ball when we had a lot more time than we thought we did. I think it was just the frenetic energy. We’ll definitely look at it and fix it for the next game.”

All the nerves, pressure from the apartment and everything else seemed to disappear as soon as the home team went behind. Going down a goal seemed to be the catalyst for them finding their mojo. As Audi Field grew taller, so did Spirit’s intensity. The goal, when it came, was just a seeming inevitability.

Rodman said it’s in the team’s DNA: “Not just this year, every year I’ve been with the Spirit, it’s like when we score, it comes. It motivates us so much when we push for it. , but we’re not stupid about it either, I think we’re strategic in the way we’re timing it, in the way we’re trying to make it happen.”

They were of course helped by the non-stop singing from the stands. Audi Field fell briefly silent when Asisat Oshoala scored, but then resumed normal service and the decibel level just kept rising and rising as the fans – dressed in all black – in the stands got behind their team, almost willing to to get back into it.

When Tara McKeown, missing her sister’s wedding to play in the game, drilled in the leveler, the sound level could have brought down the walls of Jericho.

“The noise after we equalized was just incredible,” defender Esme Morgan said. “My ears were ringing.

“If you play away you might not feel that lift from the crowd, but after Bay scored they really just lifted and got behind us and it was almost like they were sucking the ball into the net for us. It gives me goosebumps just me talking about it.

“It was just crazy and so much fun to be a part of. Obviously a sold out game, over 19,000 people here, and I think that’s why we made the comeback.”

As they prepare to face Gotham in the semi-finals, they will need the fans who have already set records this season to do it again. But on the field, the players must also call on the mentality that got them through the season and past what was a resurgent opponent in the quarter-finals.

Rodman expects it to be even tougher: “It’s going to be a tough game. But this was definitely a learning experience and I’m glad our rookies got to go through it. Now they have it under their belt, they have got the nerves out and now we can really focus on us.”

With a full week to rest and recover from the exertions of overtime, Kingsbury returns to echoes of their 2021 championship-winning season when they went through a similar route, once again pointing to the indefatigable spirit that carried them over the line.

“It’s very similar,” she said. “We went to extra time in 2021. It never says the spirit was evident on the day. Tara played a great game and scored. Her sister got married and she was here and committed to the team. You could tell she was like , ‘I’m not missing my sister’s wedding to go out in the quarterfinals!'”

That’s the kind of mentality it takes to get to the championship game and then win it.

“It’s one thing to have a great team,” defender Gabrielle Carle said. “It’s something else to have a team that’s strong mentally, and I think that’s what we’ve shown. It’s very important in the playoffs to have that kind of mentality and hopefully it will take us through.”

Kingsbury has a warning for the champions as they arrive at Audi Field for the semifinals: “This team will fight no matter what, and we can do anything with this kind of crowd behind us!”

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