The Washington Spirit was scrambling midway through the first half of Saturday’s home bout against Angel City FC at Audi Field, having conceded consecutive goals after taking the lead on Trinity Rodman’s ninth-minute strike.
“I think collectively as a team we’re relying on each other a lot more and leaning into working together and not trying to make individual magic happen and [instead] making magic happen together,” Rodman said. “There’s just a common understanding of [how] we play for each other.”
The run, expectedly, started with Rodman. Washington’s star netted her second goal of the half by corralling a Croix Bethune touch with her right foot and firing a shot with her left, tying the game at 2 in the 30th minute to the relief of a tense Audi Field crowd.
Then, unexpectedly, defender Casey Krueger gave the Spirit the lead four minutes later. After consecutive Washington shots were blocked, Krueger found an opening in the bottom left corner and connected to put the Spirit up 3-2.
“A lot of players were involved in that goal, so that made it special,” said Krueger, whose teammates swarmed her in celebration. “I was like: ‘All right, let’s go. We’re going to score this — this is not getting out of their box.’ ”
By then, the momentum was back on the side of a Spirit team playing its first home game since a late-April loss to the Orlando Pride.
Two minutes later, Spirit forward Ouleymata Sarr watched Bethune’s deftly placed pass land in front of her as the pair sprinted past the Angel City defense toward goal. Sarr fired past DiDi Haracic for the sixth goal in the game’s opening 36 minutes, prompting the scorer to drop to her knees and slide across the rain-soaked grass in celebration.
Washington had fallen behind when Angel City provided an attacking flurry of its own, scoring twice in four minutes off an Annaig Butel own goal and a Sydney Leroux strike.
“In this game specifically, I think it was more the downfall of us being passive in our defensive half,” Rodman said. “But when we get scored on and we’re down, there’s not even a conversation. I think we’re all giving each other that look of, ‘We know this feeling, let’s just do it again.’ … We’re going to keep building and obviously score as many goals as possible.”
Both defenses hardened in a scoreless second half as the Spirit vaulted into a second-place tie in the NWSL with Orlando on 21 points and a plus-eight goal differential. Washington will search for a third straight win Friday when it faces the Seattle Reign at Audi Field.
“We have that mentality, that mind-set to believe until the end,” interim coach Adrián González said. “It doesn’t matter [the result] — we keep fighting, and we keep competing.”
