Bella Bixby has been one of NWSL’s best goalkeepers over the last two seasons, but on Wednesday night she had a moment to forget.
In retrospect, the stage was set early. The Portland Thorns were visiting Segra Field, the NWSL venue most likely to play host to bizarre and inexplicable events, to play the Washington Spirit.
That’s the same Spirit team who seem plagued by an endless stream of oddities in just about every game they play in 2022. And on top of that, in a time-honored tradition for NWSL midweek games, the match was delayed by lightning after ferocious storms swept through the DMV region.
In the 76th minute of a game that up to that point was defined by excellent goalkeeping from both Bixby and Aubrey Kingsbury, the former first got poor contact on an attempted punch from a Spirit corner kick. Washington’s Sam Staab nodded the rebound towards goal, and Bixby recovered to make what appeared to be a clean save.
However, she stumbled amid the crowd of bodies in the goalmouth, and in recovering stepped so far back over the goal line that she carried the ball right in with her, giving the Spirit the unlikeliest of leads.
Bixby tried to recover, tossing the ball back out of the goal, though that just saw Ashley Hatch quickly poke the ball back into the goal to make absolutely sure it was given. NWSL eventually ruled that Bixby had already crossed the line, awarding an own goal.
Bella Bixby will not want to watch this again!
Her mistake gives the Spirit the lead. 😅 pic.twitter.com/jHuOs87Y4X
— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) August 11, 2022
Still, as the Spirit are in the midst of an absolutely cursed season, the gift that gave them a late lead didn’t hold. Portland produced a stunning comeback, equalizing through Christine Sinclair in the 84th minute and then taking all three points on a Morgan Weaver stoppage time goal.
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