Tag: Aubrey Kingsbury

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Ertz changes Angel City, Williams and Kizer standing out

Big names are shaking things up in the NWSL

The NWSL returned to regular season play after its first dalliance with the new Challenge Cup format, and gave fans plenty to think about.

Julie Ertz made her first appearance in the league in over two years, and the early signs are that her presence will change a lot about how Angel City FC executes. That follows some positive changes that came in part from Lynn Williams arriving with NJ/NY Gotham FC this winter, while Cece Kizer’s return to fitness has opened up missing elements for the Kansas City Current.

Unless you’re the Portland Thorns, change is good at this part of the season. For some teams, that means staying the course in anticipation of changes for the better coming to fruition. In other cases, we may have a couple of teams who need to consider more marked changes to avoid being left in the dust.

Here’s your look back at another eventful weekend in the NWSL:

NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Thorns imperious, VAR off to a rocky start

Tactics, VAR controversy, and spicy quotes? NWSL’s not wasting any time

The NWSL is back for 2023, and immediately produced a characteristic mix of quality play (we see you, Portland Thorns), strangeness, and controversy.

Pro Soccer Wire will be bringing this look at one aspect from every game to you every Tuesday throughout the season. Great goals? Tactical nuance? Spicy quotes? It might be week one for NWSL teams, but there’s so much to tackle. We saw the return of some banter between old rivals, several glorious goals, a total change in system from one team, and VAR’s debut resulting in a pivotal call.

Without further adieu, let’s dive into the takes:

Washington Spirit end 16-game NWSL winless run in predictably bonkers fashion

“The NWSL is crazy”

After 16 games and over four whole months of turmoil and frustration, the Washington Spirit walked off winners.

Fittingly for an utterly strange season, though, they did it in the hardest way possible: a 4-3 win over the NWSL Shield-contending San Diego Wave, having lead 3-1, thanks to the latest result-changing goal in NWSL regular season history.

Speaking to reporters after the match, Amber Brooks—who scored her first two Spirit goals today after going 23 months without a goal—summed it up best: “The NWSL is crazy.”

Under interim head coach Albertin Montoya for the first time, the Spirit fell behind early, and in particularly painful fashion. U.S. under-20 star Jaedyn Shaw raced free to volley a beautiful service from Emily van Egmond to give the visitors the lead.

That is to say, a player Washington spent months hosting at training only for NWSL to conclude that she had to go through a weighted lottery that San Diego won, and that the Spirit tried to trade for, scored on Washington roughly six minutes into her first-ever game against them.

The Spirit replied with a well-worked Tara McKeown goal just four minutes later, and from there roared to life. Washington went into halftime with a 3-1 lead and looking dominant, but the goalscorer? Not exactly who anyone expected.

2021 NWSL Golden Boot winner Ashley Hatch? Ballon d’Or nominee Trinity Rodman? U.S. women’s national team attacking midfielder Ashley Sanchez? Maybe McKeown, a 2021 first round pick whose early-season injury was one of many factors in the Spirit’s slow start becoming a nightmarish season as defending champions?

Nope. Brooks, a defender with six career NWSL goals and none since the 2020 Fall Series, naturally bagged a brace. The first was a throwback to a different era: an instinctive toe-poke shot through traffic amid some chaos in the box after a set piece was half-cleared.

The second was some kind of magic trick. Brooks’ center back partner Sam Staab bent a corner kick to the back post, where the veteran somehow managed to gently float a header back across goal, over Kailen Sheridan, and under the crossbar, all while falling down and away from goal.

Asked if she’d ever scored a goal quite like it, Brooks said “No,” before Hatch interjected a joking claim that Brooks had been practicing just that kind of header. Brooks had to confess the truth: “Most of my goals in this league have been headers, but not quite as acrobatic as that one.”

It was a wild ride for Brooks in particular. Ten minutes into the second half, her attempt to intercede on Alex Morgan’s knifing run between the center backs ended with a heavy collision. Referee Karen Callado initially seemed to give a free kick outside the box, with San Diego appealing for a DOGSO red card and the Spirit lobbying for no call at all. In the end, Callado changed her call after input from an assistant referee, pointing to the spot.

Morgan converted, and within seconds of the game kicking off, San Diego missed a golden chance to instantly level the scores. Suddenly the Spirit went from looking like the 2021 champs again to the 2022 version of themselves: hesitant, and progressively defending deeper and deeper while trying to protect a lead.

The intense pressure finally paid off for San Diego, but it felt like a typical gut-punch goal for the Spirit to concede late. A Wave corner found the back of Morgan’s head, but despite facing exactly the wrong direction to direct a header, the USWNT star nodded the ball home in the 82nd minute.

The Spirit had a good case that goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury was being interfered with by substitute Jodie Taylor, among other things, which lead to yet another spectacular Brooks moment captured by the CBS broadcast team:

All year long, this has been Washington’s season: play well for a spell, get some goals, but the opponent is always in the game, and will likely score a late equalizer or winner. No fewer than eight of the 26 goals the Spirit have conceded this year have been scored in the 82nd minute or later. It’s been a problem all year long.

With just seconds left in that seven minutes of stoppage, and after Kingsbury had saved an Amirah Ali breakaway, Rodman—who had been trying to conjure up some kind of solo goal for the final 10 minutes or so—used a stop-start move on USWNT defender Naomi Girma, opening up just enough room to fire a low ball into the goalmouth towards Hatch.

Sheridan was able to bat the ball away, but only as far as McKeown, who was duly wiped out by a lunging van Egmond, with Callado calling a somewhat more definitive penalty kick.

Still, it’s the Spirit, so nothing comes easy. McKeown needed to be checked out, San Diego argued the call, Morgan spent some time lobbying Callado after the protests died down. The game entered the 100th minute, and Hatch was still waiting to take her spot kick against Sheridan, arguably the best goalkeeper in the world at saving penalties having arguably her best season in that category.

The 2022 Spirit thing to do would be to not convert, or to have a re-take ordered, but at long last, Hatch was given the chance to shoot, and made no mistake.

And, because Brooks is right that the NWSL is crazy, the two-win Spirit kept their playoff hopes alive despite being in the final month of the regular season with, again, two wins.

Watch the Spirit & Wave play out a thriller

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Washington Spirit players dispute Kris Ward’s account of his dismissal

“We know his interview to be (a) completely inaccurate recollection”

The players of the Washington Spirit pushed back on former head coach Kris Ward’s description of the events leading up to his dismissal earlier this week.

Speaking after Saturday night’s 2-2 draw with the Houston Dash, team co-captains Andi Sullivan and Aubrey Kingsbury began the press conference with a statement they said was on behalf of the entire roster, calling Ward’s account of a training ground incident the week before “completely inaccurate.”

Ward spoke to The Athletic in an interview published on Friday, and characterized the incident as one where he yelled at an unnamed player to leave the field to receive further instruction on a tactical scenario. In the interview, Ward said “It was probably the first time all year that I’ve ever raised my voice to any of the players.”

The Spirit’s players offered a robust disagreement with Ward’s portrayal of the incident.

“We would like to start off with a statement on behalf of the players. Firstly, we’re frustrated that this is necessary, given our history,” began the statement, alluding to the tumultuous events of 2021 that included head coach Richie Burke and former team President of Sporting Operations both being suspended by NWSL after two Washington Post reports of abusive conduct within the team and the front office.

“Secondly, we are angered by Kris Ward’s answers in the piece from The Athletic,” continued the players’ statement. “We know the idiom that there are two sides to every story, but that is simply not the case in this scenario. We know his interview to be (a) completely inaccurate recollection of a serious situation. And furthermore, the apology offered to us last Friday demonstrates a misalignment in his words and his actions towards his team.

“The players fully support the decision of the club to relieve him of his duties as head coach, and we have every intention of cooperating in a proper course of action as it relates to circumstances like this one. We will no longer take any questions regarding his dismissal, or make any further comments on it at this time. We are focused on our current performances, and the rest of our season, and moving forward as a group.”

An NWSL spokesperson confirmed to Equalizer Soccer that there will be an investigation into the incident. Team president Mark Krikorian told media on Thursday that the team had reported the incident to the NWSL and NWSLPA, but declined to say whether any other incidents with Ward had occurred.

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Andi Sullivan, Aubrey Kingsbury ‘in it together on both fronts’ on Spirit-laden USWNT

United Spirit, Washington National Team

The U.S. women’s national team begins its most important task of 2022 early next month at the CONCACAF W Championship, and will do so with a heavy Washington Spirit influence.

Seven of the 23-player USWNT roster Vlatko Andonovski assembled earlier this week for that tournament and friendlies against Colombia play for the 2021 NWSL champions. No other club contributed more than four players to this squad, and four NWSL teams were shut out entirely.

In an interview conducted over email with Pro Soccer Wire, Spirit co-captains Aubrey Kingsbury and Andi Sullivan both said that there are clear benefits to the kind of familiarity that fosters that can be applied with the USWNT and in NWSL.

“We all have high aspirations, not just for the Spirit, but representing our country in the upcoming World Cup and Olympics,” said Kingsbury. “We’re kind of in it together on both fronts, the national team and the Spirit.”

“I do think it’s beneficial any time you get players that know each other and are familiar with each other, which is very common with the national team,” added Sullivan, who noted that at the USWNT level, there tends to be some familiarity from youth national team play, college soccer, or the frequency of seeing one another in NWSL play.

While much has been made of the Spirit’s emergence over the past three seasons, Kingsbury and Sullivan both joined the team in 2018, a disastrous season in which the club set the NWSL record for minutes without a goal twice, and won just two times in 24 games.

It’s been a long, difficult road from those tough times to becoming the team supplying over 30% of the USWNT squad for a competitive tournament.

“It’s incredible,” said Kingsbury, who after three seasons on the fringes of the national team appears to have carved out a more secure niche. “Having seven players on the national team, it’s an intense, competitive training environment (with the Spirit). Now when I go to the national team it’s like ‘Oh, this is the Washington Spirit here!'”

“Teams that are making playoffs, making finals, winning finals, you look good,” said Sullivan. “I think that speaks to the culture of the Spirit and what we’ve been able to do the last year especially given a lot of difficulties.”

Looking ahead to the W Championship, Sullivan says she’s been paying attention to the growth of Liga MX Femenil, which has been drawing big crowds and improving the Mexican women’s national team. In typical USWNT fashion, though, she sees the challenge of a hostile environment as one to look forward to.

“I’m looking forward to playing against a rowdy crowd. I think we’re used to rowdy crowds in the U.S. but obviously they’re for us,” explained Sullivan. “I’m looking forward to feeling that heat both from the climate and from the Mexican fans.”

Despite the similarity in club background, Kingsbury and Sullivan enter this camp in different positions. Kingsbury has only recently emerged as a possible back-up to Alyssa Naeher, getting her first cap in April after numerous call-ups and camp invites.

For Kingsbury, the competition to stay in the frame is demanding.

“It’s definitely a very competitive environment,” said Kingsbury of being in USWNT camps. “The standards are high. We get there early, (goalkeepers) start training before the rest of the team does… It’s a fun, challenging environment to be in because we all demand perfection.”

Sullivan’s situation is a bit different. She has emerged as the USWNT’s first-choice defensive midfielder, starting 10 of the team’s last 11 games and receiving hearty backing from Andonovski on Friday. However, she isn’t taking her place for granted.

“I’m obviously more excited to be getting more playing time and more starts with the national team. It’s great to have opportunities but it doesn’t guarantee anything,” said Sullivan. “My role with the national team is to do whatever the team needs and I feel like that’s the same with the Spirit. ‘Whatever best way I can serve the team that will help the team win’ is always the approach I’m gonna take.”

In terms of what they expect out of the USWNT over the next few weeks, the answer is simple: win.

“Just given the expectations this team has for itself, first place is the only acceptable outcome,” said Sullivan. “Hopefully, we can focus on the little things that will make that happen and have everything else take care of itself.”

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