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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A wild Saturday matinee at Audi Field 
