Tag: Washington Spirit

What are my NWSL team’s playoff chances? Your guide to the last two matchdays of the season

There’s so much potential for NWSL chaos this weekend

The NWSL season has just two rounds of games left, with every team having two more chances to pick up points.

Eight teams are alive in the playoff race, and somehow only the Portland Thorns know that they’re definitely going to the postseason. The table is packed like the stands at Snapdragon Stadium! It’s as crowded as a storage container locker room at Segra Field! It’s a lot to take in, is what we’re saying.

NWSL Chaos is in the eye of the beholder, and while we can all agree on an idea like a seven-team tie was the wildest thing out there last week, that dream is over. We now have a wide range that are all arguably the most bonkers outcome.

The last version of this piece was omakase; you got one incredible scenario to savor, but no choices. This time, you’ve got the whole menu to look over, with truly wild scenarios peppered throughout this piece.

What are my NWSL team’s playoff chances? Your guide to the last two weeks of the season

What if everyone finishes tied for first? The NWSL wants to find out!

There are less than two weeks left in the NWSL regular season, and yet no team has clinched a playoff spot. Only three teams are officially out of the running, and the prospect of a truly bonkers final table — we promise, there is a possible scenario detailed below that is a true mind-melter — is still very much looming over proceedings.

Here, then, is Pro Soccer Wire‘s breakdown of every team’s situation heading into the last 12 days of the season.

NWSL suspends Washington Spirit’s Amber Brooks for creating the meme of the year

Brooks may be suspended, but she’s also a Spirit legend now

Amber Brooks has only been with the Washington Spirit for a few months, but she may already be a cult hero at Audi Field.

The current NWSL Player of the Week scored twice in Washington’s wild 4-3 win over the San Diego Wave, while also conceding a penalty in a performance that could only be described as all-action.

However, as much as Brooks played a crucial role in one of the most bananas games in this NWSL season, it appears she went a little overboard for the league’s tastes. The defender, already suspended for Saturday’s home game against NJ/NY Gotham FC due to yellow card accumulation, had an extra game tacked on by the NWSL Disciplinary Committee for partying too hard.

Alright, technically the league’s announcement does not use the phrase “partying too hard,” and instead refers to “Major Game Misconduct,” but sometimes we use legalese to cover for what we actually mean.

“The National Women’s Soccer League’s Disciplinary Committee has made the following decision after review of an incident involving Washington Spirit defender Amber Brooks that occurred in the 82nd minute of the team’s September 10 match against San Diego Wave FC,” read a league statement announcing the news. “After further evaluation, the Disciplinary Committee determined that Brooks made an obscene gesture towards a referee in violation of Section 12.3.6, ‘Major Game Misconduct’, of the League Operations Manual.”

What the NWSL objected to is also what will probably linger in the memory of Spirit fans for years. They may forget about whether she scored one or two goals that day, or whether the Spirit had a lead or came back to win. The specific details will blur with other games, or fade away.

What you can be sure they’ll be talking about ten years from now, when a stop for a post-game beer along the Anacostia waterfront becomes a Let’s Remember Some Gals session, is that Brooks disputed a call by the assistant referee by choosing to emphatically flip that AR off.

She did it with both hands! It was on CBS, the nation was watching! It’s the stuff legends are made of.

One can understand the NWSL wanting to prevent obvious demonstrations of disrespect to referees. And surely Brooks would choose to be on the field against Gotham FC over watching the game from a suite at Audi Field.

On the other hand, Brooks is now part of Washington club lore, and based on the replies to the official league announcement on Twitter, she’s already going to be the go-to NWSL fan reference for so many situations. The suspension may be for two games, but the meme will be with us forever.

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What are my NWSL team’s playoff chances? Your guide to the stretch run

We stared at the NWSL standings for 10 hours so you don’t have to

The NWSL is officially in the home stretch, with the season down to its final three weekends. Most teams have just four games left to play, and we have an incredible five teams all within two points of one another at the top of the table, along with a potentially wild race for the last playoff spot.

Here, then, is Pro Soccer Wire‘s breakdown of every team’s situation heading into these final, critical games of the season.

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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Washington Spirit say Kris Ward ousted over record, ‘incident’ at training

Team president Mark Krikorian cited “a combination of factors” in the move

Days after announcing that head coach Kris Ward had been fired, the Washington Spirit provided some—but not complete—clarity over that decision.

The Spirit initially announced the move via a one-sentence tweet on Monday, and on Thursday, team president Mark Krikorian addressed reporters, providing at least to some degree a rationale for removing a coach that helped them win their first-ever NWSL title last year.

According to Krikorian, assistant coach Angela Salem will be the team’s head coach for Saturday’s game against the Houston Dash, and that the club has “identified a potential interim coach, pending a background check.” Krikorian added that the club wants to possibly add an assistant to the coaching staff as well, as former assistant Lee Nguyen came out of retirement earlier in August, leaving Salem and goalkeeper coach Paul Crichton as the only coaches left on the team’s payroll.

Krikorian, who had many years of success at Florida State before joining the Spirit as club president earlier this year, said he is “absolutely not” going to return to coaching, ruling himself out as an interim or permanent option. “It wasn’t that long ago, being on the sidelines, but that was my previous life.”

Citing the club’s disappointing 1W-9D-6L record—Washington’s lone regular season win came in their season opener—and an “incident” at training last week, Krikorian said the club were spurred to act from multiple angles.

“The expectations are to be as competitive as can be, and try and win every game… Up to this point, we haven’t done a great job with that,” Krikorian told reporters in a press conference. “Last Friday, we had a little bit of an incident here at the training ground.”

Krikorian said he wasn’t present at the training session, but that the club notified the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association in the aftermath. That’s in contrast to the last time the Spirit had to fire a coach, which saw the club initially say that Richie Burke was being given a front office position due to a health issue only for extensive allegations of abusive conduct to emerge in the weeks that followed.

Krikorian said that after the Spirit reported the issue, they held multiple meetings with players before concluding that “a change was necessary.” The Athletic reported that the incident in question was a verbal confrontation during a training session, but when asked whether that was a recurring sort of issue or if it had simply been a one-off, Krikorian declined to answer.

Krikorian cited the club’s struggle to get the results they had expected more than once in his remarks, and said that “a combination of factors” caused the club to make the change rather than simply the unspecified training ground incident.

Further details weren’t forthcoming at this point, with Krikorian saying that if there are next steps or an investigation, it will fall to the league and the Players Association.

“It’s complex,” said Krikorian when asked about the club’s nearly three-day radio silence on the matter. “Making sure that everyone is included, and making sure that everyone’s rights are protected, and that we’re following the proper course of action, and things unfortunately don’t happen quickly enough for (media), or all of us, or for our fans, to be able to be as transparent as we’d all like to (be).”

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Washington Spirit abruptly fire head coach Kris Ward

Ward’s time as permanent head coach was significantly less successful than his interim stint

The Washington Spirit announced they have fired head coach Kris Ward.

The defending NWSL champions announced the move in a tweet on Monday, with no other context on the decision.

Ward, who was previously an assistant coach, took over as interim head coach midway through the 2021 season and led the Spirit on an incredible late-season surge that culminated in an NWSL championship.

That run led to Ward earning the job on a full-time basis ahead of the 2022 season. However, Ward’s time as permanent head coach has not gone nearly as well as his stint as an interim.

The Spirit currently sit 11th in the 12-team league’s standings, with a record of 1W-9D-6L. The club is in the midst of a 17-game winless run, with the Spirit failing to win since the first game of the season on May 1.

Ward also turned heads with recent comments on the playing surface at Segra Field, the club’s stadium for half of its home matches in 2022.

“It’s an abomination that a professional game has to be played on something like this,” Ward said.

The Spirit have six games remaining in the 2022 season, with a playoff berth all but out of reach.

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Spirit coach Kris Ward called his own home field an ‘abomination’

Of Segra Field, he said: “I hope we never have to play here again”

Kris Ward is through holding back his feelings on Segra Field.

After a 2-1 loss against the Portland Thorns on Wednesday, the Washington Spirit head coach labeled the playing surface at his team’s occasional home stadium an “abomination.”

The Spirit split their home schedule in 2022 between Segra Field in Leesburg, Va. and Audi Field in Washington D.C., playing five matches at each facility.

But players and coaches alive have not hidden their preference for Audi Field, the home of D.C. United, which holds 20,000 fans in comparison to 5,000 at Segra Field, and features a pristine grass playing surface instead of the turf at Segra.

The Spirit played their last 2022 match at Segra Field on Wednesday, and Ward did not mince words after the game.

“It’s an abomination that a professional game has to be played on something like this,” he told reporters of Segra Field, saying the turf affects players’ ability to accelerate and turn, as well as the speed of the ball.

“I hope we never have to play here again,” Ward added.

Aug 10, 2022; Leesburg, Virginia, USA; Portland Thorns FC forward Morgan Weaver (22) scores a goal against Washington Spirit in the second half at Segra Field. Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports 

As for the game itself, Ward was left frustrated as Portland scored two goals late to turn around a Spirit lead obtained on a bizarre Bella Bixby own goal.

The loss took the defending NWSL champions’ winless streak to an incredible 17 games, with the Spirit failing to win since the first game of the season on May 1.

“It should’ve been three points,” Ward said. “There’s no two ways around it.”

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Bella Bixby walks ball into her own goal, but Portland Thorns win anyway

Segra Field was naturally the home for one of the strangest goals of the NWSL season

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.

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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