May 23, 2024 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
Washington Spirit News Release
Washington, D.C. – The Washington Spirit will face Seattle Reign FC in match #11 of the 2024 NWSL regular season. The match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. EDT at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. and will be broadcast locally on Monumental Sports Network and on NWSL+. Fans can also listen to the team’s first-ever local radio broadcast on WashingtonSpirit.com or the ESPN 630 AM website or app.
The Spirit
The Spirit enters Friday’s bout against Seattle Reign FC with momentum from one of its most decisive victories of the season.
Defeating Angel City FC, 4-2, the Spirit completely dominated with a scoring frenzy – three goals in less than seven minutes, each scored by a different player.
The victory launches the Spirit to seven wins on the season, already matching last year’s win total.
The final result, 4-2, was also the halftime score, marking a club record for first-half goals (4) and setting an NWSL record for six combined first half goals. This marked the third time this season that the Spirit came from behind to win.
Trinity Rodman scored twice in the match with both goals coming off her left foot. Just three of Rodman’s 19 other goals in all competitions were scored with her left foot (18 with her right foot, one with her head).
Currently, the Spirit sits in third place (21 points) on the NWSL table, only three points away from the top, occupied by an undefeated Orlando side. However, Portland sits only two points behind the Spirit, so getting three points against Seattle is crucial.
The last time the Spirit faced off against Seattle was the first game of the season when the Reign shut out the Spirit, 1-0. After conceding a penalty kick in the opening seconds, the Spirit was unable to equalize the match. Casey Krueger did put a ball in the back of the net off a corner kick, but it would be disallowed due to a foul called against Washington.
This marked one of the poorer performances by the Spirit this season, but the side has not looked back since, taking three points in seven of its last nine matches.
Since the loss to the Reign, the Spirit has scored in nine straight games while scoring multiple goals in eight of those. Washington has scored four goals in two different games this month after having done so in multiple league games only once in a single regular season before (2017).
Since last Saturday’s match, a statistical correction was issued to the Spirit’s first goal,…