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“We tried everything, but today was not the day.”
That’s how Washington Spirit head coach Jonatan Giráldez summed up Saturday’s 3-0 loss against the Kansas City Current, a team that the Spirit had walloped 4-1 just a few weeks ago. The Spirit, who have dominated the National Women’s Soccer League all season, sit at second place in the table, and have already clinched a playoff berth, looked unfamiliar to coaches, fans, and to themselves on Saturday afternoon.
But, the Spirit know that bad days are part of the game. “This is sport, this is soccer,” defender Gabby Carle said after the game. “It’s never going to be perfect.” Accepting the result is not the hard part; rather, understanding what went wrong and learning how to correct their errors is where the challenge can come in.
At face value, it’s not hard to see what went wrong for the Spirit on Saturday. The first goal of the game, scored by Canada national Nichelle Prince, came after just four minutes. The Current continued to dominate on the attack throughout the game and appeared to overwhelm the Spirit. Though Washington generated some chances – including six corners in the first half – they were unable to convert them.
The Current’s additional two goals – one in the 31st from Lo’eau LaBonta and another in the 69th from Temwa Chawinga – rubbed salt in the wound. And to make matters worse, Spirit star Trinity Rodman went down late in the game with an “intense back spasm” as later identified by her agent in a statement to The Washington Post. The physicality of the game also led to a red card for Lena Silano in extra time, and she’ll sit out the Spirit’s next game in Los Angeles.
“I think they were ready for us, and I just don’t think we were ready to respond to that,” Carle reflected.
For the Spirit, a lot went wrong tactically on Saturday, and they knew it. Kansas City is a strong team in transition, and in that area specifically, the Spirit couldn’t keep up.
“We know they’re good at transitions, there are a lot of balls that enter the middle of the pitch or deeper,” midfielder Paige Metayer said after the game. “We know we have to get a challenge on [those], because if not, they will burn us with their speed.” The Spirit knew going into Saturday’s game that the Current would provoke them with their transitions, and like Carle acknowledged, they just weren’t ready for the challenge.
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Additionally, the Spirit, in unusual fashion, were unable to generate the offensive power they’ve reliably executed for most of this season. Ashley Hatch, who has stepped up to provide crucial offensive energy in Croix Bethune’s absence, was stymied in her attempts on Saturday because her normal role of playing in the pocket wasn’t working.
“We didn’t have the space,” Giráldez said to the press after the game, acknowledging that using Hatch in the pocket didn’t work. “They were defending with the lines close, and we didn’t have the spaces between the lines, so we needed other types of strikers.” This unsuccessful approach caused him to sub in Gabby Carle and Makenna Morris in the second half, ideally to generate more offense, but that didn’t produce results either.
Another adjustment Giráldez made at halftime was to have midfielder Hal Hershfelt drop back, ideally helping to push the sides out higher to be ready to receive passes for the attack. This idea, while logical on Giráldez’s part, did not ultimately do much to change the game. “We were not clinical enough today,” he acknowledged.
Although the game resulted in a surprisingly dramatic loss for the Spirit, the team is not hanging their heads. Rather, they reflect on the day as an attempt at a game plan that just didn’t work. Giráldez is especially emphatic about not changing the game plan as an immediate response to things going wrong.
“When you concede a goal so early, from my point of view, you have to respect the game plan and change nothing,” Giráldez said. Rather than getting flustered and immediately second-guessing their decisions, Giráldez wanted his team to “keep doing the same things.”
Ultimately, it was not enough, and everyone knows it. “We tried in the second half to add a little more, but we didn’t create enough chances,” Giráldez said. “We were clinical against them one month ago, and they were clinical today.”
But in a season full of good news, bad news is bound to rear its head at some point. So, for the Spirit, the game plan is now to just accept the bad results and simply move on. “This whole year, we’ve been extremely competitive,” Carle said. “And tonight we fell flat. … That’s soccer.”
