Washington Spirit Fall Late to NC Courage in Challenge Cup

The Spirit entered the match having not lost at home in the Challenge Cup and with eyes on first place. Mark Parsons’s team has been relentless on the attack this season with probably the best trio in the league right now up front. Trinity Rodman, Ashley Hatch, and Ashley Sanchez have been giving teams nightmares in both the Challenge Cup and the Regular Season. Washington entered off a quick turnaround from their June 10th match against Angel City which was in jeopardy due to the air quality.

The Spirit came out of the gates strong against North Carolina and maintained control for the entire first half of play despite not scoring off the numerous opportunities that presented themselves. Washington definitely could have been up by two or three goals if they had found that last touch. It’s been a rarity to see this team not convert the opportunities that present themselves.

The second half saw all the offensive explosions in the match, the scoring gates opened up in the 54′ when Tara McKowen found the back of the net off a well-placed cross from the corner kick by Lena Silano. Tara did the job placing the ball perfectly inside the 1st post and giving the Spirit the lead, they’ve deserved all match long.

Unfortunately, they failed to capitalize on a few other chances they created and would pay late in the match when in the 62′ Brittany Ratcliffe scored from a difficult angle after she caught Camryn Biegalski making a bad read on the play, she snuck behind the young defender and then beat keeper Nicole Barnhart 1 v 1 in the box, taking the ball toward the goal line and firing a shot toward the second post.

The dagger came in the 90’+2′ when Wingate finished off the great run by Haley Hopkins. Haley stayed onside and took the solo defender to task from midfield to the box, The spirit tried to get numbers back, but it was too late, and Hopkins sent a cross box low driven pass right to Wingate by the second post and she slotted it home with ease. It’s one of the downsides of playing such a high press and last night Washington paid instead of converting from it.

It’s a style of play that comes with high risk and high reward, unfortunately for the Spirit, the risk was a detriment and not a reward like we have grown accustomed to seeing this season. The standings for the Challenge Cup saw changes following the result, North Carolina moves into first place just a point ahead of Gotham who has a game at hand.

Washington sits in third place a point behind Gotham for second place. Their next match on July 22 in North Carolina will be huge for the side as well as the follow-up game on the 28th versus Gotham FC. Washington has accomplished a ton this season and is on pace to fight for the NWSL Cup and Challenge Cup after last year’s disappointing season. Knowing Mark, he will use this match as a teaching moment for his team to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I fully expect the Spirit to bounce back and be right in the thick of things for the remainder of the season and tournament. Washington returns to regular season action on June 18th in Kansas City to take on the struggling Current team which just appoint Lee Nyguen as an assistant coach.