The Spirit are off to their best start in franchise history through six games after one-sided win over a very good San Diego Wave side. It’d be the stars who showed out for Washington as Trinity Rodman, Ashley Sanchez, and Aubrey Kingsbury would all have stellar games. For the Wave, it would a great solo performance for USWNT star Alex Morgan who did all she could to keep her team in contention, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Spirit would win 3-1
The entire first half would be all Washington; the link up play between Sanchez and Rodman left the San Deigo defense looking loss as they were creating chance after chance early on in the game. The first big chance would come from Sanchez who’d take a ambitious long shot in the 8th minute, after freeing herself from her defender she’d unleash a powerful shot that would be tipped over the bar from San Diego goalie Kailen Sheridan. The best chance of the first half would fall to Sanchez again after Rodman’s dazzling spin move would drop her defender, Rodman played a soft pass for Sanchez who had the whole net to aim at, but would ultimately shoot it wide. After both sides could not find a breakthrough in the first half, they would head into the locker rooms at a 0-0 scoreline.
Both sides must’ve been saving their attacking prowess until the second half as it was non-stop action in the remaining forty-five minutes. Alex Morgan would start it out in the immediately after kick off as she would be played through and would actually round Spirit goalie Aubrey Kingsbury, her defense would quickly get back and swarm Morgan forcing her to try to lay it off with no avail.
The breakthrough of the game would come from who else then the young superstar in Trinity Rodman in the 55th minute, this time Sanchez would repay the favour from her first half chance and play a perfectly weighted through ball to Rodman who made no mistake and slotted it past Sheridan who had no chance of saving it. The goal and the lead was deserved for Washington who had been dictating the play most of the game.
Once the Spirit got that first goal, the dam would break open, as just 1 minutes later they would get their second of the game this time through Sanchez. The move would start down the left wing with Rodman gliding down the pitch with no one closing her down, once she got to the edge of the box she would look up and find Sanchez who blasted it into the top left corner. The assist by Rodman would write her into the history books of the NWSL once again as she became the first player with 10 goals and 10 assists before turning 21.
The nail in the San Diego’s coffin would come just nine minutes later after the Spirit would go up 3-0. This time the goal coming from a corner. Sam Staab would be the one to service the ball into the pit of bodies and it would be Paige Metayer’s head that directed the ball into the net. A big moment for the first-year midfielder as that’d be her first NWSL goal in her career. San Diego would get a consolation goal in the 90th minute, after a flurry of saves from Kingsbury the ball would fall kindly to Alex Morgan, the forward would quickly poke the ball into the open net to pull the score back 3-1.
Another big win for the Spirit as it’s early in the season but they seem to be finding that 2021 form and with this win they move up to 3rd in the table. For the Wave, this seems to be slight rough patch for the team as that’s two straight loses, in spite of that they still sit 4th in the table with still a lot of season to play.
