That’s all for tonight. Here’s Tom Dart’s full report off Orlando’s final win.
So ends a banner season for the NWSL, which has far outlived its predecessor leagues in the USA and is now poised to outspend most European clubs for the world’s top talent. The league has strong owners (in most cities) and solid facilities, and it has agreed with its players union to shore up the salaries that were once barely at “stipend” level.
Next year’s favorites would likely be the Spirit. But the California teams will surely roar back into contention, Kansas City has world-class talent, and Gotham FC has the front office to ensure contender status for years to come.
Thanks for following along tonight. See you next time.
Give credit first to Orlando, especially goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse and the indomitable attack of Banda and Marta. This game was decided by two outstanding plays – Banda’s smooth finish and Moorhouse’s point-blank save.
The first word that springs to mind for Washington is “unlucky.” Croix Bethune, Andi Sullivan and Ouleymata Sarr were out injured. Some of the officiating in this final was … we’ll say “idiosyncratic.”
At the same time, watching the last 40 minutes in particular, it felt like the Spirit could’ve spent the next week dribbling at Pride defenders and still not getting anything in the net. It just wasn’t happening tonight for whatever reason. Ashley Hatch in particular struggled, getting only a few touches and squandering them, though one clanged off the post. Her young teammates will have games in which they make better decisions on the ball or make better runs.
So for neutrals, that probably wasn’t a lot of fun, given the sense of inevitability through so much of the game after the controversial goal. For Spirit fans, it’s a dagger to the heart.
But the Pride are a superb team, assembled by their sharp VP Haley Carter and coach Seb Hines.
And if they want to celebrate by yelling, “I’m going to Disney World,” they don’t have to go very far.
Full time: Orlando 1-0 Washington
Well, that was a soccer game.
Kingsbury gets a head to it. A lunging teammate accidentally plays it out. Goal kick.
We’re in minute 9. Credit to the ref for adding the stoppage time to stoppage time.
90 min +7: Frantic Spirit attack here. Rodman wins a corner. Kingsbury comes forward.
Christina Unkel says it’s not a foul. I have no idea how she arrived at that conclusion.
90 min +5: Surely that’s a penalty? Kouassi is brought down in the penalty area. Replay shows … yes, that’s a foul. Surely this is being checked …
90 min +4: Banda is down for unknown reasons after tangling with Carle. I think she initiated most of that.
Marta doesn’t seem to mind that more time is ticking off the clock.
Cynical stuff here.
90 min +2: If the whistle blows after six minutes of stoppage time, remember how much time the Spirit lost tending to Hatch there.
Rodman gets the ball forward and passes to Silano, who drags a shot well wide.
90 min: We’ll have six minutes of stoppage time, and Spirit supporters believes it should start with a penalty kick. They chant “VAR.” But there’s nothing in it. Hatch and Gautrat were leaning on each other and slipped.
Now Hatch is taking a lot of time on the ground, and Marta comes up to yell at the ref for … allowing the Spirit to waste time while down a goal in stoppage time? What? Does this make any sense?
89 min: Rodman centers it to Carle, but the onrushing Spirit player can’t handle it.
McKeown hits a soft back pass toward Kingsbury, who has to play it awkwardly away from Banda.
88 min: Kouassi takes an ill-advised shot. Two defenders had covered every angle to the goal, and she doesn’t even knock the ball off them for a corner.
86 min: Orlando brings in some subs. One-time USWNT phenom Morgan Gautrat replaces Angelina. Carson Picketts replaces Abello.
85 min: Washington keep hammering away. Santos has a decent go at it from just inside the area. The rebound eludes all the pressing Spirit players.
Can they conjure one more late equalizer this season?
84 min: It’ll be another corner to the Spirit, as Kouassi slams the ball off an Orlando defender’s leg.
This is low and easily cleared.
83 min: Orlando play ahead to Banda, who makes some nifty moves to relieve the pressure on the Pride and give them a brief spell of possession.
81 min: The Spirit play ahead to Rodman, who can’t find a way past US teammate Sams but wins a corner kick.
The corner kick lands in the top of the net.
It just feels like it’s not the Spirit’s night.
80 min: All of the stats favor Washington. Shots: 16-8. Possession: 57-43. Shots on goal: 5-3. Total passes: 304-229. And so on and so on.
It’s still 1-0 Orlando.
78 min: Gabby Carle rushes forward and pings the ball off two Orlando defenders out of play. Inexplicably, it’s a goal kick.
Again – I referee a bit, and it’s a very difficult job, but that’s just not good.
76 min: Banda commits another foul – that’s 16 by the Pride. A persistent infringement yellow card would be the last thing Orlando wants here.
Spirit supporters are helpfully calling out how many seconds Moorhouse is holding on to the ball. Don’t they know that Abby Wambach is the only person who has ever convinced a ref to call the seldom-called infraction on a goalkeeper keeping the ball too long?
74 min: We’ve officially hit the late stages of the game. Kingsbury comes up from the Washington goal to take a free kick, and Orlando’s Ally Watt is down “injured.” She’s replaced by Julie Doyle.
Lena Silano has entered the game for Washington, replacing Morris.
73 min: While McKeown is treated, the camera picks out basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill – oddly enough, a member of the Orlando ownership group even though he hails from Reston, Va., not far from DC.
70 min: The Spirit are winning every battle in midfield.
The Pride are winning every battle in their own penalty area.
McKeown is fouled and is down in apparent considerable pain. Banda gets yellow.
68 min (still): Krueger gets the ball in space down the left, but she rushes a pass that’s too far ahead of anyone in yellow.
68 min: Another cross to Hatch, another header, too easily saved by Moorhouse.
66 min: Kouassi poses a threat on the right this time, and Emily Sams races back to play it out for a corner.
The corner sails over everyone, but the Spirit reclaim possession.
65 min: Santos stretches out a foot to send a through ball to Hatch, but the ball gets tangled in the Spirit forward’s feet, and she can’t get a clean shot away. Uncharacteristic.
Adriana heads out, replaced by Summer Yates.
64 min: Adriana holds the ball for an eternity. Orlando may have weathered the Spirit storm here.
61 min: First sub of the game – Gabby Carle replaces Metayer.
Finally the first shot of the half from the Pride, but it’s nowhere near.
But the second one is considerably more dangerous, as Banda goes right at Carle and dishes the ball to Marta, whose diagonal shot rolls past the far post.
58 min: Metayer gets forward and sends in a cross that literally pings around among several defenders.
Orlando break the other way, and McKeown does well to hold off Banda despite some rather blatant foul attempts by the game’s lone scorer.
But the Spirit earn a free kick in the other half. Moorhouse does well to leap and collect the ball in traffic.
56 min: Morris finds a channel to run through with the ball, but she can’t slip a pass to Rodman.
Dominant display from the Spirit since halftime, but they still have nothing to show for it.
53 min: The Spirit are playing like circling sharks now. There are almost too many yellow-shirted players lining up to take shots within the Orlando penalty area. One shot deflects wide for a corner; the ensuing shot on that corner goes wide.
49 min: Free kick to the Spirit, almost on the end line a few yards outside the penalty area. Hatch rises to meet it, but her glancing header is too glancing.
(Is “too glancing” actually proper English usage? It should be.)
Metayer commits a petulant foul with a late tackle on Adriana as the Pride counter.
47 min: HUGE SAVE BY MOORHOUSE! My goodness, how did the Orlando keeper stop that one? Great work by Rodman to battle on the flank, and a cross finds Kouassi rising above the crowd. Her header is goalbound to Moorhouse’s right, but it’s punched away with a lightning-quick reaction save.
Second half is underway …
Washington’s fans traveled well for this one. I live in the DC metro area – Spirit supporters will not be happy if this ends 1-0.
Though the Spirit may feel aggrieved on the goal, they can only blame themselves for not getting more shots on target. Only one of their eight shots has required a save. Hatch’s header off the post was their best chance by a wide margin.
Halftime: Orlando 1-0 Washington
On the balance of the season, Orlando have been the best team in the NWSL. They’d certainly be worthy champions. But we have to hope there’s another goal in this one, one way or the other. It’d be a pity to end such a great season on such a dubious decision.
45 min +4: We’ll have five minutes of desultory action in stoppage time.
Online reaction to the non-call in the buildup to the Orlando goal can best be described as “huh?”
44 min: CHANCE FOR WASHINGTON. We haven’t mentioned Ashley Hatch much in this game, but she nearly equalized there, putting a header off the post on a Washington corner.
A few seconds later, Rodman wins the ball and blazes a trail through midfield before shooting high.
43 min: Marta shows her brilliance once again, finding a sliver of space past Krueger to fire toward goal from an acute angle. Probably wouldn’t have gone in from that angle, but it would’ve traversed through the penalty area about a foot from the goal line, so Kingsbury does well to swat the ball away.
42 min: Yellow card to Hal Hirshfelt for having her studs out on a late challenge. Hard to argue with that one.
41 min: Veteran referee Christina Unkel often sheds a good bit of clarity on refereeing decisions on NWSL broadcasts, but I can’t follow this explanation in the least. It’s a “simple foul,” which means it doesn’t rise to the level of being overturned by VAR? Did I get that right?
The Spirit rallied in the semifinal. Can they do it again?
Rodman gets her head to a long, high cross, but she can’t direct it on frame.
GOAL! Orlando 1-0 Washington (Banda 37)
Angelina gets away with a rather blatant shove, but that shouldn’t detract from the quality of Banda’s finish here. She cuts back against Morgan and rips the shot off the outside of Kingsbury’s shin and in.
Against the run of play, and perhaps a bit unfair given the shove, but it’s a good example of what Banda can do.
35 min: The Spirit dial up the pressure and force Orlando to make some awkward passes very deep in their own end.
Washington eventually take possession at midfield but can’t unlock the Pride defense.
33 min: CHANCE FOR WASHINGTON! Kouassi ventures to the top of the penalty area and unleashes a shot that zips just wide.
The Spirit follow up with a high cross that Moorhouse can barely grab out of the sky.
An Orlando counterattack sees a player without the ball hitting the ground, but no replay is shown to let us know how that happened.
31 min: NOW Abello has a card for clipping the heels of the racing Rodman. Orlando coach Seb Hines believes it was a dive, and he might have a point. But she should have seen yellow for her last challenge, so it evens out.
29 min: Marta’s free kick is too short to pose any questions of the Spirit defense.
26 min: Bit of a lull at the moment. I’ve found no comment on the Rodman no-call on referee forums – everyone is either not watching or too riveted to talk.
But NOW Rodman is fouled, and Jonatan Giraldez wants a card. He has a point. Whether you call it by the old-fashioned “professional foul” or the snazzier “SPA” (stopping a promising attack), that fit the bill.
Instead, after the Spirit’s free kick fizzles, Kouassi is the first player booked for an armbar on Banda to stop the Pride’s counterattack.
24 min: Another attempt to work the ball down the left with Kouassi, and it’s just not quite working for the Spirit.
22 min: Free kick to the Spirit farther back toward midfield, and it ends up with McKeown in all sorts of space in the Orlando penalty area. Moorhouse has to stretch a bit for the crucial interception.
20 min: Rodman tries to draw a foul, convincing our TV commentary team but not the referee. As a very, very low-level referee myself, I’m also not convinced. Seemed to me that she kicked the ball forward and then tried to fall over Abello, who has every right to stand her ground.
I’ll check the referee forums shortly and report back.
18 min: Rodman tries a cross from the right, but it seems a bit ambitious.
The still-young Spirit player is one of the best defensive forwards in the game, and she races back with a perfectly timed slide tackle to break up an Orlando counterattack.
17 min: Morris slices into the Orlando defense from the right flank, but her pass finds no one.
15 min: SHOT BY MARTA! Banda is off to the races in the middle of the field, and four yellow shirts converge on her. The Zambian player slips the ball to her right for Marta, who cuts back onto her left foot and shoots, but it’s straight at Kingsbury.
13 min: The Spirit seem determined to run the attack through Kouassi on their left wing, and the Pride are having none of it. Krueger, a reliable US national teamer when given the chance on and off in her career, joins in.
11 min: We have a Pride player down – it’s Cori Dyke, who slid into Kouassi’s legs and wound up getting the worst of it.
The magic spray is duly sprayed, and Dyke will play on.
10 min: Orlando allow Washington to knock the ball around a bit in their own half, but then they pounce and force a turnover. The Spirit quickly win it back, but Watt neatly strips the ball from Kouassi and is immediately fouled.
8 min: Now a corner kick for the Spirit, and the Pride struggle to get the ball clear. It’s eventually played out for a goal kick.
No early goal here, but it’s also not the ultraconservative action we too often see in cup finals.
6 min: Another Pride attack on the same flank, but the Spirit win the ball and force the action the other way before getting a free kick deep in their own half.
Trinity Rodman apparently has an issue with a contact lens.
4 min: Orlando fight back with Banda and then Adriana trying to get a cross past Metayer. The Washington right back wins the duel but bundles the ball out of play for a Pride corner kick.
2 min: It’s a promising attack for the Spirit, with Hatch pestering the Orlando defense and Krueger getting forward. Kouassi’s cross is rather tame in the end.
1 min: The first 60 seconds of the match have taken place near the far sideline 10-20 yards past midfield in the Spirit half of the field.
The referee is Alyssa Nichols.
Kickoff …
In all my years writing about sports, I’m pretty sure this is the first time the national anthem singer is someone I saw performing just a couple of months ago – it’s the great Melissa Etheridge.
Sounds terrific.
Pride lineup
At age 38, Marta has had her best season in several years. She was named to the NWSL’s Best XI for just the second time.
She’s joined on the Best XI by Barbra Banda, who has managed to replicate her torrid goal-scoring pace on the international scene with Zambia in her first season in the NWSL.
Two Pride players made the Second XI – defender Kerry Abello and English goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse.
GK: Moorhouse
D: Abello, Kylie Strom, Emily Sams, Cori Dyke
M: Adriana, Haley McCutcheon, Angelina, Ally Watt
F: Banda, Marta
Spirit lineup
Goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has long has a devoted band of supporters making the case for her inclusion in the national team, and her semifinal heroics certainly won’t silence them.
Get used to seeing Hal Hirshfelt in the mix for a spot in the USA’s central midfield. The rookie from Clemson has been a steady force in the spot for the Spirit. She was named to the NWSL Second XI, as was defender Tara McKeown.
Cote d’Ivoire forward Rosemonde Kouassi isn’t on the same level of prominence as some of the other top African players who have made such an impact on the league, but she is a fierce presence up front.
The Spirit placed three players on the NWSL Best XI, but Croix Bethune missed the last several weeks of the season and is out for the playoffs after one of the most unusual injuries in soccer history, tearing her meniscus while throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game. The other two, defender Casey Krueger and forward Trinity Rodman, missed time with injuries in the last few weeks but have successfully returned.
GK: Kingsbury
D: Krueger, Esme Morgan, McKeown, Paige Metayer
DM: Hirshfelt, Makenna Morris
AM: Kouassi, Leicy Santos, Rodman
F: Ashley Hatch
Preamble
One of the game’s greatest ever, showing dazzling form despite her advanced age.
A gaggle of emerging talents.
That would be Marta, the Brazilian great and longtime cornerstone of the Orlando Pride, and the Washington Spirit, which selected shrewdly in what turned out to be the final NWSL draft.
They’ll face off in the final of what has been a breakthrough season for the NWSL, which started a little more than a decade ago with tentative, thrifty steps but now spends freely to bring in many of the world’s top players.
Orlando should be favored over injury-plagued Washington, but the Spirit have used a deep roster and steady resolve to make it to this point.
This has the makings of a classic. Enjoy.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Megan Swanick’s lookahead to Saturday’s final.
