Early brace from Sofia Cantore, The Washington Spirit take three points from the road against Orlando, bringing their unbeaten streak to five games
- Mario Amaya
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
The Washington Spirit rolled into their match Saturday afternoon against the Orlando Pride, rolling in a good run of form with a four-game unbeaten streak, which included four shutouts, plus back-to-back wins at home against the Kansas City Current and Racing Louisville.
The game was delayed for over an hour and a half due to lightning around Inter&Co Stadium. Still, once play resumed, it would be the Spirit who walked away victorious, thanks to two early goals, with a 2-4 victory against the Pride, improving their unbeaten streak to five games (4 wins, 1 draw).
"Maybe because of the fatigue, when [we] are...again, it's been a game less than 72 hours, with travel, with a delay," said Spirit head coach Adrián González. "Physically, mentally, emotionally, it's been super, super tough. When you see that you want [to push], but you know the legs sometimes are not there, and the fatigue is coming, I think it's not easy."
The Game
The Spirit opened up the scoring in the 2nd minute of the game. After a quick combination of passes, the ball found its way to Trinity Rodman, who lobbed the ball forward to Sofia Cantore. The Italian international struck the ball from outside the box and past Anna Moorehouse to open up the scoring.
Cantore was not done scoring, as she would secure her brace just four minutes later. Orlando had the ball deep in Spirit territory as Barbara Banda would launch a cross from the back post to Solai Washington, who shot the ball towards the goal. Her opportunity hit the crossbar, and the Spirit defense cleared the ball out and started their counterattack. The ball found its way to Leicy Santos, who played the ball out to Rodman on the wing once again. Rodman would play the ball behind the Orlando defensive line of Rafaelle and Hailie Mace to Cantore, who beat the offside trap to leave her one-on-one with Moorehouse. Cantore drew Moorehouse off her line, speeding past the Orlando goalkeeper and placing the ball in the back of the net for her 3rd goal of the season.
"I mean, [Trinity] passed me two great balls. Sometimes it goes like this," said Cantore. "Sometimes it is more difficult. So, I think today, I had these chances and I did good, a good finish."
Since joining Washington at the midway point of last season, Cantore has been known for scoring some highlight reel goals. These last two goals she scored were a little easier.
"Finally, I scored the normal goals," exclaimed Cantore.
Orlando would have a chance to get back in the game in the 28th minute when the referee called a penalty in favor of the Pride, but it was unclear whether the ref called the penalty for Tara Rudd’s contact on Summer Yates or Esme Morgan’s contact on Banda. It would be Ally Lemos who would step in to take the spot kick, but Sandy Maclver was able to guess where Lemos' shot would go and got her hand to it, sending it out for a corner kick.
Orlando would have a response in the ensuing corner kick in the 33rd minute. The corner would be headed down by Rafaelle, who headed the ball towards the net, but would find its way to Banda, who had her back towards the goal. With one turn, Banda was able to beat the mark of Morgan, place the ball into the back of the net, scoring her 6th goal of the season, making her the NWSL’s leading goal scorer, and ending Maclver’s goalless streak at 399 minutes. The last time Washington conceded a goal was back in March in their 1-1 draw against the Utah Royals.
Banda would get her brace in the 39th minute. Lemos would send a long ball towards the edge of the box to Oihane Hernández, the Spanish international would run into the box and send a low cross at the endline to the Zambian international. Banda was able to beat the mark of Washington center backs Rudd and Morgan and quickly turned around and shot the ball into the back of the net to secure her 7th goal of the season, leaving things tied for both teams heading into halftime.
Washington would regroup and take the lead once again in the 55th minute. After a Maclver clearance, the ball would be won by Cantore in the air, falling in the direction of Santos. The Colombian international redirected the ball into space, finding the young Paraguayan international Claudia Martinez, who was making her first NWSL career start. Kept onside by Cori Dyke, Martinez raced towards Orlando’s goal, getting her shot past Moorhouse to get her second goal of the season.
The Spirit killed off the game in the 70th minute, after a Rebeca Bernal pass into space found Rosemonde Kouassi open on the right-hand side of the field. The Ivorian international beat Dyke to the ball and sent a cross to an open Rodman, who simply tapped the ball past Moorhouse and into the net to score her 3rd goal in three games.
"This is more than three points," insisted González. "Players playing 90 the other day and again [here], another 90. The way that they've competed against this opponent — we know how good they are, and [how] dangerous they are playing here at home — again, I'm so proud of this team. I think they've done amazing."
With this result, Washington is tied in 2nd place with the San Diego Wave in the NWSL standings, with both teams standing with 15 points, but the Spirit has a better goal differential. While Orlando sits in 12th place in the NWSL standings with 8 points.
After playing three games in 11 days, the Spirit will have a full week to recuperate before they set off on a two-game road trip on the West Coast before their semifinal match against Pachuca in the Concacaf W Championship semifinals in Mexico.
The first of those two games on the West Coast will be against the Seattle Reign. The game will take place at Lumen Field in Seattle, WA, on Sunday, May 10th (Mother’s Day) with kickoff scheduled to start at 7 pm EST, 4 pm EST.
