Spirit beat the Courage in Jonatan Giráldez’s final home game in charge

It has been an interesting week for the Washington Spirit, especially in the coaching department. It was announced earlier this week that head coach Jonatan Giráldez was leaving the club at the end of the month, as he is taking the head coaching job of French side OL Lyonnes and will be replaced by assistant head coach Adrián González, who will take over the regions from Giráldez. 

Gift Monday, celebrating her goal against the North Carolina Courage on Sunday afternoon. Photo Credit: Washington Spirit

On a cloudy Sunday afternoon in front of 17,625 fans that gathered at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. to bid farewell to the Spanish head coach in his final home game as the head coach of the Spirit, his team were able to send him off in front of the Audi faithful in the best way possible, as they defeated the North Carolina Courage 3-1. 

“I’ve been very happy working here,” Giráldez said. “I will be happy if the players think that I could share and spread a winning mentality, to help them in the process, to keep growing as a player [and] as a person.”

Jona’s final game at Audi 

With all the focus on him this week and on his imminent departure, Giráldez kept doing his usual thing on the sidelines during the game, barking orders to his players, gesturing, pacing up his coaching area, and giving fist bumps to his players and coaching staff. Despite this being his final home game, it was business as usual for the 33-year-old Spanish coach, who wanted to keep the focus less on him and more on his players. 

“To be honest, before the game I just did my protocol,” Giráldez said. “Do the same things that I do every day. That’s what I tell the players every game: We have to pay attention in our role. ... That’s what I tried to do. I tried to help the team as much as possible. When you finish you have to remind [yourself] how happy you were working here.” 

Giráldez addressed his players about his departure from the club during the week. He spoke on how he told his players: 

“Like everything, I never like to do big things. When there are changes, it's about speaking naturally, explaining the situation,”  Giráldez said. “Like I said before, trying to see it as something positive for all parties involved, so we can continue to grow.  In the end, we are coaches who help the players develop. The players continue to have the same capacity to develop and with the same goals they had set at the beginning of the season.” 

Some players expressed how they felt about the situation. One of the players who talked about Jona’s departure was center back Rebeca Bernal, who had this to say: 

“It's difficult when a coach leaves.” Bernal said, “We were adapting to his ideas, his playing style. Sometimes these things happen, decisions are made, and ultimately, we just have to keep training, keep giving our best for the time he has left, and when Adri {Adrián González} takes over, we have to adapt to all these situations.” 

While others wanted to get one more win at home for Jona and were motivated to send him off with a win in his final home game. 

“Of course, we all know that this is Jona’s last home game, and there’s that extra incentive to send him off with a victory,” Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury said. “He’s just as competitive, if not more, than all of us, so really that’s the best gift we could give him and our fans.”

Finally, when asked if he gave González any advice in his new role as Spirit head coach, Giráldez jokingly said in Spanish, “I don't have to give him any advice. He's older than me, he has more life experience.” 

The Game 

Before the start of the game, it was revealed that North Carolina coach Sean Nahas was not with the team and would miss the game against the Spirit due to medical reasons, and that his assistant, Nathan Thackeray, would take over the coaching duties for the game.

The Spirit took the lead in the 23rd minute. Courtney Brown cleared the ball from her area, and the ball found its way to Gift Monday, who played a diagonal pass to Croix Bethune. Bethune played a long through ball to Brittany Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe ran the ball deep into Courage territory and played the ball across the box to Brown, who, with a one-time shot that beat Casey Murphy to give the Spirit the lead. 

“Brit played the best ball ever,” Brown said, “so all I had to do was just tap it.”

Ratcliffe herself would get on the score sheet just three minutes later. Narumi Miura left a short pass to Brown, who played the ball back to Casey Krueger. Krueger placed a cross towards the middle of the area, picking out Ratcliffe, who, with a floating header, placed the ball in the left corner of the net to double the Spirit’s lead at that moment.  

“Whatever is being asked of me, I’m going to do the best that I can,” said Ratcliffe, who also rang the post moments before halftime. “We practice really hard, so I feel like on game days, all of us, whatever we’re asked to do, we’re prepared.” 

North Carolina had an answer and shortened the Spirit’s lead in the 32nd minute. Feli Rauch intercepted a Bernal pass in midfield. She launched a long ball in stride to Manaka Matsukubo, beating the Spirit’s defensive line. Matsukubo chipped the ball over Kingsbury and into the back of the net. 

Ratcliffe went looking for her brace close to halftime with a shot from distance, but the post would deny her second goal of the match. 

In the 58th minute, Bethune played a pass towards the endline, finding Miura on an overlapping run. Miura sent a cross towards Monday, who headed the ball into the open net to score her fourth goal of the season and double the Spirit’s lead once again. 

“She's one of the best headers I've seen, she can finish in front of goal. That surprised me. I knew she was good at this, but watching her train, it surprises me.” Giráldez said, “She also can play wide. She is very good at one-on-one opportunities, she has a very good cross, and today, what she gave us was especially with her back to goal. She played a very important role in unloading those passes that we were looking for from her in the number 9 position.”

Jona was not the only one singing the praises of the Nigerian forward; her teammates, Ratcliffe in particular, also spoke highly about Monday during the post-game. 

“She's been such a great addition to the team,” she said.” Some players they're really good on the ball, but they don't work hard. But like she does it all. She works hard, she defends, she's good on. The ball she finishes, she likes, brings that energy that she does it all, and you can't speak highly enough about her.” 

The Courage had a chance to pull a goal back four minutes later off a short corner the ball ended up in the feet of Rauch, who delivered a cross in front of goal that Shinomi Koyama got her foot too, but her shot was denied by Kingsbury on the line, the rebound would fall to Courtnee Vine who got a shot towards goal, but the ball was denied by Makenna Morris and cleared off the line by Gabby Carle.

With this victory, Washington is now tied in second place with the Orlando Pride as both teams are tied with 22 points in the NWSL standings, while North Carolina sits in 11th place with 12 points. 

Giráldez will finish off his tenure with the Spirit with two games on the road. The Spirit will travel to Portland, where they will face off with the Portland Thorns in their first of two games on the road. They will face off on Sunday, June 15th, at Providence Park with kickoff set for 4 pm.