Spirit cruises in home debut of the Concacaf W Championship against Vancouver Rise FC.

After starting the Concacaf W Championship in dominating fashion with a win in El Salvador, the Washington Spirit looked to gain another three points at home when they faced Vancouver Rise Academy FC on Wednesday night at Audi Field. 

Washington Spirit gets their second win of the Concacaf W Championship against Vancouver Rise Academy. Photo Credit: Vancouver Rise Academy FC

The Spirit managed to do just that as they edged to a dominant lead late in the first half and never relinquished, defeating the Canadian Side 4-0. 

“They were organized and played with a lot of heart. We don’t go into these games thinking there’s ever going to be an easy opponent,” defender Paige Metayer said. “We learned as we went. We learned how to switch a little quicker and how to isolate the advantages we wanted.”

The Game 

The Spirit had the first big chance of the game in the 5th minute when Trinity Rodman decided to take a shot from distance. The ball would rebound off a Rise defender and go towards the goal, but Vancouver goalkeeper Jessica Wulf got a hand to the ball and sent it out for a corner kick. 

The Spirit had another opportunity to open up the scoring in the 25th minute, after a through ball found Rodman inside the box. Rodman whipped a cross at the mouth of the goal to Brittany Ratcliffe; however, the ball went past Ratcliffe’s head and out of the box for a Vancouver throw-in. 

“Well, in the end, it's when you find a team playing with such a low block and with so many players in the box, they play with a line of 5. With 2 players up front and 3 a little more, not in the first line forwards, well in the end the spaces are reduced, there is less space in less time to decide and there you have to be very precise in the type of pass you give and then have enough patience, well, to turn especially to carry the ball from one side to the other.” Said Spirit head coach Adrián González. “We perhaps lacked a little bit of rhythm with the ball at the beginning. When you don't circulate so quickly, you give time up front to organize, but then the truth is that as the minutes have gone by, the team has been circulating better and attacking especially from the outside. And, as I said, well, a good opportunity to find something different from what you usually find in the League.” 

The Spirit would create another goal-scoring opportunity when Rodman received the ball off a Metayer throw-in. The USWNT international made a cutting run inside the box and shot the ball, with Wulf making a save, but the rebound landed at the feet of Narumi Miura, who shot the ball one time, but her attempt rebounded off a Vancouver defender and was cleared out of the box. 

The Spirit would open up the scoring in the 31st minute. After a short back-and-forth of passes between Kysha Sylla and Tara McKeown. McKeown would rip a shot from distance that went past Wulf and encrusted itself in the lower right corner of the net to give the Spirit the lead. 

“We tried going in, going wide, going side-to-side. I just got the ball, and I was like, ‘No one’s stepping. Let’s see where this goes,” said McKeown, “And it went in.”

The Spirit would double their lead in the 41st minute when a Courtney Brown cross would find Heather Stainbrook inside the box. Stainbrook headed the ball towards goal and found the back of the net to double the Spirit’s lead. 

“Patience is the only way you're going to break down the low block, so it was important that we just switch the ball as many times as we could and find openings,” Stainbrook said. “Once they got tired, they took hold of the space, and yeah, I thought we did well with it.”

The Spirit picked up a third goal a minute before the end of the half after a through ball found Metayer, who sent in a cross to Rodman, who simply one-timed Metayer’s cross and put it in the back of the net. 

“Knowing that winning this tournament, this championship, you have the chance to play against the best teams in the world in the future,” González said, “a lot of doors are going to be open for future players.”

The Spirit nearly scored a fourth in the 69th minute after a Rosemond Kouassi cut-back run found Narumi Miura in the box. The Japanese international took a one-time shot that Wulf was able to keep from crossing the line. The rebound fell to Croix Bethune, whose shot hit the crossbar and cleared out of the box. 

The Spirit would get the fourth and final goal of the game in the 81st minute as Bethune laid the ball off to rookie Deborah Abiodun. Abiodun, who was recently called up from loan from the Dallas Trinity of the USL Super League, lined up a shot from outside the box that would deflect off a defender and go into the back of the net to score her first goal as a member of the Spirit. 

As it stands, Washington is currently in first place in Group B with 6 points, ahead of Gotham FC in goal differential. 

The Spirit get ready for one more home game in NWSL play on Sunday as they face the Seattle Reign at home with kickoff scheduled for 4 pm. Their next W Championship match will be on October 1st when they travel to Chester, PA to play Gotham.