Spirit salvaged a point at home against Louisville thanks to a dramatic late goal from Kouassi.

On a warm summer evening in our nation's capital on Friday night, the Washington Spirit and Racing Louisville played in a highly physical and contested affair, and it looked like Louisville would walk away with all three points from Audi Field. 

 Rosemunde Kouassi is celebrating her late equalizer Friday night against Racing Louisville. Photo Credit: Washington Spirit

However, the Spirit would find a way to be resilient late in the game, and thanks to a late strike from Rosemunde Kouassi, Washington was able to tie the game late and brought the more 11,691 to their feet as the Spirit and Louisville split the points as the game ended in a 2-2 draw. 

“That's part of our spirit mentality is just never quitting and playing till the end.” Said defender Tara McKeown, “Whether we're up a goal, down a goal, or even tied, we're always trying to get that win. So unfortunately, we weren't able to win. But a draw is better than a loss.”

Kouassi brings Audi to their feet with last last-minute goal 

In the 90th minute +10, The Spirit defense attempted to play a long ball from their end that was intercepted in the air, and the ball would fall at the feet of Brazilian international Ary Borges in the middle of the field. Kouassi, who was the intended target of the clearance, chased down Borges in the middle of the field and took the ball away from her, and made her way towards the goal. Borges gave chase to Kouassi to recover the ball; however, Kouassi escaped Borges' mark with a nutmeg and ripped a shot from outside the box. Louisville goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer was able to get a hand to it, but not enough to avoid the ball from going into the back of the net.

“I think it just goes to show that we are resilient. We're persistent, like we'll keep fighting until the end. I mean, you saw in our playoff games, like throughout last year, when we were hosting at home.” Said Spirit midfielder Hal Hershfelt, “You saw in our playoff games, like throughout last year when we were hosting at home. So, I mean, would I like them to be like that every time? Like absolutely not, but. I'd like to have an early lead, but that doesn't always happen, and I'm happy Rose was able to get in the back of the net today.”

The Game 

The Spirit had the first big goal-scoring opportunity of the match in the 11th minute, when Gift Monday slipped a through ball to Leicy Santos. Santos ran into the box and lobbed a center to Croix Bethune, who came running towards the back post. Bethune hit the ball one time, but her shot hit the post, creating the first real scoring opportunity of the game. 

“[It was] kind of a broken game,” said Spirit head coach Adrián González. “When you have that type of game, it’s like when you flip a coin: You don’t know what’s going to happen. So obviously we want to have a little bit more control.”

Louisville created its goal-scoring chance later in the half. A Bloomer goal kick was flicked on to Emma Sears, who beat Rebeca Bernal to the ball and marched towards goal, leaving her one-on-one with Aubrey Kingsbury. Kingsbury was able to save the ball, but the ball slipped away from her as she tried to control it. Bernal was there to scoop the ball out and clear it out of danger. 

Sofia Cantore scored her first NWSL goal. Photo Credit: Washington Spirit

The Spirit opened up the scoring in the 38th minute after Washington’s high press forced Louisville into an error in their end, as Monday was able to recover the ball and lay it off to Sofia Cantore. The newly acquired forward from Juventus took the ball and dribbled a couple of steps before shooting the ball from distance. Cantore’s shot went past Bloomer and hit the bottom of the top post as it went into the back of the net, as Audi Field erupted in celebration as the Italian international scored her first goal in NWSL, while becoming the first Italian player to score a goal in league history in the process. 

“I'm very happy with the goal. Yeah, I didn't celebrate a lot because I was tired, but no, I was happy. I was happy also for the first game,” said Cantore about the goal and her celebration. “I think we deserve more, so I'm not so happy with the draw, but here I understood that every game is tough, so you cannot say who is going to win.” 

Sofia Cantore is celebrating with her teammates after scoring her first goal with the Spirit. Photo Credit: Washington Spirit

When asked about Cantore’s performance in front of her new home crowd González said the following 

“The debut was good. Honestly, I'm happy for her because in the end, well, she's a player who suits us. I think she contributes a lot, very versatile, she can attack very well behind the center backs. She can score, we've already seen that. I think she has a very good shot, and then also, well, a lot of work defensively.” Said González “We want to be patient with her because obviously, she has to adapt to the pace of the competition physically. The League demands a lot, and there's also a competition coming up where she's played a lot, not like with Italy, and well, we're trying little by little to get her to adapt, to get to know her teammates, to adapt to the pace of the League as well. And you see, the truth is, I'm very happy for her.” 

Louisville nearly got the tying goal before the end of the first half as Taylor Flint played the ball to Marisa Digrande, who laid the ball off to Sears inside the box. Sears placed her shot towards goal, but her chance hit the top of the post. 

Louisville was able to draw level in the 52nd minute, as they played the ball in their end. The ball found its way to Sarah Webber, who placed a deep ball to Ella Hase, who chased the ball toward the Spirit’s box. Hase played the ball to Savannah Demelo, who was unable to control the ball, but an incoming Flint who one-timed her shot from outside the box. The ball bounced off Bernal as the ball pinballed into the back of the net. 

“We're trying to exploit more spaces in the midfield by getting more people high.” Said McKeown, “ I think we're a little slow finding those spaces in those pockets.” 

In the 75th minute, a cross from Janine Sonis inside the box was headed by Kayla Fischer, who tried heading the ball towards Borges, who was running in the back post. Fischer was not able to get a clean header on the ball and fell to Kingsbury, who rushed out of her line to get the ball before being fouled by Borges. However, the referee went to VAR to check for a possible foul from Santos on Borges. After a few minutes of watching the replay, it was determined that Santos stepped on Borges's foot in the play, allowing the referee to give a penalty in favor of Louisville to the displeasure of the crowd in attendance. 

It would be Demelo who stepped out to take the penalty. Demelo did not miss from the penalty spot, as she made Kingsbury guess in the opposite direction, slotting the ball towards the left-hand side of Kingsbury's net to give Louisville a late lead. 

“I think I like came into play, like more so once again the second-half when like, you know, people are getting tired, bodies are just flying and like colliding and stuff like that. Energy gets high, and then calls might not necessarily go our way. So honestly, like in moments like that, we just kind of have to keep a cool head.” Said Hershfelt.” It's tough. It was a physical game, and that's what they're good at, and they use that to their advantage. I think we could manage it a little better, especially towards the end of the game when we're giving up like free kicks and stuff like that in our half.” 

With this result. The Spirit are tied for third place in the NWSL standings with the Orlando Pride with 28 points, but Orlando has a better goal differential. Louisville stays in 7th place with 22 points. 

A long week ahead

The following week for the Spirit will be a long one with a lot of traveling, which begins Tuesday night when Washington travels to El Salvador to face the current Salvadoran champions, Alianza Women's FC, in the kickoff of the Concacaf W Champions Cup in the city of Santa Tecla. This will be the first international game the Spirit will play in club history. 

Afterward, the Spirit will travel to San Francisco, CA, where they will play Bay FC Saturday afternoon at Oracle Park. 

With all the upcoming travel González talked about this new experience, the team faces a long travel schedule internationally, and how rotation in the lineup would be key. 

“Well, it's something new for everyone in the final. It's a different situation; we're not used to playing two games in one week, but well, we see it as a challenge.” Said González “In the end, luckily, we have a high availability of players, so obviously, we have to be smart, rotating them as well. And giving minutes to players who maybe haven't been involved as much in recent weeks, and from there, you can try to recover as best as possible. Well, we are together and trying to do our best. We approach the competition with great respect and intend to win every game; that's ultimately our identity. Well, it's going to be a long week, but we're well prepared and eager to face it.” 

Giving a different perspective, Santos, who recently came back from international duty with Colombia from the Copa América, where they finished runners-up, when asked if she had a chance to talk with her teammates on what to expect on such long travel, she offered the following: 

““We haven't had much of an opportunity to talk about it. I suppose some of you haven't traveled to South or Central American countries yet, in this case, where everything sounds very different to us, where everything is very different from what you're probably used to here,” Santos said “ it's going to be a very nice experience for everyone, for me and for this first time I'm going to El Salvador. And, honestly, I'm looking forward to everything going well.” 

The Spirit will play Alianza Women’s FC Tuesday night with kickoff starting at 8 pm EST, while their game against Bay FC will take place Saturday afternoon with kickoff scheduled for 4 pm EST.