Washington Spirit dominates in their visit to Bay FC to secure their first 3 points of the season
- Mario Amaya
- 14 hours ago
- 4 min read
The Washington Spirit stepped into their game Sunday afternoon against Bay FC, looking to secure its first win of the season after three consecutive draws. The Spirit stepped into this game to jump the final hurdle to secure their first victory of the season in Northern California.
The Spirit did exactly that in their visit to PayPal Park in San Jose, CA, dominantly as they defeated Bay FC 2-0.
"We know we're a good team. Day-in and day-out at training, I mean, our team kicks ass," said Spirit midfielder Hal Hershfelt. "We know that we bring a lot to the table. We know that our roster is so deep, we're so talented. So, I feel like today just kind of reinforces 'Hey! You guys got it.' It's just, you're waiting for that final piece, and I feel like we got that today."
The Game
The Spirit had the first big goal-scoring opportunity 11 minutes into the game, as Rosemonde Kouassi nutmegged Bay FC defender Anouk Denton and raced inside the six-yard box, laying the ball off to Leicy Santos, who was in front of goal, but Santos one-time shot would go just right of the open goal and out of play.
Washington once again would come knocking at Bay's door in the 25th minute as Hershfelt pressured Claire Hutton off the ball in an attempt from Bay FC to play out of their own end. Hershfelt laid the ball off to Kouassi, as the Ivorian international sent another cross to Rebeca Bernal on the endline. Bernal settled the ball and played it to Trinity Rodman, who shot the ball with a violent volley near post, but Bay goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz denied the USWNT star with a reflex save sending the ball out for a corner.
"For me, the most important thing is, the team hasn't lost the identity, even though we were 0-0 [at halftime]," Adrián González said after the match. "First half, we've been insisting, and second half, the same: just trying to believe in what we're doing, being resilient, and then the goals came."
Silkowitz would be called upon to stop the Spirit just a few minutes later. Sofia Cantore received a pass inside the box from Lucia Di Guglielmo. Cantore would play the ball back to her Italian National teammate at the top of the box, and Di Guglielmo laid the ball off to Hershfelt across the top of the box, unleashing a shot from distance that Silkowitz dove to and sent the ball out for another Spirit corner.
Play stopped for the moment as Di Guglielmo and Tara Rudd collided heads, bringing a significant stoppage as both players were tended to. Both players suffered lacerations during their collision, resulting in a significant delay to the game. Rudd would continue in the match, but Di Guglielmo would not be so lucky and was subbed off, bringing in Paige Metayer as the Spirit used their concussion substitution.
The Spirit opened up the scoring in the most bizarre way possible. It was the 57th minute that Kouassi would play a through ball to Metayer down the line in an overlap. Metayer was unable to win the ball in the initial chase but kept pressing the Bay FC backline on the play. Silkowitz attempted to clear the ball from her area, but her clearance would bounce off Brooklyn Courtnall, and the ball would float and loop in the air and end up hitting the post before crossing the goal line to give Washington the lead.
"To be honest, when we are so aggressive in the press, it makes it so much easier as a back line to be aggressive in duels, because it makes it predictable," said Spirit defender Esme Morgan "You can see where the ball's going to end up, you see where the spaces are that they're trying to hit, so you can kind of arrive a little earlier, and not second-guess your timing."
Bay tried to respond just a few minutes later off a quick corner, with the ball landing at the feet of Taylor Huff, who shot the ball from distance with a curling effect that nearly settled in the top right corner of Sandy Maclver's goal but went out of play.
Santos nearly had Washington's second goal of the game in the 67th minute. After a series of headers, the ball would fall to the Colombian international just outside the box. Santos settled the ball and unleashed a volley from outside the box, as Silkowitz made a full-stretch save from preventing the ball to go in and denying Santos her 2nd goal of the season.
In the 86th minute, Tamara Bolt played a long through ball to Rodman in transition. Rodman would take the ball inside the box and shoot the ball towards goal, forcing a save from Silkowitz, but the ensuing rebound would fall to Gift Monday, who was trailing the entire play and the Nigerian International with a simple one-time shot would place the ball in the back of the net.
"There's always something really positive for strikers to score goals," said González. "It's the medicine that they need, they want, and they are always looking for those goals... for her confidence, it's very important, being able to help the team even though it's [only] 10-15 minutes."
Monday nearly landed her brace in stoppage time after Bolt got away from her marker with some silky moves, and served a low cross to Monday, who shot the ball in the direction of Silkowitz, who blocked the shot and prevented the Spirit from furthering their lead.
With this result, Washington moves up to 8th place in the NWSL standings with 6 points, while Bay FC also having 6 points as well, drop to 10th place in the standings due to the Spirits' better goal differential.
The NWSL will take a break due to the upcoming FIFA International schedule, but the Spirit will return to action at home when they host the Kansas City Current and former Spirit attacker Croix Bethune at Audi Field in Washington, DC. The game will mark the first time Bethune faces her former team since being traded to Kansas City during the offseason. The game will take place on Friday, April 24th, with kickoff scheduled for 8 pm.
