The Washington Spirit took on the Houston Dash in a battle of 3rd vs 4th place in front of a record breaking crowd of 5,418 at Maureen Hendricks Field at the Maryland SoccerPlex. Crystal Dunn scored hat trick in the first half while Jessica McDonald was the lone scorer for the Dash.
Prior to the match up, the Spirit honored Niki Cross, who announced earlier in the week that she was retiring after last game. Before being traded to the Dash, Cross spent much of the 2014 season with the Spirit, making the fact that she was ending her professional career with this game just a bit sweeter.
“Very grateful to have such a great atmosphere both home and away for my last few games, last weekend in Houston and to come back here. To have some of my family fly in, kind of finish it out in a place you played and have a relationship with is always great.”
Former teammate and good friend Ashlyn Harris presented Cross with some flowers and one of Cross’s old shirts that she warmed up in prior to the game. Harris spoke a little bit about what her friendship with Cross has meant to her and how special it was for them both for her to play her last game here.
With the Houston Dash having won their last two games and quickly climbing up the table, many expected this match to be a more contested battle than it actually was. Houston has had a grueling schedule the last couple weeks and it finally caught up with them against the Spirit.
Morgan Brian was not available for the game and her presence was certainly missed on the field. The team also looked to be fatigued and generally disjointed. There were some bright moments from the Dash; Carli Lloyd had a few good early looks as well as Kealia Ohai, but did not produce much offense in the first half.
On the defensive side the Dash struggled significantly. Ella Masar, who has been outstanding on the back line all season, apparently had the stomach flu and it definitely (and understandably) threw off her game as she was beaten on several occasions by both Dunn and Francisca Ordega.
Though the Dash were certainly not their best, the Spirit really were that good and put in perhaps one of their most solid performances of the season. Ali Krieger started in the midfield again and, although she looked just a bit lost at times, overall put in an excellent performance and did a great job helping to contain Carli Lloyd. Lloyd had a few shots early in the game but was pretty much neutralized throughout.
The Spirit put in a complete team performance. Dunn and Ordega were dangerous up top, the entire Spirit midfield was outstanding on both sides of the ball and the defense put in an excellent effort highlighted by a goal line clearance by Estelle Johnson and solid all around performance by Megan Oyster. Harris (who took a throw in early in the match) had a couple of great saves and was excellent for the Spirit in goal.
The big story of the night though, was Crystal Dunn, who not only regained the league lead in scoring, but scored the first hat trick in Spirit history and the first goal off a header of the season for the team, and she did it in amazing fashion.
The 28th minute saw Dunn streak down the field and tear by five, yes five, Dash defenders before sliding far post past Erin McLeod for her first of the evening. Dunn and McLeod made contact on the play, with the Dash goalkeeper suffering a skin laceration and needing to be replaced by Bianca Henninger.
Less than 10 minutes later, Diana Matheson chipped the ball over the top and was able to find Dunn, who once again broke through the defense and flicked it by a challenging Henninger with the outside of her foot to make it 2-0 Spirit.
The hat trick was completed in stoppage time of the first half. The Spirit were awarded a corner kick after another dangerous attempt by Dunn was deflected out of play. Christine Nairn sent a perfect ball into the box and the (as she noted post game) 5’2″ Dunn rose up and headed it into the back of the net.
When asked after the game about what motivated her to have the success she has seen this game (and most of the season), Dunn had the following to say,
“Obviously we are getting a lot of fans, World Cup players are back. I think going into these last couple games when they arrived I said its going to be great having a fan base, but at the same time its all about kind of doing what I’ve been doing when the World Cup was going on. I’ve been very focused this season and as bummed as I was about not being called to the World Cup, I’ve been very focused on defining myself as a player.”
The Dash weren’t quite ready to give up without a fight though, and had a much stronger second half. They were able to generate more possession and pressure the Spirit in ways they hadn’t in the earlier stages of the match. The renewed energy of the second half paid off as Jess McDonald scored and excellent goal in the 74th minute. Ohai played an excellent ball toward the box and McDonald seemed to come out of nowhere with incredible speed to put it past Harris, who didn’t have time to react at all as the ball came flying toward the goal.
Though his team was unable to secure any points, Dash head coach Randy Waldrum seemed pleased at their fight in the second half. “What I asked of them at half time was ‘Don’t let the game get away from us. Don’t worry about the score, just go win the second half and let’s show some pride.’ I thought we were really good in the second half.”
The Washington Spirit embark on a stretch that sees them play four out of the next five on the road. They take on the Boston Breakers on Saturday August 8 at 7pm ET.
