On a steamy summer night at the SoccerPlex in front of a sellout crowd of over 5,400 people, the Washington Spirit dominated the Seattle Reign for a 3-0 victory.
The Spirit bounced back from an uninspiring 3-0 loss at FC Kansas City last weekend, controlling play throughout the game and getting goals from Amanda DaCosta, Crystal Dunn, and Christine Nairn.
DaCosta opened the scoring a mere 45 seconds into the second half after Laura Del Rio brought the ball up the left flank and sent the ball on the ground through the box. Reign goalkeeper Haley Kopmeyer was unable to reach the ball and Da Costa was there to tap it in for her third goal of the season.
Crystal Dunn scored twenty minutes later, her eighth goal of the season, combining with Canadian international Diana Matheson, who saw her first action of the season with the Spirit after missing the first half of the season due to Canada’s pre-World Cup residency program. Matheson, who tore her ACL late last year while on duty with Canada and also dealt with a broken bone in her foot during the recovery process, has seemed to fully rebound from her injuries and is just as speedy as ever in the midfield.
The final goal came in the 83rd minute when Crystal Dunn was brought down in the box by Reign defender Steph Cox, who was a step too late in her challenge. The referees awarded a penalty kick, and Christine Nairn stepped up and buried it, although Kopmeyer did dive the correct direction in her attempt at a stop.
Reign head coach Laura Harvey was visibly displeased with the effort her team put forth, saying “We played okay in practice… It doesn’t matter if teams go direct, you’ve got to get pressure on the ball and we didn’t do that tonight.”
The Reign have struggled on the road this season, with only one win on the road so far. When asked about their road struggles, Harvey said “I don’t know [why we’ve struggled]. We’ve tried everything. We’ve changed our scheduling, we’ve changed the way we prepare. We just can’t get going away from home and we’ve got to change that, because if we don’t we’re going to struggle.”
Spirit head coach Mark Parsons was effusive with praise for his team. “Brave, intelligent, and effort made that a complete performance. We’ve been striving to play soccer defensively like that, and being hard to beat and hard to break down. …It was a complete performance.”
Crystal Dunn was excited for Matheson’s return to the Spirit, saying “[Matheson] just brings so much to the game. I’m so excited. It’s great to see her out there. She kind of has the same mentality as me. We look up, we see a bunch of defenders, and most people are like ‘ Maybe I should put my foot on the ball and wait for people to come’ but she’s like ‘No, let’s go’ and I was right there with her, ‘Alright, let’s go!’ and it worked out. I love her whole mentality. She’s relentless. She’s willing to take on everybody.”
Mark Parsons has some tough decisions ahead of him, as he will have to work five returning international players into his lineup. Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger will return to the lineup next week after sitting out this match due to the US Women’s National Team’s extensive post-World Cup victory celebrations, and the three Nigerian players (Francesca Ordega, Ngozi Okobi, and Josephine Chukwunoye will also rejoin the team after playing in Olympic qualifying matches this week.
The Spirit (20 points, 6-4-2) host the league leading Chicago Red Stars (22 points, 6-1-4) at the SoccerPlex on Saturday, July 25th at 7 p.m.
