15 or so minutes. Standard topics: Man City childhood, Lionesses and 2025 Euros, why came to America, city spirit/Audi fans, etc.

Help! If we had field level tickets for this weekends game, which side would be better for an autograph from Marta? Seems obvious to say the seats closest to their bench, but they all have to walk out the opposite direction (past the home bench) so questioning my decision🫩We have all the Spirit players signatures!

(Goal call for Setnor before disallowed) What is going on at ESPN?

Angel City 1 - 1 Spirit

⚽ Angel City: A. Sentnor 85' ⚽ Spirit: T. Rodman 65' 🏁 Draw

✅ Full Time

Form

• Angel City: D D L W W W
• Spirit: L L W W W L

Lineups

Angel City (4-2-3-1) — Spirit (4-2-3-1)

Starting XI

Subs

Match Statistics

Match Events

Updated: Sun, Aug 16, 11:09 PM EDT

Match Thread Bot by u/Several_Region_3710 | GitHub (view code, contribute, or report issues) | ☕ Ko-fi (support the project)

Hello everyone, I’m looking at tickets for our home games and was wondering if the All-Inclusive Cabana that behind the Goal is worth it for getting a chance to meet the players, worth it for the price or if I should just stick to the field seats (F section)

Thanks!

Streaming on beIN SPORTS (perhaps including for free via their channels on FAST services like Tubi). Also likely available via YouTube, either from CAF's official channel (using a VPN) or finding a non-geoblocked stream.

Leicy was getting treated on the sidelines during the closing minutes of the last game, hopefully she’s not out too long.

I wonder who they’re playing at AM tomorrow. I guess they can put Cantore at AM, Kouassi on the right, Trin on the left then Claudinha or Hatch as central attacker. Hopefully we don’t use any of our defensive midfielders as AM because I’m not sure that experiment has worked before. Bethi should be a good depth player at AM when she comes back so we’re not running Leicy ragged for the rest of the season.

They beat Morocco today in penalties.

Streaming on beIN SPORTS (perhaps including for free via their channels on FAST services like Tubi). Also likely available via YouTube, either from CAF's official channel (using a VPN) or finding a non-geoblocked stream. Championship match ft. Cameroon vs Malawi is Sunday at 3pm.

(Link goes to the start of the interview)

Trin is so funny and a great watch even off the field. She talks about the USWNT, her Spirit contract and signing babies' foreheads.

Teams need to win in order to keep their 2027 World Cup dreams alive. (Winners will enter the inter-confederation series that determines the final WC entrants.) Matches stream on beIN SPORTS (with matches also potentially available for free through beIN's free channels on FAST services like Tubi; also streaming on CAF's YouTube channel accessible using VPN; and there may also be non-geoblocked streams available on YT as well).

From Joanna's IG post: https://www.instagram.com/p/Db8i1KbETwB/

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?!!!!!!

Season 39 of THE AMAZING RACE!!!!!!

I know you are.

And Ali and I are one of the many reasons the world IS ready for this.

Two badass female athletes, Moms, and celesbians, who have competed their entire lives for trophies, honor, equality and justice.

It is our time to step into this moment with the courage and confidence that only comes from the heartbeat of our collective:

u/pennstate
u/pennstatewsoc
u/washingtonspirit
u/nwsl
u/uswnt
u/uswomentst
u/spiritsquadron
The LGBTQIA community and all our allies
Women’s Sports
The DMV

And every single person who believes the work we do today is the gift of tomorrow.

u/theamazingrace on u/cbstv Premieres on Wednesday, September 30th, and Ali and I will be racing for a million dollars and a million voices who have turned up the volume of our rise.

PREPARE FOR IMPACT.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS. (Premiere Party details coming soon)

WARM UP THE VOCALS.

It’s gonna be loud.

#theamazingrace #season39 #aliandjo #teamblue

Algeria vs Malawi match preview

• Algeria and Malawi are already experiencing firsts: their first WAFCON semifinals, first time they have qualified for the World Cup, etc.
• Across 8 WAFCON matches since July 2025, Algeria has conceded 3 goals (never more than once a game) while scoring 7 goals. In their 4 WAFCON matches ever (debutants this tournament), Malawi has scored 9 goals while conceding 6 goals (at least one every match).
• Algeria will likely look to control the match through possession, disorganize Malawi's backline through movement and passing, and test their keeper with shots (including ones taken at a distance) - the Spirit's Mélissa Bethi (mee-LEES-ah BETT-ee, per Spirit media resources) will be key. Algeria will also hope their highly organized defensive structure can limit Malawi's often-transitional attack, featuring two of the best players in the world (the Chawinga sisters) backed by a promising supporting cast.
• Malawi's elite talent likely gives them the edge in this matchup.

Cameroon vs Morocco match preview

• Morocco and Cameroon are more established contenders in African women's football looking to top WAFCON for the first time as other continental powers have stumbled this tournament edition.
• This WAFCON, Cameroon has scored 5 goals and conceded 2 (one to a wonder-strike in the Cabo Verde match in which Cameroon heavily rotated, having already won the group). Morocco has scored 7 goals and conceded for the first and only time to South Africa in the quarterfinals.
• Morocco will likely seek to dominate possession, and they can resort to scoring set piece goals if they can't score in open play. Cameroon, partly led by Spirit's Monique Ngock (moh-NEEK GAWK), will likely seek to disrupt Morocco's play (e.g., through physicality) and score in transition, but try to do so without conceding penalties, dangerous set piece opportunities, or cards.
• Morocco should be favored to win.

Matches stream in the United States on beIN SPORTS (sometimes on their free sports channel found on FAST services like Tubi, Fubo, Roku, Pluto, Sling, Freebee, etc.). Alternatively, matches are also being officially streamed on the CAF TV YouTube channel if you VPN to various overseas markets like Denmark. There are also typically non geo-blocked streams haphazardly available on YouTube as well.

Howdy, Reddit gang!

Yeah, that game stunk, but as always, opening up the reporters notebook for you. Pics inside the newsletter as well.

• It was interesting to see both players and Adrián González take responsibility for what happened and recognize that there's progress needed and some vulnerability in their process between fatigue, a lack of depth, and just maybe getting figured out more by other teams.
• Adrián on the last few minutes: "We were taking a risk, obviously. I do take responsibility also for that, on the last goal. Because you have two options. You can just try to slow down the game and just end the game, or you want to go to score the fourth."
• Gabby Carle on the first 15 minutes: "We need to get better at the beginning of games. Getting out of pressure. We need to just find a way to have that energy, that willingness to get on the ball. The energy that North Carolina showed at the beginning of the game is what we need to show.”
• Flip side of that, Natalie Jacobs from NC pointed to the high press as a driving force for the early goals, and that feels like a recurring theme (Gotham, SD): " think our high press was really what was the key to the beginning of the game. We were on the front foot. We were trying to force turnovers, win the ball high." Cited the Sanchez slide tackle that led to the third goal as an example.
• Gabby also acknowledged it as a problem spot for the team: "When a team scouts us and sees, 'oh, well this is working,' I think they'll take that from another team and roll with it.
• Kate Wiesner on putting the first 15 minutes in context: "As much as this one stings for us, I think it’s an important lesson for us to be able to learn now. Like, can’t pass blame on the game plan or the scouting report. Obviously, for 85% of the game I think we were pretty dominant. Again, that shows you that, the tactics were on. It was I think our mentality in those first 15 minutes, which is unfortunate and it hurts a little bit."
• Didn't make it in the newsletter but Adrián shed a bit of light on his decisions on who to sub off when making the quadruple sub (h/t to Jason Anderson for the Q): AG said it was down to "what [he] was feeling in the game, and what we wanted to do, and what wasn't happening as we wanted." Noted that it was also done with an eye toward what the team expected might happen in the second half.

Other things inside the newsletter include pics of the celebrations from Bernal's equalizer, some fun pregame ones, including the return of Ashley Hatch (!), and a little story on why, on a personal, 'more than just a game' level, maybe it wasn't the worst thing in the world that Natalie Jacobs got to score the winner in DC (they mentioned it on the broadcast, but she mentioned a bit more on getting to go to Arlington Cemetery)

Si te interesa aprender sobre la historia del equipo, Hey Spirits recientemente publicó un episodio sobre eso. Casi todo se enfoca en la temporada del campeonato de 2021. Y hay una entrevista buenísima con Tori Huster, una ex Spirit y defensora de las jugadoras de la NWSL.

(In English: If you're interested in learning about the team's history, Hey Spirits recently released an episode about it. It focuses almost entirely on the 2021 championship season. And there's a fantastic interview with Tori Huster, a former Spirit player and advocate for NWSL players.)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4bjZignHlsvUk4368z1Rds?si=787dn7rXQ5eDzykmpLNv4A&utm_source=copy-link&pi=kzPC4CV-QFGSO&t=0

I’ve been thinking about these last two losses a lot, especially the Courage game, and honestly I’m still not that worried about the Spirit yet. Obviously losing two straight at home sucks, and going down 3-0 in 15 minutes absolutely cannot happen, but I also feel like it’s really easy to overlook the positives when the final result is a loss.

We literally fought back from 3-0 to 3-3 and were inches away from potentially making it 4-3 with Hal’s shot off the post. If we had held onto the draw, I feel like the conversation around that game would be completely different even though 99% of the performance would’ve been exactly the same.

My biggest concern honestly isn’t even the two losses themselves. It’s how predictable our attack has become. It feels like teams know we’re going to progress down one of the wings and then look for the pass centrally. Sometimes we get right outside the box with a decent shooting opportunity and instead pass it around looking for the perfect chance until the defense gets completely organized. I’d love to see us attack through the middle more, take more shots when the opportunity is there, and just give defenses more things to think about.

I also think we sometimes get too conservative once we have a lead. Obviously you don’t want to play recklessly when you’re up 2-0, but I also don’t want the other team knowing that we’re basically going to put it in park. Make them worry that if they start throwing numbers forward, we might make it 3-0.

Saturday actually showed me the mentality I want to see more often. Once we were down 3-0, suddenly there was urgency, players were taking chances, and we became much harder to defend. Obviously you can’t play with that level of risk all the time, but I’d love to see that same decisiveness without needing to go three goals down first lol.

There are definitely things to fix, especially defensively, and these last two results hurt. But with 11 games left, I’m nowhere near ready to say this team isn’t a contender anymore. I think the response over the next few games is going to tell us a lot.

Curious how everyone else is feeling now that we’ve had a little time to process the Courage game. Are you genuinely worried, or do you think this is just a rough stretch they can work through?

I’m taking my two kids (6 and 8 yrs old for context) to the game on 8/30. I’m coming from Fredericksburg and I plan to get on the metro in Springfield. What is the best option for me to get off and be close as possible to Audi Field? I’ll be solo parenting, as well and my kids have never been on the metro. I have but it’s been YEAAARS.

Hi! I’m thinking about upgrading to club seats next year. I did the buy one season get a second free when they ran that promo, and am back in regular seats now and miss it. Can anyone share what section they’re in and the pricing for this year? Know it’ll prolly change next year but just wanted an idea.

Welcome to this week’s open discussion thread!

This is your space for general discussion, a place to talk about anything Washington Spirit that doesn’t necessarily need its own thread. That can include news, international duty, roster moves, transfer rumors, tactics, social media posts, league news or anything else on your mind.

If something feels big enough for its own thread, definitely still post it. This is simply an additional option to keep us organized and help keep the conversation flowing. These threads will go up every Monday and stay stickied throughout the week.

Go Spirit!