Fresh off a “vacation”, I’m getting back in the groove. I’ll be providing coverage from the Spirit’s first home game at Segra Field tomorrow and will resume our Morning Links posts on Monday. Hope you all didn’t miss me too much, and I listened to Monday’s show, heard that Green Sauce heresy and I will respond to it.
In their 8th game of the 2021 season, the Spirit are finally christening Segra Field in it’s first non-Fall Series Washington Spirit game, welcoming familiar and recent foe, Rory Dames’ Chicago Red Stars. The furor over the facilities in Loudoun appears to be settled, with the water elements working and the field being otherwise ready for top tier professional soccer. The Red Stars are coming off of an uncharacteristic beatdown at the hands of expansion side, Racing Louisville FC, 3-0, on June 26th. Danielle Colaprico will be unavailable due to the red card she received in that game, with the Red Stars conceding 5 and scoring none in the last two matches.
The Olympics have arrived and have hit both teams reasonably hard, with Chicago losing Alyssa Naeher, Tierna Davidson, Casey Krueger, and the still recovering Julie Ertz, and the Spirit playing without Emily Sonnett, Kelley O’Hara, Saori Takarada and Julia Roddar. As both Tegan McGrady and Tori Huster said in their interviews with the show, the Spirit are prepared and deep in defense and are looking forward to this period to get those players opportunities and take some points from teams who are harder hit by their absences.
In his pre-match media availability, Richie Burke confirmed that Ashley Hatch was once again available without reservation after exiting the concussion protocol and should be in the starting lineup for the Spirit. While Trinity Rodman has been shoulder the scoring load in her absence, the Spirit will be happy to have a full strength Hatch available once again against a second choice Chicago keeper.
Prediction: Spirit 2, Red Stars 0. Chicago continues their goalscoring woes, and has no answer for the confident Spirit attack. Despite the turf, Sanchez and Hatch both score and this game is comfortable from early on in the second half.