The Washington Spirit look to bounce back from a disappointing 1-0 loss against the Chicago Red Stars this Saturday at Audi Field vs the North Carolina Courage. After losing for the first time since a disappointing performance and 2-0 loss against Racing Louisville, the Spirit have not drawn an easy hand to get back to winning ways.
The Courage have rebounded from a slower than usual start to find themselves in first place, with 16 points from 8 games played, and have won their last 4 games while oddly scoring twice in all of them. In the slight good news columns for Washington, Lynn Williams was selected to be an alternate for the US Olympic team and will not be in Washington on Saturday. Additionally, the Courage will be without Debinha and Sam Mewis who will also be in Japan and Hailey Harbison and Lindsay Agnew are unavailable due to injury. The Courage attack are certainly not at full strength but it will be a test of their attacking depth as they hope to win their 5th straight.
Richie Burke spoke about the differences in playing a Courage side vs the Red Stars last week at Segra, saying that he’s never seen the Courage go into a defensive shell unlike Chicago who set up in two banks of 4 and had two defensive midfielders parked in front of the center backs all night. Burke also joked that NCC would likely set up in their famous “4-2-2-2-2-2 formation” and would be on the front foot from the get go with the Spirit needing to be up for the challenge.
The Spirit roll into the weekend with the expected absences of Emily Sonnett, Kelley O’Hara, Saori Takarada and Julia Roddar for Olympic duty. Backup goalkeeper Devon Kerr showed up on the injury report with concussion symptoms for the first time, but notably, Kerr’s roommate Trinity Rodman did not. Richie Burke confirmed that Rodman was suffering from back spasms in the game against Chicago, but stated that should would be available for selection (“But she will not be playing 90 minutes” chuckled Burke).
Another player who will not be with Washington is Natalie Jacobs, former USC product and 2 year veteran of the Spirit, who was waived at her request this week. Burke indicated that Jacobs wanted more playing time and didn’t think she’d receive it with the Spirit. Jacobs played in defensive midfield and right back at times last year, but with the three back system, she was going to have to find minutes in an extremely crowded midfield.
Prediction: NCC Courage 1 Washington Spirit 1
The Courage are playing very well at the moment and the Spirit continue to be (generally) getting points while not fully running on all cylinders. Luckily, the fulcrum of the Courage attack will be missing in this game and the Spirit defense is more than adequately covered for the Olympians absence. The game will rely on an engaged and active Ashley Sanchez, as she goes, so goes the Spirit attack.