If the middle portion of the match was nothing special, the beginning and end of the National Women’s Soccer League championship were replete with drama, as the Washington Spirit and Western New York Flash traded goals early on before the Flash claimed the title on penalties after scoring a last-gasp equalizer in extra time.
The Spirit – leading 2-1 after Crystal Dunn scored her second of the game early in extra time – looked to be cruising to victory, their opponents a spent force. But one last, desperate punt into the penalty area led to a messy goal for Lynn Williams, the league MVP.
The night only grew more shrouded in the surreal after that, as a as a succession of players you’d have strongly expected to score missed from the penalty spot for both sides. In the end, Flash goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo was the hero.
The 23-year-old Canadian dropped her most valuable player of the game award as she walked into the press room, but her handling was more secure in the shoot-out, when she made three saves.
“Washington did play better than us but we kept fighting,” she said. “As soon as [Williams] scored I had no doubt in my mind that we would get the job done.”
Paul Riley, the Flash’s Liverpool-born head coach, was banned from the touchline after being ejected during a heated moment in the semi-final, but swiftly made his way from the stands to the pitch to celebrate with his players. He conceded that “it wasn’t one of our greatest performances” but “this was a team of destiny for sure”.
That and reaping the benefits of repetition: Riley said that his team often practised being down a goal in the last five minutes in training, when he drills them in the fine art of “humping the ball forward and hoping something happens”.
Something did, when it mattered most, even though the Spirit had impressively kept the Flash’s formidable forwards quiet until the 124th minute, when Jessica McDonald crossed for Williams, who made the most of bad defending.
“To give away a goal like that,” said Spirit midfielder Christine Nairn, her voice cracking with emotion, “it’s hard to comprehend right now … This one’s going to hurt for a while for sure.”
Jim Gabarra, in his first season as Spirit head coach, rightly said that “for most of the match we were the better side”. And then, he added ruefully, “our two best penalty kick takers, they get saved.”
It was an improbable end to an unheralded match-up. You would have needed to be bold – or perhaps working for the statistics website FiveThirtyEight – to have predicted a final between these teams in the early stages of the campaign.
The Flash, seventh last year, profited from facing the hapless Boston Breakers four times in a 20-game season and only secured a playoff place on the final weekend of the of the regular season.
But they beat the favored Portland Thorns in the semi-finals, 4-3 after extra time, with two goals from the 23-year-old Williams. It was only the Flash’s second away win since 7 May.
The Spirit, who finished second to Portland in the regular season, also needed extra time to reach the final at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, overcoming the Chicago Red Stars 2-1.
The Flash’s youth – seven members of Sunday’s starting XI were under 25, with McCall Zerboni the senior player aged 29 – duly translated to a bustling and direct style that contrasted with the Spirit’s more patient approach built on short passes.
In the ninth minute, with observers still digesting the Spirit’s surprise decision to start with three center backs, a Washington forward became the centre of attention. Dunn beat D’Angelo to a bouncing long ball at the edge of the area and finished into the unguarded net from a tricky angle.
The lead lasted less than five minutes. While Washington’s defensive adjustment was seemingly made out of deference to the threat of Williams and McDonald, the league’s most prolific duo, midfielder Sam Mewis is also a talent worthy of close attention. She collected the ball on the edge of the box, adroitly fashioned a shooting chance and beat goalkeeper Kelsey Wys with a low shot. Quite a way to celebrate her 24th birthday.
Defender Caprice Dydasco was substituted with a left knee injury, forcing the Spirit’s back line to adjust again, but Western New York did not take advantage. Williams had the most shots of any NWSL player during the regular season, with McDonald third, yet neither mustered an attempt in a first half that settled into a dour midfield battle in the southeast Texas sunshine, despite Dunn’s dizzying runs.
The 24-year-old made the US Olympic roster earlier this year. “She’s special right now, doing very well,” the US head coach, Jill Ellis, told reporters at half time before swatting away a question about suspended goalkeeper Hope Solo’s future: “I haven’t even thought about it, to be honest,” she said.
Little was special about the second half, which saw the Flash look brighter in attack without creating many good chances as both sides struggled for coherence and Dunn’s influence waned. McDonald did have a promising shooting opportunity but, strangely for a forward with 11 regular season goals, diffidently chose to pass and the ball was cleared.
Extra time duly arrived before a crowd of 8,255. The match got the jolt it needed only 59 seconds into the restart as a lightning bolt of a shot from Dunn just inside the box beat D’Angelo high to her left.
Experience then told, as the Spirit comfortably preserved their lead and even looked like adding to it as the Flash faded, running out of ideas and energy. Yet there was one last twist during an inexplicably long-lived period of stoppage time.
The Flash hoisted the ball into the box from the left wing and Wys came for the cross but was beaten to it by Williams – a likely candidate to score the unlikeliest of equalizers.
Then came penalties, and D’Angelo made three stops – from Ali Krieger, the US national team veteran; Tori Huster; and Canadian international Diana Matheson, a substitute – to render misses from Mewis and McDonald irrelevant.
“Luckily we got it done,” said Riley. “We got it done”.
