Washington Spirit - OL Reign (26-03-2023)

I arrive in DC by train from NYC at 2 PM and walk to my hotel. After checking in, I meet a colleague and we take the bus together to Audi Field, a beautiful, new soccer-specific stadium in the south point of the city, close to Nationals Park, the baseball stadium. Audi Field is a soccer-specific stadium with a capacity of 20,000 that is the home ground of both MLS-side DC United and NWSL-side Washington Spirit. It is perfect for US soccer: not too big, close to the pitch, and steep stands.

 

Today is the opening day of the 2023 National Women Soccer League (NWSL) season and there is a decent, highly orchestrated, atmosphere around the stadium — including a live band inside the stadium. We go to the Ticketmaster Office Box, which is the most US thing ever. After about 5-10 minutes of conversations with the perfectly nice woman at the office, we decide to buy the two-for-one tickets behind the goal ($40 total), which we then get texted to my phone — they don’t print tickets at the stadium! We could this also have done it online in 2 min.

 

The stadium is about half full: official attendance is 11,281. Although there is gender parity, the audience isn’t that much different from MLS, except a bit more diverse (could just be DC), more women couple, and fans wear far less team gear. Although we sit behind the goal, the view is quite good, in part because the stands are steep.

 

The first half hour or so are all for the visitors. In the 15^th minute OL Reign had an excellent attack, a long cross in and an excellent header met with an equal safe by the goalie. Not much later, OL Reign’s number 10 (Fishlock) gives a great ball through but the next pass is too difficult. Only later the Spirit has its first great attack but the header goes past the goal.

 

Only after 30 minutes the game gets pretty even and there are some good semi chances on both sides. In the first minutes of extra time (7 minutes), an OL Reign cross from the right goes across the goal to the left, where. player brings it back, the ball is headed through, and then headed from 3 meter but weakly at goalie. Half time score: 0-0, but definitely entertaining.

 

In the 47^th minute an OL Reign cross goes towards the goal and is saved very well by the excellent Spirit goalie. In the 55^th minute, completely out of nowhere, a Sprit striker crosses diagonally in front of the goal and shoots perfectly against her run low in the corner: 1-0. An excellent goal.

 

After the goal the game is fairly balanced. In the 78^th minute a great OL Reign counter attack, with a beautiful cross, leads to a missed header by the striker from 5 meter in front of an open goal. In the end, the Spirit holds on to its lead, thanks to a very good defense, both individually and collectively, and an excellent goalie, who was my MVP.

 

This was my first NWSL groundhop and I honestly regret not having gone before. This definitely tasted like more. So, if you are visiting DC, and want a slightly different experience, go to see Washington Spirit (instead of, or together with, DC United).