Spirit Survive Louisville In Penalty Shootout To Reach Semifinals

Spirit defender getting the D.C. crowd hyped during a 3-1 shootout against the Racing Louisville. (Marcus Relacion/The Washington Informer)

In a quarterfinal National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) game deemed to be a potential upset, the No. 2 seeded Washington Spirit flipped the script, advancing to the semifinals after a tense penalty 3-1 winning shootout at Audi Field. 

“We knew that wouldn’t be easy. There’s no easy games right now and anything can happen, any opponent right now can beat you and it’s gonna be hard, like this,” said head coach Adrian Gonzalez. I think we need to be proud of, especially the first half we’ve been very dominant, creating a lot of chances, executing the game plan perfectly.”

Backed by a thrilling home crowd in Washington, D.C., the Spirit took control of the game early, dictating the tempo for most of the game. 

“I give a lot of credit to our fans, they’re so loud, I have to imagine that’s quite intimidating to come up as the opponent and to try to score in front of that so yea they brought the energy, the confidence, and yea it was just confident in our preparation and knew that we would execute today,” said goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury.  

From the outset, Racing Louisville struggled to cope with Washington’s crisp ball movement and suffocating counter-press. Louisville spent most of the first half pinned deep in their own half, falling behind the Spirit, who appeared to score on a clever set-piece, only for the goal to be ruled offside. 

The early injury substitution of Spirit defender Gabby Carle slowed down Washington’s rhythm, but it wasn’t enough to change the flow of the match. 

By halftime, the Spirit’s dominance was set on the stat sheet: 73% possession to Louisville’s 27%, nearly triple the passes (302–109), and double the total touches (405–202). With this in mind, both sides still struggled to generate quality chances. It wasn’t until the second half when a breakthrough arose out of the shadows. 

Spirit forward Gift Monday rose above the defense to head home the opener, finally rewarding Washington’s pressure.

It looked like it was going to be enough, as the Spirit managed their narrow lead deep into stoppage time. But it was Louisville’s substitute Kayla Fischer who shocked the home crowd with a late equalizer for Louisville.

Extra time brought more adversity for Washington. Defender and U.S. national team standout Tara McKeown was forced off after a potentially game-saving tackle on Racing striker Emma Sears, further depleting an already thin squad. 

Then, fatigue began to set in, sending the game to penalties.

“I thought the first half was beautiful, didn’t have much to do. I was just enjoying everything in front of me. Great movement, great decision-making, and I think we just kinda got a little tired in the second half,” said Kingbury. We didn’t have the correct movement and spacing off the ball so kinda just bad decisions, gave it away a little too much, maybe went a little bit too direct which played into Louisville hands.”

But Spirit’s Aubrey Kingsbury stole the show. The veteran goalkeeper stopped three consecutive Louisville attempts in the shootout, lifting Washington into the semifinals and igniting celebrations at Audi Field.

It was a familiar formula for the Spirit, a team who last year survived a fiery No. 7 seed in Bay Football Club (FC) before riding that momentum all the way to the finale. 

Next up, Washington will host the winner of Portland Thorns FC at Audi Field on Saturday, Nov. 15 at noon for the NWSL Semifinal. 

“The mentality is always similar. We like taking the games one day at a time…today was about today,” said Gonzalez. “Trying to be present, trying to be focused on what we had to do today. And now it’s time to celebrate it, time to rest, try to recover, and then next week we will prepare the next as we always do. The mentality is always similar. We try to focus on every training session…we like to be more present.”