Audi Field | Washington, District of Columbia – Saturday, June 10 at 7:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
On Saturday, Washington forward Ashley Hatch set up fellow forward Trinity Rodman’s goal for Hatch’s second consecutive match with an assist. Prior to her current run, Hatch had not had an assist in the regular season since September 2019 while the only other Spirit player to have an assist in three straight matches is Crystal Dunn in 2016. Hatch also leads the team in goals with five, with Rodman (4) and midfielder Paige Metayer (2) the only other players to have scored multiple goals.
With her goal in Monday’s match, Angel City forward Sydney Leroux became the third player in NWSL history to score a goal for six different teams, joining Kristie Mewis and Jess McDonald. Leroux, who finished tied for second in goals in the league’s inaugural 2013 season with 11, has scored in eight different seasons in league play. Leading the side in goals overall are forwards Claire Emslie and Alyssa Thompson, both of whom have scored three on the season so far.
Match facts: The Washington Spirit host Angel City FC at Audi Field on Saturday night, with Washington looking to make it three straight unbeaten and Angel City looking to shake off two consecutive losses. The Spirit currently sit in 3rd place in the league with 17 points from 10 games, while Angel City holds 8th place with 9 points from 10 games.
Washington is unbeaten in its five home games this season in league play (W2 D3) after losing five of its final 10 regular season home matches in 2022 (W2 D3 L5). The Spirit’s only longer home unbeaten streak to start a season was in 2015 (9).
Angel City is coming off a 2-1 loss to Chicago on Monday and has now lost four of its last five matches (D1) in all competitions. ACFC has allowed multiple goals in nine different matches in 2023 (all competitions), tied with the Red Stars for most such games this season.
After losing both games to Angel City last season, the Spirit scored a 1-0 road win last month. The lone goal in that match was a 94th-minute penalty kick goal by Ashley Hatch, the latest game-winning goal ever scored by an Angel City opponent.
Noted (via Jen Cooper, The Keeper):
Washington Head Coach Mark Parsons needs 1 win to become the first NWSL coach with 25 for two clubs
Spirit forward Trinity Rodman needs 1 assist to tie the club record of 11 held by Diana Matheson (2013-16) and Crystal Dunn (2014-16).
The Spirit are one of two clubs still undefeated at home this regular season (along with Portland).
Next clean sheet for WAS Aubrey Kingsbury will be her 30th in regular season play. Only 3 keepers have recorded 30 so far (Barnhart, Franch, Naeher).
The Spirit hav already seen three regular-season home crowds larger than 10,000 this season — no previous season has featured more than two.
Angel City midfielder Julie Ertz is set to play her 100th regular season game. She spent most of her NWSL career with Chicago (2014-21) and joined Angel City this season.
