Despite the crowd’s best efforts to console her with a standing ovation, Trinity Rodman walked off Audi Field for the final time this season with her head buried in her hands and tears streaming from her eyes.
The Washington Spirit’s 21-year-old star striker was issued a red card and sent off in the 23rd minute of her team’s regular season finale Sunday against the North Carolina Courage. For the final 67 minutes of a must-win game, Washington was down to 10 players and without its top offensive threat. That proved too much to overcome in a crushing 1-0 defeat that, combined with other unfavorable outcomes around the league, meant the Spirit would miss the NWSL playoffs for the second straight season.
The Spirit entered Sunday in fifth place in the 12-team league. A victory would have guaranteed a playoff berth — they are awarded to the top six teams — as well as home-field advantage in the quarterfinals. A draw or even a loss, combined with other results, could have been enough, too.
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But Rodman’s studs-up slip into the leg of Courage captain Denise O’Sullivan, which was upgraded on video review from a yellow card to a red, proved particularly painful. Moments after she was ejected, North Carolina capitalized with the game’s only goal when Tyler Lussi buried a cross from Manaka Matsukubo in the 25th minute.
A VAR review confirmed Lussi’s goal even though replays showed Matsukubo was offside. After the game, referee Ricardo Fierro told a pool reporter that the no-call “was not a clear and obvious error.”
Rodman’s disqualification was just one of many ways the Spirit (7-6-9) played shorthanded Sunday. Washington stalwart forward-turned-defender Tara McKeown, who had been on the field for 97 percent of the team’s minutes, and Coach Mark Parsons were suspended because of yellow card accumulation. Assistant Mike Bristol served as the acting coach.
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Despite those disadvantages, the Spirit kept North Carolina (9-7-6) off the scoreboard after Lussi’s goal and had chances of its own. Perhaps the best of those came in the 38th minute: Rookie Paige Metayer got behind Courage keeper Casey Murphy, but her shot was blocked near the goal line by defender Ryan Williams.
“Everybody [was] adjusting on the fly,” Bristol said. “I thought that we created some good chances in [the first] half, and they cleared the ball off the line [or we] could have been tied at the half. So I was really proud of our group for adjusting on the fly and still competing at a high level.”
After the final whistle blew — ending the game and a once-promising season — Spirit players hung their heads, crouched in disbelief and consoled one another with hugs. Team owner Y. Michele Kang offered supportive words during a despondent postgame huddle. And Rodman returned to the pitch in jeans, taking in the scene with her dejected teammates as more than 15,000 fans streamed out of the stadium.
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“We all rallied around [Rodman], and she rallied around us,” forward Ashley Hatch said. “She was in the locker room at halftime, just encouraging us. I think she’s probably disappointed, but I know that she still believed in all of us that we could still get the result.”
Since winning the franchise’s first NWSL championship in 2021, the Spirit has not returned to the playoffs. Expectations for 2023 were high after the team brought back a championship-winning coach in Parsons, returned a star-laden roster headlined by five U.S. national team players and transitioned to playing at Audi Field full time.
A 6-1-5 start had the Spirit in first place June 18 and seemingly in position to challenge for another trophy. But for the rest of the season, Washington went 1-5-4, was outscored 17-8 and tumbled to eighth place. The Spirit was shut out four times in its final five games.
“It wasn’t this game — we’ve played 22 games this season, and we’ve conceded late or dropped points here and there,” Spirit keeper Aubrey Kingsbury said. “So as much as it sucks … we had plenty of opportunities this season. [Rodman’s red card] is definitely not the narrative. We had chances even with the red card to get a result today, and we had plenty of opportunities this whole season.”
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