The Washington Spirit are headed to the 2024 NWSL Championship game after defeating reigning champions NJ/NY Gotham FC in a thrilling semifinal penalty shootout victory Saturday afternoon at Audi Field in Washington D.C.
Goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury made three-straight saves in the shootout, denying the Bats from the spot in all three attempts to see the Spirit through to the final after the two teams battled to a 120-minute extra-time 1-1 draw.
A 57th minute header from Esther Gonzalez opened the scoring for Gotham as the two sides went back-and-forth, with the Spaniard assisted by U.S. international Yazmeen Ryan - who delivered the ball perfectly after being found by Rose Lavelle on the edge of the box. In stoppage-time, though, the resilient Spirit fought back to draw level in the 93rd minute, with U.S. international Has Hershfelt heading home make things 1-1 with just minutes to spare.
With the two sides headed to extra-time, Bruninha saw red after earning her second yellow card of the game, reducing Gotham to 10 players. However, the Bats held on during the extra-time period, forcing a penalty shootout.
Once the Spirit stepped up to the spot, they were clincial with their attempts while the Bats shot three times into the bottom-left corner of the net, only for Kingsbury to save each one.
The NWSL Championship will take place next Saturday at 8 p.m. ET at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, where the Spirit will take on the winner of Sunday's second semifinal - No. 1 Orlando Pride vs No. 4 Kansas City Current.
Washington’s Trinity Rodman expressed no preference as to who the Spirit meet in the final, telling INDIVISA “Obviously a home field advantage isn’t the most ideal thing to play against… but for us, we want to win. I want to beat them both the same amount."
On Kingsbury's heroics, Spirit manager Jonatan Giraldez told INDIVISA "She’s brilliant…I have never seen that before in my life. She deserve it because I know how she works and how she prepares for games “