Halloween has arrived a month early to Audi Field as a haunting presence seems to have settled into the Washington Spirit’s home stadium. Since August 2, the Spirit have lost five of their six home matches with only two wins in between—most recently falling to eighth-ranked Angel City FC 1-0 on Sept. 26.
The Spirit’s inconsistency in the backend of the season is a glaring result of the summer transfer window during which it transferred midfielder Rebeca Bernal to Manchester United W.U.F.C. and signed on four new players. In early September, the team also lost Deborah Abiodun and Kate Wiesner to injury. Bernal had started seventeen games this season before her transfer; meanwhile, Wiesner played in twenty matches and Abiodum in nine prior to their departures.
Following the Angel City loss, head coach Adrián González spoke to the team’s recent struggles with chemistry, stating, “Well, it’s challenging because honestly you need time to build when you bring in new players. They need time to know each other… but right now we don’t have time.”
In the final moments of that match, the cracks in the Spirit squad began to reveal themselves through slow recovery and an accentuated offensive disconnect. Angel City’s Maiara Carolina Niehues may have struck the 89th minute winner, yet the final score doesn’t reflect the evenly matched run of the previous 88 minutes.
Across both halves, both sides received ample free kick chances within crossing distance of the box along with multiple corner kicks. The pre-nor’easter, slippery weather made these opportunities especially dangerous that night, but neither team converted them. Notably, Angel City FC squandered a free kick 18 seconds into the match, taken just yards from the top of the 18-yard box. The Spirit similarly missed a scoring chance in the 23’ after a miss-hit header by Hal Hershfelt and a subsequent cross by Rosemonde Kouassi landed comfortably in the hands of Angel City’s keeper.
For the Spirit, mis-hit balls played an outsized role on the night. While the backline built strong connections, the midfield consistently lost the ball in the transition between the second and final thirds.
Captain Andi Sullivan acknowledged this in her post-match response, saying, “I think that we could do a better job of not only looking for success in the transition when we get higher [up the pitch and] just having more sustained possession higher.”
Angel City, conversely, trailed the Spirit in offensive momentum for much of the first half. They may have earned an important three points in the standings at the final whistle, but they only dominated possession and creativity in the final twenty minutes. Twenty-year-old Gisele Thompson remained largely quiet, apart from a few instances of cheeky footwork up Angel City’s right flank. Her fellow young star, Savy King, does merit credit for her defensive work to keep the Spirit’s Trinity Rodman from her typical scoring success.
Following the loss, the Spirit still sit third overall in the league; however, their inconsistency since the season’s kickoff in March means they need to fight harder for a higher seed in the playoffs. Entering their fifth game of the season, the Spirit were 0-3-1. Over the following months, the team slowly regained its footing and worked toward replicating its 2025 season, in which it finished second overall. Eventually, the Spirit punched in wins against each of those four teams who caused them problems early on this year.
Now, with four games to go before the NWSL Playoffs begin on Nov. 6, the Spirit find themselves back in limbo, juggling the effects of a chaotic summer transfer window and the new mental burden of home-field disadvantage.
Regarding the gravity of the upcoming matches, González commented in a post-match interview, “It is true that we are not winning here, but that can change… For me as a coach it’s about improving the players individually and improving the team collectively.”
Perhaps the hope and confidence presented by González after such a frustrating loss is all the squad needs to bind them together in the final weeks of the 2026 season. The Spirit will face the eleventh-ranked Houston Dash on the road next weekend on October 4th. The following week, they will return home to face No. 1 Gotham FC in a high-stakes chance to break the Audi Field jinx.
