With a lone goal from Ashley Hatch, the Washington Spirit defeated the North Carolina Courage 1-0 to clinched the No. 2 seed in the playoffs and the club’s 18th win of the season. After the match, goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury, midfielder Hal Hershfelt, and Head Coach Jonatan Giráldez spoke with the media.
On tonight’s performance:
Kingsbury: Really excited. That was a hard fought game from both teams. They really pushed hard in the second half to get the equalizer, but we defended the box well. (Ashley) Hatch had an incredible goal, so I’m just thrilled to finish in second place, and get to host the quarterfinal, and then hopefully the semifinal.
Hershfelt: It was just nice, especially after our first meeting with them didn’t go our way. To come back and beat them at home, it felt good. Also, just finishing second, it’s really sick.
On what it means to have home-field advantage in the NWSL Playoffs:
Kingsbury: It’s huge. We play really well at Audi. I’m imagining we’re going to sell both of those matches out. The fans give us that 12 player energy.
Hershfelt: It’s so nice playing in front of the DC fans. It’s so sick. I said this from my first game at Audi Field. Sorry, I’m literally losing my words, I’m tired. The energy that they give us is unreal. Our home games are just amazing. I feel like even friends on other teams that I have that play at our field, they’re like, “Ah, you guys have a great atmosphere.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I know. It’s our home field.”
Kingsbury: Yeah, it’s big for us, it’s big for the community, especially after many seasons of not making the playoffs, really excited just to be able to give that to our fans.
On what it means to get a win on the Courage’s home turf:
Hershfelt: It was a tough fought game. They really stepped it up in the second half, and I think that goes to show that even under immense pressure that we can kind of tough games out like that. I think that just goes to show that it doesn’t need to be perfect for us to be able to get a result.
Kingsbury: Yeah, I don’t think they’ve lost yet, or was that their first loss of the season at home? Obviously they’ve done really well here. It’s a tough environment to play in. They press high, they’re great in possession, so it’s a great challenge for us as well going into the playoffs to be able to, like Hal said, get a result in a game where you’re under the pump for the end of it. I was really proud of how everyone just dug deep and grinded it out.
On how Hershfelt and the team is holding up after lots of travel:
Hershfelt: Yeah, I’m going to be sleeping a lot and hanging out on the couch for my off days, but honestly just open communication with my teammates and the staff and coaches and everything. They’ve been so helpful with my transition from traveling and then coming back into club, especially like our sportsmed staff, super open communication with them. So yeah, I give it to that. My teammates too, they were egging me on in the game telling me to keep going. You can always hear Aubrey. She’s loud.
Kingsbury: I didn’t even let her complain to the ref. I’m like, keep playing. No time for that.
On the Spirit’s ability to curtail the Courage attack:
Hershfelt: I feel like our press was a lot more effective in the first half than it was the second half, and that kind of made it really hard for them to build up and create those, I guess shot creating opportunities. But obviously we need to maintain that and keep it consistent throughout the second half.
Kingsbury: Our back line was much more aggressive this match mainly because their nine would check back into the pocket and not really run behind. So it allowed us to kind of play man for man on back line and really step aggressively with them and keep them out of our box for most of it. So I thought we were just really disciplined. We won our duels, a lot of recoveries in the midfield, just picking up second balls. So just really proud of the effort and yeah, I think we played them really well and gave them a great game.
On Ashley Hatch’s goal:
Hershfelt: Yeah, so I kind of saw her, I think it was there 10, I hope I’m correct, but I think it was just one of their midfielders turn and start immediately taking space from the pocket and I was like, I have to get this or it’s going to be a really hard transition moment for my team. So I just kind of laid it all out there. This time the ref did not blow the whistle but was able to tackle her and it went to, I want to say like Makenna (Morris) and she was able to play it forward. But yeah, it was a good recovery. I’m not going to brag on myself. I was happy I was able to get that.
On Ashley Hatch’s role:
Hershfelt: Hatch has definitely stepped up. She’s always been a phenomenal leader on our team, but I feel like recently she’s really been able to come into form and put a crap ton of goals in the back of the net, and this was just an example. That strike was beautiful. It was a really sick moment to watch, for sure.
Kingsbury: Hatch is a great finisher. Around the box she’s dangerous finishing crosses or creating her own chances. Yeah, she’s one of the best. She what, won Golden Boot just two years ago? So it just speaks to the talent that we have on this team. It wasn’t for any lack of skill or ability that she wasn’t starting at the beginning of this year. And all credit to her, she’s been an excellent leader all season long, continued to work hard and we’ve seen her grow so much. Now she can play in so many different roles. We’ll have her pin the backs high or come in the pocket. She’s really enhanced her game, and now I love that people get to see that. She’s firing and gaining a lot of momentum going into these playoffs, so it’s a great just time for her and looking forward to seeing what she does in these next couple of matches.
On reflections about this special Spirit team:
Kingsbury: It’s been a lot of fun to watch us grow throughout the season. Like you’ve said, I would’ve never guessed that we would be playing a rookie midfield. I would’ve probably been thinking, okay, well then we’re doing poorly if that’s the case. But we’re winning. We’re scoring lots of goals, we’re playing really great soccer. We’ve developed so much with our coaches bringing in Adrián González at the beginning of the season and not even having Jona (Giráldez) till halfway through the season. I’ve just been so impressed by our staff, every player, how we’ve bought into this culture, this team since day one. And it’s paying dividends. Everyone’s gotten so much better. And yeah, I think back to 2021 and that was special because of all the extenuating circumstances. This is special in a different manner. It’s been really fun to be motivated by just love for one another and not motivated by all the chaos that’s going on around us. I think we really care for each other. We’ve created a strong family culture here where everyone works hard, everyone competes. We’re locked in, focused on the process and each day, each opportunity, whether it’s training, game, whatever it is, and just keep continuing to challenge and push ourselves every day has now led to this, being second place going into the playoffs. And even with all our adversities, all the crazy injuries we’ve had, so many season ending injuries. Andi (Sullivan), losing her kind of reminds me a little bit of losing Tori (Huster) in 2021, but I know that this team will just be even better for that and she’s cheering us on from home and still leading in an incredible way behind the scenes. So I think that’ll only make us stronger and yeah, really excited going into the postseason. I just rambled forever. Love you Andi, if you’re out there, you’re watching this.
On reflecting on this season’s team:
Hershfelt: By the way, it’s so important. I told you I think that many times, but it’s so important. Always the team is so, the players, always the team is the team is the most important thing. When you are competing, when you are training, you have to be close from the players, especially who are not playing so much and develop their performance. Maybe you cannot do it in the game, but you can do it in the training. So that’s a very positive thing because when you are not playing a lot, maybe you can disconnect. I think they felt that the real moment for them was being close to participate and to be important for the team. And if they are performing well, it’s because they were connecting in the bad moments in terms of minutes, in terms of load. So Makenna, Heather, Courtney, Hatchy and other players, they wait for their moment, and right now I think they deserve all the good words that I’m saying for them because when you are playing, it’s very easy to be on the good shape, be positive. When you are not playing, you need to be consistent in the training session and try to keep growing as a player and develop your profile. They were doing that, and right now looking behind, missing important players, Croix (Bethune), Andi Sullivan, Rose (Kouassi) for this game. Also, other players make a big step forward and they helped us a lot to keep performing as we were doing the last games and competing in the last game today here in North Carolina. I think it’s very, very positive I think for the team. As I always say, the team is over the players because together, I like to say together we are stronger.
On the team performance:
Giráldez: I think we did a good job. Really it was a hard week because we had no players, we had no roles. Hal and Casey (Krueger), they arrived yesterday was only one training session, but they were ready to compete. Trinity (Rodman) coming from the last weeks where she was not playing a lot, was so tired in the second half. We did a good job. I think especially in the first half, we create chances to score more than one goal, and then in the second half we tried to modify a little bit the shape when we’re defending because they have a very good team. They played a beautiful soccer and even that, I think they didn’t create so many chances, so many clear chances to score. In the end, we have a few chances also to score in transition. We could not that, but in the end, this victory give us a lot of confidence because big three points to end the season. As a second seed, I don’t know, at the beginning of the season a lot of people thought that we were standing like we did the season. So very, very happy.
On the importance of the No. 2 overall seed:
Giráldez: I was speaking with them, we were analyzing what’s happened. Hal was playing 90 minutes three days ago, but the load was low because they were attacking against a low block, no high intensity action. So, she was ready and Casey she didn’t play too much. The only consideration was they flew four times in the last 10 days because they played three games in different places. So it was the only consideration. But we have an open conversation before the game just in case they felt something, let me know. But they felt really, really well. I think Hal and Casey for sure, they are tired now, but they performed at good level. And as all we like to say, second position is a consequence. I don’t like to speak about how we have to achieve the second position. We have to compete every game to win as many games as possible, to compete, and then we got it. So we qualify for CONCACAF next season. That’s a good news and also have the chance to play quarterfinal playing at home the first game. That is a good point too.
On the character of the team to get the win on the road:
Giráldez: Yeah, we knew that they are a good, good team, especially when they play at home. I didn’t know exactly the number of games that they are not losing any game here, but I think makes sense even more in terms of gratitude that I feel right now for the players because it’s a very tough pitch. They have incredible players. They play beautiful soccer. For me, one of the best teams, especially in possession, in the league. And they deserve because they are performing and competing really well and we had to do a lot of good things today to win. So I’m proud of the players because we did a good job.
On how the team succeeded today:
Giráldez: I don’t want to say too many things because maybe we’ll have to play against them again, but in general they like to add a lot of players inside. So, I think we did a good job, the whole team in terms of angle of pressure with time of angles we are defending the ball holder and also the behavior of the defensive line. I think we did a good job. They like to put a lot of players inside, so we have to modify some things. If you compare our games defensively with other games, we have to do other different things today, and we have not too much time to train, but two clean weeks in the end we can analyze everything. In terms of defensive perspective, I think they only had a big change to score today, five finishing I think, and only one on target. That’s a beautiful stat because it’s one of the most difficult pitch in the league. And in general, I have to say that we did a good job out of possession.
On the overall fitness level of the team:
Giráldez: Being honest, we are right now in the best, best shape because after national break you need time to recover all people and be a little more fresh for the next games. In my experience, when I was working the last seasons and national breaks are always hard and the first game, especially if you have to play away, it’s very, very difficult to compete because not everyone is available 100%. And today we have not other holding midfielder to play. Heather (Stainbrook) could play, but with Courtney (Brown) we need other number 10 and Leicy (Santos) was missing the last five weeks, so she couldn’t play from the beginning. So, as we are not having numbers enough to play in the beginning, I decide what I consider the best for the team was starting Hal and having I think an open and honest conversation with her and analyzing also her data about the camp. We thought that we could start with her, and I think she did a good job. She deserved the game that she did because she didn’t ask to make a sub because I think she was performing. She was happy performing and, we are not in our best level, but the next week for sure, we are going to be better in terms of physical condition if you compare us today.
On Hal’s role in the Spirit goal:
Giráldez: Yes. For me it’s about identify advantage. When you identify the advantage that you have, sometimes playing short passes, other times playing long passes, and who is the player who’s running, which is the angle of the pass. Also, to make sure that we can create chances doing that and being more specific in terms of position, I think playing as a six, as a holding midfielder, she could maintain the level today physically because she was a lot of times in the rear position and she didn’t need to move too much. So that’s for me a good, good point. And also defensively today was a difficult game because she must decide which pocket has to defend and other center back ready to jump to pocket. Sometimes we decide that one holding midfielder is between two pockets and make big efforts defensively. But today we decide that because in terms of physical condition was much better for her. It is about keep learning about all the experience that we are getting and being in a new position for her and playing with new players, with Heather and Courtney being the first season, they just were playing there the last three or four games. So I think the performance was good. She’s it’s a very intense player. We are helping her to adjust a little bit the position, the decision also attacking and defending. But today, I think she did a good job.
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