Kingsbury sends Spirit to final with air of 'destiny'

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury saved all three penalties she faced as the Spirit defeated reigning champion NJ/NY Gotham FC in a 3-0 penalty shootout on Saturday at Audi Field to advance to next week’s NWSL championship.

The two teams played to a 1-1 draw through 120 minutes after the Spirit forced extra time in the final moments of regulation.

Spirit midfielder Hal Hershfelt scored the equalizer for Washington in second-half stoppage time to offset Esther González‘s goal earlier in the period for Gotham, who played the final 19 minutes of extra time down a player. Kingsbury followed with her heroics in the shootout to send a sold-out crowd of over 19,000 fans into a frenzy in the U.S. capital.

“[I] just got a good read,” Kingsbury said after the match. “And I think it’s more just the confidence and having the fans behind me. I was really trying to get them into it because I knew that would give us a great advantage for their penalty takers coming up and trying to make one in front of that wall of fans. Like, I would be scared.”

Washington will play the winner of Sunday’s semifinal, between No. 1 seed Orlando Pride and No. 4 seed Kansas City Current, in the NWSL championship on Nov. 23 at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.

“I think we are here because we deserve it,” Spirit head coach Jonatan Giráldez said. “Nobody gave us anything. We deserved to win last week. We deserve it today because we created more chances than Gotham. But I don’t want to stay here. I want to keep moving forward.”

The No. 2 seed Spirit weathered early pressure from the No. 3 seed Gotham, including González’s shot off the crossbar in the opening minute, before turning up the pressure on the visitors.

But Gotham got on the board first through González, whose goal in the 56th minute was Gotham’s first shot in 47 minutes.

Gotham midfielder Yazmeen Ryan got on the ball on the right flank and played a pass inside to midfielder Rose Lavelle, who dribbled briefly before slotting a no-look pass behind the Spirit’s defense and into the path of Ryan, who had continued her run. Ryan collected the ball on the end line and delivered a cross to the penalty spot, where an unmarked González adjusted her body to head the ball back toward the near post.

Lavelle nearly doubled the lead 13 minutes later when she blocked a slow attempted clearance by Spirit goalkeeper Kingsbury at Washington’s 6-yard box, but the ball deflected just wide of the goal.

Washington, led by United States star and MVP finalist Trinity Rodman, continued its onslaught of pressure throughout the second half and eventually found the equalizer in stoppage time.

Gotham substitute fullback Jenna Nighswonger fouled Washington defender Tara McKeown just outside the box to concede a free kick in a dangerous position. Spirit substitute Makenna Morris pinged a free kick straight to the head of fellow rookie Hershfelt for the equalizer in the third minute of second-half stoppage time.

Three minutes later, Morris stepped up and hit a driven corner kick — an area of struggle throughout the day for the Spirit — to the head of Hershfelt again, but her header went just over the bar.

Gotham played most of the extra time down a player after defender Bruninha, who entered the game in the 65th minute, received a second yellow card and was ejected for a professional foul on Rodman right in front of the Spirit’s bench. Rodman stared down Bruninha and held up her hand to mimic a card being shown before Rodman exchanged words with Gotham defender and USWNT teammate Emily Sonnett. Rodman also received a yellow card.

Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amorós said he did not want to speak negatively about the referees but pointed out that Bruninha was shown two yellow cards for two fouls. Gotham had already used all available substitutions by the time Bruninha was sent off.

“We had a specific plan,” Amorós said about how the team adjusted. “I think it worked really well, how we wanted to attack, how we wanted to defend. We limited their chances, so maybe they put us under pressure, but we limited the chances. And at the end, we really had two very good chances to win it.”

Each team had a clear opportunity to win the game following Gotham’s reduction to 10 players.

Gotham FC goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger tipped a shot from Spirit forward Ashley Hatch over the bar just before the extra-time break, and Esther nearly headed in a second goal in the 115th minute when she connected with a corner kick delivered by Nighswonger. Kingsbury dove to her right to push the shot wide.

Kingsbury then stepped up and saved all three Gotham attempts in the shootout, first from González, followed by shots from midfielder McCall Zerboni and then Nighswonger. Hatch, Lena Silano and McKeown converted penalties for the Spirit.

“She’s brilliant,” Giráldez said about Kingsbury. “Not because of penalties — because she’s a professional in the way that she faces training sessions every day. It’s crazy. I have never seen that before.”

The penalty shootout was just the second in NWSL playoff history. Washington lost the previous occasion to the Western New York Flash (now the North Carolina Courage after relocation) in the 2016 NWSL championship.

The Spirit are in search of their second NWSL championship after winning the title in 2021, when a then-rookie Rodman delivered an assist to Kelley O’Hara for the trophy-winning goal.

Washington won that trophy while players publicly protested their former owner, Steve Baldwin, for allegedly enabling a toxic culture at the club.

“I have similar feelings, honestly, as ’21 — kind of like that felt like destiny,” Kingsbury said. “And I would say the same thing. Obviously, we don’t have the media circus and all the chaotic energy around us that we did back in ’21, but on the flip side, it’s all the positive stuff.”