SAN JOSE — The Washington Spirit rode a season’s worth of chemistry and camaraderie to its second straight NWSL final appearance. Gotham FC, its underdog opponent that squeaked into the playoffs, leaned on sheer talent and impeccable timing.
When it mattered most Saturday night at PayPal Park, sheer talent won out.
Rose Lavelle, the U.S. national team maestro with a knack for delivering on the grandest stages, rifled home the 80th-minute winner as New Jersey-based Gotham topped the Spirit, 1-0, before a sell-out crowd of 18,000.
The match was the Spirit’s second straight title game trip. And for the second year in a row, Washington succumbed, 1-0, on a moment of individual brilliance. A year after Barbra Banda’s strike proved decisive for the Orlando Pride, it was Lavelle — the 30-year-old playmaker whose goal sewed up the Americans’ win in the 2019 World Cup final — who made the difference. As Bruninha backed down Spirit defender Esme Morgan, the Gotham left back struck a pass that drifted across the top of the box, escaped lunging Washington midfielder Hal Hershfelt and landed in Lavelle’s path.
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At that point, Lavelle’s influence was inevitable. Wielding perhaps modern soccer’s most lethal left foot, she caught the ball in stride, struck it as sweetly as expected and whipped her curler inside Aubrey Kingsbury’s far post.
For the second time in three years, Gotham lifted the NWSL championship trophy. The Spirit dropped to 1-3 in title games.
The Spirit was widely pegged as a 2025 title contender after it fell in last year’s final, returned a star-studded core and rounded out the squad with savvy acquisitions. Washington launched its season with a trophy in March, when it edged Orlando in the curtain-raising Challenge Cup, then finished the regular season at 12-6-8 and earned the same No. 2 seed it secured a year ago.
Yet the path back to the title game was anything but preordained. Star forward Trinity Rodman took a 3½-month midseason hiatus to manage a chronic back issue and suffered an October knee sprain that curtailed her playoff contributions. A barrage of other injuries to Hershfelt, Leicy Santos, Croix Bethune and Rosemonde Kouassi, further stretched Washington’s roster. Veterans Andi Sullivan, Ashley Hatch and Casey Krueger sat out all or most of the season on maternity leave. And Adrián González, a coach of the year finalist, took the reins midseason following Jonatan Giráldez’s unexpected move to Lyon.
“We’ve never doubted in each other, in ourselves,” Kingsbury said. “Even when our injury report is 10-plus players long, we still go into the game believing we’re going to win.”
In the absence of individual dominance — the Spirit didn’t land anyone on the NWSL’s five-player shortlist for MVP — Washington racked up results on the strength of its depth, coaching and cohesive culture. Converted forward Tara McKeown earned defender of the year honors. Kingsbury was as steady as ever in goal. Bethune, back from a freak knee injury that derailed her transcendent rookie campaign, rounded into form. Newcomer Gift Monday shouldered the scoring burden with a team-high eight regular season goals. Kouassi came into her own as a goal-creating force, setting up strikes by Monday in both the quarterfinal against Louisville — a 3-1 shootout win following a 1-1 draw — and the 2-0 semifinal triumph over Portland.
“It’s just a testament to the way that we’ve approached this whole season as a team together,” McKeown said. “It’s not just one player on their own or one certain group on their own — it’s everyone coming together for the idea that we wanted to be back here.”
Saturday may have been the final game with Washington for Rodman, the 23-year-old spark plug who won a gold medal with the U.S. women’s national team at the Paris Olympics and, over the past five years, developed into the face of the Spirit and one of the NWSL’s marquee attractions. Out of contract at season’s end, Rodman emphasized throughout the week that she was focusing on the match amid reports of interest from other leagues and widespread discussion about the NWSL’s capacity for retaining top-tier talent.
Rodman began on the bench at PayPal Park as González rolled out the same squad that topped Portland last weekend at Audi Field. Gotham, the eighth seed that upended the top-seeded Kansas City Current and No. 4 Orlando in a Cinderella run, deployed a lineup that included U.S. regulars Lavelle, Emily Sonnett and Jaedyn Shaw, rookie of the year Lilly Reale, German goalkeeper Ann Katrin-Berger and decorated Spanish striker Esther González.
It took just five minutes for Gotham to put the ball in the net — Shaw picked out González for a tidy finish — but the strike was waved off for offside. The underdog controlled the early stages as a blistering Midge Purce cross called Kingsbury into action and Shaw rifled an enticing shot wide. Gradually, however, the Spirit found a rhythm while pressing in a 4-3-3 formation and shifting to a fluid 3-5-2 in possession. And both teams bore the brunt of a physical first half that saw Bethune, Lavelle and Purce slow to get up after absorbing heavy challenges.
The Spirit threatened 10 minutes into the second half, when Bethune teed up Santos with a deft flick and Sonnett lunged to block the point-blank bid. Two minutes later, Rodman appeared at midfield — sporting fresh aquamarine extensions — and checked in for Sofia Cantore to log her first significant minutes in five weeks. But this night belonged to a different U.S. national team star.
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