They were 30 seconds away from a championship.
Even when the referee curiously added four minutes to a 15-minute extra-time session, the talented, experienced Washington Spirit nearly had their hands on the trophy. The young, fiesty Western New York Flash had shown through the playoffs that they could neutralize skill with strength, turning a ballet into a boxing match, but the magnificent Crystal Dunn had given the Spirit the lead for the second time.
The trophy would cap a long climb from the depths of the NWSL. The Spirit debuted in 2013 with a young roster overwhelmed by other teams’ veterans. Mark Parsons, an energetic young Englishman promoted from reserve-team coach midway through that first season, shrewdly rebuilt the first team with experienced role players and a couple of stars, guiding the Spirit to two straight playoff appearances. The club also saw plenty of success at the reserve and youth levels. Parsons left for Portland, but the Spirit brought in Jim Gabarra, who had led the Washington Freedom throughout the club’s existence, to fine-tune the team and cruise through the 2016 season, all the way to a 2-1 lead in the 124th minute of the playoff final.
But since that time, things have been either bad or puzzling …
- A defensive lapse gifted the Flash an equalizer
- The Spirit collapsed in penalty kicks to lose the final
- A post-game examination confirmed that defender Caprice Dydasco had torn an ACL, the second key player for the team (soon to be three) to suffer the devastating injury
- Plans to launch two Development Academy programs hit a few snags
- The revolving door in the front office began to spin even faster
Most worrying for Spirit fans was a player exodus. In order: leading scorer Estefania Banini (to Spanish club Valencia), captain and hometown hero Ali Krieger (traded to Orlando), midfield sparkplug and set-piece specialist Christine Nairn (traded to Seattle), promising young defender Megan Oyster (traded to Boston), 2015 league MVP Dunn (to English club Chelsea), original Spirit player and Canadian great Diana Matheson (traded to Seattle).
And the Spirit got little in return with the exception of the Oyster deal, thanks to the Breakers’ insistence on shedding veterans as if the club were some sort of science-fiction dystopia. In other deals, the Spirit got inexperienced players, low-round draft picks and a prime spot in the heretofore-unknown “Distribution Ranking Order”.
Spirit management, though, sees no cause for alarm.
“Every new season brings an evaluation process and a plan to improve,” Gabarra said. “That in itself is always an exciting and somewhat unpredictable task.”
Club president Chris Hummer also stresses the positive. The gameday experience at the Maryland SoccerPlex, which has a gorgeous grass pitch but not much in terms of fan amenities, will get a boost with new food vendors and bathroom options, two items Hummer says fans stressed in a postseason survey.
He also says ticket sales are steady, while acknowledging some fan unrest, and insists that the team can still play at a high level.
“Some fans are certainly upset that certain players have left, a few have cited it as a reason not to buy season tickets, but we can’t control that,” Hummer said. “Winning is always the best way to sell tickets, and this will be a strong team.”
The Spirit Squadron, the team’s boisterous supporters group, is still supportive but also concerned.
“Are we disappointed that the players we’ve become accustomed to seeing on the field are gone? Absolutely,” said Megan Wesson of the Spirit Squadron. “However, there is nothing we can do about the choices made, and the players that are on this roster are our focus
“There has definitely been decline in interest and membership. Some of our core group were and are upset at how this offseason has gone down, and feel they needed to step away. There will be a drop in our numbers, and in our season ticket holders.”
But even before the core players’ departures, the club was dealing with unrest with players and fans.
Late in the season, club management decided to prevent Seattle’s Megan Rapinoe from kneeling during the national anthem as she had done elsewhere. The Spirit played the anthem while players were still in the locker rooms, eliminating the possibility that Rapinoe might take a knee in public. Fans immediately cried foul, and players took the unusual step of issuing a statement expressing disappointment with their owner’s actions.
Pressed by a reporter after the game, Rapinoe accused Spirit owner Bill Lynch of being homophobic, a charge recently denied by Spirit player and gay rights activist Joanna Lohman.
But the anthem controversy wasn’t the lone crack in the Spirit’s foundation. The Spirit’s on-field success through the season belied the fact that 2016 was a year of major transition. Gabarra replaced Parsons, bringing a wealth of experience and prior success in Washington but not the same exuberant style of his predecessor. Also, Hummer returned to the club after two years off, and chief operating officer Ashlee Comber departed.
Sources close to the club point to few specific flashpoints other than the anthem incident. But the mix of personalities was simply different than it had been. And Gabarra had the difficult task of juggling playing time and roles among one of the league’s deepest rosters.
Meanwhile, the Spirit’s strong foothold in youth soccer was eroding. During the season, the club announced it would field two programs in the new girls’ Development Academy, stretching to cover deep talent pools from Baltimore to Northern Virginia. The Virginia program would be partnered with large, successful youth clubs such as Loudoun, Arlington and Braddock Road.
By last month, those relationships had fallen apart. Two days after local site Black and Red United confirmed that dissolution, the Spirit announced a new partnership with a smaller club, Reston. But even there, local backlash has arisen over field redevelopment that would help the project take root, though Hummer says the field in question isn’t essential.
Still, the Spirit’s Academy plans are ambitious, including a goal of getting rid of player fees in the near future. This week, the Spirit hired longtime D.C. United Academy coach Tom Torres to oversee its Virginia program. And Hummer says these plans won’t strain the club’s resources.
“Quite the opposite,” Hummer said. “Many of our sponsors are stepping up and are very excited that we’ll be working with 160 or so of the most elite players for 100 miles in any direction. Every dollar of support or trade for goods/services we gain there reduces the amount the program will cost. The DA is not a profit center for us, but it won’t be a loss either. The dues collected will equal the expenses, and over time we’ll continue to find ways to reduce or cover the expenses to shift the burden off the families as much as possible. ‘Free by 5’ is our goal, as in we want to be a $0 fee system within 5 years.”
Gabarra, like Hummer, has plenty of experience with youth soccer in the area. After the WUSA folded in 2003, Gabarra remained with the Washington Freedom the rest of the decade, spending the five years without a top-flight pro league fielding a team in exhibitions and lower leagues while building relationships with local youth clubs.
“The youth soccer landscape for girls in our country is facing a structural change that will result in some difficult times,” Gabarra said. “I believe that starting a Developmental Academy for girls is the right thing to do. In Northern Virginia, the Spirit worked hard to create partnerships that would benefit not only the Spirit’s DA but also partner clubs. It has been a rollercoaster ride with all the positioning and posturing of clubs but we are making progress. I believe that the pro team connection with our DA differentiates it from all other DA and ECNL clubs in the region.”
So the Spirit will head into 2017 hoping that big plans for the future will eventually overtake the disappointment of coming so close to a championship and then dismantling the senior team’s core. Fans hope so, too.
“The way we see it, we have to work hand in hand with the management,” Wesson said. “We may not see eye to eye on every decision, but they are part of this team. Their opinions don’t reflect ours, and we may be super frustrated, but as of right now we don’t have plans to revolt. We’re here for the players.”
- Disclaimer: The reporter has written an unofficial book about the Washington Spirit’s first season in 2013, and he has written in the past for SoccerWire, a site owned by Spirit president Chris Hummer.
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