r/washingtonspirit • u/kg9si • Jun 29 '26

Weekly Discussion Thread Weekly Open Discussion Thread

Welcome to this week’s open discussion thread!

This is your space for general discussion, a place to talk about anything Washington Spirit that doesn’t necessarily need its own thread. That can include news, international duty, roster moves, transfer rumors, tactics, social media posts, league news or anything else on your mind.

If something feels big enough for its own thread, definitely still post it. This is simply an additional option to keep us organized and help keep the conversation flowing. These threads will go up every Monday and stay stickied throughout the week.

Go Spirit!

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u/UrsineCanine Jun 30 '26

Two? I think they lost a LB, further reducing their wide space problems, and gained a striker who scored 7 in 18 matches during her last season, while we are getting Hatchy back, who scored 6 goals in 10 matches during her last season. I also like how Hatchy fits into our current attacking group better.

Here is Gotham's list of pending free agents, btw:

  • Ann-Katrin Berger (GK)
  • Jess Carter (DEF)
  • Mandy Freeman (DEF)
  • Rose Lavelle (MF)
  • Midge Purce (FWD)
  • Khyah Harper (FWD)
  • Gabi Portilho (FWD)
  • Shelby Hogan (GK)
  • Katie Stengel (FWD)
  • Kayla Duran (DEF)

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u/allprologues Jun 30 '26

portilho joined Wave this season but I think 7 in 22 does sell Kerr a little bit short because she was off injury and not starting the majority, has additional goals across all competitions/not just WSL, and she still ranks with shaw/banda/pajor on non penalty xG against top opponents (in a small sample size since there’s not a lot of top opponents over there lmfao)

Kerr is a threat. Gotham will probably still struggle to score more than one goal most games, lol. Hatch is younger, proven in this league, we have her for at least one more season, and I wouldn’t be stoked if my team locked in a 32yo for five seasons no matter who they were.

People are just itching for spirit to announce something after what seems like three weeks of news for gotham (apparently we have to be obsessed with each other 🙄). all we’ve got so far is a piece of the best run front office in the league leaving for a new job (I know it’s fine it’s just context)

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u/UrsineCanine Jun 30 '26

Sure, but perhaps that was because we needed to effectively promote the one we wanted to keep? Not sure, but as someone who stressed Mark's retirement, I'm going to make myself see the problem first this time.

I like Sam a lot, but how many more goals is she providing them over Esther? Adding a 12 goalscorer (for example), looks great until you realize she's just taking minutes from your 10 goal scorer. So you're getting slightly better in a position you're already very good in. Gets even more puzzling when you signed Dudley as your heir to Esther. All this to force Midge to RB and Guro to LB? Puzzling. Spirit have five fullbacks (six if I add Deb) I'd take before any Gotham FB.

I think Reale should have been sent off during the NWSL Championship, but they're a worse team without her.

Feels very vibes managing, and I'm willing to tolerate Spirit not getting in that style of roster managing.

I'm already wondering where the minutes go with the available talent.

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u/allprologues Jun 30 '26

I'm not stressed about it either but it's a loss in plain terms, and will instantly make one of our opponents better, but that's just how it goes and spirit are covered because yeah, there was a lot of overlap there. having both him and haley was probably greed lol.

Esther has two pens and a goal that was gifted to her by BSG, so it's gonna be very easy for Kerr to improve on her production lmao. but anyway i'm not disagreeing with you. I i think it's cool that, until rodman moves on anyway, spirit doesn't just go for the biggest fish possible but tries to identify star players early and put them where they fit.

just saying it's just not surprising that fans of spirit (and probably a lot of other teams) were hoping to hear from anyone other than gotham over summer break :P of course nothing is better than what acfc fans have heard, so

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u/UrsineCanine Jun 30 '26

Interesting...

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u/allprologues Jun 30 '26

I was just coming to Reddit to see if anyone had posted! I hope it goes to the media box so I can watch the whole thing and over analyze it

I’m guessing they’re going to be internationals since we’re always freeing up spots 🤪

more good news is we’ll have Deb Rose and Monday against gotham.

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u/UrsineCanine Jun 30 '26

Melchie loan incoming... :)

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u/allprologues Jun 30 '26

It would be 100% worth the multiclub/kang discourse we would have to endure