2016 Washington Spirit season

Washington Spirit
2016 season
General manager	Chris Hummer
Head coach	Jim Gabarra
Stadium	Maryland SoccerPlex
NWSL	2nd (finals loss)
Top goalscorer	League: Estefania Banini (5); All: Estefania Banini (5)
Highest home attendance	5,750; (June 18 vs. Orlando Pride)
Lowest home attendance	2,930; (July 31 vs. Sky Blue FC)
Average home league attendance	3,782
Home colors	Away colors
	← 2015 2017 →

The 2016 season was Washington Spirit's fourth season, competing in the National Women's Soccer League, the top division of women's soccer in the United States.

Review

Building off the successes of the previous two playoff appearances the Spirit hired former Sky Blue FC manager, Jim Gabarra to replace Mark Parsons.^[3]

The Spirit would see their most successful season to date in 2016, being league leaders in the standings throughout most of the season. Only in the final week would the Spirit's loss at Chicago Red Stars finalize them as league runners-up.

Returning to the playoffs, the Spirit earned their first post-season victory in a revenge effort against Chicago Red Stars, who just a week earlier denied them the league title. The match was sent into extra time where Francisca Ordega scored the game-winner in the 111th minute. Advancing to the final for the first time in club history, the Spirit faced Western New York Flash in Houston, Texas.

The 2016 NWSL Final played to a 1–1 draw in regulation, and finished 2–2 at the end of extra time; both Spirit goals scored by Crystal Dunn. Going into penalties, Western New won 3–2 with only Christine Nairn and Katie Stengel slotting their penalties.^[4]

National Anthem Protest

The week prior to a match with the Spirit, Seattle Reign FC and U.S. women's national soccer team player Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem in a game on September 5, 2016, explaining that her decision was a "nod to Kaepernick and everything that he's standing for right now".^[5] Anticipating Rapinoe's protest, Spirit owner Bill Lynch, moved the national anthem's performance ahead of the Spirit-Reign match without warning or notice to occur before the players' appearances on the pitch. Jeff Plush, the league's commissioner, was present at the game and told reporters that he was unaware of Lynch's plans and disagreed with the act of moving the anthem's performance.^[6] The Spirit's players issued a joint statement also disagreeing with Lynch's decision to move the anthem without first consulting the team's players or coaches.^[7]

Club

Roster

The first-team roster of Washington Spirit.^[8]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
14	FW	NGA	Francisca Ordega
15	MF	USA	Joanna Lohman
17	FW	USA	Cali Farquharson
18	GK	USA	Kelsey Wys
19	FW	USA	Crystal Dunn (FP)
20	FW	USA	Cheyna Williams
22	DF	USA	Alyssa Kleiner
23	MF	USA	Tori Huster
24	DF	CMR	Estelle Johnson
57	FW	ESP	Laura del Rio

(FP) = Federation player

Team management

Owner	Bill Lynch
General Manager	Jim Gabarra
Head Coach	Jim Gabarra

Source:^[8]

Competitions

Preseason

On January 26, the Washington Spirit announced its preseason schedule.^[9]

March 19, Sat	Washington Spirit	3–0	University of Virginia	Boyds, Maryland
19:00 EDT (UTC-04)	Banini 3', 15' Stengel 38'	^{[p 1]}		Stadium: Maryland Soccerplex
Note: Played in three 30-minute periods.

March 26, Sat	Washington Spirit	2–0	Pennsylvania State University	Boyds, Maryland
16:00 EDT (UTC-04)	Dunn 47' Nairn 73'	^{[p 2]}		Stadium: Maryland Soccerplex Attendance: 3,000

Regular season

Sat Apr 16 1	Washington Spirit	1–0	Boston Breakers	Boyds, Maryland
7:00 p.m.	Lohman 3' Oyster 86'	^{[m 2]}		Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 3,578 Referee: Margaret Domka

Sun Apr 24 2	Sky Blue FC	1–2	Washington Spirit	Piscataway, New Jersey
	Hayes 66' (Lytle) O'Hara 74'	^{[m 3]}	Krieger 40' (Huster) Zadorsky 46+' Matheson 56' (Dunn)	Stadium: Yurcak Field Attendance: 2,571 Referee: Matthew Kreitzer

Fri Apr 29 3	Western New York Flash	0–3	Washington Spirit	Rochester, New York
	Eddy 80'	^{[m 4]}^{[m 5]}	Matheson 4' (Dunn), 72' (p.k.) Eddy 82' (o.g.)	Stadium: Sahlen's Stadium Attendance: 3,615 Referee: Matthew Franz

Sat May 7 4	Washington Spirit	0–0	Portland Thorns FC	Boyds, Maryland
	Oyster 17'	^{[m 6]}	Sonnett 28' Heath 59' 88' Horan 95+'	Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 3,615 Referee: Matthew Franz

Sat May 14 5	Washington Spirit	1–0	Houston Dash	Boyds, Maryland
	Lohman 39' (Nairn) Kleiner 66' Krieger 89'	Report		Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 3,545 Referee: Elvis Mahmutovic

Sat May 21 6	Portland Thorns FC	4–1	Washington Spirit	Portland, Oregon, U.S.
	Horan 27' (Heath) 76' Own Goal 31' (Kleiner) Heath 45' (Sinclair) Morris 78' (unassisted) 60' Sonnett 32'Nadim 61'	^{[m 7]}^{[m 8]}	Lohman 55' (Dunn) Nairn 61'	Stadium: Providence Park Attendance: 15,823 Referee: Ekaterina Koroleva

Fri May 27	Houston Dash	PPD	Washington Spirit	Houston, Texas
				Stadium: BBVA Compass Stadium

Fri Jun 10 7	Boston Breakers	1–1	Washington Spirit	Boston, Massachusetts
	Louise Schillgard 15' (pen.)	^{[m 9]}^{[m 10]}	Katie Stengel 13'	Stadium: Jordan Field Attendance: 4,007 Referee: Margaret Domka

Sat Jun 18 8	Washington Spirit	2–0	Orlando Pride	Germantown, Maryland
	Estefania Banini 9' (Alyssa Kleiner) Francisca Ordega 40' (unassisted)	^{[m 11]}		Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 5,750 Referee: Christopher Spivey

Sat Jun 25 9	Washington Spirit	1–2	Sky Blue FC	Boyds, Maryland
	Diana Matheson 77' (Estefania Banini)	^{[m 12]}	Raquel Rodriguez 8' (Leah Galton) Samantha Kerr 64' (Leah Galton)	Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 3,448 Referee: Leszek Stalmach

Sat Jul 2 10	Washington Spirit	2–0	FC Kansas City	Boyds, Maryland
	Francisca Ordega 79' Tori Huster 85'	^{[m 13]}		Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 3,036 Referee: Karen Abt

Sat Jul 9 11	Washington Spirit	2–0	Chicago Red Stars	Boyds, Maryland
	Estefania Banini 24' (Francisca Ordega) Francisca Ordega 47' Katie Stengel 74' (Christine Nairn)	^{[m 14]}^{[m 15]}	Alyssa Mautz 42'	Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 3,631 Referee: Brandon Artis

Sat Jul 16 12	FC Kansas City	2–3	Washington Spirit	Boyds, Maryland
	Frances Silva 69' (Erika Tymrak) Shea Groom 91+'	^{[m 16]}^{[m 17]}	Estefania Banini 48+' (unassisted), 83' (unassisted) Joanna Lohman 58' (unassisted)	Stadium: Swope Soccer Village Attendance: 2,013 Referee: Elvis Mahmutovic

Sat Jul 23 13	Sky Blue FC	1–0	Washington Spirit	Piscataway, New Jersey
	Leah Galton 24' (Erin Simon)	^{[m 18]}^{[m 19]}		Stadium: Yurcak Field Attendance: 1,552 Referee: Matthew Kreitzer

Sat Jul 30 14	Washington Spirit	3–1	Sky Blue FC	Boyds, Maryland
	Estefania Banini 27' (Joanna Lohman) Cheyna Williams 39' (Caprice Dydasco) Alyssa Kleiner 95+' (unassisted)	^{[m 1]}^{[m 20]}	Tasha Kai 33' (unassisted)	Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 2,930 Referee: Victor Rivas

Thu Aug 18 15	Houston Dash	1–2	Washington Spirit	Houston
	Christine Nairn 30' (pk), 63' (unassisted)	^{[m 21]}	Kealia Ohai 90' (Stephanie Ochs)	Stadium: BBVA Compass Stadium Attendance: 5,012 Referee: Christina Unkel
Note: rescheduled from May 27

Fri Aug 26 16	Orlando Pride	1–2	Washington Spirit	Orlando, Florida
	Toni Pressley 28' Sarah Hagen 71' (Cami Levin)	^{[m 22]}	Ali Krieger 35' Cheyna Williams 37' (Caprice Dydasco) Christine Nairn 57' (Katie Stengel)	Stadium: Camping World Stadium Attendance: 7,052 Referee: Marco Vega

Sat Sep 3 17	Washington Spirit	1–1	Western New York Flash	Boyds, Maryland
	Katie Stengel 64' (Crystal Dunn) Diana Matheson 85'	^{[m 23]}	Elizabeth Eddy 40' Samantha Mewis 86' (unassisted)	Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 4,527 Referee: Chris Spivey

Wed Sep 7 18	Washington Spirit	2–1	Seattle Reign FC	Boyds, Maryland
	Crystal Dunn 50+' Cheyna Williams 62'	^{[m 24]}	Kim Little 70' (penalty) Kendall Fletcher 74'	Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 3,039 Referee: Guido Gonzalez Jr.

Sun Sep 11 19	Seattle Reign FC	2–0	Washington Spirit	Seattle, Washington
	Yanez 27' Winters 78'	^{[m 25]}		Stadium: Memorial Stadium Attendance: 4,711 Referee: Greg Dopka

Sat Sep 24 20	Chicago Red Stars	3–1	Washington Spirit	Bridgeview, Illinois
	Christen Press 6' (Vanessa DiBernardo) Cara Walls 26' (Sofia Herta) Sofia Huerta 46' (unassisted)	^{[m 26]}	Crystal Dunn 47' (unassisted)	Stadium: Toyota Park Attendance: 3,712 Referee: Matthew Franz

Regular-season standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portland Thorns FC	20	12	5	3	35	19	+16	41	NWSL Shield
2	Washington Spirit	20	12	3	5	30	21	+9	39	NWSL Playoffs
3	Chicago Red Stars	20	9	6	5	24	20	+4	33
4	Western New York Flash (C)	20	9	5	6	40	26	+14	32
5	Seattle Reign FC	20	8	6	6	29	21	+8	30
6	FC Kansas City	20	7	5	8	18	20	−2	26
7	Sky Blue FC	20	7	5	8	24	30	−6	26
8	Houston Dash	20	6	4	10	29	29	0	22
9	Orlando Pride	20	6	1	13	20	30	−10	19
10	Boston Breakers	20	3	2	15	14	47	−33	11

Source: NWSL
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(C) Champions

Results summary


Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
20	12	3	5	30	21	+9	39	7	2	1	15	5	+10	5	1	4	15	16	−1

Last updated: September 11, 2016.
Source: Match reports

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Stadium	H	A	A	H	H	A	A	H	H	H	H	A	A	H	A	A	H	H	A	A
Result	W	W	W	D	W	L	D	W	L	W	W	W	L	W	W	W	W	W	L	L
Position^{[n 1]}	3	2	1	1	1	1	1	2	3	3	3	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	2

Updated to match(es) played on September 24, 2016. Source: Match reports
A = Away; H = Home; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss

NWSL Playoffs

Fri Sept 30 7:00 pm CDT NWSL Playoffs Semifinal	Washington Spirit	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Chicago Red Stars	Boyds, Maryland
19:00 UTC-05	Krieger 36' (Zadorsky) Nairn 57' Ordega 111' (Christine Nairn)	^{[m 27]}	Press 74' (Short) Johnson 120+2'	Stadium: Maryland SoccerPlex Attendance: 4,249 Referee: Danielle Chesky

Sun Oct 9 4:00 pm CDT 2016 NWSL Championship	Western New York Flash	2–2 (a.e.t.) (3–2 p)	Washington Spirit	Houston, Texas
16:00 UTC-05	Mewis 14' (Williams) Zerboni 84' Williams 124+' (McDonald)	Report	Dunn 9' (Oyster) 91' (Krieger) Wys 122+'	Stadium: BBVA Compass Stadium Attendance: 8,255 Referee: Christina Unkel
	Penalties
	Dahlkemper Hinkle McDonald Williams Mewis		Krieger Nairn Stengel Huster Matheson

Squad statistics

Source: NWSL

Squad statistics are of regular season only

N	Pos	Player	GP	GS	Min	G	A	PK	Shot	SOG	SOG%	Cro	CK	Off	Foul	FS	YC
10	F	Estefania Banini	13	9	888	5	1	0	23	12	52%	3	0	1	1	17	0
5	DF	Whitney Church	11	7	610	0	0	0	0	0	—	1	0	0	3	2	0
19	DF	Crystal Dunn	13	12	1142	2	5	0	37	14	38%	2	0	13	8	26	0
3	DF	Caprice Dydasco	12	12	1080	0	2	0	7	3	43%	4	0	1	8	6	1
17	DF	Cali Farquharson	16	8	561	0	0	0	10	2	20%	0	0	4	5	3	0
23	DF	Tori Huster	19	19	1665	1	1	0	13	4	31%	0	0	0	14	15	0
27	DF	Line Jensen	3	2	141	0	0	0	0	0	—	0	0	0	0	0	0
24	DF	Estelle Johnson	11	11	990	0	0	0	7	4	57%	0	0	0	3	1	0
22	DF	Alyssa Kleiner	17	12	1115	1	1	0	5	2	40%	2	0	1	10	8	1
11	DF	Ali Krieger	15	14	1267	1	0	0	6	2	33%	3	6	1	5	5	2
1	GK	Stephanie Labbe	8	8	720	0	0	0	0	0	—	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	MF	Joanna Lohman	20	17	1535	4	1	0	30	14	47%	1	0	1	27	15	1
8	MF	Diana Matheson	12	9	800	4	0	1	12	8	67%	0	25	2	3	9	1
7	MF	Christine Nairn	20	18	1619	3	3	1	37	13	35%	9	85	2	7	21	1
14	FW	Francisca Ordega	13	7	629	2	1	0	18	12	67%	0	0	8	10	13	1
4	DF	Megan Oyster	15	15	1340	0	0	0	3	0	0%	0	0	0	12	6	2
2	FW	Katie Stengel	19	10	928	4	1	0	20	10	50%	1	0	5	5	4	0
20	FW	Cheyna Williams	17	8	779	3	0	0	20	9	45%	0	0	9	10	9	1
18	GK	Kelsey Wys	12	12	1080	0	0	0	0	0	—	0	0	0	0	1	0
6	DF	Shelina Zadorsky	11	10	911	0	0	0	1	0	0%	1	0	0	8	4	2
Team total			20	—	19800	30	16	2	249	109	44%	27	116	48	139	165	13

N	Pos	Goal keeper	GP	GS	Min	GA	GA/G	PKA	PKF	Shot	SOG	Sav	Sav%
1	GK	Stephanie Labbe	8	8	720	7	0.88	0	1	71	30	24	80%
18	GK	Kelsey Wys	12	12	1080	14	1.17	2	2	163	75	61	81%
Team total			20	—	1800	21	1.05	2	3	234	105	85	81%

Transfers

In

No.	Pos.	Player	Transferred from	Fee/notes	Date	Source
12	FW	Katie Stengel	FC Bayern Munich	Signed	December 30, 2015	^[10]
20	FW	Cheyna Williams	Florida State	2016 NWSL College Draft - 1st Round	January 19, 2016	^[11]
17	FW	Cali Farquharson	Arizona State	2016 NWSL College Draft - 2nd Round	January 19, 2016	^[11]
1	GK	Stephanie Labbé	KIF Örebro DFF	NWSL Player Allocation and trade for DaCosta	February 2, 2016	^[12]
6	DF	Shelina Zadorsky	Vittsjö GIK	NWSL Player Allocation	February 2, 2016	^[12]
22	DF	Alyssa Kleiner	Portland Thorns FC	Trade for Reynolds	February 2, 2016	^[13]
14	DF	Line Jensen	Fortuna Hjørring	Signed	July 13, 2016	^[14]

Out

No.	Pos.	Player	Transferred to	Fee/notes	Date	Source
17	MF	Verónica Pérez	Canberra United		September 17, 2016	^[15]
12	DF	Josephine Chukwunonye	Vittsjö GIK	Waived	December 22, 2015	^[16]
25	FW	Ngozi Okobi	Vittsjö GIK	Waived	January 6, 2016	^[17]
2	DF	Katherine Reynolds	Portland Thorns FC	Trade for Kleiner	February 2, 2016	^[13]
16	FW	Tiffany Weimer	FC Kansas City	Waived	March 31, 2016	^[18]
22	DF	Arianna Romero	Seattle Reign	NWSL Distribution Draft	March 31, 2016	^[19]
20	FW	Hayley Raso	Portland Thorns FC	Waived	April 11, 2016	^[20]
22	MF	Amanda DaCosta	Chicago Red Stars	Trade for draft pick and Labbé	April 16, 2016	^[21]
28	DF	Jennifer Skogerboe	FC Slovácko			^[22]

Honors and awards

NWSL Yearly Awards

NWSL Team of the Year

Team	Position	Player	Ref.
Second XI	Defender	Ali Krieger	^[23]
Second X1	Forward	Crystal Dunn	^[24]

NWSL Player of the Month

Month	Player	Month's Statline	Ref.
July	Estefanía Banini	4 goals; Spirit 4-1-0 in July	^[25]

NWSL Weekly Awards

NWSL Player of the Week

Week	Result	Player	Ref.
13	Won	Estefanía Banini	^[26]

NWSL Goal of the Week

Week	Result	Player	Ref.
2	Won	Ali Krieger	^[27]
13	Won	Estefanía Banini	^[28]
16	Won	Christine Nairn	^[29]

References

Match reports (preseason)

Match reports (regular season)

Notes

External links

Official website

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