Washington Spirit sustain top-two place amid roster churn as NWSL passes midseason

Washington Spirit are a top-two team for a third consecutive season in the National Women’s Soccer League, which is just past the midway point of its 14th regular season with 12 of 30 games remaining. With the business end of the season looming, the club’s short-term objectives are to maintain that consistency into the playoffs and to push for a first-place finish in the table or an NWSL Championship.

The NWSL’s reputation for parity and fluctuation across 14 seasons makes sustained runs uncommon, even though there have been multi-year dominances such as the North Carolina Courage finishing the regular season in first place for three consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2019 and winning the Championship twice in that span. Recent seasons have shown some teams — Gotham, San Diego, Kansas City, Orlando and Washington — frequently occupying playoff positions, but places inside the top eight have continued to shift; Gotham is one of three teams to beat Washington this season and moved ahead of them into first place this Sunday.

The Spirit have navigated notable personnel changes while remaining competitive: Croix Bethune has departed and now plays for Kansas City, and two key starters from last season’s championship run, Aubrey Kingsbury and Casey Krueger, are on maternity leave. Haley Carter, Washington’s president of soccer operations and a former player, coach and executive who most recently played a key role in Orlando Pride’s historic championship winning season in 2024, said: “Turnover is normal in this league, so we do not take continuity for granted.” She added: “We try to be thoughtful about who joins the club. When we sign a player or hire on the sporting side, fit is one of the first things we look at, because we are trying to build an environment and not just a roster.”

The club’s recruitment has included notable international firsts and promising youth: Sofia Cantore became the first Italian in the NWSL last June — she finished with four goals and one assist in 12 games, and has the same number this season — and the Spirit signed the league’s first Paraguayan, the 18-year-old Claudia Martínez, who has three goals in her rookie campaign. With the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations ongoing, Washington have six players representing Nigeria, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Burkina Faso and have been able to manage squad depth while those internationals are away.

In Kingsbury’s absence the 28-year-old Scottish goalkeeper Sandy MacIver has taken over and set a new team record for consecutive clean sheets (four), while ranking with the fourth-best save percentage in the league. Forward Trinity Rodman, described in the league as one of its most marketable players, has provided 13 goal contributions in 18 games, the most on the team this season; the article notes her ability to “press a backline, create space, take on defenders and link up with teammates such as Cantore or the Colombian midfielder Leicy Santos” as central to Washington’s form.

Rodman’s contract prompted a policy response from the league: the NWSL created a new “high impact player” policy to help keep her stateside, with the so-called Rodman Rule allowing teams to spend $1m outside the standard salary cap for players who meet certain criteria. Owner Michele Kang — who is involved in a $400m lawsuit with John Textor and owns three clubs (the Spirit, OL Lyonnes and London City Lionesses) — has pursued collaboration across her clubs; Carter described that cooperation as “one of the most exciting parts of what we are building” and said it “is more structured than people might assume”, with work shared “across medical, performance and technical departments” and through “shared themes, shared processes, and increasingly shared software platforms for talent identification, performance management, athlete wellness, and operational efficiency”.

Internationally, the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations group stage wraps on Thursday with the quarter-finals starting on Saturday in Morocco; the four winners of that round will qualify automatically for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil, while the four teams who lose will play off for two berths in the intercontinental playoffs. At the time of writing Cameroon, Morocco and Algeria have already qualified for the knockout stage. Malawi head coach Lovermore Fizili said: “The special thing is simple. These players have been together for almost four years. With the Chawingas participating, sometimes, maybe when they are busy with their clubs. The players, they gel together. They’ve been playing together.” Two-time NWSL MVP Temwa Chawinga is appearing in her first Wafcon for Malawi, who beat the reigning champions Nigeria in their opening game, and Chawinga scored her third against Egypt over the weekend.

Elsewhere in the women’s game, Manchester United and head coach Marc Skinner announced a mutual agreement to part ways on Monday ahead of the new WSL season; Skinner’s departure followed five years in the role and a record that included qualification for four finals and mixed reviews from the fanbase, reviving debate over the club’s level of investment in its women’s team voiced by Skinner and former head coach Casey Stoney. Last Friday evening Gianni Infantino announced that a plan to sell private stakes in FIFA’s events would not move forward after escalating pressure that included UEFA’s promise to boycott and statements from the Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf. Tom Garry reports United are set to appoint former Hearts manager Eva Olid to replace Skinner and also reports Barcelona’s record signing of Kerolin from Manchester City; Suzanne Wrack argues women’s football has been used as a pawn in Infantino’s tenure, while Matt Hughes has an exclusive on the WSL bringing back Sunday evening kick-offs and the start of the new WSL season is a month away with fixtures including an opener for London City Lionesses.

The remainder of the regular season and the playoffs will be the final proving ground for Washington’s season: despite turnover and the familiar chaos of the NWSL, the club’s challenge is to translate their current consistency into a top finish in the table or a run to the Championship.