NWSL 2022: How Washington Spirit avoided a San Diego Wave comeback – tactical analysis

Washington Spirit met San Diego Wave for NWSL matchday 17 at Audi Field and the match ended with a Washington Spirit 4-3 win. It was one of the most entertaining games of this NWSL season so far as it witnessed a festival of goals, a great San Diego Wave comeback, and a goal at the last seconds of the match for Washington Spirit to win the three points and prevent San Diego Wave from getting away with a draw that could have been the fairest result to this match based on both teams’ performances.

Washington Spirit needed this win a lot since they need to collect the most possible number of points in the upcoming games in order to battle for a playoff place. With this win, they are now holding 10^th place and they will need to work a lot more in order to achieve their seasonal goals.

On the other side, San Diego Wave couldn’t dream of a better start to their NWSL debut season since they are actually holding the third spot with 31 points and just one point separates them from Kansas City who are holding the top spot, even though the latter are yet to play a match in comparison to San Diego Wave. This means that San Diego Wave will not have problems guaranteeing a spot in the playoffs especially if they continue winning points. They also have the possibility to qualify directly to the semi-finals if they finish at one of the top two spots.

In this tactical analysis article, we will cover both teams’ attacking performances and explore how both teams were able to score many goals while also pointing out their defensive errors and the mistakes they made in terms of tactics in general.

Lineups

But first, the analysis will begin with the introduction of lineups. Albertin Montoya, Washington Spirit’s interim head coach, preferred to start the match according to the 4-2-3-1 formation with Aubrey Kingsbury as a goalkeeper, Camryn Biegalski, Amber Brooks, Sam Staab and Anna Heilferty in defence, Jordan Baggett, Julia Roddar as central midfielders, Trinity Rodman and Tara McKeown as wingers while Ashley Sanchez was the advanced playmaker behind Ashley Hatch who played as a striker.

For the visitors, Casey Stoney, San Diego Wave’s head coach and former Manchester United Women head coach, used the 4-2-3-1 formation as well with Kailen Sheridan as a goalkeeper, Madison Pogarch, Kaleigh Riehl, Naomi Girma and Kristen McNabb in defence, Isabella Briede, Emily van Egmond as central midfielders, Kelsey Turnbow and Jaedyn Reese Shaw as wingers and Katie Johnson as an advanced playmaker just behind the former Tottenham Hotspur player, Alex Morgan, who was the team’s striker.

Washington Spirit’s convincing performance

Washington Spirit didn’t start the match in the way they wanted as they conceded a goal in the sixth minute due to poor marking inside the box. Van Egmond was able to cross the ball perfectly towards the direction of Shaw’s penetration while the latter’s direct marker wasn’t aware of Shaw’s movement and didn’t follow her or attempt to intercept the cross. This individual defensive error led to conceding the first goal of the match as Shaw knew how to finish the action very well despite the difficulty of the execution of that volley.