NWSL 2023: Where Washington Spirit must improve to compete for the championship – scout report

Washington Spirit are having a positive NWSL regular season so far with six wins, eight draws, three losses, and 26 points in total, holding the fifth spot with the same number of points as Gotham FC and only three points separating them from the top of the standings where Portland Thorns are at the moment.

This can be considered a noticeable improvement compared to last season, in which they finished at the 11^th spot with just 19 points. However, Washington Spirit lifted the Championship trophy in 2021 after beating Chicago Red Stars in the final and succeeding in eliminating tough teams like OL Reign and North Carolina Courage in the playoffs.

Washington Spirit do not have to finish at the top of the standings in the regular season to win the Championship. Finishing first or second allows those teams to automatically play in the playoff semi-finals and avoid the first round. Yet, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have the advantage of lifting the title. Washington Spirit know this very well since they finished third in the regular season and won the title in 2021 after passing through the first round, the semi-finals, and the final.

This season, Washington Spirit still have the opportunity to battle for the top two spots, especially with teams like San Diego Wave and North Carolina Courage, knowing that things can change very quickly for these teams following just one or two losses because of the actual small gap between the number of points separating the teams in the standings.

In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will be shedding light on Washington Spirit’s convincing results and tactics so far in the NWSL while looking at how they can improve their performances even further to get more wins and fewer draws. The analysis will also examine how Washington Spirit can be more compact defensively and sustain this compactness for the remaining games.

Formations and tactical ideas

From a defensive point of view, the team looks solid overall and do not concede more than 1.67 goals on average, as they win 59.3% of the defensive duels and 51% in sliding tackles. Goalkeepers like Aubrey Kingsbury and Nicole Barnhart make the difference in goal since they bring a lot of experience and talent and often contribute to finishing the match without conceding goals, thanks to their saves.

Kingsbury will more likely be the one to get more playing time during the upcoming period. Yet, Barnhart’s extensive experience will significantly help the team on critical occasions, even on a psychological level, when she is on the bench. Mark Parsons often relies on Dorian Bailey as a right-back, Sam Staab, Tara McKeown, or Jordan Thompson at times, and Gabrielle Carle on the left flank.

In midfield, the organisation often changes because Parsons alternates between the 4-3-1-2 and the 4-2-3-1 formation this season, even though he kept using the latter formation during the last few games. He sometimes uses Andi Sullivan, former Bayern Munich’s Amber Brooks and Paige Metayer while usually relying on a midfield duo combining two of these three players to guarantee playmaking support and defensive duties. He uses Sullivan, Brooks, or Metayer and Inès Jaurena as three midfielders to ensure more stability.

Upfront, Parsons has some reasonably good options to use in attack, and he alternates between the reliance on wingers plus a playmaker and a striker and the usage of an advanced playmaker with two strikers. Lately, the 4-2-3-1 seems to work better with the team as it allows the attacking players more freedom in movement, play wide, and have different solutions for scoring. Some talented and powerful wingers like Trinity Rodman, Ouleymata Sarr, who had experiences at PSG, Lille, and Bordeaux, and Camryn Biegalski, who has been a very convincing winger this season.

In addition to these players, Parsons believes in young players and is giving chances to Chloe Ricketts as an advanced playmaker, especially when the team’s most impactful player, Ashley Sanchez, is not 100% in form. Ashley Hatch, however, is the only natural striker in this team, and although she is a significant player, she sometimes doesn’t get enough support. The experience of using Sanchez as a playmaker and both Rodman and Hatch as strikers can be a very successful one. However, it was not used enough times since Parsons preferred to resort to the 4-2-3-1.

What to improve attacking-wise?

Washington Spirit will have to exploit their strengths a bit further in attack since they have some of the best players in the league in their positions, and here we are mainly talking about Sanchez, Rodman, and Hatch. These players can always make a difference and should be used more extensively yet intelligently to help the team score more.

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