Queens, N.Y. (07\/15\/2026) \u2013 The Washington Spirit dropped Wednesday night\u2019s match to rival Gotham FC by a slim 0-1 margin\u00a0in the Queens Classic at Citi Field. The match set a\u00a0New York City women\u2019s sports record with 42,175 fans in attendance, the second-highest attendance in NWSL history.<\/p>\n
Gotham controlled possession through the opening 15 minutes of the match with a rate of 72%. The home side\u2019s attack landed a shot on frame in just the third minute of action, forcing a diving stop by Spirit goalkeeper Sandy MacIver. The Spirit\u2019s best chance of the night early on came in the 28th minute when defender Gabrielle Carle found an open look in the box that was saved by Gotham goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the 37th minute, Gotham broke through for the 1-0 lead after forcing a Spirit turnover. Gotham midfielder Rose Lavelle took possession and made a crafty move into the box before lofting a perfect shot over the reach of MacIver and just under the crossbar. Washington threatened an equalizer twice in first half stoppage time, first with an Andi Sullivan steal and shot on target and second with a Sullivan deep cross into the box for Trinity Rodman but both attempts were thwarted before halftime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Spirit struggled to put together attacking chances through the start of the second\u00a0half\u00a0but the visiting side\u2019s defending third stood strong to keep\u00a0the deficit at one.\u00a0MacIver kept charge of the\u00a0box\u00a0making several runs out to\u00a0loose\u00a0balls to prevent one-on-one chances for Gotham.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Washington subbed on Rebeca Bernal and Deborah Abiodun in the midfield and Gift Monday\u00a0and Claudia Mart\u00ednez\u00a0in the attack as it searched for an equalizer. The visitors managed four shots on target through the final minutes of the match, including\u00a0back-to-back from Mart\u00ednez\u00a0and Monday in stoppage\u00a0time\u00a0but Berger made key stops to\u00a0maintain\u00a0the advantage for Gotham until the final whistle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Next up, the\u00a0Spirit\u00a0will\u00a0head northeast to\u00a0Rhode Island for its inaugural meeting with Boston Legacy FC\u00a0on\u00a0Sunday,\u00a0July\u00a019.\u00a0The match will kick off at\u00a07\u00a0p.m. EDT and\u00a0air\u00a0on\u00a0Victory+.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
-NWSL Match Report-\u00a0<\/p>\n
Match:\u00a0Gotham FC\u00a0vs.\u00a0Washington Spirit\u00a0<\/p>\n
Date:\u00a0Wednesday,\u00a0July\u00a015, 2025\u00a0<\/p>\n
Venue:\u00a0Citi Field\u00a0(Queens,\u00a0N.Y.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kickoff:\u00a08\u00a0p.m. EDT\u00a0<\/p>\n
Weather:\u00a0Cloudy,\u00a0high-80s\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scoring Summary:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Goals\u00a0
\n1\u00a0
\n2\u00a0
\nF\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gotham\u00a0
\n1\u00a0
\n0\u00a0
\n1\u00a0<\/p>\n
Washington\u00a0
\n0\u00a0
\n0\u00a0
\n0\u00a0<\/p>\n
GFC\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Rose Lavelle\u00a0\u2013\u00a037\u2032\u00a0(assisted\u00a0by\u00a0Jaelin Howell)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lineups:\u00a0<\/p>\n
GFC:\u00a030 \u2013 Ann-Katrin Berger; 18\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Guro Reiten\u00a0(22 \u2013 Mandy Freeman, 78\u2019); 15\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Tierna Davidson; 6\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Emily Sonnett;\u00a023\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Midge Purce\u00a0(3 \u2013\u00a0Bruninha, 78\u2019); 11\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Sarah Schupansky\u00a0(20 \u2013 Sam Kerr, 64\u2019); 16\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Rose Lavelle; 7\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Jaelin Howell; 10\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Jaedyn Shaw; 9\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Esther Gonz\u00e1lez\u00a0(13 \u2013\u00a0Savannah McCaskill, 46\u2019);\u00a02\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Jordynn Dudley\u00a0(27 \u2013 Jess Carter, 34\u2019)<\/p>\n
Unused Substitutes:\u00a01\u00a0\u2013 Shelby Hogan;\u00a014\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Talia Sommer; 21 \u2013 Sofia Cook; 24 \u2013 Andrea\u00a0Kitahata<\/p>\n
WAS: 18 \u2013 Sandy MacIver; 14 \u2013 Gabrielle Carle (6 \u2013 Kate Wiesner, 64\u2019); 24 \u2013 Esme Morgan; 9 \u2013 Tara Rudd; 13 \u2013 Lucia Di Guglielmo (5 \u2013 \u00c9lisabeth Ts\u00e9, 83\u2019); 17 \u2013 Hal Hershfelt (20 \u2013 Deborah Abiodun, 78\u2018); 12 \u2013 Andi Sullivan (4 \u2013 Rebeca Bernal, 64\u2019); 10 \u2013 Leicy Santos; 2 \u2013 Trinity Rodman; 27 \u2013 Sofia Cantore (11 \u2013 Claudia Mart\u00ednez, 78\u2018); 19 \u2013 Rosemonde Kouassi (21 \u2013 Gift Monday, 64\u2019)<\/p>\n
Unused\u00a0Substitutes:\u00a028\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Sara Wojdelko;\u00a016 \u2013 Tamara Bolt;\u00a026 \u2013 Paige Metayer<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stats Summary:\u00a0GFC\u00a0\/\u00a0WAS\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shots:\u00a09\u00a0\/\u00a018<\/p>\n
Shots On Goal:\u00a04\u00a0\/\u00a09<\/p>\n
Saves:\u00a09\u00a0\/\u00a03<\/p>\n
Fouls:\u00a014\u00a0\/\u00a015<\/p>\n
Offsides:\u00a04\u00a0\/\u00a01<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Misconduct Summary:\u00a0<\/p>\n
WAS\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Gabrielle Carle\u00a0\u2013\u00a045+4\u2032 \u2013 Yellow Card<\/p>\n
WAS\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Hal\u00a0Hershfelt\u00a0\u2013 70\u2032 \u2013 Yellow Card<\/p>\n
WAS\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Gift Monday\u00a0\u2013 80\u2032 \u2013 Yellow Card<\/p>\n
WAS\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Tara Rudd\u00a0\u2013 86\u2032 \u2013 Yellow Card<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens, N.Y. (07\/15\/2026) \u2013 The Washington Spirit dropped Wednesday night\u2019s match to rival Gotham FC by a slim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-297413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}