Washington Spirit sign two new players, come out with a new crest, and have players in USWNT camp

The Washington Spirit announced the signing of two new players yesterday, Ingrid Wells and Chantel Jones. Both Wells and Jones are U-23 National Team players and both of them were members of the 2008 U-20 World Cup team. Ingrid Wells is described by the Spirit's press release as a playmaking midfielder while Jones is a goalkeeper. The signing of Jones is especially important, since presumptive starting goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris may finish out her season at Duisburg in Germany before coming to the Spirit. Both of these players are somewhat local, with Wells having played college soccer at Georgetown University and Jones having played at the University of Virginia. This continues the Spirit's trend of signing local players, seemingly to allow the players to keep their cost of living down. There are also rumors of the Spirit signing Canadian international Candace Chapman, but there has been nothing official from the club yet.

The Washington Spirit have also announced a new crest, mere months after debuting the original version. The original crest, which was unveiled at the end of 2012, was fairly standard for US Soccer: a crest that had more in common with clipart from the 1990s than something that actually looked good. However, unlike US Soccer, the Washington Spirit changed their crest in the face of opposition to it; the new logo fits in well with the already established pantheon of D.C. sports logos, in a similar vein to what the Washington Nationals, Capitals, and Wizards use.

While new players are coming into camp, there are some who are absent. All three of the Spirit's allocated American internationals, Ali Krieger, Lori Lindsey, and Ashlyn Harris, are currently in National Team camp. The USWNT will take on Scotland on February 9 and February 13, with both matches being streamed on ussoccer.com. Tune in to hopefully see some Washington Spirit players start!

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