It’s been a chaotic week in DC and this extended to women’s soccer as well. Let’s take a look at how things went for the the USWNT, the Washington Spirit’s various loanees, and touch on some other developments:
NAIRN TRADED TO SEATTLE REIGN
Another popular player won’t be returning to the Washington Spirit next season after the team traded midfielder Christine Nairn to the Seattle Reign. In exchange for Nairn, the Spirit received three draft picks and Havana Solaun. Solaun is a promising midfielder but she has dealt with several injuries throughout her career. The Spirit also received the 3rd and 36th picks in the strong 2017 NWSL College Draft in addition to the Reign’s natural second round pick in 2018. The Spirit threw in the rights to goalkeeper Madalyn Schiffel, who was drafted by the Spirit last winter but signed with Norwegian club Avaldsnes IL instead.
Nairn, like several other players, wanted out. End of season team meeting went sour. Bad situation, despite run to final #nwsl
— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) November 10, 2016
Nairn is the second high profile player to leave Washington in the past few weeks. Ali Krieger was traded to the Orlando Pride earlier this month in exchange for Orlando’s spot on the allocation ranking order, which in the past has not been a particularly strong mechanism for acquiring talent.
DUNN ALSO CONSIDERING A MOVE
The reports of Washington Spirit and U.S. women’s national team forward Crystal Dunn moving to a different club keep increasing. On Thursday, The Washington Post’s Steven Goff tweeted again that Dunn is considering a move out of Washington. Earlier this offseason, Goff reported that the USWNT star is considering playing in France. During the friendly against Romania on Thursday, broadcaster Julie Foudy confirmed that Dunn had acknowledged the truth in those reports.
We’ll have more on a potential Dunn move in the near future.
USWNT CLOSE OUT 2016 SEASON
The USWNT closed out 2016 with a pair of decisive wins against Romania. On Thursday, the team beat Romania 8-1 and earned another win on Sunday. In both games, USA head coach Jill Ellis used a 3-4-3 formation as a way to break down Romania’s bunker. Ellis also used the pair of friendlies to test out less-capped players such as Casey Short, Lynn Williams, and Jess McDonald. Megan Rapinoe didn’t dress for either game.
SECOND WEEK OF W-LEAGUE
The Spirit’s Megan Oyster scored for the Newcastle Jets in the club’s 4-0 victory over Melbourne Victory. Washington GK Kelsey Wys made three saves and held the Victory to a shutout. Katie Stengel played in Western Sydney Wanderers’s 2-0 loss to Sydney FC. Enjoy this goal celebration from Syndey FC’s Leena Khamis. Melbourne City extended their regular-season winning streak to 14 games following their win against Canberra United.