{"id":48149,"date":"2023-10-15T21:21:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T01:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/?p=48149"},"modified":"2023-10-15T21:21:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T01:21:03","slug":"north-carolina-courage-crush-washington-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/10\/15\/north-carolina-courage-crush-washington-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Courage Crush Washington Spirit&#8217;s Playoff Hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">October 15 saw the National Women\u2019s Soccer League (NWSL) sides <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/10\/14\/washington-spirit-vs-north-carolina-courage\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">North Carolina Courage and the Washington Spirit<\/a> go head to head at Audi Field in the US capital. Ultimately the 1-0 result to the away team will see the Washington Spirit miss out on the playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>North Carolina Courage Crush the Playoff Hopes of the Washington Spirit<\/strong><\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud835\udc16\ud835\udc04&#39;\ud835\udc11\ud835\udc04 \ud835\udc08\ud835\udc0d \ud83d\udd12<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t miss out on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NWSL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@NWSL<\/a> Playoff action at WakeMed Soccer Park- get your tickets today \ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f\ud83d\udd17\ud83d\udc47<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NC Courage (@TheNCCourage) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheNCCourage\/status\/1713693114810990847?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 15, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much like the last time the two sides faced off in July, the Washington Spirit had an unfortunate run in with their North Carolina counterparts where they lost 6-0. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was because of the their previous encounter that the match had a sense of redemption about it for the Washington Spirit, being on home soil. Both teams came into the match with thirty points.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The game was full of twists and turns with several injury calls and a red card. In the first half, it was clear that the North Carolina Courage had found their offensive advantage as Manaka and Kerolin worked together, capitalizing on the right side of the pitch.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Trinity Rodman\u2019s Unfortunate Evening <\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The US National Women\u2019s Team (USWNT) player, Trinity Rodman often within a brief moment, would carry the ball down the field. However, the first half would see her receive a red card that could have spelled her absence from the playoffs had the Washington Spirit advanced.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nonetheless her red card still meant the temporary exit of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/09\/24\/nwsl-rating-changes-ea-fc-24\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">one of the league\u2019s best players<\/a>. It could be heard in the audience that many disapproved of this call impacting their star player.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After VAR review, Trinity Rodman has been awarded a red card<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WashSpirit\/status\/1713669100021354660?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 15, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rodman\u2019s absence was immediately felt, indeed, mere minutes after her exit from the pitch, Tyler Lussi scored the first and only goal of the match for North Carolina bringing the total score to 1-0. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Ashley Hatch and Oleymata Sarr Fill the Rodman Void<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It goes without saying that Rodman\u2019s red card left a void within the Washington Spirit offense. Three people in particular stood out following her departure, these were, Oleymata Sarr, and Ashley Hatch. This was shown with Hatch providing several assists to Sarr, culminating in an attempt on goal close to halftime as the two stood their ground on their home turf. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Kerolin\u2019s Exit and Its Impact<\/h3>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/10\/14\/washington-spirit-vs-north-carolina-courage\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Preview: Washington Spirit Vs. North Carolina Courage On Sunday<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much like Rodman, worry struck the North Carolina Courage when Kerolin was escorted off the pitch after being clipped by Dorian Bailey. Although it was another unexpected development, Manaka continued without her offensive partner. Shortly after, Brittany Ratcliffe would sub on for North Carolina, receiving a yellow card two minutes later, another blow for the side.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Caution was exercised by North Carolina as shown by the replacement of imperative match players such as Lussi and Manaka so as to conserve their energy and avoid injury.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Manaka \u27a1\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tyler_lussi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@tyler_lussi<\/a> for the opener \ud83d\udcaa <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vkg0hjMjzJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/vkg0hjMjzJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NC Courage (@TheNCCourage) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheNCCourage\/status\/1713669628126167535?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 15, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Things are looking up for the North Carolina Courage as they proceed to the playoffs and will now face NJ\/NY Gotham FC. On the other hand, the Washington Spirit will not have the same opportunity, and will work to improve their game tactics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports, of a Tyler Lussi Headshot, on October 15, 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 15 saw the National Women\u2019s Soccer League (NWSL) sides North Carolina Courage and the Washington Spirit go head to head at Audi Field in the US capital. Ultimately the 1-0 result to the away team will see the Washington Spirit miss out on the playoffs. North Carolina Courage Crush the Playoff Hopes of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4952,"featured_media":48187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2904,353,2910],"tags":[2438,27650,4264,2280],"class_list":["post-48149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-carolina-courage","category-nwsl","category-washington-spirit","tag-audi-field","tag-kerolin","tag-trinity-rodman","tag-tyler-lussi"],"modified_by":"Raheem Bashir, Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4952"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}