Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman admitted that she “definitely didn’t perform” in the NWSL Championship final, where her team fell to Gotham FC by 1-0. Rose Lavelle’s goal in the 80th minute made the difference in the match. Rodman, who has been recovering from a medial collateral ligament sprain in his right knee for the last month, started the match on the bench, but came on as a substitute in the 57th minute. His performance was unremarkable and he failed to take any shots during the 33 minutes he was on the field.
When asked about the state of his knee, Rodman replied that “it felt great”, but then admitted that he was far from being in top form. This was the second consecutive year that Rodman played in the final dealing with an injury.
Gotham wins the NWSL championship after a series of magical moments. The defeat in the final weighed heavily on the Spirit. Rodman couldn’t hold back the tears after the match.I think, naturally, having only nine minutes before a final isn’t ideal. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I still don’t feel like myself tonight, which sucks. I feel like this is the second year I’ve reached a final without feeling like myself. So it makes me sad. But yes, for my part, I just tried to go out there and do what I could. I definitely didn’t give up.
Trinity Rodman
The question now is whether Rodman has played her last game in the Spirit uniform, or even in the NWSL. It has been reported that she has lucrative offers from England, as well as one from the USL Super League. When asked if the defeat would influence her decision about her future, she said: “No, all teams lose”. The match was intense from the start, with dominant defenses and few scoring opportunities. Lavelle’s magic was crucial in breaking the tie. Substitute Bruninha was key in assisting the American player. Just before the goal, Washington midfielder Hal Hershfelt suffered a leg injury and received treatment on the sideline before returning to the match. Spirit coach Adrian González admitted that, in retrospect, he should have substituted Hershfelt.It was sad, and I think you obviously have your team throughout the year, but sometimes you just need your external supporters and Ben is that for me. So I was crying. I’m sad. It sucks and it’s not just that we lost a football game. It’s all the work we put into it and it’s good to get that reward at the end, but at the end of the day we can still celebrate because we did a lot.
Trinity Rodman
Goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury, who was on the Spirit team that lost the 2024 final, said that losing a second final in two years “hurts the same.” But she praised Lavelle’s goal.Obviously, we were receiving information that [Hershfelt] wanted to continue and was trying, so obviously the message was that she was about to start. Obviously, it took perhaps more time than we expected, but a player like her always wants to play, and I imagine that in a final you always want to play, and you don’t want to be substituted. But these are circumstances we have to learn from. But obviously she wanted to be with the team and with that, obviously now we can say that maybe the substitution was late, but she was trying to push herself and that’s the only reason.
Adrian González
I think it’s a big shock because this group completely believed we were going to win. There really wasn’t a scenario where we weren’t lifting that trophy today. So yeah, it definitely hurts. I think it was a great final, it came down to a moment of brilliance from Rose Lavelle, and yes, I’m very proud of the season we’ve had, the way we played. But a little short on the day.
Aubrey Kingsbury
