Aubrey Kingsbury smiled as she watched her Washington Spirit teammates celebrate before their fans after winning in the semifinals of the National Women’s Soccer League playoffs.
After leading the team to its quarterfinal win with two saves during the penalty-kick shootout, Washington’s goalkeeper and longest-tenured player needed only to make one save as her teammates carried the load in the semifinal win. Crediting team ownership and the coaching staff for their success, Kingsbury claimed the 2025 Spirit roster as the best.
“This is the best team I’ve ever played for by far,” she said. “I felt confident going into the preseason, honestly, that we would win the finals. So excited to be back and just have one more to go.”
Kingsbury and the Washington Spirit will take on Gotham FC in the NWSL Championship on Saturday. It is Washington’s second consecutive appearance in the finals, losing to Orlando last year in Kansas City, and fourth overall in franchise history.
This time around, Spirit players say, they are peaking at the right time.
“I feel that in these last two games has been, honestly, the best soccer we’ve played,” midfielder Croix Bethune said.
Washington arrived at the final after knocking out the Portland Thorns 2-0 in front of a sold-out crowd at Audi Field. The Spirit’s aggressive attack capitalized midway through the first half after Rosemonde Kouassi dashed through Portland’s defense on an 80-yard run before finding forward Gift Monday for the tap-in. Bethune capped off the win by intercepting an back pass to goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold and scoring on an open net.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence what we saw, because we’ve been building from the whole season, working very hard,” head coach Adrián González said on Tuesday. “Now, we are seeing the connections that we built, and I think it was a great team effort.”
Despite finishing the regular season in second place, Washington has had to contend with multiple injuries early in the year and multiple players going on pregnancy leave. Then, in May, then-head coach Jonatan Giráldez announced he would be leaving to coach OL Lyonnes in France.
Tara McKeown, who won NWSL’s Defender of the Year, recalled those times as moments when players came together to have “each other’s backs.” Between August and mid-October, Washington went on a 14-game unbeaten streak, which included seven victories across all competitions.
“There’s been times when we had, maybe, 14 players on the injured report, and the next player stepped up and got us through those games,” McKeown said. “Everyone has been involved with all the team wins and team losses this year, so just being together as a team throughout the whole year has gotten us to this moment.”
All eyes remain on Rodman
Meanwhile, the most pressing question entering the final has very little to do with the match. Forward Trinity Rodman’s contract ends after the championship. Washington owner Michele Kang said in March that the Spirit was “going to do everything in our power” to keep Rodman in D.C.
Now, the NWSL is involved. According to multiple reports, Kang and Rodman’s representatives are negotiating with commissioner Jessica Berman for a possible deal as European teams and neighbors DC Power FC of the Gainbridge Super League inquire on the 23-year-old’s services. Rodman will be looking to receive a pay increase after her current deal, reported to be $1.1 million over four years, ends.
Berman said on Thursday during her league address that it is important for the NWSL to keep its high-profile stars but was noncommittal on increasing the league’s salary cap, which limits how much teams can pay for their rosters.
“We want Trinity in the NWSL, and we will fight for her, and we are excited to see her compete in the championship on Saturday,” Berman said.
When asked about her future in Washington after the semifinal win, Rodman — who has been dealing with a MCL sprain injury since October — said her focus is to help Washington in the championship first before she figures out her future plans.
“For me, my focus has been winning this championship and the next steps come after that,” Rodman said. “But right now, my head is completely down and it has been so distracting being injured, and so that is all I can think about.”
Rodman has spent her entire career in Washington, becoming the youngest player to be drafted in NWSL history at the time when the Spirit selected her with the second overall pick in the 2021 College Draft. In 2025, the forward has been limited due to injuries to her back and knee, only playing 15 matches, scoring five goals and providing two assists.
Gotham-DC rivalry renewed
Washington will take on a Gotham side it knows too well. According to sports statistics outlet Opta, it will be the 44th time the two teams have met in all competitions, making it the most-played fixture between two NWSL teams.
This season alone, the Spirit and Gotham played each other three times, twice in the regular season and once in group play in the CONCACAF W Championship Cup. Washington has yet to beat its East Coast rival this year, failing to score in all three matches.
Gotham finished the season in eighth place, snatching the final playoff spot on the last day of the regular season. However, the Bats are no underdogs. In May, they captured the inaugural CONCACAF W Championship Cup. In the playoffs, they knocked out the top-seeded Kansas City Current and defeated the reigning champions, Orlando Pride, in the semifinals.
“They’ve done a great job also during the season, and they have a really good team, a lot of talent defensively, but also really good talent also on the attack,” Gonzalez said. “They are a great team, and they deserve to be there.”
Head coach Juan Carlos Amorós implements a possession-heavy style that will look to counter Washington’s pressing attack. Gotham features an array of international players (Ann-Katrin Berger and Esther González), U.S. women’s national team stars (Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett), and young upcoming talent (Jaedyn Shaw), some of whom were a part of its 2023 NWSL title run.
“I feel like when you play each other so many times, and it’s such great players going against each other, it makes the game even more exciting,” Bethune said. “We play them a lot to where each team might think they have the one-up… but it’s the championship game, so it could be a whole different ballgame.”
Each time Washington played Gotham this year, the Spirit were battling with injury concerns and missing players. This time, Gotham will have to deal with Washington’s most complete roster.
According to Bethune, that means Gotham is taking on a whole different Spirit team that is ready to win it all.
“We want to win and we want to be in the championship each year,” Bethune said. “Playoffs is great, but the end goal is to win the ring, and that’s what we want to do.”
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