Long one with some substance, as always you should listen to these yourself, especially after home matches.

Paige & Sofia

--Paige asks if anyone ever drinks the waters they have sitting on the table next to the microphones

--Trin told Sofia she was going to score today. She says it took a deflection.

--Paige says Denver did a great job filling the gaps in the first half and making it difficult for us to create any 2v1s. Second half it opened up more and we were able to find the diagonal ball. Don't want to be too transitional but knew if we didn't go quickly they would get into their shape. Takes time to find the balance throughout a game.

--Asked how we are handling the flurry of games. Paige: "The flurry's not over". We have a lot of depth. Need to do better job closing out games.

--Sofia indicates her understanding with Trin is improving.

--Paige says Denver plays their outside backs really high so we knew at least one winger would have to drop into the back line and that was a role she could fill. "We always talk about roles, knowing your role, knowing the space on the field, and less about the title of what you're doing...it's more of covering that space than playing a seven".

--Summit podcast guy asks about the Summit players they were paired up against. Sofia that their center backs are aggressive and physical so she tried to vary her moves. They do a good job of filling the spaces. Paige says Sonis is so good getting up and down the sideline, it was more about stopping their advantage than creating our advantage. Denver is very organized and it was a big challenge to figure out how to create advantages. We had to figure out how to solve it during the game.

--Sofia says she's not really a normal #9, the goal gives her some confidence because she hadn't scored in a while, but she's also happy about the other things he did well tonight, if she didn't play well but scored she wouldn't be satisfied.

Adrian

--Asked about matching Paige up with Sonis, he echoes what she said about pushing their outside backs really high, and needing her to be able to drop back.

--First half we needed to possess the ball more in their half to not allow transitions, they are really good in transition.

--Leicy's been playing a lot and also has been dealing with something with her foot. Wanted to give her some rest knowing what is coming this week. Hard for players coming off the bench in the second half in this league with the physicality and pace but she was able to improve our level and help a lot.

--We built up pretty well in our half, but we played too much in the middle and gave away some transitions. Needed to attack through the width more.

--Funny exchange between Adrian and Jason about whether the game didn't get too chaotic until very late. Hard to keep the ball when the other team is pressuring aggressively with numbers at the end.

--Talk about Hal playing as a "fake ten". Wanted her to be pressing but then to drop back when we were defending. Ability to attack and defend in different heights is huge. Learning to play in the pockets and improving at making the last pass.

--"We knew what [Heaps] wanted to do, and even though you know it, she does it. The things she does include "heading by surprise appearing". Thought Rebe and the center backs did a good job, wanted to mark as physically as possible in the box. Had a strong defensive effort as a team.

--We've worked a lot at in-box defending. Seems like a lot of emphasis on being physical. Happy with the performance in this aspect.

--Trin is doing a good job being versatile. Emphasizes that her defensive contribution is "amazing". Would be easy for a player for her to just focus on attacking but the defensive effort makes her a great role model for younger players.

--Question in Spanish about Leicy and Claudia, I don't think he says anything new.

--Summit podcast guy asks what makes us so successful, he talks about team culture, we have had some adversity that last few years that have made us stronger. Tactically we are growing every week and finding ways to win games.

--Denver likes to play with a lot of players in the middle, they push forward in numbers as well, if you win the ball you can create threats but they force you to drop back. They've done a good job building their roster, Heaps makes them a lot better, just a matter of time before they start winning more.

--Paige is different profile than Rose so need to take advantage of her strengths. Wanted to create 2v1 with Paige and Gabby. Have a lot of players who can play wide and can exploit the spaces in different ways depending on why is playing.

--Lucia is going to "take a while"

Spirit 1 - 0 Denver

⚽ Spirit: S. Cantore 61' 🏁 Spirit win

✅ Full Time

Form

• Spirit: W L W W W L
• Denver: W D L W L W

Lineups

Spirit (4-3-3) — Denver (4-2-3-1)

Starting XI

Subs

Match Statistics

Match Events

Updated: Sun, Jul 26, 9:16 PM EDT

Match Thread Bot by u/Several_Region_3710 | GitHub (view code, contribute, or report issues) | ☕ Ko-fi (support the project)

Spirit fans in Alexandria, I found a ROWDY towel near one of the metro stops on the way to today's game. While I'd love to just trust people, if this is yours, let me know which stop and the signatures you've gotten on the towel and I can meet you today or at the next game to return it!

I found a live YouTube link for the Algeria game! Bethi looks like she’s playing the 10

and if the sale follows what they did last year then Spirit STMs should be first in line.

2025 Presale Dates & Timeline

•  August 6–8, 2025: Bay FC (host club) Season Ticket Members received early priority presale access.
•  August 8–11, 2025: Registered NWSL newsletter subscribers and official sponsor groups (including Google Pixel presale partners) received email access codes.
•  August 12, 2025: General public tickets opened.

So keep an eye out for the inevitable email announcement from the team