Much of the focus of the women’s soccer world will be squarely on Pittsburgh where the World Cup winning United States team will be together for the first time since beating Japan in the final. But there is an important NWSL match as well which will offer some enjoyable Sunday evening viewing.
Sunday
Washington Spirit (7-5-4) at Chicago Red Stars (7-2-7)
8:30 pm EDT, Benedictine University Sports Complex
Watch: Youtube
Series: Spirit lead, 4-2-1
Points of Interest: They tried to do this one in May but could not play long enough for an official match before storms rolled in and forced it to be postponed. The makeup has high stakes even without the national team players (who were not there for the first try either) as the result could well give one team a home semifinal while leaving the loser in a bit of a lurch. A year ago the Spirit won all three matches against the Red Stars and that was the difference between making the playoffs and sitting them out. Both teams should be okay without their U.S. players. Crystal Dunn figures to get a call-up at some point but this go-round is just the World Cup team. The Red Stars are the deepest team in NWSL. They also like to high press which is something that has troubled the Spirit in recent weeks.