On Wet, Soggy Night, Spirit and Royals Play to Scoreless Draw
The Washington Spirit and Utah Royals played to a scoreless draw on Wednesday evening in front of 2,400 fans at the Maryland Soccer Plex on a night in which the weather reeked havoc.
Barely a minute and a half into the match the weather alarm was sounded sending the teams to the locker room and the crowd to their cars. After a 90-minute delay play resumed and it didn’t take long for things to get heated up. In the 4th minute Ashley Hatch fired a shot towards the top of the net but was tipped over the crossbar by Royals keeper Nicole Barnhart.
The Spirit controlled play throughout much of the first half and had a number of chances including a shot by Paige Nielsen which went over the crossbar in the 43rd minute.
For the game the Spirit outshot the Royals 18 to 7, although both sides were credited with 2 shots on goal each.
The Royals had their best chance to score in the second half when in the 53rd minute Christen Press rocketed a shot at the goal which Spirit keeper Aubrey Bledsoe blocked and then followed that up with two other saves as the Spirit defense desperately tried in vain to clear the ball.
The one point earned with the draw gives the Spirit 22 points on the season, good enough for a tie for 6th place along with the Houston Dash.
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