First off, thanks for reading. I'm looking forward to this.

Just to set expectations here a little bit: I'm not intending these newsletters/posts to be game recaps. There are plenty of people who do great work on that beat. I'm going to try to find a thing or two that I find interesting each game (or every few games) - whether it's a tactical wrinkle or something in the advanced numbers - and dig into that. My hope is that it'll give me a better understanding of what's going on with the Spirit, and by writing it down, it will prove interesting to you too.

Now, on to the soccer.

Bev Yanez's Racing Louisville plays in a pretty straightforward way: they want to press their opposition, win the ball, and play the forward in a direct manner. If that first part doesn't happen, they're happy to sit deep, absorb pressure, and then attack in a direct manner when they do get the ball back. It's a style that has given Washington - and, to be fair, lots of other NWSL teams - trouble. Friday night was more of the same. Despite dominating possession, the Spirit conceded twice, both in situations one would describe as against the run of play. But Washington fought back, ultimately splitting the points with Louisville.

Something I've been thinking about since then, outside of shot stopping or rest defense, is how Washington's manager Adrián González chose to approach the matchup with Racing, specifically his choice at striker. He opted to start Sofia Cantore over Gift Monday. And Cantore paid that decision making off, scoring an absolute banger of a goal in the 51st minute.

After the game, when asked about the decision, González said, "Today with Sof[ia Cantore], we wanted to have that positioning between center backs and sometimes dropping and getting into the box."

Cantore provides a slightly different profile to Monday. She might not be the same scoring threat in the box that Monday is but she offers a little bit more on the ball, both dribbling and passing, two things the Spirit would need to break down a deep-lying Louisville defensive shape.

As the team adapts to a post-Croix Bethune world, having another player offering some low-block lock picking, either on the ball or with off-the-ball movement makes sense. Cantore can play across a front three but could be the preferred starting striker option against opposition intent on ceding possession and daring Washington to create scoring opportunities in tight spaces.

But Monday provides a different, but also valuable, threat in the box against a compact defense which was evident on Friday night, too. She enjoyed a breakout season in 2025 because she demonstrated an ability to consistently take shots from dangerous locations. It sounds simple but it's the most important thing a striker can do. And Gift Monday was very good at it.

Monday made an impact on Friday's game, with her attacking gravity playing a direct role in the Spirit's equalizer. She made a run into the six-yard-box, drawing the attention of Louisville's center backs as Rose Kouassi picked up the ball on the right side of the box, leaving Leicy Santos room to receive a pass near the penalty spot and score. Without Monday's run, and Louisville's central defenders seeing that it was Monday making it, Santos' goal is a much tougher proposition.

Given the Spirit's surplus of attacking talent, González will have to make tough choices throughout the season but there will almost certainly be plenty of minutes for both Cantore and Monday in 2026. Moving forward, I'll be interested to see how and against whom González chooses as a starting striker. It just might tell us something about how he views the opposition and looks to maximize what he can in the attacking game plan.