The Spirit finished the 2024 NWSL season as the runner-up in the Championship. Washington felt the heartbreak again this year as they finished the season with a loss in the 2025 NWSL Championship. 

Head Coach Jonathan Giráldez took over the helm midway through 2024, and the 2025 season was set to be his first full season with the club. On June 2nd, after starting with 6 wins, 3 losses and a draw, it was announced that Giráldez would be the head coach of OL Lyonnes ahead of their 2025-26 season starting in August. 

In the same release, the club promoted Adrián González to head coach. González coached the club in the first half of the 2024 season until Giráldez wrapped up the 2024-25 season with FC Barcelona. In the 16 remaining regular season matches, the Spirit only lost 3 times (and 2 of those were after the Spirit clinched 2nd in the table). 

The Spirit finished the 2025 regular season, solidly in 2nd place in the table. Compared to their 2024 regular finish 2nd in the table, the club had six less wins, and six more draws (8pt difference).

The club is in a very strong position for the 2026 season with the number of returning players, but the potential downside to that is the ability to sign additional players in the upcoming offseason. 

The Positives

During the 2025 regular season, Washington led the league in shots on target and were 2nd in fewest offside calls (32), and 2nd in goals scored (42) — with 14 different players scoring at least one goal. 

The Spirit had some key signings throughout the season, starting with Nigerian striker Gift Monday, who shortly after the season began, signed a 3-year contract through 2027 with a 2028 club option. Monday would go on to lead the club in goals with eight in the regular season and assisted another two. 

A big mid-season addition to the team was Italian forward Sofia Cantore, who in less than 800 minutes played scored four goals and assisted another. Cantore is now signed with the Spirit through 2027 with a 2028 club option. 

The Negatives

It’s hard to come up with negatives on a team that makes it to the Championship, so this is going to get pretty nitpicky. 

The big negative of the year was the injury woes. At one point of time, the Spirit had 12 players on the availability report, and they led the league with the most players who showed up on the injury report (23) and the most total games missed by players on the injury report (235). Washington ended up tied-3rd for the most players used across the season with 28. 

The Spirit also led the league in own-goals during the regular season, although they were still only 6th in goals conceded. During the regular season, the Spirit scored neither of their two penalties, but they made up for that when the quarterfinals against Racing went to PKs. 

Roster Flexibility 

The Spirit have 26 players signed through 2026 – including Emma Gaines-Ramos who returns from loan in June and the four signed players on the 2025 season-ending injury list or maternity leave. 

Other than the lack of open active roster spots — which loans can potentially solve — Washington does have 11 international spots potentially in use, while they only have 8 available spots in 2026. The international spots overoccupied does in part come from Tamara Bolt and Shadia Nankya both completing their loans and returning to the active roster. 

Offseason Priorities

The big offseason priority for the team has been the talk of the league for the last week — the re-signing of forward Trinity Rodman. Rodman is one of three free agents for the Spirit, but likely the only one that potentially will be returning in 2026. The big issue with re-signing Rodman is the Spirit working within the NWSL’s salary cap, while teams in other leagues in the bidding war do not have the fiscal restraints of a cap in their offers. 

If the club is not able to retain Rodman, the Spirit should have a solid chunk of cap space to sign an additional player or two but again, the international spot limitations will come into play. As a reminder, the team does not have to be in compliance for their 26 active players and international spots until the regular season rosters are due the week before the season begins.