THURSDAY, JUNE 9 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D3
BY THOMAS FLOYDConsidering the Washington
Spirit’s extensive injuries, con-
gested schedule and month-long
winless streak, a road draw
against the surging Chicago Red
Stars on Wednesday w as a reason-
able result for the defending
NWSL champion.
The Spirit wanted more from
its stalemate with the Red Stars
last week in Leesburg, but Wash-
ington emerged from its 0-0 draw
with Chicago at SeatGeek Sta-
dium in Bridgeview, Ill., satisfied
despite a fervent second-half p ush
that didn’t yield a winner.
“I definitely think that three
points were there for the taking,”
said rookie w inger Maddie Elwell,
who made her first NWSL start.
“A t the same time, I think the
response was a great response.
For that reason, walking away we
have a more positive mood about
the team rather than feeling as
though we didn’t give everything
that we had.”
The scoreless encounter wasn’t
for a lack of trying: Chicago
poured on the first-half pressure,
Red Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Nae-
her stymied Washington after
halftime, and both teams struck
the woodwork.
The Spirit (1-2-5) has gone nine
matches without a win — seven
regular season contests and two
matches in the preseason Chal-
lenge Cup — to leave the club
eighth in the 12-team NWSL. The
third-place Red Stars (3-1-3), who
fell to Washington in last fall’s
NWSL championship game,
stretched their unbeaten run to
five.
With the Spirit playing its
fourth of five games in 16 days,
star attackers Ashley Sanchez and
Trinity Rodman began on thebench because of a minor injury
and a recent return from corona-
virus protocols, respectively. Mid-
fielder Andi Sullivan (quadriceps)
and defender Kelley O’Hara (ham-
string) — just part of the Spirit’s
long injury list — sat out entirely.
The lack of cohesion in Wash-
ington’s shorthanded attack was
clear from the outset. The visitors
struggled to find a rhythm on the
ball and didn’t s teer a s hot o n goal
in the first half.
Former Spirit star Mallory
Pugh provided most of the danger
at the other end. In the 11th min-
ute, the forward struck the out-
side netting with an angled bid
from close range. Eight minutes
later, she rifled a left-footed shot
right at Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey
Kingsbury. Her 35th-minute set
piece found the head of Rachel
Hill, whose glancing header rang
the post.
Spirit Coach Kris Ward
changed the game at halftime,
bringing on Rodman, Sanchezand Camryn Biegalski. The moves
nearly paid immediate dividends:
Three minutes into the second
half, Sanchez created a turnover
near midfield, drove toward the
goal and picked out Rodman, who
fired a close-range effort off the
far post.
“It’s been a while since we’ve
been battered like that,” Ward said
of the first half. “But they did a
great job coming out in the s econd
half and taking it to Chicago.”
A minute later, the Spirit n early
took the lead again. Connecting
with Morgan Goff ’s left-footed
cross, Ashley Hatch put a header
on target that was stifled by Nae-
her’s left hand and parried off the
goal line with her right.
Naeher was just getting started.
The World Cup champion raced
off her line to beat Rodman to
Hatch’s enticing service in the
64th minute. With five minutes
left, Naeher stood strong to stone
Rodman’s left-footed blast.
But it was the Red Stars whohad the best chance late, with
Kingsbury charging out to deny
Pugh in the 79th.
“A draw is probably fair,” Ward
said. “They own the first half; we
own the second half. But w e didn’t
do enough. We had some shots
that we should have converted.”
l NATIONS LEAGUE : So
much for Belgium not caring
about the Nations League.
By coming from behind to rout
Poland, 6-1, Belgium’s players
gave an emphatic riposte to those
questioning the team’s commit-
ment to the competition at the
end of a long season and after a 4-1
loss to the Netherlands on Friday.
Belgium Coach Roberto Marti-
nez had been quick to dismiss
accusations of his players lacking
desire, and they backed up that
support by recovering from fall-
ing behind after Robert Lewan-
dowski’s 76th goal for Poland.
Only two European players —
Cristiano Ronaldo (117) and Fer-
enc Puskas (84) — have scoredmore in men’s internationals.
Axel Witsel launched Belgium’s
comeback with the equalizer in
the 42nd minute. Kevin De
Bruyne added a second in the 59th
before a double from Leandro
Trossard — in the 73rd and 80th —
a long-range effort from Leander
Dendoncker in the 83rd and a first
international goal by Lois Openda
to wrap up the win in Brussels.
The Netherlands stayed in
front in the group, though, by
scoring in the fourth minute of
stoppage time to beat Wales, 2-1.
Ukraine lost to Wales in Sun-
day’s World Cup playoff, and the
war-torn country’s coach, Olek-
sandr Petrakov, had said the emo-
tional and physical impact of the
match in Cardiff, combined with
the ongoing Russian invasion,
had taken its toll on his squad.
Petrakov made 10 changes to
his team for a Group B game at
Ireland, and going with fresh legs
paid off in a 1-0 win in Dublin.
— Associated PressSOCCER ROUNDUP
Washington’s winless streak reaches nine with a scoreless draw at Chicago
SPIRIT 0,
RED STARS 0“I was hoping more than I was
expecting,” Wright said of the call-
up, “but I wasn’t surprised.”
He was not surprised because
he has been scoring like no other
American: 14 goals in 32 matches
(21 starts) for Turkish club
A ntalyaspor, including eight
goals in seven appearances over a
six-week stretch in April and May.
He w as productive the previous
season, too, with 11 goals for Dan-
ish club Sonderjyske, but his abili-
ty to sustain those numbers in a
stronger league vaulted him onto
Berhalter’s radar this year.
In U.S. camp for the first time
since 2019, Wright made his sen-
ior debut June 1 as a sub against
Morocco in Cincinnati. Late in the
match, with the Americans lead-
ing by two and the team awarded
a penalty kick, U.S. star Christian
Pulisic handed the ball to Wright,
whose conversion capped a 3-0
victory.
“I asked him for it, and he gave
me the opportunity to score my
first goal, in my f irst game, and it’s
a really great feeling,” Wright said.
Pulisic said he wanted to “just
give him a bit of confidence.”
“I’m happy to see him score,” he
said.
It has been a long road for the
Southern California native. While
his youth national team career
soared with 27 goals in 34 games,
Wright struggled to reach club
ambitions.
“It’s definitely not linear,” he
said. “There have been a lot of ups
and downs. Had a lot of good
patches and rough patches. I
think I’ve persevered through the
rough patches and enjoyed the
WRIGHT FROM D1 good patches.”
Wright finds himself in a good
patch at a good time. While many
of the World Cup roster slots are
all but set, the striker position
remains unsettled.
Since last summer, Berhalter
has used Josh Sargent, Ricardo
Pepi, Jesús Ferreira, Jordan Pefok,
Gyasi Zardes and Daryl Dike.
None have seized the starting
role.
In this camp, the next-to-last
before the team reports to Qatar
in November, Wright and Ferrei-
ra, 21, were the only strikers invit-
ed. The competition for call-ups
to the two friendlies in Septem-
ber, though, remains wide open.
For the first two matches this
month, Ferreira started and
Wright came off the bench. In all
likelihood, Wright will receive his
first start Friday against Grenada
in a Concacaf Nations League
game in Austin.
“I still don’t think there’s
enough of a sample size for Haji,”
Berhalter said after a 0-0 draw
with Uruguay on Sunday in Kan-
sas City, Kan. “We’ll continue to
work with them, and [with] two
Nations League games, we’ll see if
Jesús and Haji can hit the back of
the net.”
Wright’s call-up was embraced
by established players who have
known him since his youth na-
tional team days.
“That was the duo back in the
day — me and Haji,” Pulisic said.
“We played a lot of games togeth-
er in the youth national teams,
and it’s cool to have him back in.”
Midfielder Weston McKennie
called Wright’s r eturn “beautiful.”
“Some players would be
knocked down,” McKennie said.
“Some players would have their
spirits gone. But for him, finding
his own path to get back in here is
definitely one that is inspiration-
al.”
Midfielder Tyler Adams said he
was excited to “see how he has
grown, developed and matured as
a player.”Asked about reuniting with
those players, Wright smiled and
said: “They haven’t changed
much. Same goofy guys when we
were 15, 14 years old.”
Wright’s journey began in the
Los Angeles Galaxy youth acad-
emy, shifted to the lower-tier New
York Cosmos, then to Schalke’sunder-19 squad in Germany. A fter
a loan to German second-division
Sandhausen, he made seven
Bundesliga appearances and
scored once for Schalke’s first unit
in 2018-19.
Wright signed with VVV-Venlo
in the Dutch top tier but failed to
score in 22 league matches. It wasthen onto Sonderjyske, where he
began to find his way in 2020-21.
The Danish side decided to loan
him to Antalyaspor this past sea-
son.
“Having moved around a lot
the last couple years, it has added
some life experience and life un-
derstanding,” Wright said. “When
you witness different styles of
play, you learn more instead of
playing in one country your whole
life. I do understand soccer a little
bit more than when I first started
off.”
He credited his manager,
f ormer Turkish midfielder Nuri
Sahin, for tutoring him.
“He puts me in situations
where I can help the team score
goals and create goals,” Wright
said. “He has also taught me a lot
about being a striker. He helped
me more in my buildup play and
linkup play, my positioning. He
has put me in places where I can
be in front of the goal and the guy
taking shots and [getting] re-
bounds.”
Wright finished tied for sev-
enth in the Super Lig scoring race,
and his club finished on a
1 6-game unbeaten streak to soar
to seventh on the 20-team circuit,
nine spots higher than the previ-
ous year.
“He’s been able to start domi-
nating in games,” Berhalter said,
adding that it was the “perfect
time” to invite Wright to U.S.
camp.
Pulisic appreciates Wright’s ar-
duous path, saying: “I really re-
spect people who haven’t neces-
sarily had it easy. He’s had ups and
downs, and to come out the other
side and be performing like he is
now is impressive.”Wright makes ‘ beautiful’ return to form, has shot at Qatar
ANDY LYONS/GETTY IMAGES
Haji Wright converted a penalty June 1 against Morocco for his first goal with the U.S. national team.Abortion law should force softball out of Oklahoma
Crissy Perham
made her only
Olympics in 1992
at the Summer
Games in
Barcelona. She
co-captained the
women’s
swimming team
with the legendary Dara To rres
and won three medals: gold on a
world record-setting medley-
relay team, gold on the 4x100-
meter free relay team and silver
in the 100 butterfly.
It was my first Olympics, too.
I covered her achievements. But
I knew nothing of the distress
she had overcome to get so far
until September, almost
30 years later, when she
revealed the rest of her story —
and the impact it had on her life
— to the Supreme Court.
“When I was in college, I was
on birth control, but I
accidentally became pregnant,”
Perham wrote to the court. “I
was on scholarship, I was just
starting to succeed in my sport,
and I didn’t want to take a year
off. I decided to have an
abortion.
“I wasn’t ready to be a mom,
and having an abortion felt like
I was given a second chance at
life. I was able to take control of
my future... got better in
school, I started training really
hard, and that summer, I won
my first national championship.
“I made the choice that was
right for me and my future, and
I stand by my decision. That
choice ultimately led me to
being an Olympian, a college
graduate, and a proud mother
today. I’m finally speaking up
and sharing my story because
there shouldn’t be a stigma
surrounding personal
healthcare decisions. Women
know what’s best for our own
bodies and lives, and our
autonomy needs to be
respected.”
Perham was one of several
hundred women’s athletes who
in September filed an amicus
brief opposing a Mississippi law
that threatened the landmark
decision in Roe v. Wade
safeguarding access to abortion
without government
interference. And she was alone
among the amici curiae to shed
anonymity in telling her story to
underscore how forcing
women’s athletes, the brief
stated, “... to carry pregnancies... could derail women’s athletic
careers, academic futures, and
economic livelihoods at a large
scale.”
All of which is why this
season’s Women’s College World
Series — scheduled to conclude
this week in a best-of-three
series between defending
champion Oklahoma and Te xas
— should be the last we witness
in Oklahoma City, where it has
been staged every year except
one since 1990. After all, since
Perham and other women’s
athletes raised their opposition
to the rising threats against a
woman’s bodily freedom,
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R)
and his GOP-controlled
legislature exceeded Mississippi
and every other state in
restricting access to abortion.
They also added a provision,
like some other states, making it
a felony to dare aid women
seeking relief from unwanted
pregnancies.
In short, the state of
Oklahoma just became a state
anathema to women’s athletes.
Therefore, it disqualified itself
as a host for women’s sports.
This, after all the state and its
flagship university, the
University of Oklahoma, have
done to promote women’s
college softball into one of the
most entertaining and exciting
college sports. This, after all it
has benefited from the resulting
fans, who last year dropped
more than $20 million into the
Oklahoma City coffers.
I have been one of those fans.
And after attending, I thought
anchoring the World Series in
Oklahoma City deprived the rest
of the country of a spectacular
event, not unlike the men’s and
women’s basketball
championships, which are
moved around the country, and
the college football
championship game. Why
should Oklahoma City be the
only beneficiary?
Others have wondered
whether the tournament should
travel because keeping it in
Oklahoma City gives Oklahoma,
whose campus is just a half-
hour’s drive south on
Interstate 35 in Norman, an
unfair advantage. OU did win
three of five crowns between
2013 and 2017. But UCLA and
Arizona have won more titles in
Oklahoma City since 1990 than
has Oklahoma. Oklahoma is
good because it has the two-
time national player of the year,
slugger Jocelyn Alo, and two of
the nine other player of the year
finalists.
The suggestion that
Oklahoma City, now nicknamed
the Softball Capital of the
World, houses the only world-
class stadium, USA Softball Hall
of Fame Stadium, worthy of
hosting the championship falls
flat, too. Arizona, Florida,
Florida State, LSU, Oregon,
Te xas A&M, Oregon and
Washington have top-shelfstadiums that could be
expanded to rival the 14,000
seats in Oklahoma City.
But not all are worthy hosts.
The Louisiana legislature on
Monday sent to Gov. John Bel
Edwards (D) an antiabortion
bill not unlike that Oklahoma
lawmakers crafted. And
Edwards is expected to sign it.
Republican-led legislatures in
Arizona and Florida voted in
March to outlaw abortion after
15 weeks, not unlike the
Mississippi law that prompted
women’s athletes to publicly
dissent.
Te xas’s regressive GOP
legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott
(R) codified their so-called
Heartbeat Bill in the same
month Perham and her fellow
athletes filed their amicus brief.
It outlaws abortion at the
detection of cardiac activity,
hence the name.
But some of those other
stadiums are in states that are
friends to the women the World
Series celebrates. Oregon and
Washington are protective of
reproductive rights. Washington
Gov. Jay Inslee (D) even
denounced the leaked draft of a
Supreme Court opinion that
would dismantle Roe v. Wade
and said his home state would
be sanctuary for women from
elsewhere who suddenly found
themselves without choice in
their own states. “They will be
welcome, and they will be safe,”
Inslee announced.
Oklahoma is no longer
welcoming to the young women
who have made Oklahoma City
the place to be in early June.
The NCAA should respect what
is turning into its newest cash
cow and find a more hospitable
place for young women’s
athletes to play.Kevin B.
Blackistone
BY CLIFF BRUNToklahoma city — Jocelyn Alo
and Tiare Jennings fueled Okla-
homa’s record-setting offensive
outburst to help the Sooners
move a victory away f rom defend-
ing their Women’s College World
S eries title.
Alo and Jennings hit two home
runs apiece as top-seeded Okla-
homa rolled past unseeded Te xas,
16-1, on Wednesday in Game 1 of
the best-of-three championship
series. Oklahoma (58-3) set a
World Series record with six home
runs and matched the marks for
runs and victory margin.
Alo and Jennings have five
home runs each in this World
Series, surpassing the r ecord of
four set by several players — in-
cluding Alo last year. Alo in-creased her Division I career
home run record to 122.
The teams meet again Thurs-
day in Game 2, with Oklahoma in
position to win its sixth national
title. Te xas (47-21-1) needs a win to
stay alive. The Longhorns have
won six elimination games since
the start of the NCAA tourna-
ment.
Oklahoma escaped a bit of diffi-
culty in the first inning and con-
trolled the game from there. Hope
Trautwein (22-1) gave up just two
hits and a run in five innings, and
Nicole May allowed one hit in two
scoreless innings.
Alo cranked a no-doubt home
run into the left field seats in
Oklahoma’s half of the first, and
Ta ylon Snow followed shortly af-
terward with a three-run blast —
just her fourth of the season — to
make it 5-1. Te xas used three
pitchers in the inning, and ace
Hailey Dolcini recorded just two
outs.
— Associated PressWOMEN’S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESSooners blast past Longhornsto open championship roundOKLAHOMA 16,
TEXAS 1SUE OGROCKI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Taylon Snow, right, helped Oklahoma set a Women’s College World
Series record with six home runs in Wednesday’s blowout of Texas.