Washington’s spirit captured the moment when the DC Federation stumbled upon in the city of turmoil | MLS

Even by the city’s own high standards, Washington, D.C. has been strange lately.

On U Street on Friday night, drunken party groups are usually smaller. The route outside the club and the bar does not exist. The reality that residents of the area saw as “suppression” by U.S. President Donald Trump unfolded before them a week ago. Police set up checkpoints in some immigration strongholds in their cities and contacted others at random. For many long-time Washingtonians, the military only exists on the streets of the U.S. capital, who have already lacked voting representation in Congress and are often sympathized and excited by the federal government.

Even in this uneasiness, however, on the same Friday night, 11,691 people headed to the Southwest Waterfront to watch the NWSL’s Washington Spirit take part in the race Louisville. In the 51st minute of the game, patches in the crowd at Audi Stadium broke into the “Free DC” ode, the nod of the region’s long-standing 51st state’s pursuit. Soon after, the entire stadium joined.

The game itself is an interesting, end-to-end thing. The crowd at Audi Stadium felt energetic and invested, and when the spirit’s recent bonus (Ballon d’Or d’Or Nominee Sofia Cantore) opened the opening game from a distance, it exploded. Louisville later balanced late in the game, but the entire building shook when mental attacker Rosemonda Kouassi played nine minutes in the second half stop time.

This is the main tenant of the stadium, the type of response of MLB football in MLB football DC Unitedcan only dream of these days. The club fell into the last position, and as the Holy Spirit was approaching (even without wrestling), their mastery of the hearts and minds of local football fans. In just a few short years, this spirit has taken advantage of the change in ownership and accompanied by the influx of cash and ambitions to make itself mainstream in DC sports scenes.

MLS’s original dynasty, Manchester United, did their best to abandon it. Aside from a few great moments, the club has maintained an oscillation between unwavering and totally bad over the past decade, making them the kindness of many long-time fans.

NWSL clubs across the country are accelerating on a large scale in terms of popularity and relevance. However, in other markets, the narrowing of the popularity gap between men and women’s clubs is obvious, and as in DC, this spirit may have completely eliminated the gap.

“Resonance whipping is impossible,” said Douglas Reyes-Ceron, co-founder of Rose Room Collective, a supporter group that supports the spirit and Manchester United. “It reaches a little bit of DC United, and the horror there is so terrible.

Manchester United’s last home game was held before federal forces were deployed, and protests were also held. As they do all year round, supporters at the northern end of the stadium shout “sell team” – a sentiment that used to be muted and sometimes felt somewhat unreasonable, but has now become impossible to ignore.

Some of these fans have supported the club since their inception 30 years ago. In that era, it attracted a large crowd and won three of the first four MLS Cups before winning the championship in 2004, the last time it appeared in the league’s exhibition. While other clubs have built their own stadiums and found new revenue sources in mid-sized clubs, United worked hard to do this and were struggling within the scope of raccoon attacks at RFK Stadium. Loses piled up, and in 2012, the club’s long-term ownership was sold to Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir, current CEO and managing partner Jason Levien.

Levien promised to finish the stadium deal, and he did so well, trading with the regional government that established Audi Field. Meanwhile, he tried to limit the club’s losses. United actually stopped spending money on employees, or anything else. The club began to lose contact with long-term fans and did not attract new fans. Crucially, they lost the feelings of the club’s Latino fan base, an important part of the success of the region, with immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico accounting for more than 10% of the population.

The club experienced a revival when Audi Stadium finally opened in 2018. They brought British legend Wayne Rooney and for some time the match happened again. But the club hasn’t made the playoffs since he left to join Derby County. Many fans are frustrated, but more shockingly, even more people don’t care at all.

Like Manchester United, Spirit is the original work of the league, occupying the field in the NWSL’s 2013 inaugural season. But unlike Manchester United, “The Path of Spirit and Relevance” is more gradual. The club has a modest and passionate follower and has great potential, but fate turned toward it after Steve Baldwin bought the club in 2018. In 2021, the club was shocked by the allegations that its head coach Richie Burke had committed abuse against the players. Baldwin himself is accused of nepotism and incompetence, and his co-owner, businesswoman and philanthropist Michele Kang called on him to sell the team. With it comes straight out of the soap opera, two transaction jabs in public and private, Kang eventually emerges with only control.

Kang has been the loudest and most supportive voice in women’s games in the United States and around the world – since taking over the Holy Spirit and the newly cultivated London city lioness In the Women’s Super League. Like Levien, Kang’s shortcomings as owners, some of her employees reached out with some of her employees when they learned about the ropes of sports ownership. But her influence is undeniable. She undoubtedly maximizes the value of some spiritually precious players – especially Megastar Trinity Rodman – pumps her own millions into player care, marketing, and the rest.

Perhaps more importantly, Kangxia’s spirit took concrete steps to connect with fans. The club has established a supporter contact, which Manchester United still lacks and speaks out on the issue In many clubs (MLS, NWSL or other ways) are not to some extent. In the current madness in DC, the Holy Spirit does a great job of solving it in his own slant – by Instagram posts Read, part of it: “As your neighbor, we walk next to you.”

“There is still a stupid situation for this spirit, but when they do the foundation like this, the foundation can withstand greater nonsense. The community around the team becomes bigger and more inclusive.”

They also did something United haven’t done yet: Win. This spirit canceled the club’s first championship in 2021 and finished second in 2024. When the results stagger, few people can blame a lack of ambition or financial investment. In fact, the opposite is true: Sometimes it feels that half of the spirit is missing in any given international window.

Meanwhile, Manchester United has run out of excuses. For years, the club blamed the situation in the stadium on their worries, saying the losses forced them to be frugal. When they finally spend money, the team often wastes it on the players for one reason or another, just inappropriate. The results never improved. Watch the club’s recent big-name signings – former Crystal Palace and Liverpool striker Christian Benteke – both inspiring and outrage. His often beautiful drama is completely wasted by a totally terrible team. A great finisher with very few chances to finish.

Manchester United rides bikes through coaches (four non-intermediate hires since 2021), through general managers, players, through front desk staff. Levien has added a laundry list for minority owners over the years along with co-owner Steve Kaplan, but their involvement remains the same.

“The only thing left in common is ownership,” Reyes-Ceron said. “The fan base feels like that. It concentrates and points to it.”

At the same time, this spirit feels as if they haven’t even hit the ceiling yet. Kang is now working with Levien to push the DC government to renovate and expand the Audi Field, which has been less than a decade. This spirit has an average of more than 15,000 fans per game this year, ranking third in the NWSL, and has sold Audi stadiums several times over the past few years, about as often as Manchester United. In June, a spirit game beat DC United one night in a Sunday afternoon, the club’s first on a weekend shared.

The Holy Spirit has its own challenges. They have set standards for themselves for Rodman and any other quality players. Like Miami International in MLS, this spirit is now one of the standard businesses in the alliance. Club fans expect different from the landlords, ambitious and outstanding, and their victory will be an improvement.