I still remember the first women’s professional soccer match in the District of Columbia. It was of course the inaugural match of the Women’s United Soccer Association, on April 14, 2001, as Mia Hamm’s Washington Freedom took on Brandi Chastain’s Bay Area CyberRays. My wife and I got to our front-and-center seats just in time for the breathtaking sight of a bald eagle flying over. The game was less breathtaking, a 1-0 win for the Freedom on a late penalty kick by the Brazilian Pretinha after Brandi was called for a foul in the box on Mia. But it was still quite an experience to be part of 34,148 experiencing history.

Embed from Getty Images

For the next three years, it was the normal thing to go into the District to see women’s professional soccer. I’d get on at my local Metro station (back when Metro could be trusted to get you there on time) and take the 15-minute ride to Stadium-Armory, then the short walk to RFK Stadium where eight thousand or so of us – unfortunately the 34k number has yet to be duplicated anywhere – would gather in its seemingly cavernous confines to cheer on the exploits of Mia, later Abby Wambach, and the rest of the Washington Freedom.



That of course lasted for just three glorious but unsustainable seasons. Then the WUSA folded, and the Washington Freedom would return to RFK only occasionally. The first was in July 2004, as part of a doubleheader with DC United, the eight former pros who were able to return joined with some local teenagers to take on Nottingham Forest. I never tire of telling this story, and I hope you’re not tired of hearing it, but one of the local teenagers scored a hat trick, and I resolved to remember the name for future reference: Ali Krieger.

Four years late, in June 2008, there was another doubleheader with DC United, this time against the Richmond Kickers, when both Washington and Richmond were W-League teams. There were a lot of familiar names on the roster already who would make the WPS team the following year: Alex Singer, Emily Janss, Sarah Senty, Sarah Huffman, Lori Lindsey, Madison Keller, Jillian Gilbeau, Rebecca Moros, and a promising young defender named Becky Sauerbrunn. But the evening’s star was forward Ali Andrzejewski with two goals. Ali didn’t make it as a pro, but there’s a good chance her little sister Bridgette – last year the leading scorer for the North Carolina Tarheels – will be a high pick in the 2020 NWSL draft. Meanwhile, Richmond included on their roster eventual Washington Spirit goalkeeper Chantel Jones and 2010 Washington Freedom draft pick Caitlin Miskel.

Once Women’s Professional Soccer got going, the Freedom – like the Spirit – were based at the Maryland Soccerplex but unlike the Spirit came into town occasionally for doubleheaders at RFK with, of course, DC United. So the first meaningful women’s professional soccer match in the District since 2003 came on May 23, 2009, when the Freedom downed Sky Blue, 2-1, on goals from Cat Whitehill and Lisa De Vanna. The second was a scoreless tie with the Chicago Red Stars on June 13, and the third a 1-0 win over the St. Louis Athletica on July 18 with Homare Sawa providing the lone tally. That was an entertaining match if only because the Freedom were down to one goalkeeper – current Spirit assistant coach KJ Spisak – with Erin McLeod away on national team duty and Briana Scurry out with a concussion. In order to provide backup, the team signed goalkeeper coach (and WUSA-era goalkeeper Nicci Wright) to a one-day contract. Lo and behold, KJ pulled a quad in the 65th minute, and Nicci had to come in for the rest of the match.

The tradition continued in 2010 with another match against the Athletics on May 1. This was more fun than usual, in part because the DC United fans – particularly members of Barra Brava – stuck around for once, and also because we managed to put three goals (from Sonia Bompastor, Homare Sawa, and Lone Mykjåland) past Hope Solo, whose club form at the time wasn’t nearly as good as when she was with the national team. (The highlights of this match are still on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvdZ3SJP4-A .)

That was the only RFK match in 2010 and with that being the Freedom’s final season, the last women’s professional match in the District to date.

But now we have Audi Field and the opportunity for the Washington Spirit to start a new tradition this Saturday at 8. We in the media were fortunate enough to get a tour last Wednesday. Due to not being properly oriented after leaving the Metro, I was a little late but managed to catch most of the tour.

One of the Spirit assistants was good enough to take me to the tour once I arrived, and I got to walk across the field with her. I caught up to the group in what looks to be the main food court, on the east side. We then went to one of the club suites to see the view from there.

Then we went into the bowels of the stadium to see the locker rooms. The fanciest locker room is of course the one for the DC United players. Unfortunately, the Spirit have been relegated to the visitor’s locker room, which is still nice but not quite as impressive. (There’s also an auxiliary locker room which presumably the visiting Portland Thorns will be using.)

Finally, we went to the nearby interview room to hear from owner Bill Lynch, then-head coach Jim Gabarra, assistant coach Briana Scurry, and players Estelle Johnson, Mallory Pugh, and Rose Lavelle.

Lynch started out by saying, “First, congratulations to D.C. United for the stadium, it’s a long time coming. I’m excited to have the opportunity to showcase these incredible athletes in D.C., at the stadium, and start building our D.C. audience.”

Asked how many tickets would need to be sold for the event to be a success, he briefly hemmed and hawed but eventually said around 8,000, which would be around the attendance the WUSA Freedom saw when they were regularly at RFK. Reports are that over 6,000 tickets have been sold so far.

Gabarra: “As part of the greater metropolitan D.C. soccer community, I’ve been waiting like everyone else for 13-15 years for the stadium to open up; so, I’m especially excited to be part of women’s soccer coming back to the district.”

Scurry had a distinct perspective after having played in some of those WUSA RFK matches, albeit for the Atlanta Beat rather than the Freedom. “I have played some games at RFK and coming in here this morning and seeing how glorious Audi Field was, I was a little envious of the players opportunity to be able to play on this wonderful pitch. I think it is going to be a great testament to our game and I really hope that D.C. comes out and supports women’s soccer. It has been a long time coming and it’s fantastic to have a soccer specific stadium in the D.C. area.”

The players, of course, said all the right things. From team captain Estelle Johnson: “I’d say throughout my career, I think I have only played in one or two MLS stadiums and that’s over a span of eight years, so it’s always awesome. It’s also great to have it here, a club that I’ve been with for, this is my fourth season. I’m really excited to be able to gain some new fans for us, hopefully, and just be in a city that I love to be in and getting to play in such an awesome venue.”

Lavelle: “I think getting to play in such a great stadium definitely ups the morale a little. Hopefully we can draw a big crowd and it’s a chance to continue to grow the women’s game and hopefully get a bigger following for the next year.”

Pugh: “Just seeing everything is just really cool and I think that the fact that we are going to be the first women’s team to play here is really special, too. It’s a beautiful stadium and beautiful facilities, so being able to play a game here is amazing.”

Team president and acting general manager Chris Hummer notes (as reported in the Washington Post) that this is a trial run to see if it’s cost-effective to have matches in DC in the future. “Is it … a real fan base? That is what we need to find out. We want to play more games there, but we can’t do it at a loss or risk of losing the fans who have been with us at the Soccerplex.”

Regardless, it’ll be a historic occasion. I hope you can make it.