Claudia Martínez

But it does also lose Washington some flexibility in the defensive midfield, which is why, again, Ngok is going to be very important for them.

The Spirit have also been missing Lacey Santos and Claudia Martinez as they manage those injuries, and that makes things really hard too.

In a season already defined by a lot of absences, Casey Kruger and Aubrey Kingsbury have been out for maternity leave.

Kate Wiesner is dealing with a long-term injury.

Lucia DiGuglielmo is out.

And Claudia Martinez is also out.

This is how you know that it is the end.

Nearing the end of the regular season is when people start to get tired and injuries start to creep up.

I haven't talked about her in so many weeks, I forget how to say her name.

Claudia Martinez and Rebbe Bernal, who had an excused absence, not an injury.

Oh, and Rose Quasi was also ill.

So a very long list.

Um, they also had Esme Morgan tucking inside maybe a little more like an eight but just to create more numbers in the midfield.

Um, second half I think you see Claudia Martinez and Ashley Hatch for a little bit as dual, quote unquote, "10s" even though that's not really a natural fit for either of them either.

And it's just like it's not working because they need someone who has that, that as, as their natural skill set.

And they, they...

Can you sort of, like, recreate what Croy Bethune had in the aggregate in," to use the Moneyball metaphor, like, "to, to back up Lacey Santos?" Now we're at the stage where, like, we're just working with the aggregate pieces, and, like, if you don't have Lacey Santos involved...

and I just, I, I agree with you, Andre, that feels like a roster construction issue more than anything.

And, you know, if you look at this Orlando game specifically, the... y- you look at the, the players who came on in this game, the attacking players who came on in this game, Gift Monday, uh, Claudia Martinez, Ashley Hatch, and then you put them alongside Trinity Rodman and Rose Colasi who are already on the pitch, they all kind of want to do, like, the same thing which is get the ball in the attacking third and score.

And, you know, we've seen some of those players take the ball into the, the opposition box themselves throughout the season.

yeah and i'll also say that the washington spirit midfield is in a weird place at the moment yeah absolutely because lacy santos is hurt and so hal hirschfeld was suddenly playing the 10. passing has not traditionally been her strong suit and it wasn't just that i mean esme morgan was on the bench for the first half tamara bolt was in the starting 11 because they still don't have gift monday or roseman kawase available uh after they came back from wafcon so i I wouldn't anticipate that this is going to be something we'll see very often going forward from the spirit.

I wish I could have asked other young Gonzalez is why Morgan was on the bench in the first half and why Claudia Martinez didn't get the start.

Yeah,

sure.