Welcome back to “I’m Curious!”

It’s hard to believe it is already June. And while it means my usual beat, the NWSL, is on break, there will be no shortage of sports and other stories, with the FIFA men’s World Cup, the NBA Finals, and more. I will do my best to bring some of them to you.

But before that, there’s still one more game for us to cover, namely Saturday’s electric matchup in DC.

As always, feel free to either read through or flip around as you see fit!

Here’s the Table of Contents.

Table of Contents

• Welcome back to “I’m Curious!”

  • The Most Curious Thing This Week: One Hal of a Night

  • My Reporting

    • Game Recap: Spirit Survive a Stalemate

    • The Art of the Free Kick: Leicy Santos

  • The Photo Bay

    • Brit Is Back: A Ratcliffe Return

    • Meeting of the Maddies: A Goal Celebration

    • Claudia Dickey’s Pregame Save Up Close

    • Flag on the Play!

    • Good Sportsmanship: Trinity Rodman & Phoebe McClernon

    • Laura Harvey Stays Cool(er)

    • Rosemonde Kouassi Shows Her Lighter Side

    • Free DC… Still!

    • The Child Thinks: Claudia Martínez’s Pregame Ponde …

  • Something Good I Ate: Gruto's Snickers Sundae

And here’s Peach!

The Most Curious Thing This Week

It’s the Hal of a night that was had on Saturday in DC.

I’m gonna get selfish for a sec. When I was a kid, I was always drawn to the players who were the warriors. The ones who played with their heart on their sleeve. Who never said die. Who dove for loose balls, put their body on the line over and over, verged on losing their temper, and somehow always had dirt on their jerseys or bruises on their arms when the game ended.

Growing up in the 2000s in the New York area, I was taught about the likes of Paul O’Neill, the Warrior of the Yankees dynasty, and John Starks, who went from bagging groceries at a Safeway in Oklahoma to being a relentless anchor for many a Knicks playoff team. 

They were very good players but never the number one option. O’Neill and Starks were always eclipsed on their teams by a bigger star, someone like Derek Jeter or Patrick Ewing. 

Their stories were imperfect, and sometimes, the warrior would even resemble the protagonist of a Greek tragedy, like when Starks went 2-18 from the floor and 0-11 from 3-point range in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals.

But in a theatre like sports, where athletes who resemble our peers off the field look superhuman on it as they enter flow states and perform as virtuosos, the warriors speak to us. Their emotions, their imperfections, their ups and their downs make us see their humanity, even in their most extraordinary moments.

After what unfolded in Southwest DC on Saturday night, I can say with confidence that we have born witness as a new great enters the Pantheon of warriors.

Anyway, that’s a lot of fancy words to describe something pretty simple: Hal Hershfelt scored the game-winner the other night.

Washington Spirit fans’ favorite redheaded, tattooed, fish-tossing, coyote-building midfielder notched a goal just over 80 minutes into Saturday night’s showdown with the Seattle Reign to give the Spirit a 2-1 lead that would hold until the final whistle. Thanks to Hershfelt’s heroics, the Spirit are heading into the June break with three points and a win.

And it came on the night where the club honored her for having made 50 appearances for the Spirit, complete with a special framed jersey and flowers.

Now in her third season, Hershfelt’s career has been one full of ups and downs.

She was the fifth pick in the 2024 NWSL Draft, but the Spirit’s second pick, after fellow midfielder Croix Bethune.

She was on the gold-medal winning 2024 Olympic team… but as an alternate, so there was no actual gold medal for her.

She scored the game-tying goal in the 2024 semifinal… then lost in the NWSL Championship.

She came back and played the game of her life in the 2025 NWSL Championship… only to get injured and allow the game-winning goal because she was hobbling.

At every turn, her face makes no effort to hide her emotions. To watch her play is to see the joy, the anger, the confusion, the tears, and everything in between.

And her tasks have run the gamut.

With fellow midfielder Andi Sullivan out due to injury and maternity leave, Hershfelt had to put goal-scoring aside to play a more defensive role. This season, she has taken on a bit more responsibility in the attack, but it has clearly taken a moment for her to build confidence in her shooting. And even then, there have been no shortage of near misses.

Even just a few minutes before Hershfelt scored the game-winner, she whiffed on an earlier chance to give the Spirit the lead.

It’s why it clearly took her a moment to start celebrating.

“I think I didn’t celebrate because I was so relieved,” Hershfelt said postgame, “because I was so pissed off about the one that I missed before that.”

She took particular pride in how she set up the first chance, the one that missed, and said that it affected her reaction to the actual goal she scored.

“When I did score the second goal, I was like, ‘that was not the prettiest goal ever,’ so I wasn’t like, ‘wooo!,’ but I was really happy that we could do that as a team and it was great to see it hit the back of the net,” Hershfelt said.

But after the final whistle blew and the 2-1 margin held for the Spirit, it was Hershfelt who was the hero.

From pitchside, I could see her buzzing as she was whisked around from spot-to-spot—sharing a big embrace with Andi Sullivan in the first moments after the final whistle blew, wiping her face as PR reps hustled her to the on-field postgame show, describing her postgame bliss to a national television audience, and answering the calls of the Spirit Squadron, who wrangled her over to have her pose with their player of the match trophy and receive a Lagigi—the bright yellow, googly-eyed ghosty keychain that fans have started to give out this season.

From start to finish, Hershfelt took plenty of joy in not only being able to have a night like this, but also to share it with her teammates.

“That was awesome, just having a couple of them up when I did, like, the whole picture frame thing, it was really sweet. And also just, the crowd was great and it was full of energy, and to have a sell-out at the same time, it’s just awesome, it’s a great moment. The goal was just like a little stamp on top of that.”

Now, if you thought I was maybe laying it on a little bit in my praise for her, then brace yourself, because any praise I have here pales in comparison to the praise that Spirit head coach Adrián González gave her in his remarks to the press after Saturday’s game.

“Whatever you ask her, she’s gonna do. I haven’t seen a player like her in my life,” González said.

“It’s huge what she brings to the team. Whatever the team needs, she’s gonna do it. Attacking, defending. She’s been playing as a six [defensive midfielder], as an eight [box-to-box midfielder], as a ten [attacking midfielder]. I used her one time, I think as an outside back, center back. She can be lower, she can be higher. If you ask her to get the box, she’s gonna get the box. If you ask her to press and go press, she’s gonna press.”

Vehicular comparisons are not unheard of in soccer. Arsenal men’s defender William Saliba has often been dubbed a Rolls-Royce by fans and pundits for his ability to play at an elite level in a smooth, calm and elegant way.

González used a car analogy of his own, choosing a very American comparison.

“She is unbelievable. I call her, like, a Jeep, you know, a 4×4,” González said as folks in the room began to laugh. “She can do everything. Tell her, the next day, that’s what I call her. That’s what she brings to the team, always ready, always sacrificing everything for the team, and physically, it’s amazing, she doesn’t stop. A huge player.”

The Jeep! I look forward to the fan-made tifos and the jokes that can come from this.

For a high-energy, very physical player who can handle any setting, the Jeep comparison seems pretty accurate.

My Reporting

Game Recap

Overall, the Spirit looked to be largely in control of the game. They kept Seattle to just 0.53 expected goals, 5 total shots and just 2 shots on target.

Despite some postgame frustrations from Spirit players, the issue may have come from Seattle’s reliance on a lower block and deeper defending. In a situation like that, it can be easy to feel as an opponent that you should have scored more.

Postgame, the Reign talked about how part of the game plan was to disrupt the Spirit’s attacking play on the wings, specifically their world-class wingers Trinity Rodman and Rosemonde Kouassi.

“The Spirit have so many great wingers, so it was going to be a tall order regardless of who I got, but I think we worked really hard this week to be ready for those situations,” Seattle fullback Madison Curry said postgame.

Of course, playing against an opponent like the Spirit, the margin for error is small.

“They did well, but unfortunately, we gave Trinity [Rodman] one glimpse, and she squares it to Hal [Hershfelt] and they score,” Reign head coach Laura Harvey told me. “And that’s what top players do, and they are the moments that are crushing, when you’ve done 95% of the work, and you know, that one time you don’t get it right, you get punished for it.”

Harvey’s comment on Rodman also seemed to come as a pleasant surprise to the Spirit star, who played under Harvey on the U.S. under-20 national team.

“Laura said that?” Rodman asked.

When that was confirmed to be the case, with a tinge of pride in her voice, Rodman said, “Oh, thanks!”

The Art of the Free Kick

While the second goal led to plenty of emotions being spilled, the first goal, while more clinical, was a demonstration of the sort of art on display in Washington on a regular basis.

In the 18^th minute, Colombian midfielder Leicy Santos pulled one of the most impressive skills she has in her toolbox, hooking a free kick directly onto goal and weaving it past Seattle’s keeper Claudia Dickey to give the Spirit an early lead.

It’s not the first time Santos has pulled her magic on a direct free kick, as she pulled it off during the thrilling Copa América final last year against Brazil.

With some halting Spanish made a bit worse by me listening to her instead of formulating my question, I asked a bit about her decision-making process and she gave a thoughtful, detailed answer (translated below from Spanish.)

“It depends a lot on where and how the goalkeeper positions herself, on how many players the keeper puts in her wall,” Santos said. “I think a lot of thoughts come to mind as a player thinks, analyzes, watches. I think that, from the moment the free kick was given, I saw the position of the free kick, how the goalkeeper positioned herself.”

Santos added that there are a handful of things that are true, irrespective of the circumstances.

“It’s concentration, understanding how I have to prepare myself to shoot it, so that the ball has the effect it has to have.”

While I could never in a million years go out to a nearby park and replicate it, she does make it sound pretty easy when she breaks it down like that.

The Photo Bay

Brit Is Back: A Ratcliffe Return

Saturday marked the return of Seattle Reign forward Brittany Ratcliffe to DC after two years in a Spirit uniform.

She spent most of the match stretching and running in preparation for a potential sub, and despite playing for the other team, Ratcliffe received a hearty round of applause when she came on the field late in the match. 

Fans also showed her plenty of love after the game went final.

Meeting of the Maddies: A Goal Celebration

The Seattle Reign have no shortage of players who go by some variation of “Maddie.”

A ball from Madi (Madison) Curry found its way toward the box. After pressure from Maddie (Madison) Mercado, Spirit fullback Lucia Di Guglielmo got a foot on the ball and tried to clear it high and away, but the ball dropped into the net instead.

Before Maddie Mercado could even turn around and figure out what happened, her teammate Maddie (Madeline) Dahlien was running toward her to give her a hug for forcing the goal.

Claudia Dickey’s Pregame Save Up Close

Reign goalkeeper Claudia Dickey is a regular on the U.S. national team and squarely in contention to be starting goalkeeper at next year’s World Cup.

In league play, she has taken a bit of a step back from a stellar 2025 season but is still one of the top keepers in the NWSL.

In this shot, you can see her bringing the ball down as she prepares to get back up and take the next shot.

Flag on the Play!

Corner flags can be annoying. Since photo bays are often in or near the corners, the flags can often disrupt a good picture or sequence and throw a lens out of focus.

If you are a player chasing down a ball heading out near the corner, it could also become an obstacle, as Spirit fullback Gabby Carle was reminded while racing Reign winger Maddie Dahlien to a ball that was awarded to Seattle.

Good Sportsmanship: Trinity Rodman & Phoebe McClernon

It’s not every day that Trinity Rodman gets tackled in a game and rolls back up with a smile on her face.

Rodman, who even by her own admission can be a bit too easily upset after clashes with opposing defenders, had a bit of a smile on her face after taking a fall in a battle early with Reign center back Phoebe McClernon.

She flashed a smile as McClernon offered a hand to get her back up. The two had a brief shared moment of good sportsmanship, got up off the ground and just kept going.

Laura Harvey Stays Cool(er)

To watch or cover the NWSL means to eventually encounter Seattle Reign head coach Laura Harvey’s cooler.

Instead of sitting at some distance from the field in the seats reserved for coaches, and instead of standing a few feet from the sideline, Harvey has long found a home sitting on top of a cooler parked a few feet from the field, giving her a seat extremely close to the action.

This season, drinkware and cooler company Yeti, a league sponsor, hooked Harvey up with a custom cooler, complete with club logos and of course, a silhouette of Harvey wearing a crown and sitting on the cooler.

Considering Harvey has coached in every regular NWSL season since the league began in 2013 (she missed the 2020 COVID-era Challenge Cup setup after taking a job coaching the US under-20 national team), she has definitely earned a cooler with her likeness on it.

Rosemonde Kouassi Shows Her Lighter Side

Spirit winger Rosemonde Kouassi has become one of the best players in the NWSL since she came to the Spirit and the U.S. in mid-2024. But for someone with the talent she has, Kouassi is not someone fans see a lot beyond what she does on the field.

She is from Côte D’Ivoire and is generally quite shy, so between that and her reliance on French over English, even reporters with more access than the average outsider don’t usually get to hear a ton from her. In French, too, her answers are short and leave whomever is translating, often a bilingual teammate, to fill in the gaps.

There’s not a ton out there either about her background or life story beyond what shows up on her stat pages, especially in English-language sources, so every time I see much of a clue about who she is as a person, I always pay attention.

Often it’s just something whimsical that she does feels unexpected, like she did Saturday after the team took its pregame Starting XI photo.

As players went their separate ways after the photo, Kouassi hung around for a sec, leaning back and throwing her hands up and flashing a couple of peace signs.

Free DC… Still!

Ten months into the ongoing deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, DC, we are well into the second NWSL season where fans have chanted “Free DC” at the 51-minute mark.

A sold-out crowd stopped what they were doing, including an effort at the wave, to chant. The guy who most needed to hear the chant was busy crafting social media posts complaining that musical artists were cancelling their appearances at his summer fair, calling for a judge who blocked him from destroying the Kennedy Center to be impeached, and asking for a ballroom to be built on a part of the White House he destroyed.

A few miles away was a crowd full of a lot more joy, registering yet another ongoing protest as the government tramples on their voting rights, public safety and peace with vanity construction projects, boring regime-sponsored C-list sporting events and a military occupation of their city. 

And still, they find joy. They wear their stickers and make specially crafted ribbons, even explaining ranked-choice voting in the city’s upcoming elections through soccer parallels.

Here, a stack of “Free DC” stickers share space with a ribbon cheering on Spirit star Trinity Rodman. Such is life in the city that suffers taxation, and now tyranny, without representation.

The Child Thinks: Claudia Martínez’s Pregame Pondering

Claudia Martínez is the youngest player on the Washington Spirit, at 18 years old. Despite Martínez now being a legal adult, it has not stopped a few folks, particularly friend and esteemed Spirit press box member André Carlisle, from channeling The Mandalorian and referring to her as “The Child.”

The Spirit’s answer to Grogu has also won over many fans and shown impressive abilities that well exceed what you would expect of someone as young as her.

She is tied for second on the team with three goals scored in league play and has played consistent minutes, including several starts. Despite the small sample size, her stats as adjusted per 96 minutes are among the best in the league.

It may just be Martínez scratching an itch, but she does look deep in thought, pondering as her teammates are drawn to fun distractions around her.

Something Good I Ate

On Sunday, we headed out to Leesburg to try an established, but new-to-us ice cream shop: Gruto’s Soft Serve.

Normally, I don’t think of ice cream as being worth a 35-to-40-minute drive, but once we got there, I was tempted by the prospect of their Snickers sundae. For good measure, I had them add graham cracker crumbles on top.

Between the sweet crunch of the graham crackers, the salty crunch of peanuts, and the mix of chocolate syrup, caramel and vanilla soft-serve, I quickly found myself in a delicious, textured mess of sweets.

The spoonfuls that emerged after the first few bites were works of art in their own right.

It was definitely worth the drive.

Just a note: Any opinions I express here are solely mine, and do not reflect the views of my employer, my coworkers, or anybody else affiliated with me. The newsletter is not monetized in any way and everything in here is written and reported with my own resources on my own time outside of my working hours unless specifically noted otherwise. “I’m Curious” is just for me, the author, and for you, the reader. Thank you for reading. I’m glad you’re here.