It’s been a long wait for the Washington Spirit, with the coronavirus pandemic upending plans for the entire NWSL, but they’re just hours away from finally playing a competitive match in 2020. The Spirit will face the Chicago Red Stars in the second game of the NWSL Challenge Cup, an event thought up to preserve some kind of league schedule after Covid-19’s arrival prevented anything close to the originally planned slate of games from being played safely.
It’s been a strange trip to this point, but the Spirit are trying to take it in stride.