What The Heart Wants

P's And Q's

Game day in the nation's capital saw the Hearts move at a more leisurely pace through the morning, with brunch at 10am and them checking out of the Hilton between 11:30 and Noon. In the locker room at the Maryland SoccerPlex, Ali was taking time to speak with each of her teammates about her pride in them being part of the club's inaugural squad. Lindsey, Emily, and Cari were clowning in one of the corners, while EJ was working on Morgan Reid's do for the match elsewhere. Erica, Carm, and Kristin had a short conversation in the team office about knocks that the team might be carrying (Sammy Jo's shoulder hadn't caused any problems since Thursday's twinge, while the sprained ankle Cami picked up in the Duke game had subsided enough for her to start and perhaps go 45 today), then walked out to the field. Ali and Steph Labbe said a few words to the rest of the team before they exited the locker room, followed by Sammy Jo, EJ, and Diana. Wendy, Bill, and Zach were seated behind the Hearts bench waiting for both teams to begin warm-ups. Lauren had been tasked again with providing play-by-play of the match for the club's website with video coming from one of the Spirit's interns by way of a handheld camera.

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The first half of the match between Philadelphia and Washington was highlighted by a running trash-talk contest between Steph McCaffrey and Sam Johnson after the Hearts forward entered the match in the 28th minute for Savannah Jordan. The Horan/McCaffrey combination picked up a tally in the 37th minute when Diana's through-ball to Steph was tapped over Spirit goalkeeper Kelsey Wys into Lindsey's path for an easy pass into the net. Just before the break, the Spirit nearly equalized as Cami was caught flat-footed against an accelerating Mallory Pugh, but the second-year forward's shot was easily deflected away from goal by Steph Labbe.

At the start of the second half, Jim Gabarra sent in Natalie Larkin in place of Sam Johnson, then scrambled the back line so Kassey Kallman was playing center back alongside Shelina Zadorsky and Alyssa Kleiner moved from right back to left. Wendy read through her Twitter feed during the first few minutes of the second 45 and came across something from the North Carolina Courage's account that might give an explanation for the substitution.

North Carolina Courage @ TheNCCourage - 17m

Hinkle suspended following locker room incident. http://nccourage.com/hinkle-suspension

Wendy clicked on the link and learned that, after practice at WakeMed Soccer Park today, Courage defender Jaelene Hinkle got into a verbal war of words with Morgan Brian and Kelley O'Hara, which was recorded by Meredith Speck. Following additional words exchanged between her and Heather O'Reilly, Hinkle attempted to leave the locker room but was stopped by captain Abby Erceg, who went with Hinkle to speak with head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak and general manager Cindy Parlow Cone. O'Reilly, O'Hara, and Brian were told by Speck that she had recorded some of Hinkle's derisive comments on her phone, which the three of them borrowed and brought with them to the coach's office. Upon hearing the full extent of Hinkle's bashing Brian for standing up her fiance to "bed down with a known chapstick lesbian", then deriding Sam Mewis and Abby Dahlkemper's coming-out at the NWSL final and claiming that "all hell has broken loose since those two along with their queer friends in Portland shoved their deviant behavior in everyone's faces", Sahaydak suspended Hinkle from all team activities through the weekend.

Bill quickly caught Wendy up on the match (the Hearts had picked up a second goal by way of McCaffrey re-directing a cross from Kristie Mewis) and she shared with her husband the breaking news from North Carolina, telling him that she was pretty sure Gabarra pulled Sam Johnson at halftime because he might be planning to deal her for the almost-certainly-on-the-trade-block Hinkle.

A poor clearance by Kleiner resulted in a corner kick for the Hearts, which Diana took. McCaffrey and Kallman jostled in the box, throwing the Hearts forward off slightly, which allowed DiDi Haracic to corral the ball before going to the ground with it. McCaffrey tripped over one of Kallman's feet and landed square on top of Haracic's left arm, driving her right shoulder into the turf. After getting off her, Steph signaled for a trainer as she knew the goalkeeper was in serious pain and could have a significant injury. While the trainer was tending to Haracic, Erica chose to lift Steph Labbe for Sammy Jo and pulled out several other starters (Lindsey, Emily, Cari, and Kristie) at the same time. Savannah McCaskill and Arielle Ship combined to bring the Spirit within one on a clever give-and-go which got the rookie forward around Morgan Reid for a well-struck shot past Sammy Jo at the near post. In the 73rd minute, Erica brought on Jen Hoy for Diana, moving Morgan Andrews to the center, and Steph Ochs in place of Ali, which allowed Becca to slide up to defensive midfield. The match's scoring concluded in the 81st minute on a bending Andrews corner kick that tricked goalkeeper Cassie Miller and tucked inside the back post.