Washington, D.C
Washington Spirit outlast Gotham FC in penalty kicks to advance to NWSL final
A trio of saves by goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury halted the defending NWSL champion in its tracks, as the Washington Spirit outlasted Gotham FC in a game that went the distance. The Spirit converted its first three attempts in alternating order with Kingsbury’s saves to end the shootout sequence with the fewest rounds necessary.
Washington returns to the NWSL championship for the first time since it won the title in 2021, where it’ll face the winner of Sunday’s other semifinal between the Orlando Pride and the KC Current.
“I just wanted to do whatever I could to help the team win,” Kingsbury told the CBS broadcast after the game. “We’ve been practicing for these, and just to grind out those 120 minutes, I knew they would come through and make them (the penalties). I just did my part.”
TICKET PUNCHED.
The Washington Spirit are heading to the NWSL Championship after defeating Gotham FC in PKs.
🎥 @AttackingThird | @WashSpirit pic.twitter.com/4Cl3QGMRnc
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) November 16, 2024
It was a result that frankly flips the game on its head from where things stood as it reached second-half stoppage time. At that point, Gotham was carrying a narrow 1-0 lead, earned shortly after halftime. Some nimble interplay between Yazmeen Ryan and Rose Lavelle led to a Ryan cross that fell inch-perfectly to Esther González’s forehead. The Spanish striker’s header lobbed back across Kingsbury’s goal, putting her in an awkward position and making her unable to stop it from falling into her net.
However, Washington pushed hard to bring things level. The Spirit outshot Gotham 9-2 following González’s opener until the end of regulation, keeping the defending champion on their heels as Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amorós replaced attacking-minded players with defensive alternatives in hopes of icing the game.
Ultimately, Hal Hershfelt was up for the big moment.
The budding USWNT star and Spirit midfielder rose up after a Makenna Morris free kick to tower over Gotham’s zonal marking scheme and power the ball past Ann-Katrin Berger. The majority of the 19,365 fans in attendance met her goal with a near-deafening cry of cathartic jubilation. After another Hershfelt header fell atop Berger’s goal in the 96th minute, it was clear that this game would require extra time.
Now playing without its ideal complement of attackers, Gotham seemed content to attempt counterattacks and keep its shape in hopes of reaching the penalty shootout. Bruninha made that task more difficult in the 101st minute, being sent off after earning a second yellow card to the delight of the crowd following a challenge on Trinity Rodman.
Once the shootout arrived, the 20 minutes of shorthanded soccer appeared to catch up with Gotham. So, too, did the voracity of the support behind Washington; while home crowds are often referred to as a 12th player for soccer teams, that advantage proved to be even more palpable against a Gotham side playing with 10.
“I think it’s more just the confidence and having the fans behind me,” Kingsbury said. “I was really trying to get them into it, because I knew that would give us a great advantage, for their penalty takers coming up and trying to make one in front of that wall of fans. Like, I would be scared.”
The game continues an impressive stretch by the Spirit in the wake of Croix Bethune’s season-ending meniscus tear. Before her knee injury, Bethune was playing at a level that didn’t just land her on Emma Hayes’ squad for the Olympics but had her in pole position for rookie of the year and the NWSL Best XI. Without Bethune (and U.S. international Andi Sullivan, who suffered a torn ACL in October), Washington has leaned into a deep pool of capable if unproven box-to-box midfielders, arguably led by Hershfelt — herself a rookie, as well.
Washington also underwent a coordinated midseason coaching change, as Jonatan Giráldez joined the club in June following the end of FC Barcelona’s season. He inherited a side that was already operating near the top of the NWSL table under interim Adrián González, and to his credit, he kept them whirring at a high level without missing a beat.
To reach the final after missing the playoffs altogether in 2022 and 2023 is no small feat, and Saturday’s test shows Washington will be a tough opponent in the final no matter who advances from the other game. Ultimately, their return to the championship largely has Kingsbury, Hershfelt and a packed Audi Field to thank.
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(Photo: Amber Searls / USA Today)
Washington, D.C
12th Honor Flight Tallahassee returns home from successful trip to Washington D.C.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
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Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.
Washington, D.C
Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week
4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
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