Western New York Flash win NWSL title on penalties after 124th-minute equalizer

For the first time, the Western New York Flash are NWSL champions, and in dramatic fashion. They had to come from behind twice, with Washington Spirit star Crystal Dunn scoring a brace, and forced penalties through a dramatic 124th-minute goal by league MVP Lynn Williams. The star of the shootout was Flash goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo, who made three saves to help the Flash to a 3-2 win on penalties after a 2-2 draw.

The Spirit has played in a 4-3-3 formation all season, but switched to a 3-5-2 for this game to have an extra center back to deal with the Flash’s star striker pairing of Williams and the league leader in combined goals and assists, Jessica McDonald. While they hadn’t started a game with that strategy before the final, they have switched to it late to close out games, and head coach Jim Gabarra said during a halftime interview that they’d been practicing it all season.

Dunn’s first goal came just nine minutes into the game on an incredible individual effort. Megan Oyster set it up with a long ball over the top of midfield and Dunn beat the defense for pace, rounded D’Angelo and placed an impressive finish just inside the near post from the edge of the box.

But the Flash were level just five minutes later, with another USWNT star coming up with an excellent goal. Williams put her MVP credentials on display, losing her defender on the left flank and squaring for Sam Mewis, who got to celebrate her 24th birthday with an excellent strike from 20 yards.

In the 22nd minute, the Spirit were forced into an early substitution. Left wingback Caprice Dydasco picked up a knee injury while challenging for a 50-50 ball, and was replaced with Alyssa Kleiner.

While the first half featured lots of exciting attacking play, things settled down a bit in the second half, with neither team wanting to make a crucial mistake. Both teams started keeping the ball better and sending fewer players forward on counters, content to go to extra time if they couldn’t scrape a lucky goal.

But extra time was a completely different story. Just over one minute into the added 30 minutes, Dunn scored her second goal of the game, taking advantage of some sloppy defending. Three Flash players were in position to close her down on the edge of the box, but none did, letting her place a left-footed shot into the top corner.

The Flash had much more of the ball after that, as the Spirit were gradually backed into their own half while trying to hold onto the lead. It looked like the Spirit were going to be able to pull it off, but the pressure from the Flash proved too much, and Williams came up with another MVP-like play.

With the last touch of the ball, in the 124th minute, Williams powered a header into the back of the net to force penalties. As she has done a half-dozen other times this season, McDonald provided her with the setup, placing a perfect cross just outside the six-yard box.

Western NY took the lead during the first round, with Abby Dahlkemper converting while Ali Krieger had her penalty saved. Both takers made in the second round, and the Spirit leveled things in the third. McDonald put her penalty over the net, then substitute Katie Stengel leveled the shootout at 2-2. But the Flash quickly took the advantage again, with Williams scoring in the fourth round and Tori Huster producing an effort that was easily saved. But the roller coaster continued, with Spirit keeper Kelsey Wys extending the shootout by saving Mewis’ shot. That brought up Diana Matheson, but D’Angelo made her third save of the shootout to give the Flash the 3-2 win on penalties.