3 most important takeaways from Week 1 of the 2024 NWSL season

2. With Trinity Rodman out, a youthful Washington Spirit looked toothless going forward against Seattle

Under 0.1 expected goals. Now, that's hard to do.

In the first match of Washington Spirit's new "Spanish era" of leadership, the NWSL club from the nation's capital managed to accomplish just that. Casey Krueger brought life to Washington as a fullback, but critical central assets like Ashley Hatch and Croix Bethune failed to make much of an imprint on the 90 minutes. In 64 minutes, Hatch had just 23 touches, the lowest she has had in an NWSL match since last August.

Ouleymata Sarr was the only Spirit player who had more than two touches in Seattle's 18-yard box all evening. Claudia Dickey, the North Carolina native who just made her league debut last year was only called into action just once, not counting the disallowed goal.

Even with Trinity Rodman back from red card suspension next week, this new system looks like it's going to have a significant adjustment period, especially with the reliance on youth we saw to kick things off. Three rookies made the debuts in the starting XI while two others subbed in 20 minutes into the second 45 minutes with the team down by one. With time, communication between all three lines will inevitably improve, but for now, it looks like the hill to success to pretty steep. We're not going to overreact all that much, considering Rodman was a spectator, but for Michelle Kang, this surely wasn't the start she was hoping for.

To make matters even worse, Audrey Kingsbury, the club's No. 1 shot-stopper is out next week due to a red card, thrusting an unproven 22-year-old Lyza Bosselmann into the spotlight.