A historic rookie season came to a close much too soon recently. On Wednesday, September 4th, the news broke that rookie of the year frontrunner, and Olympic gold medalist Croix Bethune would be added to the season ending injury list after tearing her meniscus. Though sad news for fans of women’s soccer and the Washington Spirit alike, she gave us an absolutely brilliant season that nobody will forget. And I wanted to talk about this season, and the things that jumped out to me as special during it, because Croix Bethune is a hooper.
But first, a quick background on Bethune, and some context for the season: She is 23 years old, 5 feet and 3 inches tall, and was the third pick in the NWSL draft. Prior to the draft, the Georgia native did represent her state at the University of Georgia, but that was after 3 consecutive First Team All-Pac 12 (RIP Pac) honors at the University of Southern California between 2020 and 2022. She also was Pac-12 Midfielder of the year in two of those 3 seasons, and was 2nd team All-SEC and then an SEC Tournament MVP winner in 2023 to close out her college career at UGA. Considering that she made it happen in both the Conference of Champions, and where It Just Means More™, we knew would be welcoming a baller to the NWSL. But in the leadup to the draft, things were looking less certain regarding the situation of the club she was joining. After trading away key contributors in Sam Staab and Ashley Sanchez coming off of an underwhelming season, there was a feeling that the top picks the Washington Spirit got in exchange for them would be part of a larger long term project spearheaded by their new coach, Barca Femení tactician Jonatan Giráldez. It was also assumed this would be a difficult task, a project of sorts. So it was a fairly pleasant surprise that pretty quickly the Washington Spirit under interim manager Adrián González and with key rookie contributors like Croix Bethune, Kate Weisner, and Hal Hershfelt, were good. Like, really good. And this was before Giráldez even touched down at the capital to get to work (the European season was still taking place). There were many factors behind this strong start, and Bethune herself, as well as the way she fit into the team, are the ones we will discuss today.
So let’s lead off with looking at how Bethune’s role in the team evolved, and led to the Spirit becoming team we recognized as a force in the NWSL during the first half of the season:
Initially, in her opener with the Spirit (A 1–0 loss to the Seattle Reign), González played in a 442 without the ball, and a 325 type of shape with it (for those who know, a very popular approach these days). This form featured Bethune next to striker Ashley Hatch leading the press without the ball, and then her tucked into the right half space with the ball (little note for those who might be daunted by the numbers: The specific shapes are not very important, just a due diligence thing, but the idea that she was leading the press, and played close to a striker is). At this stage the Spirit were fairly slow and static with the ball. The focus in this setup felt more like it was on controlling the game, and slower buildup, rather than quickly transitioning into attack and utilizing the ability of Bethune and Sarr (at this point a left winger) to attack space (they also missed the dynamism of Rodman, which could be part of why they played fairly slowly). Despite this, once in a while there were flashes of Bethune’s ability to attack space quickly in transition moments, and pieces of good dribbling and passing.
Now, in the screenshots below, we fast forward to a Spirit win against the same opponent a few months later, and we can note a few changes about Washington’s shape and Bethune’s role. She is still close to the striker (in this 4231/4411), but now she is paired with a different striker. Ashley Hatch was moved to the bench, and now leading the press is Ouleye Sarr.
With the ball, Washington with this new look played more fluid and faster, and definitely took full advantage of Bethune and Sarr’s chemistry and the ability of Bethune, Sarr, and Rodman to attack space. Bethune was also given more license to wander, checking into a wider range of spaces than before in possession, including not only playing next to, but running in behind, Sarr. And to expand on what I mentioned earlier, the synergy and movements of Bethune, Sarr, and Rodman together were very important. At times Sarr would check to the ball, and draw in a defender which created room for Bethune to break through behind the back line, or both Sarr and Bethune would check to the ball, bringing defenders with them, and Rodman would fly across from the opposite side into the space in behind (both of these types of movements resulted in goals against Seattle in this game, with the scenarios pictured below).
It seems Bethune was given more room to work because the full backs, and also the double pivot (the two deep midfielders, Hershfelt and Sullivan) were more restrained. They often waited to fill in spaces left over by the front 4 (Sarr, Bethune, Rodman, plus left midfielder Kate Wiesner), and exploited spaces left behind by the team trying to defend the front 4. Also the back 4 plus 2 did the important work drawing defenders to them in buildup with the goal of springing the front 4 into space, as well as trying to spring the front 4 into space in transition after winning the ball deep, winning the ball via the press, and winning second balls. The objective was to start patiently, but then attack fast and play the ball into space behind defenders immediately when the opportunity presented itself, and also balancing that with passing to the feet of the forwards checking to the ball in front of the back line, using them as a reference point for players to make runs off of. This is the Washington Spirit that is fairly recognizable from the first half of the season with Adrián González. They were a team that could score goals in a flash, and did.
In this discussion of Bethune’s role, I was kind of debating what position Bethune specifically is best at, and I settled at this kind of hybrid of a creative 10 and second striker considering these factors listed about Washington’s in possession objectives. Her movement in between the opponent midfield and defensive lines, and her creative passing behind Sarr are areas as key to her game (and to the way the Spirit played) as her movements beyond Sarr into spaces in behind defenders, and off of Sarr to find space in the box.
Now that we have gone over Croix Bethune in the context of the Spirit as a team, and what came (immediately) before her arrival, we can talk about the traits of Croix Bethune the individual that made her such an impactful player in her rookie season:
The first thing that stuck out to me about her, which won over both fans, and points for the Spirit, was the fact that she was a clutch performer in her games this season. One thing that is indicative of a top player is the ability to produce moments of magic in moments that matter, and Bethune started doing this pretty quickly into her time in the NWSL. In her second game as a pro, in fact. Let me set the scene: The Spirit are deep into added time, pushing for a winner with the score tied 1–1 against Bay FC, and there are just seconds left on the clock. The ball is hoisted into the area late, and it falls to Bethune near the edge of the box. She then does this:
It is just an astonishing feat of skill to produce a pair of touches and a finish like that with the clock against you to get your first win of the season. And then it doesn’t even stop there. In June, with the Spirit searching for an equalizer in the last minutes of added time against a tough San Diego defense, the ball is floated in behind, and look who is arriving into the box to finish in brilliant style yet again:
Croix Bethune is definitely a player who understands the moment, and has no problems stepping up to meet it. A top tier player.
Also, these clips demonstrate another key aspect of her game, which is her movement and instincts in the box. She is able to not only notice areas in the box to attack, but also she does well tracking the flight of the ball to make sure she times her movements properly, as well as having the nous in the box to be able to improvise and create openings to get a shot off. Her toolbox when it comes to finishing is also overall very good. She can score at different angles, both striking through the ball with power and also being able to place well curled finishes into the corners.
But what she’s famous for isn’t goalscoring, despite 5 goals in 17 not being a bad return. It is her creativity and her ability to get assists that has absolutely set the league alight. And to look at how she does that, we have to put two final aspects of her game under the microscope:
- The 6th Sense: Bethune seems to always find the right spaces in between the lines and in behind, and she also is able to patiently and intelligently draw defenders to her with the ball to then brilliantly carve a path through them to a teammate. She is just constantly aware of where everyone is on the pitch. A place where this quality manifests itself is in her very prolific connection with striker Ouleye Sarr, which resulted in 5 of Bethune’s record tying 10 NWSL assists being to Sarr. She just seemed to have a 6th sense for where Sarr was, and was able to make the perfect movement off of Sarr to find space, or lay the perfect through pass in Sarr’s path based on her run. And often she is laying these perfect passes, and putting defenders in checkmate with her brilliant composure and timing, while driving at back lines at full speed. It is really something to watch. My favorite clip demonstrating the way Bethune was able to drive at defenders, bait them in, and slip in a speeding Sarr is this assist against Angel City:
And a great example of Bethune’s movements off of Sarr as a second striker in the final third, and also another example of their brilliant chemistry, is this great piece of combination play to set up a smooth curled finish against the Seattle Reign:
2. The Art of the Final Action: The final thing that sets Bethune apart the most to me, is that her final action is just always so unbelievably clean and her decision making is so sharp. When she sees an opportunity to set her teammate through on goal, the pass is timed wonderfully, weighted beautifully, and leaves the attacker with options; A true red carpet pass. When she floats a cross in, it is placed right onto the target and not too difficult to finish. She creates with such a high level of deftness and composure in so many different situations, which makes her an absolute chance creating machine. Her creative ability is not just backed up by the assists, but also evidenced by the fact that she is second in shot creation actions from live ball passes in the NWSL, only behind her teammate Trinity Rodman, and has the third most key passes in the league, with first place also being Trinity Rodman (fbref). So to close this piece, I wanted to put in a clip of my personal favorite pass from Bethune this season. It is one of her many red carpet through balls, but this time guiding Brittany Ratcliffe to the spotlight against the Chicago Red Stars:
It is everything I talked about in this piece and more: Precise. Quality. Clean. Croix.
