NWSL games at Subaru Park are homecoming for Washington Spirit and Gotham FC players

Brittany Ratcliffe grew up driving across the Commodore Barry Bridge from her home in Williamstown to junior club training in Wayne, looking out of the window at Subaru Park. She was then, and remains now, a Union fan.

But only now, in her ninth season as a professional, will the 30-year-old finally get to play a professional match in her hometown football stadium.

It will happen Sunday, when Ratcliffe’s Washington Spirit take on Mexico’s Chivas in the opening weekend of the NWSL summer tournament against Mexican clubs (4:30 p.m., CBS Sports’ Golazo Network streaming platform and TUDN), as the leagues pause their regular seasons while the Olympic stars are in France.

“It’s going to bring a lot of emotion and excitement — it’s going to be surreal,” Ratcliffe said. “I don’t know what to expect, but I know it’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

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There will be many friends and family in the stands, so many that she can’t keep track of the official number.

“I’ve had people that I went to elementary school with, high school with, say, ‘I bought a ticket. I’m going to see you,’ and I’m like, ‘Wow,'” Ratcliffe said. “I think the coolest thing about coming back to Philly is realizing how many people follow women’s sports, or follow you, or follow your team, and you don’t realize that until you get the chance to come back home.”

Barnhart’s many memories

It’s the NWSL’s first visit to Subaru Park since Gotham played a game there in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Gotham returns here on July 28 to “host” Washington in the tournament (6 p.m., Golazo Network). But one of Washington’s players played in Chester long before that.

Gilbertsville goalie Nicole Barnhart is still active at age 42 and is in the 15th year of a career that has spanned two U.S. professional leagues.

Thirteen years ago, Barnhart was a member of the old Philadelphia Independence, playing at the Union’s home stadium — then PPL Park — in the last season played by a local major professional women’s sports team. The Independence spent most of their two-year existence in the small college football stadiums of West Chester and Widener, and their only game at the area’s football stadium was a playoff game in 2011.

“A lot of great memories,” Barnhart said, and that playoff game was one of them: a 2-0 shutout of the old MagicJack SC team of Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe and Christen Press. “The opportunity to come back and be in front of friends, family, former teammates, at home and in a really incredible stadium, I think it’s going to be fun.”

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One of those friends will be the Union’s lead video analyst, Jay Cooney. He was an assistant at Stanford when Barnhart played for the Cardinal and helped her get a volunteer assistant position there when she graduated in 2004 and there was no American professional league to play in.

Cooney played for Stanford for 11 years and then moved to Sky Blue FC of the NWSL (the former name of Gotham FC). He has now been a member of the Union organization for nine years.

“He kind of took me under his wing and guided me in terms of coaching,” Barnhart said. “It’s always fun to see him, but to know that he’s in the stands and he’s there supporting me and seeing me on the field, it definitely means a lot.”

An example for the union in the NWSL?

The Union have home games on the Saturdays of these weekends, and Barnhart and Ratcliffe will be paying attention. Not just because it’s their hometown club, but because they know Cavan Sullivan and all the other great young talents that the Union academy has produced.

These days, it’s common for elite young soccer prospects to skip college, attend professional youth academies, and turn pro as teenagers. But in women’s soccer, it’s still standard practice for top players to attend college for a while and then make it to the NWSL.

That tide is slowly beginning to turn, as this year’s U.S. Olympic team shows. Lindsey Horan, Mallory Swanson and Jaedyn Shaw turned pro without attending college; Trinity Rodman turned pro after her freshman season at Washington State was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and Korbin Albert, 20, a rising star for the U.S. team and France’s Paris Saint-Germain, left Notre Dame after her sophomore season to turn pro with PSG.

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But NWSL teams still don’t have full-fledged youth academies like MLS teams. It’s a hot topic in the league, and players in the Philly area know all too well what that could look like.

“It’s what elevates the game,” said Barnhart, who also played 54 times for the U.S. national team. “I hope everyone has the same agenda to help grow and develop players, to help generate and develop the best players in the world. And I think we’re a little behind in this country, frankly, because we don’t have that system.”

It would cost a lot of money to build the infrastructure and ensure that teens can develop in a safe environment. Barnhart hopes to see that happen, not only as a veteran player, but as a leader of the NWSL Players Association.

“It’s obviously a huge investment, but I think it’s the investment that’s needed to take this competition to the next level, honestly,” she said.

Or a Philly NWSL team?

As for the possibility of a Philadelphia NWSL team at some point, there has been little talk of expansion lately, with more focus on the pursuit of a WNBA team.

“I have no doubt that Philly can do it,” said Ratcliffe, who has played for six NWSL teams. “Philly is — everyone talks about it — the greatest sports city in the world. I think if they got a women’s team, they would support it, but it just takes a lot of work to promote it.”

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The Spirit is heavily marketing, with ads throughout the Washington Metro system and unmistakable billboards at Amtrak’s Union Station.

The region has long had a strong fan base for women’s soccer, as evidenced by the attendance and TV ratings of U.S. national team games. The Independence drew large crowds by their league’s standards, as did the Charge in their league two decades ago — with Ratcliffe in the stands to help out.

“It would be great if Philly ever got a team, that goes without saying, but the fact that the Spirit can come here and play and increase the visibility of women’s soccer is awesome to me,” she said.

When Ratcliffe said playing here would be “a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she quickly realized it didn’t have to be that way.

“I hope it happens every year,” she said, as hopeful as every other women’s soccer fan in the city.

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