It has been an up-and-down year for Washington Spirit midfielder Deborah Abiodun. In February, she signed a three-year contract with the Spirit after finishing her collegiate career at the University of Pittsburgh. The Nigerian international was immediately sent on loan to USL Super League side Dallas Trinity FC. In July, she was celebrating Nigeria’s triumph at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and making her mark on loan. But by the end of August, the Washington Spirit had recalled her for the final push of their National Women’s Soccer League season. Her first start came against Seattle Reign on September 7, and within 90 minutes, she looked less like a newcomer and more like the missing piece of the Spirit’s midfield puzzle.
The last seven games of the season are crucial as the Spirit look to secure second place in the league, behind the runaway leaders, Kansas City Current. The two teams are due to face each other this weekend. Abiodun’s immense display in midfield no doubt gives head coach Adrian Gonzalez a welcome selection headache going into the final stretch.
In her first outing, Abiodun gave the Spirit’s midfield a new dimension. The 21-year-old’s energy and positioning allowed the other midfielders to be more offensive-minded — Leicy Santos was able to push higher as a playmaker, and Hal Hershfelt to drive forward from box to box. Where Santos and Hershfelt brought creativity and movement, Abiodun provided balance: shielding the back line, recovering loose balls, and recycling possession. It was the unglamorous but vital role that allowed the Spirit to control the tempo and look more lively than in weeks past.
The former Pitt Panther acted as the conduit between the attacking and defensive line, able to both receive under pressure, turn, and play forward and break up plays. Abiodun constantly put the Spirit into good attacking transitions as well as defended her space in defensive transitions.
Seattle Reign set up in their 3-4-2-1 that shifts into a back five without the ball. That shape made it difficult for the Spirit to pull players out of position. Gonzalez rotated Kate Weisner and Gabrielle Carle to tempt the wing-backs out of position and use Trinity Rodman and Sofia Cantore to invite the center-backs into playing quicker, but Gonzalez quickly realized Seattle Reign had a spare player. This prompted Leicy Santos to push up and force the Reign defenders to go long.
This is where the Spirit started winning second balls and turning possession into attacking transitions in midfield, where Abiodun helped to sweep and pick up possession.
Abiodun covered the spaces you’d expect her to: the central attacking and defensive areas, especially on the left. In build-up, she focused on positioning herself in front of the center-backs, but as play progressed, she would patrol the central attacking areas to pounce on any loose balls and win back final third transitions.
In the above sequence, Abiodun put herself in the passing lane to block the pass into the Spirit’s defensive third. This interception shifts the momentum forward and eventually leads to Rodman getting on the ball.
In this example, Abiodun won the duel to retain possession centrally to control play again after the Reign won the long ball from goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury.
In possession, the Spirit set up in a 3-2 build-up structure with one of the three being Kingsbury. This setup was used to have both Hershfelt and Abiodun closer to receive and turn against the three Reign midfielders. Abiodun was as effective in possession as she was out of it; the Nigerian midfielder was confident on the ball and looked to turn her marker and force the Reign midfield to diverge centrally, opening the spaces out wide for Rodman and Cantore.
Though the Reign didn’t set out to hyper-press the Spirit backline, there was enough to force the Spirit into playing it a bit quicker. It was only once the ball reached one of the defensive midfielders that Reign put pressure on the ball carrier. On occasion, when the Spirit beat that pressing line, they had enough space to drive at Reign’s back line with the wide areas a target to attack.
The screenshot shows that there was a monstrous amount of space between the Spirit center-backs and Reign’s attackers. The ball was rotated between the centre-backs and the goalkeeper until it was eventually progressed through to the midfield with a longer pass. Both defensive midfielders were crowded out by the three attackers and the central midfielder pushing up.
Abiodun’s positioning in this screenshot was her most common throughout the game, though she was equally comfortable dropping deep or pushing up behind the Reign central midfielder with and without the ball. It’s what made Abiodun’s performance stand out — the movement between the attackers to find better positions meant the Spirit were able to take a few more risks to get the ball into the final third. She wasn’t afraid to show for possession and constantly looked to receive and turn to play forwards.
In this example, the Spirit are in a slow build-up sequence with the Reign using three to shadow-press the defenders, but eventually get pulled apart once the ball is played out to the right. That leaves Abiodun with extra space to receive from center-back Esme Morgan, then pirouette and evade Emeri Adames’ press coming in from behind.
The simple-seeming intricacies of Abiodun’s performance earned high praise from her head coach.
“Amazing performance,” Gonzales praised postgame. “[She is] the type of player that can play everywhere. We have a player that we can use in different [areas], she brings a lot of calmness and has patience [in play]. Defending, she’s very aggressive and has that physicality to cover a lot of space. [She’s also] very dynamic; when she goes higher, she can provoke [transitions] in the final third. We have a different profile that we didn’t have before.”
For the Spirit, this was one of their most consistent displays of the season — and Abiodun’s presence was undeniably central to it. As Gonzalez praised, her aggression, composure, and ability to cover space give Washington a different midfield profile than they’ve had all year. If the Spirit is to lock down second place and mount a serious playoff run, Abiodun may prove to be the difference-maker who turns potential into much-desired silverware.
