BALTIMORE — Despite selecting five players in the 2020 National Women’s Soccer League draft, Washington Spirit coach Richie Burke had to do something Thursday that left him in dismay.
In order to obtain three top-20 selections this year and a 2021 first round pick, the Spirit traded U.S. women’s national team forward Mallory Pugh to Sky Blue FC.
“It was disappointing for me, I have to be very honest. She was not a player I wanted to move,” Burke said. “That is the hardest thing I have had to do. To speak to a player that I had a really good connection to and to have to tell her we traded her, that was horrible.