PORTLAND, Ore. – “Thunderstorm. Chicago Red Stars. Game got stopped. I think we might have been 1-0 up.”
Mark Parsons’ first NWSL win didn’t go as he would have planned. Forty-nine wins later, he can look back on that day in Chicago with some whimsy, seeing how far he’s come since taking over a wayward Washington Spirit five years ago.
“My first game we tied, and it was like winning the World Cup,” he remembered. “Then we lost seven straight. Then we won, we won, and we tied. We beat Chicago, 1-0, then we beat Seattle, 1-0, then we tied Sky Blue, 1-1.