As the Washington Spirit began its playoff run last year, Trinity Rodman’s status in D.C. was “questionable” in every sense of the word.
That described her availability with a knee sprain after months of navigating a frustrating back injury. And it described her contract negotiations, which became the most crucial in the history of the NWSL, a referendum on whether the league could retain stars in a changing landscape. Rodman did not play in the Spirit’s quarterfinal win over Racing Louisville FC. When she was subbed on in the last minute of the semifinal win over the Portland Thorns, fans treated the moment as a potential farewell, unsure if it was their last opportunity to see her in a Spirit kit at Audi Field.
It was not. Rodman and the Spirit ultimately negotiated a deal that changed the fabric of the NWSL and crystallized her commitment to D.C. Now, the club is heading back into the playoffs, with its sights on a third straight trip to the championship. And this postseason arrives with Washington’s young star in a better position than ever.
Rodman has followed up the frustrations of 2025 with the most well-rounded season of her career in 2026.
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“One hundred percent her best season,” Spirit coach Adrián González said last weekend. “And not just because of the numbers.”
The numbers are still worth noting. Rodman finished the regular season with 12 goals and 8 assists — both personal bests and her first time ranking top five in goals scored in the NWSL. After her injury struggles last year, she has appeared in every match this year, a benchmark that she has never hit before. The campaign has been the most consistent of her career, and it has come from a steadier, more seasoned player. Rodman said she has gained some perspective while growing into a leadership role.
“I don’t think people realize how much of a blessing it is to be healthy enough to play,” Rodman said. “I don’t think you realize that until you go through something where it keeps you from doing something you love to do.”
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Rodman has been the biggest star on Washington’s roster since the moment she was drafted in 2021. Few players in the sport have proven as electric or as marketable as the 24-year-old, who scored 3 goals as she led the U.S. women’s national team to a gold medal at the 2024 Olympics. But injuries and bad timing have prevented her from being at her best over the course of a full season for the Spirit — until now.
This will be the third time in three years that the Spirit open the playoffs at home at Audi Field — No. 3 seed Washington hosts No. 6 seed Portland in the quarterfinals at 3 p.m. on Sunday. But it will be the first time that it does so with a fully healthy Rodman.
The back injury that proved so vexing for her in 2025 was an issue in 2024, too, limiting her down the home stretch of that season. (In an ESPN docuseries that premiered earlier this year, Rodman said she has struggled with back pain since her rookie season in 2021.) She entered 2026 insistent that all she wanted from herself was to stay healthy.
“I’m just motivated to be on the field as much as I can,” Rodman told reporters at Spirit media day back in February.
She delivered on that. Rodman started every match and played the full 90 minutes in the majority of them. (Her durability is all the more impressive in light of NWSL expansion: The league pushed its schedule from 26 games up to 30 this year.) That good health was a major factor in unlocking her productivity. But there was more to her growth than simple availability.
The youthful mistakes that peppered her game a few years ago have now largely disappeared. Rodman has always offered remarkable pace and explosiveness. But she has become more strategic about how she uses it, and she has become more versatile, too. Traditionally at home on the right wing, she has grown just as comfortable on the left this season.
“Right now, this is a player that can play on both sides with a huge, huge potential in being able to score and assist from both,” González said. “That can help us a lot.”
And if her development as a player has been obvious to her teammates, her development as a person has, too.
“Being more mature in terms of leadership,” González said when asked what he saw from Rodman this season. “Taking more responsibility, being more vocal on the field, off the field, helping other players, new players.”
The Spirit turned over a significant portion of its roster this year. It also had to find some new sources of leadership: Established veteran players Andi Sullivan, Ashley Hatch and Aubrey Kingsbury each spent considerable time either on maternity leave or working their way back into the lineup. Rodman joked in the past that she was nowhere close to being a veteran: In her eyes, a veteran had to be 30, at least. But she relented on that point earlier this year. Maybe a veteran could be, say, 25.
Despite her youth, Rodman is among the most tenured players on this roster outside Sullivan, Hatch and Kingsbury. (She did not play college soccer — a decision that was once radical but has since become far more popular — and entered the league when she was 18.) She knows that she is a leader here. Her decision to re-sign with the Spirit rooted her in D.C. in a new way.
Even still, Rodman and the Spirit face a tricky path back to the championship. After losing Hal Hershfelt with a torn ACL, the team must figure out a new configuration in midfield. If Washington defeats Portland in the quarterfinals, San Diego likely waits in the semis, a particularly tough matchup as the Spirit lost both of its matches this year against the Wave. The 2026 season has been somewhat bumpier than 2025 or 2024. But the team knows this: Nothing is questionable, in any sense, with Rodman.
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