WASHINGTON DC -- Melissa Bethi's first NWSL start lasted 90 minutes and change, and by the time she left the field, the Algeria midfielder had already given the Washington Spirit a glimpse of why the club's league-leading investment in African talent is paying off.
Bethi scored the winner on 80 minutes as Washington came from behind to beat Portland Thorns 2-1, collecting the ball just outside the penalty area before driving a low shot into the corner.
It was the Spirit's first road win against Portland, and came barely two weeks after the 21-year-old joined up with her teammates after signing from French side Montpellier and competing at Women's AFCON.
She also came close to scoring on her debut against Bay FC on Aug. 30, the same day Cameroon midfielder Monique Ngock, a fellow new arrival, also made and impressed on her NWSL debut. This was not long after arriving from France following WAFCON, where Ngock was named the competition's best player.
Washington's core African Spirit
That quick adjustment is becoming something of a familiar story at Washington Spirit, who lead the NWSL in having the highest contingent of African players in the league.
Those include Ivory Coast forward Rosemonde Kouassi, Nigerians Gift Monday and Deborah Abiodun, and the recent additions Ngock, Bethi and Burkina Faso defender Alimata Bélem.
Washington have since also added Tanzania forward Clara Luvanga, taking the number of African internationals contracted to the club to seven.
Bélem, who signed a four-year contract in July, remains on loan at Spanish club SD Eibar through the end of the year and will join Washington for preseason in 2027.
Defender Elizabeth Tse, who is Canadian, is also of African origin, with ties to Ivory Coast, and considered representing that country before deciding on Canada and is gradually establishing herself as one of the Spirit's more reliable defenders.
Monday, like Bethi, scored in her first start for the Spirit, getting the only goal as Washington won 1-0 at Orlando, snapping the Pride's 22-match home unbeaten streak. Abiodun was also influential as a midfielder on her debut while Ngock, who came on for her first game on the same day as Bethi, left the Audi Field faithful impressed by the new acquisition.
But it would not be the first time the Rowdy Audi would enjoy success from their African imports. Kouassi is a current and active success story.
The Ivorian, who is the longest-serving African player in the current group, has developed into an important part of the Spirit attack since arriving from Fleury in 2024.
She had two goals and three assists for Washington this year before leaving for WAFCON and won the Golden Boot as the leading scorer in the 2025-26 Concacaf W Champions Cup. Through July, she had accumulated 10 goals and 12 assists in 50 appearances for the Spirit.
Monday, who joined Washington from Tenerife in March 2025, has also provided attacking depth. The Nigeria forward had made 40 appearances and scored 12 goals for the club by June. This season she scored the late winner against Bay FC in April and supplied the assist for Trinity Rodman's goal in a 2-1 win over Boston Legacy in July.
Abiodun had begun to establish herself in Washington's midfield after joining the club in 2025, before her sophomore season was cut short. The Nigeria international made nine appearances, including four starts, and played 320 minutes this season before being moved to the season-ending injury list.
Rarely have NWSL teams seen such consistent production from their African players, and it is no accident. At least, not according to newcomer Ngock, who says the entire organization have made it easy for her to settle in and play without any weight on her shoulders.
"They tell me, don't put pressure on yourself, just take one thing after the other," she told ESPN. "Everything is new for me, but I'm in good environment.
"I don't put pressure on myself, because the environment I am in right now, the people, the infrastructure, they kind of put everything at my disposal so I can perform."
This is important because Ngock arrived in Washington having just completed a demanding WAFCON campaign, starting five of Cameroon's six matches and playing 480 minutes as the Indomitable Lionesses won their first African championship.
Rather than immediately demanding that she catch up with teammates already deep into an NWSL season, Ngock said not only did the Spirit encourage her to take her time, but her teammates and the fans made her feel welcome.
"I am kind of blessed, because I'm in a really outstanding team. The girls are great, the energy is everywhere, you can almost smell it, there are positive vibes.
"I had to meet up with the girls and to try to keep up, but I don't put pressure on myself because everyone was helping me."
That adjustment is easier on the field than off it: "It is not really difficult when you have to speak football.
"It's outside the field that we have to understand each other. The languages, the culture, the cultural differences, and all this stuff."
Why DC is a safe haven for African players
As a team, Washington offers an unusual landing spot in that respect. The metropolitan area is one of the leading destinations for African immigrants in the United States, with nearby Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland among the country's largest concentrations of sub-Saharan African immigrants.
For players arriving from Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Burkina Faso or Tanzania, that provides access to pieces of home that can make the transition to a new country considerably less daunting.
Monday has spoken to ESPN about being able to find African food around the area, with African grocery stores and restaurants giving the Nigeria forward access to familiar food while living thousands of miles from home.
And now, once players arrive at training, they increasingly find other Africans already there waiting for them. Although that part is new-ish, Washington's connection with African players is not.
The Spirit were among the NWSL's earliest adopters of African talent. The first NWSL team to acquire a player of African origin was Western New York Flash, who signed Cameroon-born Estelle Johnson before the league's inaugural season in 2013, although Johnson, who grew up in the United States, did not begin representing Cameroon internationally until 2019.
Houston Dash, under Randy Waldrum, a year later, were the first to go directly to Africa, signing Nigeria defender Osinachi Ohale from Delta Queens in 2014.
Then, in 2015, Washington became the first NWSL club to recruit African internationals in numbers, signing Nigeria internationals Francisca Ordega, Ngozi Okobi and Josephine Chukwunonye.
Ordega would remain with Washington until 2018, making her one of the league's earliest long-term African players. More than a decade later, the Spirit's African presence is bigger than it has ever been.
Still, Spirit coach Adrian Gonzalez sidesteps any suggestion that the club has developed an Africa-specific recruitment policy, insisting instead, that the scouting is led by a talent first policy.
"We don't think or talk about country," Gonzalez told ESPN when asked about Washington signing so many African players. "We talk about talent. We just focus on the profile that we feel that the team needs.
"And from there, we just try to bring them in, thinking that they are gonna feed the team culture and identity, the way that we want to play, and bring in talent for the future for the club."
In fairness to Gonzalez, the Spirit's roster supports that point. Washington have built one of the NWSL's most international squads, with players from 12 different nationalities across North America, South America, Europe and Africa.
"We have players from all over the world," Gonzalez said. "I think that's part of our identity, that we are very diverse and we are happy with bringing people from all over the globe."
That diversity, is undoubtedly one of the recipes for the success of all of those players. Even so, the concentration of African players is becoming difficult to overlook.
At the recent WAFCON, six Spirit players, represented their countries, making up more than half of the 11 active NWSL players at the tournament.
The rest of the league's African representation was spread across Kansas City Current, Orlando Pride, Bay FC, Chicago Stars, Angel City and Boston Legacy.
That number has continued to grow since the tournament. Seattle Reign signed Ivory Coast forward Ami Diallo after WAFCON, while Kansas City added Cameroon defender Maëva Nyadjou to a squad already featuring Malawi star Temwa Chawinga.
Expansion club Denver Summit added Cameroon international Naomi Eto, who scored once and provided two assists as Cameroon won WAFCON and qualified for the 2027 Women's World Cup. She previously captained Cameroon at the 2024 Under-20 Women's World Cup and spent last season on loan from Paris Saint-Germain at Sassuolo in Italy, making 22 appearances, scoring three goals and adding an assist.
It is proof that African recruitment across the NWSL is clearly growing, and a sign of the recognition of African talent in the league. But Washington remain well ahead of the rest, and theirs is not just a case of collecting players, but finding the best ways of getting production from out of them.
Monday told ESPN that success comes from a jovial training ground: "Training is always fun.
"And every connection we have during match days starts from training. "
Ngock said the cultural differences remain, as do the different languages and backgrounds. But Washington, she says, has made those differences easier to navigate.
"I'm in a great environment," she said. "They kind of make everything easier for you to adapt, to be part of this team. So you just want to continue to develop yourself. You want to have fun."
And ultimately, Ngock says, there is a common language tying it all together: "When we have the ball in front of us, we speak the same language."
There is also the self-perpetuating element of what Washington have built. An African player considering the NWSL no longer has to wonder whether someone from her part of the world can make the transition successfully in Washington.
She can arrive at a dressing room where several teammates have made similar moves, in a metropolitan area where African communities, restaurants and grocery stores offer another connection to home.
Asked whether the Spirit could now be called the NWSL's "FC Africa," captain Andi Sullivan did not object.
"Okay, I'm fine with that," Sullivan said with a hearty chuckle. "I'm fine with that."
