ReportWire

Tag: trinity

  • Trinity Rodman, Spirit size up Gotham FC in NWSL championship

    [ad_1]

    (Photo credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images)

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Washington Spirit fell one win short of capturing the NWSL championship last year.

    They get another chance at grabbing the trophy on Saturday when they face Gotham FC.

    ‘Super pumped to be in the final again back-to-back years,’ Spirit star Trinity Rodman said. ‘Just focused on us and being able to take it home to D.C.’

    Rodman, and her team, also are focused on her health.

    The 23-year-old U.S. women’s national team star sustained a knee injury in mid-October that kept her out of action until she returned for a brief cameo at the end of the Spirit’s semifinal win last weekend.

    The extent of her availability for Saturday remained uncertain as of media day on Thursday.

    ‘Getting another week under my belt is nothing but positive,’ Rodman said. ‘I was able to get those minutes last week, and I’m really grateful for that. (The recovery) has been extremely smooth, and I’m hoping that we do really well this weekend and I can see the field again, hopefully for a couple more minutes.’

    Rodman acknowledged that the game will carry extra spice considering the Spirit beat Gotham in a penalty-kick shootout in last year’s semifinals. Gotham won the teams’ first meeting this season before the sides played to two scoreless draws.

    ‘Whenever we play Gotham, I think you never know what you’re going to get, which I think is the coolest thing about our sport,’ Rodman said. ‘… You have no idea what the result is, who’s going to score, what arguments are going to happen on the field. So I’m extremely excited to play Gotham again.’

    Gotham FC are seeking something of a rerun of their lone previous championship. They were the last playoff seed (then No. 6) in 2023 when they emerged on top. This year, they are the eighth and final seed in the playoffs, yet they are back in the final.

    The similarities end there, though, according to forward Midge Purce.

    ‘I think (2023) was a true Cinderella story where we really overcame, and I don’t look at this team and think Cinderella,’ Purce said. ‘(The final) is where we deserve to be for the amount of talent we have.’

    Gotham FC squeezed into the last playoff spot this year after going winless in their final four regular-season games (0-2-2).

    Then Gotham opened the playoffs against the league’s dominant top seed, the Kansas City Current, and pulled off a stunning 2-1 win in extra time. Katie Stengel’s goal in the 121st minute completed the upset.

    Gotham provided more dramatics in the semifinals at Orlando. Jaedyn Shaw’s 96th-minute free kick from just outside the penalty area bounced in the box and sailed into the far corner of the net, giving Gotham FC a 1-0 win.

    Shaw said of the postseason turnaround, ‘It’s the mentality. We knew that the past few games leading into the playoffs weren’t great for us, weren’t good performances, we weren’t getting results. So I think we knew coming in … we had to lock in and come together as a group and bring that mentality to win.’

    The Spirit, who fell 1-0 to the Orlando Pride in the 2024 NWSL championship match, finished second in the regular season this year despite failing to win their final three contests (0-2-1).

    Washington needed a penalty-kick shootout to get past Racing Louisville after a 1-1 draw in the quarterfinals.

    The semifinals weren’t as stressful for the Spirit. Washington jumped on top of the Portland Thorns in the 27th minute when Rosemonde Kouassi’s end-to-end run down the right flank set up Gift Monday for the opening goal. A second-half tally from Croix Bethune secured a 2-0 victory.

    Spirit midfielder Hal Hershfelt said, ‘We’re young, we’re fiery, but keeping our heads. It’s a huge game (on Saturday), but I feel like if we don’t deviate from the stuff we do all year, we’ll find ourselves (winning).’

    –Rick Kaplan, Field Level Media

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Former Trinity Broadcasting headquarters is sold and set to be torn down for new housing

    [ad_1]

    The distinctive former headquarters of the Christian media company Trinity Broadcasting Network in Costa Mesa has sold for $44.5 million, clearing the way for new housing.

    The purchase of the ornate palazzo-style structure by Meritage Homes was expected after city officials in August approved Meritage’s plan to build 122 townhouses and 20 single-family homes on the site just south of the 405 Freeway.

    Trinity, one of the world’s largest religious television networks, sold its Costa Mesa complex in 2017 after describing it as obsolete. The center dates to 1978.

    It was most recently owned by Khoshbin Co., a Costa Mesa real estate company that positioned the property as an event venue.

    Khoshbin paid $22 million for the six-acre property in 2021, according to real estate data provider CoStar.

    “We’ve spent over $1 million improving the site, beautifying it, and I think the neighborhood really enjoys seeing some life [come back] into the property,” Manny Khoshbin told the city Planning Commission last year.

    “We’ve been getting a lot of requests for events, weddings and birthdays, because it’s such a beautiful landscape,” he said.

    The structure across the freeway from South Coast Plaza on Bear Street will be torn down to make way for the new housing. It has been a subject of fascination for years.

    “With its classical columns, mirrors, faux gold and white marble everything, the Trinity compound’s look is ‘Gone With the Wind’ meets Caesars Palace,” The Times wrote in 1998.

    “White walls are adorned with gold-framed floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Visitors climb the sweeping white marble stairway and come upon a 15-foot-tall statue of Michael the Archangel, his wings spread, his left foot planted on Satan’s head, hovering over the gilded grandeur,” the Times article said back then.

    The gold-painted dome ceiling has a florid original mural of angels that Trinity Broadcasting founder Paul Crouch called “Orange County’s own Sistine Chapel.”

    It will take about two years to redevelop the site as housing, Meritage told the city.

    Planning commissioners credited Meritage’s plan for providing more housing in Costa Mesa, where 60% of residents rent their dwellings. There is high demand for housing in the coastal city and costs are climbing, the Daily Pilot said.

    Meritage will designate seven units for very low-income occupants.

    The new complex aims to provide housing for “the missing middle,” a segment of the population looking to move beyond renting but who cannot yet afford single-family homes, by offering townhouses that enable buyers to build equity, then move up the housing pyramid, the Daily Pilot said.

    [ad_2]

    Roger Vincent

    Source link