Heartwarming moment tennis star Ben Shelton comforts crying girlfriend Trinity Rodman after soccer championship loss

An emotional Trinity Rodman was consoled by boyfriend Ben Shelton after suffering defeat in the NWSL championship game on Saturday night.

Rodman, the daughter of basketball icon Dennis Rodman, and the Washington Spirit were stunned by underdogs Gotham FC in California, where Rose Lavelle fired home the only goal of the game with 10 minutes remaining.

Lavelle's winner ensured Gotham became the first ever eight-seed team to win the championship, while marking a devastating end to the season for Washington.

It proved a miserable evening for Spirit forward Rodman, who went largely anonymous after entering the game as a substitute in the 57th minute, failing to register a shot in the final 33 minutes of the game.

After the game, footage captured her being comforted by tennis-star beau Shelton as she burst into tears on the sidelines.

'It was sad, and I feel like you obviously have your team the entire year, but sometimes you just need your outside supporters and Ben is that for me,' Rodman said postgame. 'So I was just crying. I'm sad. It sucks and it's not just we lost a soccer game.

'It's all the work we put into it and it's nice to get that reward at the end, but at the end of the day we can still celebrate because we did so much.'

The 23-year-old, who went public with her romance with Shelton in March, has been recovering from a sprained MCL in her right knee over the past month, reducing her to less than 10 minutes of action in the lead-up to the championship game.

'I think naturally only having nine minutes going into a final is not ideal,' Rodman said. 'As much as I don't want to admit it, I still don't feel like I was my full self tonight, which sucks. I feel like this is the second year I've gone to a final not I feeling myself. So it just makes me sad.

'But yeah, for me, I was just trying to go out there and do what I could. I definitely underperformed.'

Rodman has also shown up to several tennis competitions to support Shelton, the current world No 9.

He said about his girlfriend over the summer: 'She's been grinding to pull up to a lot of tournaments this year. At the beginning of the year we're like: "We're not really going to see each other."

'And she's been to Munich, Madrid, Paris, Wimbledon, Mallorca, D.C., Cincy, here. We doing all right.'