Author: RJ Allen

The Game Changers: Week Two

Posted on by RJ Allen

The Game Changers is a weekly series looking at the three most important results of each week. Each section will look at one team and how its win, loss, or draw impacts the season.

Week Two of the NWSL season has come and gone. The Utah Royals played their first match of 2019 in front of a crowd of 18,000 at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night. The North Carolina Courage reminded everyone why they are the best in the league on Wednesday with a 5-0 win over the Orlando Pride. And the wildest match of the season so far unfolded in Chicago on Saturday, with a combined total of eight goals scored in 90 minutes. Here’s a breakdown of the week’s results:

North Carolina Courage vs. Orlando Pride (5-0)

Chicago Red Stars vs. Portland Thorns (4-4)

Sky Blue vs. Houston Dash (0-1)

Utah Royals vs. Washington Spirit (1-0)

Reign FC vs. Orlando Pride (1-1)

The Chicago Red Stars Raise the Bar In 4-4 Draw

It may have been fair to assume the match between the Portland Thorns and the Chicago Red Stars on Saturday afternoon would be fun. But no one could have predicted the madness that ensued at Chicago’s home opener. The game had everything except defense: a hat trick by Christine Sinclair, two penalty kicks, and Sam Kerr scoring on a crazy play.

This match feels significant for the Chicago Red Stars. The club seemed to be hovering around the No. 4 or No. 5 spot in everyone’s predictions, as though they will either just make the playoffs or just miss them. With this draw, Chicago showed that they can keep up with the top-level teams. They showed a new determination that might not have been there at this time last season. Chicago worked hard for that draw, and they earned it, courtesy of a 90th minute goal from Yuki Nagasato.

Chicago may only have two points right now, but they have a lot to be happy about. They faced the top two teams from last year in their first two games and managed to walk away with a solid result. With this draw, the Chicago Red Stars announced that they’re here to play: and they can hang with the best of them.

Sky Blue looks bad in 0-1 loss to Houston

Sky Blue had a chance to ease into the season, but already, things aren’t looking good. They lost their season opener 2-0 to the Washington Spirit and this week, dropped their home opener to the Houston Dash. Everything in this match seemed to go wrong for Sky Blue, including a missed penalty kick from Carli Lloyd and a last-minute goal from Sofia Huerta that ultimately lost them the match.

While Sky Blue created chances, they were few and far between. They’re still looking for their first goal of the season. Houston had the advantage in almost every stats category except for saves and clearances. The only real positive of the night was goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, who kept the loss a modest 1-0 when the Dash could have easily scored three or four goals.

Sky Blue started the season off against two teams that were in the bottom half of the table last season. Next week, they’ll host the Portland Thorns, who scored four goals against Alyssa Naeher on Saturday and two more against Ashlyn Harris the week before. After that, they’ll travel to North Carolina to take on the Courage, who also have six goals in their first two games. What Sky Blue’s loss to Houston confirmed was that despite their offseason efforts, they’re still as bad as they were last year. It’s gonna be another long season in New Jersey.

Orlando Pride show signs of life in 1-1 draw against Reign FC

It wasn’t an easy start to the season for the Orlando Pride, and it wasn’t a good one either. After opening their season against the Portland Thorns last Sunday, they traveled to Cary, North Carolina for a midweek match against the Courage before continuing on to Tacoma for a weekend match. After the match against the Courage, things were starting to look bad. The Pride had conceded seven goals in their first two matches and scored none. There were excuses: the Pride were missing some of their starters against Portland, they were playing the top two teams in the league by 2018’s standards, etc. But the Pride looked lifeless in their first two match. It felt like they were standing on the edge of the cliff, looking down at the long season ahead of them.

But on Sunday, the Pride revived. They still didn’t look fantastic against Reign FC, but they looked better and managed to get their first points of the season out of that match. They took an early lead thanks to a bicycle kick from Alanna Kennedy, giving the Pride their first goal of the season in the 6th minute. It took Reign FC about 15 minutes to equalize, and from that point on, both teams searched for the game-winning goal with no success.

The Pride have a lot of problems on the pitch. They aren’t aggressive enough in the final third, their defense has been non-existent, and their midfield is all over the place. But on Sunday, they showed that they can get a result against a quality side. They might be long shots for the playoffs, but they haven’t quite jumped off the cliff yet.

Welcome to American Soccer: Disability

Posted on by RJ Allen

This is the fourth article in the series “Welcome to American Soccer,” which focuses on equal treatment and access to soccer in the United States. The articles focus on where U.S. Soccer stands on a variety of issues and where they need to improve.

Defining Disability

Before I dive into the details of how U.S. Soccer approaches disabled athletes, I feel it is important to acknowledge the vagueness of disability in sport. We often talk about disabled athletes, as if all disabilities are the same. But there are many disabled players in the NWSL or on the U.S. Women’s National Team. Carson Pickett was born without a left forearm or hand. Kealia Ohai is legally blind in her right eye. Many professional players have learning disabilities, such as dyslexia.

So, what does being disabled mean when it comes to soccer? It’s not really clear. In this article, I will talk about the deaf national team and the Paralympic national team. The Paralympic team lists their qualifications here, but they do not cover the full spectrum of disability. Nor does the deaf national team.

In this article, I explore the narratives surrounding disability. It is interesting to think about why we consider disabled athletes in a category separate from the senior men’s and women’s national teams when there are notable players on both sides who are disabled. An important conversation is needed, beyond this article, to think about the segregation of disabled athletes and the perception of disabled athletes as a uniform group.

I understand the diversity within the category of disability, and I hope that in this article I have not come off as though I am sweeping everyone into one category. It’s a complex conversation, which should be led by the disabled community. Able-bodied people, such as myself, need to listen more than we speak. I just hope that through this article I can shed light on how the existing avenues for disabled athletes fall short and spark a conversation about how we improve the situation.

What do I know?

When I began research for this article, I admittedly knew very little about disabled athletes in U.S. Soccer. I assumed that the U.S. probably had a Paralympic team, although I couldn’t tell you whether there was one team or two or five. I couldn’t tell you what kinds of disabilities those athletes had, nor could I tell you how well they had done in recent competition. I couldn’t even tell you what their most recent competition was; the only time I ever hear about disabled athletes is in the lead-up to the Olympics and the Paralympics. And even then, coverage of the Paralympics is usually minimal, enough for media outlets to give themselves a pat on the back and say they did it.

When I started doing my research, I was surprised at how far I had to go for answers. When you go on the U.S. Soccer Federation’s website, and look at all the teams, you can go the Paralympic National Team page. This is not specified on the team site as being a men’s team, but as far as I could tell, all the players were men. If a women’s Paralympic team exists, I couldn’t find any information about them on U.S. Soccer’s website.

The information I was able to find on disabled athletes in U.S. Soccer remained choppy and unclear. There is a Disability Soccer Committee, presumably to advise U.S. Soccer on the best policies for inclusion of disabled athletes. When I did a general search on disabled athletes and U.S. Soccer, the most common result was the U.S. Soccer annual awards and their choice each year for “Player of the Year with a Disability.” In 2018, the award went to Gracie Fitzgerald, who plays for the U.S. Deaf Women’s National Team. I was able to find information about them on social media and their own website but couldn’t find any info on the U.S. Soccer website. I’m not even sure they are part of the federation.

We know that programs are there for disabled athletes. But we don’t really know anything about them.

Equal Pay, Equal Treatment

When I did my research, I found out that the Paralympic National Team is preparing for their own World Cup this summer in Sevilla, Spain. The team plays 7-a-side, and in their group stage, they will face Iran, Finland, and Ireland. They also have the ParaPan American Games in Lima, Peru two months later. It seems like this would be important information for U.S. Soccer to publicize, yet I hadn’t heard anything about it until now.

When I expanded my search beyond U.S. Soccer, I learned that the Paralympians had their own fight for equal pay with the U.S. Olympic Committee that has been going on for at least a decade. In 2018, Olympians earned $37,500 for winning gold, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. By comparison, Paralympians earned $7,500 for gold, $5,250 for silver, and $3,750 for bronze.

In September, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced that it would give equal medal bonuses for both sets of athletes. This action applied retroactively to the 2018 games, giving Paralympian athletes the money that they deserve and that they need to be successful athletes.

True Equality: One Tournament

Many Paralympic athletes are calling for a merging of the Olympic and Paralympic tournaments. In 2018, NBC aired 250 hours of Paralympic coverage compared to 2,400 hours of Olympic coverage. By the time the Paralympic athletes are ready to take the stage, the international press has largely gone home.

“Other people say they are household names, but they are not,” Ryan Raghoo told VICE Sports. Raghoo is a long-pole jumper from Great Britain. “People can win multiple Paralympic gold medals and not even be known in their own country, let alone be international superstars. I don’t see why there should be any difference because you’ve got a disability; that’s segregation. I get a lot of stick for this, but when I present myself, I present myself as an Olympian. I don’t describe myself as a Paralympian.”

The separation of the Olympic and Paralympic games also causes Paralympians to be framed through familiar caricatures. The stories of their disability often overshadow their performance in the game. Frances Ryan talked about this in a 2012 article prior to the kickoff of the London Olympics.

Athletes can be inspirational. The Olympics has shown this. Yet the inspiration that greeted successful Olympians is not the same as that being attributed to their disabled counterparts. An Olympian is deemed inspirational because of what they have achieved. A Paralympian is an inspiration because, despite it all, they’ve made it this far. It is, in part, a reflection of the unspoken thought that lurks in perceptions of disability: a disabled life is a dire existence that only the most courageous could “overcome”.

A narrative springs from this. The Paralympics gets depicted less as a sporting event and more a feast of courage. Back stories are given pre-eminence. It would be naive to think that broadcasters, striving for an angle that garners interest, would ever resist dissecting how a Paralympian came to be disabled or framing it as a battle against adversity.

Respect

In the previous article of this series, I suggested that transgender and nonbinary athletes may require us to rethink how we design sports. Disabled athletes require us to do the same. As Chef Jose Andres says, “People don’t want your pity. They want your respect.”

It seems outrageous to me that we aren’t talking more about teams like the Paralympic national team and the deaf national team. U.S. Soccer remains entrenched in an ableist mentality that can be seen across all areas of American soccer. But it’s up to them to do better, and it’s up to us to demand they do so.

In a Huffington Post article, professors Eli Wolff and Mary Hums argue that the future of sport brings disabled and non-disabled athletes together.

Embracing this opportunity for athletes with and without disabilities to compete together is the wave of the future. This inclusive mindset will be open to creative thinking and not limited by tradition. It is important to maintain and value the arena and domain of disability-specific competition, yet there is also an untapped platform where athletes with and without disabilities can excel and reach their potential together in integrated sports like wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, blind soccer, and sled hockey. These can be sports for all to play whether one has a disability or not. These are sports everyone can play.

Disabled athletes have a lot to offer the U.S. Soccer community. And U.S. Soccer has a lot left to do when it comes to inclusion and respect. U.S. Soccer needs to prove that disabled athletes are not just an opportunity to exploit an “inspiring” story. Disabled athletes are a community that U.S. Soccer has an obligation to treat equally, at the same levels as their able-bodied senior national teams. Anything short of that is a failure.

The NWSL Commentary Is A Paternalistic Mess, But It Doesn’t Have To Be

Posted on by RJ Allen

Commentary on the league is relentlessly positive, and it’s a disservice to players and to the audience at home.

I want to talk about a small moment from one of this weekend’s NWSL games. It happened at 67:30 in the Chicago-Portland game, when Christine Sinclair sent a ball over the top for Portland. It bounced freely toward the Chicago box, while Chicago defender Casey Short tried to send it away. But she whiffed her attempted clearance, putting Portland’s Tobin Heath clear in on goal. The shot was saved, but it was a clear error by Short (who otherwise had an excellent game).

There were some mitigating factors. It was a windy day, which had been wreaking havoc with everyone’s timing all day. And it’s not the easiest thing in the world to time a kick on a ball that’s moving away from you, particularly when you know you have one of the world’s best players on your shoulder. Still, this was a mistake from Short, and potentially a very dangerous one.

But when the replay was shown a few seconds later, Lori Lindsey provided the following commentary: “A fantastic ball over the top. So difficult for Casey Short to clear. Can’t get a foot on it, and mistimes it.”

It was a nice ball. But it certainly wasn’t difficult for Short. Even with the mitigating factors, this was a fairly standard clearance, and one that Short would expect herself to execute every time. So why did Lindsey call it “so difficult”?

Now, I don’t want to harp too much on one quick comment made in the spur of the moment. And if this were an isolated case, I’d think nothing of it. But it’s not an isolated case. Listen to discussions of Sky Blue, which constantly discuss their terrible luck, but not their mismanagement and tactical naïveté. Or discussions of Orlando, which emphasize their great mentality and spirit, but casually omit the long periods when they seem unmotivated or uninterested. Or look to discussions of specific players, whose strengths are constantly emphasized but whose weaknesses are omitted. In short, watch any game, and the ratio of positive comments to negative comments will be astronomical. Failures are excused, while successes are hyped. And the result is a discussion that feels relentlessly, oppressively optimistic.

Now, in a young league, in a sport that doesn’t get mainstream coverage, which is still trying to build an audience, it’s certainly tempting to talk this way. Why discuss the negatives? Why not spin everything as positively as it can be spun? But it’s a mistake, for two big reasons.

First, it’s disrespectful to the players. These are professional athletes, of the highest quality. They demand extraordinary things of themselves. To wave away their mistakes, to minimize their flaws, is paternalistic. It suggests that they need boosters, rather than honest commentary. Obviously, that shouldn’t descend into cruelty or attacks. But it’s absolutely possible to provide generous commentary which is also fair and accurate. It does no one any favors to pretend they are flawless.

Second, it’s an evasion of responsibility to the viewers. People tune in expecting the commentators to provide analysis and context. If what they get instead is relentless boosterism, they will not be informed, nor will they gain any new understanding. The point of providing expert commentary is that it can add depth and nuance. That means being willing to accurately describe failures as well as successes.

I certainly don’t want conversations to be entirely negative. Part of what makes sports great is the way they allow us to tap into a sense of unbridled excitement and even a little unreasonable optimism. People enjoy that sense of hope and possibility that unfolds with each new game. We appreciate that, on any given day, the worst team might beat the best or an unheralded player might overcome a superstar.

If broadcasts and commentary want to hype up that potential, that’s all for the better. The NWSL is an exciting league where everything feels possible. Discussing it shouldn’t feel like a grim march of cataloguing errors, tallying up failures, and calculating probabilities. But if everything is positive all the time, there will be no sense of shade or proportion. And that ultimately will only dull the edge of the excitement. In order for the magic to feel truly exceptional, it needs to be balanced by the mundane.

So tell the full story. Don’t shy away from describing failure. Do provide context, but don’t make excuses. Respect the players enough to hold them up to the standards they set for themselves. Respect the audience enough to tell them the truth.

Which USWNT Players Are Going to France?

Posted on by RJ Allen

In some ways the 2019 USWNT roster is the easiest USWNT in years to predict.

The forwards are pretty much set, the midfielders are too, defenders are all here and accounted for and unless Adrianna Franch somehow hurts herself again the goalkeeper corps have assembled.

On the other hand trying to figure out how Jill Ellis rates two players that are both unlikely to see the pitch much (if at all) is an exercise in frustration.

But the show must go on and rosters don’t form themselves on a blank page.

The Goalkeepers

I hate to give spoilers this early but Alyssa Naeher, Ashlyn Harris and Adrianna Franch are the goalkeepers for the 2019 Women’s World Cup for the USWNT.

The three net minders have been one of the more constant positions under Jill Ellis in the last year. So unless one of them takes a knock, Jane Campbell will be left behind.

What’s more, we probably know who is going to play every minute, barring emergency. If history follows the same pattern we usually see from the US in major events, Harris and Franch will be called upon only if Naeher somehow loses the ability to use both of her legs. Just one might not be enough to cause a goalkeeper switch for the US.

All in all this is maybe the most stable and easy to call group on the roster.

The Defenders

Most of the defenders are pretty easy to pick out. Keyword there is most.

Unless they somehow take a knock that sends them into the middle of next week Abby Dahlkemper, Becky Sauerbrunn, Crystal Dunn, Kelley O’Hara, and Tierna Davidson are locks.

But five defenders does not a defensive core make.

Likely two out of the trio of Casey Short, Emily Sonnett, and Ali Krieger make the final roster. Krieger is the surprise here, having been put back on the radar in the last round of USWNT friendlies.

My money is on Sonnett and Short. But Krieger’s mix of experience and Short’s apparent lack of favor from Ellis might shift that scale enough for her to slip just out of the final 23.

The Midfielders

Allie Long and McCall Zerboni are going to France. If you had suggested that to me in 2017, I would have belly laughed over it. But Ellis has seemly chosen them as the back up players for when she needs to put out something other than her best XI, or if she needs to make a late sub.

The easy picks here–Julie Ertz, Lindsey Horan, Sam Mewis, Rose Lavelle–make the roster in a walk. The four of them have been playing at varying levels of great for a while now.

There was a time when Andi Sullivan and Morgan Brian were easy picks here too but it seems that time has passed. Danielle Colaprico too seems to be on the outside looking in this round.

The Forwards

Alex Morgan, Christen Press, Megan Rapinoe, Tobin Heath and Mallory Pugh are France-bound in all circumstances less the catastrophic. Regardless of your feelings on her, Carli Lloyd looks to be included there as well.

My wild card here is Jessica McDonald.

McDonald is a throw back to the style of forward that is just bigger, stronger and able to be where you don’t want her to be when she needs to be. She doesn’t have the raw speed of a Press or a Morgan or the flair of a Heath or a Rapinoe but in a tough game she could be a difference maker.

Who goes to France and who doesn’t is more or less set. Ellis has shown us in the last year who she puts out against the top teams in the world and who sits in the stands.

The 23 below are a solid team. Time will tell if they are Jill Ellis’ idea of one.

Name POS Caps Goals Club Team
Adrianna Franch GK 1 0  Portland Thorns
Alyssa Naeher GK 43 0  Chicago Red Stars
Ashlyn Harris GK 21 0  Orlando Pride
Abby Dahlkemper DF 37 0  North Carolina Courage
Becky Sauerbrunn DF 155 0  Utah Royals
Casey Short DF 27 0  Chicago Red Stars
Crystal Dunn DF 83 24  North Carolina Courage
Emily Sonnett DF 31 0  Portland Thorns
Kelley O’Hara DF 115 2  Utah Royals
Tierna Davidson DF 19 1  Chicago Red Stars
Allie Long MF 42 6  Reign FC
Julie Ertz MF 79 18  Chicago Red Stars
Lindsey Horan MF 66 8  Portland Thorns
McCall Zerboni MF 9 0  North Carolina Courage
Rose Lavelle MF 24 6  Washington Spirit
Sam Mewis MF 47 9  North Carolina Courage
Alex Morgan  FW 160 101  Orlando Pride
Carli Lloyd  FW 271 107  Sky Blue FC
Christen Press FW 113 47  Utah Royals
Jessica McDonald FW 7 2  North Carolina Courage
Mallory Pugh FW 50 15  Washington Spirit
Megan Rapinoe  FW 150 44  Reign FC
Tobin Heath FW 147 28  Portland Thorns

Welcome to American Soccer: Cashing In On Equality

Posted on by RJ Allen

This is the third article in a series titled “Welcome to American Soccer,” which focuses on providing equal treatment and access to soccer in the United States. The articles focus on where U.S. Soccer stands on a variety of issues and where they need to improve.

In May 2017, English FA Chief Greg Clarke acknowledged how men’s soccer had fallen behind in LGBT equality. Speaking at an event called “Rainbow Laces,” at Old Trafford in Manchester, Clarke said that men’s soccer was “a couple of decades” behind the women’s game with regards to LGBT equality.

“I was at the Women’s FA Cup final and it was great, inclusive—there were gay people, straight people, transgender people, and it was a wonderful occasion,” Clarke said. “For me, when the finals in the men’s competition have the same feel, we will have succeeded. It is about the when the men’s game starts to feel as inclusive as the women’s game—then we are there.”

Clarke was praised in many circles for these comments, and rightfully so. However, while it is true that the women’s game is much more LGBT friendly than the men’s game, I do not believe that any soccer league or federation has gone far enough when it comes to respect for and inclusion of LGBT people.

Gender and sexual orientation play a different role in sports. Thus, I will divide this article into two sections: the first will look at the U.S. Soccer Federation’s approach to sexual orientation, while the second will examine policies and practices surrounding transgender and gender non-conforming people.

Sexual Orientation

U.S. Soccer has made efforts in recent years to be supportive of diverse sexual orientations, and that has been reflected to some extent both on and off the pitch. Both the men’s and women’s senior national teams have worn rainbow numbers on their jerseys for Pride month. They have donated money to LGBT organizations. Most MLS and NWSL teams have Pride nights.

In the women’s game, players of diverse sexual orientations are not hard to find. Megan Rapinoe, who is openly gay, has used her platform to promote LGBT respect and inclusion. Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger announced their engagement in People magazine last month, earning a wave of support.

The men’s game is not quite there yet. However, MLS has had two openly gay players. Robbie Rogers, who played for the U.S. national team, came out as gay in 2013. That same year, he joined the L.A. Galaxy and became the first openly gay player in MLS history. In 2018, Collin Martin, who plays for Minnesota United, came out as gay ahead of the team’s Pride night. With that announcement, he became the only openly gay male player in all of North America’s major sports leagues.

But both the men’s and women’s teams have run into issues with sexual orientation. For MLS, this includes suspending players and fans for homophobic comments. But the best example of U.S. Soccer’s ongoing struggle is the situation with Jaelene Hinkle.

In 2017, Hinkle was called up to the senior U.S. women’s team for a couple of friendlies. The matches were in June, and this was the first year U.S. Soccer decided to wear rainbow numbers to celebrate Pride month. Following the announcement, Hinkle withdrew from the camp and later revealed that she did so because of her homophobic beliefs.

The decision isolated Hinkle from the U.S. team for a while. But in 2018, she earned another call-up. U.S. Soccer’s decision left many LGBT fans feeling betrayed.

“It just shows they’re full of crap,” Kelly Trione said in an interview with SBNation. “They may legally be a non-profit, but it’s all about the money and they didn’t even try and pretend it wasn’t.”

It’s decisions like this that lead some LGBT players to stay in the closet and some fans to avoid the game altogether. While U.S. Soccer has done more than other federations when it comes to inclusion and respect for diverse sexual orientations, they have not done enough to stand up to discrimination in big moments—especially if it threatens their profit.

Gender

As the world becomes more gender-inclusive, U.S. Soccer is not the only federation dealing with tough questions. There is the less-difficult question of welcoming transgender players who still fall within the gender binary. A transgender man should be allowed to play for the men’s team. A transgender woman should be allowed to play for the women’s team. This shouldn’t be as controversial as it is, but across almost all sports, teams are failing to take the proper action.

But U.S. Soccer, like almost all other sports, also needs to confront the gender binary. Teams and leagues are divided into two gender categories. Where can people play if they identify as something else? What about players who are nonbinary?

As society becomes more gender-inclusive, this is going to be an increasingly important issue for leagues and youth systems to challenge. Unfortunately, the current inaction seems to suggest that soccer is okay leaving people behind.

The U.S. Soccer policy on gender says that in youth leagues, children should be allowed to play under the gender they identify as, as long as that identity can be confirmed by a doctor or a counselor. But it doesn’t say anything about nonbinary children, and it does not apply to professional leagues. According to U.S. Soccer, FIFA would need to take action before they can at the professional level.

Whatever reasons U.S. Soccer gives, the reality is that the environment created by the sport does not welcome gender diversity. Transgender athletes are prevented from reaching the highest level of their sport, if they are even welcome to play at all. Nonbinary athletes have nowhere to go.

This ultimately will require global soccer to rethink the gender binary and the way that FIFA has organized based on gender.

“Part of it is breaking down the sexism in sports,” Chris Mosier, a transgender man who competes with Team USA in triathlons, said in an interview with ESPN. “Since sport is so binary, it becomes complicated for anyone who is not male or female. We need to have conversations about what gender actually is and what are the attributes of a successful athlete.”

U.S. Soccer, like many major sports, has a long way to go before they create a truly inclusive environment for athletes of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity. They have made progress with sexual orientation but failed to stand firmly against discrimination. With gender identity, they are lagging behind, along with the rest of the sports world. They say they support LGBT athletes and fans: it’s time to take some action.

Song Remains the Same for Sky Blue to Start 2019

Posted on by RJ Allen

If fans of Sky Blue FC were hoping for a spark to distract from the off-season craziness they didn’t get it on Saturday when the team dropped two second half goals to the Washington Spirit in a 2-0 loss. The game was eerily similar to many of their 2019 games where the midfield was erratic and chances at goal were few.

Not too much blame can be put on head coach Denise Reddy. Her team had difficulty signing draft picks in the and the constant state of flux around the team may be making it impossible to stay focused on soccer. However, the tactics could have been altered against a Washington team that had their own problems in 2018. Instead it was much the same as Sky Blue suffered from mental lapses at key moments of the game.

“There are so many things that are different,” said Washington Spirit captain Andi Sullivan when describing the week one winners. “So many new faces, coaching staff is different, everything is different. So on the field, it feels like a totally different team and it’s a fresh start.”

That quote may sting both fans and players on Sky Blue who see many of the same issues from 2018. Washington made significant stride to avoid their horrid campaign, yet Sky Blue seems to be on the trajectory towards another disappointing run.

It is just week one. However it is difficult to separate the issues of last year from what plagued the team on the field against the Spirit on Saturday. In fact, it could be stated that Sky Blue has adopted many of DC’s issues quite literally. Three out of the five players brought in this off-season where from the Spirit last year.

Going into this week’s game against Houston, Sky Blue’s home opener, the search for progress will be paramount. A result of some kind would be optimal but a sense of growth and optimism is what is sorely needed.