Category: Analysis

The Conversation Around NWSL Attendance And The World Cup Sucks

Posted on by Backline Soccer

*in best Liz Lemon voice* God, what a year.

With the 2019 season mercifully over and 2020 already here, it’s time to talk about how far the league has come since its second coming and where it now stands, attendance-wise.

I warn you all now that this is a conversation that my editor, RJ Allen, and I have been having no less than twice a week for the past six months. This is a conversation that makes my blood boil and my organs melt. But it is the hill I have decided is mine and that I must roll a rock up like I am the NWSL version of Sisyphus.

While the NWSL may still be in its surprised but welcomed infancy, there’s no denying that the organization has managed to make a name for itself in its seven years here on Earth. The NWSL does, however, have a habit of making a name for itself in the wrong sort of way. I mean, what other league would have a regular season game played on a baseball field or go this long without a commissioner?

For being the best and most competitive league in North America, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of fans. At the games, I mean. In fact, attendance being a game of haves and have-nots seems to be something of an open secret in the league. Watching certain games played in certain stadiums seems to drive the point home as the camera pans over rows and rows of empty seats, sometimes almost surprisingly so depending on the day or teams playing. But it’s not ALWAYS bad.

Every four years, the league receives what has been dubbed the World Cup Boost. Legend has it that during a World Cup year attendance climbs to new heights as fans come in droves to see their champions play in clubs they’d been ignoring for the first half of the season.

The 2015 World Cup was the first real test the league would face in terms of keeping butts in seats while the superstars were away. With a path of destruction behind them and a certain sense of trepidation before them, it was a nervy time for the league as they broke for the World Cup break. The fears would be laid to rest when attendance shot up in all but two clubs.

Boston Breakers

  • Pre World Cup 2015: 2,373
  • Post World Cup 2015: 3,598

Chicago Red Stars

  • Pre World Cup 2015: 5,481
  • Post World Cup 2015: 3,363

FC Kansas City

  • Pre World Cup 2015: 3,295
  • Post World Cup 2015: 2,888

Houston Dash

  • Pre World Cup 2015: 4,418
  • Post World Cup 2015: 8,408

Portland Thorns FC

  • Pre World Cup 2015: 13,769
  • Post World Cup 2015: 18,443

Seattle Reign FC

  • Pre World Cup 2015: 2,654
  • Post World Cup 2015: 5,465

Sky Blue FC

  • Pre World Cup 2015: 1,298
  • Post World Cup 2015: 3,080

Washington Spirit

  • Pre World Cup 2015: 3,025
  • Post World Cup 2015: 5,148

Western New York Flash

  • Pre World Cup 2015: 2,135
  • Post World Cup 2015: 3,584

The NWSL being able to put more butts into more seats post 2015 World Cup is good. That is a fact. But it’s also true that the league wasn’t ready to fully bank on the bump coming from the World Cup.


As Charles Olney wrote about in Women’s Soccer Is Far Too Conservative, it was even more so in 2015.

Before we get into 2019 and yet another bonkers year, one thing I believe is important about attendance are the national team players and how they’re marketed by the league.

It’s no secret that the NWSL leans very heavily on the national team players to bring in fans. I’ve often commented that the NWSL markets friendlies and national tournaments better than their own seasons, flaunting and bragging about how the national team plays in THEIR league and that’s why they’re so good. Often times it feels like the NWSL is just an USSF academy in disguise. And It’s not only the American national team players getting touted. The NWSL also likes to pimp out their Canadian, Australian and Brazilian players as well; neglecting the other players in the league who work just as hard with almost nothing to show for it in terms of recognition from the fans and the league they play for.

And it’s not just the players the league neglects, it’s the fan base and the real demographic within it. Right now it feels like the league only cares about little girls. The league front office needs to start looking over their sales and see who’s paying for season tickets, for Wednesday night games, for beer cozies. Stop neglecting the 18-35 year olds and market to them. That’s the demographic that pays the kind of money to sit THAT close to the pitch, that pays out the ass for jerseys, scarfs, shirts, jackets, and hoodies. Little girls aren’t shelling out the money, neither are mommy and daddy. By marketing to ONLY little kids, the NWSL is telling the college kids and adults that they don’t care about them, just their money.

Now with a benchmark for success after a victorious and decisive 2015 World Cup win and the knowledge that they can weather missing its superstars and a break, the league was ready for the World Cup. As I wept bitterly about France once again coming so close and failing yet again, the Americans would go on to win, proving that luck and arrogance are the winning combination.

With all that being said, let’s talk about 2019. First, the numbers.

Chicago Red Stars

  • Pre World Cup 2019: 4,288
  • Post World Cup 2019: 6,055

Houston Dash

  • Pre World Cup 2019: 3,714
  • Post World Cup 2019: 5,269

North Carolina Courage 

  • Pre World Cup 2019: 4,907
  • Post World Cup 2019: 6,842

Orlando Pride

  • Pre World Cup 2019: 4,705
  • Post World Cup 2019: 6,424

Portland Thorns FC

  • Pre World Cup 2019: 18,052
  • Post World Cup 2019: 20,780

Reign FC

  • Pre World Cup 2019: 3,605
  • Post World Cup 2019: 6,282

Sky Blue FC

  • Pre World Cup 2019: 2,864
  • Post World Cup 2019: 4,699

Utah Royals FC

  • Pre World Cup 2019: 10,757
  • Post World Cup 2019: 10,790

Washington Spirit

  • Pre World Cup 2019: 2,990
  • Post World Cup 2019: 4,607

To start, I’d like to mention that those pre-World Cup numbers are dope as hell. Considering that numbers for the first half of the season are bleak, these are really good.

There are three clubs that I really want to highlight: Washington Spirit, Sky Blue and Reign FC.

The Spirit would play two games in Audi Stadium, home to D.C. United. Their first game against Orlando would draw in 19,471 fans. An incredible showing for the fans of both the Spirit and the Orlando Pride, with Washington winning the game 2-1. In their next game against Reign FC, crowds of 17,418 would once again show their support and cheer their team on to a 2-2 draw.

Sky Blue also saw success at an MLS stadium. Sky Blue played two games at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ. Their first game saw 9,415 fans and their last game had 8,314 fans. As with Washington, drawing between 8,000-9,000 fans shows the support for Sky Blue is there. Minus those two games, Sky Blue was seeing 4,600 fans with an increase of 1,800, which is how much they were averaging LAST SEASON.

The Seattle Reign packed their bags and headed south to Tacoma and got an updated name of Reign FC. They settled into a new stadium and kicked off their season with their old Seattle fans and new Tacoma fans. Their third home game had 3,032 fans, four less than their second home game. Their return home game would tell a better story, having set an all time franchise record of 7,479 fans. New adventures lay just beyond the horizon for this team, as it was recently reported that French powerhouse Olympique Lyonnais were in negotiations to buy Reign FC and set up shop for the upcoming 2020 season.

Despite how far the NWSL has come, their overall attendance falls flat of where it could be if the league put in 10% more effort or demanded 10% more from the teams. I find it ridiculous that in stadiums with a 20,000 seat capacity, a club can barely crack eight thousand. And it’s even more ridiculous to me that Chicago, Houston and Orlando have such consistently low attendance for their markets. It’s even more ridiculous that North Carolina Courage – back-to-back NWSL champions North Carolina, the most hated team North Carolina, the underdogs of the league North Carolina – YES THAT NORTH CAROLINA COURAGE – is not selling out every weekend. For all the numerous articles that other women’s soccer journalists and pundits write about women’s soccer making it in America, it’s hard to take that seriously when there are seas of empty seating at so many games.

The debate around NWSL attendance sucks. It sucks because gains are overblown and losses under reported. It sucks because there are teams that show you can get 10,000 plus fans to games week in and week out if you treat the fans like adults and have the team play in a stadium fans can get to. But it sucks most of all because the NWSL is a league that has honest to God amazing players who will never put on a national team kit that they didn’t themselves buy at a store. It is full of players who we should support and talk about and cheer on not because women’s soccer is a charity but because they are damn good.

I want the NWSL to do well, I really do and that doesn’t happen until the teams, the media and the fans stop living in a world where 4,000 people at a match is celebrated.




Ranking the top players of 2019

Posted on by Backline Soccer

Earlier this week I wrote a piece complaining about the end-of-year awards voting. In particular, I was frustrated to see Megan Rapinoe sweeping all the big awards, despite producing a fairly middling (by her own high standards) 2019. With Rich Laverty’s wonderful Top 100 project for The Offside Rule and The Guardian wrapping up today, we finally got a more informed take on the world’s top players from a broad set of voters who are far more engaged in the game.

And this time around, Rapinoe finished all the way down at…third.

Hmmm.

Well, in the interest of trying to be productive, rather than merely sitting on the sidelines criticizing everyone else, I decided to give it a go at producing my own list of the top 40 players. It was tough, and I don’t feel remotely satisfied with the final list. It’s extremely hard to judge players, especially when it’s so difficult to see league play across the world, when most international matches outside of the World Cup tend to rely on dodgy streams for distribution, and when statistical records are limited or nonexistent.

Given those constraints, there’s simply no way to prevent bias playing a big role. For strikers in the top leagues, we at least have pretty good information about goals and assists. But who is good at holding up the ball? Who contributes most to link-up play? Who makes excellent runs that expose defenses? Much harder to say. And for everyone else, there’s often literally almost nothing to go by. Who were the best center backs in the Frauen-Bundesliga this year? Having seen only a handful of games, I’m stupendously unqualified to make that assessment.

So it’s understandable why names often matter more in the voting than performance. People know names, but the performances are mostly hidden. I’m certainly not free from that kind of bias myself. But lists like these are still helpful because in encountering multiple different perspectives, we all come to a better understanding about those parts of the game that we’re less in tune with.

With all those caveats stipulated, here is my list of the best players of 2019:

  1. Sam Kerr (Australia – Chicago Red Stars)
  2. Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands – Arsenal)
  3. Amandine Henry (France – Lyon)
  4. Julie Ertz (US – Chicago Red Stars)
  5. Crystal Dunn (US – North Carolina Courage)
  6. Caroline Graham Hansen (Norway – Barcelona)
  7. Pernille Harder (Denmark – Wolfsburg)
  8. Ada Hegerberg (Norway – Lyon)
  9. Griedge Mbock Bathy (France – Lyon)
  10. Lucy Bronze (England – Lyon)
  11. Christen Press (US – Utah Royals)
  12. Ewa Pajor (Poland – Wolfsburg)
  13. Dzsenifer Maroszán (Germany – Lyon)
  14. Kosovare Asllani (Sweden – Linköpings/CD Tacón)
  15. Nikita Parris (England – Manchester City/Lyon)
  16. Sam Mewis (US – North Carolina Courage)
  17. Danielle Van de Donk (Netherlands – Arsenal)
  18. Becky Sauerbrunn (US – Utah Royals)
  19. Sara Däbritz (Germany – Bayern Munich/Paris Saint-Germain)
  20. Debinha (Brazil – North Carolina Courage)
  21. Abby Dahlkemper (US – North Carolina Courage)
  22. Nilla Fischer (Sweden – Linköpings)
  23. Kim Little (Scotland – Arsenal)
  24. Wendie Renard (France – Lyon)
  25. Christiane Endler (Chile – Paris Saint-Germain)
  26. Kadidiatou Diani (France – Paris Saint-Germain)
  27. Beth Mead (England – Arsenal)
  28. Eugenie Le Sommer (France – Lyon)
  29. Jenni Hermoso (Spain – Barcelona)
  30. Jill Scott (England – Manchester City)
  31. Casey Short (US – Chicago Red Stars)
  32. Marie-Antoinette Katoto (France – Paris Saint-Germain)
  33. Amel Majri (France – Lyon)
  34. Carli Lloyd (US – Sky Blue FC)
  35. Ellen White (England – Birmingham City/Manchester City)
  36. Lina Magull (Germany – Bayern Munich)
  37. Magdalena Eriksson (Sweden – Chelsea)
  38. Mapi León (Spain – Barcelona)
  39. Barbara Bonansea (Italy – Juventus)
  40. Kailen Sheridan (Canada – Sky Blue FC)

A few comments on some of these players. Starting at the top, it’s incredibly hard to pick a single player as ‘the best’ over the year. I can see a plausible case for everyone in the top 10. They’re all fantastic. In the end, it was Kerr for me, by a hair. Her performances in the NWSL were absurd, and by themselves would have earned her a prominent place at the top of this list. She was also virtually the only Australian to not completely fall apart. And she won the Golden Boot down in the W League. But boy is it hard to argue against Vivianne Miedema, who somehow just continues to get better.

Julie Ertz and Crystal Dunn, meanwhile, were easily the best American players in 2019. Ertz dominated the defensive lines, whether as a #6 or as a center back, and was probably the single most important player on the World Cup winning team, and came very close to being as important as Kerr for the Red Stars. I had Dunn in 4th place for the NWSL MVP for half a season’s worth of games. She was that good. Then consider that she was deputized as a fullback for the World Cup winners. And while I didn’t think she played especially well during the World Cup, she did enough. That kind of versatility is invaluable.

I have Press at #11, which might be too high. But I still don’t think people understand just how outrageous her performances have been this year, for both club and country. She was the difference between Utah being a playoff contender and an also-ran. And she recorded a ridiculous 12 assists for the US, finally truly owning the wing role that she had struggled with for so long.

Dzsenifer Maroszán is ‘only’ at 13 thanks to the injury that effectively killed her World Cup in the opening 20 minutes. I’m still incredibly angry about that game.

I’ve got a few forwards pretty high on the list based partially on their incredibly impressive statistics. From what I’ve actually seen with my eyes, I probably wouldn’t put Beth Mead quite this high. But there’s no denying her record. She’s an assist-machine. Nikita Parris also gets some extra credit for a dominant WSL season last year (in which she actually led Miedema in xG).

I used the last few slots to pick players that I personally really enjoy watching. The margins at this point are pretty thin, and I certainly don’t feel confident that they were strictly better than the 10-20 great players who fall just beyond that mark. But León is a fascinating player, who plays a huge role in setting the style for both club and country. Bonansea is a bit hard to judge, given the relative weakness of the Italian league, but her performances in the World Cup certainly suggest we should take her numbers there seriously. And Sheridan just completed an absolutely bonkers NWSL season. You could certainly make a case for Van Veenendaal, Naeher, Nayler, Bouhaddi, Lindahl, Alexander, etc. as the next-best keeper behind Endler. But for my money, it’s Sheridan. And it might not be long before she’s clearly the best.

The four players I was most frustrated at leaving off the list were Saki Kumagai, Sherida Spitse, Sara Gama, and Mana Iwabuchi. It’s quite possible that each of them belong much higher. But I just wasn’t able to see enough of them, so couldn’t be confident. I’m also pretty sure there are some Scandinavians who deserve to be a bit higher. But again, I just haven’t seen them enough to be sure.

Conclusion: ranking players is extremely hard, and I commend everyone who put serious thought and effort into it. There may be objectively correct answers, but I don’t know if any of us (apart from maybe Sophie) are capable of finding them. I’m quite confident that players like Rapinoe, Morgan, Lavelle, and Heath are getting massively overrated in most of these lists. They’re all great, certainly, but they didn’t produce enough in 2019 to deserve a spot. However, it’s quite likely that I’m just as guilty of overrating some players from other leagues based on reputation too. So it goes.

Ultimately, all we can ask is that people try, and hopefully we can continue to learn from each other in the process.

Megan Rapinoe had an iconic year. But she wasn’t the best player.

Posted on by Backline Soccer

I am a huge fan of Megan Rapinoe. Over the course of her career, she has been one of the most dynamic and exciting players in the game. Pinpoint crosses, aggressive playmaking, thumping shots and delicate tap-ins, and maybe the best throw-in mojo in the world. I’ve been lucky enough to see her in person a good fifteen or twenty times, and it’s always a joy.

She’s also one of the most important voices in the game today. She takes stands for important causes, wears Audre Lorde’s name on the back of her shirt, and always provides honest and insightful comments on demand. She’s a superstar, and we’re lucky to have her.

But she wasn’t the best player in the world in 2019, and it’s not a close call.

It’s not surprising that she’s taken home all the major awards, of course. She won the Golden Boot at the World Cup, and therefore also won the Golden Ball. And awards-voting being what it is, there was never going to be anyone else at the top of these lists.

But we shouldn’t let ourselves be resigned to this fact. Awards don’t matter that much, but we all still do care about them—from fans to media to players themselves. They are signals of respect, honors for special performances. They should go to the players who earned them. And it’s beyond the realm of plausibility to argue that Rapinoe’s performances on the pitch earned these awards.

Rapinoe’s year was iconic, not great

Over the course of 2019, Rapinoe played 1075 minutes for the United States and 333 minutes for her NWSL club, Reign FC. She scored nine goals and recorded seven assists for the US, and added nothing to either of those numbers in the NWSL. A forward who contributes nine goals over a calendar year maybe be a useful player, but is nowhere close to the elites of the world. Just by way of comparison, Sam Kerr notched 43 goals in 2019, while Vivianne Miedema is closing in on 50.

To even put Rapinoe in the conversation for best in the world, you would have to decide that club performance is basically irrelevant, and would have to massively downgrade international performances outside of the World Cup.

But even narrowing the focus to that extent still doesn’t actually work. Yes, Rapinoe won the big awards in France, but was she actually the best player in the tournament? No. And she really wasn’t even close. She scored six goals, which is obviously a lot, but also isn’t an especially noteworthy total for the Golden Boot winner. And consider the nature of the goals. One came at the tail end of the Americans’ 13-0 drubbing of Thailand—a game in which Rapinoe looked rusty at best. Three more came from penalties. Penalties count as much as any other goal, of course, but the worst penalty takers in the world will still convert about half their chances. There’s value in being the person with the nerves to stand there and do the job, but it’s hard to believe that one of the many other world class Americans couldn’t have done the same.

Her final two goals both came in the quarterfinal matchup against France. One was a strange free kick that somehow failed to be blocked by three different French players. It was a bit of a freak result, though Rapinoe absolutely deserves credit for taking the shot and giving herself the chance to find the opening. The other came from open play—a nice reminder of what a fantastic player Rapinoe is when she’s at her best.

That France game was a genuinely excellent performance, and is certainly the crown jewel of her case. In arguably the biggest game of the year, she played well and delivered the decisive goals.

But one game is just one game, no matter how important. And outside of that match, she was average at best. Against Sweden, Rapinoe looked lost, regularly giving the ball away, and struggling mightily to create anything. Against Spain in the octofinals—probably the closest the US ever came to losing—the American attack was pathetic. They managed a measly two shots on goal, and created virtually nothing from open play. A large part of that is because Spain deliberately shunted the US attack out left, giving Rapinoe chance after chance to create something. She never did.

Rapinoe then missed the semifinal to injury, and the difference was notable. In the same role, Christen Press not only scored a brilliant goal, but also contributed significant defensive work—something the US had been missing from the hobbled Rapinoe. And when she came back for the final, the injury that had left her out of the previous match remained notable. She once again scored a penalty, but looked well off the pace of play.

The final tally: one great game, a couple average ones, and a couple stinkers. She did provide critical nerve in converting some big penalties, and was an important leader on the best team in the world. That’s not nothing. I didn’t include her on my Best or Second XIs for the tournament, but I understand why many reasonable people might disagree.

But those five games are the entirety of her case. Outside of France, she contributed virtually nothing over the rest of the year. And if you’re going to reward someone for a transcendent performance on the biggest stage, it better be truly transcendent. This wasn’t, by any stretch.

We should absolutely celebrate the iconic nature of Rapinoe’s World Cup. We’ll look back at this decades from now and remember her standing, arms outstretched. We’ll remember her drawing the ire of the president. We’ll remember the way it changed our collective conversations about the sport. That all matters. But it has nothing to do with whether she was the best player.

Picking the right players for awards is hard, but it’s important to try

Again, I want to reiterate how much I appreciate Megan Rapinoe. She is one of my favorite players of all-time, and I have been thrilled to see her resurgence in 2017 and 2018. She was famously taken to the Olympics in 2016 while still recovering from an ACL injury, only to be subbed on and back off in a horrible half-hour of the US quarterfinal exit to Sweden. At that point, it looked like her time as a key contributor for the US might be coming to an end. But instead, she came back revitalized, shifting her style of play to become more physical and direct and actually getting better in the process. She really was one of the best players in the world over those couple of years.

So I don’t begrudge her the accolades that are raining down this year. She’s been one of the best for a long time, and there is literally no one I’d rather have as the face of global soccer in 2019.

But I care about the sport as a whole. I want people engaged in it to take their responsibility seriously. I want considered, engaged debates that reflect the accumulated knowledge of experts. I want performances to matter more than fame.

This is not an easy thing. As my friend Kieran Theivam has noted, the availability of statistics is extremely limited. Matches are hard to see. Good commentary is hard to find. I consider myself reasonably well informed about the global game, but that’s purely a relative comparison. I have been able to watch maybe three Frauen-Bundesliga games this year, a handful from France, a couple from South America, basically none from Asia. My colleague Sophie Lawson has expressed the same feelings, and if you know Sophie, you know there is almost no one in the world who watches more (and a more diverse range of) women’s soccer than her.

If it were my job to cover the global game, I could certainly watch more. But it’s not my job because that job basically doesn’t exist. There are a handful of people in the world who can actually devote their full time to covering the sport. The rest of us are either amateurs or professionals who can only devote some of their limited bandwidth to the game.

So I have no confidence in stating who I think should have won all these awards. But to my own eyes, the shortlist should be: Vivianne Miedema, Sam Kerr, Julie Ertz, Amandine Henry, Crystal Dunn. You could also make credible cases for players like Ada Hegerberg, Pernille Harder, Ewa Pajor, Kosovare Asllani, Lucy Bronze, Griedge Mbock Bathy, Caroline Graham Hansen, Debinha, and others.

You could extend out another rung and bring in dozens more truly excellent players, all of whom contributed more over the course of the year than Rapinoe. That’s not a slight to Rapinoe, just an honest reflection of what actually happened.

We are blessed with an unbelievable amount of quality in the game today. Awards season should be a chance to celebrate that talent. It should inspire a bunch of heated and engaging conversations about how to assess the relative quality of leagues, and a diverse range of performances. It shouldn’t be about anointing the most famous player simply because she’s famous.

I know we aren’t there yet, and I certainly wasn’t surprised to see Rapinoe sweep the awards. But just because something is predictable doesn’t make it good. And I don’t accept that we have to treat this as an inevitability. We should demand more. The players are delivering unprecedented excellence on the pitch. We should also demand excellence from those evaluating and analyzing them.

The North Carolina Courage have built a dynasty. How did they do it?

Posted on by Backline Soccer

In 2018 the North Carolina Courage were the most dominant team in the history of American women’s soccer. For obvious reasons, they were clear favorites to retain the title coming into 2019. But after a 2-1 loss to Reign FC at the end of May, they were stuck on a mere nine points from their opening seven games. And things weren’t exactly looking up, since they would be forced to spend the next six weeks without most of their best players, who would all be busy at the World Cup in France.

How quickly things change.

In fact, the Courage reeled 15 wins in their final 19 matches in the season, including a 4-1 win in the semifinals over the Reign and a 4-0 demolishment of the Chicago Red Stars in the final on Sunday. That victory secured a second straight NWSL title, and third in four years. In their four playoff games in the last two years, they’ve scored a combined 13 goals while conceding just one. 

It’s now time to call this team the first true dynasty in the history of American professional women’s soccer. That’s no slight against some of the other great teams from the past—the 2014-2015 Seattle Reign and FCKC teams, the WPS-era FC Gold Pride, and a number of WUSA teams able to draw from the very best players in the world. Those teams were all great, but none accomplished anything close to what the Courage have achieved.

So how did it happen?

The first part of the story isn’t about the Courage per se. It’s simply the fact that the NWSL has survived long enough to make a dynasty possible. WUSA and WPS each folded after three years. Three years into the NWSL, the Courage didn’t exist yet. But their prior incarnation (the Western New York Flash) had managed an appearance in the debut final before slinking to successive 7th place finishes in 2014 and 2015. Hardly the sign of an incipient dynasty.

But the tide was already ready to turn, thanks to some truly inspired draft picks, and an even more inspired coaching change. We’ve heard plenty about the ridiculous 2015 draft class, which netted the Flash:

  • Abby Dahlkemper—now one of the best center backs in the world
  • Sam Mewis—now one of the best midfielders in the world
  • Lynn Williams—now one of the best forwards in the world
  • Jaelene Hinkle—now one of the best fullbacks in the world

It was a truly outrageous haul. Those four players have been the centerpiece of this club’s incredible run. But it’s not enough to simply draft talented players. You have to develop them, shape them, and get them to play together. And that’s exactly what Paul Riley has done.

Riley is infamous for his obsession with narrative—particularly his insistence on calling his team ‘underdogs’ even as they bulldoze over all opposition, and his #NoFinishLine branding—but there is a powerful truth that underlines those clichés. Riley is a good coach in every respect, but his genius is in cultivating a team dynamic that earns total buy-in from everyone. That’s incredibly difficult to do, and even harder to maintain. And it’s probably the key thing that has allowed his team to sustain their excellence.

Everyone knows that you can build team cohesion by using an ‘us v. them’ dynamic. That’s the easy part. But those sort of teams are unsustainable, because you can’t sustain an antagonistic approach indefinitely. People get tired, the buy-in fades, and the team falls apart. Riley’s genius has been to modulate the intensity—never letting up, but also never pushing his team over the brink.

His team has remained dogged and hard-working, even as they took over the league. They’ve preserved their physical dominance, even as they have improved technically by leaps and bounds. Most importantly, they’ve remained happy warriors even in the face of relentless pressure.

Riley said repeatedly over the championship weekend that his team was in the best physical shape he’d ever seen them. At the pre-game press conference he said “this is the freshest I’ve seen our team in the last four years.”  On its face, this seems unbelievable. It’s been a long season, and plenty of his players are clearly ready for a break. But if you watch them play…it suddenly feels believable. Everyone else may struggle with the minutes, but North Carolina on Sunday looked eager and ready.

Facing a truly excellent Chicago team, the Courage didn’t blink once. They simply overran them, imposing their style and making life absolutely impossible for the Red Stars. Chicago features one of the most technical midfields the league has ever seen, with world class ball-handlers like Morgan Brian, Danielle Colaprico, and Vanessa DiBernardo. They were absolutely nowhere in the final. Every time Chicago touched the ball, multiple Courage players swarmed around them. Every pass that was anything less than perfect was intercepted. Every loose ball was chased down by North Carolina. Every 50-50 challenge went in their favor. 

How does Riley keep his players amped to this level? According to Jess McDonald on the Friday before the match, the key is that “he makes you comfortable with being uncomfortable.” He creates an environment in which players can feel consistently challenged without ever feeling overwhelmed. And it creates a serious buy-in. In his post-game press conference Riley referenced the idea of “keeping our foot on the accelerator.” But this is language you hear repeatedly from the players. 

And you can see the results across the board. North Carolina is a team filled with superstars, but they don’t think of themselves that way. And that’s at least partly because they have almost all become superstars primarily through their collective growth and development. They view themselves as world class players not as individuals but as members of a team. The quartet drafted in 2015 were all great at the time. But the league is full of first round picks who never built on their potential. The unique thing about North Carolina under Riley is how everyone consistently improves, and in doing so helps the rest of their team improve as well.

Consider the MVP of the final—Debinha. When she joined the team in 2017, her attacking potential was obvious for all to see. But she was anything but a complete player. She was casual with possession and offered nothing defensively. As Riley put it after the final: “The first couple months she didn’t fancy playing both sides of the ball, and that didn’t work for me…but she took ownership and accountability for herself. You can see today…she’s a complete player.” That journey from mercurial talent to one of the best in the world is a perfect encapsulation of this team.

Then there’s McCall Zerboni. For years, she seemed like the quintessential average player. Useful, certainly. You can always use a player willing to get stuck in where necessary, and with just enough skill on the ball to not hurt you in possession. But to Riley she was one of the best players in the league. And through their work together, she proved to the world that he was right.  

Jess McDonald was a great goal-scorer and a valuable player on plenty of teams before joining the Flash. But she had never really settled anywhere despite her ability. On joining the team, she started adding new pieces to her game. Her partnership with Lynn Williams has been consistent and consistently impressive over the past four years. Not just for the goals, but for the intelligent movement, the unlocking of space, the clever passing.

Crystal Dunn was one of the best players in the world long before joining the squad, earning the league’s MVP award in 2015. But he game has taken another step forward with the Courage. She’s been, by far, the most dangerous player in the league over the past two years, largely because the rest of the team gives her an incredible palette to work with. Her movement off the ball is now among the best in the world, and her positional awareness has gone off the charts.

Abby Erceg went from a middling player in Chicago to one of the best defenders in the world under Riley. Kristen Hamilton went from the last player selected in the draft to an MVP candidate. Heather O’Reilly spent much of the summer reporting on the World Cup from France, only to slide back into the job of starting right back for the final month.

And finally there’s Denise O’Sullivan was waived by the unhappy Houston Dash. Not traded, just waived for nothing. But Riley saw her potential and brought her into the team. She’s now turned into one of the best 6s in the league, seemingly out of sheer determination and will. And that’s been especially important because 2019 saw a significant step down from McCall Zerboni. For another team that would be a disaster. But the Courage didn’t even blink an eye. Zerboni’s minutes declined, allowing her to settle into a more restrained role, while O’Sullivan stepped seamlessly into the job. It’s all been a bit of a surprise, even to O’Sullivan herself. In her own words, on Friday: “A few years ago I wouldn’t have seen myself as a #6 at all. But now I really enjoy it. Helps that I’m playing next to Sam Mewis.”

And that’s one last key theme with this team. Every player is made better by being surrounded by other players also being pushed to exceed their limits. Because ultimately, there is never a single author when it comes to this sort of success. Riley surely deserves a lot of credit, as do the players, and the management. As Dan Lauletta noted in his recent column on this subject, this is about the culture of an entire organization.

The breadth and depth of this team was made crystal clear in the way they created chances in the final. Three of the four goals came from putting their opponent under pressure and just refusing to give up. The fourth came from a genius long ball and a beautiful finish. They can score messy goals and beautiful ones. They can create chances from nothing, and can build play through long stretches. And every single player on the team is dangerous. In the final, all 10 starters were credited with at least one chance created, but none created more than two. That’s full spectrum dominance.

The 2018 Courage season was the greatest collective performance in the history of professional women’s soccer in this country. But in some ways their 2019 season was even more impressive. To come back and defend their title, especially after struggling a bit, demonstrates their resilience and development. And shows that the Courage dynasty is probably here to stay for quite a while.

Good luck to everyone else!

Route Two Soccer: Two key tactical questions for the NWSL Final

Posted on by Backline Soccer

The North Carolina Courage are in the midst of a dynasty. Despite some early season struggles, they won the Shield again this year, finishing with a goal difference of +31, miles better than anyone else. Last year they obliterated all opposition and took home the title in resounding fashion. They also made the final in 2017, losing narrowly to Portland, and won back in 2016 (as the Western New York Flash). That makes this their fourth straight finals appearance. Their coach may continue to insist to the contrary, but they are the clear favorites to win on Sunday.

The Chicago Red Stars have made the playoffs five straight years, but only won their first playoff match last weekend. They are playing the best soccer they ever produced, with a rock solid backline, one of the best midfields in the world, and two absolutely world-class forwards working in tandem. They also dominated North Carolina in the regular season results, taking seven of nine available points from the champions.

However, there are several asterisks on that record. North Carolina dominated the first game, while in the second Chicago took advantage of a World Cup-ravaged NC lineup, and were lucky to face a goalkeeper, Katelyn Rowland, in impossibly bad form, scoring on their only three shots on goal. The mid-July showdown, however, really was an impressive performance and a genuine indicator of Chicago’s potential to not merely scrounge a result against Carolina but to actually outplay them.

Whether they will repeat that performance on Sunday is unknown, of course, but I see two key questions that help to define their chances.

Can Chicago use width to open up space for an attack?

North Carolina has not varied their basic tactical setup much in the past several years. They almost always set up in a 4222 ‘box’ system, with two strikers, two attacking midfielders, and two deeper-lying midfielders who share attacking and defensive duties. It’s certainly not a perfect system, but it’s been remarkably resilient. The biggest weakness of this approach is the lack of midfield width. All four players in the midfield line are free to roam a bit, but generally take up central roles. And if they do drift wide, they risk exposing holes in the vacated middle.

However, very few teams have found a way to exploit this area, for three reasons.

First, the combination of athleticism and intelligence of North Carolina’s midfield quarter is unmatched in the league. They move so quickly to collapse on weak points that it’s the rare opponent who finds the time to take advantage.

Second, the Courage’s incredible attacking array also goes a long way to securing their defensive unit. Most teams are too worried about buttressing their defense against the all-out Carolina assault to even think about how to spring a counter.

Third, North Carolina has the best attacking fullbacks in the league, severely reducing the need for wide attackers in the midfield. The key here is left back Jaelene Hinkle who regularly is among the league leaders in assists and chances created, and has been no different this year, finishing third in the league this year with six assists. But her teammate Merritt Mathias contributed quite a lot too, with five assists of her own from the right. It looked like the Courage might struggle a bit once Mathias went down with an ACL tear last month, but they’ve barely missed a beat thanks to makeshift right back Heather O’Reilly (which isn’t really that surprising, given her lengthy and stellar career in more advanced roles).

All that said, if North Carolina has a weakness to be attacked, it’s here. The key is to target the space behind the fullbacks with precision strikes, dragging central players out wide and opening up space in the middle for the forwards to create a bit. This has the added benefit of putting the Courage’s excellent center back pairing of Abby Dahlkemper and Abby Erceg under pressure. Both are superb defenders, but both are also at their weakest when asked to range outside their box. Dahlkemper in particular is susceptible to getting turned out wide.

That left side, with Dahlkemper and O’Reilly, is probably the best zone to attack. And Chicago is uniquely well set up to take advantage, with an in-form Yuki Nagasato able to link up with excellent passers like Vanessa DiBernardo and Morgan Brian in the midfield. And obviously there is no player in the league who is more capable of converting half-chances into goals than Sam Kerr.

The other reason to think favorably about Chicago’s potential to attack in this fashion is the speed with which they can move from deep possession to a shot. This is important because any dawdling gives North Carolina’s attackers time to recover and begin aggressively pressuring those in possession, usually breaking up the threat or even retaking possession through the counter-press.

There are no certainties against North Carolina. They are versatile, flexible, and incredibly fit. Beating them requires good ideas and good execution. But if they are going to be defeated, it makes sense to target their weaknesses, and Chicago is well designed to do so.

How will Chicago use Julie Ertz?

Chicago made a big shift in early September, dropping Julie Ertz from the midfield to the backline. This was a big move for two reasons. First, it allowed them to replace the struggling Katie Naughton with one of the world’s best defenders, patching up the one weak hole in what is otherwise the league’s most solid backline. Second, it gave them the freedom to establish a more progressive and possession-driven style of play.

Ertz is a great all-around player but her weakest skills are in possession and passing. But those are only relative weaknesses. Compared to the average central midfielder, she’s not a great passer. But compared to the average center back, she is. By moving her back, therefore, Chicago improved their passing quality in two critical positions. With Ertz and Davidson in the center of their defense, they have two high-skill players for the position, who can then combine with Danielle Colaprico and Morgan Brian—arguably the most technical central midfield pairing in the league.

This isn’t a pure win-win situation. By removing Ertz from the midfield, Chicago has exposed themselves more in the center of the park. Ertz is among the best ball-winners in the world, but at center back she is far more constrained and can’t leap into nearly as many tackles. Brian and Colaprico are both good defensive players, but their skills are more in shepherding play by controlling space and less in directly challenging the opposition.

The result of playing Ertz in the backline, therefore, is a more stable final line, but less potential for creating turnovers higher up the field. The choice is whether to encourage a more measured game in which possession is traded back and forth relatively slowly, or a more frenetic game characterized by wild twists and turns. Neither approach is intrinsically superior, but given Chicago’s personnel, they should probably prefer the former, especially against North Carolina.

The Courage’s greatest strength is in transition. They are unparalleled in their collective movement and resulting capacity to ruthlessly exploit space. North Carolina on the move is a terrifying sight to behold. But they are (relatively) weaker against a stable, organized defense, which often forces them into low-percentage shots from distance. They also depend relatively little on creative possession from their attacking midfielders. Both Dunn and Debinha are generally just dangerous, if not more so, without the ball.

Ertz’s disruptive abilities as a midfielder probably offer less value under these conditions. North Carolina doesn’t rely much on complicated passing maneuvers that are susceptible to being broken up. And they absolutely relish a fast-paced game with a lot of aggressive movement. Their whole approach is to capitalize on bulk. Opponents who up the tempo and try to force play absolutely risk playing into their hands.

This isn’t a pure open-and-shut case. A lot depends on which Katie Naughton is available on Sunday. At this time last year she looked like a fringe national team quality defender, with good instincts and good physicality. But for most of this year, she looked well off the pace, making lots of mistakes both small and large. If the Red Stars can get the good version of Naughton, there’s a case for loading up the central midfield with Ertz, Colaprico, Brian, and DiBernardo and doing everything possible to muck up the game. Fight to a standstill there, count on your strong defensive fullbacks to lock down their counterparts from Carolina, kick long balls at Kerr when you have the chance, and hope she can magic up a goal. It wouldn’t be a pretty game, but you only have to look back to the 2017 final to see Portland forcing a physical disruptive game on the Courage and scraping a victory in the process. Chicago certainly has the ability to do the same if they want to attempt it.

But on balance, Chicago look like a much better team with Ertz in the backline. And not only does this setup allow them to play better in general, it also gives them the chance to dictate play better, something that is absolutely critical if they hope to ride the waves of the North Carolina attack.

Route Two Soccer: My 2019 NWSL Awards Ballot

Posted on by Backline Soccer

It’s time for some end of the year votes. Here’s my take on who should win the big awards.

MVP

  1. Sam Kerr

  2. Casey Short

  3. Christen Press

  4. Crystal Dunn

  5. Andi Sullivan

I am a longtime advocate of the ‘goals are overrated’ thesis, and have often been frustrated that the MVP award is really just a proxy for the Golden Boot award. But I don’t see how you could reasonably argue for anyone other than Sam Kerr as the 2019 NWSL MVP. She’s playing on an absolutely ridiculous level, and there’s no one else in the world who can match it right now. She participated directly in 23 goals (18 goals + 5 assists). That’s more than two entire teams scored (Sky Blue finished with 20 goals and Houston with 21). And she left for a month to go to the World Cup!

The gap between #1 and #2 is large, but the others are fairly close. In second place I have Casey Short, who deserves a huge amount of credit for the Red Stars’ best season yet (more on her below). After that I’ve got Christen Press and Crystal Dunn, both of whom missed about half the season but were so otherworldly-good during their limited time that they sneak onto the list. Dunn is the piece that transforms North Carolina from a very good team into an unbeatable one, while Press is the difference between Utah as a struggling bottom-feeder and a playoff contender. In fifth place I have Andi Sullivan, who took a massive step forward after a disappointing first season. Of all the players left off the World Cup roster, she’s probably the most likely to muscle her way into the Olympic 18 for 2020.

 

Rookie of the Year

  1. Bethany Balcer

  2. Sam Staab

  3. Gabby Seiler

This is one of the deepest rookie classes we’ve seen in a long time. Just consider that players like Tierna Davidson and Jordan DiBiasi don’t even make the top three. 

You could make a strong case for Staab as the winner here. Defending is hard, especially when you cycle out your entire defensive line and swap in a bunch of first and second year players. And Staab stepped into the role seamlessly, helping Washington produce one of the league’s stingiest defenses. But ultimately I sided with Balcer, who not only poured in goals but who also proved critical to building play and to an aggressive defensive press. 

Still, as good as both Staab and Balcer were, they only top this list because of Seiler’s season-ending injury. It’s no coincidence that Portland stumbled badly once Seiler was unavailable. She was central to orchestrating their possession. There are few players in the world with her positional awareness and passing acumen. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see a full season from her.

Goalkeeper of the Year

  1. Kailen Sheridan

  2. Aubrey Bledsoe

  3. Casey Murphy

Plenty of strong competitors here, including a few that were very good in limited minutes after spending a bunch of time away for the World Cup. I have Sheridan above the crowd for her consistency and range of abilities. She’s excellent at stopping shots, good at collecting crosses and controlling her box, and reasonably good with her feet. She struggled a bit in 2018, and understandably so given the horror show of the defense in front of her. But with a stabilized unit this year, she played with confidence and calmness, and was a big part of the reason Sky Blue conceded 18 fewer goals this season than they did last year. In fact, if you go by the advanced stats, she’s responsible for the majority of that improvement.

Defender of the Year

  1. Casey Short

  2. Megan Oyster

  3. Jaelene Hinkle

We sometimes throw superlatives around a little too easily, but Casey Short had a genuinely unbelievable year. She was voted on the Team of the Month for every single month of the season, and deservedly so. She’s always been a great defender, but took it to another level this year. She can play on either side, giving her team the flexibility to shut down whichever wing might pose a greater threat on the day. Her footwork is rock solid, her positioning good. And she even contributes a decent amount going forward. Just the complete package.

Oyster has been a stealth candidate for one of the league’s best center backs for a few years now, and this year was no different. You could make a similar case for her partner Lou Barnes, but for my money Oyster is the more important player at this point, thanks to her range and her anticipation. 

The list is rounded out with Hinkle, who is not without controversy, and who is rarely talked about as one of the key figures on this absurdly dominant North Carolina team. But she is the best attacking fullback in the league by a long way, and contributes quite a bit defensively as well.  

Coach of the Year

  1. Vlatko Andonovski

  2. Paul Riley

  3. Rory Dames

The easiest vote on the ballot – even easier than picking Kerr. What Andonovski managed this year, taking an injury-ravaged Reign team to the playoffs, is arguably the greatest coaching accomplishment the league has yet seen. As with all of Vlatko’s teams, they were defensively solid, calm in possession, and consistently hard to break down. To play that way under the best of conditions is impressive; to manage it through unprecedented roster turnover is genuinely astonishing. 

We’ve grown used to the dominance of North Carolina but it’s still worth noting how Riley has been able to keep his team firing on all cylinders. It’s always hard to come back after a record-breaking season, and they could easily have fallen to pieces once they started to struggle a bit early in the season. But he kept them moving and once everyone returned from the World Cup, they sliced through the rest of the league like a hot knife through butter. 

Rounding out the list is Rory Dames, whose Red Stars just put together their most complete season yet. I’ve written a lot about Chicago in the past few years, wondering why this collection of exceptional players couldn’t ever quite play up to their abilities. In 2019, they did it. This is now the smoothest-passing and most aesthetically-pleasing team in the league to watch, and the results have followed as well.

Team of the Season

Christen Press – Sam Kerr – Carli Lloyd

Crystal Dunn – Andi Sullivan – Kristie Mewis

Jaelene Hinkle – Megan Oyster – Becky Sauerbrunn – Casey Short

Kailen Sheridan

Most of these should be obvious from the comments above. But it’s worth noting Kristie Mewis, who is playing some of the best soccer of her life, and Carli Lloyd who continutes to shut up all her critics (myself included). Becky Sauerbrunn isn’t really Becky Sauerbrunn anymore, but she’s still great, and still somehow consistently underrated.

Second XI

Yuki Nagasato – Lynn Williams – Kristen Hamilton

Debinha – Sarah Killion – Denise O’Sullivan

Meghan Klingenberg – Abby Erceg – Julie Ertz – Tori Huster

Aubrey Bledsoe

Lots of great players here, including several that I’ve called overrated in the past. But not even I can deny how critical both Debinha and O’Sullivan have been to sustaining the North Carolina machine. I would never have guessed that Tori Huster would be in my second XI as a right back of all things, but she made a strong transition into the job. 

The three toughest calls were leaving out Christine Sinclair, Gabby Seiler, and Morgan Brian, each of whom was exceptional in limited minutes. But spots are limited and ultimately I decided to err in favor of players like Killion, O’Sullivan, and Williams who contributed a lot more bulk. 

 

Who Should Win the NWSL Awards?

Posted on by Backline Soccer

We have reached award season as the NWSL regular season comes to an end. And, while I am firmly in the camp that awards don’t matter all that much, if we’re going to have them I do believe they should go to the correct people.

World Cup and Olympic years are always a bit odd in terms of giving out awards. Do we focus on who was there all year, grade internationals on a curve, what makes a player most valuable? It’s as much of an art as it is a science to try to give an answer to each award that feels not only correct but satisfying. Giving awards speaks as much about the giver of the award as it does the person getting the award.

So for the record, yes the World Cup happened and some players didn’t see all the minutes they might have in a less internationally heavy year. That will be taken into account but, like life, one factor is not the whole story. I’ve tried to find the right balance between who held the league down all year and who still shown brightest even when 50+ players were pulled out.

Most Valuable Player: Sam Kerr, Chicago Red Stars

Sam Kerr finished 2019 with a record setting – a record she held herself – 18 goals and 5 assists. Her 19 games played leaves 5 games on the table as she missed time in the league to go to France with the Australian national team.
When Sam Kerr is on the pitch, even when another teammate is scoring the goals, eyes linger on Kerr as greatness is just expected in the league at this point. She is perhaps the greatest player in the NWSL’s history. If this is her last year – reports say she may be heading overseas – she has put on quite a show while still here.


Defender of the Year: Casey Short

Chicago Red Stars

It is never easy being one of the last players cut from a USWNT World Cup roster. In 2015 Crystal Dunn lit up the NWSL after being the last player cut and in 2019 it was Casey Short’s year to show it may have been a mistake to leave her behind.

Short is a more defensive outside back than you’d find from Dunn or Kelley O’Hara. But no current NWSL outside back has her defensive chops. She might be the toughest one vs one defender we’ve seen in the league, able to take on any of the world class forwards she comes up against. The Defender of the Year has, so far, always gone to a centerback. But this year Short has shown that outside backs can provide stout defense, as well as leading their backlines, as well as any center back could.

Goalkeeper of the Year: Kailen Sheridan

Sky Blue FC

In a year where Sky Blue had more ups than in the last few years, goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan was their brightest spot. Since being drafted by the team in 2017 she has been a consistent bright spot for the team.

This season she had 86 saves off of 111 shots on goal faced, tied with Aubrey Bledsoe of the Washington Spirit. In her 19 appearances (she was in France with Canada for the World Cup) she showed why she belongs in the top goalkeeping spot for the year. Working behind a backline that was often a bit rough, she managed three clean sheets to go with her 86 saves.

Rookie of the Year: Bethany Balcer

Reign FC

There will be a lot written about Bethany Balcer in the coming weeks. And she deserves every word of it. No NWSL player has come out of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) before but Balcer didn’t just prove she could make a pro roster, she proved she should be a starter for a playoff team. Her six goals lead the team this season. She featured in all 24 games, starting 19 times and playing 1,700 minutes. These numbers are impressive for any player, but for a rookie they are outstanding.

Coach of the Year: Vlatko Andonovski

Reign FC

Do I really need to explain why he gets my vote?

His ability to spot talent like Balcer, to patch up a roster that featured nearly a full XI of players listed as “Out” for a large part of the season, and ability to win the games his team needed, all come together to give him the edge.
He took a team that slowly lost player after player to the IR and had brought them to the playoffs. I don’t know if he should be the next USWNT coach. But he has shown why he is so highly spoken about for the job.

The NWSL Best XI

Goalkeeper: Kailen Sheridan
Defender: Casey Short
Defender: Abby Erceg
Defender: Lauren Barnes
Defender: Merritt Mathias
Midfielder: Bev Yanez
Midfielder: Bethany Balcer
Midfielder: Yuki Nagasato
Forward: Lynn Williams
Forward: Sam Kerr
Forward: Christen Press


The NWSL Second Best

Goalkeeper: Casey Murphy
Defender: Sarah Gorden
Defender: Becky Sauerbrunn
Defender: Emily Menges
Defender: Sam Staab
Midfielder: Crystal Dunn
Midfielder: Midge Purce
Midfielder: Debhina
Forward: Kristen Hamilton
Forward: Jodie Taylor
Forward: Ashley Hatch

Did I get it right? Wrong? Who would you have selected? Let me know below. 

Should Jaelene Hinkle Make the NWSL Best XI?

Posted on by Backline Soccer

As the leaves in the northern United States change from green to reds, oranges, and yellows it is that magical time again.

NWSL awards season.

And with this most magical season comes questions that transcend what happened on the pitch. We can talk about who scored the most goals or prevented the most attacks, but we also have to talk about what it means to honor a player.

And while I do like writing about awards, I don’t like writing about Jaelene Hinkle. But as my colleagues and I prepare to vote on NWSL Defender of the Year and Best and Second Best XI, she has come to mind in a way I just can’t shake.

Hinkle is an engaging person to interview, one of the very best outside backs in the NWSL, and a two time NWSL champion with both the Western New York Flash and the North Carolina Courage. From all reports of those that cover the Courage on a regular basis, she’s also well-liked by her teammates. They did just vote her team Defender of the Year after all. She is also a homophobe. She is someone who has gone on the Christian Broadcasting Network show, The 700 Club. She has made social media posts decrying the Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage as evidence of the country “falling farther and farther away from God,” among other posts.

The NWSL specifically, and women’s soccer in general, has become a safe space for queerness. It’s a place where players can live their authentic lives and where fans can be themselves and find others to share their queerness. Pride nights, openly LGBT+ players hugging or kissing their partner after matches, social media posts. All of this contributes to a sense of safeness and acceptance.

But even if this is the common trend, it’s statistically certain that there are players in the NWSL who believe as Hinkle does, but who simply have chosen to stay private with their thoughts. In fact, this is part of why many fans see Hinkle as such a threat. She’s not just one person with an opinion; she’s a representation of many others who would like to deny the humanity of others. In this era, at this time, people justifiably take that stuff seriously.

My own feelings on Hinkle have changed since she first made her social media posts. At the time I thought they were relatively harmless, and that she had a right to them even if I disagreed. I regret that. 

All of which brings us back to the big question that is rolling around my brain as I work to put together my Defender of the Year, Best and Second Best XI votes.

Should Hinkle be included?

I am pretty firmly on the Casey Short is the NWSL Defender of the Year train. Short has been a rock solid defensive outside back on a team that needed a leader on their backline. Short was likely the last or the second to last cut on the USWNT World Cup roster and played like someone who should have been starting on the team in France. I’ll write more about Short later but suffice it to say she has my vote. But if she has a challenger, it might just be Hinkle. She started nearly every game the Courage have played since the team moved from New York, and every match this season. She is maddening competent at her job. In fact, Hinkle has the edge in raw offensive stats over Short. She has more assists, more successful crosses and more key passes. She’s not the defender of the year, but she’s not that far away.

And so, as I wrote out my Best and Second best XI, I struggled with whether to list her. If I am going by the stat sheet and on field play, she has been among the best in the league at her position this year. So if I don’t list her, the XI has to come with asterisk next to it. This is the Best XI, minus one player who otherwise should be on there. After all, if her own teammates can vote for her, why can’t I?

When I put the names down on the spreadsheet I use before writing my NWSL awards piece I wrote and then deleted her name. Then wrote it again. Then deleted it again. But I finally settling on not voting for her.

I have voted for her in past years. But each year it get harder. Each year it feels the harm compounds. Two years ago, this was mostly unspoken. Then she turned down a USWNT callup over the pride numbers and she gave that 700 Club interview. Now it’s all crystal clear. And I find I can no longer hold my nose and cast a vote. I can’t keep voting for someone when it takes this much mental gymnastics to justify it to myself. 

Others may vote for her, and I get why. I won’t begrudge them their vote. She has been very good. She may very well be in the Best XI and she has an outside shot at Defender of the Year. But I can’t do it. Will one vote matter? Likely not, given how the NWSL compiles the awards. But at the end of the day, they entrust us each with a vote, and we have to make up our minds as best we can. So it is my ballot to do with what I want. And in this moment, I don’t want her name written there next to mine.

Hinkle may be one of the best in her position in the NWSL, but she doesn’t represent what the league has come to mean for so many of the fans of the sport. Until and unless she changes her bigoted views I can’t include her in my voting.

Red Card, Ref!

Posted on by Backline Soccer

It’s no secret or surprise that the only aspect of the NWSL that seems to bond all fans is the quality of refereeing. Or lack thereof.

Since 2015 fans have been consistently lamenting and bemoaning the quality of refereeing in the league and how it seems to get worse every year. There have been some questionable non-calls and some downright incorrect ones. One of them being when Utah Royals goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart kicked Orlando Pride striker Claire Emslie in the stomach, denying her an obvious shot on goal, and Emslie was the one who received the yellow card. Granted nobody likes the referee when a call goes against their team, as Utah fans can attest regarding defender Becky Sauerbrunn and the imprint of the ball she wore on her cheek for a while. However, the pool of referees seems to be getting smaller, leaving the ones that fans know and most certainly do not like.

The two major complaints that all fans seem to agree on are the perceived inexperience and inconsistency of all referees in the NWSL. While it’s easy to rip on the referees when they make a call fans don’t like and their team ends up losing because of it, there is a deeper problem that lies at the heart of this and it’s something that fans won’t like but will need to accept: referees are only human and are only as good as the organization they work for.

The first complaint I’ll tackle is the perception that referees in the NWSL don’t have all the experience they need to do their job properly. The training to become an official referee is not an easy one. US Soccer recently made changes to the referee program in June of this year, merging some of the levels, or grades together. The first grade is the grassroots, which is typically for the little kids/youth games. Next grade is regional, where the candidate gets their training and experience from a minimum of 50 adult amateur matches. The grade after regional is national. This is where they begin their training at US Soccer national camps and must have assistant referee experience as well. Once the person has been certified as a national referee, the dream is making PRO and FIFA grades. Once they’ve reached PRO, the next step is the NWSL, then MLS, then national team games. It is very time consuming since in order to move to the next grade and be certified nationally, the candidate must log in a lot of miles, which calls for a lot of free time to work enough matches and tournaments so they can continue to advance.

Ian Knighton is a referee that was gracious enough to give insight to what it takes to become a referee. “I think that the whole system is trying to gear towards bringing people through that are better prepared, but it’s just a few years behind. It’s a hard system to work through for most people, so you really have to narrow in on people who have the flexibility in their life to do it.”

Everyone has a side hustle that they really enjoy. More often than not, referees have day jobs or at least one other job that pays the bills. Spending all their free time working matches to climb the ladder to do NWSL games is no joke, but it can turn into one when the referee that has worked so hard makes every call incorrectly on the field. Just because you’re passionate about something doesn’t mean you’re good at it.

Which leads to the main issue NWSL fans have with referees: Inconsistency, with a capital “I.” Perhaps the best example of fans’ long-term frustration with inconsistency is the parallel situation of Lindsey Horan and Shea Groom. Groom had a particular thought about Horan’s yellow card and tweeted out on September 6th “I distinctly remember getting a red card for shoving…#NationalTeamImmunity.”

Let’s travel back in time to July 2017 to an FCKC vs. Sky Blue game. Things got a little saucy between these two teams, coming to a head in stoppage time of the first half. Sky Blue’s Erica Skroski loses the ball to FCKC’s Shea Groom and decides to show her displeasure by grabbing a hold of Groom’s jersey. Of course, nobody likes being choked by their collar, so Groom swings an arm back, trying to dislodge her. Once Skroski lets go, Groom turns and raises both arms to shove her in the neck/face area, letting Skroski know that she is not the one. Skroski was shown a yellow card for a dangerous foul and Groom was shown a straight red card for violent conduct. FCKC would not only lose the game to a Sam Kerr hat trick, but head coach Vlatko Andonovski would be fined for his comments about the officiating that saw his team go down to 10 men. “This league has some very good referees, but some of the referees are the worst in the whole world. And, unfortunately, if we want this league to go forward, if we want good players to come [to] this league…something needs to happen.” Now those were super bold words for 2017, and, some would say, a prediction for the future.

Fast forward to the Portland Thorns vs. Utah Royals game this September. In the 77thminute, after being on a yellow card for a foul against Christen Press, Emily Sonnett brought down Amy Rodriguez. The Portland defender was given a red card and received quite the unnecessary ass chewing from Rodriguez that I’m sure she will never forget. In the 80thminute Lindsey Horan, who took great offense at the treatment of her best friend and was dead set on defending her honor, shoved Rodriguez off the ball from behind. She capped her action off by spreading her arms wide open and stating “You wanna fight?” What should have been a straight red was merely a yellow card for the national team midfielder.

There are arguments that since it was the first offense for Horan, it was only a yellow card. Groom’s red was undoubtedly earned. She had both of her hands up in the face/neck area of Skroski’s face and pushed her hard enough to upset her balance. However, in Horan’s case the play had been called dead, the ball wasn’t moving, and it was clearly done out of pure spite. It’s easy to categorize Groom’s actions as violent but not so with Horan’s.  

Those two instances, out of the MANY over the past 7 years, have cemented the legacy of inconsistency among NWSL referees and honestly, it’s hard to dispute. PRO pride themselves on their extensive training, and yet none of their referees ever seem to be on the same page when it comes to calling, well…anything. In an Orlando/Houston game earlier this August the Pride lost 1-0 on a controversial PK call. Later on it was reported that the NWSL front office admitted to Orlando head coach Marc Skinner that the foul shouldn’t “have resulted in a penalty kick.” There is also the separate issue of violence that seems to be becoming more overt as referees lose more and more control over players, but that is a separate article.

It’s long been rumored that the NWSL is a training ground for referees who want to make it to the MLS level, something that Portland head coach Mark Parsons seems to believe himself when he was quoted saying, “the NWSL is a training ground for referees.” If – and that’s a big if – that is true, it’s just one more way that shows how low the women’s game is treated in America. Or it could simply be a continuous case of human error. “You get inconsistency across all referees. Just depends on experience and perspective”, says Knighton. “When you have referees with different external influences, that can create a lot of differing opinions on calls.”

So where does that leave the fans and players suffering through those differing opinions? Right where they started – nowhere. Accepting that it may take more drastic measures for refereeing to get better is a fact of life. MLS referees are barely any better and the same issues happen across the pond. And before you lot all scream “VAR!”, that’s just putting a band-aid over a bullet hole instead of stitching the wound closed. You still have the issue of human error when it comes to VAR, opening the door for even more complaints from everyone and their mom. Putting more resources into proper training would go a long way into changing the legacy of PRO.

But what about the right calls that fans and players just don’t like? Suck it up, buttercup. Knighton recommends encouraging education and dialogue. “There’s only so much you can do, but it helps to look at things from the physical position of a referee in time and space without the aids of a replay camera. It’s very easy to call a game on TV and the more people have experience or empathy for what it’s like to try and make those calls at a full sprint after 90 minutes.”

I’m not a fan of PRO at all, but I do think it’s important to recognize and embrace that some things are just a fact of life and that includes suspect refereeing at all levels of the sport. Perhaps things will get better and perhaps they won’t. But as fans, and ever as reporters, we can try and have a little more grace towards the referees who are doing their best. As Knighton says “it’s really just a change of perspective in the narrative.”

Arsenal Blocks U.S. From Speaking with Montemurro

Posted on by Backline Soccer

The United States Women’s National Team is undergoing the unenviable task of replacing two-time World Cup winner Jill Ellis and are being blocked from speaking to one of their top candidates, Arsenal Women’s head coach Joe Montemurro, according to ESPN.

The 50-year-old Australian coach has elevated the North London club to the league title in the 2018-19 campaign and has expressed interest in taking over the top ranked national team in the world. However, the club are not willing to part with the coach as they look to solidify their dominance in the FA Women’s Super League.

Ellis, the U.S. national team’s current coach, is finishing up her tenure with a Victory Tour which has seen the club playing a series of friendlies around the country to capitalize on the success of the World Cup. US Soccer would love to have the vacant role filled before she departs and Montemurro is high on the list of possibilities. 

The other aspect is the current state of the FA Women’s Super League in England. Currently the league is the only fully professional women’s football league in Europe and has attempted to capitalize on the World Cup success in a similar fashion to the United States. With the promotion of Manchester United, most of the major men’s clubs are not represented on the women’s side and ready to make waves at the club level. Holding on to Montemurro is perhaps key to that success.

Arsenal won their first three games over Manchester United, Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United. They have also defeated Fiorentina in Champions League Round of 32 and are the favorite in nearly every competition they face this season.