Category: NWSL

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances in Week 13

Posted on by RJ Allen

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances is a weekly series that looks at the best attacking, defensive, and goalkeeping performances each week.

The North Carolina Courage reaffirmed their dominance in this league with a 4-1 victory over No. 3 ranked Seattle. The Houston Dash benefitted from the mega-trade last week with an early goal from Sofia Huerta, but mistakes from the defense allowed the Portland Thorns to sneak goals in. And Australian midfielder Alanna Kennedy scored from midfield against the Washington Spirit when she caught Aubrey Bledsoe off her line. The league table remains tight, with Seattle, Portland, and Chicago all sitting at 19 points. Only 8 points separate No. 2 Orlando Pride from No. 7 Houston Dash, and the race to a playoff spot is sure to be a close one. Here is a full breakdown of the scores from this week: 

Houston Dash vs. Portland Thorns (1-3)

Seattle Reign vs. North Carolina Courage (1-4)

Washington Spirit vs. Orlando Pride (0-1)

Chicago Red Stars vs. Utah Royals (0-2) 

Top Three Goalkeepers

1. Ashlyn Harris— Harris was one of only two goalkeepers to earn a shutout in Week 13. While Ashley Hatch recorded the most shots for the Spirit at five, Harris’ biggest threat came in the 84th minute from Caprice Dydasco. Dydasco launched her shot from just outside the 18-yard box and Harris had to fully extend to knock the ball to the side, where it eventually went out of play for a goal kick. Harris faced 17 shots and made three saves on the night, earning her fourth shutout of the year. 

2. Alyssa Naeher—  Naeher was the other goalkeeper to earn a shutout in Week 13. The U.S Women’s National Team starter has proven her worth time and time again throughout this season, and this week was no exception. Naeher faced 11 shots and made three saves against the Utah Royals. Her best moment came early in the match, when Becky Sauerbrunn sent a ball into the box for Katrina Gorry. Gorry, who took her chance with a header. The ball bounced off of Naeher’s hands and she scrambled to try to pick it up before it was cleared away by the Chicago defense. 

3. Adriana Franch— Franch returned to the starting lineup for the Portland Thorns this weekend after missing the first half of the season due to meniscus surgery on her right knee. While Franch didn’t have to make a lot of saves on the evening, the save she did make was a critical one. In the 14th minute, less than two minutes after Sofia Huerta’s goal, the Dash had the chance to go up 2-1. On a corner kick, the ball deflected off a Portland defender and Claire Polkinghorne—one of the newest additions to the Dash roster— had the chance to score her first goal. Polkinghorne headed the ball towards the back post, but Franch read it perfectly. She jumped in the air and got both hands on the ball, falling to the ground with her grasp firmly on the ball. 

Top Three Defenders

1. Estelle Johnson— Johnson, who we highlighted last week for her defensive performances against Sky Blue and the Seattle Reign, had another solid week for the Washington Spirit. They were facing off against the Orlando Pride, who have been on a hot streak and have one of the strongest offensive rosters in the league. Surprisingly, the lone goal of the game came when Alanna Kennedy caught Aubrey Bledsoe off her line and took a shot from midfield. Johnson and her teammates managed to hold off attacks from Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux, and Chioma Ubogagu, keeping the Pride’s goal tally at one. Johnson had a particularly impressive stop in the 61st minute. Alex Morgan was running down the left side of the field, with Christine Nairn in the middle, but Johnson kept up with her and timed the tackle right so that she kicked the ball out of bounds. Overall, Johnson had four tackles, four clearances, and one interception on the night. 

2. Julie Ertz— Ertz played center back for the Chicago Red Stars in their 2-0 victory over the Utah Royals on Saturday night. This is Ertz’s second straight match at center back due to Sam Johnson’s trade to the Utah Royals. While the Red Stars would probably rather have Ertz’s talents in the midfield, especially after she missed the beginning of the season due to injury, she has also stepped up on the backline. Ertz recorded eight clearances and one block in the game. 

3. Rachel Corsie— Corsie has had a great inaugural season so far with the Utah Royals. Laura Harvey has her paired with Becky Sauerbrunn in the central defense, and they are arguably two of the best center backs in the league. This week, they didn’t quite get the job done— the Utah Royals lost the match 2-0 against the Chicago Red Stars. But they did have a few impressive moments, including a goal-line stop by Corsie. In the 83rd minute, Sam Kerr found herself charging down the field ahead of both Sauerbrunn and Corsie. Abby Smith had to backtrack and eventually faced Kerr, who couldn’t get enough on the shot. With Smith off her line, Sauerbrunn and Corsie had to run back to the line to stop the ball from rolling in. Sauerbrunn slipped, but got her body in the way, and Corsie managed to stop the ball with her foot just before it rolled over the line. 

Top Three Attackers 

1. Crystal Dunn— The North Carolina Courage already had a stellar offense last season, with players like Lynn Williams and Jess McDonald, but Crystal Dunn has proven to be a goal-scoring machine for the No. 1 ranked team. Dunn scored two goals this weekend in the Courage’s 4-1 victory over the Seattle Reign, bringing her season total up to six. Her first goal came in the 33rd minute, when the Courage were drawing 1-1 after giving up the early goal. Dunn got a good ball from Lynn Williams and set up her shot just inside the 18-yard box. Lydia Williams couldn’t extend to stop it and Dunn gave her team the lead. Her second goal came in the 70th minute. Again, Dunn got a nice ball from Lynn Williams. She ran with it inside the 18-yard box and sent a ball past Lydia Williams and into the far corner. Dunn is No. 2 in the league for goals this season, behind only Christine Sinclair at seven. 

2. Lynn Williams— Williams also had herself a day against the Seattle Reign, tallying a goal of her own and two assists in the 4-1 victory. Williams assisted both of the goals scored by Crystal Dunn. In both instances, Williams was able to find Dunn with some space. In addition to those two assists, Williams also had a goal of her own in the 27th minute. Jaelene Hinkle sent the ball into the box and Williams was able to beat her defender and sneak a powerful header past Lydia Williams. Lynn Williams now has four goals and three assists on the season. 

3. Christine Sinclair— Sinclair played her 100th match of her NWSL career on Friday night against the Houston Dash. She got things started early, with an assist to Tobin Heath in the 9th minute. Sinclair gets the ball and just passes it on ahead, finding Tobin Heath who sneaks one between the legs of Jane Campbell. It would take a bit longer for Sinclair to find a goal of her own, but she did find one in the 83rd minute. She took her shot from outside of the 18-yard box, just trying to send one over the head of Jane Campbell, and the ball went through Campbell’s hands. Sinclair continues to lead the league in goals this season with seven. 

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances in Weeks 11 and 12

Posted on by RJ Allen

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances is a weekly series that looks at the best attacking, defensive, and goalkeeping performances each week.

Weeks 11 and 12 saw a shake-up in the standings and in the rosters across the league. The Utah Royals lifted themselves into 4th place and handed the North Carolina Courage their first defeat of the season thanks to a last-minute goal from Brittany Ratcliffe. The Orlando Pride continued to tally up goals with a 3-2 win over Sky Blue FC, and the Washington Spirit earned back-to-back clean sheets in their scoreless draws against Sky Blue in Week 11 and the Seattle Reign in Week 12. Meanwhile, a blockbuster trade unfolded following this weekend’s action, which saw Sofia Huerta and Taylor Comeau going to Houston, Christen Press and Sam Johnson going to Utah, and Brooke Elby coming to Chicago. The pending deal left Huerta, Comeau, and Johnson unavailable for the Red Stars 1-1 draw with the Portland Thorns, a game that left both teams out of the top four. Here is a full breakdown of the scores from these two weeks:

Sky Blue vs. Washington Spirit (0-0)

Washington Spirit vs. Seattle Reign (0-0)

North Carolina Courage vs. Utah Royals (0-1)

Orlando Pride vs. Sky Blue (3-2)

Chicago Red Stars vs. Portland Thorns (1-1)

Top Three Goalkeepers

1.  Aubrey Bledsoe— Bledsoe had two great games in Weeks 11 and 12, earning back-to-back clean sheets against Sky Blue and the Seattle Reign. Bledsoe faced 37 shots in those two games and made 13 saves. Her brilliant saves were too numerous to count, but I’ll give you some of the highlights. In the first half, Sky Blue got the ball down inside the 18-yard box. They couldn’t get an initial shot off, but after the balance bounced around a bit in the box, it landed at the feet of Katelyn Johnson right in front of goal. But Bledsoe dove and was able to block the shot and clear it out of the box. Then, in her match against the Seattle Reign, she blocked a penalty from Megan Rapinoe in the 51st minute. After that, she made countless brilliant saves to keep her team even. In the 86th minute, Rapinoe got a beautiful ball from Steph Catley and tried to head it into the top corner, but Bledsoe jumped and blocked the shot, earning herself a Save of the Week nomination. She put forth an excellent effort to get her team two points in two matches and stop one of the best offenses in the league.

2. Britt Eckerstrom— It was a fierce battle between the Chicago Red Stars and the Portland Thorns on Saturday night. Both goalkeepers had amazing nights, but Chicago was able to get the better shots off and Eckerstrom had to make some massive saves. The only goal she allowed was a rebound off a penalty from Yuki Nagasato that she initially blocked but couldn’t hold onto. In the 64th minute, Alyssa Mautz tried to sneak a ball under the crossbar, but Eckerstrom made a leaping stop and pushed the ball over the net. Sam Kerr got a great ball in the 86th minute of the match, outrunning her defender as she tried to slip the ball into the far corner. But Eckerstrom made a diving stop, with her arms fully extended, and the ball went off her fingertips and out for a Chicago corner. That save was also enough to earn her a Save of the Week nomination and helped keep her team from dropping points on the road.

3. Alyssa Naeher— I narrowly put Eckerstrom’s performance ahead of Naeher, who also made some crucial saves in that 1-1 draw in Chicago. Her first big moment came in the 15th minute, when Ellie Carpenter launched a shot from just inside the 18-yard box. Naeher made a diving side, deflecting the ball which Portland ultimately reposed and then kicked over the net. Another big save came in the 90th minute, when Tyler Lussi sent a ball into the box. It almost curved into the goal, but Naeher managed to jump up and swat the ball down, deflecting it to the side rather than in front of her. The save showed great awareness and earned Naeher a Save of the Week nomination. Ultimately, Naeher faced 11 shots from Portland and made three saves.

Top Three Defenders

1. Becky Sauerbrunn— The Utah Royals faced one of the most productive offenses in the league this weekend, and managed to hold them scoreless. That is thanks, in part, to the great defensive work of the Royals, especially Sauerbrunn. Sauerbrunn made five tackles against the Courage, and had six interceptions and fourteen clearances. While they definitely had a bit of help from the crossbar, Sauerbrunn continued to prove both in this game and throughout the season why she is arguably the best defender in the country.

2.  Estelle Johnson— Johnson helped earn her team back-to-back clean sheets in Weeks 11 and 12. She had some particularly brilliant moments in the first match against Sky Blue. While Sky Blue has only managed to pick up two points this season, their attacking force can be quite threatening, even when they’re missing their national team players. But Johnson, working alongside Whitney Church, shut that down. Johnson had eight clearances on the night, as well as three interceptions and four blocks. One of her better moments came towards the end of the match, where she was able to slide in front of Shea Groom on the breakaway and block her shot to preserve the draw. Even though Johnson conceded the penalty kick in the Seattle Reign match, her first appearance of the two is worthy of a nod.

3. Whitney Church—Church didn’t appear in the Spirit’s second game of these two weeks due to an excused absence, but she did have quite a strong game against Sky Blue. Working with Estelle Johnson, Church came up with a few crucial blocks and clearances, and gave Sky Blue little chance to set-up in the final third. She had an important block in the 64th minute, when Shea Groom slid the ball into the 18-yard box for Madison Tiernan. Church was tracking her, Tiernan’s shot bounced right off Church. Church has started in eleven games for the Spirit this season, missing only their most recent draw against the Seattle Reign. 

Top Three Attackers

1. Sydney Leroux— It was a low-scoring week in the NWSL, with only the game between Orlando and Sky Blue breaking from the mold. Leroux opened up that scoring in the second minute thanks to a nice cross from Chioma Ubogagu. Leroux was left unmarked, and she was able to set up her shot and slide it into the bottom corner past Kailen Sheridan. Less than 30 minutes later, after Sky Blue equalized, Leroux was able to find her second goal of the night. This time, Christine Nairn sent the ball into the box and Leroux was able to finish it with a nice header (and a superman pose). Leroux brings her season goal tally up to four and ties Rachel Hill and Chioma Ubogagu as the Pride’s leading goal-scorer this season.

2. Brittany Ratcliffe— Ratcliffe certainly had the most talked about goal of the week. She came on as a substitute for Katrina Gorry in the 77th minute, and certainly proved her worth when she scored a stoppage time goal against the North Carolina Courage to end their twelve game winning streak. The moment of magic unfolded just a few minutes before the final whistle. Diana Matheson sent a free kick just outside the 18-yard box. It bounced around a bit, and it seemed like Jaelene Hinkle was going to run with it, but Ratcliffe stripped the defender and took her shot, sending it into the top corner of the net. There was nothing North Carolina could do but watch.

3. Rachel Hill— The second year player out of the University of Connecticut is really starting to develop a name for herself this season. In the match against Sky Blue, Orlando was thwarted by their own poor defense and despite two brilliant goals from Sydney Leroux, they were drawing 2-2. Cue Rachel Hill. She came in during the 60th minute for Chioma Ubogagu and scored the Pride’s game winner in the final ten minutes of the game. The goal is Hill’s fourth of the season, and for some reason, Hill seems really good at making her goals count. Whether it was that ambitious first goal against Chicago, which gave the Pride the early momentum and motivation to win the match 5-2, or her late goal which briefly equalized their match against the North Carolina Courage towards the end of May, Hill has certainly proved her worth on this star-studded offense.

Route Two Soccer: Why the US Can’t Figure Out How to Break Down a Bunker

Posted on by RJ Allen

Why does the United States Women’s National Team struggle to break down compact, deep defensive teams?

In many ways, this has been the defining question of the two years since the US crashed out of the Olympics after failing to pick apart a very defensive Sweden. Hope Solo called them “a bunch of cowards” for playing that way. But Sweden weren’t cowards; they were just being practical.

Return to the question: why does the US struggle to break down a defensive block? Because everyone does. That’s why teams do it.

Soccer is a game of inches, of low margins and tiny probabilities. The default is for teams to not score, and it takes something special to upset that balance. Good teams still win because they possess the talent necessary to make the difference, but it’s hardly a certainty. We’ve all seen games where one team dominates but simply can’t break through, thanks to a goalkeeper standing on their head. Or games where the dominant team hits the crossbar three or four times. Just a few inches in one direction and they’d have cruised to victory.

This is frustrating, but if you’re the better team, the best you can do is expand the number of good shots you generate, and rely on your talented players to convert some of the chances.

Conversely, for weaker teams, it can make a lot of sense to play a defensive style. By reducing the chances available to both teams, you’ll hurt your own odds of scoring. But you’ll hurt the odds of the other team more. Playing defensively doesn’t change the basic structure of the match: the superior team is still superior and remains the favorite. But it can change the odds. By cutting down on the number of chances, you reduce their ability to exploit that superiority to the fullest extent.

Not every defensive approach is the same. At the extreme, teams can put all eleven players behind the ball, retreating deep into their defensive quadrant. In a more limited form, they can employ the classic ‘two banks of four.’ And there are plenty of ‘defensive’ setups that don’t necessarily rely on a lot of deep numbers but instead look to clog up the middle. The popular 4-2-3-1 setup can be quite defensive if both holding midfield players are more destructive than creative.

These all pose slightly different tactical problems. But when people talk about ‘bunkers,’ they usually mean teams who set up at least two lines of deep defense, conceding much of the midfield into order to shorten the space between their lines. The goal is to create two walls of bodies that close off the elusive ‘pockets of space’ that soccer commentators so love to talk about.

This generally makes for tactics that resemble nothing so much as the siege of a fortified Medieval castle. The superior team will unleash plenty of shots, but usually from distance, or from poor angles. They’ll have space to maneuver 30 yards from goal, but will have trouble getting any closer. They’ll have plenty of room on the wings to send in crosses, but will rarely get a clean head on the ball when it comes in.

When this sort of defensive play works, it’s usually down to a combination of three factors: good execution by the weaker team, poor execution by the stronger team, and luck.

The missing element here, often the most critical factor in other matches, is tactics. That’s because the whole point of deep defensive blocks is their capacity to severely limit the number of tactical issues in a game. There is no special sauce, no secret ingredient, no tactical innovation that will ‘solve’ this problem. A deep defensive block eliminates most of the spaces that players want to poke into. It jams up all the locks that smart tactics are trying to pick. The whole point is to reduce the number of unknowns in a game, to prevent superior teams from exploiting a wide range of game states.

This doesn’t mean defensive blocks are unbeatable. Far from it. Good teams can beat them, and more often than not they do. But not because of any particularly innovative techniques. The solution to beating this approach is to do the obvious things, execute them, and wait for the weight of probability to turn one of your half-chances into a goal.

So what are the obvious things?

First, play good crossers on the wings and good headers up front. This is where a ‘classic number 9’ can be useful—a big, bruising player who can out jump and outmuscle the opposing defenders. Think Abby Wambach. But while a strong #9 is important here, the bigger element is simply having wide players capable of posing a serious threat. Defensive blocks are strongest when they’re narrow. The more dangers you can create from wide spaces, the more stretched the defensive lines will have to be, and the more opportunities you’ll find in the middle.

Second, press aggressively when you lose possession. Defensive lines work because they’re tight and controlled. In a true bunker, the weaker team will treat this solidity as paramount, and won’t even try to counter for fear of losing their shape. But very few teams play that way. And the more that the opponent tries to attack, the harder it will be for them to recover. That can be exploited.

Third, shoot from distance. Deep defensive teams will generally offer plenty of space from 30-35 yards out. Coming out to pressure the ball is risky, because it creates holes that can be exploited. But if you have players willing and able to unleash dangerous shots from that range, it makes holding the defensive lines much more difficult.

Fourth, work the ball quickly through tight spaces. No block is impermeable. There will always still be space, just less than usual. A player with exceptional skill on the ball or with superb passing agility will often be able to exploit the tiniest of opportunity. This isn’t easy, and will often result in losing the ball, but that’s a cost that must be paid.

These are all simple ideas, and usually, they’ll get the job done. A defender will make a mistake, get caught out of position, miss a crucial tackle, or lunge in and concede a penalty. Or they’ll just get unlucky. A deflected shot will go in, or a cleared ball will fall right to the feet of an attacker. Moreover, even if they execute perfectly, there will still be half-chances. High-quality finishers aren’t guaranteed to convert those chances, but more often than not, one will eventually fall.

But probability isn’t certainty. Sometimes the chances just don’t fall. And when that happens, there can be a temptation to say that the coach needs to try something else. Unfortunately, the simple reality is that there aren’t really any other options. You just have to keep plugging away, putting the defensive team under pressure, and forcing them to execute.

None of this is to say that coaching has no role to play here. In a game of small margins, every opportunity to exploit an advantage needs to be taken. Good coaches will prepare for defensive teams by working on set pieces, by developing setups that will be capable of exploiting wide spaces, by emphasizing the importance of quick ball movement. They’ll be willing to adapt their approach. Perhaps they’ll bring on a big physical number 9 who normally wouldn’t start. Perhaps they’ll shift to a 442 which allows them to get four wide attackers involved without losing numbers in the middle. And so on.

Of course, it’s always worth looking for improvements in these margins. But marginal improvements are the best that can ever really be hoped for. At the end of the day, these games are usually determined by execution, not tactics.

 

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances in Week 10

Posted on by RJ Allen

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances is a weekly series that looks at the best attacking, defensive, and goalkeeping performances each week. 

We’re right around the midpoint of the NWSL season, and the table is starting to take shape. With the exception of the midweek battle between the North Carolina Courage and the Portland Thorns, Week 10 challenged each team to play without their U.S Women’s National Team members, who are currently in Salt Lake City preparing for a pair of friendlies against China. Despite losing six players to the national team camp, the North Carolina Courage narrowly maintained their unbeaten streak with a 1-1 draw against the Houston Dash on Sunday night. The Utah Royals found their first road win of the season against Sky Blue FC, who are still looking for their first win after nine games. The Chicago Red Stars also bounced back with a 2-0 win over the Washington Spirit in a match that was delayed over five hours due to weather. Overall, there were 12 goals scored across five matches in Week 10. Here is a full list of scores:

Portland Thorns vs. North Carolina Courage (1-4)

Sky Blue FC vs. Utah Royals (1-2)

Washington Spirit vs. Chicago Red Stars (0-2)

Houston Dash vs. North Carolina Courage (1-1) 

Seattle Reign vs. Orlando Pride (0-0)

Top Three Goalkeepers

1. Haley Kopmeyer— Kopmeyer would probably be a starting goalkeeper on most rosters, but it’s difficult to break out of Ashlyn Harris’s shadow (just ask Aubrey Bledsoe). With Harris away on national team duty, Kopmeyer earned the start against the Seattle Reign, whom she played with before being traded to Orlando this past offseason. Kopmeyer took advantage of her opportunity. She faced 15 shots from the Reign and made five saves, including one in the 51st minute that earned her a nomination for NWSL Save of the Week. Naomi Kawasumi took a shot from distance and Kopmeyer jumped into the air, punching the ball over the net. Even without Megan Rapinoe, it isn’t easy to get a clean sheet against Seattle. But Kopmeyer managed to shutdown the likes of Jess Fishlock and Naomi Kawasumi, giving the Pride their fourth clean sheet this season, and helped her team earn a point on the road. 

2. Emily Boyd— Like Kopmeyer, Boyd also stands in the shadow of a national team goalkeeper. But with Alyssa Naeher away on national team duty, the rookie out of California earned her first NWSL start. The Washington Spirit were lacking two of their stars on offense– Mallory Pugh, who is out with a knee injury, and Francisca Ordega, who is representing Nigeria in a pair of World Cup Qualifiers against Gambia. But Boyd still faced eleven shots from the Spirit and made four saves. Her save in stoppage time earned her an NWSL Save of the Week nomination. The Spirit managed to slot a ball behind the defense, and it landed at the feet of Ashley Hatch. Boyd saw that her defenders couldn’t get there, and she came off her line, sliding to the ground and putting her body in front of the ball. She got hit in the face with Ashley Hatch’s foot, but still managed to jump back up, although the second effort from the Spirit went over the net. A clean sheet and three points on the road— not a bad way to make your NWSL debut. 

3. Lydia Williams— Williams, who has been alternating with Betos throughout the season, earned another clean sheet this week against the Orlando Pride. Like other teams, the Pride had a somewhat diminished offense, lacking the talents of Alex Morgan and Marta. But Chioma Ubogagu, Sydney Leroux, and others can be equally threatening. Williams faced 12 shots and made two saves on Sunday night. In the 74th minute, the Pride set up a shot from Emily Van Egmond. Williams managed to stick her foot out and make an instinctive kick save, knocking the ball to her left where it was eventually knocked out of play. The scoreless draw marked Williams’ third clean sheet of the year. 

Top Three Defenders

1. Amber Brooks— The North Carolina Courage may have been missing a few key attackers in their weekend match against the Houston Dash, but the Houston defense was still going up against Jessica McDonald and Lynn Williams. The Houston defense looked shaky early on in the game, but eventually they settled down, and Brooks played a critical role in the central defense to keep the Courage from setting up their shots. The Courage were only able to get eight shots in that match, including three shots on goal. Brooks made a couple of key blocks and dispossessions throughout the match, again preventing the Courage from developing a firm rhythm. With Brooks and Van Wyk in the central defense, and Allysha Chapman and Haley Hanson on the outside, the Houston defense is shaping up to be competitive with the best in the league. 

2. Katherine Reynolds— Reynolds is one of the best defenders in the NWSL. In Portland’s midweek match against the North Carolina Courage, Reynolds made her 100th career NWSL appearance. While the Thorns ultimately allowed four goals in, including a penalty given away by Reynolds in the 30th minute, Reynolds also had some shining moments. One of those moments came in the 50th minute, when Reynolds got in front of Lynn Williams to block her shot. But Reynolds best moment of the night came– surprisingly– on offense. A free kick was given to the Thorns in the 88th minute, just outside of the 18-yard box. Heath took the free kick and sent the ball towards the edge of the 18-yard box. With no other players there to grab it, Reynolds set up her shot and slotted it across the keeper to the back of the net. The goal is Reynolds first in her career. 

3. Jess Fishlock— Fishlock is not usually a name one expects to hear on defense. And while she had some spectacular moments on offense in this weekend’s match against the Orlando Pride, it was her save in the 50th minute that earned her a spot on the highlight reel. Leroux had the ball at the edge of the 18-yard box, and tried to send a cross into the middle. But Fishlock anticipated the play and jumped in front of the ball, sending it out of play. 

Top Three Attackers 

1. Lynn Williams— It’s been a slow start to the season for Lynn Williams. She’s started in nine of the Courage’s 12 matches, but prior to this week, she had scored only one goal. But in the midweek match against the Portland Thorns, Williams started to find her rhythm again, scoring her second and third goals of the season. She opened up the game in the 30th minute, when Debinha was taken down in the box by Katherine Reynolds and the Courage earned a penalty. Williams took that penalty, slotting the ball into the bottom corner. She found the back of the net again in the 62nd minute. A corner kick was sent into the box, and bounced off the heads of a couple of Courage players before Williams was able to get her left foot on it and send it into the back of the net. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to carry that momentum into the weekend against the Houston Dash. The Courage just couldn’t get going on offense, and Williams was substituted out in the 56th minute.

2. Yuki Nagasato— Nagasato is an unsung hero for the Chicago Red Stars, and she proved that again this week with a goal and an assist in the Red Stars 2-0 win over the Washington Spirit. The first goal was set up by Nagasato when the Red Stars earned a free kick in the center of the pitch, a few yards outside of the 18-yard box. Nagasato slotted it towards the bottom corner, forcing Kelsey Wys to make a diving save. While Wys was able to successfully block the shot, she couldn’t grab onto it nor could she jump up in time to stop Sam Kerr, who came in with the second effort and found the back of the net. Nagasato found a goal of her own in the 48th minute. She brought the ball down inside the 18-yard box, settling it and passing it off to Alyssa Mautz. Mautz then sent it right back to Nagasato, who found some space and sent the ball back into that bottom corner. This time, Wys wasn’t quick enough to stop it, and Chicago found themselves with a 2-0 lead. This was Nagasato’s first goal and second assist on the season. 

3. Sam Kerr— Kerr made her seventh start of the season on Saturday night, and did plenty to make her presence known. She scored the Red Stars first goal of the night in the 25th minute, after a terrific free kick by Nagasato bounced out of the hands of Kelsey Wys. Kerr was able to get to the ball before the Spirit defenders and kick it into the back of the night to give Chicago the lead. While Kerr would be limited to one goal that night, she had a couple of other fantastic chances. In the 20th minute, she took a shot from outside the 18-yard box that sailed just over the top of the net. And then in the 64th minute, Alyssa Mautz threaded a ball through the Spirit defense to Kerr, who couldn’t get a good angle and sent the ball just wide of the post. In those seven appearances, Kerr has scored five goals for the Chicago Red Stars, including three goals in her last two games. 

Route Two Soccer: There’s No Such Thing as an ‘International Level’ Player

Posted on by RJ Allen

Today I want to challenge one of the most durable, and least well-founded, myths in women’s soccer: the idea that there is an “international level,” where play is more difficult than the domestic leagues.

This belief is so widespread that, according to a piece this week from Jeff Kassouf which detailed the US Women’s National Team selection process, it’s apparently taken seriously by key principals within US Soccer itself.

[media-credit name=”Jonathan Tannenwald” align=”aligncenter” width=”628″][/media-credit]

But if one applies even some casual scrutiny, the whole idea falls apart like cotton candy in a pool.

The argument here is pretty straightforward. The world contains four top-level international leagues—the NWSL in the US, the Frauen Bundesliga in Germany, the D1F in France, the WSL in England—along with five or six other weaker but still relatively high quality leagues (in Sweden, Spain, Denmark, etc.). But the reality is that the vast majority of the world’s top players are concentrated in those four big leagues.

For a league without much competitive balance, that produces a top tier which is absolutely stacked. In France, for example, Lyon effectively has a version of the French national team, supplemented with a few more of the best players from other countries. In leagues that are more balanced—like the NWSL—there is no single team that can compare with the top international sides, but the distribution of talent means that there are no gimmes. The worst team in the league would probably be a top 20 international side.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at the roster.

Sky Blue has been anchored to the bottom of the NWSL table all season. This is a team with Carli Lloyd, Janine Beckie, Savannah McCaskill, Kailen Sheridan, and Thaisa Moreno—all of whom have received recent call-ups for teams in the world top 10. Then you have Raquel Rodriguez, one of the best players on the world’s #32 team. And Rebekah Stott, a regular for the world’s #20 team. Then there are players like Shea Groom, Christina Gibbons, Erica Skroski, and Sarah Killion—who would be regular internationals if they were playing for virtually any country in the world besides the United States.

Put Sky Blue into the next Women’s World Cup, and I think they’d be even money to make it out of the group stage. And this is the roster of the team with one point through eight games in the NWSL.

Then look at some of the teams higher up the table. North Carolina’s first XI is packed with key players for the #1 team in the world, and supplemented with a few key contributors from other top international sides. Put North Carolina into the next World Cup and they’d be among the favorites to win the whole thing.

No one would deny that there are differences between club and international competitions. Some players flourish in a stable club environment, but find it difficult to turn in the same performance when playing for their country. Conversely, some players are at their best in international duty, while only being average for club. There’s a variety of potential factors in play here: the individual psychology of the player, their adaptability and flexibility, the support system around them in different environments. And some of it may simply be random. Normal distribution of chance means some players will always be outliers, but this doesn’t necessarily carry any predictive meaning.

All of which is to say: even if there are some players whose performance levels vary between club and country, there’s certainly no reason to think the imbalance goes only in one direction.

In some cases, the talent pool for a given country will be clogged enough to close out a top-quality player. One could make this argument for the forward position in the US national team, where players like Christen Press and Lynn Williams—arguably among the top dozen strikers in the world—have struggled to find minutes. But that’s very different from saying that a player outperforming their competition at the club level lacks some undefined ‘international quality’ and therefore can’t be expected to transfer her performance between levels.

Long story short: a top player in the NWSL is a top player in world soccer, and there’s absolutely no reason to think that they wouldn’t be able to hang at the international level. A player who can dominate in a league that contains North Carolina, Portland, Orlando, Seattle, Chicago, etc. is one of the world’s best players, full stop.

One can only hope that the decision-makers in US Soccer understand this, and aren’t really taking their ‘5 point’ system seriously.

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances in Week 9

Posted on by RJ Allen

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances is a weekly series that looks at the best attacking, defensive, and goalkeeping performances each week.

Week 9 of NWSL action was a wild one. Across the seven matches played– three midweek and four over the weekend–there were 26 goals. The Orlando Pride, who scored eight of those goals, seem to have found their stride on the attacking side, while still being held back by arguably the sloppiest defense in the league. The Houston Dash had a fantastic week, taking six points in their two matches against the Seattle Reign and the Washington Spirit. The Reign have slowed down since their 4-1 win over Sky Blue in Week 7, with just two goals scored in their last three matches. And the Chicago Red Stars, who haven’t won a match since April 18th, will need to pick up the pieces after allowing the Orlando Pride to score five goals in Saturday’s Lifetime Game of the Week.

It was a great week for offense, but not so great of a week for goalkeeping. Here is a full list of scores from Week 9:

Orlando Pride vs. North Carolina Courage (3-4)

Washington Spirit vs. Sky Blue (1-0)

Houston Dash vs. Seattle Reign (2-1)

Portland Thorns vs. Utah Royals (2-0)

Chicago Red Stars vs. Orlando Pride (2-5)

Sky Blue vs. Seattle Reign (0-1)

Houston Dash vs. Washington Spirit (3-2)

Top Three Goalkeepers

1. Kailen Sheridan— Goalkeepers was a tough category this week. Kailen Sheridan allowed two goals while her team suffered two losses. Britt Eckerstrom and Lydia Williams, who each played one game this week, each got a clean sheet and Aubrey Bledsoe got the clean sheet against Sky Blue on Wednesday. But Bledsoe fell apart in the weekend match against the Houston Dash, and both Williams and Eckerstrom weren’t forced to make a lot of saves in their respective matches. Sheridan was challenged by both the Spirit and the Reign, and she managed to hold each team to only one goal. She faced 23 shots between the two games and made a total of seven saves. Her most impressive moment came towards the end of the match against the Seattle Reign. In the 80th minute, Rapinoe came charging down the field with the ball. She took her shot and Sheridan made a diving save, though the ball continued to roll slowly behind her. Jasmyne Spencer tried to finish Rapinoe’s shot, but Rebekah Stott was there to clear it. The moment earned them an NWSL Save of the Week nomination.

2. Lydia Williams— Williams appeared in the weekend match for the Reign after Michelle Betos had been in the goal midweek when Seattle travelled to Houston. Williams earned herself a clean sheet against Sky Blue, making some nice saves in the first half. She faced ten shots and made four saves. The most memorable came in the 9th minute. A through ball on the left side found Carli Lloyd in the box, and Lydia Williams made a diving save to keep her shot out of goal. The ball rebounded, and Williams was ready to stop the second chance, but the ball ran past the goal and had to be chased down by Savannah McCaskill.

3. Ashlyn Harris— Now, I know what you’re thinking: how can I possibly put a goalkeeper that allowed six goals in two matches as one of the top keepers of the week? Especially when the Pride’s midweek match against the North Carolina Courage was one of the worst defensive performances of the year, with Harris being responsible for two of their four goals? Those are good questions. I highlight Harris here only for her performance against Chicago, especially her one-on-ones with Sam Kerr. Even acknowledging that Kerr scored two goals, there was still some impressive work from Harris, who made two impressive stops. The first came just moments before Kerr knocked one back for Chicago’s first goal of the match, and the second came in the 47th minute, when Kerr tried to slide the ball between Harris’s legs, but Harris blocked the shot with her knee. In the second half, Kerr tried to chip Harris, but she jumped in the air and snatched the ball. And on one of Chicago’s last chances of the match, Sarah Gorden took a shot and tried to send the ball over the goalkeeper, but Harris jumped in the air and punched the ball out.

Top Three Defenders

1. Rebekah Stott— Stott had a particularly impressive performance against the Seattle Reign, where she came up big numerous times. Some of her moments that made the highlight reel include a tackle inside the 18-yard box in the 18th minute and a stop in the 86th minute, when Jasmyne Spencer came charging down the field and wanted to add to the Seattle Reign’s lead. Her best moment of the night came on that previously mentioned save in the 80th minute, when Sheridan blocked Rapinoe’s shot and Stott cleared the ball before Spencer could finish off the rebound. 

2. Meghan Klingenberg— Klingenberg is a versatile player, who often has an impact on both ends of the field. In Friday night’s match, Klingenberg assisted Lindsey Horan’s goal in the 39th minute that put the Thorns up 2-0 over the Utah Royals. But it was her defensive skill just a few moments later that earned Klingenberg an NWSL Save of the Week nomination. In the 44th minute, Tymrak took a shot that was heading right towards Eckerstrom. Amy Rodriguez jumped in front of Eckerstrom and redirected the ball, and it would have gone into the net if not for a goal line save by Klingenberg. It was an important moment, not only for maintaining the clean sheet, but for allowing the Portland Thorns to carry that momentum from Lindsey Horan’s goal into halftime.

3. Becky Sauerbrunn— The U.S Women’s National Team leader always manages to come up big for her squad, and she definitely had another solid defensive performance for the Utah Royals this weekend against the Portland Thorns. While her team did lose 2-0, the score easily could have been higher without some skilled moments from Sauerbrunn. In the 35th minute, Christine Sinclair took a shot for the Thorns. Abby Smith made the stop, but the ball remained in the box, and Tobin Heath tried to follow up on the rebound. She took her shot, but Sauerbrunn slid in front of her and blocked the ball, knocking it out of play. Another moment came at the start of the second half, when Sinclair tried to play the ball ahead for Ana Crnogorcevic, but Sauerbrunn intercepted the ball before Crnogorcevic could set up a shot. 

Top Three Attackers

1. Rachel Daly— Daly played the full 90 minutes in both matches for the Houston Dash this week, scoring twice and helping set up another. Against Washington, after a nice long ball found Nichelle Prince on the far side of the field, Prince ran towards the 18-yard box and set up a cross for Daly, who got in front of the defense and finished it off. Daly’s second goal came in the 78th minute, after a sloppy giveaway from the Washington Spirit found Aubrey Bledsoe way out of her net. She tried to make the stop, but she couldn’t, and Daly basically ran the ball into the net. Daly now leads the Houston Dash with four goals this season, and her talents were enough to earn her the NWSL Player of the Week. 

2. Sydney Leroux— Despite some solid attacking performances for the Pride, Leroux had failed to score for the Pride this season coming into the match against Chicago. She didn’t start the match after an illness kept her out of training this week, but she came on as a substitute for Marta in the 52nd minute. In the 60th minute, Sam Kerr snatched away the Pride lead with a goal and the match was even at 2-2. But less than a minute later, Leroux made her presence known. The Pride moved the ball forward, and Krieger sent a ball inside the box. It was in the perfect position to find Leroux, who dived for the header and knocked it past Alyssa Naeher. Only about two minutes later, Krieger came charging down the field again. She handed off the ball to Emily Van Egmond, who then slid the ball in for Morgan inside the 18-yard box. Morgan couldn’t take the shot herself, so she sent the ball across looking for Leroux. Leroux had to run back to get the ball and hold off Sarah Gorden. But Leroux got the ball, turned, and took her shot, sending the ball into the top corner of the net and giving Orlando a 4-2 lead in the course of three minutes. 

3. Jessica McDonald— McDonald had two goals for the North Carolina Courage in their 4-3 win over the Orlando Pride midweek. Her first goal opened the scoring for the Courage in the 31st minute. Up until that point, McDonald and her teammates had a couple of good chances but just couldn’t finish them. This time, the ball was sent into the box and bounced around between a couple of Courage players. It McDonald who got her foot on it finally and sent it past Harris, the perfect touch to find the back of the net. McDonald’s second goal was the final one of the night, after the Pride had come back to tie the game 3-3. In the 89th minute, Jaelene Hinkle sent the ball into the box for the Courage. McDonald got a head to it, and it first it looked like there might not be enough on it, but the Pride defense failed to keep it out of the net. It ended up being the game-winning goal for the Courage, who were happy to earn three points on the road and maintain their dominance in this league. 

Honorable Mentions: Rachel Hill and Ashley Hatch— There were a ton of good offensive plays this week, and it was difficult to choose just three top attackers. I specifically put Rachel Hill and Ashley Hatch in as honorable mentions this week because they each had two goals and each played a critical role in their team’s success. Hill, who sometimes gets overlooked in the star-studded offense of the Orlando Pride, came in as a substitute in the match against North Carolina in the 75th minute. Less than ten minutes later, Marta found some space and ran down the left flank. She sent the ball into the box, and it rolled right past Alex Morgan, but Rachel Hill came in to finish it off and equalize for the Pride. While the defense were unable to maintain that score line, Hill definitely kept the momentum going for the Pride and almost had enough for them to take away points. She clearly impressed Sermanni, who put her into the starting line-up against Chicago on Saturday. Within two minutes, Hill found the back of the net, sparking the Pride offense and giving Orlando an early lead. Hatch found the lone goal for the Washington Spirit in their 1-0 win over Sky Blue FC. Andi Sullivan took a free kick outside of the box and Hatch got her head on it, sending it past Sheridan in the 64th minute and earning her team the win. While her goal wasn’t enough to beat the Houston Dash on Sunday night, Hatch found her third goal of the season towards the end of that match. She was able to capitalize off a bad giveaway by the Houston defense and slide the ball past Jane Campbell. The list of impressive attacking performances this week could go on, with solid performances by Sam Kerr, Veronica Latskos, Christine Sinclair, and others. 

Route Two Soccer: What’s Wrong With Chicago?

Posted on by RJ Allen

Going into the 2017 NWSL season, the Chicago Red Stars were widely regarded as a leading contender for the title. Through the first ten games, they seemed to be living up to the promise, earning 18 points and playing an aggressive, exciting brand of soccer.

The back half of 2017, however, saw a serious downswing. The strong start gave them a cushion which was enough to hold off challengers for the final playoff spot, but they did very little with their semifinal berth, going down in a rough-and-tumble game against the North Carolina Courage.

There have been some signs of life this year, but the results have remained difficult to come by. Combining their ten games this year with their final fourteen of 2017–a full season’s worth of matches–they’ve picked up a meager 31 points.

NWSL results – based on most recent 24 games for each team

Now, 31 points isn’t nothing. It’s much better, for example, than the 17 points the beleaguered Washington Spirit have managed in that same period. But 31 points is well below a normal playoff pace and is well below what a reasonable observer would anticipate given the quality of players on this roster.

Any team will suffer ebbs and flows in performance, so one shouldn’t overreact to a few bad results. But a full season’s worth of results is more than just a blip or a bad run. It’s clear, at this point, that Chicago is stagnating. That certainly doesn’t mean they can’t right the ship. But it does invite some serious questions about why this is happening and what can be done to fix it.

Chicago has struggled with a serious injury crisis

When searching for theories, it’s hard not to start with injuries. After a consistently great bill of health for most of last year, Chicago’s roster began to run down toward the end of the year, and those problems have more than carried over into 2018. They’ve had to do without some critical players, starting with Julie Ertz, who has only recently returned and still doesn’t seem to be close to 100%. They’ve also desperately missed Vanessa DiBernardo, whose incisive passing is critical to unlocking the Chicago attack. Casey Short was one of the league’s best defenders in 2017, but has missed all of this season. Then consider that Chicago was missing some key players on international duty for most of April. Not least of which: Sam Kerr.

Given these conditions, Chicago has relied heavily on supporting players so far. These include Taylor Comeau and Sarah Gorden in defense, Nikki Stanton in the central midfield, and Alyssa Mautz, Summer Green, and Michele Vasconcelos in the attack. On the whole, these players have done reasonably well, but there is a reason that they are generally not first-choice when the full roster is available.

Of course, every team suffers injuries, so it’s not like the Red Stars are the only ones being forced to turn to second and third choice options. But Chicago’s list is arguably the worst of any team in the league. That has to be part of the equation.

Chicago has played a packed schedule

It’s also worth noting that Chicago has been forced to fit a lot of games into a compact schedule. In a nine-team league, every squad is going to have busier and lighter sections of the schedule, but Chicago hit theirs at a particularly rough moment. It’s certainly notable that the team is winless in their last six games, even as they’ve gotten back their internationals and some of their injured players. It’s unlikely that this is all due to tired legs, but it’s probably a factor. 

Unfortunately for Chicago, these effects aren’t quickly resolved, either. Players who are run into the ground early will need extended recovery breaks to get things back in order—breaks that the schedule simply doesn’t contain.

Chicago is still struggling with their tactical evolution

Last October, I wrote an autopsy on the Red Stars season, in which I argued for some necessary evolution of their playing style. Their rigid adherence to a midfield diamond was blocking many of the teams’ strengths in possession and passing, and doing little to take advantage of their greatest asset: Christen Press. This year, finally, Chicago seems to be making real changes. They have generally set up in a 4-3-3, relying heavily on their fullbacks to both push high and to drift inward—bolstering the wide attack as well as the central midfield. The goal has been to build a smoother attacking style, one organized more around controlled possession and less fixated on direct assaults.

Ironically, they made this change even as they swapped out Press for Kerr. I say ‘ironic’ because Kerr would have been far more suited to the direct style they played last year, while Press fits more naturally into a possession game.

That being said, Kerr is a world-class striker in any system. While things haven’t quite clicked yet, it’s only a matter of time before she reels off a string of goals. And the possession game is a better utilization of Chicago’s overall roster, particularly once they get DiBernarndo back. Her ability to thread the perfect through-ball has been sorely missed so far this year. In the long term, they’ll be a better team if they focus on cultivating more diversity in their range of play. Assuming that they still see themselves as playoff contenders (as they should), their goal should be to get ready to play their best in September.

If this style continues to falter, they may eventually be forced to revert to type. But for now, at least, it’s an experiment still worth pursuing.

We’re approaching make-or-break time for Rory Dames

Broadly speaking, women’s leagues see much less turnover in coaching positions than their male equivalents. Still, try to imagine a coach in the English Premier League or Serie A being allowed to spend this long with this talented a roster and this poor a run of results. It’s pretty difficult. Even in the comparatively lower temperature environment of the NWSL, Dames’ seat has to be getting just a little bit hot.

This by no means is meant to impugn Dames’ obvious qualities as a coach. His tenure at Chicago has been extremely impressive. He built this team up from the ground, assembling a squad of superb players who have grown and developed together. It’s been an incredible achievement, and one well-worth celebrating. Given all that success, it would hardly be unreasonable to give him more time to put things back on track.

At the same time, one can’t help but wonder if there may be diminishing returns to Dames’ contributions in this position. It’s the rare case for a coach to serve more than a few years in a position. Ideas start to go stale, personalities start to clash, motivations falter. This implies no personal failing of the coach; it’s just a natural part of the process. There are, of course, a few notable exceptions—coaches who survive for decades by reinventing themselves and their teams—but for every Sir Alex Ferguson, there are a dozen big names who hop quickly from team to team. 

This year, the NWSL has already seen two big moves, with Vlatko Andonovski and Laura Harvey swapping jobs. Each had seemed inseparable from the team they had built, but not only have Utah and Seattle survived the transition just fine, both teams actually seem revitalized.

A team like Chicago—stacked with talent and anxious to break their semifinal curse—may eventually be forced to consider whether it’s time to part ways. That decision certainly shouldn’t be taken lightly. Still, considering the malaise hanging over the Red Stars over the past twelve months, it’s worth at least entertaining the idea.

The darkest hour is just before dawn?

The Red Stars are an enigma, probably the hardest team in the league to assess. The underlying quality is obviously there, and it’s very easy to put a positive shine on things. Injuries, missing internationals, an evolving style of play—all these point toward a team primed for improvement. What’s more, while Chicago has struggled to find points this year, that has been primarily been driven by a surprising number of draws. A few more lucky breaks here and there could easily have turned a couple draws into wins, which would give them a lot more breathing room. And even without those extra points, they’re hardly in serious danger.  12 points from 10 games isn’t great, but it would only take a couple wins on the bounce to rocket them back up the table. That’s eminently possible, and should give Chicago supporters plenty of reason for hope. 

At their best, Chicago are one of the league’s most exciting teams to watch. For the sake of neutrals everywhere, here’s hoping that the optimists are right and that Chicago turns a corner sooner rather than later.

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances in Week 8

Posted on by RJ Allen

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances is a weekly series that looks at the best attacking, defensive, and goalkeeping performances each week.

NWSL’s Week 8 was a bit slow, with only five goals being scored across four matches. The North Carolina Courage continued their unbeaten streak with a 2-1 win over Sky Blue FC, but failed to maintain their clean sheet thanks to a last-minute goal from Carli Lloyd. The Portland Thorns finally bounced back with a 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit. In that match, Ellie Carpenter surpassed Mallory Pugh as the youngest goal-scorer in NWSL history at the age of 18. And the Chicago Red Stars managed to silence the Seattle Reign at home. Here is a full list of the scores from Week 8:

Utah Royals vs. Houston Dash (1-0)

Washington Spirit vs. Portland Thorns (0-1)

Sky Blue FC vs. North Carolina Courage (1-2)

Seattle Reign FC vs. Chicago Red Stars (0-0)

Top Goalkeeping Performances

1. Katelyn Rowland— Rowland started in her second match this season for the North Carolina Courage on Saturday, with Sabrina D’Angelo out with an ankle injury. Rowland faced eight shots in the match against Sky Blue and had to make four saves. She had a spectacular save in the 6th minute off a shot from Shea Groom. Groom set up her shot in the corner of the 18-yard box and launched it towards the far corner of the net, but Rowland leaped into the air and sent the ball out of play. Rowland’s most impressive moment came in the 72nd minute. The North Carolina defense gave up a penalty kick, and Carli Lloyd lined up to take it. Rowland made a diving save to deny Lloyd on the initial shot and then denied Raquel Rodriguez on the rebound, pushing the ball out of play.

2.  Lydia Williams— Williams faced eleven shots and made four saves in Saturday night’s late game against the Chicago Red Stars. Williams had good saves against shots from Sofia Huerta and Julie Ertz early in the second half, but it was her save at the end of the first half that earned her a Save of the Week nomination. In the 42nd minute, there was some chaos in the box and Williams was surrounded by a sea of Reign and Red Stars players. A corner kick came in from Danielle Colaprico, and the Red Stars were hoping to just finish it off and head it into the net. Arin Gilland got a head to it, but Williams swatted the ball away. Rapinoe attempted to clear the ball, but it only got as far as Samantha Johnson. Johnson took a shot of her own, but it went right at Williams, who caught the ball and ended the Red Stars’ chance.

3.  Jane Campbell— While Campbell failed to get the clean sheet or the win on the road this weekend against the Utah Royals, she managed to shut down their offense for most of the match and made a couple of very impressive saves, especially in the first half. In the 31st minute, Katrina Gorry sent a beautiful ball upfield for Amy Rodriguez, who settled it and took a shot. Campbell made a diving save and Chapman cleared the ball out of the 18. A few minutes later, the referee gave a penalty to the Utah Royals after Amy Rodriguez was tripped inside the box by Amber Brooks. Diana Matheson took the penalty kick for Utah, but Campbell dove the right way and made the stop. At the end of the match, Utah tried to tack on more following Erika Tymrak’s goal, but Campbell wouldn’t let them through. She made a total of 4 saves in 18 shots faced.

Top Defensive Performances

1.  Lauren Barnes— Facing the likes of Sam Kerr and Sofia Huerta is no small task for a backline. But Barnes and her fellow defenders stepped up to the task. Barnes had a couple of good clearances early in the match and did a good job at shutting down the Red Stars attack. She almost had a bad giveaway early in the match, where she couldn’t quite clear the ball out of the box, but Kristen McNabb was there to save the day. The Seattle Reign have a lot of talent on defense, and the efforts of Williams, Barnes, McNabb, and others helped get the Seattle Reign their second clean sheet of the season.

2. Allysha Chapman— The Houston Dash defense admittedly looked a little shaky this weekend against the Utah Royals, but in just her second appearance for the Dash this season, Chapman once again managed to step up in a big way. She played a physical match, going head-to-head (literally) with the Utah Royals offense, and she made a couple of critical clearances and dispossessions that kept the Houston Dash in that match. She did make one big mistake in the 51st minute when she was caught ball-watching in front of the net and allowed Erika Tymrak’s goal to roll right past her. While this may have been a step back for the Dash’s defense, Chapman remains an important addition to a defense that has impressed in the past and could become a force to be reckoned with, with a bit more chemistry.

3. Kristen McNabb— McNabb played a critical role in the success of the Seattle Reign’s backline on Saturday night. McNabb had a particularly nice moment in the 11th minute of the match. Barnes kept trying to clear the ball, but she couldn’t quite head it out. Colaprico saw an opportunity and charged the ball, taking her shot but McNabb was there to stop it. Her effort helped get the Seattle Reign their second clean sheet of the season.

Top Attacking Performances

1. Carli Lloyd— Taking on the undefeated North Carolina Courage is no small task, especially for a team that has struggled this season like Sky Blue. But they stepped up to the plate, and as they settled into the match, put up a good performance against the #1 team. Lloyd had two particularly good moments towards the end of the match. In the 70th minute, she drew a penalty kick for Sky Blue. Unfortunately for Lloyd, both the shot and the rebound were brilliantly saved by Katelyn Rowland. But Lloyd wasn’t done yet. In the final moments of the game, Lloyd took a free kick just outside of the 18-yard box. Lloyd’s shot curled past Rowland into the top corner of the net for her first goal of the NWSL season. The goal wasn’t enough to earn Sky Blue points, but it was a sign of the potential this team has moving forward (and ended the Courage’s chance at another clean sheet).

2. Ellie Carpenter— Carpenter made her third appearance for the Thorns this weekend, coming on in the 64th minute for Midge Purce. Less than five minutes later, the Thorns faced the Spirit defense in a three-on-four attack. The Thorns had the edge, and Tobin Heath crossed the ball in front of the Spirit defense. The players got a bit tangled in the middle, but the ball rolled on to the feet of Carpenter, who sent the ball into the back of the net. The goal was ultimately enough to get the Portland Thorns their first win in over a month.

3. Erika Tymrak— Prior to this week, Tymrak had been a consistent substitute, but never a starter, for Laura Harvey’s Utah Royals. But with Kelley O’Hara out with a hamstring injury, Tymrak got her chance to step into the starting line-up this weekend. She made her chance count, scoring the lone goal of the match in the 51st minute. Gunny Jonsdottir found space and moved with the ball towards Houston’s 18-yard box. She passed the ball off to Rodriguez, who the Dash were marking. So, Rodriguez let the ball slide past her to a wide open Tymrak, who slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net. The goal was ultimately enough to earn the Utah Royals their second win of the season.

Honorable Mention: North Carolina Courage— It is difficult to single out one offensive player on this team that stood out this weekend, but North Carolina’s counter-attack is clinical and proved dangerous this weekend against Sky Blue. Their first goal came from Crystal Dunn, but it was a beautiful set up from Debinha, who sent the ball out to Jessica McDonald, who slid the ball right past three Sky Blue defenders to Dunn, who tucked it away in the far corner. This North Carolina Courage team is something special, and they are fun to watch.

 

Seven Principles for Improving NWSL Commentary

Posted on by RJ Allen

NWSL fans deserve better. This is true for pretty much any issue you could identify—better stadium experiences, better coverage, better writing, better everything—but today I want to focus on one specific aspect: match commentary. In particular, the commentary in matches on  the go90 platform.

Whether or not the Lifetime deal has fully delivered on its promises, one thing cannot be denied: the production quality associated with the weekly game has been excellent. Aly Wagner, Jenn Hildreth, and Dalen Cuff bring professionalism and excitement to the games they cover, and set a great standard against which the other games can be measured.

Unfortunately, the go90 games haven’t always lived up.  In part, this is a feature of economics. Like many aspects of the NWSL, the commentary setup lives in an uncanny valley between amateur and professional. Supported by the Lifetime infrastructure—not to mention other well-funded gigs like Wagner’s job covering the men’s World Cup this summer—the game-of-the-week crew have the time and resources to hone their skills and develop their engagement with the league. Those on the go90 broadcasts simply don’t have this luxury. Many of them are busy hustling across a number of different platforms and the quality of their broadcasts, understandably, suffers. Commentary is exceptionally difficult, and it takes time and enormous effort.

Therefore, I engage this subject in the spirit of constructive criticism. No one expects perfection, but it can still be helpful to articulate a set of best practices and objectives.

1. Less is usually more

Don’t speak for the sake of speaking. Crowd noise is one of the finest auditory accompaniments to sports. And when you do speak, remember that (just like in writing) short and direct is usually the best approach. Good commentary performatively illustrates the peaks and valleys of a game by getting in quickly, making the point directly, and then letting the game slide past.

Consider all the other items below as subordinate to this overarching principle. When in doubt, opt for saying less rather than saying more.

2. The most important job of a commentary team is identifying who is doing what

The most important job of the broadcaster is to provide play-by-play. That is: to describe what is actually happening. Specifically, identifying which players are doing what. Doing this job well is the lion’s share of the battle. Ideally, this entails bringing a bit of poetry to the descriptions—little flourishes that embellish and enliven the experience—but there’s no shame in sticking to pure prose.

Consider the following: “Gilliland. To Colaprico. Back to Gilliland. Ahead to Huerta. She centers it. Ertz is there. Can’t find an angle. Sends it back to Naughton. Nice job by Kennedy to close Ertz down there.”

Is this exciting? Not especially. There’s a hint of analysis, but it’s mostly just a list of names. In essence, the commentator is simply telling the viewer what they’re seeing. Still, for all that this lacks flash, it accomplishes the basic objective: to fill in gaps in understanding without intruding on the experience. The star of the broadcast, after all, should always be the game itself. Do this simple stuff well, and you’re already 90% of the way to a successful broadcast.

3. Know the players

In many ways, this is a subsidiary point to item #2 above. In order to correctly identify who is doing what, you need to know all the players. Identification is never going to be perfect—it’s a fast moving game with a lot of participants—but it is critical for commentators to quickly identify who is where. When referencing a play, “that’s a great stop by Sauerbrunn” is infinitely superior to “that’s a great stop by the Utah player.”

For those without a deep well of experience in the league, this problem can graduate from casual inattention to actively misleading. Their attention will get drawn to big name players, who will then be hyped above and beyond any actual contributions. In a game with so many moving pieces, our natural tendency to find patterns tends to generate commentary that fulfills expectations, even if the actual play doesn’t warrant it.

One corollary: it’s also important to know how to pronounce players’ names. This year we’ve heard ‘Fishlocker,’ ‘Cernevesivic,’ ‘Ubaguga,’ ‘Nagasoto,’ and the always classic ‘Lindsey Whoreann.’ These players deserve the respect of having their name spoken correctly.

4. Don’t be afraid to criticize

NWSL commentary is often almost uniformly positive. Every player is exceptional. Every story is great. Everyone is starting to put things together. This sort of coverage does a disservice to the fans watching at home, as well as to the players themselves, who are professionals and deserve to be judged like it. Not every player is going to have a great game. One of the key jobs of an analyst is to identify who is failing, and why.

This is not a call for cruelty, personal attacks, or unrelenting negativity. It’s just a request for commentary to identify is actually happening on the pitch—both the positive and the negative. Infusing a bit more criticism into the broadcasts will make the positive comments stick that much better. After all, one of the great truths is that Lake Woebegone treatments (which imply that everyone is above average) do nothing but dull the quality of legitimate positive treatments. Basically: if you praise everyone, you’re really praising no one.

5. Play-by-play and color commentary should (mostly) stay in their lanes

The two-person commentary model is based on the separation of responsibility. The play-by-play person describes what is happening on a granular level. The color commentator provides bigger picture analysis, drops in the occasional story, and generally tries to liven things up. This is a good setup, but it only works if both partners (broadly speaking) stay in their lane. Trying to do everything is a recipe for failure. Better to focus your attention on one job and do it well than dabble in two.

As part of this, it’s also important for the color person to be in tune with the flow of the game. You may have a good story about a player’s dog, or some analysis about a team’s injury woes, but there are better and worse times to bring these things up. There are few things more frustrating than a meandering story being interrupted by “and there’s a shot!” To avoid this sort of thing, keep a close eye on the flow of the game and build in off-ramps to ease out of an anecdote in sufficient time for the buildup to be described.

6. Avoid reasoning exclusively from results

Far too often, commentary operates teleologically: working backward from the result, emphasizing the factors that contributed to the conclusion and deemphasizing everything else. Now, quite obviously, the result has to be part of the conversation. But soccer is a game of probabilities, with hundreds and hundreds of actions per game but very few goals. A team can be excellent on the day, but simply be unlucky in their finishing. A player can launch themselves into a dangerous slide-tackle and execute perfectly. In both cases, the poor finishing and the excellent technique are clearly part of the story. But they’re not the whole story. We want the bigger picture, too. A player who executes a risky slide tackle today is quite likely to concede a penalty the next time. A team that dominates but can’t find their finishing boots may lose today, but is likely run away with things next time.

It’s a difficult job, but the analyst needs to keep both of these pieces in conversation. Acknowledge that many choices contain a measure of opportunity and risk, and then do your best to fill in that context for the viewer.

7. Try to avoid clichés

Watch a women’s soccer game in the US and you are extremely likely to hear multiple comments about “switching the point of attack.” The announcers are almost guaranteed to discuss the importance of “finding pockets of space.” If a team is playing well but not scoring, they will be described as needing to “work on that final ball.” If a player misses wide, she’ll be instructed to “put that on frame; make the keeper make a save.” Watch any game, and you’re sure to hear discussion about the importance of “getting between the lines.”

Generally, these clichés exist for a reason. When used judiciously, they all communicate real meaning. And their proliferation is by no means unique to women’s soccer. There’s a whole book on football clichés if you want a comprehensive assessment. Moreover, cliché fatigue is a problem for the super-viewer more than the casual fan. Given the limited set of available commentators, those of us who watch most NWSL games are subjected to the same verbal tics repeatedly. That familiarity can breed frustration that is not felt by the vast majority of viewers.

All that said, clichés can be a crutch that undermines the quality of a broadcast. At their worst, they function like idioms whose meaning has been obscured from overuse: the simulacra of wisdom, used in place of actual analysis. Broadcasters hoping to produce high-quality experience will do well to watch their deployment of these phrases. When they are used repeatedly, seemingly divorced from any specific context, they become white noise. Save them up for when they apply, recognize their limits, and they will pack much greater punch.

So that’s it: my seven tips for improving the quality of the viewing experience. If you want to distill these down, I’d say the core underlying theme is respect. Give the players the credit of their professionalism, and treat them like athletes with exceptional skills playing a difficult game. Sometimes they’ll succeed; sometimes they’ll fail. Your job is to help the viewers understand why. In the same sense, you should also respect your audience. Trust them to be able to follow the game, and see yourself as a steward in that process.

Coverage of the NWSL can be better. It should be better. The fans deserve it, the players deserve it, the league deserves it. The Lifetime games provide a great model of what this should look like, Here’s hoping that we continue to see improvements in the other matches that bring them closer to this standard.

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances in Week 7

Posted on by RJ Allen

The NWSL Podium: Top Performances is a weekly series that looks at the best attacking, defensive, and goalkeeping performances each week.

There were six matches played in Week 7, including two mid-week matches on Wednesday and four matches on Saturday. The Houston Dash picked up two points from two draws this week after earning their first win of the season last week against Sky Blue FC. The Seattle Reign continued their hot streak, defeating Sky Blue FC 4-1 on Saturday night with two goals from Megan Rapinoe. And the Orlando Pride earned their first win against the Portland Thorns in franchise history when they traveled to Providence Park for the Lifetime Game of the Week. Here is a full breakdown of the scores from Week 7:

Houston Dash vs. Portland Thorns (1-1)

Utah Royals vs. Orlando Pride (0-0)

Portland Thorns vs. Orlando Pride (1-2)

North Carolina Courage vs. Washington Spirit (1-0)

Chicago Red Stars vs. Houston Dash (2-2)

Seattle Reign vs. Sky Blue FC (4-1)

Top Goalkeeping Performances

1. Katelyn Rowland— Rowland had to step up into the goalkeeping role for the North Carolina Courage this weekend because Sabrina D’Angelo was out with an ankle injury. Rowland had a stellar game for the Courage, making three saves and earning her team another clean sheet. Her best save came in the 48th minute when she faced a shot from Washington Spirit Midfielder Tori Huster. Rowland stretched out her arm and the ball bounced off the palm of her hand. The ball was still inbounds, and Pugh took the follow-up shot, but Rowland had another save and knocked the ball out of bounds. 

2. Lydia Williams— Williams took over as the starting goalkeeper for the Seattle Reign this season, with Haley Kopmeyer getting traded to the Orlando Pride, and on Saturday night, Williams played a key role in the Reign’s dominant win. While Sky Blue doesn’t have the best attacking power in the league, Williams faced fourteen shots that night and was forced to make four saves. Her Save of the Week nomination came in the 88th minute of the match. Savannah McCaskill sent the ball into the 18-yard box for Sky Blue and the ball connected with Katlyn Johnson– who had two goals in last week’s match against the Houston Dash. Johnson headed the ball towards goal, but Williams extended her arm and managed to get a couple of fingers on the ball, knocking the ball out of play.

3. Aubrey Bledsoe— While Bledsoe was on the losing side of her match this weekend, Bledsoe has been a solid addition to the Washington Spirit lineup this season. Bledsoe leads the league in saves with 37 so far this season, including 5 in this weekend’s match against the Courage. While Bledsoe did allow a goal, only allowing one goal isn’t bad against the best offense in the league. Bledsoe’s saves have earned her a couple of Save of the Week nominations so far this season, and I expect that she’ll continue to show off her talents in the weeks to come.

Top Defensive Performances

1. Janine Van Wyk— Van Wyk has been a solid defender for the Houston Dash so far this season, appearing as our top defender just two weeks ago for her performance against the North Carolina Courage. The Dash had two matches this week, facing the Portland Thorns during the week and the Chicago Red Stars over the weekend. Both games ended in draws, and Van Wyk had some fine moments against some of the best offenses in the league. Her best moment, earning her a Save of the Week nomination, came towards the end of their match against the Portland Thorns. Meghan Klingenberg took a corner kick for the Thorns and sent the ball into the 18-yard box. The ball found the head of Lindsey Horan, but Van Wyk was on the line to stop it.  She headed the ball herself, and it soared over the net and out of play.

2. Allysha Chapman— Chapman only joined the Houston Dash last week, but already she is making an impact. She sat on the bench for their game against the Thorns (understandably, since she was only traded to the team earlier that day), but she played the full 90 minutes in the match against the Chicago Red Stars. Chapman had many good defensive moments for the Dash, particularly when she was covering Sam Kerr in the box. In the final moments of the game, the Red Stars sent a cross into the box for Kerr, but Chapman got her head to it first and sent it out of play. Earlier in the match, Nagasato sent a cross to Kerr in front of goal, but Chapman once again got her head to it first and got the ball out of the 18-yard box. The Dash gave up their 2019 first round pick for Chapman, but it looks like she may be a great addition to their backline. 

3. Alanna Kennedy— Kennedy played the full 90 minutes in both matches for the Pride this week, but she really stood out in the match against Portland. Kennedy plays as a central defender for the Australian National Team, but Tom Sermanni put her back in the defensive midfield for the Pride starting last season. Kennedy was all over the field for this match, making crucial stops and even tallying her own shot on goal. Kennedy works well in that defensive midfield position, roaming around the field where she is needed. She definitely showed her skill this week.

Top Attacking Performances

1. Megan Rapinoe— Rapinoe had two goals in Seattle’s 4-1 win over Sky Blue FC this weekend. In the 38th minute, she tacked on Seattle’s second goal when she got the ball just outside of the 18-yard box. She settled the ball and sent it flying into the top-left corner. She hit a very similar shot in the 60th minute, when she ran down the field with the ball, set up the shot, and launched it past Kailen Sheridan. She currently sits second in the league in goals, with four on the season, and helped her team earn their fourth win of the year. They currently sit in second place in the league with 13 points in 6 matches.

2. Christine Nairn— Nairn earned the Pride their second goal in the match against Portland and it was beautiful. After getting a long ball from Monica, Nairn attempted to settle the ball but lost it to a Portland defender. The ball bounced off the defender’s head and back to Nairn. The ball bounced off of Nairn’s chest, and Nairn connected with the ball mid-bounce. It soared over an empty 18-yard box and barely slipped under the crossbar and into the back of the net. Britt Eckerstrom was caught a bit off guard and the Pride took a 2-0 lead. The goal was Nairn’s first of the season, and earned her the NWSL Goal of the Week. She also leads the Pride in assists with two on the year.

3. Savannah McCaskill— McCaskill, the rookie out of the University of South Carolina, has had a solid start to her season. She tallied another goal for Sky Blue on Saturday against the Seattle Reign; a bright moment in an otherwise disappointing match for Sky Blue. In the 62nd minute, Carli Lloyd handed off the ball to McCaskill inside the 18-yard box. McCaskill was at a difficult angle, but sent the ball over her defender, and into the back of the net. The goal marked McCaskill’s second of the year; she currently is tied with Katlyn Johnson for the most goals for Sky Blue so far this year and has started in all five of Sky Blue’s matches.