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!

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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

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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.

The Game Changers: Week 23

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

As we enter the final weeks of the NWSL season, the playoffs are starting to take shape. Two teams have already clinched playoff spots: the North Carolina Courage (who also clinched the NWSL Shield) and the Chicago Red Stars. The Portland Thorns haven’t clinched yet, but they sit in the No. 3 spot, eight points ahead of the No. 4 Utah Royals and the No. 5 Seattle Reign. The Utah Royals and Reign FC continue to battle it out for that final spot; the two teams are currently tied on points, with the Utah Royals currently sitting in the final playoff spot due to goal differential. These two teams still have everything left to fight for. Here is a full breakdown of this week’s results. 

North Carolina Courage vs. Houston Dash (1-0)

Chicago Red Stars vs. Washington Spirit (3-1)

Utah Royals vs. North Carolina Courage (0-3)

Reign FC vs. Sky Blue FC (0-1)

Portland Thorns vs. Houston Dash (1-0)

North Carolina Courage clinch the NWSL Shield.

The North Carolina Courage earned two wins in Week 23, but it was their 3-0 victory over the Utah Royals where they clinched the NWSL Shield for the third year in a row. The two teams were relatively even in terms of shots and shots on goal. But it was the Courage who found the back of the net three times, starting with a goal from Samantha Mewis in the 30th minute. Mewis stepped up to take a penalty for her side after Kristen Hamilton was taken down in the box. She slotted the ball into the left corner to give the Courage the lead. Jaelene Hinkle and Debinha scored back-to-back goals in the 65th and 70th minute to put the game away for North Carolina. 

The Courage haven’t looked as strong in 2019 as they did in 2018, but they still managed to come out as the strongest team in the NWSL regular season. And they certainly look strong heading into the NWSL playoffs. They’ve won their last six games in a row. Can anyone stop them?

The Chicago Red Stars dominate Washington to clinch a playoff spot.

The Chicago Red Stars clinched a playoff spot this week, dominating the Washington Spirit in a 3-1 defeat. Sam Kerr opened up scoring in the 9th minute, launching her shot over the outstretched arms of Aubrey Bledsoe for her 17th goal of the season. Yuki Nagasato made it 2-0 less than fifteen minutes later, finishing off a pass from Kerr. In the 32nd minute, it looked like the Spirit might get an opportunity to get a goal back, but Alyssa Naeher stopped a penalty kick from Chloe Logarzo. Kerr sealed the game for the Red Stars in the 49th minute with her 18th goal of the season, finishing off a beautiful pass from Yuki Nagasato and beating both the Spirit defenders and goalkeeper Aubrey Bledsoe. The Spirit got a late goal from Mallory Pugh, but it didn’t have much of an impact on the match.

Sam Kerr has now scored 18 goals this season, beating her own record for the most goals scored in an NWSL season. Yuki Nagasto leads the league in assists, with eight on the year. And the Red Stars have won their last four games, scoring at least three goals in three out of those four matches. Could this be the year they finally make it to the NWSL Final? 

The Portland Thorns are one step closer to clinching.

The Portland Thorns didn’t clinch a playoff spot this week. But they came one step closer with a 1-0 win over the Houston Dash. Even though the Thorns appeared to dominate in nearly every statistical category, it was the lone goal from Tobin Heath that lifted them above the Dash. In the 48th minute, Horan was able to slide a pass to the feet of Tobin Heath, who directed the ball into the left corner to give Portland the lead. With that goal, Portland took one more step towards the postseason.

With Reign FC and the Utah Royals losing their games this week, Portland appears to be in a solid position to make it to the playoffs. Which really just leaves one more question mark. Will it be Reign FC or the Utah Royals who have a chance to compete for the title? 

 

FIFA, Iran, and the death of the “Blue Girl”

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Last week, Iranian football made global headlines when Sahar Khodayari, known as the “Blue Girl,” died. The 29-year-old fan of Tehranian club Esteghlal appeared in court on September 2nd and told she could face up to six months in prison. 

Her crime? Attending a soccer match.

In March, Khodayari was arrested when she attempted to enter Tehran’s Azadi stadium to watch Esteghlal, but was caught by officials. In Iran, women are banned from attending men’s soccer matches. After Khodayari appeared in court and was told of her possible sentence, she set herself on fire outside of the courthouse. She died from her injuries last week. 

Iran’s policy and the activism challenging it 

Women have been banned from attending soccer matches in Iran since the country became an Islamic Republic following the 1979 revolution. The message from Iran’s government is that soccer matches are not pure spaces and women should not be exposed to those environments. 

Activists fighting against this ban came to global attention during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, although their battle has been going on much longer than that. Iran qualified for the 2018 tournament and women from Iran traveled to the games in Russia. Their mere presence was a statement, but the women also spoke to media and flew banners highlighting their plight. 

Women are regularly detained for attempting to go to matches in Iran. In fact, when FIFA President Gianni Infantino attended the Tehran Derby at Azadi Stadium, 35 women and girls were detained for attempting to enter the stadium. These women have protested inside and outside of prisons, desperately trying to make their voices heard. And in 2018, many of those voices were heard all over the world.

Solidarity for Sahar

Women’s and men’s soccer teams within Iran and around the world have expressed their sorrow over Khodayari’s death and their solidarity with Iranian women. Esteghlal and their main rivals, Persepolis, held a minute’s silence following Iran’s death. Esteghlal issued a statement, which read in part, “She supported us despite the politics made it illegal for her, but what can we do to support her? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. We are cowards.” 

The sentiment was echoed by the Iran football captain, Masoud Shojaei, who said, “Shame on me for not having been able to do anything and shame on those who took away the most obvious right from Sahar and all Sahars.” 

It is likely that Masoud and the Tehranian clubs took great personal risk to make these statements.

Scrolling through social media feeds for OpenStadiums, the campaign of Iranian women fighting for their right to attend matches, you can see some of the support pouring out from women’s teams. Hedvig Lindhal, Hope Solo, and others reposted a petition intended to put pressure on Iran. Clubs from Norway, Italy, and elsewhere wore blue armbands or held up blue pieces of paper. 

For many in the women’s soccer world, this tragedy was a reminder of how strong misogyny still is and how much there still is to fight for.

FIFA’s inaction is wrong. And it’s costing lives. 

In the wake of Khodayari’s death, FIFA has faced a lot of criticism. This criticism is, in my opinion, completely warranted. 

FIFA has been working with Iran to try to get women into stadiums. But Khodayari’s death makes it clear that FIFA isn’t doing enough. FIFA laws state that “Discrimination of any kind… is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.” The tools are there for them to use more than words to put pressure on Iran, but instead, they have allowed the country to slowly and vaguely move towards progress.

And why didn’t FIFA do more to get women who had been arrested out of prison? Masoud Shojaei’s sister, Maryam, wrote eight letters to FIFA since Khodayari was charged, begging them to lift the ban. When she didn’t get a response, she presented a 200,000-signature petition to FIFA at their headquarters. But Maryam says no one took her seriously. 

FIFA’s course of action should be clear. If Iran does not allow women to attend their matches, FIFA should bar them from participating in the 2022 World Cup qualifications and prohibit them from receiving other benefits that come from FIFA membership. 

Iran appears to be moving towards allowing women in stadiums as soon as the first qualifiers in October. But they have promised this before. How many other women must die before FIFA will take a stand? 

The world is watching. 

If you want to support the women of Iran, you can follow the OpenStadiums movement on Twitter at the handle @OpenStadiums. 

 

The Game Changers: Week 22

Posted on by Backline Soccer

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

With only a few games left in the NWSL regular season, the race for the final spot in the playoffs is heating up. The North Carolina Courage, Chicago Red Stars, and Portland Thorns have separated themselves from the rest, with five points separating No. 3 Portland from No. 4 Utah Royals. But Utah and Reign FC are currently tied on points, with only goal differential lifting Utah into the playoffs at the moment. The race for the Supporters’ Shield also remains competitive, with North Carolina launching themselves into the No. 1 spot this weekend. Here is a full breakdown of the matches from Week 22. 

Orlando Pride vs. Chicago Red Stars (0-1)

Portland Thorns vs. North Carolina Courage (0-6)

Houston Dash vs. Utah Royals (2-1)

North Carolina Courage vs. Orlando Pride (6-1)

Washington Spirit vs. Reign FC (2-2)

Sky Blue FC vs. Chicago Red Stars (0-3)

North Carolina scores 12 goals in two games. 

North Carolina had a very impressive Week 22. But even more impressive than a 6-1 win over the lowest ranked team in the NWSL was North Carolina’s 6-0 victory over the Portland Thorns at Providence Park. Not only did North Carolina manage to get this result on the road, but they did it against one of the top teams in the league.

As North Carolina often does, this game was highlighted by two bursts of goals. The first happened when the Courage scored three goals between the 15th minute and the 24th minute, including two goals from Lynn Williams. Two more goals came between the 61st and the 68th minutes, including the goal that completed Williams’ hat trick. And Kristen Hamilton topped things off with a goal of her own in the 89th minute.

North Carolina hasn’t been as good this season as they were last year. But this looks like a team that can win a Supporters’ Shield and maybe add another championship to their collection of accolades.

 Chicago Red Stars extend to three-game win streak.

The Chicago Red Stars have been hit-and-miss this season. But they’ve managed to get hot at just the right time, extending to a three-game win streak after victories over the Orlando Pride and Sky Blue. They currently sit in the No. 2 spot in the NWSL Standings, two points behind the North Carolina Courage. They also have two fewer games left to play.  But, if the Chicago Red Stars continue playing like this, they could also be looking at adding a trophy or two to their collection. 

In their match against Sky Blue, Chicago got a goal apiece from Morgan Brian (her first NWSL goal) and Sam Kerr in the first half. Sky Blue actually had more shots and more shots on goal, but six critical saves from Alyssa Naeher and a second-half insurance goal from Yuki Nagasato gave Chicago the win. 

Washington Spirit hold Reign FC to a draw at Audi Field.

The Washington Spirit played their second game of the 2019 season at Audi Field on Saturday night. The crowd of over 17,000 was treated to some late drama — the game was 1-1 going into stoppage time, but a 90th minute goal from Chloe Logarzo gave Washington the lead. But Ifeoma Onumonu snatched away the Spirit’s dreams of a second win in the District when she equalized just two minutes later. In doing so, she also earned her team a critical point in the playoff race. 

The Spirit attracted over 19,000 fans to their first match at Audi Field and over 17,000 to their second match a few weeks later. They treated fans to a win over the Orlando Pride in their first match and a draw against Reign FC in their second. Surely, this team has made their case for playing full-time at Audi Field. If those dreams come to fruition, it would be massive for both the Spirit organization and the NWSL as a whole. 

 

The Greatest Team to Never Win; How the 2014-2015 Reign captured everything but a championship

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The 1990 Italian national men’s team.

The 2014 Argentinean national men’s team.

The 2015 French national women’s team.

What do these three teams have in common? They were the greatest teams of their time…to never win.

Joining this list? The 2014-2015 Seattle Reign. The greatest team to ever play in the NWSL. Led by Head Coach Laura Harvey, captained by midfielder Keelin Winters and powered by Kim Little, the Reign ran roughshod over everyone in their path. Right up until they got to the finish line.

In 2014, Reign scored 51 goals combined in both the regular and post season. Scottish international Kim Little, first of her name, destroyer of teams and scorer of goals, put 16 of those in the back of the net herself, confounding defenders and keepers alike. Standing at 5’3, Little would speed around the field, finding empty pockets of space and exploiting them, getting the ball between every defender and slamming it home, wham bam thank you ma’am. By the time players realized what had happened, she was already gone, looking for her next victim. She won the Golden Boot for her 16 goals and league MVP for 16 goals and 7 assists.

However, a player like Little is only as good as her team, and what a team she had behind her. Though she was a midfielder, her team had no problem treating her as a forward. Naho Kawasumi and Sydney Leroux had their fair shares of goals, adding to the impressive tally of the team overall.

The backline was nothing to sniff at either. Lauren Barnes, Steph Cox, Elli Reed and Kendall Fletcher were everything you could want. The communication between them was flawless. So flawless that Hope Solo barely needed to raise her voice. Then again, when you have the greatest female keeper at your back, it’s hard to give anything but your best.

But arguably the very best part of this team? The midfield. Keelin Winters. Beverly Yanez. Jess Fishlock. Megan Rapinoe. Those four horse riders of the apocalypse struck fear in the heart of every team they played. Jess Fishlock was one of the few internationals in the league that year and she made a NAME for herself. Tough, hard-working, not afraid to make the risky plays. She ended the season with eight assists. She was the player you wanted in your midfield and she never ever quit on any play.

Beverly Goebel (now Yanez) was already a talented veteran by the time she signed with Seattle. She was drafted back in the WPS days, playing for the Washington Freedom and then Western New York Flash before signing with a Finnish team in 2011. She would really come into her own as a star player whilst playing overseas in Japan where she scored 13 goals and won the league’s Golden Boot. She was the perfect fit for Seattle. Watching her play is nothing short of majestic. She’s sneaky in all the right ways, roaming the field while seeming to mind her own business before stripping her opponent of the ball and sending it down the field to whoever was ready to put it away. The way she is able to read the play and intercept passes is a gift bestowed upon her by the soccer gods. She played one of the biggest roles that year and still does here in 2019.

And leading this group of superstars? The Mighty Keelin Winters. I won’t wax poetic about her because I’m capped at a certain amount of words. But before Becky Sauerbrunn, there was Keelin. A captain’s captain. She led by example, knowing her position so perfectly, you often wouldn’t notice her, that’s how good she was. She had perfect command of the midfield and her players. She was the most well-respected captain in 2014.

Seattle feared no one, going into every game confident they could win but playing like they were about to lose and needed one last-ditch goal. Their pace and playing style were never frantic, but carefully controlled chaos. Every player knew exactly what was expected of them and never strayed away from their game plan, even on the rare occasions they were losing. They clinched the #1 seed in the playoffs and the coveted NWSL Shield, with 54 points. They only lost two games the entire regular season. Racking up numerous Player of the Week and Month awards, the only thing missing for this club’s trophy case was THE trophy itself. And the only thing standing between them and that trophy? FC Kansas City.

John Lennon once wrote, “life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”

FCKC walked into Seattle’s stadium and smacked them right in the mouth with two goals, stunning the greatest team and NWSL fans everywhere by winning the whole kit and caboodle.

2015 was a World Cup year. Losing Solo and Rapinoe wasn’t a big deal for a team still stacked to the gills. Adding Merritt Mathias, Amber Brooks, Rachel Corsie and Michelle Cruz, the Reign were more than ready to weather the World Cup storm. They stayed top of the table for 18 of the 21 weeks, winning several Player of the Week and Month awards. More players stepped up that season as well; Yanez would score nine (!) goals and Fishlock racked up eight of her own. Little would continue being the play maker but Winters really deserved a lot of the credit of keeping this team together. Little would score 10 goals, but ultimately was Golden Boot runner up to Crystal Dunn and her 15 ‘cut me from the world cup roster will you’ goals.

They once again rose to the top, winning the NWSL Shield a second time with 40 points and again facing FCKC in the final. FCKC had been having a bit of a rough year, barely scraping into the playoffs. Maybe even more so than the previous year, Seattle felt this was their chance to rid themselves of their demons and hoist the Championship trophy, capping it off with what would truly be the gaudiest looking rings.

It’s truly something to behold, watching a team realizing that for a second time in a row…they have failed. It defies logic. This team had it all: a stacked roster, explosive offense, a great coach and (almost) all the awards. They had come out the other side of the World Cup tunnel with minor bruising, they had scored all the goals. Even Superman managed to defeat Lex Luthor! So why couldn’t they win when it really mattered? FCKC was truly Seattle’s kryptonite, foiling them at every turn and robbing the NWSL’s superstar team back to back. A curse was born this year. Whoever won the shield was destined to lose the championship. It’s been broken at the time of this writing, but for a while there…it was real.

The team looks different these days. They are now coached by the very same man who robbed them of glory and most of the old guard are long gone. But still, we will always wonder what went wrong. Ms. Ariana Grande said it herself, “Almost is never enough.”

Route Two Soccer: Chicago’s Win Over Houston Bodes Well for Their End-of-Season Hopes

Posted on by Backline Soccer

It’s been a puzzling season for the Chicago Red Stars. They were supposed to dominate during the World Cup break, when they held onto most of their key players even as all the other top teams were decimated. But they struggled mightily during that period. Then they came out of the World Cup break on fire, reeling off five consecutive wins, only to turn around and lose back-to-back games to the two worst teams in the league.

Looking at the roster, they should easily make the playoffs. And yet here they are, right in the thick of a tough race over the final month.

It’s always hard to make predictions about this team, but on the evidence of this weekend’s performance against Houston, they might just have kicked things back into gear at the key time. It was an accomplished, comprehensive, and thoroughly dominant result, and a demonstration of just how good this Red Stars team has the potential to be.

As I flagged last week, Chicago has faced significant problems this year in the central defense, and that was addressed directly by coach Rory Dames’s lineup as the two best center backs on the roster were finally moved back into the central defense. Julie Ertz and Tierna Davidson bring a huge amount of value in their other roles, so it’s certainly not an easy choice to place them at center back. But for a team struggling to keep a tight ship, it made sense.

To some extent, the change was informed by the opponent. The Dash are one of the league’s weakest teams at building play through the middle, making it far easier for Chicago to get by without Ertz in the holding role to break up possession. Where they do pose a threat is in quick counters and out wide. Dames countered this by matching the ever-adaptable Casey Short up against Kealia Ohai, and by using the lightning-fast Sarah Gorden on the opposite flank. This arrangement shored up the middle by removing the shaky Katie Naughton, and strengthened the wide defense.

It also had an additional advantage: with Ertz and Davidson at center back, Chicago were ideally suited to pass through and around a scurrying Houston press. Few, if any, central defenders in the league are as comfortable on the ball as this pair. If the Dash are closing down Morgan Brian or Dani Colaprico coming for the ball, it was very easy for Davidson or Ertz to simply dribble forward to create new angles.

The only real danger here was overconfidence. At times, Chicago seemed to double down so much on beating the press that they played themselves into danger. But once they found their rhythm, it was extremely comfortable for the Red Stars to build from the back.

And this set the tone for the whole game. Chicago didn’t dominate possession, nor did they play a tiki-taka style. Instead, they held possession comfortably while drawing the Dash forward, and then pounced, moving the ball quickly into space. You can see it from the goals.

For the first, Morgan Brian received the ball around the halfway line, picked her head up and saw a clear, direct vertical line. One beautifully weighted pass, a single touch from Kerr, and Chicago scored. The whole move took 8 seconds.

For the second, Davidson intercepted a pass, found Nagasato in tons of space, who passed to Kerr, who dropped the ball back to DiBernardo. In those few seconds, Nagasato had raced forward and was now ready to receive another simple, lovely vertical pass from DiBernardo. She then slid the ball between two converging defenders to Kerr, who let it roll and then unleashed a shot. Five passes in about 12 seconds. 2-0.

For the third, Naeher gathered the ball, passed to Brian, who advanced it to Colaprico, who sent it back to Davidson, who found Short out wide. Short received the ball well behind the halfway line, had time to watch the forward runs, and launched a ball over the top. McCaskill ran it down, beating Amber Brooks who inexplicably let it roll, and shinned it past the keeper and into the net. Five passes in 15 seconds. 3-0.

This is what we’ve been expecting from Chicago for so long. They have the personnel to attack with lightning speed and precision. Not because their players are particularly pacey, but because of their collective ability to pick out passes, isolate defenders, and capitalize on space.

Obviously, it doesn’t hurt to have Sam Kerr leading the attack. We all know how good she is, and yet her conversion rates continue to astound.

But this is by no means a one-woman show. After a poor start to the season, Yuki Nagasato is back in good form. Dani Colaprico also seems to have righted the ship and found some of the precision that usually defines her game. But perhaps the most important cog in the machine is Morgan Brian. After several lost years between 2016 and 2018, it’s now been roughly a year that she’s been mostly fit and very good. But her performances over the past few weeks are another step above. She still might never get back to where she was at the end of 2015, but for the first time in a very long time, it feels like she’s back in the conversation for being one of the best midfielders in the league. Her calm possession and incredible field vision are critical to this style of play, and if she can keep it up, it could be the difference that finally earns Chicago that playoff victory they’ve been seeking for so long.

Nothing is set in stone. Chicago have looked great before, only to fall away just as they seemed to be poised to grab hold of the league. And while they could afford to live without Ertz against the relatively frail Houston midfield, they might not have that luxury against a team like Portland or North Carolina. And for all the great performances lately, they haven’t been getting the best from Vanessa DiBernardo, another key player who looks like she’s carrying some significant nagging injuries.

So everything could very well still fall apart. But if anyone can disrupt the duopoly at the top of the league, Chicago is probably your best bet. If they can continue to play like this, they can beat anyone.

Route Two Soccer: Handicapping the NWSL Playoff Race

Posted on by Backline Soccer

The NWSL regular season concludes in a little over five weeks. That’s five more weeks for teams to sort themselves. Who will host home playoffs? Who will end up on the outside looking in?

A few weeks ago, it looked like things might end up finishing with more of a whimper than a bang, but thanks to some compelling results, we’re in for a bumpy ride, with every spot in the table still up for grabs. This column will assess the chances for each of the teams still in the race.

1. Portland Thorns (36 points) 

(at Utah, North Carolina, Houston, at Reign, Washington)

The Thorns are in the pole position, with a five point lead over North Carolina. The Courage do have two games in hand, and a head-to-head clash with the Thorns still on the calendar, so the lead certainly isn’t safe. But those points already in the bank are critical, and (with a 9 point lead over the fifth place Reign) they’re probably the only team in the league that’s effectively locked up a playoff spot.

The emergence of Midge Purce as a major goal-scoring threat has been the story of the season, but the fate of the Thorns ultimately still depends more on the old guard than anyone else. Can Christine Sinclair keep defying time, can Tobin Heath find her top level more consistently, can Emilys Sonnett and Menges continue to hold down the backline? Those are the key questions for the Thorns. Keep the engine running, and the goals will keep pouring in.

The only ‘problem’ for Portland is that they’re facing a pretty tough run-in. Four of their five remaining matches are against playoff contenders. Still, the way they’ve been playing, there’s no reason to expect them to falter. It’s hard to bet against North Carolina closing the gap, but I expect Portland to barely hold them off and take home the Shield.

2. North Carolina Courage (31 points)

(at Sky Blue, at Portland, Orlando, Houston, at Utah, at Washington, Sky Blue)

When everyone is at full strength, North Carolina is the best team in the league. We saw clear evidence of that last year, and even this year’s slightly-diminished version of the squad has still shown the ability to dominate the league. Still, they’ve dug themselves into a bit of a hole, and will have to work pretty quickly to get back out if they want to top the table once again. Their run-in isn’t especially tough in terms of opponents—with games against the four bottom teams on the list. But those first five games come at a breakneck pace—spaced out over just 15 days in mid-September.

If everyone can stay fresh, and if coach Paul Riley can work his secondary players into the lineup effectively, they should come out of that period with a playoff spot locked down. And they might even have retaken first place from the Thorns. But that’s a big if. This is a team that’s played a lot of soccer in the past year, and is facing a number of minor ailments.

The strike force should be fine. The only real problem is figuring out how to get enough minutes for all the options, with Lynn Williams, Jess McDonald, and Kristen Hamilton all deserving starters. The crunch of matches will simply allow for some necessary rotation.

The midfield, however, is a bigger question mark. Over the past two dominant years, Riley has shown a clear preference for a 4222 box midfield, which relies heavily on the high work rates of Sam Mewis and McCall Zerboni in the deeper positions. But Zerboni has recently seen more time as a substitute, and Denise O’Sullivan can’t cover quite the same ground as a replacement. Can Carolina continue to play the same way—in order to get as much time on the ball as possible for Crystal Dunn and Debinha—or will Riley be forced to tinker with his system?

It would be extremely surprising if North Carolina didn’t end up hosting a home playoff match. But given the issues they’ve faced trying to maintain the delicate balance of their system, you’d probably have to bet on them dropping some points between now and October. And that might put the Shield out of their reach.

3. Chicago Red Stars (29 points)

(Houston, at Orlando, at Sky Blue, Washington, Utah)

This team is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Look at their roster, and it’s hard to understand how they’re not topping the table. Watch them when everything is clicking, and it’s hard to understand how they ever lose a game to anyone. With Sam Kerr and Yuki Nagasato, they have arguably the best strikeforce in the league. With Julie Ertz, Morgan Brian, Dani Colaprico, and Vanessa DiBernardo, they have arguably the best midfield in the league. Their goalkeeper is the number one for the US team. Casey Short has been the best defender in the league this year.

So why are they mired in third place? How did they win five in a row, and then fall to the two worst teams in the league? I see three plausible explanations.

First, injuries. Most of this team is banged up. While that midfield quartet are incredibly impressive, they have also faced some niggling problems that keep them from playing every game. And when they do play, they’re generally not 100%. The Red Stars haven’t faced the kind of devastating injury procession suffered by the Reign, but persistent low-grade problems take their toll.

Second, tactics. With a high-octane creative midfield, and with strikers capable of linking play, this team should be regularly out-passing the opposition. But with some limited exceptions, that hasn’t really been the case. Far too often, the team slows down and reverts to the strategy of kicking long balls to Kerr and hoping for some magic. Kerr is good enough that this sometimes works, but it’s far less than Chicago ought to have on offer, given the talent they can put out there.

Third, the central defense. The Red Stars have three world class centerbacks, neither of whom have spent much time in the position. There’s a good reason for that. Ertz is also a world-class midfielder and arguably better used in that position. While Tierna Davidson has increasingly looked like a long-term fit at left back, and Casey Short is one of the world’s best right backs. But while there are good reasons for the choice, there’s no denying that Chicago have looked mighty fragile in the critical central positions. Sarah Gorden has had an excellent year there, and is a serviceable replacement. But she’s also not quite at the level of the world’s very best. And Katie Naughton has had a very tough year, after some excellent work in previous seasons. Put it all together, and you have a team that’s conceded 26 goals—third-most in the league.

Can Chicago fix these problems? I really have no idea. It wouldn’t surprise me if they reel off another run of wins to shoot up the table. And it also wouldn’t surprise me if they struggle enough to put playoff qualification in doubt. But they only have five games left, which doesn’t leave them a lot of margin for error.

4. Utah Royals (28 points)

(Portland, at Houston, at Reign, North Carolina, at Chicago, Houston)

It’s been a tale of two halves for Utah this year. Of the eight games with Christen Press, they’ve won five and drawn two, accounting for 17 of their 28 total points. In ten games without her, they’ve only managed 11 points. Basically, without Press they’re a contender for the bottom of the table. With her, they’re a contender for the Shield. That’s just how good she’s been this year.

Fortunately for Utah, Press appears to be healthy and ready to go for the final month. That’s going to be crucial for a team with only six goal-scorers on the whole season. They’ll need Press and Amy Rodriguez to continue working together well, and will also need some of the secondary attackers to provide a bit more.

The other key for Utah is their defensive core. The Royals have the best defense in the league, even in a year when Rachel Corsie hasn’t looked her best and Becky Sauerbrunn is starting to wear down a bit. That’s a testament to the organization instilled by coach Laura Harvey, and to the tireless efforts of Desiree Scott patrolling the midfield.

Utah have a tough schedule, with matches against the other four top playoff challengers, but in some sense that’s an advantage. At a minimum, it puts their chances in their own hands. Win a few of those games, and they’ll not only get the points they need, they’ll deny critical points to their competitors.

5. Reign FC (27 points)

(Orlando, at Washington, Utah, Sky Blue, Portland, at Orlando)

It’s astonishing that the Reign are still hanging around the playoff race given the absurd injury list they’ve suffered this year. Coach Vlatko Andonovski deserves a lot of credit for holding this team together with bubble gum and some bits of string, for aggressively working the transfer market to bring in replacements, and for getting the absolute most from a series of useful-but-limited players.

The big question mark here is Megan Rapinoe. If she can come back, and play like she did in 2018, that might well be enough to muscle the Reign into the playoffs. But if she can’t return, or if she struggles to work back to form, it’s hard to tell where the goals are going to come from.

The Reign have—out of necessity—adopted a bunch of tactical innovations this year. The most recent iteration came against North Carolina, with the Reign choosing a 4321 Christmas tree formation. It was an interesting idea, but more a matter of desperation than desirability. In this formation, Rosie White and Bethany Balcer operated as the two attacking mids. And while they did their best, it’s simply not a position where either is likely to find much success. It made for a toothless attack, and a defensive core that worked hard but were never going to be able to withstand the relentless pressure.

Will we see further innovations as the Reign move on to face some weaker opponents? Most likely. Will it be enough to secure some critical victories? It’s very hard to say. Far be it for me to bet against Vlatko, but it will most likely take some additional wizardry for them to sneak one of those final playoff spots.

Keep a close eye on that September 18 match against Utah. These could easily end up being the two teams vying for that final playoff spot, and the head-to-head record is dead-even right now. A win their could be the key to a Reign playoff appearance. Anything less, and they might end up on the outside looking in.

6. Washington Spirit (25 points)

(Reign, at Chicago, at Houston, North Carolina, at Orlando, at Portland)

Washington sit three points out of the playoff spots, trailing two teams. With six games left, that’s plenty of time to make up the gap. But it’s going to be mighty tough to implement in practice. The Spirit have a very tough run-in, with away matches against Portland and Chicago, in addition to games against the Reign and North Carolina. They’ll probably need to get at least six points from those four games if they’ll have any hope of making the playoffs, and that’s a big ask.

At the same time, this is a team that’s managed to stick around in the playoff race all season despite getting a mere combined eight appearances from Rose Lavelle and Mallory Pugh. If they can get their young playmakers back, and see them work with fellow young standout Andi Sullivan, there’s no reason to think the Spirit can’t hang offensively with anyone in the league.

The big question, then, is whether the defense can continue to hold together. It’s astonishing that they’ve held up as well as they have—given a backline filled with rookies in a league where even very talented young defenders have generally struggled to adapt. If Sam Staab and Paige Nielsen can continue to hold the line, and if Aubrey Bledsoe can continue her excellent form, the Spirit might just be able to give themselves a chance to sneak that final playoff spot.

I wouldn’t bet on it, and they really don’t have much margin for error. But it’s a great sign that they’re still within shouting distance at this point.

The rest

In seventh place, the Houston Dash aren’t technically out of the running. But they have an exceptionally tough set of remaining fixtures (with five of the six matches against teams currently in the playoff spots), and would probably need at least four wins from those matches. Given their current form, it’s far more likely that they’ll get further away from the playoff spots than that they’ll close the gap.

Meanwhile, after the horrible race to the bottom between Sky Blue and Washington last year, it’s nice to see the two trailing teams playing some decent soccer. Orlando and Sky Blue could each easily play spoiler to some of the playoff hopefuls, and (given that tough Houston run-in) could conceivably shoot for 7th place. Given how horribly they both started the season, that’s real progress.