Sky Blue FC President and General Manager Tony Novo had this to say about Holly’s departure:
“First and foremost, we want to thank Christy Holly for everything he has done for Sky Blue FC. From the first day he came to our club as an assistant coach, Christy has always been committed to Sky Blue FC, and we wish him nothing but the greatest of successes in whatever he chooses to do going forward.”
Holly, who has been head coach for Sky Blue FC since January 2016, held an overall record of 14-7-17. In the current season, Sky Blue FC is 7-2-9 and aiming for a place in the NWSL playoffs.
There has been no news of a head coaching replacement at this time.
The first friendly will be held on Oct. 19 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, LA, and the second will be held on Oct. 22 at Shalen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, NC. The games will be aired on FS1 and ESPN, respectively.
The last time the USWNT and the Korea Republic faced each other was May 30, 2015 – the last match before the USWNT’s famous Women’s World Cup run.
The two friendlies round out the remaining USWNT schedule for 2017, which includes New Zealand in September and Canada in November.
6 Takeaways from NWSL: Week 15 – Jordan Small, Luis Hernandez, and Elizabeth Wawrzyniak break down their takeaways from week 15 including a tide change in international competition, the youth movement of the Spirit, the final NWSL playoff spot plus much more.
As the NWSL season gets closer to the playoffs, we are seeing some distance between the top 3 and bottom 3, but movement in the middle. Let’s take a look at the upcoming games for the weekend.
Game 1: Washington Spirit vs. Boston Breakers
Washington Spirit record: 4-9-3
Position: 9th
Total Points: 15
Boston Breakers record: 3-7-6
Position: 8th
Total Points: 15
The Spirit are finally back at home after playing two games on the road and are looking to salvage the rest of their season. After a tough offseason, this is about where they were expected to end up, but they certainly won’t be satisfied and will want to tighten things up to close out the year. Their defense was in shambles against Orlando earlier this week so that will be the biggest thing to figure out with this quick turnaround. I don’t see a reason why their captain, Shelina Zadorsky, has been stuck on the bench. If she really has been worse in training than Kallman and Church, then the Spirit have bigger problems than we even knew.
Boston will be looking to pull out a win on the road and start another uptick in their season. They showed some good signs last week with a draw against FCKC but will need to get production from a broader range of players–last week it was pretty much Rosie White or bust–if they want to get more out of this match. If they can improve the attack, they should be able to get behind the Spirit backline, and hopefully, find some chances to finish.
Game 2: Orlando Pride vs. Sky Blue FC
Orlando Pride record: 6-6-5
Position: 5th
Total Points: 23
Sky Blue FC record: 7-8-2
Position: 6th
Total Points: 23
The Pride are in must-win mode as they try to recover from a slow start and grab that fourth spot in the playoffs. They are coming off a dominating win against the Spirit and need to carry that momentum into this game. There weren’t major defensive problems against the Spirit midweek, but the floating right back position has caused distress, and with Sam Kerr back, they’ll need to get everything they’ve got to shut her down. Kristen Edmonds has been a liability for the Pride most of the season and if she can’t get her turnover ratio under control, Sky Blue will exploit it. The Pride attack, however, has seemed to find their groove, with Alex Morgan coming back into form and Marta staying on the top of her game. They’ll be facing a defense that has conceded the most goals in the league, and with their attack options ready, they should find the back of the net.
Last week, Sky Blue was missing Sam Kerr (and Kelley O’Hara) and we saw a lot of cracks in their game. They’ve rescued plenty of results this year, thanks to some late match magic from Sam Kerr, but what is there to this team if she’s not around? She will be back this time, but they need to figure out the rest of the team and how they play because depending on Kerr can only get you so far. The defense is in trouble, and I’d like to see some changes. They’ve got injury problems, but what they’re doing now isn’t working and needs some tweaks. The big question marks this week will be the injury statuses of Kailen Sheridan, who was clearly in pain toward the end of the last game, and Kelley O’Hara, whose status has not been updated since the Tournament of Nations. If Kerr can get loose against the Pride and the defense can hold the strong Pride attack, we should be in for one exciting game.
Game 3: Chicago Red Stars vs. Portland Thorns
Chicago Red Stars record: 8-3-5
Position: 2nd
Total Points: 29
Portland Thorns record: 8-4-4
Position: 3rd
Total Points: 28
The top three are quite compacted right now and so this is a must-win game for Chicago to hold on to that 2nd place spot. They should have all of their usual starters back after resting some of them last week against Orlando. With Sofia Huerta reminding people that she can score goals, expect to see even more link up between her and Christen Press this week against Portland. Chicago has a lot of luck at home and with probably the strongest defense in the league, they’ll like their chances of shutting Portland down. As long as Press or Huerta can get in behind, they should see success.
Portland is starting to come into their game, after quite a few struggles over the season. For a while, it seemed like they were just waiting for Tobin Heath to return. But as that looks increasingly less likely, they’ve finally started to make adjustments and pulled themselves back up toward relative playoff safety. Christine Sinclair has come into herself a bit more in the last few games, and that will need to continue if Portland wants to keep this run going. Nadia Nadim should also be back from the Euros, which will give the attack an extra boost. Overall, it will be hard to beat Chicago at home, but if they can shut down Press or Huerta, they may have a fighting chance.
Game 4: Houston Dash vs. FC Kansas City
Houston Dash record: 6-8-2
Position: 7th
Total Points: 20
FC Kansas City record: 3-8-5
Position: 10th
Total Points: 14
The Dash are back at home and ready to face FCKC after a disappointing result against Portland. The Dash struggled with their formation and had trouble making anything of the few chances they did create. Their sub choices also left a bit to be desired. FCKC is struggling, so this is a prime opportunity for the Dash. But in this league, anything can happen on a given week. Sometimes the Dash are their own biggest enemies, so if they can put some shots on frame, they will give themselves a good chance to pick up some points.
I feel at this point I am spinning a broken record with FCKC but they just do not seem to be able to figure it out. Sydney Leroux is not the pure scorer/striker they need, and they don’t seem to have any other solutions available. My colleague Jacob Cristobal has a piece on the coaching situation this week. It’s been a tough year, but KC just need to try to finish out the season on a positive note. Despite their struggles, they do have most of the pieces. If they can just figure out how to fill some of the void of Amy Rodriguez, there’s room to build.
Game 5: Seattle Reign vs. NC Courage
Seattle Reign record: 6-4-6
Position: 4th
Total Points: 24
NC Courage record: 11-5-0
Position: 1st
Total Points: 33
This is a back-to-back matchup. Last time, the Reign fell 1-0 away. This time, they’ll like their chances better–at home and with both Megan Rapinoe and Jess Fishlock (seriously, can I get her healing regimen? Because my goodness …) for the first time in a couple months. Their difficulties on the road may well cost them a playoff spot, so they’ll need to be even better than usual at home to compensate. This week, with Rapinoe working back into the fold, they will need to find a way to get past the Courage defense. If Rapinoe is shut down, they will need to find another option to get into the attack. Seattle are pushing for that playoff spot but will need consistency across the weeks to make that happen.
The Courage will be looking to continue their reign at the top of the table. That may be tough since they’ll be coming off of short rest after the makeup game Thursday night, but if any team has the fitness to handle that run, it’s NC. Plus, unlike last weekend, this time they’ll have an in-form Rapinoe to deal with. The Courage attack has gotten the job done this year but needs a bit of a kickstart. Lynn Williams has been relatively quiet this season (at least compared to her performance in 2016) but was the difference maker last match. If they can ramp their attack and keep Rapinoe at bay, we should see another hard-fought game.
The Scouting Report:
We went live on Monday night with our weekly TSR and Sunday night with our USA vs. Japan recap. A reminder that you can catch TSR live every Monday night at 8pm EST on our YouTube channel. Make sure to follow the podcast on Twitter @ScoutingPodcast.
In case you missed the two episodes, catch up here:
Backline Soccer is officially one-year-old today and as I sit back and try to reflect on the last year (ten months for me) from a social media perspective, I think of where we have come from and where I believe this site has the ability to go.
I was initially approached by our Editor-in-Chief, RJ Allen, to perhaps start writing for the site but even just ten months ago, I did not feel my overall knowledge was nearly as good as it needed to be to write regularly about women’s soccer. I had followed the major events and pretty much any USWNT I could for years but had not followed much else outside of that. Now, I am happy to say that is not the case.
From there we diverted off about how I felt about running social media for the site and ten months later here I am in charge of social media and seeing all of the trial and error pay off in dividends for Backline Soccer.
Initially, I was the sole person running our social media accounts. But as we started to expand, put out more great content, and brought on more people it became harder to manage all of the intricate tasks of running social media without help. Additionally, at the time, and up until May of this year, I was a full-time graduate student getting my Master’s in Music Industry Administration, commuting twice a week 130 miles round trip to school, and spending a bulk of my time drowning in group projects or attending networking events.
So we set out to expand our social media team and I now manage a great four women team. Alyssa Zajac, Becca Kimble, and Caitlin de Souza help me collectively run this social media machine and have been an asset to Backline Soccer. Without all of them, I could not make this run as successful as it does.
Alyssa handles our Facebook page while covering Twitter in the mornings as well. She has been a huge help in covering and handling any task I ask of her and doing so efficiently.
Becca handles our Scouting Report media side, handling all things from scheduling tweets about the show, live-tweeting TSR every single week, and more. This was a side that we were lacking in initially and she has been irreplaceable in helping get our separate TSR Twitter off of the ground and running.
Caitlin runs our Instagram and is our graphic extraordinaire. Any graphic or table or image or quote I needed to look amazing, she has been up for the task. She’s added a flair and visual likability to all of our great content.
Each and every person on the social media team is so important. As most of our work happens behind the scenes and sometimes it can feel like a thankless job but I appreciate their help so much.
Let’s jump back to my hiring. In the beginning, Backline Soccer was a small group trying to get the site off of the ground and make our name in the world of women’s soccer. With social media being a new aspect we were looking to use to get more people involved in the site, the beginning months were a lot of trial and error, frustrations, finding what was working and what wasn’t, and a lot of discussion on the best way to do it all. While it was not always an easy or simple road, the end result has been rewarding. To see our Twitter start from about 320 followers when I took over as Social Media Director, to over 1300 has been a great joy for me because it shows the hard work my colleagues and I have been putting in has been working.
The road to get to that 1300, though, as I mentioned, was not an easy one. On the positive side, my knowledge of women’s soccer, in general, has expanded more than it ever would have if I had not been working for Backline Soccer and around these amazing individuals. But there were many days for the first few months or so, on the other side of the token, that I wasn’t sure I had made the right decision and that I should be continuing on.
As social media is the current and future way to market and promote your business, the pressure to make sure almost every single thing coming out on social media is almost perfect can become a bit overwhelming. And that pressure and some frustration at points became a little too much for me. But I have learned more ways to compromise, let things go, and handle things over the last year that have helped me in other aspects of my life as well.
In dealing with social media, there has to be a fun element and joy to the job of promoting my colleague’s great work the right way, while making sure our social media stays on the brand that we have set out for it to be. I have worked very hard to make sure I understood all I could about how my colleagues operated and how their pieces came across because, at the end of the day, social media is what is promoting their work and putting it out for the world to see. Then there is the daily flow to pay attention to and make sure it is continually working.
For me, handling social media took up more time initially than I had thought it would at the beginning but I enjoy what I do and I enjoy getting to see all of the great engagement from the work our site continues to put out each and every day. Handling the day-to-day I see a different side of how everything works and how our followers respond. And I have learned a lot in the last ten months that I do not think I could have learned anywhere else.
I’ve also learned that TweetDeck is woman’s best friend if you run social media, not to take myself so seriously sometimes, and how to work continually on making myself the best colleague, social media director, and human being that I can be. The perspective I get from my fellow Backline Soccer colleagues, even if we do not always agree on the same things, is something I value a lot and has helped frame some aspects of my life in my late 20s that as a teen or even a 21-year old I do not think I could have learned.
As we reach one year I can’t help but look to the future and hope for the continued success of the site and of all of my amazing colleagues. I hope that one day, the people who work so tirelessly to cover women’s soccer will be compensated for their work. And I hope one day that the women’s game gets the full respect it deserves. I believe it is coming in the future, as we have made strides to make it happen, but we still have a long way to go. We have truly built something great here at Backline Soccer and it has been a privilege over the last ten months to manage the social media for this company.
If you want to follow my ramblings about women’s soccer, the WNBA, music, and everything in between, you can find me on Twitter at @AdrianaHoop.
For now, I end here:
“Stay true to yourself, yet always be open to learn. Work hard, and never give up on your dreams, even when nobody else believes they can come true but you. These are not clichés but real tools you need no matter what you do in life to stay focused on your path.” –Phillip Sweet
And the song that was the inspiration for my first tattoo, from a country artist who isn’t afraid to push the boundaries, with a message that can speak to anyone if you just believe in yourself and the power you have to decide your own future. “Follow your arrow wherever it points.”
Midway Report: Chicago Red Stars Half Season Review – Sandra Herrera breaks down the Chicago Red Stars season halfway through. She also has some post game comments from Head Coach Rory Dames and Sofia Huerta following the 2-1 win over the Orlando Pride.
Celebrate Good Times – Berea Jurgensen takes a look at the seemingly muted celebrations of women in soccer and why it should not be such a rarity.
6 Takeaways from NWSL: Week 14 – Jordan Small, Luis Hernandez, and Elizabeth Wawrzyniak are back with their six takeaways for Week 14. This week, they discuss the more offensive play of Allie Long, weather delays, the craziness of Sky Blue and Seattle Reign plus much more.
This Isn’t About Soccer Anymore – Elizabeth Wawrzyniak talks about her experience at the Chicago Red Stars and Orlando Pride game in Chicago this week and how she dealt with some very rude fans.
We went live on Monday night with our weekly TSR. A reminder that you can catch TSR live every Monday night at 8pm EST on our YouTube channel. Make sure to follow the podcast on Twitter @ScoutingPodcast.
In case you missed this week’s episode, catch up here:
My colleague, Jacqui Porter, will be writing a great recap of the USWNT and Matilda’s match on Thursday night, which you can read later today. Come back next week as I will be back to regularly scheduled programming with NWSL previews!
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