Tag: Laura Harvey

Royals Lose: Tactics Are Pointless if You Don’t Execute

Posted on by Backline Soccer

Utah Royals head coach Laura Harvey held nothing back when talking about her team’s 2-0 home loss to Reign FC on Friday. The frustrating performance drops the team into fourth place, allowing the Reign to leap over them in the standings.

“We weren’t good enough from minute one to minute 90,” said Harvey after the game. “We were slow, lethargic and we didn’t have any spark. 

“Tactics are pointless if you don’t execute, and we didn’t even come close to executing.”

Reign FC seemed to have the game well in hand early in the game when they were freely taking shots at the Royals net. Passes out of the back from the Royals seemed lazy and the Seattle players leaped into action on nearly every turnover.

The first goal game in the 30th minute when Jessica Fishlock and Bethany Balcer put on a passing display that lead to a chance. Fishlock was the last one with the ball, shooting past Royals keeper Nicole Barnhart. Fishlock continued to torment the defense later in the half, dribbling through the defense and finding a wide open Ifeoma Onumonu for an easy double.

Royals did little to fight back with Reign FC nearly making it a three goal lead several times in the second half.

“I think, ultimately, we weren’t good enough,” said Royals midfielder Mandy Laddish. “We didn’t fight hard enough, we were spread out, we weren’t connecting passes at all. 

“Sometimes you come out and you just are flat, and I think that’s something that we addressed at halftime, and unfortunately I don’t think we fixed it as well as we’d like.”

The loss is the Royals’ third of the season. Next they will travel to New Jersey to face a winless Sky Blue FC team. It could be the opportunity Harvey and the team need to get back on track heading into the remainder of the campaign.

Utah Royals FC Preview: Can They be a Contender?

Posted on by RJ Allen

The Utah Royals FC are the newest NWSL team on the scene. However, after a quick game of musical chairs this fall, the team secured an experienced head coach and a veteran lineup.

On November 7, the Seattle Reign announced that Laura Harvey was stepping down and FC Kansas City head coach Vlatko Andonovski would take her place. Nine days later, MLS owner Dell Loy Hansen announced women’s professional soccer would arrive to the Salt Lake Valley in 2018. 

By November 20, the league ceased operations of FC Kansas City and announced players would be reallocated to the Utah franchise. Seven days later, Harvey was named the new coach of the yet-to-be-named franchise.

Come March 24, the Royals will open their inaugural season against the Orlando Pride. Here is what you need to know about Harvey and company. 

Head Coach: Laura Harvey (First season with Utah, sixth season in NWSL)

2017 record: FC Kansas record 8-9-7

Projected Starting XI:

Goalkeeper: Nicole Barnhart

Defenders: Kelley O’Hara, Rachel Corsie, Becky Sauerbrunn, Becca Moros

Midfielders: Lo’eau LaBonta, Diana Matheson, Desiree Scott

Forwards: Amy Rodriguez, Katie Stengel, Brittany Ratcliffe

Player you should know:

Canadian midfielder Diana Matheson is definitely a player every women’s soccer fan should know. She was an integral part of the success of the Washington Spirit club that made its first NWSL Championship appearance in 2016.  She signed with the Seattle Reign last year but missed the 2017 season after tearing her ACL (left knee) playing with Canada last February. Matheson returned to the Canadian National Team for the 2018 Algarve Cup and followed Harvey from Seattle to Salt Lake City.

Under the Radar:

Taylor Lytle collected five assists for Sky Blue FC last season. She is deceptively quick and crafty in the midfield. “She is a player I have admired for a while now,” said Harvey in a December press release. “In Taylor, we have a player who has been a stalwart for Sky Blue over five seasons; whenever I would coach against her, she would always cause my team problems, so I’m now very glad that we are on the same team … we expect that bringing in someone like Taylor who has such a great attitude for the game will only enhance our roster.”

Biggest offseason acquisition:

Kelley O’Hara coming over from Sky Blue FC was the largest get for the team formerly known as FCKC. O’Hara has proven she can play anywhere on the pitch and make an impact. Sky Blue FC often relied on O’Hara’s versatility. It will be interesting to see how Harvey utilizes O’Hara. She is fast, fit and an absolute tank of a player.

Biggest rival:

Harvey and Vlatko Andonovski have essentially swapped teams. Andonovski led five of the current Utah Royals to back-to-back championships in 2014-15. Additionally, Andonovski may have something to prove after two disappointing seasons. If he can keep the Reign in the top five teams, it is very possible that those June and July match-ups versus Utah will be important. 

Most memorable moment from 2017:

N/A, unless being relocated counts.

Why they’re the team to watch in 2018:

First, one look at the roster and one notices big names in the game. Canadian Olympic medalists Desiree Scott and Diana Matheson (2012) join American Olympians Nicole Barnhart (2008, 2012), Becky Sauerbrunn (2012, 2016), Amy Rodriguez (2008, 2012) and Kelly O’Hara (2012) for a star-studded roster. The latter three are also reigning FIFA World Cup Champions.

Additionally, Harvey has secured her lineup with solid role players such as Becca Moros, Corsie and Taylor Lytle. This team has enough stars to be a contender, but also has a good balance of role players to grind out the ups and downs of an NWSL season.

Harvey is a masterful coach with two NWSL Shields for the Seattle Reign. She led her team to two-consecutive NWSL postseason appearances. Additionally, the Utah Royals franchise has invested a great deal of resources in its newest team. From facilities to vehicles for the players, the Royals are investing in women’s soccer in America like no other club.

Predicted finish:

It’s reasonable to expect a solid performance from the Royals. However, with all the trades in the offseason, they are not the only team with significant roster changes.  Harvey does not have a top five 2017 goal scorer on her squad. However, Barnhart led the league in saves (97) last season.

I expect this team to be middle of the pack with a chance at the playoffs. So, in numerical terms, I have them finishing sixth. Although, this may be a conservative prediction.

Success depends on:

Staying healthy. Both Matheson and Rodriguez are coming off major injuries. Sauerbrunn has also missed time with the National Team due to injury. Utah is missing a superstar in the true sense of the word. This is a team likely to work best when all its players are at peak performance. 

Fun prediction:

In case you didn’t know, Broon is a gamer!  She is especially fond of Tomb Raider and recently participated in the #TombRaiderTraining challenge. I predict she will continue to film video game or movie-inspired training sessions throughout the season. Honestly, who doesn’t want to see that?

Get Hyped: 5 Things to be Excited for This NWSL Season

Posted on by RJ Allen

Alright, my friends, let’s just say it how it is. This off-season has been rough for the NWSL. I think the majority of us will agree to that. We lost a team, we had some really weird coaching shakeups (looking at you, Laura Harvey), and we still have no schedule even though it’s only a little over a month until the first match. To say things went less than ideally in the off-season is an understatement. And for some fans, this may have been a rather discouraging time. Maybe a trade didn’t go your way, maybe you lost your home club, or maybe you have been trying to plan a west coast road trip that centers around going to a Thorns game and somehow you still don’t know what weeks they are playing at home.

Whatever the reason, I get it. I empathize with you. But I also want to get excited with you. Because even despite all this crap that has been happening since October, there is still a lot to look forward to in this new season. There is a lot to get hyped about. Here are just five of those reasons:

1. Roster Shakeups = Better Rivalries

Maybe you cried when Sam Kerr went to Chicago, or when Harvey decided to end her long-time run in Seattle. Maybe you shouted out expletives when you received a text that Houston had traded yet another international player away. Or maybe you very publicly willed the Ashley Hatch trade into existence by saying on The Scouting Report podcast that she wasn’t going anywhere for at least a year.

Whatever the trade is that shocked your world, you have to admit that it is going to make a few games very interesting. Because big times trades help create even more intense rivalries. They create grudge matches. They get the fans more into the game. And all of those things create an exciting atmosphere for a fan, player, or coach. Come on Seattle, you know you want to pulverize Utah at your first meeting. Chicago, I know you are looking to come back at North Carolina for your semi-finals loss with your newly-formed attacking arsenal that includes a touch more Australian magic. Those games are going to be great—regardless of whether the trade went your way.

2. The New Team Making Big Moves

No matter which club you support, you probably have a pretty strong opinion about the Utah Royals. Everyone feels a certain kind of way about them, whether it is good or bad.

They came into the league in a big way, with a big announcement—one that was a little premature, considering they didn’t even have a team name. But they had a big name coach. And then they made some big-time trades. And then all of a sudden, Utah Royals FC were a force to be reckoned with, playing in a world-class stadium, and asking no one for permission or forgiveness for their abrupt entry into the women’s soccer world. It’s moves like that which cause everyone to sit up and take notice. It causes all of us to want to tune in, whether it is to see them excel, or to root for their demise. No matter what, they are something to look forward to, and that is something that no one can deny.

3. Young Washington

There are a lot of people who, only a few months ago, made the accusation that the Washington Spirit had no game plan. People said that they didn’t know what they were doing. Well, look at ’em now! Washington played the long game with some young players: drafting hometown hero Andi Sullivan, and then fighting for their shot to get Rose Lavelle in the Breakers dispersal draft. That’s on top of Mallory Pugh, Ashley Hatch, and Taylor Smith.

So yeah…I’m thinking Washington definitely has a game plan now. And maybe that game plan won’t be perfected this season, but there is something about this team that definitely has the same sort of flair that the Baby Bombers gave to Yankees fans last season. It’s hope, and excitement, and a damn good touch on the ball. Mark your calendars for their matches (when the schedule is released)—they are not a team you are going to want to miss.

[media-credit name=”Leanne Keator” align=”alignnone” width=”1000″][/media-credit]

4. The Prodigal Daughter Returns

On January 19th a three-team blockbuster trade deal sent Carli Lloyd back to her home state of New Jersey. Lots of people had lots of different feelings about it. And I have to say that I was quite skeptical about how this trade benefited Sky Blue. But Becca Kimble, one of my Scouting Report co-hosts, pointed out to me that Carli Lloyd of Sky Blue is in no way the Carli Lloyd of Houston. And she is absolutely correct.

Last season, Lloyd spent the majority of her time either injured or playing for Manchester City (not that I can blame her—that team is insanely talented). But that made it difficult for a fan, or herself, to get too pumped about her time in the NWSL. When the trade happened, though, she was the Carli Lloyd that everyone always wants her to be: happy, excited, and pumped to play the game. She is back in Jersey working in the community and giving keynote speeches to youth athletes. She was one of the only top-tier players to take to social media to welcome her new teammates from the former Breakers roster.

And to top it all off, she is insanely proud that she gets to play for her home crowd again. She is practically shouting it from the rooftops, and that is something that every Sky Blue fans should get excited about it. Everyone else should get excited because when Carli Lloyd is happy, working hard, and playing well… well, she’s Carli Lloyd. I don’t have to explain that to you.

5. We Get To Start Earlier

I think the only reason I have not written a strongly worded letter to the NWSL about the schedule not being released is the fact that we get to start watching the beautiful game three weeks earlier than last season. And that is definitely something that we should get excited about. Because despite all of the bush league-style things that have happened this off-season—the unfortunate last-minute folding of Boston, the poorly-timed movement of FC Kansas City to Utah, or the atrociously-explained situation where Harvey and Vlatko just switched rosters—the bad juju that has been written all over this off-season will come to a close a little sooner than expected.

And I don’t know about you guys, but for me, there is nothing as agonizing as the long wait in between the final whistle of a championship and the first whistle to start the season. I’ve had the W-League to tide me over, but it just isn’t the same. Especially when we still have so many questions looming around us—questions like, “When are Portland’s home games this season, so I can plan this road trip? What was that job Laura Harvey took with USSF? And who in the hell is the NWSL Commissioner?”

Some answers we may never know. What we do know: the wait is almost over. So buy some new swag and get your go90 and Lifetime accounts ready to go—games are only a little more than a month away!

In closing, I’ll say this: Sometimes it is extremely difficult to be a women’s soccer fan. Crazy things happen that would be unimaginable in other leagues. There is an instability that can permanently keep us on edge. And the hunger to achieve an equal playing field can seem extremely daunting.

But despite these facts, there is still a lot to be excited about. There is Alex Morgan on the pitch, and Vera Pauw on the sidelines, and a perfectly crossed Carson Pickett ball into the box—those things that put a smile on our faces and command us to keep watching. To keep cheering. And to keep fighting to make this league better.

These are still early times for this league. There are still some things that will happen in the future to irritate us or make us angry. But with all of that, comes all of those things that excite us too. And the 2018 season will be no different. It will get us to stand from our seats. And it will undoubtedly make us cheer. So get hyped, my friends! 2018 is the NWSL is going to be a good one.

A Higher Standard: The Issue of Professionalism in Women’s Soccer

Posted on by RJ Allen

For a little over a month now women’s soccer within the United States has gone completely rogue.

It seems like every day I wake up and look at Twitter and some new major change has occurred with the NWSL, USSF, or the personnel that surround it. Major changes happen in sports all the time, but generally those changes are planned out, executed professionally within a timeline, and supported with assurances to the media, fans, and public as a whole.

None of that happened in the last month-or-so with regards to women’s soccer.

In fact, the exact opposite happened – it was chaos, and question marks, and overall lack of care or due diligence. Frankly, there was nothing professional about it. But still, the Harvey/USSF/Seattle/Andonovski/Kansas City/Salt Lake debauchery was widely accepted as something that could and should readily occur. And therein lies the problem.

Let’s go over the facts. On November 7th it was reported that Laura Harvey was leaving Seattle to take on an expanded role with the US Soccer Federation. Vlatko Andonovski, the former FC Kansas City coach (and personal suggestion from Harvey), would be replacing her. This shocked the Seattle soccer community because Harvey had been such a staple there for so long. But it looked to be a smart move. She was moving up to a national role – one that many were excited about. The issue is that the USSF never stated what Harvey’s expanded role would be. What was her job, exactly? What would she actually be doing? We weren’t told. And yet, for the most part it was accepted. Maybe the details would come later.

But flash-forward a week and suddenly everything changed again. The NWSL announced that Salt Lake would be a ‘new’ team in the 2018 season for the NWSL. The team didn’t have an official name yet, but at the press conference it was announced that it would be one of ten teams within the league. But as a ‘new’ team that would make 11 total clubs within the league. The NWSL didn’t expand on that point, but merely kept the audience in a bit of conundrum as to what the future held for some of the teams within the league.

Close followers of the news knew that FC Kansas City was in a bad way, and that this Salt Lake team was less a ‘new’ team and more a transfer of franchise from KC. Except that this wasn’t what was announced. At the time that Salt Lake declared themselves a new NWSL team, FC Kansas City was still in operation. In fact, the folding of FCKC and the movement of their contracts to Salt Lake wasn’t made until six days later on November 20.

Then, just to complicate the story more, Laura Harvey was signed as the new coach for Salt Lake on November 27. Even though she left Seattle to take a job on the national level. Adding to the complications, her new roster would be the former FCKC squad–the team that her replacement in Seattle had given up to take over that job.  But wait – it gets better. When commenting on it, Harvey stated, “In some ways it’s funny. It is the ultimate trade. We basically traded spots.” You know who isn’t laughing? Seattle fans. Kansas City fans. Anyone who was excited for her potential impact with the USWNT.

Then, finally, on December 1, eleven days after the announcement of the club, Salt Lake finally got a name, after finally settling legal issues that had delayed the process. 

To sum it up: one city lost a team, two rosters traded coaches, the NWSL made announcements before they were ready, and no one ever will know what was supposed to happen with Harvey’s USSF position. And the worst part of it all is that no one batted an eye at it. This was considered business as usual for women’s soccer in the United States. This was considered acceptable for the league and the federation. And that is what is wrong with women’s professional soccer.

The NWSL is trying so hard to be the premier women’s soccer league in the world. They pull from the largest talent pool of its kind. But yet they struggle financially. And when looking at the women’s side of the US Soccer, they aren’t fairing much better. They are the number one team in the world, but they aren’t paid their worth. And in all of this are the players who are struggling to make ends meet, striving for a future in the sport they love, and supporting the platform for future generations of strong female athletes to perform on.

It’s exhausting. But it means something. So they keep trying to build. They keep pushing forward, and keep screaming into the void for recognition and acknowledgment of their worth. They fight to be seen as professionals – to be equal among other professional leagues and athletes. But unfortunately, the NWSL and the USSF have not been acting professional. And because of that, it holds back every female player just a little bit more. It puts a little more drag on their already short line. And it holds themselves back as well – financially, publicly, and in the eyes of the sporting world.

In any other league or in any other sport the movement of a top coach to the national level would have had more publicity. It would have had more concrete details about the job and that coach’s potential new impact. In any other league the movement of a team from one city to another is done with months of planning and preparation. Even if that team is having financial difficulty or there is scandal surrounding it. Look at the Columbus Crew in the MLS – everyone is aware of the potential move and there are really strong feelings on both sides. But in the NWSL? Nothing but bush league transitions, the absence of due care, and a total lack of professionalism.

So the question becomes, ‘How can the professional sporting world take you seriously, when you refuse to act professional?’

The answer is that they don’t. And it isn’t hard to see why, when moves like this happen without any explanation. It feels ill-prepared at best, shady at worst. It’s bad enough that they didn’t have an active Commissioner all of last season, but this? This is just off-the-cuff work that was patched together and came out looking halfway decent.

Now, most likely these transactions weren’t undertaken with malice or bad motives. But that doesn’t mean that they were done correctly. There should be a standard of professionalism. Things need to get better if the league wants to be a serious player, make real money, and change the way women’s sports are treated.

This isn’t asking a lot. They should want to do better and hold themselves accountable. They should want more transparency, in order to show the world that they mean business. They should want to show pride in what they’re doing.

Don’t the women who play in the league deserve that? Don’t the fans? Doesn’t the entire women’s movement that this league – and women’s sports in general – plays a large role in?

Don’t they owe it to themselves?

It can’t be said as to how the next season will go for the NWSL. It can’t be said how USSF President elections will affect the women’s game. But it can be said that in order to be taken seriously, you have to take yourself seriously. That is what should be asked of the NWSL and women’s soccer in the US. Hold yourself to a higher standard. The highest standard. It’s hard – no one is denying that. But to get to where the league, the athletes, the fans, and the media want to go it is a necessity. A necessity that should not be taken so lightly in the future.

Laura Harvey Named Head Coach Of Real Salt Lake NWSL Team

Posted on by RJ Allen

Laura Harvey has been named head coach of the new Real Salt Lake National Women’s Soccer League team.

“Laura’s record of excellence has been proven on both sides of the pond, and she obviously possesses a vast knowledge not only of the NWSL, but of international players all over the world.” Salt Lake general manager Craig Waibel said.

“Visiting with [RSL owner] Dell Loy Hansen, [general manager] Craig Waibel, [RSL MLS head coach] Mike Petke and others and having the chance to see their vision for the club locally and the sport nationally and internationally, it was impossible not to get excited about what RSL looks to do for women’s soccer. The facilities and environment that we will be able to offer our players are world-class. This is a great place for me to continue to develop as a coach, and I believe we will be able to make a huge stamp on women’s soccer not just in Utah but nationwide.” Harvey said in the team’s official release.

Harvey, who was the head coach with Seattle Reign FC for five seasons, led the team to two NWSL shields and two championship games – both of which the Reign lost to former NWSL team FC Kansas City. She had initially stepped down from her position with Seattle in early November to pursue a reported opportunity with U.S. Soccer. However, as of this writing, there has been no indication of what the opportunity was or its current status.

It was also announced today that Real Salt Lake would be announcing the name of the new NWSL team this coming Wednesday – articles with updates will be posted here on Backline Soccer.

Route Two Soccer – Sky Blue and Seattle play the craziest game of the year

Posted on by RJ Allen

Photo by MikeRussellFoto, find more @mikerussellfoto

This weekend, Seattle and Sky Blue played one of the craziest games in the history of the league.

I was lucky enough to see it in person, from high above the Memorial Stadium pitch, perched with the seagulls. And when I arrived, my plan was to write a normal tactical column.

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Sky Blue had announced a three-back setup, and I was curious to see if that stuck. Would this be their normal 3.5/4.5 approach that they have used before, with O’Hara ranging all up and down the right side? Would it be a true back three? Something else?

And for the first half, that column still made sense. And we will be turning to that tactical conversation in a moment. But ultimately, it felt pointless to fixate in too much detail on the particularities of positional arrangement, when the true story of the game was its emotional arc and the absolute chaos that ensued in that half-hour of madness. So before talking O’Hara and Sky Blue’s hybrid system, we should take a moment to think about momentum.

The power of momentum

In the space of just thirty minutes in the second half, seven goals were scored. By the 60th minute, Seattle was off to the races, with a 4-0 lead and no end in sight. And yet, even then, things didn’t feel secure.

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Seattle’s coach, Laura Harvey, commented post game that she still felt nervous, knowing how explosive this Sky Blue team is, knowing how easily the momentum could shift. And that worry was prescient. Because in the 60th minute, Merritt Mathias conceded a penalty on a pointless foul right at the edge of the box (or possibly, even, just outside the box). Kelley O’Hara stepped up to convert, and the whole game turned on a dime.

Both Harvey and Christy Holly, the Sky Blue coach, called attention to this change in the tide, though neither seemed to think that it resulted from any cataclysmic shift in the style of play. So there is a lot to unpack here. Did the game open up during this period? Did the teams change their game plans? What, exactly, happened here?

The simplest answer is that the game overtook the players. Adrenaline rushed, the pace of play quickened, the blood began pounding, and the relentless drive to score took over. Meanwhile, the defensive structure became frayed, passes started to go askew, lines broke down.

And there’s a lot of truth to that. As I said above, trying to analyze this game from a tactical perspective feels a bit beside the point. At the same time, the basic structure of the game didn’t change all that much.

Sky Blue made some substitutions and slightly re-arranged their shape, dropping Killion into the back line, bringing on some more wide attackers, and giving O’Hara even more freedom to wander at will. But more than anything, what changed was the sense of belief.

The defining characteristic of the New Jersey side this year has been their deep faith. No matter what, they believe that the game remains winnable. They don’t stop working; they fight and scrabble and push. Meanwhile, Seattle seems to be a team that blows a bit more with the wind. When things are going well, they look great. But when the high begins to wear off, they look discombobulated.

You saw some of this even in their two blowouts earlier in the season (against Houston and Washington). In both of those games they were rampant for long periods, but once the game was beyond reach, they lost the plot. Neither Houston nor Washington had enough time to make a game of it, but the trouble signs were there nonetheless.

This time, though, they were playing Sky Blue, and there was still half an hour left. That turned out to be more than enough time for the lack of attention and sloppiness to completely change the course of the game. Once the momentum turned, their gyroscope was unbalanced and all hell broke loose.

What on earth is the Seattle defense doing here?

Now, to be clear, it’s not that Seattle looked terrible for the entire period. It’s just that they seemed to switch off in key moments. A Sky Blue team that had been pressing for chances all game, and making a good show of it, suddenly found that extra bit of space that they needed. And they capitalized.

In the end, the game had four distinct phases. In the first half, things were fairly even, with both sides playing the game they expected to play. The first 15 minutes of the second half featured a rampant Seattle time, full of confidence, creating opportunities and finishing their chances. Then, things turned and the next 15 minutes put Seattle on the back heel, with a Sky Blue team that seemed absolutely certain they were en route to a famous victory.

Then, to Seattle’s credit, once the lead was gone, they seemed to right the ship and set out to find the ultimate winner. They had been flailing while trying to hold onto a lead that slipped through their fingers like sand. But seemingly, the actual realization that the lead was gone allowed them to reset their approach, and return to playing their game.

That’s notable, and something that Seattle can certainly take from the game. But they certainly must also be worrying about the lack of attention and structure that allowed things to go off the rails so quickly.

3-5-2? 4-4-2? How about a 4-5-3?

As noted, Sky Blue announced their setup as a back three. And at times, they did play that way. But at other times, they were quite clearly in a standard 4-4-2. So what was it?

The key here is O’Hara, who plays as something of a hybrid. In attack, she presses very high, looking for all the world like an attacking wingback. When she does, the other three defenders spread out to split the field into thirds. And when Seattle broke in transition, they were breaking against a back three.

But when Sky Blue has time to reset their defense, O’Hara drops back and the other members of the backline settle back into a back four.

This isn’t a new setup by any means, though it was arguably more pronounced this week than it has been before. That largely seems to have been due to the limitations of personnel. Clearly concerned about the Seattle attack, Coach Holly chose to use Nikki Stanton as the left back/left CB, and asked her to stay home.

Ultimately, the terminology here doesn’t matter as much as the actual style of play. You can say that it’s a 4-4-2 with one attacking fullback and one defensive fullback. Or you can say it’s a fluid blend of two approaches.

From my perspective, it’s almost tempting to call it a 4-5-3 since, when working well, they manage to get all the value of O’Hara the fullback combined with all the value of O’Hara the winger.

It certainly asks a tremendous amount of her, and her energy in this position is a huge part of what allowed Sky Blue back into the game. It’s a huge advantage, and O’Hara’s attacking chops have been deadly in each of the past three big comeback games for Sky Blue.

At the same time, there are risks to this approach. Managing a back three can be difficult, particularly in transition against a fast team. And Seattle’s fluid attacking corps is particularly tough to handle, as I wrote about last week. A back three is usually well suited to handling a traditional frontline with two forwards but can run into problems when the opposition can rapidly switch between one and three strikers.

We saw some evidence of those difficulties in this game, particularly with Stanton on the left. When they were playing in a back three, she tended to push too narrow at times, leaving acres of space for Seattle’s right side attackers to move through. She also had some difficulty tracking the complicated movements of Naho Kawasumi (a difficult task for anyone, but particularly for a converted midfielder playing in a fluid system).

However, on the whole, the system worked successfully. It played somewhat defensively in most cases, with its main effect compared to a normal 4-4-2 being to put all of the attacking responsibilities on the shoulders of one attacking fullback. That was a useful tradeoff, on the whole, because the one attacking fullback was O’Hara, and she made the most of those chances.

Conclusion

As I noted at the start, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions from such a singular and strange game. But even though Seattle came away with the three points, it’s probably Sky Blue who can take the more positive lessons. Their ability to fight back under extreme conditions was proven once more. The team spirit was further clarified. And the usefulness of their overall team structure was confirmed.

Going forward, they will need to clamp down on the defensive profligacy earlier in matches. They are spending a huge amount of energy—both physical and emotional—on these rousing comebacks, and that could be a real problem as the dog days of summer set in. In the end, that may consign them to a strong mid-table finish rather than the playoffs that they have been hoping for.

But there is one thing that we can now state with absolute confidence: writing off this Sky Blue team even one second before they are mathematically eliminated would be a huge mistake.

Route Two Soccer – Which Seattle is the Real Seattle

Posted on by RJ Allen

Which Seattle is the real Seattle? The one that destroyed Houston and Washington? The one that was devastated by Boston early in the season? The one that ran roughshod over Portland a couple weeks ago? Or the one that was manhandled by North Carolina the following week?

The glib answer is to just say ‘all of them,’ and of course that’s true in the broadest sense. But if you’re looking for one game to encapsulate this team in 2017, you wouldn’t go wrong to watch this weekend’s draw with Boston. In it, we saw evidence of just how strong this team can be—the fluid movement, the incisive passing, the wonderful creativity of their front six. And you also got plenty of good examples of where things can often go wrong—the peculiar defensive lapses, the problems handling width, the relative weakness of the backline.

Re-tooling and re-kindling the Seattle Reign style

In 2014 and 2015, the Reign were a force of nature. When they were on (and they were usually on), they were close to unplayable. Their midfield trio of Kim Little, Jess Fishlock, and Keelin Winters was likely the best in the world and provided the engine that kept everything else humming along.

But all good things must pass and so it went with the Reign midfield. By 2017, only Fishlock remained, and coach Laura Harvey was faced with the task of re-organizing her team to meet the abilities and talents of the players on the roster. With mixed results.

It’s clear that Harvey has a preferred style of play: an attacking 4-3-3, with a lot of fluid movement high up the pitch—players interchanging freely, covering tremendous ground, making it exceptionally difficult for defenses to settle. And Seattle has broadly speaking continued to play that way. But Harvey has also shown some flexibility. You’re still most likely to see them playing that 4-3-3, but there have been some exceptions. Notably, Harvey moved to a back three against Portland in an effort to flood the midfield and close down their passing lanes. At other times, she’s deployed a defensively-minded 4-2-3-1 in order to slow games down to a more stately pace.

Against Boston, Seattle mostly stuck to character—spending most of the game in their usual setup—but within that structure they showed that not every 4-3-3 works the same way.

Generally, at least one midfielder will play in a true holding role. That was Keelin Winters in previous years, and this year it’s been Rumi Utsugi—the steady rock who helps stabilize the rest of the squad. But beyond that, there’s a lot of room for innovation. Seattle found great success with Fishlock as the linking player and Little as the attacker, but you don’t need to simply find one-to-one replacements in order to make it work. Which is a good thing, because ‘find another Kim Little’ isn’t a plan with much chance of success.

The importance of fluidity

The key to this setup is the variability of movement among the individual pieces. Megan Rapinoe generally plays in the wide left attacking role—which gives her the space she needs to take on isolated defenders, whip in crosses, and make those slicing attacks that have produced so many goals this year. But she is by no means confined to that role. And on the other side, the same is true of Naho Kawasumi, who theoretically play on the right wing but generally covers close to every inch of the pitch at one time or another.

One particularly devastating switch involves Naho dropping a bit and drifting central, with Rapinoe dancing freely just behind Matthias as the central striker. It’s not a ton of movement on the ground, but it produces a very different attacking structure—basically a 4-4-2 pinched diamond, with Naho playing as a de facto Number 10. That puts the other side in the difficult position of deciding whether to ask the wide defenders to drag inward to follow Naho (leaving the wing exposed), or to give her free access to a pocket of space just above the backline in which she can work her magic.

A great performance from Elston

One of the other key features of Harvey’s 4-3-3s is the importance of goal-scoring midfielders. The classic example, of course, is Kim Little. But even without a player of her incredible quality, the Harvey setup can produce a lot of great chances for midfielders to crash the box and exploit spaces ripped open by the movement of the attackers. And we saw wonderful evidence of that in this game, with Lindsay Elston turning in a marvelous performance. She wasn’t able to find the net, but put herself into dangerous positions constantly, and gave Boston fits all night as they struggled to manage the additional body arriving late and unanticipated.

Elston is hardly a star, but she turned in a POTM performance in this game. And while that’s obviously partially a sign of her own skill and commitment, it’s also a testament to Harvey’s tactical management. One mark of a top coach is their ability to build collaborative systems in which good players are made to look great.

Elston’s performance was particularly impressive given just how many different hats she had to wear at different points. Those deep runs into the box are exceptionally hard for the defense to track—which is what makes them so dangerous—but they can also leave your own midfield quite exposed. You need to be judicious about your movement, and you need good communication to ensure that your run is protected. We expect that level of sophistication and precision from Jess Fishlock, but for Elston to step in so assuredly is a good indication that the whole team is on the same page.

Persistent weaknesses

Still, for all the good work that Harvey has done to adapt her system and integrate new players in the process, there are still major weaknesses in this team. When everything is clicking, and they have the space they need to orchestrate their attacks, they look incredible. But there’s a fairly simple solution: don’t give them that space.

And it doesn’t take an aggressive gegenpress to unsettle them, either. You just need to stay organized and consistently apply pressure on their weaker passers, to break up the rhythm and keep yourself from getting pulled completely out of shape when the ball gets to their more creative players. And Boston generally did this to great effect in this game. It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, and Seattle certainly had plenty of decent attacks. But in general, they were able to keep Rapinoe and Naho fairly restrained to the sidelines and kept the pressure on them strong when they did get the ball.

They were certainly aided in that project by their own tactical setup—with Angela Salem and Morgan Andrews both playing in holding roles, allowing them to pack that crucial central space into which Seattle hopes to find exploitable openings.

Of course, that choice doesn’t come without costs. By packing the center, Boston had to sacrifice the chance to really come at Seattle with pace on the wings. It’s no surprise, then, that this ended up a tense low-scoring affair. Boston’s setup was designed to limit Seattle’s attacking space, and in order to achieve that result, they were willing to forego an aggressive assault on the Reign’s weakest point.

And it mostly worked. Seattle’s only goal was the product of a defensive miscue from Abby Smith (whose poor clearance only made it as far as Naho’s feet) and a wonder strike, not from any sophisticated build up.

Meanwhile, Boston’s goal helped to clarify that if the Reign make the playoffs this year, it will be primarily because they were able to outscore the opposition, not from any particular defensive solidity. It all started with a corner, which left Seattle out of position. Once the ball was cleared, they tried to reset but didn’t have time. Which meant that Westphal received the ball on the right wing with acres of space—since the ostensible left back (Pickett) was effectively playing right back at the moment. They tried to shift, with Barnes moving out to cover the left and Stott moving into a de facto center back position, but it was all a bit sloppy. So when Westphal’s deliciously weighted ball arced toward the net, three Seattle players formed a neat triangle around the onrushing Adriana Leon, with none of them actually close enough to stop the shot.

This was by no means a catastrophic failure. Stott and McNabb gave Leon just a bit too much space, and Kopmeyer may have waited a hair too long to come out and missed her chance. But it still took a truly superb cross and a clinical finish to find the net.

Which Seattle is the real Seattle?

In the end, Seattle will likely be frustrated to have only managed a point from a home fixture against a struggling Boston side. But they’ll also likely savor any result against a team that beat them so comprehensively earlier in the season.

And beyond the result, the same sort of gray picture emerges—with pluses and minuses in equal doses. Seattle played the style they wanted to play and mostly played it well. That’s a good sign, especially given the absence of Fishlock. At the same time, for all the decent play and fluid movement, they still found it pretty difficult to actually penetrate the Boston defense. And that is worrisome because Boston’s setup was hardly a complicated one, and their personnel is hardly the most daunting in the league.

Ultimately, if Seattle hope to make the playoffs and make a run for the title, they need to keep adding tools to the arsenal. Going into the season, Seattle’s two biggest red flags were probably depth and lack of flexibility. On both of those fronts, this game provided some clear evidence of consolidation. But it remains to be seen how much more room there is there for progress.

A Comedy of Errors, an Open Letter to the NWSL

Posted on by RJ Allen

Congratulations on a fifth season.  I’d say “historic” fifth season but at this point, every new season is historic, so what’s the point? Still, it’s a big deal, and I’m thrilled to be watching as the ten teams in the league compete to lead the table this year.

And when I say thrilled to be watching, I mean it. I’m the kind of fan who watches every game, every week. (As I’m also the kind of fan with a busy schedule, being able to catch up on them over the span of the week via Youtube was priceless—in the same way amy League Pass to the WNBA each season is worth far more than the $17 I pay for it.) So, the news that the NWSL would be partnering with Lifetime to broadcast a game a week was a big deal. Not just to me, but to everyone. And though there were concerns about the appropriateness of the channel, the availability of those games internationally, I have to say, I have been in your corner.

But it’s the other 98 matches that have a large number of fans going “What the furt” this year.

The very first problem was the way information was released, the lack of transparency and organization. Obviously pulling together a streaming platform isn’t easy. But who expected it to be? And while I wasn’t exactly on the same warpath as some regarding the lack of updates as the months until opening day turned into weeks, and then the weeks turned into days, and then hours, the fact that the Monday before opening weekend nobody had a clue how to watch four out of the weekend’s five games was a bit of a big deal.

But this season, the announcement of an official partnership with a media provider for the non-televised games, raised expectations exponentially. Everything–from the pay to the fields to the streaming–was supposed to be better this season.

The league’s work in the off-season has been almost entirely focused on growing the game, on exceeding the last year’s successes, on bringing in new fans and audiences while also retaining the steady and loyal core groups. Except, you can’t bring in anyone new and you can’t retain anyone old if they can’t watch the games. With only ten teams spread across limited geographic zones, most fans are only able to keep abreast of their teams and players via streamed (or now, televised) broadcasts. Those who can’t watch rely heavily on updates via social media, and every game day the Twitter world is awash with NWSL hashtags and commentary.  Streaming access is the backbone of NWSL fan support.

So, opening weekend over, how do you think you did?

Let me be the first among many to tell you that the Lifetime broadcast was an absolute success. Granted, that’s not to say there’s not room for improvement, but in Week 1, the channel and broadcast team did a great job. The production was high quality, the commentary was informed and entertaining, while not overwhelming what was happening on the field.

But the other four games this weekend, and their distribution to fans, were problematic. To say the very least.

For those fans trying to watch along with the non-televised game, Week 1 involved:

  • spotty streams
  • unavailable content
  • commercials mid-game (as often as every three minutes)
  • lack of archive for on-demand viewing

And these were only some of the problems mentioned and experienced by fans.

By large, the issues can be boiled down into two branches categories: quality and accessibility.

 

Quality

As far as quality goes, up until this season, it was by and large determined by each team’s infrastructure. Certain venues could always be counted on to have quality and reliable streams, others were always more troublesome, whether that meant shoddy audio, frequent lag, or just bad camerawork due to the limitations of the field. The Thorns and the Dash, playing in MLS-affiliated stadiums, had the camera resources to provide close looks at action on the field. Some of the other teams, though, always looked like your dad recorded the game on his old video camera. Fans may have complained–fans will always complain–but aside from the limited broadcasts of postseason games, it was all we had. And so we dealt.

Before 2017, commentary could be hit-or-miss sometimes, to the point that it felt like sometimes broadcast interns were in charge of doing the play-by-play. But there were some excellent commentators for the league, people we looked forward to hearing every week because they provided insightful analysis.  And even when the commentary wasn’t the greatest before this season, at least they were there, on the sidelines, able to see all the action. Broadcast teams for the go90 streams were all located in Florida, a fact I personally didn’t know until I heard it from Equalizer Soccer’s breakdown of go90 this morning. But even not knowing that, of the only game I was actually able to watch in its entirety on the go90 app–FCKC’s 2-0 win over the Boston Breakers–the commentators mis-identified players, spoke over the action, and provided very little play-by-play. Broadcast teams are supposed to guide a viewer through a game, not distract them away from it.

But the biggest problem with go90’s quality was the constant interruption of streams for advertisements. For two forty-five minute halves, soccer is a blissful, ad-free, safe space. That’s one of the things that makes soccer soccer. There aren’t timeouts in soccer, there aren’t commercial breaks, there isn’t a 60-second race to quickly pee and refill your drink before the action starts up again.

Soccer goes non-stop. Or, at least, it did until this weekend, when every go90 stream I’ve heard about broke in to tell frustrated fans about other content available on the app. (Did you know it’s not easy to be 5’11 and a QB in the SEC? Did you? DID YOU?)

And fans are not the only ones upset by this intrusion into our sacred space. Players and coaches weren’t pleased either.

Yes, please fix this.

 

Access

A second issue for the NWSL’s streaming this year is ease of accessibility. Sure, everything the NWSL told fans to expect sounded great. In the league’s February announcement of the partnership with A+E Networks, highlighting Game of the Week broadcasts on Lifetime, it also added that

NWSL Media will oversee the live streaming of all matches and produce the games in high definition with a consistent, state-of-the-art approach that will include exclusive new and original digital content for pre-game, halftime and post-game segments. The joint venture is currently negotiating with potential partners to stream the games not broadcast on Lifetime.

And for months, that was all anyone knew. Until last week Thursday, when the partnership with go90 was made public. Fans were assured that, as:

A fully ad-supported, mobile streaming service, go90 will feature 98 NWSL games accessible via live and on-demand streaming for the 2017 season. To access, visit go90.com or simply download the go90 app via the App Store or Google Play. Users with go90 version 3.0 and later can cast live games from the go90 app to Airplay and Chromecast. No registration or authentication is required.

Then, on Friday, one day before the season began, the NWSL released their app (iOS only), which, at least for US fans, is just a mobile version of the website, offering nothing more than you can find anywhere else.

It seems like an overabundance of options, no?

Except, it’s not. Ironically, all these various options for watching the streaming NWSL matches actually left fans almost unable to watch at all. Watching on the go90 website itself was impossible, both live games and the “on-demand” matches were unavailable. Watching via the go90 app was partially successful. If you consider having to restart the match and by the grace of God alone find where you’d left off anytime something–a phone call from mom, a need to check social media, your phone just deciding to exit all applications on a whim, or, and far more likely, the stream freezing and requiring a restart of the app–interrupted your feed, a success.

So for domestic fans, the go90 partnership compromised their ability to watch the games this important opening weekend. To the point that advice was passed around about how to bypass the location blocks that provided international fans access to high-quality streams on the NWSL website.

As for watching games “on-demand,” after they’d aired, Jonathan Tannenwald at The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News landed a scoop from insiders familiar to the NWSL’s deal with A+E and go90, and provided insight into the peculiarities of each’s on-demand access. In both cases, the games will be archived for 48 hours and then made available on the NWSL website and app.

But so far, they haven’t been, despite content disappearing from go90 already. And a quick search of “NWSL go90” on Twitter will tell you how people feel about the matter:

Granted, it’s a holiday weekend, but the NWSL weren’t deprived of a calendar when planning out their season. If you schedule your opening weekend for Easter, you damn well better make sure your staff is on-hand to get it off without a hitch.

Youtube was a preferred platform for fans because it offered a single way to watch (rather than the multitude of complicated, confusing, and unreliable options this season) that domestic and international fans could access equally. Content was immediately available after the live stream for viewing, viewing could be done on a mobile device but most often occurred on a computer, freeing up a mobile device to engage in conversation via social media about the game, thereby increasing any match’s digital footprint across multiple social media platforms. Of course there were issues, of course it wasn’t perfect. But by comparison, the streaming of non-televised games this first weekend has many wishing we could have Youtube back.

So, yes, there are problems. The league needs to answer the concerns of their fans, and sooner, rather than later.

But that’s not to say all is lost for this historic fifth season of the NWSL. The Game of the Week on Lifetime went off, as far as anyone could tell, without a hitch. It was absolutely a success and hopefully, even with the time (3 pm) and holiday weekend, the ratings will demonstrate that our fans show up. We show up.

When we can.

And that’s really the reason the streaming elements need to be worked out as soon as possible. For all its progress, the NWSL is still nowhere near stable. It’s done well, it has succeeded in ways every previous iteration failed, and now the front office of the league is thinking and planning in terms of years rather than one season to the next. They’ve built a fanbase, they’ve built an audience–they built it and we came, to paraphrase one of the greatest sports movies of all-time–but we have to be able to continue to show up, in person whenever possible and virtually whenever not, to help this league continue to grow.

So, as a fan, as a member of the media, I’m asking the powers that be: please, fix this.

Because, for a league trying to make its case for being the premiere professional women’s soccer league in the world, the NWSL came out looking like amateurs this weekend. And we deserve better–all of us. From the front office to the locker-room to the fans in the stands.

We deserve–and we can do–better.

 

Around the World of WoSo: Harvey Takes the Reigns, Matildas on TV

Posted on by RJ Allen

Edwards to Sweden:

A couple of months ago, former Orlando Pride player Becky Edwards announced her retirement from the NWSL. But it seems the 28-year-old midfielder/defender has found new life in Sweden, as the club Kristianstad DFF have announced her signing this past weekend. Edwards is set to play again, in a lower-tier club, but with players such as Lisa Karlsson, Johanna Rasmussen and Alice Nilsson.

Edwards is no stranger to new adventures on the soccer front, and she’s traveled to a handful of different cities and countries to play the game she loves. Early on in the States it was New Jersey Wildcats, then the Washington Freedom Reserves, before moving on to California’s FC Gold Pride, and Western New York Flash. She them suited up for Sweden’s Hammarby IF DFF and her current club Kristianstad DFF. Since the start of the NWSL in 2013 she has played for Portland Thorns, Houston Dash, and the Western New York Flash before ending her US domestic career with the Pride in 2016.

 

Harvey’s New Role:

Seattle Reign head coach and General Manager Laura Harvey has temporarily been given the U.S. U-23 job. They are currently in Spain for the La Manga tournament, which will take place between March 2nd and March 7th. This might not come as a surprise for those of you who were aware that Harvey was in attendance for the team’s January camp.

The U-23 team will take on Japan, England and Norway to conclude the tournament. This will be the first international competition of the 2017 campaign and they also are booked at the end of March to play in the Portland Thorns Spring Invitational. Out of the 22-player roster, Harvey will be accompanied by two members of the Seattle Reign, Madalyn Schiffel and Kristen McNabb. Schiffel is a goalkeeper signed after a tour with Norway’s Avaldsnes IL, and McNabb was the 37th pick in the recent 2017 NWSL College Draft.

With Harvey at the helm, expectations are, of course, going to be high.

 

FIFA PRO 2016 Shortlist:

The shortlist for the 2016 FIFA Pro World XI was released this past week. The U.S. leads the nominations with nine players, France comes in second with eight, and Germany holds up third with six. The short list consists of 55 players in total, including five goalkeepers, 20 defenders, 15 midfielders and 15 forwards.

I was surprised by a few of the names, including United States’ midfielder Megan Rapinoe and defender Meghan Klingenberg. Obviously both of these players are very talented and there’s no denying that, but for the World XI?  For 2016? Both players were under-par last year, hampered by injuries, and neither played near to the level that they are capable of when healthy and fit. I just don’t buy it. However, for the most part, I agree wholeheartedly with the selections. Rightfully on the list were familiar names such as: Melanie Behringer (GER), Ada Hegerberg (NOR), Steph Catley (AUS), Steph Houghton (ENG), Hedvig Lindahl (SWE), and Saki Kumagai (JPN).

 

Portland Re-sign Duo:

The Portland Thorns have now brought back their 17th and 18th players from their successful 2016 season. Though they did not advance to the NWSL Final in Houston, the Thorns did take home the NWSL Shield for the first time in program history.  And both Emily Menges and Mana Shim, now officially back in the Rose City for 2017, played significant and crucial roles in chasing down that spot at the top of the regular season table.  Menges, a 2014 College Draft signing, is just 24 years old, but she’s started 59 games for the Thorns and some would name her as one of the biggest reasons for the team’s success. Shim is just a year older at 25, and the product of an open tryout in 2013, but she’s also a steady contributor on the pitch, and with the potential for the 2017 Thorns to find themselves atop the table again, it’s safe to say that both are happy to be back with the team this year.

 

Houston Dash Sign Falknor:

The Houston Dash announced another off-season signing this week, this time adding a player to their defensive options. Claire Falknor is a defender/midfielder, having played the latter during her time at Bayern Munich, where she made nine appearances in 2016 and scored two goals. Falknor is only 23 and played for the University of Florida from 2012-2015. She has also earned experience at the youth level for the United States, getting two caps for the U-23 program in the 2015-2016 season. Falknor will be a familiar face to some of the Dash players, especially former teammates Cari Roccaro and Jane Campbell, and this will only help to strengthen Houston’s performance on the field.

Houston is looking to improve from last year, and with the pieces they’ve managed to find, on paper it looks decent. But in the NWSL we know that isn’t always enough. Nonetheless, Dash fans have every right to be excited to get underway.

 

Matildas on Fox Sports:

The 2017 edition of the Algarve Cup in Portugal will begin on March 2nd and conclude on March 7th. The Matildas are in the tournament for the first time in 17 years, and it’s been announced the home fans will be able to watch every game on Fox Sports.

This is not only great news for fans Down Under, as it gives the AUSWNT some well-deserved exposure, but it’s also also a chance to see the talent-heavy Australian women play some great competition.  The Matildas are set to face Sweden, the Netherlands, and China in group C. The group stage games will be televised, as well as final placement depending on who tops the group.

This will be the first time the Matildas take the field since the 2016 Rio games in August. But their quest for the cup won’t be easy–defending champions Canada are back as well and certainly look to retain the title.