Tag: USWNT

The Tragedy of 13-0

Posted on by RJ Allen

The USWNT scored 13 times against Thailand.

Morgan 12′, 53′, 74′, 81′, 87′
Lavelle 20′, 56′
Horan 32′
Mewis 50′, 54′
Rapinoe 79′
Pugh 85′
Lloyd 90+2′

And after each goal the US celebrated. Sometimes with the bench and sometimes just the players on the field. For Lavelle, Horan, Mewis, and Pugh it was their first World Cup game. Scoring then is an incredible accomplishment. For Morgan, she now shares a record with Michelle Akers for most goals scored in a Women’s World Cup game. For Rapinoe and Lloyd, it was a good day at the office.

And it felt bad. I felt bad. Watching it left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and a slightly uneasy feeling as I heard the chants of USA from the stands.
It took me a while to get my feelings in order. I went from “The US players should be pumped” to “maybe they should have taken their foot off the gas” to “score all the goals always” and around and around.

I finally settled on my feelings and how I see this game. And in those thoughts a few things are true. None of them are the fault of the players.


1) The US players have every right to celebrate after scoring goals.

2) Thailand earned their trip to the World Cup but are overall a pretty poor squad

3) The bulk of the feeling of grossness steams from FIFA.

I don’t blame Sam Mewis for being ecstatic over scoring a brace in her first game playing in a World Cup. I don’t think Morgan was over the line even counting the goals she scored after her fourth. And honestly, I will always be down for Rapinoe twirling and then sliding after she scores.

But at some point the joy of seeing all that turned bitter. Not really because of the US players but because of the context.

Thailand is a team without a great deal of institutionalized support behind them. And while their players have been on both ends of 13-0 wins, (Thailand beat Indonesia 13-0 in a friendly in 2018) I can’t help but wish more money, more training, and more resources were going to this team as they headed toward these games.

But really, at the end of the day, this lays at FIFA’s doorstep.
FIFA has roughly more money than Gringotts Wizarding Bank has Goblins. By not giving support to the federations for the women’s teams and not demanding that federations use that money, or for the larger federations their own, they are enabling results like this.

FIFA could have prevented this but they are too worried about running studies and having their partners run ads for the next generation of players.

The worst part of this game was many of us, myself included, had the first reaction of blaming players for being happy that they did an incredibly hard thing well and scored a goal or goals in a World Cup game. That is the biggest loss in this match. That FIFA has to pit these, one against the other, while we often spare them our wrath.

FIFA has about $2,700,000,000 in their reserves. They could give every country on earth, all 195 of them, $10,000,000 and send a team to make sure the money went to the women’s teams and not into pockets of the perpetrators of the current oppression and they would still have a half billion dollars left in their reserves.

FIFA could change 13-0 games. They could. They chose not to. Remember that.

Women’s World Cup Daily – June 11

Posted on by RJ Allen

June 11: Matchday 5

New Zealand 0 – 1 Netherlands

I was only able to watch about 20 minutes of this game (see below in the Notes), but I followed along electronically the best I could. From what I can tell, this was not one of those games which requires us to ask whether New Zealand deserves credit for shutting down the Dutch, or the Dutch deserve blame for failing to create anything. Rather, it’s one of those games where the Dutch created a million chances and eventually one of them went in.

Compare, for example, these two performances:

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xG isn’t the end-all and be-all, but it certainly tells part of the story. And the story here was: the Netherlands were unlucky in their finishing. And considering the lethal strikers they have at their disposal, there’s no particular reason to think that will continue. Again, not having watched most of the game, I’d caution against assuming that the Dutch are in trouble.

For New Zealand, this was an agonizing result. To hold out for 90 minutes only to concede at the death will be frustrating beyond belief. But they didn’t really need anything from this game. They kept their goal difference down against the high-scoring Dutch, which likely ensures that a single victory will be enough to make them one of the advancing 3rd-place teams. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Chile 0 – 2 Sweden

Unlike the day’s first game, this was an example of a heavy favorite being unable to break the deadlock because they genuinely just couldn’t create enough chances. But unlike yesterday’s masterful team defensive performance from Argentina, Chile was merely solid. They set up their defensive block, and waited for Sweden to come at them. And it mostly worked.

The opening fifteen minutes were nervy, and Sweden looked like they were inching closer and closer to the goal. But instead of heightening, the pressure began to ease. By the 60th minute, it increasingly felt like we were in for another 0-0.

But then came the weather delay. After a lengthy wait for the lightning to depart, the teams came back out, and Sweden finally seemed to have developed a bit of urgency, and an understanding that going wide and sending in crosses is not a complete strategy. And so the goal finally did come, and then another to seal the deal.

It wasn’t a great performance from Sweden, but they got the job done. Meanwhile, Chile did more than enough to do themselves proud, without quite ending up with anything to show for it.

USA 13 – 0 Thailand

I talked about my thoughts here.

I have literally nothing to say about the specific content of the game. We learned no lessons, and there is nothing important here to analyze. The US got the three points they were always going to get. Time to move on.

Notes

– This afternoon, I took the train from Paris to Reims to catch the US game. It was extremely fast. I love the trains of Europe so very much.

– My plan was to get to Gare de l’Est an hour early and catch the first half of New Zealand-Netherlands in a bar or café. But I couldn’t find a single place showing it! To be somewhat fair, that was partly because TVs are less ubiquitous in Parisian establishments than in US ones. And I managed in my broken French to ask in several places with TVs if they would put it on (French friends: does “est possible de regarder la Coupe de Monde Feminin?” mean what I think it means?), but they didn’t have the channel.

– One underrated storyline: the US just played its first game of the World Cup. One day later, France will play its second. If that quarterfinal does end up happening, that means the US will have played five games in 18 days, while France will have played the same number of games spread out over 22 days. That extra little bit of rest could make a real difference.

– My official position on the Hope Solo/Jill Ellis ‘controversy’ is that I don’t care about it at all and you shouldn’t either.

– For those keeping track, these are the Official Players of the Backline Soccer Women’s World Cup daily column: Barbara Bonansea (Italy), Sydney Schneider (Jamaica), Lorena Benítez (Argentina), Miranda Nild (Thailand).

Tomorrow’s action

  • Nigeria – South Korea. The two teams from Group A that lost their first game. South Korea were blitzed by France, while Nigeria played Norway a bit more evenly. But it all resets here. In this format, though, even three points is usually enough to make the next round, so neither are anything close to out.
  • Germany – Spain. The two winners from Group B, neither of which really performed up to expectations. Both faced teams that mostly sought to frustrate rather than create, so this will be a very different test. Germany will be missing Maroszán, after the referee in the previous game allowed China to kick her to pieces, which is a big loss. But if there’s any country in the world that can survive her absence, it’s probably Germany.
  • France – Norway. This should be a much sterner test for France than their opening match. If they can brush Norway aside as easily as they did South Korea, they will truly lock down their status as World Cup favorites. For Norway, with three points in the bag, they can treat this as a bit of a freebie, which might give them the freedom to find a result.

The US beat Thailand 13-0. I was there. It felt gross.

Posted on by RJ Allen

I just attended my first World Cup game featuring the United States, my home country. A game which they won by an absurd margin. Am I happy? No. I feel gross. I wish I hadn’t been there. I wish I had gone to Rennes, or just stayed back in Paris. I wish I hadn’t been in a stadium full of Americans, cheering on – with chants of “USA! USA!” and “We Want More!” ringing out around me, while their team racked up double digit goals.

I’m not trying to lob accusations at anyone. I understand that it’s complicated. People paid a lot of money, took a huge amount of time and energy to come here. This is one of the only chances they may ever get to see their national team play in the World Cup. They want to celebrate, and they have every right to take some joy in the process. I get all that.

And still, I have a sour taste in my mouth, and my stomach is churning.

The fans made a deliberate choice to put their own joy over recognizing the pain of others

Because, in the bigger picture, this wasn’t an event to celebrate. The US obliterated the opposition, and they were able to do so because they have fifty years of institutional support behind them. Thailand was overrun, not because there is no one in Thailand with the ability to play soccer. They were overrun because there is no network of support to nurture and develop the people with the potential. There is no coaching system to train them. No resources to pay them.

That inequality is a part of the game, and there’s no way to run a tournament like the World Cup and not have it play a role. So the solution can’t simply be to throw up our hands and give up. We still want a tournament, and that means the teams with more resources are very likely to beat the teams without them.

But we don’t have to celebrate it. And the fans in the crowd stepped over that line. I am sure that none of the meant it maliciously. I don’t think they’re bad people. But as a group, they exhibited behavior that we should lament, not valorize.

The coaches made a deliberate choice to run up the score

I don’t blame the players. They kept going because that’s what they do. Maybe they could have cooled it with the big celebrations after the 8th or 9th goal, but in the moment, I completely get it. So while I wish that they had decided to dial things back a bit, I don’t blame them.

But I do blame the coaches. The US made three substitutions. Three forwards. They finished the game with five strikers on the pitch – six, really, if you count Crystal Dunn. There was no need for that.

I understand why they did it. Strikers work on confidence, and you want all your attacking options to feel like they’re in the zone. You want to give them a chance to get their feet wet in a low pressure situation. I get it.

But you could equally argue that the US would have benefited from ratcheting everything down five notches – save legs, save energy, coast to an easy 6-0 win and call it a day. The US does this all the time, and suffers no psychological problems. I’m thinking of the semifinals from the CONCACAF qualifying against Jamaica, for example.

If Ellis had subbed in three more defensive players, she would have communicated to the team: now is the time to practice seeing out a victory. That would have been a perfectly valid tactical goal, would have caused no problems with psychological management, and would have kept this in the realm of a normal thumping. Instead, she subbed on the strikers, and told her team to keep going full pelt. She told them: we want to be the bully.

And yes, sometimes being the bully works. But that doesn’t make it right. And it certainly doesn’t make it something that I personally want to associate myself with. And please don’t bring up goal difference. The US is going to blow Sweden out of the water in goal difference, and that was true by the time they scored their fifth goal.

Sometimes, feeling bad is the only good thing to do

This should have been a happy occasion. I’m at the World Cup. I just got to watch the team I’m covering win a famous victory. It should have been fun.

It wasn’t fun. It was just a sad reminder of how unequal the playing field is, and little is being done to remedy that inequality. None of it is any one person’s fault, and I don’t want to imply that US fans or US coaches caused any of this. They’re merely small parts in a huge story. Poor players who strut and fret their hour upon the stage.

But tonight a lot of people had a choice: do I do the hard thing, and swallow my sense of self just a little bit? Do I put myself in the shoes of the others out there who don’t have what I have? Do I do those things, even acknowledging that it’s going to dull the joy a bit?

I understand why everyone did what they did. No one was being unreasonable. No one was being intentionally cruel. So I hope this doesn’t read like an attack on anyone. I’m certain that I have made many similar choices in my own life. But here, tonight, it felt wrong. And it felt important for me to try and explain why. Even though it was hard.

 

What I’m Reading: Women’s World Cup Edition

Posted on by RJ Allen

There has been a lot of great content happening around the lead up to the Women’s World Cup kicking off on Friday.

I wanted to take the time to highlight some of the things I’ve been reading and finding the most engaging as we prepare for the 2019 event.

Reports of Germany’s Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated and A Beginners Guide to the Women’s World Cup by Charles Olney

Charles is one one of the people I always look forward to seeing what he comes up with. His preview is a great guide to the World Cup and makes things a bit easier to wrap your head around. And well, Germany is not out of this by a long shot.

France at the World Cup: Could This Be The Year? by

No one loves France like Allison loves France. And after reading this piece you may also love France.

This Is the Most Anticipated Women’s World Cup Ever. But Corruption and Abuse Still Block Women From Soccer by Shireen Ahmed. 

It is heartbreaking and maddening o read this piece but it is a piece that should be required reading for all.

SBNation Women’s World Cup Top Fifty Players by SBNation Staff.

This is a very well done piece and a very nice piece to look at. Find these players in games and watch. They are amazing.

The one thing every World Cup contender needs to win it all by Kim McCauley

Kim is one of the best there is and this is a great piece on what each team needs to go the distance.

We Put Too Many Expectations on Alex Morgan by RJ Allen

What? If I won’t promote my work, who will?

Tierna Davidson remains unbothered by Steph Yang

Tierna Davidson is pretty rad and Steph Yang is great at writing about rad people.

 

We Put Too Many Expectations on Alex Morgan

Posted on by RJ Allen

Alex Morgan has over 100 caps and 100 games for her national team. She has a World Cup title. She’s has an Olympic gold medal at home too. And an NWSL title. And a Champions League title.

She has done pretty well for herself is what I’m saying.

But when I think of Alex Morgan’s greatest moments I think of 2011 and 2012. I think of the player who busted her way on to the scene with a slightly unusual gate and the ability to lift the world on her shoulders. That player was exciting to watch, that player made everyone else look a little bit slower and a little bit less good than they were.

I think of Morgan when all she had to be was really good at playing soccer.

But time and injury changed who she is on the pitch. She is no longer the young player who can play without major expectations on her shoulders. She is not the player with an older, more famous, more experienced forward alongside her. She is that forward now and all the weight of the world now rests on her. Every move is broken down, slowed down, fast forwarded and watched over and over by millions of people.

Don’t get me wrong, expectations are fine as long as they are reasonable. But when they reach the level that no one would be able to meet them they became a stone around a player’s neck.

Morgan has the fate of the game on her shoulders in ways that seem impossible for anyone to come out from under. And oh my do heavy expectations seem to cling to Morgan. She has to be the role model that everyone can relate to and she has to be flawless in front of HD cameras and she has to score all the biggest goals and she has to lead equal pay lawsuits. We expect too much and come down too hard when those expectations aren’t met.

The crazy thing is just how much less we expect out of male athletes. Sure we expect the best forwards to score goals when their team needs them. We expect on the field things. But do we really expect Messi to look flawless on camera or to champion issues off of the field? No, we expect him to play soccer. He is afforded the luxury of just being able to have one job. Play soccer really, really well and make an obscene amount of money doing it.

I don’t think many people will argue with the fact that 2015 was not the best tournament Morgan has ever had. It’s not even the best World Cup tournament Morgan has ever had. She was coming off an injury and there were so many other story lines around that 2015 team. It was a team defined by Abby Wambach finally get her title and Lauren Holiday retiring and Carli Lloyd’s hat trick. It was a tournament that became catharsis for a team that hadn’t gotten it done in 16 years.

But 2019? Sure, there is the storyline of if the US can go back-to-back but largely people are putting those hopes on Morgan. Yes, players like Megan Rapinoe and Tobin Heath, Mal Pugh and Christen Press are going to get articles written about them and we will see footage of Ertz and Horan broken down to the point of madness. But Morgan is now the starting center forward on a team that are the favorites in the World Cup. Even if she wasn’t Alex Morgan that is going to come with pressure. Because she is, there is even more added on.

I hope Morgan plays well. I hope she scores a lot of goals. I hope she finds the form that we’ve seen flashes of her whole career. I hope most of all I don’t see 10 pieces written about how her legacy is forever diminished if she is merely good, merely solid, merely human after the final game is played.

Will Tobin Heath Really Play Outside Back In France?

Posted on by RJ Allen

Will Jill Ellis play Tobin Heath as an outside back in France? 

For a while on Sunday afternoon, as the USWNT took on Mexico, that’s exactly where she was. Though it was more standing there than playing there. And as I watched, the thought rolled through my mind: is this really going to happen?

This isn’t the only question around this team. With the US on their way to France, there still are plenty of lingering issues. Part of that is because the team hasn’t played a truly competitive match since March. So we’ve seen plenty of games, but none that really told us key things. So we’re still left wondering who will be on the pitch, who won’t, and what that means for the fate of the team.

And thinking about Heath as a potential fullback gets me thinking more broadly about the dichotomy between true depth and the illusion of depth. 

If you want to see true depth, look to the midfield. Sam Mewis, Morgan Brian, Julie Ertz, Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle and Allie Long provide as deep a pool in the middle of the park as a coach could want. While Horan is the presumed starter, Mewis is a unique talent that is able to step in and work with just about any pairing Ellis might ask of her. Ertz can play just about anywhere with expert skill. And seeing Lavelle in person with the ball is a sight to behold. The way she reads the game and manages to get defenders befuddled as she moves forward on the pitch is a thing of beauty.

Sure there are questions on if Brian is healthy enough or if Allie Long will be able to use her particular skill set at an effective level for the national team. But most of the questions around the midfield are due to an overabundance of talent.

Contrast this with the outside back position. You have Kelley O’Hara and Crystal Dunn as the starters. But in the post game mixed zone Dunn called herself an “attacking minded player” nearly a dozen times while answering questions from the assembled media. She’s willing to do the job, but is hardly a true defender. So if you start with Dunn, and want to make a change (reasonable on a day when it was so hot you could fry an egg on the pavement outside Red Bull Arena), it makes a certain kind of sense to swap in Tobin Heath. But the logic here is an extremely twisted kind.

I didn’t know in the year 2019 I needed to say this, but Tobin Heath is not an outside back. And watching her in person only confirmed that. In the first half she was comfortable and energetic. All that faded once she was moved to the left back spot. She didn’t look like she was particularly interested in defending–taking any chance to go forward–but those movements were aimless and uncomfortable. And why wouldn’t they be? Ellis suggested in her post game remarks that the difference between left back and left forward in this rotation wasn’t all that great. But there’s actually a big difference. You can’t just swap players interchangeably and expect it to work. The responsibilities are different, the angles are different, the way you get involved in play is different.

So why did Ellis try it? Does it maybe tell us just how little she actually wants to rely on Ali Krieger – who made the roster but still faces real worries about how she’ll perform if called upon? Or is it just some practice for a desperation move in a game where they’ve used all their subs? It’s hard to say.

Ultimately, only time will tell if this effort to force wingers in as outside backs will burn the Americans. If they win the 2019 Women’s World Cup it may be just a forgotten bit of commentary in 20 years. 

The View from the Sideline: USWNT vs Mexico

Posted on by RJ Allen

Carl Gulbish caught the action in the as Mexico took on the USWNT. This was the USWNT’s last game before heading to the Women’s World Cup.

 

May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 1st half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 2nd half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 1st half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 1st half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 1st half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 1st half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 2nd half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 2nd half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 2nd half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 2nd half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)
May 26, 2019 – Harrison, NJ, United States of America – 2nd half of the game between USA and Mexico at the Red Bulls Arena – Harrison, NJ. (Credit Image: Carl Gulbish/BacklineSoccer)

Champagne Problems: How the USWNT Having Too Much Talent Creates Odd Issues

Posted on by RJ Allen

In no sane world should Crystal Dunn be an outside back on the national team. In no world that makes sense should Sam Mewis sit healthy on the bench, or Casey Short and McCall Zerboni sit at home.

And yet this is the world we live in.

The USWNT has the deepest pool in the world. Forwards as far as the eye can see, midfielders that have the power to link play and to dominate, defenders who can make talented players look silly when they try to attack, and goalkeepers who can make jaw dropping saves.

But for all that depth, there are still some problems. In some cases, the problems come from the depth. I want to focus on three. First, the depth isn’t evenly distributed so we end up with some sections a mile deep while others aren’t much more than a puddle. Second, selection decisions aren’t correctly weighting the value players can bring. Third, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) doesn’t incentivize bringing in some of the best talent.

Deep Waters with Shallow Sections

As Charles Olney often points out on Twitter, the USWNT has more options in each position than can really be comprehended. In some positions, like goalkeeper, you could swap out the current bunch for an entirely new set without anything more than a slight – if that – dip in quality.

But those players don’t get called in, and it’s a problem. A champagne problem, sure, but still a problem.

When you have 30 attackers that could be called into camp, there’s no realistic way to actually do it. Fans can all make the case for their favorite, but at some point the coach does have to draw a line in the sand and pick from the group assembled. We might quibble with the choices but we all know there are roster limits and nowhere close to everyone can go.

We can all debate if Ohai or Huerta or Lynn Williams should be moved from the “possible but probably not” pool to the “yeah there is a real chance here” pool. But I don’t think anyone would argue that Alex Morgan or Christen Press or Megan Rapinoe should be downgraded, and that’s what’s really causing the blockage. 

Meanwhile, as we all go round in circles on this point, on the other side of the pitch, real honest to goodness defenders seem to be harder and harder to come by. And so you end up with Crystal Dunn at fullback, because you want to get as much champagne as possible.

The Overvaluation of Attacking Talent

Which leads to the second issue. Jill Ellis favors a system where the outside backs are really wingers and one center back really is a defensive midfielder. In that context, it makes sense to play Crystal Dunn as a left back and wait for her to work some magic, while sacrificing some of the lock down defense a Casey Short would bring.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying Crystal Dunn shouldn’t be on this roster. She should be. But as an attacking player able to bring creativity, pace and a drive to make the best plays possible – hey it sounds like the Crystal Dunn of the North Carolina Courage – without having to give up a certain level of defense.

Ellis wants the best pure talent on the pitch and she will put square pegs into role holes if it means she can get another attacker out there. She’s not the first to make that kind of choice, but it means there is some disjointness of play and a sameness of mindset from players all over the pitch.

A team with outside backs that do move forward but always have one foot firmly planted in the defense would be a significance difference from the USWNT of today. A team that valued developing defenders and not conversions for the sake of putting more attacking minded players on the field would be a shift in the way that the US prepares for the future. Neither is necessarily right or wrong, but it definitely affects how the US plays, and how others teams respond.

Soccer matches are won by players scoring goals and they are lost by the other team doing the same. With their over-reliance on the attack, the US have tipped their hand. They very well may win a World Cup doing it, but it does give a much stronger road map to how top teams can beat them.

Dancing with the Ones that Brought You

The USWNT doesn’t like turn over. Historically. Currently. Maybe forever more.

Stability is important. Having players with 100 caps, 200 caps, shows that those players have found a way to stick around and be useful through different coaches and teams up and downs.

It also shows that the US roster is not turning over. Since 2012, eleven players have hit 100 caps. Since 2015 eight have. Seven of those players are on the current USWNT World Cup roster.

There often looks to be a disconnect between form and player selection. Alex Morgan or Christen Press or Julie Ertz could be downright terrible for their NWSL teams and get call ups roster after roster while the Ohais or the Lynn Williams or the Lauren Barnes of the league barely get a chance when they are called up, and even a tiny dip in form apparently knocks them out forever.

Ellis seems unbothered by the ideas she is comparing players with no international experience to players who have appeared on the field for the team 50, 100 or even 200 times. If they are not up to the same level at first blush they are cast aside. Or if you’re Sofia Huerta you are jerked around – including having your federation changed – and then cut.

With the contract system that the USWNT operates under, bringing in new players while having to pay the players already under contract could be seen by the powers that be as a waste of time and money. Why pay Aubrey Bledsoe and test her out when you already have goalkeepers on the payroll?

The USWNT may have the deepest roster in history. They may have the best collection of 23 players you could ask heading into a major competition.

In 2019 they may be enough. But will the lasting damage of inadequate planning and managing of that pool be a major stumbling block in 2020 or 2023? Only time will tell.

Backline Chat: We’ll See You in Court

Posted on by RJ Allen

Charles Olney (@olneyce): Welcome to this week’s Backline Soccer Chat. We’ve got some national team news to discuss, some NWSL games to cover, and even a few new NWSL signings to discuss. To kick things off, let’s start with the US Women’s National Team. The roster dropped a week ago, and we’ve all had some time to digest and reflect, so there’s no need to dwell too long here. But does anyone have any lingering thoughts?

Allison Cary (@findingallison): I’m upgrading McCall Zerboni not getting called up to a crime against humanity. That is all.

Charles Olney: I wrote a whole piece on that for SSFC, so I won’t say anything more except that I still don’t really get it. Particularly given the reporting which suggests that Ellis saw those final roster choices as all about managing ‘what if’ scenarios.

Luis Hernandez (@radioactivclown): I’m not going to go as far as Allison about Zerboni but I can see her getting pulled into the squad for an injured player or someone who can’t be 90 minutes fit by the World Cup starting.

Charles Olney: That would not surprise me at all. We’re still weeks ago from the actual deadline, so there’s a lot that could change.

Allison Cary: Yeah, absolutely.

Charles Olney: Two other omissions which were by no means surprises, but which I still want to note: Lynn Williams has been one of the most prolific goal-scorers in the league for three seasons now, and provides a physical presence that seems like it could be useful. And Vanessa DiBernardo continues to improve, and is genuinely one of the great passers of her generation. I’m not saying they absolutely should have made it, but it bums me out that they weren’t even in the picture.

Allison Cary: Yeah, I wasn’t surprised that they weren’t included, but like you said, the fact that they weren’t even in the discussion is disappointing. Especially Williams.

Charles Olney: I hope they both still get a real chance at some point. It would make me sad if they continue to play this well and just never make it back on the radar.

Luis Hernandez: I don’t think most fans would say those are really omissions. I think you kind of have to watch the league as a whole unbiasedly. They weren’t even given much of a chance to get snubbed.

I think after this World Cup cycle you see the return of more younger players or maybe just not as veteran a team.

For example, I’m a big fan of Ohai but she won’t get a look until the end of the chapter for this current team.

Charles Olney: We might talk more about Casey Short when we get to the games this week, but it also shouldn’t go unmentioned that her absence might well end up being felt this summer.

Allison Cary: I feel bad for Short. I think the injury and youth took her out of the picture, but I’m not sure it should have.

Luis Hernandez: At least Short has time to make another World Cup. I do think she’s solid for the US on the left side.

Charles Olney: Alright, to wrap things up, hopefully we can agree that even if the 23 isn’t precisely what we might each have preferred, it’s still extremely loaded and the US are most likely the favorites to retain their title? Or, at a minimum co-favorites.

Allison Cary: It is a fantastic side. I think there are other really good sides too, but I wouldn’t bet against this US side.

Luis Hernandez: I don’t have the US as the top favorite but yes they will be favored. I would be less nervous if the defense were more solid.

Charles Olney: Alright, the other piece of news that arrived this week is that US Soccer has responded to the USWNT player’s gender discrimination complaint, basically by denying the validity of the accusations in most key respects. The players responded with a pretty terse ‘we’ll see you in court.’ Do you have any thoughts about where this is going?

Allison Cary: Personally, I’ve tried to sort out my feelings, but I keep coming back to the fact that I don’t know anywhere near enough about equal employment law.

Charles Olney: As I said on Twitter, I’m not a lawyer but I am law adjacent, and my sense is that US Soccer has a decent legal argument but even if they might expect to win the case if it went to trial, they’ll take a beating in public opinion. So I still expect this to get settled out of court.

But I’m less sure about that now than I was yesterday.

Luis Hernandez: I’m not a lawyer, but I think US Soccer is going to have a bit of an uphill climb.

Allison Cary: If the team is playing for the court of public opinion, I think they’re doing well. What I keep coming back to legally is, do they have a burden of proof to show this is solely based on gender? Because that seems like a high bar to meet for anyone.

Luis Hernandez: I do think the players have more of an argument on some of the basics, but USSF has corrected most of what they can. Should be interesting to see how it plays out

Charles Olney: It is a pretty high bar. Certainly, organizations are allowed to treat groups differently based on a wide variety of things. That the USMNT and USWNT are (obviously) gender-segregated doesn’t necessarily mean every decision to treat them different is therefore gender-based. On the other hand, some of the public statement that US Soccer has made on these issues are pretty damning.

One final thought: obviously it shouldn’t matter legally, but I also wonder whether the results in France might shade things one way or the other.

Allison Cary: I think it will, unfortunately. I don’t think it should.

Charles Olney: Okay, enough of the national team. Let’s talk some NWSL. We had four games and two goals this weekend. So my first question is just: should we expect more of the same until the national teamers get back? Or was this just a fluke?

Luis Hernandez: I kind of think this question can be a bit unfair to the players from other nations still here. Certainly, the goal scorers this season so far have mostly been USWNT players, but I think there’s still some offense around the league

Allison Cary: We lost some of the top goal scorers but there is plenty of good offense left. We might see a drop in number of goals, but I don’t think it will be this sparse every week.

Charles Olney: Obviously there are a ton of good attackers still around. But there’s also no denying that virtually all of the top attacking performances this season have come from US national team players. I’m certain that others will step up at some point, but I wonder if that might still be a difference between now and four years ago: that defenses are more solid and less vulnerable to losing top players.

Luis Hernandez: Yuki and Sinclair have three goals, and Sam Kerr only has two.I think it’s just been fluky.

Allison Cary: I don’t think NC not scoring is going to be the norm.

Luis Hernandez: Most teams are deeper now and the league hopefully won’t see a major drop in talent and ability overall.

Charles Olney: So digging in a little bit more specifically, any thoughts from the individual games? My feeling is that we saw a lot of teams in holding patterns, without all that much clear evidence of whether to expect changes. Utah got three points (again), without necessarily dominating (again). North Carolina dominated (as usual) but couldn’t get their shots on target (except even more so). The Reign played okay but couldn’t score.

Orlando continue to struggle, without necessarily ever looking terrible. Sky Blue still don’t look great, but have managed points against the two finalists from last season.

Allison Cary: I want so badly to believe Utah is as good as their record reflects. And they did good without Sauerbrunn and Press, but they’re gonna lose many more players. Not sure if they’ll be able to sustain it. And like you said, as it is, they’re not dominating.

Charles Olney: I feel like we’ve mostly seen results that could either be indicators of big changes, or just indicators that things will mostly stay the same. And it’s really hard to tell which is which.

Allison Cary: Pretty much summed it up there, Charles.

Charles Olney: I would certainly be surprised if Utah keep winning every game. The real question is whether they drop off to a normal playoff contender pace, or whether they fall back to where they were last year. I’m more convinced by them now than I was a month ago, certainly, and those points are already in the bank, so…

Allison Cary: Yeah, it’s a good thing they’re racking in points now.

Charles Olney: I saw someone point out that Orlando right now is basically where Houston was last year after five games – manager who is new to the league, really struggling to put things together, major risk of being cut adrift. And then Houston righted the ship and started reeling off results. I’m not PREDICTING that will happen with Orlando, but it’s at least a potentially positive analogy.

Allison Cary: Orlando needs anything even potentially positive right now.

Luis Hernandez: I think this weekend was mostly what the teams this season will be. Maybe most teams outside of Orlando get another couple of games under their belt before we can say, “yeah, that’s who that team is for the season.”

I think we’re about to enter a phase in the league where teams are going to add some reinforcements from overseas like we saw with Sky Blue or expect from Orlando.

Charles Olney: Speaking of reinforcements, thoughts on the two additions that were just announced: Gina Lewandowski to Sky Blue and Casey Murphy to the Reign? I’m a big fan of both moves.

Allison Cary: Yeah, me too. Solid additions ahead of the WC.

Luis Hernandez: I don’t think that’s the best spot for Murphy long-term but I don’t hate the move. I wasn’t surprised by the Lewandowski move at all. I knew she was going to play in the US from what I had seen. Plus the only NWSL team she follows on her social media is Sky Blue. Yeah, I went there.

Charles Olney: Lewandowski was, I think, somewhat unfairly cut out of the national team picture due to being overseas. At this point, she’s almost certainly dropped off to the point where that’s no longer true. But even a below-peak Lewandowski could be huge for a team like Sky Blue that just needs some defensive continuity to build off.

Luis Hernandez: I agree with you Charles. She deserved more time in the national team picture, but I think you can also say that for Ella Masar, who is retiring to go into coaching.

Charles Olney: I agree that Reign is maybe not the ideal landing spot for Murphy. From all I’ve seen (admittedly not enough to really be sure), she’s good enough to be a regular starter in the league, whether during the World Cup or not. So I’d rather see her go to a team where she could expect to start right from the beginning. But as Claire Watkins was pointing out, this may really be about protecting themselves from expansion next year. Certainly no harm in building depth.

Alright, looking forward, we’ve got another four NWSL matchups this weekend. Sky Blue and Washington will meet up for the second time in a month, Utah will take on Houston, Orlando will face Portland (another repeat), and Chicago will play NC (see above). So, any thoughts of any of those matchups?

And also, what’s up with the lack of new opponents?!

Allison Cary: Yeah, lots of repeats.

Luis Hernandez: Frankly I think it sucks that we have so many rematches when teams like Orlando haven’t played Sky Blue or Washington.

I would like to wait a bit more to see replays between teams.

Allison Cary: Since Sky Blue managed to get two draws against two of the stronger clubs in the league, I’m curious to see how they’ll do against Washington this time around.

Charles Olney: Sky Blue-Washington is definitely one to watch. Both teams will be desperate to genuinely turn a new leaf on their awful 2018s, and getting a win here would go a long way for each of them. Which means it’ll probably be a draw.

Allison Cary: Probably.

Charles Olney: Utah-Houston is another good test for two teams who want to show that they’ve taken a step forward from 2018. If either gets a win, that will go a long way to proving that they are serious challengers. If Utah can get 12 points in 4 games to start the season, they would certainly become favorites to make the playoffs. And if Houston can knock them off, they would actually pass them in the table (albeit with an extra game played).

Allison Cary: Yeah, that’s true on both points. Houston knocking off Utah could be a big boost for them in confidence and points, and Utah being undefeated in four can’t be shrugged off.

Luis Hernandez: Obviously travel for Portland might also be a factor than at the opening of the season.

Charles Olney: Yeah, Luis, that’s a good point. Portland’s neverending travel adventure has got to be a drag.

Allison Cary: I’m exhausted just looking at Portland’s schedule.

Charles Olney: We’ve also managed to avoid mentioning the game between North Carolina and Chicago. That one certainly isn’t a ‘must win’ for either team, but I think they’ll both REALLY want to get the three points after extremely disappointing results last weekend.

Luis Hernandez: The big takeaway from all the rematches is if the results from the first go-around continue or there’s a shift between these opponents.

Allison Cary: Very true. It seems like both teams keep bouncing back and forth between having a really good match and then a really frustrating one.

Charles Olney: I’ll be curious to see how Riley changes things up – or if he sticks with the same XI. I thought they were fine against Sky Blue, but nothing like the sort of dominance we’ve otherwise seen. Is that just the absence of Dunn and Mewis? I expected they would handle the loss of Dahlkemper fine, but Kurtz had a rough game.

Luis Hernandez: Across all the games this weekend, I get a “must watch” vibe, but it’s also partly because they are replays.

Charles Olney: Any general thoughts before we wrap things up?

Allison Cary: Utah and NC doing Star Wars merch was cool and teams should be doing more stuff like that.

Also I hope Utah’s attendance stays high.

Charles Olney: Yeah! It didn’t really look like they had that many in the stadium, but even if some of those were ticket-sales-not-butts-in-seats, that’s still a HUGE number. They definitely don’t seem to be suffering a sophomore slump attendance-wise, which is really nice.

Allison Cary: Yeah, I really think women’s soccer could be massive in Salt Lake. I really want them to prove me right.

Charles Olney: It sure would be great if they could announce a big year-end event there to get everyone excited. Maybe the weekend of October 26. Just a thought.

Luis Hernandez: lol

One final thing: I just want to point out here that we’re this far into the schedule and the league still has the 2018 rules and regulations posted and nothing in the roster rules reflect the changes that we see on the pitch

Charles Olney: Given the hiring situation at NWSL headquarters, it may be that way for a while, unfortunately.

Well, that’s a suitably depressing note to end on. Thanks for reading everyone. We’ll be back next week, and in the meantime, we hope you enjoy some thrilling soccer.

Women’s Soccer Has A Seriousness Problem

Posted on by RJ Allen

Soccer is a beautiful game.

Eleven people suit up on either side of the ball with about half trying to get the ball into the net and another half trying to keep it out. There are heroes and villains that make themselves known over the course of a few minutes or a match or a career. There is glory and heartbreak that can happen with a single strike of the ball.

A well-played soccer match is like watching Michelangelo working on carving David out of stone as the minutes tick by. It’s masterful.

Sometimes the things that the women’s soccer media world is tasked to cover are not beautiful. That doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. It’s important to write about a club doing horrible things to their players. Breaking down top tier rosters and trying to figure out who stays and who goes when it comes to major events is the kind of analytic backbone that helps fans learn and grow. Serious pieces to help try and create flesh on a skeleton. But that doesn’t leave a lot of time to write about the joy or the mastery of skill or the fun of it all.

One of the issues for women’s soccer is that there just aren’t that many pieces written about it, aren’t that many media covering it, isn’t that much brain power thinking about it. Which means that oftentimes the people who would be writing pieces about that joy, that mastery, have to break news and write about the big tough problems. They can’t write about the fun stuff because those stories feel a little trivial when there are bigger fish to fry. Sometimes the fish don’t even have to be bigger. They just need some fish, any fish, to be there. Much of the media that is unpaid or under paid does the work that the major media would usually do.

There isn’t wall to wall coverage of the NWSL draft on par with the NFL or NBA draft, not even on par with the MLS draft. Games are not broken down on ESPN week in and week out. Scores aren’t even recapped on most daily sports shows. It’s the job of the small collection of media to handle the basic logistics of covering the league because no one else does it.

Think about how many pieces a typical person who covers the NWSL or USWNT puts out in a year. How much time do they have to devote to just simply covering the basics of the sport? After all, they know if they don’t do it, probably no one else will. So instead writing more fun or experimental or cerebral pieces, this is what they’re stuck with.

With that in mind, I want to give a shoutout to Stephanie Yang, who wrote a wrote a really nice piece, “NWSL teams as Avengers.” It was refreshing not because it was about the Avengers and sports, right before a huge Avengers movie comes out, and because it was just fun. Yang is one of the more prolific people when it comes to covering American women’s soccer. She writes plenty of the basic stuff that just has to get done. But she also writes things with humor, wit and story crafting, and those are the ones that really sing.

Another example: Andrew Sharp at The Maneland had a great piece called Twitter Reacts to NWSL’s Newest Style Icon Marc Skinner that went in to some of the great media content that Orlando Prde has been putting out about their new coach.

Even I’ve gotten in to the act writing a preview of the Utah Royal’s roster by turning them in to a Quidditch team and talking about each player when I wrote Utah Royals QC Roster is Magical for RSL Soapbox.

I really do believe one of the impediments to non-fans becoming casual fans and casual fans becoming devoted fans is that women’s soccer sometimes feels like homework. It isn’t always easy to just engage for the fun of it, when you have to work hard to find sources. If your local site covers the team at all, it’s probably mostly negative stuff, or serious stories. And where’s the fun in that?

It’s a common problem around women’s sports. With less coverage, every word matters more. Things need to be covered and we cover them well. But it also means we’re so worried about putting the shots on frame we’ve lost sight of the beauty of it all.

Men’s soccer, men’s sports, can be fun. They can just be sports and no one raises an eyebrow. Women’s sports are important and serious and necessary and groundbreaking. But they should be fun too.