With Foredigas(sp?) no longer with us, sadly I don't think there's enough activity here for each game to have its own thread. The method of one, more general, 2015 season thread should suffice.
Of course, rain/thunderstorms in the forecast for tomorrow for the season opener after all the awesome weather we've had in KC. Hopefully it doesn't affect the game too much. I'm excited, love watching games at Sporting Park, and interested to see the atmosphere.
I'm worried about Houston. They are stacked! They have Ochs (way under-rated), Brian (incredible linking player), Ohai (freakin workhorse), and on and on.
Glad to hear you are making the trip! Stay dry, Last I saw it's supposed to stop thunder storming by 100. Tymrak and Shea looked great in preseason, hopefully that continues against much stiffer competition in the NWSL. And yes the Dash won't be dominated this year for sure. They have improved their offense a lot. Still not convinced by their defense against teams other than Washington and Boston. But hey, I'm not sold on KCs either. Ha!
Hmm... The result went against KC, but KC dominated. It's starting to feel like Sporting Park has a curse on it. I've been an extremely casual fan until this point, this was the first game I made a point to be sure to watch. There are a lot of exciting players on FCKC's roster, I especially enjoyed seeing Tymrak and Groom with the ball at their feel. In the end, Nadim's shot was just way too good. I was expecting so much more from the game, especially since the first 15 mins went so well, but I guess it just wasn't to be. At least it was encouraging to hear the expected attendance of 7,000+, I never heard what the actual attendance was, though. EDIT: I just found this: 8,500 for a home opener is pretty dang good. Especially compared to the 2,000 per game last season.
Glad to have another KC based fan on the board. I was worried about the atmosphere at Sporting Park with it being much less attended than a typical SKC game. But I was surprised, I had a great time, this was the best FCKC game i've been to by far. Too bad, we could pull out the win to ensure these fans would continue to support. FCKC has to find a way to come from behind to win games, it's getting ridiculous! I hope you become a more avid fan especially as the games move to Swope, I would be... but I coach high school and we always play on Thursday nights. Boo! I agree, Sporting Park seems to have a curse on it, at least for the 2015 season.
Probably, considering how exposed to the counter-attack we were when we move to a back 3. She will have her time to shine soon though.
Wow, I'm glad those that actually attended the game thought it was exciting, which is all that matters really. For those of us that watched on youtube, it was the complete opposite due to some audio problems. For majority of the game there was no sound from the field or the crowd. We were stuck with the one commentator (no color) who was as bland as they come.
FCKC have two options. Play the 4-4-2 (or maybe 3-5-2) but history have shown that those systems don;t work for their players as we saw in the first couple of games last year. Or they can stick with the 4-5-1 which they have been so successful with. The question than is do you go with Arod who was the second leading scorer (and had the most goals in open play) who Hagen. The decision here is simple. I think Hagen and Brooks are in the same boat. They both left promising/successful teams in Germany to come to NWSL with the hopes of making the NT only to find themselves being bench players. We can argue about if this a fair or not but keep in mind that when they made the decision to return, Sermanni was the coach and since he was fired, they haven't been called up. So that was the risk they took. I think they both signed the standard 1+1 contract and if after this year they still want to play in the NWSL with the hopes of being called to the NT after the world cup, there are quite a few teams in the NWSL that could use a good striker and a DM of their quality
I think it would be in Hagens best interest to stay here. The WC will give her time to really show what she's got and next year could be really big for her
In what sense will next year be a big year for her? If Arod is still around and FCKC doesn't change their system, what will be different from this year? Even if Arod makes the Olympics squad, she won't be gone for long because I think the team spend less time preparing for the Olympics than the World Cup
I think expansion of a couple more teams will provide opportunities for Hagen and other borderline players to showcase themselves maybe on other teams.
I think Hagen's best interest would be to go to whoever will pay her the most. Unless Abby retires before the Olympics and she makes the roster for that, she's going to be 29 at the next WWC. I wouldn't be that surprised if they just pass her over for Horan who will be 25 and who they can still expect to get at least 2 cycles out of.
Two ways next year is big for Hagen 1) Post-WC Arod comes back, Hagen becomes a valuable commodity. Ando and Williams have shown they're ok with using talent to bring in talent. I could see a trade to where she'd be a star 2) I'm fairly certain that this is Holiday's last year. If she calls it a career, does ARod follow? In that case, Hagen steps right in
I have some thoughts on the first weekend: Houston has improved dramatically. With Richmond not playing this season, Brian could be the best linking player in the league. Ohai might have a sophomore breakout this year. If the highest rating we could give a player is 100, then Seattle losing Kawasumi is say like minus 96 points, but getting Rapinoe back is like plus 94 points. By the way, I'd probably give Little a fifa rating of 98, Fishlock 95, Winters 93, Goebel 93 - they are so stacked. KC so far, I know it's only one match, so maybe I'm over-reacting, but I feel like KC took a step backwards. Averbuch is serviceable, but a huge downgrade from Richmond. Richmond was the best DM in the whole league last season. Averbuch hitting that ball a mile over the post is like the Averbuch of two years ago. I'm not a fan of Long, but she really attacked the net aggressively this weekend. It was really good.
Just re-watched some of the Houston match. Brian is incredible. With KC falling and Houston on the rise, KC vs. Houston is going to be exciting.
Falling? Let's not jump to conclusions based on one game. If KC had put away just one of the many chances they had early on, that would have been a much different outcome. And let's not forget that they struggled early on last year and we all know what happened at the end of the year.
I watched the game as well and would agree. Only 1 person doing play by play was very boring. Plus the guys delivery wasnt exactly enthusiastic.
Funny, I didn't watch the entire game but for the portion I watched, I enjoyed it. But, I wasn't really listening to the broadcast, I was looking to see how the teams matched up. The part I watched was the latter portion of the game. For that portion, the teams seemed pretty even to me.
I attended the game with my family. FCKC should have put that game out of reach early. It ended up being pretty boring unfortunately. I watched the highlights the teams put out on Facebook. The guy doing play by play is on a local news station. I thought he did a good job but no reason the team shouldn't have a color person and a sideline reporter like Sky Blue has this upcoming weekend.
Funny, to me I don't think I've ever seen a boring soccer game (from U7 girls through World Cup Finals, and including futsal from U7 girls on). Even a boring game, for the very reason it's boring, is unboring.