PBP: 2019 NWSL Week 6 Discussion

Houston obviously missed Daly as it was unable to get much of anything out of the central forward position. Casey Short kept Ohai under control out on the left flank further reducing Houston's offense. So the Houston offense was pretty much Huerta -- who almost got a second goal.

I thought Hanson and Romero had good games for Houston. Brooks likewise, who is one tough player.

I love to watch Maria Sanchez for Chicago --- but she plays behind Vasconcelos who is doing very well -- so Sanchez is having a tough time breaking into the lineup.

It will be interesting at the world cup to see if anybody can put a lid on Kerr.

Interesting that there were four present or former Mexican national team players on the field: Huerta, Romero, K. Johnson, and Sanchez.

 

I'm happy for Washington. After last year's draft I predicted they'd do well in 2018. I was off by about a year. They look competitive this year.

I had forgotten about all the friendlies this month, so the missing USWNT players (through the end of the WWC) will certainly take it's toll on the team standings.

 

I guess this match-day showed once again the difference between Kerr and others: she puts the ball in the net where other wouldn't.

The comparison is not only with her team-mates (Vasconcellos found herself in a similar situation to the one of first Kerr's goal, but was unable to score), but also with strikers of other teams: Lynn Williams, in the game vs Utah, was incredibly wasteful; she missed two chances where Kerr would have probably scored two goals.

And Courage champions currently out of the play-off positions. As @MiLLeNNiuM said, I guess many underestimated how the international duties of WWC players would have affected the league.

 

I thought the two were pretty evenly matched. It was very fun to watch. While she didn't have any real good shots (just that weak one near the start), Ohai did get a couple good crosses off. And she made a couple really good runs where her team just didn't seem to see her and passed to someone else instead. Though there was one time when she didn't make a run that seemed pretty obvious, so it's not like I'm saying she was perfect or anything.

From an Ohai cross

I didn't think they'd do as well as they have been, since they weren't great last season. But I guess the new coach isn't doing too bad of a job getting the team to perform better.

I certainly wasn't expecting that. I thought they'd dominate, even without their USWNTers. Though, I don't think it helps that Rowland still doesn't seem to be 100%. There were 3 goals scored against her in the last 2 games that were pretty week. Just take a shot low and to her right and it's going in. If it weren't for those 3 goals, NCC would have an additional 4 points (and Chicago 2 less and Utah 1 less) putting them in 1st place (and as is they're only 2 back). Of course it's not all on Rowland; Only 2 goals in the last three games, compared to 10 goals in the three games before that with the USWNTers. Maybe Williams should sit the next match and Eddy get the start...

 

Based on Holden's comments, I looked further into my statement that Short did a good job defending Ohai. According to my count of the stats, Ohai, in her 86 minutes on the field, only touched the ball 29 times. That's a paltry total of touches, indicating to me that Ohai was well guarded.

By contrast Ohai's counterpart on the right side of the field, Huerta, in her 90 minutes, touched the ball 48 times.

Of course, had Ohai converted one or more of those touches into a goal or an assist, we would be saying she had a good game. Such is soccer.

 

I didn't mean to imply that Short didn't do a good job and she wasn't well guarded, just you made it sound like she was invisible out there and I don't think she was.

Exactly. In the game she scored in she had 34 touches (compared to Prince's 42, Daly's 53, and Huerta's 55). That's not that much more and still less than her teammates. But because she scored, she had a good game.

(BTW, is there somewhere that lists the number of touches? The only thing I could find was the "Touch Map" so I had to count all the dots, which is a bit annoying)

 

The touch page is all that I've found. It's laborious, yes. But useful for seeing how active a player was and where they were. .

 

So the weird thing is that Erceg (NCC) and Bowen (Utah) played in the game in Cary after having reported to New Zealand camp and playing against the United States.

The only time I can recall a World Cup player playing for their club after reporting to camp was on the men's side, and it was a third choice goalkeeper.

Mewis, Dahlkemper, and McDonald were also at the game, but had not been released by the USWNT to play.

Of course at this point, most World Cup players are playing not to get hurt. The friendlies before World Cups tend to get worse and worse because of this. For me the one exception will always be Wambach breaking her leg in the final friendly before the Beijing Olympics because she's Abby Wambach and only had one speed.

 

That is weird. I wonder why the NZ girls played? I assume it's to keep sharp. I imagine they don't get as much work in as the USWNT players before the WWC.

 

And frankly, players this close to a World Cup are generally in a "don't get injured mode". I don't think I'd have wanted the three U.S. players in uniform if they had been cleared to play. Players worried about getting hurt and missing the World Cup are not players playing to win.

 

Don't get me wrong, they are going up there to win, but Radio New Zealand keeps undermining them with scientific graphics.