Cool, the BSBrainTrust now is in NC 3 (2.50) v ORL 1 (1.00) territory, and might stay there depending on what the remaining contestants predict. Blaze20, am I correct that you didn't predict last weekend's games? And also that you haven't yet predicted the final ladder and playoff results? You still can predict the final ladder and playoff results with only a slight lateness penalty.
Wednesday North Carolina 3, Orlando 1 Saturday Chicago 2, Portland 1 Sky Blue 0, Houston 2 Utah 1, Washington 0 Sunday Seattle 1, Orlando 1
Wednesday North Carolina 3, Orlando 1 Saturday Chicago 1, Portland 1 Sky Blue 0, Houston 2 Utah 1, Washington 0 Sunday Seattle 2, Orlando 1
Wednesday North Carolina 2, Orlando 1 Saturday Chicago 3, Portland 2 Sky Blue 1, Houston 1 Utah 2, Washington 1 Sunday Seattle 1, Orlando 1
North Carolina 3, Orlando 0 Chicago 1, Portland 1 SkyBlue 0, Houston 2 Utah 2, Washington 0 Seattle 2, Orlando 1
So I typically suck at these because I don't do any research and pretty much just goes with the strongest team on paper. But given that this is a world cup year and teams are going to be depleted, I think it going to be interesting how the stacked teams fare. 1. North Carolina - While most of their players will be gone, they will still have a potent strike force in McDonald and Williams and 3/4 of the back 4. So I think with a coach like Paul Riley and his perpetual underdog mentality (even when it's not merited) will get the non world cup roster (NWCR) to perform. 2. Tacoma Reign - I was going to make them 4th but I think their NWCR is better than Chicago's or Portland's. Shea Groom and Jenkins can lead any front line in this league and like NCC they still have a starting level back four with Barnes, Oyster, McNabb and Wesphal. The midfield is where it get dicey but hopefully Fishlock returning just when the world cup starts will help. For the next 3 teams, I have no clue how to rank them. I have Houston as 3rd mostly because they will lose the least amount of players but that could easily change of Daly makes the England squad. If she does not then they have most of the core players available for them. I wanted to make Chicago higher but they haven't shown that anyone other than Sam Kerr can score on a consistent bases and with her gone that's a big loss. Also the ansence of Naeher will be felt. I also wanted to make Portland lower but they always find a way to scrap and make the playoffs so ... 3. Houston 4. Portland 5. Chicago 6. Utah - For some reason I can't name more than 5 players on this team off the top of my head, wierd. I think they are the best of the rest but not by much. 7. Orlando - I had Orlando as 9th but went to lunch and change my mind. I think this current roster is pretty disfunctional and that is even before the entire squad leaves for the world cup. So yeah, I won't be surprised if they finished lower. 7. Sky Blue - Could see them anywhere between 6th - 9th. I have them finishing above Washington because they have the better NWCR but not by much. 8. Washington - Not much to say about this team that is clearly rebuilding, whatever that means in the NWSL. Portland 2-1 North Carolina Reign 2-0 Houston Portland over Reign (This hurts me by the way)
I doubt there have been many ties as lopsided statistically as the Chicago/NC match last weekend. NC: 24 shots, 6 on goal, 60 percent possession Chi: 6 shots, 1 on goal, 40 percent possession Score 1-1
@BlueCrimson will tell you that is a standard NCC match. Ton of shots and shots on goal but not scoring.
To be entirely fair to NCC, their average winning margin last year (reg. season + playoffs) was slightly above a two-goal advantage (+42 GD in 19 won games) so they aren't quite as inept at converting shots as it sometimes looks. =edit= Put another way, they scored 58 goals in 26 matches overall, which also puts them at more than two goals per match on average.
I agree with everything but the possession stats. North Carolina is one of the few teams who are better when they don't have the possession edge. They've gotten so many wins (and dominated play) with around 40-45% possession.
One more thing to do: for each of the playoff games, result in regulation time, overtime, or by kicks from the mark?
The BSBrainTrust prediction for tonight's Courage v Pride game was Courage 3 (2.62) v Pride 1 (1.00). The competitors who did the best are the ones who predicted a Courage win and 0 Pride goals.
That's a me. Although I had predicted one single goal from NCC, not five! But that's a mere detail... Maybe I am being too much "professional" at it, but I wanted to wait for the Wednesday game, before making my predictions for the week-end, with the idea that I would have had the chance to get a better grasp at Orlando's state of form. Ok, the indication is: they're abysmal (seriously, all goals from lost balls in front of defense, except two carbon-copies CKs! ). Now the only doubt is if they have somewhere in them the strenght to bounce back from these two consecutive bad losses, or if their defense is too much all over the place to do something about it and also the weariness of Wednesday's match will take its toll on them when they'll be forced to a new trasfer to the other side of USA, in Seattle. I'll go with the latter. CHI 2 POR 1 NJ 2 HOU 0 UTA 1 WAS 0 SEA 3 ORL 1
Chicago 1 v Portland 1 NJNY 1 v Houston 1 Utah 1 v Washington 0 Seatac 2 v Orlando 1 Interestingly: Chicago's average home goal differential and Portland's average away goal differential, for the data set I'm using, both are +0.58 NJNY's home goal differential and Houston's away goal differential both are -1.00
I've read that averaging a number of predictions will come close to being right. So, I averaged the 13 predictions of the final standings of the NWSL this year, e.g. 9 for a first place prediction, 8 for second place, etc. So, here's the results (with total points). The average of the predictions. 1. NC 116 points (out of a possible 117) 2. Chi 90 3. Port 87 4.Reign 81 5. Utah 63 6. Hou 62 7. Orl 40 8. Wash 26 9. SB 21 If NC doesnt finish first the only one of us (Ameronisk59) who didn't predict them to win will be a great leap ahead in the contest.
Predictions Week ending 4-21. Home team first. I’m going with the ‘they are what they are’ theory; even though it is a new season, the teams are acting as if it is last year. CHI – 1 POR – 2 NJ – 1 HOU – 2 UT – 2 WAS – 1 SeaTac – 1 ORL – 1; Pinoe, Catley not 100%, ORL won’t get shut out again
It looks like we've all got our predictions in. I don't know if it's good news or bad: The cyborg (BSBrainTrust) and the robot (cpthomas) have matching predictions. Here are the cyborg's exact predictions: Red Stars 1.38 (1) v Thorns 1.46 (1) Sky Blue 0.77 (1) v Dash 1.38 (1) (although goal differential of 0.61) Royals 1.46 (1) v Spirit 0.38 (0) Reign 1.92 (2) v Pride 0.92 (1)