A one-game week is still a week Tonight's Starting XI presented by @HMHNewJersey.#WASvNJ pic.twitter.com/cRM1j3DDao— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) September 1, 2018 [WAS-NJ] Washington's starting line-up is not yet announced, due to ... weather. Meehan for K.Johnson; Gibbons for Lloyd; RB Skroski for LM Dorsey (and LM <= Hoy, Tiernan => RM, LB <= Frisbie; LCB <= Richardson; RCB <= Freeman). Tonight's Starting XI presented by @HMHNewJersey.#HOUvNJ pic.twitter.com/dz9OgjZhDr— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) August 25, 2018 Sky Blue: Q Meehan / OUT Stott / INTL Dorsey (USA U-23), K.Johnson (MEX), Lloyd, McCaskill (USA U-23), Rodriguez (CRC) Washington: Q nil / OUT Huster E.Johnson Wys / D45 Weimer / PITRPATR Matthews / INTL ARG Banini; BIH Haracic; CAN Quinn; USA Lavelle Pugh; USA U-23 Eubanks Hatch Sullivan Washington D.C. is currently in a weather delay, gates open no sooner than 20:00 EDT. That puts kick-off at least 1 hour away.
Two minutes ago, the Spirit's Twitter said gates were gonna open for the game to start at 9:55pm, but if there are any other lightning delays (which I'm kinda expecting) then the game will be postponed. Some responses to said Tweet are already saying it's off for tonight..
Lightning struck, but has since passed. Kickoff shall be at 18:55 PDT ... in 11 minutes? Are they off by an hour? UPDATE: We have the All Clear and Gates are open. Kickoff is set for 9:55 p.m. ET.*Any additional lightning delays will cause the match to be postponed, due to a curfew at the venue.#WASvNJ // #SpiritFam 👻— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) September 2, 2018 Huh, it occurs to me now that the odd voice saying "Nope, can't hear you" every couple of minutes is ... from the NWSL WAS-NJ stream. He must be a sound technician prepping the game audio. I shall test the hypothesis by muting the Pac-12 stream. If I hear him again, it's NWSL
Less than a minute ago, the official Spirit account confirmed that the game will be played tomorrow at 10am
[WAS-NJ] is postponed. Lightning and curfew. UPDATE: Due to additional lightning in the area, tonight’s match has been postponed until tomorrow morning.NEW TIME: Sunday, Sept 2. at 10 a.m. ET.#WASvNJ // #SpiritFam 👻— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) September 2, 2018 It shall be played tomorrow morning, 09/02 Sun at 07:00 PDT.
Also sad to think NJ have to play Chicago on Tuesday...with travel. Its ridiculous. Their legs are going to be dead. Now at halftime. Still 0-0.
Didn't Killion lead the league in made PKs her rookie year? I know her success rate dropped off. She was banged up by the foul, so, absent Lloyd, it made sense to have Groom take it. Dan Lauletta has said it seems that Groom has lost her nose for the goal.........
Ok, really no hope for NJ this year: Arielle Ship just scored at 71'. But even before that, Sky Blue players were looking tired, out of ideas and technically prone to any kind of mistake. Pierre-Louis, who had just entered the pitch after subbing-in for Hoy, basically gifted the ball to Ship without even trying to retrieve it. And after that, the scramble in front of Sky Blue's goal that led to the goal epitomized all of the confusion and of the technical poorness that this team can showcase, that already lead to countless goals against in this season. Well, I guess Sky Blue are a hopeless case this year...
And now Sky Blue hits the crossbar at 77', after water break. Just hopeless... Everything against them: everything could go wrong goes wrong and everything could go right, goes wrong anyway.
Killion scores from just inside the box at 86'!!!! Sky Blue happened to lose beyond 90' in this season: maybe they can try to win in the last minutes, for a change??? Edit: 4 minutes of stoppage-time: come on Sky Blue, you can make it!!!
Nothing to do: 1-1 FT. Sky Blue players at the final whistle look disheartened and lower their heads in dismay as if they've just lost a knock-out round in a tournament.
Seriously, Sky Blue can't buy a win. Hit the crossbar twice in the game and had the run of play but still only manages a draw against a team that had only scored one goal since May.
You don't hit the bottom of the table without being bad, but there's definitely a certain amount of unluckiness that rattled Sky Blue these past two months, as most of us would call it at least. I remember not too long ago some university math team in England came out with an analysis of luck for the 17-18 Premier League in collaboration with ESPN, and unfortunately for Sky Blue, hitting the woodwork is not one of the "official" luck factors even though we as fans often talk about it that way (though a goal scored past allotted time *is* one of the luck factors, which would have at least given them their win versus Utah).
I can't watch sky blue FC anymore. It's like watching a train wreck unfold. I hope those players have access to mental health care and are able to smile at something at the end of the day. That team deserves better than the way the league has treated them these last few years.