Sky Blue might not have won a game yet this season, but on Wednesday they went to Portland and got a draw in one of the hardest places to play in the league. I've got a bad feeling about this game, especially after the completely lethargic offense that we saw from the Royals on Wednesday. I am hopeful Harvey will tweak with things a little bit to get more numbers forward, but I'm not holding my breath. If I was making the XI, it would go like this: Press Matheson Gorry Thorsnes Scott Gunny Moros Sauerbrunn Corsie Bowen Smith That way we can bring on ARod (who looked gassed at the end of last game) to provide a spark. I'd also like to see Harvey go for it more if the game is deadlocked in the 60th or 70th minute by taking off Moros or Bowen for Ratcliffe or a forward. Oh, and I'd like someone to discover that they haven't been sprinting this whole time. That would be great
They should have won that game, since they were screwed by an offside goal. I hope to see Harvey do a bit more rotation in this game. She might have done it in the last game if that game wasn't against Seattle, and the temptation to go for a win against her old club was too great. SkyBlue is a weaker team, so there's less of a risk in sitting some players who have played a lot of minutes this season and give some time to the bench players.
The XI: Smith Bowen Sauerbrunn Johnson Moros Gorry Gunny Scott Tymrak Stengel Press Surprised that Harvey decided to break up the Sauerbrunn/Corsie pairing. That's not something you usually want to mess with unless you have to. But when you're playing against 10 players (Yes, I said 10. SkyBlue is starting Beckie, which is like playing a player down), you can afford to take a risk and give some players a break.
It's generally not a good idea to do so, unless injury or other reasons forces a change. Finding a good CB pairing is not easy to do, so you want to ride it as long as you can. Press gets her goal! BAD SkyBlue defending as usual.
Great assist. Stengel was really close to being off, but what a great ball! Press and SkyBlue's defense really makes our offense look pretty good.
Because SkyBlue sucks. They got bailed out a lot last year by Kerr scoring buckets of goals. Now that she's in Chicago, they don't really have anyone to pick up the slack. Asking a 36 year old Lloyd (who I will always stan, but is in serious decline) to try and make that up is just not going to cut it.
I've seen her (Lloyd) just completely collapse in her body language several times over missed passes and poor plays. The only time that is okay is when you just miss scoring a goal and the ball is out of play. She isn't having fun.
Help me out: I have been looking at the keyboard trying to figure out what you meant to type instead of "stan."
I see a note atop my screen which says Go90 is going away at the end of July. I hadn't heard that; any info on what will happen to NWSL broadcasts?
She definitely isn't. And this isn't the type of team where a lead-by-example player is going to inspire much confidence. They need a more rah-rah player as the captain. Not a typo. I meant to use stan.
The games will be on NWSLsoccer.com or the NWSL app. Right now those options are for international viewers, but US viewers will have them starting in August.
Oh, I see what's going on here: (Use of "stan" over time) You are pointing out my un-hipness and age!
How many goals is Utah going to give up from shots like that? That seems to be the one weakness they have.
I would imagine if you compared expected goals to actual goals off of those sorts of chances, that our opponents are hitting at a significantly above-average level. That one was curled into the far-side netting, and some of the others have been quite stunning strikes. You have to figure the percentage that gets scored has to drop.
There's another close one for SkyBlue. She was WAY offsides though. Female commenter had a hard time with the call for some reason.
The Royals really let off the gas in winning balls in the 2nd half. That was not a convincing close. Good win all the same. I'm a little excited for tactics to change so that Stengel, A Rod and Press are all on the pitch at once. I know it's a big ask for our midfield and outside backs, but our CBs and Jonsdottir/Gunny are solid. When we get O'Hara back, even better. I think it's worth a try.