They're just behind the Courage duo of Abby Squared for me. And Emily Squared for Portland have been superb the last couple years. Those 3 are the best in the NWSL by far.
I'm really pleased with that performance. We combined well, we defended (for the most part) well, and we were always looking to get the ball in dangerous positions. We need to do better in front of the goal, but we definitely deserved to win.
That end of game possession was nearly perfect. Professional performance overall. And for once I will give kudos to the officiating. The ref did his job by pulling out the cards early, and the ugly challenges pretty much stopped after the first 15 minutes. Can he do more NWSL games?
It's rare that I'm pleased with a ref who goes to the whistle so frequently. But I thought he handled the match perfectly. You were right; some of those early tackles were just atrocious, on both sides. He needed to establish the tone early on, and he did that. Kudos.
Nice showing from the Royals, definitely looked a lot more dangerous going forward than we have in the past. Just need to tighten up the screws in the final third.
And I think that will definitely come. The consistency (or as much consistency as possible) in the lineup will help. The more they play together, the better the attack will look. The one wrinkle might be the June 2nd game against SkyBlue. The NT is calling players into camp early, so Sauerbrunn will not play that game. But SkyBlue kind of sucks right now, and they have a couple names who should be called into camp as well, so I don't think Utah will be in much trouble.
Thanks for starting the thread @BlueCrimson - and keeping my snarky title, as well. I broke my foot this last week and have been dealing with the repercussions of that. Tomorrow is surgery. I hope I am successful like Royals and not RSL.