Fire Harvey. She sacrificed the future to win now and all she has to show for it is two failed playoff chases. And Utah is now stuck with a rapidly aging roster and very little in the way of bargaining chips to improve it. This late season meltdown has been so painful to watch.
It has. I only followed the international game (national teams) prior to the Royals, going way back. When the WUSA started, I was ready to commit but the broadcast window was the same as the MLS game of the week, and I was already deep into that league/those teams. And as MLS ate up more and more of my time, I remained pretty passively interested in women's club soccer through all three iterations. So I was unfamiliar with the intricacies of how the NWSL seasons have played out, and therefore not clued into the specifics of the Harvey approach. I read the cautionary tales but hoped she had evolved; through roster building and play, it's clear she has not. These seasons have been frustrating to say the least. And I can't see her changing her approach now.
agreed. I wouldn't be opposed to her getting canned this offseason. Just clean house on the whole damn club. In a lot of ways, it is needed. Too much of the old guard can cause (as we've seen) bad ideas to perpetuate
Hey, here's something for DLH. To get out of his Petke problem, why doesn't he fire Harvey and offer the Royals job to Petke?
I wanted so badly to be wrong, and I hoped that Harvey would have learned from her near misses her last two seasons with the Reign. But it seems like she's unwilling to adapt her style to different personnel, and is trying to turn players into something they're not. And as much as Press has been the catalyst for most of the Royals' successful results since her arrival, I think Utah paid way too much for her. Those draft picks could have been used in other deals to bring in players. That trade could end up crippling the franchise for the next few years. Seeing as how there's only one game left, I would like to see Harvey throw out the game plan that hasn't worked the last few games and just play the youngsters. Give Smith a game. Give time to players like Maemone and Vincent. Who knows, they might have some success.
Kind of a cool story about Becky Sauerbrunn (from the little I could see in The Athletic, since I'm too cheap to subscribe).