Several people, including me, commented on Equalizer and elsewhere about Dames, the remarks describing him as a body orifice. Dames comments were way out of line. He blamed Huerta for two of Portland's goals -- even suggesting that it was Huerta's fault that Colaprico committed a handball. I don't think either goal was Huerta's fault. I thought Huerta had a good game -- feeding two balls to Mautz for goals and nearly tying the game with a rocket shot from long distance in the final minute that bounced off the post. She clearly led Chicago's offense in the match. The comments Dames directed at Huerta are particularly egregious because if blame is to be assigned the blamees should include Naeher and a center back who allowed Sinclair to waltz by them and score a goal and Colaprico for what seemed to be a deliberate handball.
Just to clarify, Dames didn't call out Huerta by name -- but everybody concludes that he is talking about Huerta -- and he hasn't denied that he was.
I read Equalizer comments religiously as well just don't post. Don't know how to create an account there.
At first I thought he was talking about Nikki Stanton because she was playing in the defensive midfield role. I'm going to see if I can re-watch that game.
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Yes, post-game interviews. The comment: "There was somebody assigned to to mark Horan. That person didn't do their job. Horan got free on two dead balls--they got 2 goals off of them, we lost 3-2. Its as simple as that. Do your job. I didn't think our player assigned to mark Horan would completely lose her and let her take 3 touches and turn on the volley. If the person who was supposed to mark Horan just deals with Horan and doesn't let her run across the line, take a touch, turn and hit a volley on target, then we never handball it. If I was Dani, I'd be pissed off at the person that didn't do their job." In a follow-up interview with Lauletta on Equalizer, Dames stood by the comments, saying "I got asked about what happened on the goals, and that’s what happened on the goals." He further explained, "We lost 2-1 in the semis two years ago, and the first goal was off of a corner. And we lost 1-0 in the semis last year, and the goal was off of a corner. So it is a big area of emphasis for us. If Lindsey (Horan) goes up and makes a great play on a ball and goes over our mark and gets a head on it, then so be it. But on those two occasions (last weekend), the mark was lost with no real intent to get back to it, and we paid the price twice. The reality of it is that that’s simply not good enough. If that offends people or hurts feelings or makes people upset, then so be it. It doesn’t make anybody as upset as the last two years when our season has ended and corner kicks have played a big role. I’m not worried about what people outside of my locker room think about what I say or how I do it.” Personally, I don't think its that big a deal IF it motivates the players. It really is about knowing your players. If it motivates them, then fine. This is the professional level after all. However, if Dames starts to lose the locker room, then he should keep his mouth shut in public or speak only in general terms.
I'm hearing that Brazil's federation has complained to FIFA about Debinha playing for North Carolina Courage in their #NWSL win on March 31. All other Brazilian players were released by NWSL clubs ahead of Copa América Femenina, which is a World Cup qualifying tournament.— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) April 13, 2018 I might have the dates wrong, but I believe the FIFA window began on April 2, and the tournament began on April 4. From what I've seen, the period of preparation is 4 days for a qualifying tournament, so NC Courage were not obliged to release before April 1...again if I have the dates right. EDIT: Oops, the period of preparation is 5 days if its on a different continent. So Brazil might be in the right here. EDIT 2: What it might mean: FIFA used to explicitly state that the penalty for refusing to release players would be a loss for any games with the unreleased players, but their 2018 rules state only that penalties will "be decided by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee based on the FIFA Disciplinary Code." #NWSL— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) April 13, 2018
Well, as I had posted on a different thread (don't remember which one) I had the feeling this could have been a problem. Interesting question: should the result of the game be reversed as a penalty for not releasing Debinha, would this affect our game-predictions thread here on NWSL forum? What do you say, guys: should we also change scores and rankings accordingly, the same way NWSL would do?
According to FIFA rule, for an "A" representative final team competition, which I believe the Copa America Feminina is, the release date is different than other international window release dates. It is the Monday of the week preceding the week when the competition starts. The Copa competition started on April 4. The Monday of the week preceding that week was March 26. The Courage game was March 31. If I'm right that this is the rule that applies, then all the other NWSL clubs complied with the rule, but the Courage didn't. It thus became an uneven playing field. In response to blissett's question about the prediction thread, my answers would be "yes" and "yes."
I am going to wait and see on this one. Need to know: IF a complaint was filed, who filed it and when? What was the nature of the complaint? Were any other parties involved? Was it a formal complaint or informal complaint? Did NC actually refuse to release Debinha? No one should get their news from Instagram or Twitter, even if Journalism is dead.
I am sure we're all set to wait and see, as @cpthomas rightfully said on the predictions' thread. I agree that social media shouldn't be primary (and probably neither secondary) sources of info, but I guess in this case we only get to know through them that a problem could arise that we were anyway somehow aware of already. I had already posted, the same day of the match, the observation that the fact that Debinha had played while other Brazilian players had left seemed odd (Debinha was even listed on NWSL official website as one of the players who were going to be missing in that match-day): someone here on BS (but I don't know if he was right, nor his sources) had answered me that NC Courage had stipulated an agreement about that with Brazilian federation itself (or something of the kind), but, after reading FIFA's rulebook (I wasn't exactly aware of its content at the time), I guess it is legitimate to wonder: even if there was an agreement, was it legal by FIFA's rules? Is it possible to think that a waiver was even asked directly to FIFA? I guess we're allowed to ask those questions, but no-one is actually jumping to conclusions. We just get the feeling that someone will have to say something about that: explaining how and why Debinha was actually allowed to play vs Sky Blue FC; or acknowledging that something wrong was done and issue the due penalties.
Finally, some match pbp! [UTA-CHI] 22' 0-0 Nagasato pivots at box top mid-right, pokes a shot past A.Smith's dive -- off left post low, bounces back across mouth, cleared. Nagasato with the look for @chiredstarsPR 👀#UTAvCHI | #NWSLonLifetime | @lifetimetv pic.twitter.com/19AzhV6NFw— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) April 14, 2018 27' 0-1 Mautz dribbles up centerline, bends a pass toward Huerta at arc top right -- it bends away from Huerta, she veers outward to collect. Huerta turns and serves from arc top wide right toward 14m center, cleared poorly to 22m arc top. Colaprico chests ball upward, steps into a right foot half-volley golaaaaazo over Smith's fingertips, into 1/5 right back high. .@dannycolaprico with the textbook volley, and @chiredstarsPR take the 1-0 lead.#UTAvCHI | #NWSLonLifetime | @lifetimetv pic.twitter.com/2H29MAPHOK— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) April 14, 2018
HT 0-1. Utah's midfield have beaten Chicago's high back line with a handful of killer through-balls, but Utah's forwards lack the pace to get or stay ahead and convert. Utah have gotten themselves offside a few times. Weirdly, I still get the Lifetime broadcast on the NWSL home page, without having to obfuscate. Maybe it's a USA university Internet thing.
Mmm, I am very happy to see Nagasato back in action, but I guess you posted on the wrong week-thread. Anyway, seeing Utah Royals playing gives me a tip to just close the discussion here: for some reason, I can't even figure Laura Harvey ever doing something like shaking a ref's hand while holding a clump of dirt. A question of style?