People picking the Dash bottom three is more about the coaching than the players, and the fairly common knowledge in media circles that Waldrum lost the locker room last year. Other pieces are questionmark's about the defensive, which actually looks hopeful when Van Wyk is in there, and questions about who else will score goals besides Ohai. I think if you look at the results so far, you have a really shaky win against Chicago, a catastrophe against Seattle and an unconvincing win against a weakened opponent that was already pretty weak before injuries weakened them further.
Just sharing: There was a lot of happy for me on Saturday: 1. Courage win 2. Williams and McDonald score 3. Ohai scores and knocks another out of the park. 4. Leon scores 5. Lavelle scores 6. Boston wins
Portland has benefited from some penalties (both were good calls by the ref though). But I think some people are upset because they feel Portland is receiving good fortune to win. If so, they're getting good fortune from lazy defenders being stupid, instead of poor reffing.
The most impressive thing Im taking from the new media package is the cross promotion. It's real easy to see the difference between actual media partners with a stake in the league and just being another small event on a sports net. Constantly hearing drop ins for buying tickets to matches. Lifetime talent pushing the other games on the Go90 app. Signage at the stadiums for the NWSL Game of the week on Lifetime. Lifetime patches on the uniforms. There may still be too many glitches but this part of it has been a big win so far.
FCKC (4-2-3-1): Barnhardt; Taylor, Sauerbrunn, Averbuch, Gibbons; Scott, Labonta; Bowen, Kelley, Ratcliffe; Leroux *Tymrak still omitted despite depth problems for KC, very interesting Sky Blue (4-5-1): Sheridan; Mills, Freeman, Skroski, Simon; Killion, Rodriguez, Lytle, Corboz, Hayes; O'Hara On paper this should be a defensive game, but maybe they will pleasantly surprise us.
Pre-game chatter has started, with commentary and sound effects, but I have a blank black screen for the Go90 website feed. Update: the black screen is now alternating with split-second views of the feed. Lovely. I activated my VPN so I can watch via the NWSL website instead, this seems to be working. Geez what is wrong with the grass at Yurcak, it is covered in spots. For Sky Blue, Hayes is the highest central player with Corboz behind her, O'Hara wide right, Lytle left, and Rodriguez/Killion holding. Without Pearce, O'Hara is the oldest SBFC player at 28.
Is Tymrak being punished for playing in Australia? How is she still not starting? Most underrated player in the NWSL for me.
Matt Pedersen and Jordan Angeli. Pedersen was the PBP person for Houston the last two seasons, and Angeli recently retired after a million injury issues.
FCKC's midfield is so toothless, Vlatko should bring in Reed or Moros and let Sauerbrunn move into an attacking position. She always is purposeful when she makes forays forward. It sounds crazy, but they can get nothing going as is.
That doesn't surprise me. Doing PBP takes a different set of skills vs doing analysis, and most former players are better suited for analysis.
Not much you can take away from a game like this. Sky Blue gets the winner late off a corner kick scrum. Continues the league trend of no 0-0 draws, but many 1-0 scorelines.
83' 1-0 O'Hara left ck (NJ's 1st), to 6mm 6-right. Freeman volleys back to 6-top right, R.Rodríguez slide-pokes it past Barnhart before she can focus an eye on it. Scramble goal. 89' 1-0 Gibbons serves from 25m wide left to 9m 1/4 right, Ratcliffe twist-heads and barely grazes ball, it bounces past Sheridan into back right edge. No goal, Ratcliffe offside. 88'30" 1-0 KC subs in Tymrak for Ratcliffe. 89' 1-0 Galton drives to 3m mid-left, cuts back toward 8m 1/3 left for O'Hara. One-touch instep block-volley rising toward goalmouth center, Gibbons is sole defender and heads (or shoulders) it aside. FT 1-0. It looked really dark on some wide-angle ck views -- was that just the digital cameras overcompensating?
That's a kindness...Angeli shouldn't be doing PbyP until she improves a lot...like her as an analyst tho.
So to answer myself... This appears to be a league thing because same thing happened at Sky Blue. Announcer lists lineup with no players on the field between warm ups and players walking out. Very weird. Also, national anthem was a track at both games. SB always had someone sing it live last year.
Power Rankings: 1.) North Carolina Courage (defending champs, whole team is back, plus new additions) 102.) Boston Breakers (can the Breakers stay in the Top 4 ???) 103.) Portland Thorns (only loss is to the champs on the road, but haven't looked that great yet) 104) Houston Dash (Ohai is scoring, and when Lloyd comes back, they will be in the playoff chase) 105.) Sky Blue FC (playing about where they are capable, and that's in the middle of the table) 106.) Chicago (the best 1 win - 2 loss team in league history. they look good, but need results) 107.) Seattle (was the #2 team a week ago, but they were just blown out big time by Boston) 108.) FCKC (losing A-Rod has hurt their spark, as a result they will need to find more bark) 109.) Orlando (it's a toss up for the 9th and 10th spots. Both teams need better midfield play) 110.) Washington (no star power, and with Boston's improvement, this looks like the cellar team) Seattle is ahead of Chicago in the table, but Chicago is ahead of Seattle in the power rankings. Chicago has played a tougher schedule, and look consistently better in those matches.
The other thing I like is all the little video replays on twitter as the games progress. That's a very big improvement from the past.
Looking at the highlights on the NWSL site, Ratcliffe was NOT offside. Tough break for KC. The highlights are at http://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/16755480. The sequence starts at 3:32. If you pause it at 3:34 you can see the ball in the air and Ratcliffe onside.