Thanks for the very thorough explanation. It's indeed a shame that the league falls short of a full double-round-robin by a so large margin, and probably a sign of how much women's football still have to fight to get respect, in various parts of the world.
R6 results: WSW 0-1 PG : leaders staying leaders. definitely not unbeatable, but well on their way to a 20+pt season (which almost guarantees playoff for a 12-game season) SFC 2-0 MV : SFC finally leap out of the basement, within striking distance of playoffs. @BlueCrimson =-) CU 0-1 BR : dammit, Brisbane! >-( Now they have the best PPG in the league, and leave CU vulnerable, especially with traveling to MC next week. MC 1-1 AU : City fails to cash in on their game in hand versus NJ, remain solidly in 5th place.... for now.
Fortunately the NWSL is getting better at scheduling breaks during the FIFA windows so NT players barely missed any time this year. The start of next season is going to be rough for some teams, though, with both the Copa America and the Asian Cup scheduled to take place in April. On the W-League front, I am starting to feel better about Sydney's chances of keeping their finals streak alive. Replacing Khamis with Bledsoe in goal has already paid off with the first clean sheet in ages, and it looks like Juric has found a front 3 that works the best with Ibini, Siemsen, and DeVanna.
It's halfway through the season and every team is thankfully exactly halfway through their schedules. Only 3pts separate #1 from #6... Though I'm highly disappointed that #6 at the moment is CU after they lost to the evil MCFC, letting them directly take CU's spot in the top 4. I bet @BlueCrimson is much happier with this past weekend, though, with that derby result. ...and, of course, this weekend is the SFC-CU rematch.
Ended up being a pretty one sided match. Canberra has Kopmeyer to thank for only losing 3-0. Without her making some spectacular saves, it would have been at least 6-0.
in what could be a preview of the championship, Brisbane shows that their no fluke as they beat Perth, 2-0, Missing from the Glory though is Sam Kerr(injury?). Here's the lineups https://us.women.soccerway.com/matc...w-league/perth-glory/queensland-roar/2588576/ looking at now #1. Brisbane's roster, are they that strong? They got part time Matlidas starters Raso, Butt & Arnold, Full-timer, Gorry, but I always thought their CB, Polkihorne was on the way out & got to remember quite a few NWSL released her. Wonder if Boureille is a big contributor? She played really well last year for CU(was actually the top player in those games which showed the total stats), got some starts for the Thorns, but not even used in the playoffs. If I was another NWSL team, I would totally snatch her away! And then there's leading scorer. Toby, not even on the NT. But then again, where could they make room for on the most powerful offense in the world?
Boureille had a quiet game - Roar regularly attacked through the midfield on the LHS - Raso was a standout and couldnt be contained. Glory back 4 not their usual solid selves, and Rodriguez (their best player) was unsure if she was playing as an attacking midfielder or a forward so there was little attacking structure when she went up front. 0-2 was a just result. I predict the final will be neither of these teams - I think more likely Sydney vs Melbourne City they are both hitting their straps now after poor starts.
I wouldn't count out Newcastle. This might finally be the year they get back into the finals. The Sydney/Newcastle game tomorrow is going to be huge.
just as Amy Harrison was taking charge for Sydney & the Matildas like this assist from last game https://www.instagram.com/p/BdWOWF-j_vA/ bingo, 2nd ACL in two years Our thoughts are with @amy_harrison7, who has suffered a suspected serious knee injury. We can't wait to see you back in the green and gold! pic.twitter.com/hpZ3o9o096— CommBank Matildas (@TheMatildas) January 3, 2018 she;s only 21. hopefully can recover again
Well, SFC and Newcastle drew each other this week, holding on to 2nd & 3rd places, while Brisbane and MCFC won to claim the other two spots - MCFC doing so directly at the expense of Perth. Pray for Perth, who were 4-2-0 before their bye week and then have gone 0-2-1 since (starting with the draw versus - Newcastle! Careful, SFC). Canberra also smashed Adelaide this week, but that's probably not saying much, and they're still 4pts shy of MCFC and SFC with just four games left (but a game in hand).
Only one week left in the regular season now! Every single away team won last week, meaning Newcastle and SFC got much-needed wins and qualified for the finals series, (Brisbane also won, but I believe they were qualified last week already,) while neither Canberra nor Perth were able to make up ground against bye-week City. Perth's season is now completely over, having started 4-2-0 and ended 0-4-2. Next week, Canberra need a better result against Brisbane than City gets against Newcastle if they want back in to the finals series (a win while City draws or loses, or a draw while City loses by at least 2). Tall order to get a result against Brisbane at all, though - Brisbane beat Canberra in Canberra back in round 6.
Just realized... Half of Sydney will be hoping for Canberra to win, too, since a loss by Brisbane opens the door for SFC to take the Premiership assuming they win the Sydney derby.
Sydney's finals streak lives! Quite a turnaround from being 0-3 and staring at 0-4 to clinching a finals spot and still having a chance at the minor premiership. It's mind-boggling how badly Perth collapsed in the 2nd half of the season. First half of the season it was them and Brisbane fighting for the minor premiership, then they just fell apart. And it's not like they had any serious injuries to deal with after the midway point in the season. Everyone was healthy and Kerr was still scoring for fun. I don't get it.
Isn't it just "premiership", not minor premiership? i.e. "premiership" for the regular season, "championship" for the playoffs? Either way, a congrats to Sydney is certainly in order. I just hope my Canberra survive the weekend!
Don't know what it is officially, but I've always heard it referred to as the minor premiership. And I hope Canberra gets in as well, partly because that means City won't. But if they don't, the 5 year curse will become a thing.
Oh, happy day! Sydney is back in the Grand Final! It was a bit annoying that they let Newcastle back into it (with a player advantage nonetheless), and I doubt Foord will be available next week, but that's a worry for later.
So the final will be Sydney vs Melbourne City. Once again, a team that won the regular season remained out from the final. Just out of curiosity: it's me or on the Westfield W-League official site it's impossible to now find the ladder of the regular season? I wanted to review some stats, but I could only find a "ladder" of the semi-finalists (!) at its place... If it's there yet anywhere, I'd say they've hidden it very well.
Nice prediction from 6 weeks ago, Matilda Maniac. FORM is everything !!! And Blue Crimson : my Glory side had a midfield missing in action all year - bypassed entirely with long bombs to Hill and Kerr. And Kerr missed 1/4 of the season (3 matches) attending awards ceremonies, and we lost all three of these games.
Thank you. I guess it's anyway odd that people have to recur to Wikipedia to get the regular season's rankings of this very season, because they aren't available already on the league's official site! Talk about disposable info!