Nice writeup on our draw with the Reign: http://liverpoolladiesfans.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/nwsl-report-wny-flash-v-seattle-reign.html And an interview with Sabs: http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/nati...abrina-dangelo-western-new-york-flash-canada/
I am not happy about this. Sometimes I think Lines has no feel at all for the emotional side of the game. Andrade is a villain in the USA. Much moreso than Christiane was. - Christiane did well in Chicago and the fans liked her. It won't matter much anyway on bringing in fans. I doubt we will have more than 3,000 fans this afternoon We've been getting 2200+/- and any bump we might have received from WWC was lost when Leroux went away for surgery. Engen is not a draw. Sam Kerr visiting will be nice for the core of fans, but no one will decide to come just to see her. Ditto O'Hara and Rampone. Any additional fans will be due to Pride day, based on my observations from last year's game. I am officially disgruntled. Two completely new sets of players in the same year! I can't root for just a shirt.
Damn, Carli Lloyd has no chill! It is interesting to hear her take on it, I had thought she was at least partially involved in the trade.
this is new to me. i also thought that lloyd was among the veteran players that lines was talking about who wanted out. lines is right. this is a business. no courtesy call is necessary. but he is also very wrong. especially in woso, friendships and emotional connections are a huge currency in the game.
I know some of you haven't been very happy with Ashley Nick's performance, but I just wanted to point out that the team is 1-0-5 (W-T-L) when she doesn't play and 4-3-2 when she does. Might be a bit anecdotal, but still an interesting stat. What made me look this up is that in the last three games: Nick didn't play in the losses to Houston and Portland, but started in the win against SBFC.
Those are fairly compelling numbers. Enough data points to support a conclusion. Rhetorically: What am I not seeing about her performances? Obviously Lines sees something good.
I Rant because I care: http://www.democratandchronicle.com...nes-trade-wny-flash-jeff-diveronica/30759931/ DiVeronica “The Flash are far from perfect. They need help. They don't spend enough money advertising and marketing their club or players, or even opposing stars, so fans are aware of when their next match is.” Lines: "This is our fifth year in the market, Devo," Lines told me this preseason when I asked why, after losing Wambach, the club had done so little advertising. "People know who we are." DiVeronica: “Not really. Soccer fans know. Not casual fans, the ones who made World Cup TV ratings historic for women's soccer.” Me: And Devo speaks the truth. Lines: "People know who we are." Me: Mr. Lines, don’t you think the Marketing Departments at McDonalds or GEICO or Subaru could say the same thing about their products? Why do you think THEY advertise all the time? Are you smarter than they are? THEY surely aren’t 2500-3000 fans per game short of break-even on the bottom line. Any promotions the Flash have done this year could attract no one that doesn’t follow WNY on Twitter or regularly visit the web site, and the promotions were therefore ineffective. I do give Flash credit for buying commercial time on Fox during World Cup games, but frankly the commercial was terrible. Rochester has a local sole-proprietor Optometrist that makes better commercials. You can’t survive by using Twitter and your Web page as your only advertising outlets. I don’t count “Soccer is a Kick in the Grass” on radio, because it has zero audience. The Flash need to BUY ADVERTISING at the Democrat and Chronicle – particularly on its Web Site and buy advertising on local drive-time radio. You need the 21-30 year old “pub crowd” to buy tickets and your marketing needs to be directed to them. You need folks to choose WNY Flash soccer over Red Wings baseball when the idea: “Let’s go to a game tonight” is hatched. The Red Wings out-draw the Flash every time there are home games at the same time – by a lot. The Flash have two Sports Management MBA’s in in the front office; they need to put their education to work in the real world. And they need the resources to do it. Mr. Lines, to be blunt, you should stick to putting a winning team on the field and leave the business end of things to the folks who are more qualified by experience and training.
Average attendance for both minor league teams in Rochester have done better than the professional soccer team. Most of the attendance at the games are soccer families. The need to find a way to bring in other people than soccer families. Red Wings Avg. Attendance: 2015.....5650 2014.....6401 2013.....6098 2012.....6094 Americans Avg. Attendance: 2015....6165 2014....5412 2013....6314 2012....5595
This is the perfect question and supports the fact that fans will never see what a good DM does as it should be. Reminds me of Michael Carrick of Man U (yes this is a wild comparison) who is the last person you notice on the pitch but the record with him on and off the field is the same as Nick.
...I like to think I can recognize the play of a good DM when I see it... as you probably know, I have been one of those who frequently expressed the need for Ellis to get a true DM for the Nats... I just haven't seen that in Nick. I will look harder, although that is tough to do on the live stream - you have to be watching other things than the camera does. Seems to me that Edwards does way more defending than Nick does. Maybe part of the problem is I am used to the DM role in a 4-4-2, and not in Lines' version of the 4-3-3. At their best, Angie and McCall succeeded sharing/alternating the DM responsibilities 'on the fly' for Lines; while Edwards and Nick haven't shown me that at all. In the old days Edwards and Bock probably did it better than Angie and McCall did..... as I said, I will look harder at Nick.
So after spending some time thinking about it, I'm thinking it isn't Nick's abilities per se, but that having Nick in the midfield frees up Edwards and gives her the confidence to be more creative without having to worry about defending so much (Nick has made some bad passes/turnovers, but usually they are when the team is moving forward and not giving the ball away in a vulnerable position... note I said usually, not always). To draw an analogous with one of the best 4-3-3 teams in the league: Nick is like the Winters, allowing Edwards to play as the Fishlock. When they go with a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 without Nick (which has typically involved one of the forwards playing MF*), Edwards ends up having to play the Winters role, leaving nobody to play the Fishlock role or forcing Mewis to play it thus leaving the team with no Little (I don't think it's just a coincidence that the team scored a combined 0 goals in the two games Nick did not play, but if you take the game before those two and the game after they scored 5 goals). * They also tried Dahlkemper there, which I have to say I was really not impressed with, and I think Edwards could feel that weakness and it affected how she played.
Bless her heart, Ashley Nick can only hope to play as well as well as Keelin Winters. If Nick was only playing a weak imitation of Winters, I think I would have recognized it. You provide points to mull over, and as I said, I will be watching closer. Specifically, I will be looking for tackles, intercepted passes, and 50-50 balls. BTW, Lines has historically not used a DM,per se, but wants his midfielders to adjust to the situation, and share the responsibility - kind of like Ellis had it in her head to do with the Nats during the last part of 2014 and early part of 2015. I am not convinced that many players are versatile enough to do that consistently. ..... Pre-season, he did use Amber Brooks as a classic DM, but abandoned that when he traded her away.
Well, obviously she's not as good as Winters. None of the WNY midfielders are as good as their counterpart on Seattle. There's a reason Seattle has the best 4-3-3 in the NWSL... and it's their MF.
Yeah, I think that is it, Nick fills in that spot Brooks was supposed to play. Nick isn't as good as Brooks either, but better than any other option on the team.
I respect your opinions and POV, however, as I pointed out before, Lines does not use classic DM - he only did that when he had Brooks. And as for Nick filling in Brooks spot, at least I could tell Brooks was on the field - I can't say the same for Nick, but I will be watching! I hope I prove myself wrong.
A breakdown of the Flash's record since the acquisition of Nick (the first 4 games of the season are left out): 5/14- WNY 0, KC 0- 90th minute sub 5/23- WNY 3, WAS 2- 71st minute sub 6/6- WNY 3, CHI 1- 65th minute sub 6/20- WNY 0, HOU 2- Start 6/28- WNY 2, BOS 0- 67th minute sub 7/3- WNY 1, SEA 1- Start 7/11- WNY 2, SEA 4- Start 7/19- WNY 3, SBFC 3- Start 7/25- WNY 0, HOU 1- DNP 7/29- WNY 0, POR 2- DNP 8/1- WNY 2, SBFC 1- Start
I've officially started watching the table full time. Based on the teams left to play, WNY is pretty much in charge of its own destiny. WNY has a lot of eggs to hatch. 15 points worth. FCKC is now 1 pt ahead of WNY WAS is now 6 pts ahead of WNY CHI (road) is now 9 pts ahead of WNY CHI (Home) POR is now 2 pts behind WNY
Forgive me as I' not too familiar with the flash players and some of them do blend together for me but who was the last pair? The one on the left was a rock star and pretty much got everything right except blue raspberry (is that even a thing?)
Jas is going back to Sydney FC in the offseason: http://www.w-league.com.au/article/...d-for-201516-season/slgx5sx8crot1wonwpa2xn9f9