PBP: NWSL Week 11[b?] Discussion

Gonna be an interesting week!

NC/UTA - Utah were the first team to really look like they could knock off the Courage in their draw earlier this season. Can they do better away?

DC/SEA - Washington have lost their last four matches (and seven of the last nine) against the Reign and are currently at nearly opposite ends of the table.

ORL/NJ - Okay maybe this one isn't so interesting...

CHI/POR - This pair is always a good matchup, but interesting to me right now is that both teams have earned the vast majority of their points thus far only against the bottom four teams - neither have proven they have what it takes to compete against the rest of the top five. Who comes out of this one better? The series is draw-heavy (6 draws in 15 regular season meetings) but the last four meetings have all been Thorns wins, and Chicago has only won once...

 

Wow, what a zoo today. Three concurrent NWSL streams, plus FIVB VNL (men) USA-Poland. (If I fall behind here, that's where I am )

I save time by not watching the men

 

Dang, ORL-NJ already at 2-2 and it's not even halftime!

 

A pair of post-ninetieth-minute winners from Utah(!) and Orlando... Will the 1-1 deadlock in Chicago be broken late too?

 

That loss was coming for NC. All the finishing issues came back to finally bite the Courage in the butt.

 

NWSL calls this Week 12, so last week was indeed a 1-match Week 11
I shall summarize with tweetcaps of goals and Cassius

Wow, Huerta, Comeau, and S.Johnson are all unavailable due to a pending trade, and Kaskie is waived.

Due to a pending trade Sofia Huerta, Taylor Comeau, Samantha Johnson and Lauren Kaskie are unavailable.

Read | https://t.co/2i2bPGtANu pic.twitter.com/XXTSTOZ92f

— Chicago Red Stars (@chicagoredstars) June 16, 2018

 

[WAS-SEA]
26' 0-0 Lavelle dribbles box-to-box Pass right to Banini at 16m mid-right, right foot shot across mouth bends wrong way, just wide left low.

Lavelle on the run, but Banini sends this attempt just wide.#WASvSEA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/eFlPwz7458

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 16, 2018

51' 0-0 J.Taylor taps back to Long, one-touch pass to Yanez at arc top box right, tap down box right for J.Taylor darting through past Dydasco. Taylor crosses from 3m, E.Johnson slides and ball bounces down off her arm. Handball, pk.

52' 0-0 Rapinoe pk, medium-soft shot to 1/3 right, Bledsoe falls that way and easily smothers it.

Megan Rapinoe at the spot, but Bledsoe was in the right position for the stop!#WASvSEA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/hCVUnKv7Yh

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

FT 0-0.

 

WAIT WTF

First - how dare CRS consider giving up Huerta
Second - holy shit who are they trying to bring on board to be giving away that much??? No other team active tonight mentioned players missing due to a pending trade, so that leaves Houston???

 

[ORL-SkB]
02' 1-0 Zadorsky passes to Ubogagu at 3om wide left. Ubogagu accelerates away from Lloyd -- helped by an inadvertent elbow-bonk to Lloyd's nose? Ubogagu crosses from arc top left touch, Richardson just misses a header clearance try at 14m arc left. Ball bounces past Gibbons to Leroux at 13m right post. Leroux touches left around Gibbons to 13m center, shoots left instep pull into 1/4 left back low hard, under Naeher partially screened.

Leroux with the finish to get the @ORLPride on the board early at home!#ORLvNJ | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/q9zTQOBXog

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 16, 2018

16' 1-1 Nairn turns back at circle left and passes square right toward Kennedy -- but Dorsey jumps the route and pokes ball ahead into a 3-v-3. McCaskill dribbles to 22m center, pass left to Dorsey at 17m 6-left -- and continues her own run up center. Dorsey touches to 8m 6-left, shoots to 1/3 left low, blocked by Harris to 8m center. McCaskill veers behind Nairn, grasstop full-volley up centerline past Harris still getting up.

Dorsey steps in with a big interception, and McCaskill provides the equalizer for @SkyBlueFC!#ORLvNJ | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/FhhKjaCZK1

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 16, 2018

 

31' 2-1 Ubogagu left throw-in at 25m, to Morgan facing away at 12m box left, shielding off Freeman. Tap back splits Freeman and Lloyd, to Nairn at arc top box left. One-touch cross to 7m 1/3 right, Leroux has wide lateral separation from Gibbons caught marking two. Leroux throws self down horizontal leftward, glances a perfect low header against the pass, bouncing under Naeher's cat-dive into left side netting low. Then she flies like an airplane

Twice as nice for Sydney Leroux. A beauty of a header puts the @ORLPride up 2–1.#ORLvNJ | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/NsgvJvCtYh

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

37' 2-2 Gibbons left throw-in at 27m, somehow reaches K.Johnson cutting through arc top mid-left. (Did McCaskill backheel? ) K.Johnson kicks a delicate roller past Zadorsky toward right post, Harris dives horizontal and left-glove palms it to 6-top 4-right. Tiernan trails perfectly, turns a perfect one-touch shot between Harris and right post, into center back low.

Tiernan puts away another equalizer for @SkyBlueFC! All even again, 2–2.#ORLvNJ | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/5xEjSkfdkn

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

 

83' 3-2 Weatherholt passes from circle top square left to Marta. Marta cuts past Beckie and Thaisa, passes to Morgan loosely marked down box left, to 10m mid-left. Morgan crosses past Gibbons to 6-top right post, Hill arrives and turns a header just inside right post.

The @ORLPride get the lead back thanks to Rachel Hill! 3–2 in Orlando with the clock winding down.#ORLvNJ | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/pLv9ZqRZq2

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

FT 3-2.

 

[NC-UT]
70' 0-0 Debinha chips from 27m mid-left to 7m 2-right, O'Sullivan lifts knee-high right instep and volleys over A.Smith, off crossbar, bounces down at 6-center and Corsie chests it back to Smith.

The night's not complete without the crossbar playing a role.#NCvUTA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/Z0T7qVh4fi

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

90+4' (of +4') 0-1 Matheson fk at 30m left touch, sailed to arc right and it skims heads and bounces away to 18m mid-right. Ratcliffe chases Hinkle, does Matheson's slide-hook, perfect robbery from between Hinkle's split legs. Ball sits motionless at 17m mid-right, Ratcliffe does the get-up-spin-ccw-one-touch-shot in one single motion -- and it's a perfect lob over Rowland standing upright at 4m center, into the back left diagonal pipe. Goal of the Century!!

.@brit_ratcliffe is out here, scoring goals in stoppage time and ending streaks. This is one GIANT goal for @UtahRoyalsFC. #NCvUTA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/uNOoYPsTDy

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

FT 0-1. Fishlock did that same slide-hook for a perfect steal (and swift counter goal, the entire play is a dream) in Wales 3-0 Russia earlier this week, on Jun 12. (scroll to 1:23)

It's totally a meme by now. Thank you, Diana Matheson, for elevating the league

 

During the Chicago game -- while talking about the pending trade, the broadcasters mentioned Morgan Brian and Press coming back to NWSL...so not sure how/if this all fits into trade somehow...very mysterious...??

 

This is partially speculation on my part, but I've heard that Huerta has been wanting out of Chicago for a while now, and Dames' comments after the Portland loss were the final straw for her.

It's a 3 way trade between Chicago, Houston, and Utah. And it's all but confirmed that Press is a piece of the trade. Based on the bits and pieces that have been leaking out, Chicago is trading players for picks.

 

[CHI-POR]
42' 0-0 Mautz dribbles to circle top, chips long to arc top mid-right, bouncing past Hubly to 12m mid-right. Kerr chases from 4m behind Hubly on the outside -- but accelerates around her, and Hubly misjudges the ball, mistimes a slide-hook late and trips Kerr down flat. Foul, pk, yellow card on Hubly. (And Kerr impressively slides on chest from 10m mid-right to 6m 8-right -- now she plays for the Green Stars)

43' 1-0 Nagasato pk, right instep to 1/4 right low, Eckerstrom dives and blocks but neither catches nor gets distance. Ball trickles out to 5m 1/4 right, Nagasato pounces, Klingenberg actually wins the race from box top and slide-hooks past ball, but Nagasato slide-volleys away from her foot, rising over Eckerstrom into center back mid-high.

Yuki Nagasato doesn't convert the PK, but makes no mistake on the rebound. Chicago's up at home, 1–0.#CHIvPOR | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/KLpp4eFLMA

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

 

Okay, so...

Press HOU->UTA
Huerta CHI->HOU
picks UTA->CHI

if I'm understanding those pieces (among others) correctly?

 

48' 1-1 Klingenberg(?) fk at 32m left post, soft chip to 8m center. Kerr jumps but heads ball into Horan's shoulder, it pops straight up and drops alongside Horan at 7m. Horan instantly rolls backward away from ball to get right foot rising to it, lifts a mini-chip partial-bike (trike?) over Naeher stranded, dropping into back left edge 1/2 high. Horan has nimble feet when the ball lands right next to her

Horan levels it up for @ThornsFC early into the second half at Toyota Park!#CHIvPOR | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/eXTUprJ0cI

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

86' 1-1 Colaprico to Kerr at circle top left, tap right to DiBernardo -- and Kerr accelerates into her own run. DiBernardo takes one touch, then threads an insane diagonal pass between Reynolds and Menges, perfectly in Kerr's stride at 22m arc left. Kerr follows to 12m mid-left, shoots left instep orthogonal right toward right post low, Eckerstrom dives and pushes it wide right. The poor angle took away the shot power -- but that pass

Eckerstrom with the big stop on Kerr to keep it level!#CHIvPOR | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/n4KYXcduGu

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

90' 1-1 Lussi high shross from 2m wide left on the run, it drops just past the crossbar without glancing away, and Naeher must climb her ladder and claw it out of the goal mouth.

Naeher's turn to come up big. Still level.#CHIvPOR | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/Gny6u6DBsf

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 17, 2018

FT 1-1. Durn 1-1 bot is raking in the points this week

 

I felt one upset was coming this week, but in the prediction thread I tried with first NJ win, not with first NC loss. Disastrous week for me!

 

The robot says, "Don't try to predict upsets. On average, they don't happen. And even if you get one now and then, it won't do enough for you to balance out the times you tried to predict upsets and missed."

 

Houston was set on getting an NT player in any Press deal so maybe Huerta has earned a contract based on service. It's an odd trade for everyone except Utah IMO.