[NJ-UTA] Lloyd for Skroskie (and McCaskill => RM, Tiernan => LB, Frisbie => LCB); Richardson for Freeman. Tonight's Starting XI presented by @HMHNewJersey.#NJvUTA pic.twitter.com/9bUDLcVTZV— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) August 18, 2018 Rodriguez for Gorry; Tymrak for Lytle; Barnhart for A.Smith. Tonight's squad vs @SkyBlueFC!AUDIO BREAKDOWN: https://t.co/vM0r0Y6da9 pic.twitter.com/QqxJx8pIqy— Utah Royals FC (@UtahRoyalsFC) August 18, 2018 Sky Blue: Q Gibbons (starting) Freeman (not starting) / OUT Groom Skroski Stott Utah: Q O’Hara / OUT nil / SEI Arlitt Doniak Laddish
14' 1-0 Tiernan dribbles up to 30m box left, passes down box left for Dorsey, 1-v-1 on Corsie. Bowen tracks back to double, Dorsey backpasses to Rodriguez at 22m arc left. Dorsey touches to 22m center, slips a pass to Lloyd facing away at 16m center. Lloyd clangs ball to box top left post, chases it, slide-pokes under Corsie to K.Johnson at 12m 6-left. Corsie goes down with a hurt leg, stays down -- and ball rebounds into the Lloyd/Corsie tangle of legs No whistle, play on -- Rodriguez collects ball as Lloyd scrambles up, Rodriguez touches to 16m 3-left and draws Sauerbrunn and LaBonta to her. K.Johnson makes a cut inside past Bowen, Rodriguez slips a short pass between Sauerbrunn and LaBonta to 10m left post. K.Johnson fights through Bowen's blatant left arm hauling her back and down, slide-pokes across mouth past Barnhart frozen, into back right edge 1/2 high. .@katieajohnson33 strikes first for @SkyBlueFC!#NJvUTA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/FRSWsXTncT— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 18, 2018
Harvey's decision to isolate Press wide left, where her only option is to dribble endlessly or serve long crossfield (usually unsuccessful) passes, has me seriously questioning her tactical brain.
[NC-ORL] Zerboni for O'Sullivan. 1030949382890377216 is not a valid tweet id 4-3-3 for 3-5-2; Camila RF for Ubogagu; Hill RM for Pressley (and Edmonds => LB); Zadorsky => LCB. The lineup in Carolina tonight! #NCvORL Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. #JoinThePride pic.twitter.com/NxYmyd9Oe9— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) August 18, 2018 North Carolina: Q Zerboni / OUT King / SEI Kawamura Orlando: Q Ubogagu / OUT nil Currently in a weather delay for lightning. Fans, thank you for your patience, we are still experiencing lightning strikes in the vicinity. Please stay safe and follow us here. We will have an update within the next 20 minutes— NC Courage (@TheNCCourage) August 18, 2018
[NC-ORL] tentatively scheduled for 20:35 EDT. [NJ-UTA] 48' 2-0 Richardson longballs up wide right to K.Johnson 1-v-1 on Corsie, ball bounces high at 32m right touch. K.Johnson volleys before the 2nd bounce, redirects ball over Corsie to arc top mid-left, turns behind Corsie to chase. Bowen leaves Rodriguez unmarked up left post lane to close, K.Johnson tries a diagonal pass toward spot, ball bounces off Bowen's heels back to arc tangent right. K.Johnson one-touch volley lobs Barnhart, drops perfectly through left 90. Wow, Utah left themselves 2-v-2 in the back. .@katieajohnson33 strikes again! @SkyBlueFC goes up 2-0!#NJvUTA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/D911xKtFC6— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 18, 2018
49' 2-0 McCaskill cuts inside from 27m right touch to 23m box right, flicks right outstep through 4 defenders down mid-right. K.Johnson runs on to 10m mid-right, pulls ball leftward behind Corsie's sliding back, follows to 6m 4-right as Barnhart comes out to 6-top. Sliding shot rises over Barnhart, off crossbar center, ball reflects back through box top left. So close to a hat trick for Katie Johnson, but this one is off the crossbar 😱#NJvUTA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/mYedK4UoEP— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 18, 2018 55' 2-0 And now New Jersey has lightning Weather 2 – #NWSL 0. We've got another delay, this time in New Jersey. Stay tuned for updates.#NJvUTA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/WtBoT2727a— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 18, 2018
[NJ-UTA] 51' 2-0 Utah subs in (1 of 3) #24 Katie Stengel for #10 Diana Matheson. 55' 2-0 End of lightning delay. 57' 2-0 Utah subs in (2 of 3) #12 Taylor Lytle for #15 Erika Tymrak. 58' 2-1 Press switches from 30m mid-right to box left foot. Sky Blue's defense is akimbo: RB Gibbons must run 20m to face up to Lytle, Richardson shadows Stengel to left post, nobody has Rodriguez lurking at spot. Lytle collects at endline mid-left, backpass to Rodriguez at 9m 6-left as Killion tracks back to press her. Rodriguez one-touch left foot shot toward left post, dropping to thigh-high at 4m left post. Richardson flicks right foottop, scoops ball over Sheridan, perfectly mini-lobs her into center of goal. Back from the delay and right back in this one for @UtahRoyalsFC. An own goal on @SkyBlueFC makes it 2–1.#NJvUTA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/xzStosHm3h— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 19, 2018 66' 2-1 Sky Blue subs in (1 of 3) #2 McKenzie Meehan for #14 Katlyn Johnson.
[NC-ORL] 01' 0-0 Underway at 20:36 EDT! Steady rain, but it's only water. 09' 0-0 McDonald holds facing away, threads a pass to Dunn splitting the backline into box mid-left. Dunn shoots left foot, wide right low.
15' 0-0 Orlando right ck, cleared twice. Camila steals, threads a pass to Morgan at box top right post. Quick right foot shot across mouth beats Rowland, off left post low, bounces straight away and NC clears. Off the post for Orlando 😳#NCvORL | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/m7gi18vj4J— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 19, 2018 25' 0-0 Lightning resumes Look at that spray! Weather delay again in North Carolina. Make sure you follow @TheNCCourage for the latest updates.#NCvORL | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/gaJDgLygIr— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 19, 2018
[NJ-UTA] 87' 2-1 Lytle chips from 18m mid-left to 5m center, Jónsdóttir heads just over bar. +3'. Looking for a late equalizer for @UtahRoyalsFC, but it's over the bar!#NJvUTA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/jY3LwdzpD8— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 19, 2018 90+4' (of +3') 2-2 Utah left throw-in at 12m, Jónsdóttir to Lytle at box top wide left, clangs back to Jónsdóttir, slide-poke to Lytle. Lytle drives down wide left to 3m, Gibbons pokes it out to 12m left touch. Jónsdóttir crosses to 6m 3-left, Frisbie heads it into Richardson's back, ball rattles out to 8m 1/4 left. Stengel pokes it back to Press not marked at 12m 1/4 right. Press minces 1-v-4 to 15m center, A.Rodriguez spots up at box top left post. Press taps back, Rodriguez shoots one-touch right instep rising into 1/5 left 3/4 high, over Sheridan's dive. Deep, deep into stoppage time, @UtahRoyalsFC find the equalizer from @AmyRodriguez8. #NJvUTA | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/uFlFbLS6K5— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 19, 2018 And on the restart ... FT 2-2. Sky Blue's season of misery continues, one unkind cut after another.
The custom to not blow full time until an attack has been cleared was surely not instituted by defenders or goalkeepers. Sky Blue got screwed.
[NC-ORL] 21'25" [20:57 EDT] 0-0 Ball blown dead, 2nd lightning delay began. 21'25" [21:40 EDT] 0-0 Weather deemed unplayable Match is postponed, will resume tomorrow morning, 08/19 Sun 10:00 EDT. Fans, Due to the severe storm, tonight's match has been rescheduled for Sunday at 10am. All tickets for tonight's match will be honored. Gates will open at 9 am.Thank you for your patience, please stay safe.— NC Courage (@TheNCCourage) August 19, 2018
I am livid right now. That was the biggest load of bullcrap all season. The league clearly wants the Royals in the playoffs and aren't above giving them gifts to make sure they get there. SkyBlue had their first win stolen from them.
What a bunch of crap. The ref should've blown the whistle when the ball went out of bounds. That was ridiculous. Poor Sky Blue was robbed of a win.
I understand some of you emotional right now, but this is a bit overboard. Did the referee give a pk without merit? Or did some NWSL official somehow score the goal? Nope, what I see is that Sky Blue failed to defend until the very last second, and Utah put one in at the last few seconds of the game. The stoppage time shown is simply an estimate of what the referee has on his watch (usually backed up by a second watch as well as the rest of the referee team). Three minutes of stoppage time doesn't mean the game is blown exactly at 93:00; it means the game ends somewhere before 94:00. And more stoppage time can be added within stoppage time (Actually, the center referee has said that Sheridan stalling was the reason more time was added to the original estimate). When time is done, its done. By the way, the tradition of blowing time when an attack is cleared is simply that...a tradition. It has nothing to do with the laws.
what an absolute hearbreaker for Sky Blue. Utah really are going to squeak into the playoffs aren't they, despite how incredibly unimpressive they are given the "big names" on their roster. Only Washington (a joke) and CRS at home left (huge homefield advantage with altitude, etc.). I can easily see Orlando and Chicago losing /drawing their remaining matches (I think Chicago will beat sky blue though). Chicago desperately needed that win tonight. They just can't close out a match even with everything on the line. I think they are a better team than Utah but had some bad circumstances in terms of injury and a borderline unfair travel schedule.
You're right, although you have to say that Press doesn't help herself in that: even when she has available options, it sometimes looks like she prefers doing everything by herself, to the point that sometimes you wonder if she's aware she has some team-mates around her. I am happy for Katye Johnson's brace and near hat-trick (crossbar!): she's a player that I liked a lot when she was in Seattle last year and I was sad that she ended in that mess that's currently Sky Blue. She would have surely deserved to put her signing on the first win of the season, but... I don't agree. For me, with this draw, they wasted another chance away and now they completely blew their chances. This was a game they absolutely had to win: are you aware that they've got just two games now, while all of the other oppoenents have three (i.e. one game in hand to them)? And that, despite that, they're already trailing at 6th place? I can hardly imagine this Utah side beating Chicago, but even if they did, they'd just make 35 points. Apart from NC and Seattle, Portland, who are at 33 right now and have to play Sky Blue and Washington (plus a game with Seattle, who most probably will have secured 2nd place by then, so not actually needing points), will surely be ahead of them. One between Orlando and Chicago will be ahead also (Chicago also have to play Sky Blue and Orlando and Chicago have to clash: the winner will probably get the play-off spot). Heck, even Houston, with a win vs NJ and a super-lucky one vs Seattle or vs NC the last week, could catch up with Utah. I am sorry, but in my opinion Utah is as out of the picture as it can be, by now.
Yep, I don't see Utah making it, nor do they look deserving. They look all but out, and actually could really use Sky Blue to create some chaos by pulling out a win on another team, like Chicago or Orlando.
Was at a planet party! (It was a "star" party, but we have the 2.5µ haze from fires) [POR-CHI] Identical! Let's get to work. Tonight's lineup vs. @chiredstarsPR. #BAONPDX #PORvCHI pic.twitter.com/SUyCLQ00OI— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) August 19, 2018 Stanton for Colaprico. Let's do this. Here's our lineup tonight in Portland#MKOT #PORvCHI #CRSAtNight pic.twitter.com/rchmvF2ymM— Chicago Red Stars (@chicagoredstars) August 19, 2018 Portland: Q nil / OUT Reynolds / SEI Morris Chicago: Q nil / OUT McCaffrey
44' 0-1 Carpenter races Gilliland up right touch to 35m, cuts back to a stop. Backpass to Horan, she taps back to Sonnett at midfield mid-right. Sonnett pings to Horan, back to Sonnett -- and she somehow unbalances self, ball sits 1 shoelength in front of her feet and she can't keep it. Kerr promptly pokes it back to Nagasato, knows Menges is way off the backline at circle back, starts her hard cut past Sonnett. Nagasato chips over both to 35m mid-left, Kerr runs on and dribbles 1-v-2 through box top mid-left. Kerr pulls out a lovely ball trick from the bag: the right foot steparound past front of ball, setting up a square-right cut, with the ball's forward momentum pinning it to the outside of her right foot. This shakes Sonnett and Menges overpursuing, Kerr goes inside to 15m 3-left, shoots right instep hard pull just inside left post low, bouncing in past Franch frozen and leaning wrong way. .@samkerr1 just did 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔. @chiredstarsPR are up as the first half wraps up...#PORvCHI | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/cU6dtMN0x1— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 19, 2018 HT 0-1.
48' 0-2 DiBernardo dribbles under close pressure by Boureille to arc top box right, stutter-and-go down box right on Klingenberg to 12m, hard cut stop. Cross toward Kerr lurking at 9m right post, 1-v-1 on Sonnett, ball hits Boureille in the face and bounces out to box top wide right. Heath clangs ball off DiBernardo's shin challenging, Short collects at arc top right touch. Short takes Heath down to 15m, backpass to DiBernardo stepping back to 23m wide right. Nagasato makes a hard cut from box top center toward 6-top right, Menges goes with her, Kerr starts her cut toward 1/3 right, fronting Sonnett. DiBernardo chips a cross to 7m center, Kerr reads it better, back-cuts Sonnett and unbalances her, then uses left forearm vs. Sonnett's clinch to open enough space to spin-twist into a leaning header. Perfect soft dink drops to goalline right post and bounces in under Franch's dive. Make it ✌️ for @samkerr1 (and goal #⃣1⃣2⃣ of 2018)!#PORvCHI | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/wuejt4V9BZ— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 19, 2018
59' 1-2 Foord backpasses to Klingenberg at box top left touch, she taps back to Foord at 25m wide left -- Heath lurks at spot amidst 4 defenders. Short watches Foord tap square right to Camila -- Klingenberg backcuts Short through 14m box left, Camila threads a perfect ground pass through box top mid-left to 7m. Klingenberg bounces a ground cross to 7m 1/4 right, Gilliland kicks it away. Camila gathers at arc top left post, passes right to Carpenter joining the attack at 27m mid-right. Five Thorns line up near box top, Carpenter touches to 25m box right and crosses to 6-top center. Camila and Horan crash 6-top, Naeher comes out and outjumps Horan, double-punches away and glances own torso off Horan's back, lands on right side -- no call, she jumped into Horan on a 50-50. Ball bloops out to 15m center, directly to Heath, she plants feet under it and drives a header lob over everybody, drops it perfectly just under crossbar right, into 1/5 back right low. Right back in it. @TobinHeath puts the header back right under the crossbar and it's 1–2.#PORvCHI | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/XhspM3VZFd— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 19, 2018 Replay shows Klingenberg doing a clever bit of team coordination: as Carpenter was dribbling, Klingenberg is trotting back from an offside position, and holds left hand up as a signal for Carpenter to not kick it yet -- and Carpenter, with head up, sees it, and waits until Klingenberg's hand goes down.
69' 2-2 Sinclair steals at midfield mid-right, deflects ball back to Horan. Horan hoofs long toward Foord at 25m mid-right, Ertz intercepts and volleys away. Ball glances off Heath's abs at 32m, drops in Sinclair's path -- and Heath, knowing that she's ahead of Gilliland way up, promptly makes a hard curling run up box right lane into Gilliland's void -- and Ertz also lets her go to face up to Sinclair. Sinclair passes inside-out down box right -- and continues her own run through arc tangent right, pulling away from Stanton jogging. Naughton leaves Foord to close on Heath, Foord runs through 12m right post, dragging Short with her -- and that's all of Chicago's defenders Heath catches up at 10m box right, one-touch ground cross to spot, Foord lets it go behind her. Sinclair runs on unmarked, sliding left instep off crossbar left 90, bounces down into back left edge 1/2 high. All even! @TobinHeath finds @sincy12 in the box, and she makes no mistake on this one. 2–2.#PORvCHI | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/SFVoJPZFAg— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 19, 2018 FT 2-2. Attendance 18,631 <== many of these were sold