WAS 0 - 1 UTA. Washington hasn't persuaded me yet that they're real. ORL 0 - 2 NCC I'm totally persuaded that Orlando is awful. RFC 1 - 1 HOU Balcer for rookie of the year? It's possible. POR 1 - 2 CHI Chicago will rebound.
Weekend predictions Washington 1, Utah 1 Orlando 0, North Carolina 2 Tacoma 1, Houston 2 Portland 2, Chicago 2
Washington 1, Utah 1 Orlando 1, North Carolina 2- NC will win, but if Rowland starts, Orlando will get a goal from one of her fast-growing number of mistakes. Reign 2, Houston 1 Weeds 1, Chicago 1- I'm not picking Chicago to beat the Weeds until they actually do it.
The NWSL web site did not have roster signings where they used to be, under News, where the Injury report is. As far as I can tell, RFC activating Cox is the only replacement player signing that will matter. WAS 1 UTA 1; ...UT is going to miss LaBonta in the middle, WAS doesn't have enough offense to win w/o Matthews ORL 0 NC 1; .... I think NC will start Haran at centerback with Kurtz. If I was Riley, I would start HAO up top. RFC 2 HOU 0; ...Fishlock + Cox + home game minus Daly & Latsko POR 2 CHI 0; .... POR Home (Re) Opener, No Kerr
Wait, are we talking about Stephanie Cox? I thought she had longtime retired: is it really her, or is it another Cox?
Yup Stephanie Cox; she is an assistant coach with the team. “All season, coming out to practice, there was something inside of me that still loves striking a ball. I talked to my husband about it. He was supportive.” - Steph Cox on signing a contract to play againhttps://t.co/2fYwSN948A— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) May 31, 2019
With all in, here are the BSBrainTrust's predictions: Spirit 1 (1.00) v Royals 1 (1.00) (goal differential 0.00) Pride 0 (0.33) v Courage 2 (1.58) (goal differential 1.25) Reign 2 (1.67) v Dash 1 (0.92) (goal differential 0.75) Thorns 1 (1.42) v Red Stars 1 (1.17) (goal differential 0.25)
McSkillz was #1 for the week with 6 points of a possible 12, while holden is holdin' in the #1 position for the season with a 2 point lead over Smallchief and Tapas&Futbol. Things are spreading out a little as we go into a week off for the beginning of the World Cup. Here's what we have:
Sigh, I was at three points after the first two matches of the week-end, then I didn't make any other point! Bad week for me. It only slightly consoles me that the robot didn't do any better than me. I wonder if the robot's performance can also be explained with the fact that so far it's a "suprising" season, with Washington and Utah at the top, North Carolina struggling to stay in the top 4 and Seattle Reign trailing behind. It's true that the robot goes on incorporating results from the current season, one after the other while they happen, but the burden of the previous season of course keep weighing on it, doesn't it? In other words: can it be said that, as well as the robot will always miss the "oddity" result, like the occasional 2 goals to 4 home upset, it will also miss the "oddity" season, the outlier one where the results are the most unexpected ones compared to previous year?
I think this is exactly right about the robot. And, from my work with other statistical rating systems, it's pretty much true about them in general. If a team has a major course change, the robot can't take it immediately into account. Instead, as new games come into the data base and old ones drop out, it should get better and better, but initially it will lag behind. Both Washington and Orlando are the "culprits."
This is of course made worse for the robot this year by the fact that, when it will have all the new results incorporated and the old ones expelled and everything should thus go better for it, the return of the players from the World Cup could prompt another sudden change of scenario.
So true. That's when we'll find out whether Washington is "for real." It looks like Orlando is for real no matter who's playing for them.
I'll do the June 15 predictions now rather than wait until we're into the World Cup: Courage 1 v Thorns 1 (very tough to predict, could be 2-1 or 1-2) Dash 2 v Pride 1 Royals 2 v SkyBlue 1 (could be 1-0) Reign 1 v Spirit 1 The next standings table, after these games, to be posted from Paris!
So, no matches that I have to worry about this week-end, correct? The league stops and resumes on 15th? Beacuse I'm going to be quite busy too in the next days. I'll be in Paris too, but only on the 9th and 10th of June, to watch Argentina-Japan. You will be in France already, by then? Any chance that we can meet?
Correct, no matches until the 16th. We'll be in the south starting the 8th, won't be in Paris until the 15th. We opted to see Canada play Cameroon in Montpellier on the 10th, rather than the US opening game, and we'll stay in the south for a while. We first saw Christine Sinclair play as a freshman in college at the U of Portland (even in her first game as a college freshman, we could see that she was "the real thing") and watched her play there for four years and have followed her ever since including with the Thorns (we have season tickets for both U of P and Thorns, so we see a lot of women's soccer). Plus, Sophie Schmidt played at U of P too. Sinc is one of a kind and we wanted to be sure to be able to see her in France, and this will be our best chance. Now if only she can score four goals in that game ....
Posting next 2 weekends predictions since I might not be able to next week. NCC 1 - 2 POR HOU 2 - 0 ORL UTA 1 - 0 SBFC RFC 1 - 3 WAS ----- POR 2 - 1 UTA WAS 2 - 0 HOU SBFC 2 - 1 ORL CHI 1 - 1 SEA