Semis today, finals next week! Today is the day!Time to determine which teams will reach the #NWSLChampionship. pic.twitter.com/YAQ8EUYkVx— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) October 20, 2019
1183205776531296256 is not a valid tweet id [#1.NC-REI.#4] Dunn for Hamilton; O'Sullivan for Zerboni; S.Mewis for Roccaro. 1185960115243048960 is not a valid tweet id Yanez for Utsugi; Cox(!) for Theresa. Here is your Reign FC Starting XI for today's NWSL semifinal against @TheNCCourage. Kickoff is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. PT on ESPN2#NCvRFC #ShePlaysHere #BeBold pic.twitter.com/hVJEnukrMU— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) October 20, 2019 No new injury reports this week. (Edit) Today's SUBS and NOTS: North Carolina: SUB Hamilton Kurtz Roccaro Rowland Speck Spetsmark Zerboni / NOT (=) Harbison Mathias Pruitt Rn.Williams Reign FC: SUB Andrews Groom Jiménez Delgado Th.Nielsen Onumonu White Ld.Williams / NOT (=) Oyster Quinn / SEI (=) Betos Fishlock J.Johnson T.Smith Spencer Watson
I suppose there is no hope for an European-based guy to watch the matches live, isn't it? No free streaming, right?
02' 0-0 Ln.Williams drives endline past Cox, through box left foot to 2m mid-left. Backpass to 6m 1/4 left, Dunn shoots one-touch to 1/3 left low, Murphy dives and blocks. Ball bounces out to 6-top center, Debinha reflex-volleys over bar. 06' 0-0 Long slide-pokes ball off O'Sullivan(?)'s foot at 27m mid-right. Balcer serves to Rapinoe momentarily unmarked at 13m left post. Rapinoe chests ball ahead to 7m left post, O'Reilly shoulder-charges Rapinoe off ball, Labbé dives on it, Rapinoe trips over her. 09' 0-0 Hinkle plays McDonald to 6-top left, she shoots on the run, high wide left. 10' 0-0 McDonald turns to 30m box left, bends a serve over McNabb, to Ln.Williams at 15m right post. Ln.Williams hop-traps, shoots over bar. These early passes are victimizing Reign's high back line.
19' 0-0 Ln.Williams receives at 27m arc left, runs at Barnes, who must run looking backward over left shoulder. Ln.Williams cuts inward behind Barnes' back, to box top center, pulls a ground pass to Dunn unmarked at 10m left post. Dunn clangs ball ahead to 6m, Murphy slides out and smother-blocks, Dunn slide-pokes ball into Murphy's hands. 27' 0-0 Balcer knocks ball back to 25m arc left, Rapinoe shoots one-touch long to goalline center, Labbé catches face-high.
There's some deja vu here. Heather O'Reilly doesn't look to me that's she's lost a step. And on the Reign side, Steph Cox coming back after being retired for 2 or 3 years. Casey Murphy at Reign GC has been up the task so far -- and NC has been a bit of its wasteful self, many shots, no goals. The Reign is showing no signs of being intimidated, but they need a lucky goal or two to win this match. I don't believe they can hold NC scoreless in the second half.
45+1' (of +1') 0-0 Hinkle drives a cross from box top wide left to 5m left post, Barnes slides and micro-deflects ball past Ln.Williams, across mouth past Murphy stranded, off right post low, it bounces back into box and Catley collects. SO CLOSE.@TheNCCourage nearly took the lead just before the halftime whistle.0-0 | #NCvSEA on ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/NXdXlKEEBE— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) October 20, 2019 HT 0-0. North Carolina 9(3)-(2)3 shots(sog), 2-2 corners, 13-3 crosses vs. 5-10 clearances, 1-1 offsides, 4-4 fouls, 60% possession. Reign FC's defensive plan is working so far, holding North Carolina to only 9 shots and 13 crosses.
I hope the Reign don't lose this by giving away the ball on a bad pass in their defensive third. Rapinoe almost cost us there. Murphy with another huge save.
Yes, especially because I was just 2 minutes away from nailing my 0-0 prediction!!! So far, it seemed to me that Courage had of course been dangerous, but Reign was absorbing the pressure very well. It looks to me like the Courage had tried the same kind of action again and again: penetrating in the box from the Right-Side, reaching the end-line and trying to cut inside a low cross directed to the closer post, to give a team-mate a chance at tapping the ball in from short distance. Well, only problem is that Reign DFs or Casey Murphy or both were always perfectly placed to stop this kind of action and Courage didn't seem to have any B-plan. Oh, well, they anyway managed to break in.
Oh, wow: looks like Onamonu for Taylor was a good change, after all! I wasn't believing in an equalizer anymore, by now. Ok, my prediction isn't perfect but it doesn't look so bad right now. The next part of my prediction was Reign scoring the winner in extra-time: let's see if it happens...
Yes, it was better than mine, but my 0-0 isn't bad also. I guess we both beat the robot so far, don't we? I don't remember what you had next in your prediction: penalty shoot-out?
Is the other semifinal supposed to start before the end of extra-time in Cary, or will they wait for the end of the first match?