01' 0-0 Brief stoppage: Daly is down. "Good" news: it's only her right ankle not the upper leg muscle. 02' 0-0 Houston pass sideways across the back, so as to look directly into the setting sun. Longball up wide left drifts into touch. 03' 0-0 Long switches to Momiki. Reign possess, finally overhit a service down box left, to Oyster or Prisock. 05' 0-0 Jenkins spins cw past Prisock, down wide left to box left foot, cross blocked over.
Well the defense is NOT shining and Mewis is left unmarked at about the penalty spot. The finish is good but the keeper could do little as the defense allowed a completely unmarked shot. 1-0
Because these matches really don't matter. Everyone goes to the knockouts, so maybe you'd want to avoid being last place from the group stage to avoid NCC, but even then, I think many are approaching at least one game of this group stage (if not more) as a chance to experiment. Remember these are the first games of the season, without even any preseason games. Coaches need to give some young players minutes and need to see different lineups...more than they need to win a few matches in the group stage of a tournament during a pandemic year.
Why are some coaches wearing masks and some not.? I noticed that in other matches but it seems inconsistent.
12' 1-0 Murphy passes to Brooks, Groom charges her to press. Brooks backpasses, Murphy one-touches upfield to 35m mid-right -- directly to Visalli(?)'s chest. Groom stays up at arc right, Brooks slides across to cover her. Visalli promptly counters to 22m mid-right, draws a triple-team -- nobody picks up K.Mewis unmarked coming to arc top center. Visalli snipes a ground pass to Groom at arc right facing far touch, Groom does a one-touch no-look sole-drag due left, to 16m 1/3 left. K.Mewis runs on behind her, shoots one-touch left instep across mouth, past Murphy's dive into back right low. Good press beats bad rotation. 🤩 Beautiful build up play, and @KristieMewie hammers it home!1-0 | #HOUvRGNTune in now on @CBSAllAccess and @Twitch.#NWSLChallengeCup pic.twitter.com/2H1HgmqSt8— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 5, 2020
26' 1-0 Reign show off their lateral passing skills. Forward pass to Balcer at arc top box left, she loses footing and redirects ball as a cross, wide over endline. 27' 1-0 Prisock crosses to 9m center, Daly and Brooks both hop and outstretch legs, ball deflects off Daly's anklebone and goes wide right low. 28' 1-0 Groom receives facing-away vs. too-close pressure right against her back (McNabb?), instantly spins ccw and runs away down box right. Reign break up the attack in their box, but still. 30' 1-0 1H hydration break. Houston has better ideas so far, since they always have Daly's occasional runs, and Groom is her usual bundle of energy. Reign are still trying to decipher each others' movements, and have no signature play yet.
33' 1-0 Chapman chips a high serve from 30m left touch to 9m center, Murphy comes out and catches high right above Daly's head, mild gloves-to-skull contact. Daly rubs head, continues. 35' 1-0 K.Mewis left ck, to 10m center. Naughton steps back to get under ball, heads down but directly to Murphy's feet at goalline center. 38' 1-0 Barnes serves from circle top mid-left to 15m right post, Balcer backpedals facing ball, pops a header straight up, with no run support in box. Ball drops at 6m 1/4 left, Campbell calls off a defender and catches the bounce.
This match is not about creating chances but it is more about waiting for the defense to make a mistake and hoping someone can capitalize. That seems to be a big reason why there is so little meaningful action. Good players react to what is happening while great players make things happen. There seems, at this time, very few players that strive to be great. Good is good enough for most it seems.
At the half we have a continuation of the tedium. Maybe someone needs to start a bench clearing brawl just for excitement.
41' 1-0 Chapman passes ahead to Stengel, tap back to K.Mewis at 30m arc left. One-touch chip over Reign's static back line drifts too far, toward box right foot. Visalli + 1 (Daly?) both break Reign's trap line down box right, arrive alone . Visalli backheels to save ball half-over endline, chases it out to right flag and stops it. Then she floats a cross to right post with no runs, Murphy catches face-high. Beware the short players (Visalli looks about 5'2"), they have the biggest motors because they need to, just to survive. +3'. 45+2' (of +3') 1-0 Houston raid down box right again, slip a pass into Groom's stride splitting the line to 10m mid-right. Groom crosses to 6-top center, Smith volleys it away. Groom chases the bounce to 15m mid-right, jumps and turns her back for a header, Jenkins stays on feet and turns her back, Groom lands poorly upon Jenkins' back and wrenches her own? Brief stoppage, some complaints, all resume. 45+4' (of +3') 1-0 Houston right ck, K.Mewis bends it low to right post, Murphy double-punches it away. Prisock(?) serves high from 30m right touch to spot, Murphy catches in traffic. HT 1-0. This Houston team is 1+ years ahead of this Reign team. Houston 5(3)-(0)2 shots(sog), 2-4 corners, 14-11 crosses vs. 6-8 clearances, 1-1 offsides, 1-7 fouls, 46% possession, and about 70% of the total energy in the system.
Why do they water fake grass? Seems like the only real accomplishment would be to raise the humidity. Kind of like a brief thundershower in the heat of summer in Texas.
46' 1-0 Daly sprint-presses Barnes and catches her at 2m mid-right, slips body in between and takes ball, just like that. Quick pass to K.Mewis unmarked at 12m 6-right, Mewis shoots left instep but her plant foot slips forward, topping her backward and she lifts it just over crossbar center. 47' 1-0 Visalli fouls Jenkins at 35m arc left. Yellow card on Visalli. 48' 1-0 Momiki fk at 3m arc left, high to 8m center. White gets under it but can't juggle it off her chest or foottop, knocks it wide to 2m 6-left, hops and slices it wide left.
Groom heads UNMARKED from the edge of the six. A good goal once again the result of horrible defense. She was open by at least five yards, maybe more.
52' 1-0 Groom faces up to receive a pass, Cruz arrives and chest-bumps her flat. Groom grabs ball in hands, pops up, spins around, Cruz shoves her away, and so forth. Foul on Cruz, no card. 54' 2-0 Prisock falls under a tight press but passes accurately to Schmidt at circle center. Schmidt fires a long pass up right touch, catches McNabb 5m too far upfield and inside, with Daly flying alone down wide right behind her, to 8m wide right. Stengel makes a hard near-post run, dragging Brooks with her and vacating the rest of the goal mouth. Spencer is caught chasing K.Mewis(?) at far post, nobody is left to pick up Groom trailing through 1/3 left. Daly floats a cross to 6-top 1/3 left, Groom jumps alone and spears a header into back right low, leaving Murphy no chance. Houston's fast-break execution is better than anything Reign have shown yet. 😤 @sheabayy2 WITH AUTHORITY 😤@HoustonDash double their lead.2-0 | #HOUvRGNTune in now on @CBSAllAccess and @Twitch.#NWSLChallengeCup pic.twitter.com/UqCoJGOOXC— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 5, 2020
Best chance so far for my bench clearing brawl to add some excitement but all it really did was add the soccer equivalent of excrement.
62' 2-0 Houston subs in { 1st of 3 }: - (1 of 5) #8 Nichelle Prince for #14 Brianna Visalli. 63' 2-0 OL Reign subs in { 1st of 3 }: - (1 of 5) #9 Jodie Taylor for #24 Bethany Balcer - (2 of 5) #22 Jasmyne Spencer for #21 Yuka Momiki - (3 of 5) #17 Danielle Weatherholt for #31 Rosie White. Calf got stepped-upon? 68' 2-0 Long passes from 25m center to Jenkins unmarked at 14m mid-left. Jenkins switches to right foot, shoots standing right instep bend to right 90, just wide right. Offside anyways. 71' 2-0 Brief stoppage: Stengel came up lame, pinching her right quad or knee tendons. She limps off.
74' 2-0 OL Reign subs in { 2nd of 3 }: - (4 of 5) #13 Celia Jiménez Delgado for #6 Allie Long. 76' 2-0 Barnes longball to box top right for Spencer sneaking up, Chapman wins race and kicks into far touch. 77' 2-0 Houston subs in { for injury, so it doesn't count? }: - (2 of 5) #12 Veronica Latsko for #7 Katie Stengel. 78' 2-0 OL Reign subs in { 3nd of 3 }: - (5 of 5) #12 Morgan Andrews for #28 Shirley Cruz Traña. 80' 2-0 Brooks drives a longball from circle back box right to 25m center, Jenkins runs onto the bounce, swings one-touch left foot at it and -- her foot overshoots the ball, it actually bounces off her left heel and goes nowhere You couldn't make this up. After the play, Prisock is lame with right calf cramp? She puts self into endzone, limps off. 82' 2-0 Houston subs in { 2nd? of 3 }: - (3 of 5) #10 Christine Nairn for #6 Shea Groom - (4 of 5) #17 Erin Simon for #23 Ally Prisock. 83' 2-0 McNabb challenges Prince, but steps on her left foot and traps the ankle. Foul, yellow card on McNabb. 85' 2-0 Houston subs in { 3rd? of 3 }: - (5 of 5) #9 Hayley Hanson for #19 Kristen Mewis.
The Reign seem to be becoming a dirty team as the match progresses. I do not like seeing all the stupid unnecessary fouls from a team that should be a class act. When a team reverts to dirty play you can often blame the coach. I do not really know if that is true in this case but it is ugly play at this point.
90+2' (of +6') 2-0 Wow, Herriman, Utah's 360° live fireworks show all around the stadium has been going since dusk (Mountain time), and is still going on now -- about 25 minutes. Nice backdrop! 90+4' (of +6') 2-0 Spencer chases down 6-left, Campbell dives out and catches ball on endline, but slides over endline and can't extend ball far enough. Barnes left ck to spot, Brooks heads wide left. 90+5' (of +6') 2-0 Daly receives at 27m box right, flicks ball and dances past 1 challenge, McNabb arrives for a 2nd but steps on her toes. Daly stays down in a ball. Foul, no card. FT 2-0.
2-0 Houston wins easily. The Reign never seemed to be able to mount enough offensive push to even give themselves a chance to win. The fireworks here have finally stopped so I am off to bed.
I am aware that every team is advancing to quarter-finals, but basically my claim was that it was at least worth avoiding last place not to end facing (most likely) NCC. I am aware it's an "experimental tournament during a pandemy" and not really NWSL,but it's anyway a tournament and probably the only one teams will get in 2020: wouldn't it be worth for a team to try to do its best?
The fact that Daly was listed as out and then she ended actually playing was, in its own right, a game-changer.
I watched highlights and I have to add that a coach has to know his players to mount a reasonable offensive plan: I've seen Momiki served with an aerial assist. She is 5ft 0 in (!) : you don't trigger Momiki by assisting her for a header, you set her up with fast triangles at ground level, as seen countless time in Nadeshiko youth and senior NTs and in her former club NTV Beleza, where she used to be assisted by Yui Hasegawa.