Season 10 Week 4 Pre/In/Post 5/18-5/22

Every year I go to Orlando when the Red Stars play the Pride and this year is no different. This coming weekend of NWSL soccer and theme parks! A day at the beach thrown in between.

 

Well, from the first two games of the night, one thing is clear: NWSL parity is chaos
Challenge Cup? Means nothing! Current standings? Mean nothing!

 

Portland lost at home instead, and to Houston Dash.

Didn't watch the game, so I have to ask: why do their result go back and forth this way? And why Hina Sugita was only subbed-in at 79', when the score was already on 0-2?

 

How did Jun Endo perform? Her normal standards? Better? Worse?

 

Not sure what you mean by the "go back and forth this way" bit, although for any discussion about unpredictable results, I'm guessing NWSL's parity is in play.

The announcers were also a bit curious as to what was behind all of Wilkinson's roster choices. I personally suspect that POR thought HOU would be an easy match and just got bit by that assumption.

And, to be fair, this was a very strong defensive performance by a HOU side that's not known for its defense. POR had more total shots and crosses, and far more possession - but HOU had more shots on goal.

 

So WAS drew RGN earlier, and currently CHI is absolutely eviscerating ORL... Neither result is too surprising.

What *is* surprising is that the five top teams in the league thus far - including ORL at #5 - are the five worst teams from the Challenge Cup.

This includes LOU beating NJY in NJY, which is surprising based on last year and current roster on-paper, though I would say that NJY has looked consistently like they don't really know what their plan is this year, so it's not so surprising in that sense.

 

Portland was playing their third game in 9 days, with the first two against OL Reign (tie) and Washington (tie). Houston was playing their second game in the last 7 days and had another 6 days of rest before that. This explains the Portland lineup and a lot about how the game went.

 

Just for my own curiosity, I went to look at how the table looks in a PPG sense instead of a pure-points sense, since some teams have played only three games while others hav eplayed up to five. There's no movement in the bottom half of the table, but some interesting stuff up top:

1. SD (2.40) =
2. LA (2.25) =
3. CHI (2.00) +++
4. HOU (1.75) =
5. LOU (1.60) --
6. ORL (1.40) -

 

I would call that "consistent inconsistency".

 

Well, I hadn't factored in that and indeed it explains a lot.

To @SiberianThunderT: when I was talking about Portland's results, I was including Challenge Cup, where they failed to qualify for the semifinals, and I was basically sharing your comparison between Challenge Cup's results and the league so far.

 

To the extent that a 0-0 match can be "good", Washington/OL was good. Seattle displayed an amazing inability to score. 20 shots, 8 on target, 0 goals -- and not even causing to my memory the Wash goalie to make a big save. I thought Fishlock had a poor game for OL, Watt displayed amazing speed and an amazing inability to shoot anywhere other than into the goalie's hands, Latsko displaced an amazing inability to put a shot anywhere near the goal. Balcer missed her share of shots.

On the positive side, OL was great on defense nullifying the efforts of the Bobbsey twins, Rodman and Sanchez. Rodman has been contained pretty well the last couple of games. Hiatt and Cook are formidable center backs and Barnes has been the consummate professional defender for 10 years and 15,000 minutes in the NWSL. Quinn is excellent as the defensive midfielder. Huerta was probably the player of the match. She gave OL a lot of opportunities to score. (I noticed she played the last few minutes of the match as the 10. Desperation by OL? Can somebody score? Please!)

On the Washington side, I was impressed (which I rarely am) with Sonnett.

 

Reign/Spirit match was live on YouTube. Mirror what you said on Watt; a lot of fast runs & almost pointless shots, but don’t think even her own team mates could keep up with her. Felt like both clubs looked tired out there so early in the season with so many more direct shots, but lack of build up/same with the Spirit sub, Alexander, taking shots with no interest in passing/crossing

seems like there’s a full moon hit the NWSL as the Challange Cup winners(Courage) & Thirns are in last place as compared to poor Cup performance’s Dash, Wave, AC looking terrific all of an sudden. I figured AC will start looking good(currently in 2nd place with just 3 games under their belt)the just as speedy Simone Charley got into their lineup, But got to wonder if that’s where the NWSL; all run n gun in lieu of any technical/buildup play?(as compared to the more chess like mentality of the Champions League final(

got to ask our facts & figures man, Siberian Thunder; so what I’ve read Angel City thanks to all these movie star investors, Angel City has been able to raise something like $38 million. But is that their budget for the season? That be amazing if it were since big Euro clubs like Barca Lyon & Chelsea only claim to have $9-12 million budgets on their woso clubs