PBP: 2016 NWSL Season- Week 19 P/I/P

I dont think they r adding two teams next year but hopefully after that u get a balanced schedule.

Here is my reasoning. Throw Houston/Orlando out as they r battling for 8trh & 9th even tho u could say if the Dash swept the Pride today's match could still get them in the playoffs. The rest of the rivalry matches went like this...every pairing split the points with their rival except for WNY who came out 9 points ahead. The table was too tight to not see this as a huge advantage. So what would I do? Keep one rivalry match next year and balance it with one against the opposite team in the final table. So if ur WNY and ur rival is the #10 team then ur other extra match is against the first place team an so on. While it isnt perfect it should balance things a bit.

 

How do you determine that though? Can't just go by the previous season as a top team can easily drop or vice versa. Too many logistic nightmares to have a game against an undetermined opponent as then you also have to deal with fairness of odd # of games and who gets the 2 home games.

 

The rivalry alternates in seasons where they have a rivalry game. As to not being able to predict the rise and fall of teams that is always a crap shoot when u try and build an unbalanced schedule. There r other ways to do it as well. U could keep the two match rivalry series but only award half the points so no team can earn more than 6 points against any team. U could drop two of the matches after the series is completed letting each team pick one match to stand. U could add a cup to the mix and use those two schedule slots plus a few more for cup games. U could build two spots in the schedule for friendlies.

 

+ for creative thinking
- for sounding too much like WWC_Movement on a roll.

 

Calling these Rivalry games is only true for SEA-POR Aside from POR (who are everyone's rival) , over the years, I think WNY played the most knock down drag out games and games that "counted" against CHI -in WPSL- Elite, and in NWSL. If I had to pick a rival for WNY, it would be CHI, not BOS

If the schedule has to be unbalanced, then I approve drawing lots ( i.e. random pairings), which in general is impervious to any argument that the schedule was engineered and by doing that, it ended up being for or against certain teams due to the engineering. Random gives you luck of the draw, and some teams will end up with harder or less hard schedules than others - that's life.

 

I think that for Portland and Seattle, you'll see them playing each other in the "rivalry" games for economic reasons if for no other reasons. Portlanders will go to Seattle and Seattle-ites will go to Portland, which increases ticket sales.

 

Agree...the Portland Seattle matches r cash cows for both teams

 

Portland--Sky Blue currently tied up 1-1 at halftime.

 

With the way they were selling the halftime show I thought there might be some kind of announcement. [emoji849]

And I didn't make it down for this game since it's a Sunday night so my cat and I are warm and cozy wrapped up on my couch

 

Thorns have both hands on the shield right now, leading Sky Blue 2-1.

 

Why in the world is this guy calling Sky Blue the "Bees?" I don't like it.

 

That'll do it: Long gets a brace, and the Thorns lead 3-1 with only 5 minutes left.

 

I'm thinking WNY vs. POR on Oct 2 is going to be a lot faster paced than this game was. Henry may even break a sweat.

 

And the playoffs are set: Thorns will host WNY and Washington hosts Chicago.

 

I hope the game tonight on Fox Sports still gets good numbers, but since the result doesn't matter, I wonder how many will tune in.

 

WNY is a bit of an outlier almost however you cut it. If you were to ask CHI fans, I'm sure they'd point to KC or DC as their main rivals, not WNY. DC fans would pick either NJ or BOS (and I think favor NJ). I agree WNY-BOS feels kinda arbitrary, (honesty any WNY looks arbitrary to me,) but in terms of the league as a whole, making that pairing allows for all the others to make sense. Besides, just having a few good games doesn't make a rivalry. Both KC-CHI and HOU-ORL make quite a bit of sense for geographic/history reasons and seem to have been embraced. It makes no sense for CHI to look toward WHY for their rivalry.

 

Ohai scores and is tied for Golden Boot.

 

Ohai and that shot... At first I thought it was going to go right to Kopmeyer. Which is like her 4th goal I thought that

 

As long as Houston beats Seattle, then it would be OK with me if Ohai gets the golden boot instead of Williams.

 

*that shross

 

So, Twitter keeps distracting my work with late Reign goals

39' 0-1 Ohai shross (Dash tweet a GIF)
42' 0-2 Lloyd cutback at spot, left foot to left 90 (Dash tweet a GIF)
60' 1-2 Melis (Reign tweet a business card)
76' 2-2 Little
81' 3-2 Yanez

FT 3-2. It doesn't change either team's finish in the table, but it sets the mood going into the Laura Harvey's Let's Make a Trade! (tm) offseason.

 

Well, Randy has a nice tan, anyway.

 

Well, almost for Ohai. She is edged out by Williams for the Golden Boot based on assists.

 

I need two things explained to me. 1) Most goals scored has nothing to do with assists. Why wouldnt they break the tie with some stat referring to goals like shots or minutes. 2) As the winner doesnt seem to actually get anything why break the tie at all?

 

Too bad it's not the WC

In that tourney, Sasic Beat out Lloyd base on fewer minutes played as the first next tiebreaker <edit>after points.