2016/09/07 Wed: Washington-Seattle are in a lightning delay. weather.com shows angry red moving due south over Gaithersburg, right next door to Germantown. Washington plans to open gates at 18:45 EST. Sounds like about 1 hour delay.
Sky Blue: Hayes for #11 Raquel Rodríguez; Casey for #18 Caroline Stanley. ~~~~~~~~ 32 Natasha Kai, 5 Maya Hayes 21 Leah Galton, 6 Taylor Lytle, 16 Sarah Killion, 20 Samantha Kerr 33 Erin Simon, 3© Christie Rampone, 13 Kristin Grubka, 8 Erica Skroski 27 Caroline Casey Orlando: Witteman for #3 Toni Pressley (and Bélanger to RB, Levin to LB); Fields for #8 Sarah Hagen (head injury); Evans for #23 Jasmyne Spencer. ~~~~~~~~ 26 Samantha Witteman, 13© Alex Morgan, 4 Jamia Fields 18 Madlyn Evans, 12 Kristen Edmonds, 17 Dani Weatherholt (left calf contusion) 2 Camille Levin, 21 Mônica Hickmann Alves, 6 Kaylyn Kyle, 9 Josée Bélanger 1 Ashlyn Harris
Boston: Beckmann for #22 Stephanie Verdoia; Salem for #88 Katie Schoepfer; Elby for #30 Kylie Strom. ~~~~~~~~ 27 Eunice Beckmann, 9 Natasha Dowie, 17 Kyah Simon 19 Kristie Mewis, 10 Louise Schillgard 26 Angela Salem 23 Brooke Elby, 5 Kassey Kallman, 4© Whitney Engen, 8 Julie King 1 Libby Stout Western New York: Identical. ~~~~~~~~ 9 Lynn Williams, 14 Jessica McDonald 7 McCall Zerboni, 10 Lianne Sanderson, 5 Samantha Mewis 6© Abby Erceg 15 Jaelene Hinkle, 8 Alanna Kennedy (left hamstring strain), 13 Abigail Dahlkemper, 4 Elizabeth Eddy 1 Sabrina D'Angelo
Just heard over the PA that gates for the 'Plex will be opening in about 4min. Makes sense since the storm passed ~15min ago and skies have quickly cleared. Staff have appeared in force, though still no sign of players warming up. Warm-up music has started, though.
....aaaannnnd barely 30s after they open the gates, PA announced another lightning delay, tells everyone return to their cars. They did give everyone in the STH line these NWSL/Mango.org "fandanas" before all the staff retreated, though.
Of course, the lightning delay thing has a 10mi sensitivity, so it's actually clear here at the stadium, and no one is leaving the line. Still gotta wait at least 15min more now.
Staff have started milling about on the concourse again. Might open up soon, but there are new clouds starting to roll in on the north horizon.
[BOS-WNY] 04' 1-0 K.Mewis (I really do have to type that now ) square pass right to Salem at 30m arc right, pass right to RB King overlapping to arc top wide right. Simple ground pass through box top right to Simon backshielding at 13m right post, she spins wrong-way cw and snaps a shot -- directly under the scoreclock graphic and it somehow beats D'Angelo under the Flash logo. Bad graphic is hovering kinda far below the top left corner of the screen, intruding into the field. Replay shows Simon chipped across mouth into left side netting, past D'Angelo's dive. Funny: the Sky Blue-Orlando scoreclock is just as obnoxiously intrusive today. 09' 1-0 Yellow card on Dowie. 12' 1-0 D'Logolo gk. That graphic really is in the way, perfectly at head-height on typical cross-field camera angles
Yay Boston! Beat WNY! Players are out on the field warming up now at the Plex I'm hungry and want concessions. Let us in!
[SkB-ORL] 23' 0-1 Harris outlets to Kyle, linking pass to Evans at circle back right. Evans hoofs a pinpoint longball toward 25m arc tangent left, drops it perfectly over Grubka's shoulder into Morgan's stride. Morgan sit-slides at 19m and shoots one-touch left foot across mouth, past Casey's dive into back right. There's yer lightning! 24' 0-1 Kerr shoots from ~12m left post, just over right 90. 28' 0-1 Levin slides hard through Kai's shin at arc top. Kai stays down in a ball, all play on. Hayes collects at arc top right touch, turns Levin and dribbles through 5m box right, sharp ground shross to 3m 1/4 right -- Harris blocks it into Kyle's shin, pounces on the rebound. Stoppage, trainers, Kai rolls over and pulls shirt over face. 30' 0-1 Kai limps unassisted into near touch, awaits re-entry. 32' 0-1 Kai resumes, wincing.
About 30min left of warm-ups here. Seems like it should be a good crowd despite the rain - lines to get in were big.
I don't understand why, but Seattle games at the Plex always seem to have the most pro-visiting-team fans in attendance. And it's not just people with Solo or Rapinoe USWNT jerseys - I'm seeing tons of Little and Fishlock t-shirts (and even a couple of jerseys) Also, Harvey is right in front of me leading four Reign players in their warm-ups X-D
Washington: Ordega for #12 Katie Stengel; Farquharson for #19 Crystal Dunn; Sigvardsen for #23 Victoria Huster; Matheson for #15 Joanna Lohman; Zadorsky for #4 Megan Oyster; Kleiner for #11© Ali Krieger. Guessing Nairn is ©. ~~~~~~~~ 20 Cheyna Williams, 14 Francisca Ordega, 17 Cali Farquharson 7© Christine Nairn, 27 Line Sigvardsen Jensen, 8 Diana Matheson 3 Caprice Dydasco, 6 Shelina Zadorsky, 24 Estelle Johnson, 22 Alyssa Kleiner 18 Kelsey Wys Seattle: Identical. ~~~~~~~~ 17 Beverly Yanez, 14 Manon Melis, 36 Nahomi Kawasumi 8 Kim Little, 11© Keelin Winters, 10 Jessica Fishlock 20 Rumi Utsugi, 3 Lauren Barnes, 13 Kendall Fletcher, 9 Merritt Mathias 28 Haley Kopmeyer
Interesting to see Washington sit so many. But with so many games in short time, good game as any with playoffs guaranteed and Seattle may go in tired not changing anyone out
In a highly congested part of the schedule, Gabarra is highly rotating his players, while Harvey is literally rotating none. Not sure what to make of that.
National anthem BEFORE the players come back out on the field. Someone on the internet will go into a tizzy that Rapinoe was deprived of her opportunity to continue her taking-a-knee.
[BOS-WNY] 38' 1-1 Sky Blue chips from ~box top wide right to 6m center, D'Angelo hop-catches, quickly rolls ball through own arc right to S.Mewis. S.Mewis touches to own 25m arc right, hoofs long flat to 30m centerline for McDonald outracing Kallman through circle top. McDonald touches to 9m center, chips right instep toward right 90, Stout saves with left hand at 6m center but ball rebounds straight up as Stout sprawls under it. Kallman trips over Stout's extended legs, McDonald rounds both to 3m 1/3 right and gets a quick right roundhouse volley into center high. All this longball
Harvey doesn't trust her reserves. In my opinion one of her few failures as head coach is not building a better roster from players 1-20. Her starting eleven is wonderful, but the subs are a pretty big drop off. She hardly ever rotates the squad, leading to a lot of mileage on the starters (and a predictable strategy). The subs usually get only garbage minutes. Meanwhile, Washington's bench tonight: Labbé, Oyster, Krieger, Huster, Lohman, Dunn, Stengel I want to play a game on the SoccerPlex grass. It looks divine.
It's 8pm here But the sky is so dark it says 9pm While the game is just starting so it's like 7pm still
.@CarliLloyd was lucky enough2 get me4our last away trip.Answers all Qs w "you'll have2wait til the book comes out"😒 pic.twitter.com/DueYHSGZrr— Ellie Brush (@Brushy7) September 7, 2016 Funny stuff from Ellie Brush
[WAS-SEA] 02' 0-0 Farquharson reaches toes waist-high, Fishlock pokes ball past her -- Farquharson goes down at circle back box (own) right. Fishlock squares to Kawasumi at 22m arc left, she shoots into a torso, ball pops high. Mathias volleys the drop over box top, wide left. Stoppage, Reign players gathered around Farquharson. 05' 0-0 Still stopped. Trainers carry Farquharson off on the stretcher Dunn is up at 4R. 06' 0-0 Washington subs in (1 of 3) #19 Crystal Dunn for #17 Cali Farquharson. What a crummy start.