Julie Ertz is the latest to opt out of the Fall Series: As reported on the #EQZPod, Julie Ertz has opted out of the #NWSL Fall Series. Not reported on the pod, Arin Wright (nee Gilliland) is on the roster after missing end of 2019 and Challenge Cup to have a baby— Dan Lauletta (@TheDanLauletta) September 11, 2020 Alex Morgan is the latest to head overseas: Reporting with @PaulTenorio: Alex Morgan is also heading to England for the rest of the year thanks to a deal with the Spurs. #NWSL #USWNT #BarclaysFAWSL https://t.co/XeDftJMU7c— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) September 11, 2020
It's not an official Fall Series game, but none of these are official anyway, so an extra friendly but closed-door: As NWSL fall series continues elsewhere, Washington Spirit and North Carolina Courage will play closed-door friendly Saturday in Cary, N.C. Spirit is done with fall schedule, Courage isn't on the schedule this weekend.— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) October 6, 2020
Speaking of the Community Shield though: --Utah are already eliminated from any prize money --Sky Blue can, at best, finish 3rd, and a lot has to go right for them to get there --Washington are done at 7pts, with four other teams also have a 7pt max --Houston can finish with 9pts, Portland can finish with 10pts In theory, it would make sense that just one team per pod would win community money, but the potential logjam at 7pts makes things more interesting. I'd have to run the permutations to see exactly how things could shake out...
Alright, so just for fun, here's the biggest possible 7pt logjam, each team listed with its possible GDs: Portland, max +5 Houston, = +4 Chicago, min +3 Washington, = +1 NC, min -1 Seattle, min -1 Orlando can also get to 7pts, but doing so would force both Houston and NC to have fewer points. POR and SEA have their GDs linked, so it's impossible for both of them to have +1 GD or lower in this giant-tie situation. It's still possible for multiple teams from the same pod to win prize money, but I think it'll still be unlikely to play out that way.
Well with Houston's win yesterday, they can finish no lower than 2nd in the standings, depending on if Portland wins or not tomorrow. Houston have certainly made quite the statement this year! Also, Sky Blue have been eliminated from prize money potential. Washington will be eliminated if Chicago wins their last match and/or NC wins their last match by enough.
Dunno! Their first year under Clarkson was worse than their year under Pauw, but I guess in his second year he finally had been able to make the changes necessary to run with the kind of squad he wanted? It's a little like the perfect storm b/c it's a squad made of offcasts from other teams than happen to click together and punch above their weight. Hopefully they can keep that energy for next year!
1. Better at CB. Naughton/Oyster/Prisock are a major upgrade. 2. Groom is on a mission. 3. Solid midfield: K.Mewis/Schmidt/Groom 4. Dangerous frontline: Prince/Latsko/Visalli are in a sweet spot of youth, experience, and speed/energy. And now Houston has no weak spot anywhere on the field. 5. They attack, attack, attack. They hide their weaknesses by attacking yours first. That might be Clarkson's biggest contribution.
Definitely. Sorry to repeat myself about this point, and nothing personal against the player, but Amber Brooks was a blunder-machine of a CB. As good as her general contribution could have been, she used to gift at least one goal to the opponent side every 3-4 games at max. Of course it doesn't count for these Fall Series, but in a general 2020 year's perspective let's not forget that Rachel Daly had one of her best seasons so far (and the "honey badger" had already set the bar quite high for herself). Ok, nothing new compared to the previous season, since most likely she was already Houston's best player, but I'd day she was even better and more influential than ever.
Alright, so just for fun, here are two tables for the 2020 season. First, the 8 (or 4) games from CC pool play + FS total Code: TEAM Pts(W/D/L) - GD(GF/GA) - PPG -NC - 17(5/2/1) - +4(15/11) - 2.13 -DC - 14(4/2/2) - +1( 9/ 8) - 1.75 HOU - 13(4/1/3) - +4(17/13) - 1.63 POR - 13(3/4/1) - +6(12/ 6) - 1.63 -NJ - 10(3/1/4) - -2( 8/10) - 1.25 RGN - 9 (2/3/3) - -3( 7/10) - 1.13 CHI - 8 (2/2/4) - -1( 9/10) - 1.00 UTA - 6 (1/3/4) - -6( 7/13) - 0.75 ORL - 2 (0/2/2) - -3( 5/ 8) - 0.50 I see you, Spirit.... And poor ORL has the lowest PPG even with half the games. Second, the total number of games with the 7 CC knockouts and NC/DC friendly thrown in, because why not? Code: TEAM Pts(W/D/L) - GD(GF/GA) - PPG -NC - 20(6/2/2) - +4(19/15) - 2.00 HOU - 20(6/2/3) - +7(20/13) - 1.82 POR - 16(4/4/2) - +6(13/ 7) - 1.60 -DC - 15(4/3/3) - =0(12/12) - 1.50 RGN - 10(2/4/3) - -3( 7/10) - 1.11 -NJ - 11(3/2/5) - -3(10/13) - 1.10 CHI - 12(3/3/5) - -2(12/14) - 1.09 UTA - 7 (1/4/4) - -6( 7/13) - 0.78 ORL - 2 (0/2/2) - -3( 5/ 8) - 0.50 This year, no team got to 2GF/game, but HOU and NC came close; no team exceeded 2PPG either, though NC was right there and HOU close. The only other thing that really sticks out to me is POR's defenseive record, well under 1GA/game (and ORL was the only team to really leak goals at the rate of 2GA/game).