NC goes up, and then a few minutes later Fox get a DOGSO red card to make things interesting. That was definitely not a twist I was expecting ...and now that the hydration break has begun, they're delaying the match due to excessive heat first time I've ever seen that kind of weather delay happen
A couple of Division 1 college games this season cancelled due to excessive heat. First time I remember seeing that.
Halftime at Audi now. Pretty even match, but I'll give the edge to DC just because their defense is handling POR's attack better than the converse. (Of course, in biased in this game)
Credit to POR, once they scored, momentum definitely swung in their favor. Penalty awarded for a Menges handball and Hatch converted; a bit harsh on the penalty call itself, but a draw is at least deserved for DC
Ends with that 1-1 draw; DC will wish they had a better conversion rate because they controlled (partially or emphatically) for a good 75+ minutes there. Switching over to NJY-LOU now and looks like I haven't missed much as it's still 0-0
No rhythm from either team in what fraction of the match I was able to watch. Both teams need to center their identity more if they don't want to get passed down the stretch.
So I didn't see the remaining part of NC-CHI nor any of LA-RGN... Sounds like CHI used the player advantage to find an equalizer, while LA beat RGN despite Rapinoe making a PK. Interesting to me that every match this week ended in a draw expect for the two SoCal teams getting their wins
Looking at the stats for the AC - OLR match, i saw that Amandine Henry was on the team but did'nt play. Do you know if she's still injured or just a coach 's choice ? I worried a litthe when A.Henry annnouned she left for A.City, a club where an other number 6, J.Ertz, was playing. But i saw J.Ertz didn't play too. Injured, or ?
Not sure about Henry; I know she got injured in NT camp in July, she wasn't listed on the injury report for this week. Ertz was listed as "excused absense"; she's been a bit of an enigma for the NWSL ever since the pandemic. She made a grand total of 3 appearances in 2021 for Chicago, had her player rights traded at the end of the year and then didn't sign with Angel City until a couple months into the 2023 season, and has only played 7 games thus far. She of course had an injury and a kid over that time period, but other players have had similar and still played often. Honestly I think Angel City got Henry to account for the fact that Ertz doesn't seem to want to play very much any more, as if she was doing the minimum needed to stay in consideration for the recent WWC and is gonna retire after. So I don't know why Henry didn't play unless she's still nursing the injury even if it's not serious enough to be listed in the injury report; interestingly, even though she was listed on the game report, she's not listed on the NWSL stats page for AC and her player profile says "no data", so I wonder if her paperwork hasn't cleared yet.
In the press conference before the game Tweed said that Ertz 'needs more time so they are being patient with her'. My opinion is that she used AC to satisfy Vlatko's requirement of club play before he would select her. I would not be surprised if she doesn't return. Although they are in playoff contention so one might think she would be an upstanding human and finish out her contract (since AC came through for her to go to the World Cup). As for Henry, they said she is training and is day to day essentially. Remember she arrived after missing the WC due to an injury. So they are probably being safe with her.
Gotham was great against RL. They dominanted the entire match but could not score. A bit unlucky and the crossbar was not their friend. They did this without several of their players too who are out with injury or slowly being worked back into the game. Gotham plays great soccer under Juan Carlos. Really fun to watch.
I hope it was a very clear agreement with Angel City since the beginning. Although I am anyway not sure which kind of benefit came to the team from that.
The only benefit they might have gotten was marketing... but then you'd be dealing with unhappily misled fans, so IDK if that's even a benefit to begin with.
I mean, you have a well-defined team: you scramble to accomodate a new player in it, who's admittedly a top-one but supposedly out of shape and out of rhythm from not having played professional football in ages. It's a quite tough agenda, but you fullfill it: when you do it, the player leaves after about 7 games!? I mean, Ertz had what she needed, a professional setting to prepare for the World Cup, but what exactly Angel City got in return? More trouble than benefit, one would say. Are they supposed to be what, a charity?
from reading on an Angel City dominated message board; it’s like Hollywood actress Natalie Portman is the unofficial head honcho/general manager! So not having more professional staff in charge might be the answer to your questions, lol. So it’s most likely Angel City wants big name’s associated with their club(even if they don’t play)more than anything else
6 games this weekend, so we stay balanced, no games in hand for anyone. Times are ET; Paramount+ is P+. It will be hot in the east this weekend, so it is good no afternoon games are scheduled. Points in the standings become more valuable each week. Fri 9/1 8:00 AC at KC - P+ Sat 9/2 7:30 GOT at NC - P+ 7:30 POR at LOU - P+ Sun 9/3 5:00 CHI at WAS - CBSSN 6:00 ORL at SEA - P+ I have not been predicting, given the world cup and personal travel, plus D3 college Woso starts this weekend...my attention is divided. Based on the standings the key games appear to be GOT at NC and ORL at SEA.
NWSL gonna NWSL... POR, NC, and NJY all drop points, leaving the door open for SD to take the Shield position tomorrow if the can get their third win in a row against a HOU side that hasn't won a regular season match (and only one of four CC matches) since a 2-0 win over ORL on June 3rd. The full 12-team standings are separated 1st to 12th by only 12pts - or averaging just 1pt between ranks. Three teams are currently tied for the sixth and final playoff spot, with said tie only 5pts behind 1st.
If you had told me Friday that the two DC teams would go 1-1 both at home against the two Chicago teams by an aggregate score of 4-2, I would have never questioned that it was the Spirit with the blowout win and DCU with the home loss. And yet... Crazy weekend.
Interesting stat thrown up during the RGN-ORL game late here: RGN have the best Sept/Oct PPG in the league; ORL have the worst
Damn, second match in a row with DOGSO red... Alozie off for the HOU, after being excellent for them so far this match. SD has been getting the better of play so far, so this is a huge blow for the Dash and a golden opportunity for the Wave to quickly put the match away.
That's a terrible red card against Hou. DOGSO requires 4 D. One of the D is distance to goal and this foul happened 50 yards from goal.