NWSL Challenge Cup 2022

That's why it's just a power ranking! Just people opining on what they think X-D But yeah, I'm just not super sold on anyone in the central division at the moment. Yuki and Pugh are certainly doing well, but IDK how well CHI's possession holds up against teams on either coast, especially when CHI has to travel, which they hadn't done much of yet.

But FWIW, the difference between 4th and 9th in my ranking above wasn't very big, so it's not like putting CHI 8th implied "nah, long shot for the playoffs" - they'll very much be in the hunt, just maybe not for a home playoff game. Hard to communicate that in just a raw ranking, though... Maybe I should've assigned ratings out of ten as well? IDK

 

And, for more discussion, here's the Power Ranking that CBS Sports (specifically Sandra Herrera) put out yesterday:
https://www.cbssports.com/nwsl/news...op-spot-at-midway-mark-in-2022-challenge-cup/
12 - LA
11 - ORL
10 - HOU
9 - LOU
8 - NJY
7 - SD
6 - POR
5 - KC
4 - CHI
3 - NC
2 - WAS
1 - RGN

Differences of +/-3 vs mine:
LA, NJY, POR lower
CHI higher

 

At least LA might get help on the defensive end as they just announced the signing of 2016 Olympic Gold medalist GK Almuth Schult

 

Lots on international matches today, and then the Challenge Cup resumes on Thursday with RGN vs SD! I gotta figure out what kinda of qualification scenarios there are for this weekend...

 

Next Challenge Cup Round

Thursday April 14​

SD at RGN 10:00 ET - P+ (This game is from last round and puts all teams on equal games played)

Friday April 15​

HOU at KC 8:00 ET - CBSSN

Saturday April 16​

NC at ORL 7:00 ET - P+
CHI at LOU 7:30 ET - P+

Sunday April 17​

WAS at GOT 3:00 ET - P+
LA at RGN 6:00 ET - CBSSN
SD at POR 7:00 ET - P+

LA gets a shot at a RGN team that played 3 days prior. SD plays RGN Thursday and POR Sunday - quite an ask.

 

It will be interesting to see if the National team players who played just Tuesday night will be on the field tonight after only 48 hours off the pitch.

Cook, Lavelle, and Huerta for the Reign.
Dahlkemper and Girma for the Wave.

 

Alright, from some initial looks for tonight and tomorrow:

All teams currently in their group's Top Twos can secure at least 2nd with wins
LA will be eliminated entirely if SD don't win against RGN
HOU will be eliminated entirely if they don't win against KC
ORL will be eliminated entirely if they don't win against NC
LOU will be eliminated from direct qualification if they don't win against CHI
*HOU will be eliminated from direct qualification if CHI beat LOU

 

I wanted to mention two newcomers-to-me players, who have impressed me so far:
Malia Berkely (FSU) looked very skillful and competent/comfortable in the system while playing for NC Courage - she missed a game due to yellow card accumulation, which disappointed me.
Phallon Tullis-Joyce (Miami) - I can say the same: skillful and competent/comfortrable in goal for OL Reign.
I do not follow NCAA D1 soccer normally, so unless players are Widely Acclaimed, they are new to me when they hit NWSL.
-CJ

P.S. I only watched the first half of RGN-SD and was shocked to find out that no one scored in the second half. Looking at the statistics, for the whole game, they were fairly equal. I thought SD passing was worse than horrendous in the first half, yet for the game their pass completion rate was higher than RGN (69.6% to 63.7%). Both are below average. SD must have buckled down and played football in the second half.
-CJ, again.

 

Yeah the RGN-SD game last night was far closer than the scoreline suggests... Just seems like SD took 15min to actually start playing. Gotta be sharp right at the starting whistle.

 

Hope the cable game goes well tonight! I obviously get CBS itself, and I have P+, but these CBSSN games are the few I cannot watch. Guess I'll be prowling Twitter for updates....

 

Me, too; exactly.

 

Seems like the match is playing out exactly like yesterday's: early goal(s), then a fairly even match after. Unlike yesterday, though, chatter says there's not a lot of threat coming from either team. Fouls seems more in discussion than play is. Unfortunate. (Also, I'm sad that HOU is down 0-1)

 

Groom equalizes early in the second half, but Pickett restores KC's lead later to get the 3pts and eliminate HOU

HOU with the edge in shots, crosses, passing, and possession, but KC had more corners and shots on goal, and it translated into more goals.

 

NC saw what RGN did and decided "yeah that seems like a good idea"... and did it two minutes quicker.

...and the ORL got the return goal quickly too. This is just RGN-SD at 1.5x speed

 

oooof... Pugh subbed off using a concussion-protocol substitution. Got a shot to the head while in the wall for a LOU free kick... She looked SO dazed and confused while ultimately able to walk off the field herself, even after a lengthy stoppage. Hopefully, for her own good, she doesn't play for the next 2-3 weeks. Definitely a sickening feeling for me watching her walk off like that, since I got a concussion in my Sunday league back on the last Sunday in March.

 

Two good games tonight. Lots of rookies I've never heard of. Debinha is still the best player in the league. That was an all-world penalty kick by Ekic. I enjoyed watching Louisville play. Lots of spirit.

Pugh looked really woozy and shaken up. The wall on penalty kicks has always looked suicidal to me. I'm surprised more players aren't hurt on penalty kicks, but many seem to duck when the ball comes their way -- which of course is not why they are there.

 

Well today's NJY-DC NWSL match has mostly dispelled the awful taste of last night's DCU-ATX MLS match...

 

RGN needed stoppage time to find the goal to break a 1-1 deadlock, while further south, POR nearly let SD come back after trailing by three at halftime... But both Cascadia clubs manage to eke out one-goal victories over their respective expansion Cali visitors.

 

Alright, we're now down to one matchday left, so let's look at qualifying scenarios... Things are pretty simple for two of the four spots, since the still-active teams play H2H

EAST:
NC qualify 1st with a win or a draw against WAS
WAS need to beat NC to qualify 1st
Runner-up will have 9-11 points - WAS eliminated outright with a loss

CENTRAL:
KC qualify 1st with a win or a draw against CHI
CHI need to beat KC to qualify 1st
Runner-up will have 8-10 points - CHI eliminated outright will less than a win

WEST:
RGN qualify 1st with a win against SD, a draw against SD, *or* POR failing to win against LA
POR need to beat LA *and* see RGN lose against SD *and* it's still messy after that...
If POR win by at least 2 or RGN lose by at least 2, then POR qualify 1st. However, if both games are separated by only 1 goal, it will come down to how many goals each team has scored. Since RGN will win the H2H if it comes to that, POR needs to score enough to have more total goals outright.
Runner-up will have 10-13 points

BEST RUNNER-UP:
(of course, the very last game of next week is the one with the most control over qualification scenarios...)
Simplest result: if POR beats LA, then either they or RGN qualify as best runner-up, regardless of the RGN-SD result (or any other results)
If POR draw, then they directly advance if WAS fail to win *or* if WAS win by at least two; if WAS beat NC by 1, then POR vs NC will come down to tiebreaks - GD, GF, disciplinary points in that order
If POR lose to LA, then it comes down to to NC-WAS game - a WAS win leaves NC on 11pts and advancing, a WAS draw sees WAS advance on GD over POR, and a WAS loss then means we have to consider if KC lost or not, and if they did lose, the question is by how much as we're taken to GD/GF/discipline tiebreaks

=EDIT=
So, I typed all that up, and then realized... if WAS, CHI, and POR all win next weekend, then regardless of the other three results, we're gonna have the exact same semifinalist group as last year's playoffs (it's impossible, though, to have the exact same semifinal matches, as WAS and CHI winning would put them in the same semifinal instead of setting up a rematch in the final).

 

Forgot to mention it last night, but: RGN are already qualified to the semifinals, because no other group can have the runner-up reach 13pts.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRd7AbNAuQk

 

Geo-blocked in my country: were they the full matches? I supposo so, since I can anyway see the highlights of the games on NWSL YouTube official channel.