This might be the earliest in a season where a team is mathematically eliminated from finishing first. SkyBlue is guaranteed to finish below North Carolina.
Not an NWSL match, but an NWSL team played an international friendly earlier today! 🗣️ | La charla del 'Profe' @hectorbecerrab antes del partido. ¡Vamooooos! #OrgulloDeSerRayado 🔵⚪🎀 pic.twitter.com/FVmuvfPboL— Rayadas (@Rayadas) July 3, 2018 15’ GGGOOOLLL!Simon’s corner kick falls to Agnew outside the six yard box and the Canadian international puts it away to give Houston the lead.— Houston Dash (@HoustonDash) July 4, 2018 ⏱️ 17' | @HoustonDash 1-1 #Rayadas | ¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! @valeriavv1994 metió un balón filtrado a Norali, y ella definió fuerte con pierna derecha. ¡Grítaloooo Armenta! 🤠#OrgulloDeSerRayado 🔵⚪🎀— Rayadas (@Rayadas) July 4, 2018 35' GOOOOLLL! Simon ➡️ Jordan ➡️ 🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/qgrMo4RiaN— Houston Dash (@HoustonDash) July 4, 2018
38' Jordan again!Thembi finds Simon at the far post, the Australian international plays the ball back to Jordan for her second goal of the game.— Houston Dash (@HoustonDash) July 4, 2018 ⏱️ 45' | @HoustonDash 3-1 #Rayadas | ¡Terminó el primer tiempo! A seguir buscando oportunidades y generando fútbol. ¡Vamoooos!#OrgulloDeSerRayado 🔵⚪🎀 pic.twitter.com/DpAaJhUWp7— Rayadas (@Rayadas) July 4, 2018 ⏱️ 66' | @HoustonDash 3-1 #Rayadas | Sonó la alerta por probabilidad de lluvia ☔️ y el juego se detiene.#OrgulloDeSerRayado 🔵⚪🎀— Rayadas (@Rayadas) July 4, 2018 ⚡️⚽️⚡️⚽️⚡️FT: Dash 3 - 1 @Rayadas The game is cut short due to lightning in the area. Thank you to our @LIGAMXFemenil friends and everyone who joined us this evening!#DashOn pic.twitter.com/7G5ziTU6Nr— Houston Dash (@HoustonDash) July 4, 2018
Does anyone know why ESPN does not post anything NWSL related. They post scores from WNBA and MLS but not NWSL. I suspect it has something to do with licensing, but it would help with exposure if the world wide leader covered the NWSL.
Probably nothing. Red Stars have 3 games inside a week. I am sure that the line-ups have already been discussed days ago. Red Stars bench is deep and strong and I'm sure he is giving her and Yuki a rest and may bring her in later in the game and/or start her on Saturday. She just got back from injury and maybe playing her 3 games in a week may be too much for now.
Fun fact- Chicago is unbeaten in 3 previous Independence Day matches: 2010- 0-0 draw vs Washington 2013- 1-0 win over WNY 2014- 2-2 draw vs Portland
Plain and simple, NC has kicked everyone's butt in the league. No doubt they are the best. Red Stars have to figure out how to get maximum points from the rest of the games to stay in the playoff hunt.
I'll give Chicago credit for coming out with a very good game plan. That 5 person midfield was working for about 20 minutes, and if Kerr had put away her early 1v1, I think the Red Stars probably would have gotten at least a point. But the Dunn goal just sucked all the momentum away from Chicago and towards NC, and it was all she wrote once Williams scored the second.
I pigged out at a picnic. Catching up [NC-CHI] Hinkle for Kurtz. 1014647490761633793 is not a valid tweet id Elby for Short; Gorden for Stanton; Brian for Vasconcelos; DiBernardo for Mautz; White for Nagasato. 1014663543403270146 is not a valid tweet id North Carolina: Q Dahlkemper Hinkle S.Mewis Rowland (yet they start) / OUT Eddy King Chicago: Q none / OUT McCaffrey
20' 1-0 Dunn turn-and-chips toward L.Williams splitting the CBs through at 27m center, Naughton chests ball down. Dunn presses closely, Naughton rushes a pass left, McDonald intercepts as Naughton steps up to her. McDonald taps to Dunn, both turn upfield, Dunn dribbling toward arc top right while McDonald trails toward arc top left. Naughton is caught upfield, forcing a vast rotation amongst Chicago's backline, with Ertz dropping all the way back into a central sweeper. Dunn cuts left through arc top center past Gorden to box top 2/5 left, shoots left instep on the run back to the right, just past Gorden's right leg. Naeher is partially screened by Gordon's body and Ertz at spot, dives late, ball outswings past her fingers into right side netting low just behind right post. Wow, I hope Dunn shoots like this in France'19 Advantage: @TheNCCourage. Crystal Dunn puts her team ahead at home with this goal in the 20th minute!#NCvCHI | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/7KO8U0BRh5— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 5, 2018 67' 2-0 Debinha stands over ball at 27m box left, rolls a pass down wide left for Mathias overlapping alone. Mathias drives a one-touch cross from 14m square left to 15m left post. L.Williams has faked a left-post drive to 10m, Elby overplays that to 8m, L.Williams shakes her with a stepback to ball. Williams mini-putts left foot to 16m 1/5 left in wheelhouse, quick-chips across mouth across Elby's shins -- over Naeher's dive, off crossbar right 90, bounces down into back right low. Lynn Williams comes through with the second half strike to double @TheNCCourage's lead!#NCvCHI | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/8dlT5xD0fy— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 5, 2018
69' 3-0 S.Mewis dribbles up circle left lane to circle top left, mini-chips a fast vertical pass to 25m mid-left. Debinha busts the trap line, pirouettes to deflect ball into own stride, continues cw spin through box top left post. Gorden does well to make up a 3m deficit and overtake on the inside, Debinha veers away from her to 10m left post as Naeher slides down through 8m. Debinha stabs a right outstep mini-chip over both their legs, through the window like a billiard cue ball jumping the 1.0-ball-wide gap between two balls, soft three-bouncer across mouth into right side netting low. Tiny windows, taken just-in-time. Again! @TheNCCourage score again two minutes later, thanks to Debinha this time. 3–0 to NC now.#NCvCHI | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/xJUJvreGEY— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 5, 2018 87' 4-0 S.Mewis stops ball at 27m arc right, drives a hard pass to L.Williams facing away at box top center, with Hamilton backshielding Gorden at box top right post. L.Williams juggles/dumps ball high over Elby to 10m mid-left, chases it. Naeher misjudges it and overestimates her time, runs that far out, reach-slaps ball off L.Williams' chest -- or L.Williams just outraced her and ran through her clearance try. Naeher chest-bumps hapless Elby down-and-out, ends up standing at 12m mid-left with nil momentum. L.Williams chases alone to 2m mid-left, Gorden leaves Hamilton and goes toward left post. Hamilton now has inside position on Gilliland through 7m 1/3 right, L.Williams crosses one-touch to 4m 1/4 right and Hamilton lunge-dunks just ahead of Gilliland, into center back. Hamilton's non-stop. @TheNCCourage keep pressing, and add a fourth!#NCvCHI | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/aYI1fnXvr6— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 5, 2018
90+2' (of +2') 4-0 Green(?) crosses from 35m box right to 15m arc left, Ertz jump-heads straight up high to about 10m. Rowland comes out and catches, but Dahlkemper, watching ball a bit too long, leaves left hamstring in Nagasato's path. Nagasato, also looking upward and planting to jump, trips down under Rowland's leap, spinning Dahlkemper around and down. Foul on Dahlkemper, pk. 90+3' (of +2') 4-1 Nagasato pk, right instep placed into back left low, as Rowland shuffled the other way. Yuki Nagasato cleanly finishes the PK to get @chiredstarsPR on the board tonight.#NCvCHI | #NWSL pic.twitter.com/f58bKrjWeo— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 5, 2018 FT 4-1.
I am sure that's the reason: 3 games in a week are nothing to scoff at. It made sense resting player vs NC, that was a difficult game to figure anyway: I guess CRS will be back in full force vs Sky Blue on Saturday. Seattle Reign showed a similar degree of dominance back in 2014, then they won the shield in style but were later beaten in the title game. Wonder if it can happen again or if this NC Courage side is simply too much powerful for anyone else. Before answering that, remember that Kim Little-fuelled Reign from 2014 seemed unbeatable too...
Chicago has just gotten all their players back, some of whom haven't played much and need game time. This is a perfect opportunity for Dames to both rest players and to give returnees more game time. There are some differences between the Reign of 2014 and the Courage this year: -The level of competition. The teams that Seattle was up against weren't as deep or talented as what NC is facing every week. If that Seattle was playing this year, they'd probably be a mid table team. -The response to losing for the first time. I think Seattle was so focused on going through the season unbeaten that when Chicago finally pulled it off, they didn't know how to handle losing and didn't look nearly as unbeatable after that loss. How has North Carolina responded to their first loss? By beating each of the other 3 teams currently in the playoff spots with a combined 11-2 scoreline. -The depth on each team. Seattle had a fantastic 1-11 with a couple decent bench players, but little else after that. They didn't have the luxury of having stars being able to come in off the bench. NC can win games by multiple goals with some of their stars out injured or not starting. -Seattle depended largely on Kim Little to be Kim Little. She had great players like Fishlock around her, but the Reign's fortunes were mostly tied to Little. NC has game changers on the roster, to be sure, but isn't dependent on one player to make everything work. -The one area that Seattle was better than NC in was experience. We forget that even with how good the Courage are that they are still a very young team. Most of Seattle's team was in their prime years. It's how they were able to pull off some escapes during their 16 game unbeaten run.
Up until reading @Gilmoy 's last 3 posts, my favorite part of the game was McCall's HUGE smile greeting Sam when she came onto the field. Adding HAO at this stage reminds me of the 1950's NY Yankee teams that added quality players to the roster late in the season for the stretch run to the pennant and World Series
I really like the level of articulate discussion in this forum. Just repping the post wasn't enough to express that. On topic, the core of what you said makes sense, although I would probably disagree on a couple minor points: for instance, I guess claiming that 2014 Seattle would be a "mid-table" team today is some kind of a stretch; it's probably true that they wouldn't directly compete with Courage, but I guess they were a remarkable team even by today's standards. Also, I agree that they were dependent on Kim Little, but maybe not as strictly as you make it sound (and as, I admit, I made it sound too ): there were games that were won even with a less relevant Little's contribution (heck, i remember some matches that were basically won by... Solo! ). It is true that, when in later years Little's performance was declining, Seattle kinda declined with her... But they made the title-game in 2015 also, with basically the same team and a Little that already wasn't at 100% anymore. Finally: in those years Vlatko showed that, when it comes to a single game deciding everything, you have to count his team in. Should Seattle Reign make the title game, Vlatko could make it again, couldn't he? These are "his" games...
I still think Utah has a very good chance of taking the championship. They are the only team that hasn't lost to NC if I remember correctly, and defeated them without Press. With Press, the best forward in the league, I think they are strong contenders. A Press-led Chicago was the only team that was undefeated against them last year before the playoffs.