Reign 2015 discussion

For individual player rankings

Starters
Solo (B) - Like most of last year, didn't have to do much. The defense fell asleep on that one goal and there's not much she could have done. She needs to work on her kicking game though.

Cox (B+) - Contained the run of Spencer quite well and worked well in the offense. It's no secret that I like watching Cox play (2nd only to Fishlock in this league) and she was once again graceful on the pitch.

Barnes (B) - Another quietly solid performance.

Fletcher (A) - For me Fletcher is getting right up there with Fishlock as our franchise player that we should never trade. Contained Leroux quite well and her long balls from the back are quite accurate.

Reed (B-) - Had a somewhat below average game when going forward but I think it's due to not being on the same page with Mathias. There were several of their passes that went astray. Defensively though she was top notch once again.

Winters (A-) - Really solid performance as she won several tackles that elicited cheers from the crowd

Fishlock (A) - What's there to be said. Score the opening goal that I think broke open the goal. Her sliding tackles is a thing of beauty. I can watch that on loop all day.

Rapinoe (A) - Started slow but really pick up as the game went along. Her connection with Fishlock is outstanding. The sequence that led to the 5th goal is one I'll be watching on repeat all week/year.

Little (B-) - Below average game from Little for her own standards especially in the first half. I'm not even sure what happened with that penalty miss. Must be left over jitters from her miss with Scotland. It may have been jet lag as she really didn't look herself hence the early (by Harvey standards) substitution.

Mathias (B) - You can tell that she is new to this team as for most of the game she wasn't on the same page as her team mates, mostly Reed. However, I like what I see from her. She can attack the baseline and cross as well as cut inside and cross with her left as well. She wasn't afraid to take on the defender that one time and also have speed. I'm glad we were able to get her to replace Naho.

Yanez - She is the perfect 9. Can hold up the ball when needed but can also make the runs you expect from a forward. She would be more deadly though if she had speed. There were a couple of plays where the ball was play being the defense and would have led to a go scoring chance if she could have gotten to it. In the future I think those kinds of balls should be played to Mathias instead as she has better speed.

Subs
Did not see much from the subs as the game was already under control by that point. It must be a nice feeling for Harvey to take out Little that early and don't have to worry too much. Last year that is something we rarely could afford to do

 

Post-match comments from Fishlock, Mathias, Rapinoe and Harvey.

https://soundcloud.com/stream

I have been hoodwinked again. This is my first time listening to Mathias and I didn't expect her voice to sound like that. The voice doesn't match the way she plays. While it is not Hope Solo level of shocking, it still somewhat is.

Edit: The Reign have also posted these interviews on their youtube page

 

I'm at work so I can't watch that video in detail. I'll do that on the train and provide my feedback. Kudos to the creator for making this. I wonder if he takes request for other players.

 

Question of the day for Reign fans and interested parties: What do you make of Wambach personally training with Harvey? Will in pay dividends after the world cup?

http://www.sounderatheart.com/2015/...t=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

 

Rapinoe was named the NWSL player of the week for Week 1. Here is the lady herself speaking on making the world cup squad and playing for the Reign.



I also watched that compilation video above and you can tell that in the first half not that she was playing badly but just that her passes weren't connecting, all things you will expect in the first game of the season. You could clearly see what she was trying to do and they were they right passes and not anything fancy or anything like that so it was interesting to see her connect those in the second half.

 

I had promised not to revisit this Leroux trade discussions but I was listening to this podcast and ofcourse questions about the trade came about.
http://www.sounderatheart.com/2015/...176-sounders-nos-audieties-reign-laura-harvey

Here are the salient points for those who can't listen

• Confirms that Leroux came to her about the trade to FCKC.
• Tried making the trade work with FCKC but they couldn't agree on suitable value.
• She than brought other teams into the discussion to see if they could still make the trade to FCKC happen.
• Given that teams were now aware that Leroux wanted to move, she received offers from other team and at that point the club decided that the offer from WNY was a good trade.

Aside 1: The last two points are very interesting because I think it highlights the fact that the prevailing narrative that Leroux was traded because she wasn't 100% committed is not the full story. I would like to think my initial assumptions about why this trade was made is more closer to the truth and that is Leroux not being the most suited to the Harvey system was expendable and even though Harvey may not have been looking to actively trade her (allocated player with a huge online following), this request by Leroux provided the excuse she needed to trade her.

• She was the one that asked for the rights to Abby as she value her on and off the field.
• Have had several discussions with Abby and they are both clear on the fact that Abby's focus is on the world cup.
• They discussed how they can be mutually beneficial to each other and Reign offered the training sessions.
• Also mention that she has communicated to Abby that she want to help Abby in anyway but her first priority is to win games. Says Abby is open to that.

Aside 2: Now to the trained ear, that last point sounds exactly like her telling Abby if you want to play for us that is all fine and good but be prepared to accept whatever role you are given (late game sub)

• The trade for Brooks was primarily agreed to because as a club the feel the league is at a stage where they can look to the future. Abby is short term planning and Brooks + draft picks are long term planning.
• Says this year is big for women's football globally. Expects increased interest in NWSL after the world cup similar to what was experienced in WPS in 2011.
• Not used to playing during the world cup but was resigned to it given that NWSL regular season is meaningless anyway (me paraphrasing) as they found out the hard way last season.
• Mathias was the main target for the club in the off season
• Could finally relax during the off season but worried each time players on loan were playing especially when Fishlock got hurt.
• On Naho, they always knew she won;t be available this year but the door is always open to her in the future.
• Losing in the championship game was tough, did some soul searching
• Results in the regular season doesn't matter as long you are in the top four. The goal is to play well in the playoffs.
• Admits Reign didn't play well in the two play off matches as they could have easily lost to Washington
• Thought players would be satisfied with making the championship game but was surprised to see they are all hungrier this year and want to be better.

 

While I'm on the subject of transcribing interviews, here is the latest from Fishlock

• Gushes about Seattle for 2/3 of the interview. Says they are professional on and off the field
• Playing in Germany was great as she wanted to improve her game from a European perspective.
• Calls the Bundesliga the best league in Europe
• Says they are technically but so is Seattle but the difference is they are more patient which is what she's trying to learn.
• Says the team this year is better than last and they are looking to build on what they started last year. Better squad means they will be fresher down the stretch.

I mostly agree with her and I find it interesting that she says they are a better squad this year versus last year even after losing Leroux and Naho. I'll wait for more games to see how they play but I tend to agree with her. Overall I think the minimal turnaround in players and the adversity faced in losing the championship after being the best team for 4.5/5 months of the season have thought them a valuable lesson. It may have been a blessing in disguise.

It would have been too easy to go from being the worst team to the best in the span of a year mostly after bringing in an influx of players. Might have been too much too soon. This point by the way was addressed by Harvey in the podcast above.

 

One would think that for all the press I'm reading for the Reign today that I don't have nothing better to do but alas I'm at work and currently on a call right now but I tuned that out to read Hope's latest blog entry ...

http://hopesolo.com/2015/04/16/back-home/

On the whole it was pretty boring and bland (she writes exactly how she talks in interviews which always comes out so formal and rehearsed). Anyway the only interesting bit of information I got from that blog is that prior to the trade for Wambach, she was already encouraging her to come to Seattle to train with them so this may have been in the works even before the trade.

 

Yes I agree with this summary. I think 2014 surprise some of the players themselves and this year they know what they are capable of and that they can be better then 2014, as the championship game proved

 

Ok, now we know why the Reign haven't gotten a website yet. In addition to using medium for press releases and what not, they now have an official app which is mostly a glorified schedule but you can also what live an archived games.

#ReignFC launch #SR15LIVE app to bring fans free access to live matches on the go. READ —> http://t.co/OtC0AD9Zn5 pic.twitter.com/PrS9zXRcww

— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) April 17, 2015

 

Also, Kopmeyer is wearing a GoPro camera for this road trip so hopefully by next weekend they can release the footage from that.

 

Yes

 

Disclaimer: These analyses are focused solely on how the Reign played and not what their opponents did well or didn't do well. If you are looking for a fair and balanced analysis, this is not the place for it.

So it is that time again when I give out my unsolicited post game analysis. I won't go into much detail as I did for the last match because I wasn't 100% focused in the first half and watch as I was still at the Spirit match and watching the second half on your cell phone in a moving car is also not the best way to enjoy a match. But anyway here goes.

Offense
We approached this game the wrong way from the onset and it got maddeningly worse as the game progressed and we refused to adapt. It must be stubbornness on Harvey's part to insist on attacking the way we normally do but there is no way you can win pretty at Benedictine. What that pitch and in some respect the opponent calls for is some old fashion long balls. But time and time again we insisted on playing the short ball to the forwards who the entire time had their backs to the defense and had no success turning or creating anything meaningful. There was a stretch of like 20 minutes at the start of the second half where I do not thing we completed more than two passes past the half way line. They all ended the same way, pass the ball to Little or Yanez who where than immediately dispossessed. And that is because it's quite easy for defenders if the game is in front of them the entire time. Also, our failure to commit numbers in the box was very frustrating. There were a couple of times Little manage to turn her defenders and get off crosses but there was no one to get on the end of them.

Defense
I thought the defense did well actually and they basically just got beat by speed. There's not much you can do about that. Well, there actually is in that they could have chose not to play such high a line knowing that they were getting beat consistently by Press on the left side.

Overall, I hope Harvey learns from this and varies her tactics a little bit. While no one likes to be known as a long balling team, sometimes it is the only strategy that just might work.

 

I do not think her absence had that much effect on our offense or our defense in this match.

On offense, Keelin is the link between our defenders and attacking midfielders namely Little, Rapinoe and at times Fishlock, who are then responsible for instigating the offense. In this match, we had no problem getting the ball to Rapinoe, Fishlock or Little (when she played in the midfield in the first half). It was the ball in the final third that was missing. As I saw it, the Chicago pretty much conceded the midfield to Seattle and was camped out right on top on the 18 and we couldn't go through that wall or better yet play over it. That is not an area I think Keelin would have made a difference in.

On defense, Chicago mostly bypassed our midfield and play the ball over the top to their speedy forwards. This again is not something Keelin could have prevented because if she was in the game, she would likely have been bypassed as well.
On the offense, I think our failure to give the defenders different looks is what doomed us. They didn't have to do much really but just sit back an anticipate the short pass to either Little or Yanez who were than quickly dispossessed. If we had committed more bodies in the box and send in some speculative crosses, that would have given the defenders something else to think about.
On defense, I would have thought after the first goal and all those near 1-on-1 misses in the second half that our defenders would have drop off a bit as they were not coping with the speed of Press but alas that change was not made.

 

Pretty quiet in here lately, I was going to write a game recap for the match against FCKC but life happened and now I can't remember all the little details. Suffice it to say that the same issues I highlighted in the match against Chicago were present in this match as well combined with an even worse performance by the entire team.

While the Reign may find it difficult to beat Chicago in Chicago, I believe the psyche of the team is that they know they can be Chicago but always approach the game with the wrong game plan and tactics. On the other hand against FCKC, all their self believe go out the window because they have too much respect for FCKC. In this last game, I was hoping Harvey would just have them play their game and not be in their own heads too much. There were a lot of tight players out there on Thursday.

While this is just the second loss in what was always going to be a difficult stretch in the mid west, I'm hesitant to hit the panic button just yet. As Harvey said, one of the things she learned last year was not to focus too much on regular season results as long as you finish in the top 4. What matters is the performance. Therefore I'm hoping that they learn something from these last two games and that all this is heading somewhere.

 

Now to round up some sound bites from the last couple of days ...

• Kim Little was nominated for BBC Player of the year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32442240 As this awards is voted by the fans, you can vote here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/womens/wfoty-vote/2015

• Rapinoe, Fishlock and others attended the Sounders/Timbers match on Sunday. Rapinoe/Fishlock joined the ECS pregame for some ritual. Hopefully these guys and reciprocate the favor and attend the Reign home matches and that this was not for naught. https://medium.com/@ReignFC/all-the-seattlelove-at-seavpor-a8cba92e4ebd

• Keelin Winters was voted the Western Sydney Wanderers Westfield W-League (that's a lot of W) Player of the year

  The Westfield W-League Player of the Year is Keelin Winters #WSWmedal pic.twitter.com/PTFIhuOXNc

  — WS Wanderers FC (@wswanderersfc) April 28, 2015