Whoa. I knew there would be goals, but did not expect this. A Germany-Brazil scoreline! From a neutral's POV it was superbly entertaining to watch. Eight goals (most of them quality), plus at least four shots off the post/crossbar and a few excellent saves. Too bad it was one-sided, but hell, I can't complain. A fun way to spend two hours. KCFC looked out of ideas without their general Holiday. The KC roster is deep, but if there's one player they can't afford to lose, it's her. She sets the tempo with her intelligence and field awareness, not to mention production (goals/assists). This game showed how indispensable she is. Gorry tried hard and scored a cracking goal, but couldn't marshal the midfield as well as Holiday. What's the deal with her? "Undisclosed illness" is suspicious. Is she pregnant or something? Shocking for KC to give up seven goals after three straight shutouts (and six in seven games). Fiddling with the center back partnership did not pan out well for Andonovski. LePeilbet had a howler of a game, giving up the penalty, losing her mark on Sinclair, and making errant passes. She and Sauerbrunn didn't communicate well, odd considering their WNT history together. Buczkowski also gift-wrapped the third goal with some sloppy play deep in her own end. Costly because it restored the two-goal lead before halftime. Unlucky that referee Unkel got in the way and it directly lead to a Portland goal for 4-1. But it matters little in the end. The Thorns were always going to win this game. I think this was the style we all expected of Portland with their abundant talent. It's been moderately amusing to see them struggle (how we all enjoy watching the mighty fall), but if they can keep up this level of intensity, watch out. Vero was fantastic, and Sinclair played with the most energy I've seen all year. Their shape and defensive solidity are so much improved with Brooks in there. Long is effective moving forward but can't handle the holding job by herself. Speaking of the defense, did anyone else think it looked more secure with Menges than RVH? Maybe the scoreline makes it misleading but I like her speed in there with Marshall. Sprightly cameos as well by subs McDonald and especially Shim. That girl needs more minutes. Goodness I hope Morgan is okay. She looked despondent while getting stretchered off. But did someone say she was walking around post-game? I think FCKC will recover from this setback. But yikes. Playoff race just got much more juicy.
Yep if ur looking for a great race this weekend sure helped. Four teams still bunched for the last two playoff spots. And if Holiday is out for a while KC might come back to the pack.
Disappointing that less than 10,000 Thorns fans (per NWSL website) showed up; 9,672 to be exact. Last year they routinely drew 12-13,000. Maybe this emphatic win will help rekindle the fanbase. On the bright side, Chicago got 3,032, a great turnout for them. I think a sell-out.
With all due respect to Boston, Sky Blue and Houston, I think they're out. Each can be competitive on their day but none have the offensive firepower to make up ground on the rest. But yeah...WNY, Red Stars, Portland, Washington are in for a dogfight. FCKC too if they decide to start an inopportune late-season losing streak again.
I thought a lot about this before I posted. But your post makes my point. The perception is "in his mind." It's not a correct perception, however, about BigSoccer. And, I don't know about others, but I read all of the subforum posts and a lot of others do too, because their posts show up in multiple subforums.
I agree about discounting threads started by ignored posters, that's why I mentioned it so that people would know the defect in the numbers. To count my numbers, I went to each subforum and used the total for each of the subforum threads (plus 1 since the total is responses and does not include the initial post). The differences probably are due to the ignored posters. I thought about "un" ignoring them but decided against it since I find them too irritating even temporarily to ignore.
Today I finally realized what makes Tobin Heath's running style so weird. Her forearms move, but her upper arms stay almost locked in place. As a result her forearms sort of flop around awkwardly. A pointless observation, I admit, but I'm relieved to have figured it out. That is all. Edit: a more substantive comment on Heath...in the battle of creative types, she gets the edge on Tymrak today. The Thorns as a team were on fire, so a player-for-player comparison could be skewed, but Tobin played more freely and did more useful things with her passes.
As I reported elsewhere, Alex was walking around after the game and I looked pretty carefully and did not notice a limp. Also from the sidelines, I agree Vero played a great game. The player mostly unmentioned, however, is Catley who played her best game yet for the Thorns. For a very young player -- 20 years old, she is really good.
Well, my posts should be discounted because I'm not talking about myself, I'm talking about other people. I also post "too much' so I skew the statistic unfairly. My simple assertion is that people, especially from non-NWSL cities talk about Seattle and Portland overwhelmingly more then other teams in the NWSL and I give CRS as an example because from Chicago. A classic example would be the blogs on Equalizersoccer.com where I read but do not post. Posters seem to overwhelmingly talk about Portland and Seattle and/or their players even though there is another team in the game the story is about. To me when a poster is talking about Leroux, in the context of NWSL they are talking about Seattle as well. When they are talking about Morgan in the context of NWSL they are talking about Portland as well. I know you like statistics, but statistics don't tell the whole story or the spirit of the argument.
In contrast, Ohai sprints with her left arm locked stiff and extended at about a 40° angle from vertical, like a shark's pectoral fin (or cheetah's tail?), and whips it back and forth at the shoulder. It'd be almost a "girly" run if it were at normal speed, but at 2x fast-forward speed it looks like the T-800 chasing Kyle Reese ...
Well, if you're talking about elsewhere, I can't comment since I limit myself to BS and PilotNation. If you have complaints about the amounts of Portland/Seattle posts elsewhere, I assume you discuss your issues there. If you don't have a "balance" problem with BS, why mention it here? I'll be honest, it makes me question myself for posting about the Thorns here, which I don't like. I know that's not what you intend, but posts here complaining about posts about the Thorns and Reign do have an effect. I think your real problem is that not enough Chicago fans frequent the internet. Why not complain about those fans' shortcomings rather than about fans who post about the Thorns and Reign? Related question, one you might know something about: Is there a difference between the Pacific Northwest's use of the internet and the Chicago area's use? PS - Wish I could be in Chicago on Thursday. Oh well, I'll be here in Portland on line.
This win buys him some time, but if he goes back to Farrelly on the field and Brooks on the bench and they lose, every Portland fan should be calling for his head. Given what happened last night, if Vlatko goes back to his regular backline, KC still wins without Holiday IMO. They're going to be very pissed off about this result and will rip the Flash apart.
"Perception" is always in the mind. That doesn't make it incorrect. If he wasn't here, or not trying as hard as he is to give his team props where it's deserved, my view is that the discussion here on BigSoccer would be even more skewed to Seattle and Portland (and, to a degree, KC) than it already is. He posts disproportionately more than most people to try to correct this imbalance. Granted, it makes a little sense that discussion skews to teams that are winning, but that doesn't explain how Portland is always in the discussion even when they weren't winning, (they have a "superstar" lineup that draws attention instead,) or how often people discount Chicago even when they are winning. Honestly it's a shame that there aren't people like that for NJ, BOS, or WAS, as those teams are also underrepresented in threads in the main forum like this one. The problem is that too many neutrals don't look past the lineups - it's easier to talk about names you recognize than names you don't. He's just trying to get people to recognize there's talent past the USWNT players and big-name internationals, which often gets overlooked - not as much here as on other sites, but it's still noticeable here too.
The problem I have is blaming this on Portland and Seattle (and now, according to you, KC) fans, or people interested in those teams, which is what MRAD 12 and you are doing. How about blaming it on people who are or should be Chicago, NJ, BOS, or WAS fans? It is not helpful to women's soccer to chastise people for posting about teams they support. Surely you can understand this. Go ahead, vent, I understand that. But don't vent against fans who provide great support to women's soccer. Rather, vent against those who don't.
Yep, I read every subforum. And have posted in thread(s) in every subforum (have to say thread for WNY, that subforum's been the most dead).
The significant stat difference in the Thorns v KC game (0ther than time of possession, which I don't have): KC 3 shots on goal Portland 10 shots on goal All the other stats are pretty close.
I never said people shouldn't post about the teams they like, I'm not blaming people who are posting - that's why I don't rant like MRAD always does, and exactly why I said "Honestly it's a shame that there aren't people like that for NJ, BOS, or WAS, as those teams are also underrepresented in threads in the main forum like this one." It makes sense, as I alluded to, that winning teams with bigger-name players get more attention, especially from neutrals. So yes, I completely understand. All I was piping in to do was point out that your attack on his "perception" wasn't as clear-cut as you initially made it out to be.
http://www.thebluetestament.com/2014/7/13/5896163/preview-fc-kansas-city-at-portland According to this article Holiday was back to limited practice on Friday. I'm not at all excusing KCs performance tonight bc of her absence, just saw it mentioned a couple of times. It seems she will be ok next week.
I think the place they missed Holiday the most was transitioning the ball thru the midfield. Normally she links Tymrak, Robinson or one of the forwards going to the attacking third. Without her they turned the ball over a lot in the midfield that led to counters for Portland.