I'm not blaming anyone, man. All I'm pointing out is that some posters here (not you or Cliverworshipper), all they want to do is talk about Portland and Seattle and when they do talk about the Red Stars it's some type of negative thing like they are thugs, and Benedictine sucks. That's pretty much it in their conversation of the Red Stars then they go back to in depth analysis of whatever game Portland or Seattle played, like these two teams are the only ones that exist in the league. Yup, that is my perception, but knock yourselves out folks! Kolabear even started a separate thread for Portland figuring Portland is "special" and people would want to talk about them more then other teams. But, it is what it is and I need to take a time out as well.
i don't see how fckc can win without holiday. in addition i don't see how fckc can win against the good teams without playing their patented 4-2-3-1. when they play with 2 up front they are likely to leave too much space in the midfield, and put too much pressure on their defense, making it an easier game for the better nwsl opponents.
100% agree. People talking about this loss entirely in the context of Lauren Holiday, but I think if Gorry starts in front of our usual back line the score line, and probably even the result, would be entirely different. KC played much better offensively late in the first half and in the second. The problem is by then, thanks to the changes and collapse in the back, the game was way out of reach.
not sure of this. gorry gave up the ball on her own too many times, and was bundled over like a little person quite a few times as well. the fact that they were playing two up front already made for too much space and extra running around for fckc's midfield (already referenced by vlatko last week), and this was compounded by gorry's inability to hold and orchestrate from the conductor's podium. i'm not against them playing 2 up front, but then vlatko knows that adjustments have to be made in the midfield and back 4 to cover the extra space he talked about last week even with holiday playing. maybe the adjustment was to do the extra chasing. but the 2 things that made a big difference was gorry instead of holiday, and a front 6 stacked with scoring ability (even tho they might have been struggling a bit) instead of a team that hardly scores. yes. by late in the first half they were already losing. but their "playing much better offensively" in the second half still was poor and got them zero goals. further, fckc is one of those teams where the offense is intricately designed as part of the defense, keeping the ball, preventing the back line and gk from having to do as much stressed out and stretched out defending, and forcing the other team to do a lot of chasing. their "playing much better offensively" in the second half still didn't do enough of this, and not only got them nothing, but gave up another bagful.
Here are the standings in terms of points per game based on games through Sunday, July 13: Seattle 2.47 Kansas City 1.83 Washington 1.53 Portland 1.47 Chicago 1.47 Western NY 1.28 Houston 1.00 NJ/NY 0.94 Boston 0.65 Practically speaking, I'm seeing Seattle as "in" the playoffs and Houston, NJ/NY, and Boston as "out." I'm seeing Kansas City is looking pretty good, but maybe there's now some doubt. Washington, Chicago, and Portland are in more or less of a dead heat, with Western NY a little behind them. Here are the "maybe" teams' remaining schedules, not in chronological order but in order of where their opponents fit in the above standings (last game of the season highlighted): Chicago Seattle @ A Kansas City @ H Washington @ A Portland @ H Western NY @ H Houston @ H Boston @ H Portland Seattle @ A Seattle @ H Washington @ A Chicago @ A Houston @ H Boston @ H Boston @ A Western NY Kansas City @ H Chicago @ A Sky Blue @ A Sky Blue @ H Boston @ H Boston @ A Kansas City Seattle @ H Washington @ A Chicago @ A Western NY @ A Sky Blue @ H Boston @ H Washington Seattle @ A Kansas City @ H Portland @ H Chicago @ H Houston @ A Sky Blue @ A Sky Blue @ H I notice a bunch of things, but here are a couple: Both Kansas City and Western NY play their last games against Chicago. Although Western NY is a little behind the others, it looks to have an easier remaining schedule than the others. Portland already is done playing Kansas City and Western NY, but is the only one of the group with two games against Seattle. Of the teams' remaining games against the bottom three (for practical purposes not playoff contenders), Chicago has 2 (of 7 games), Portland has 3 (of 7), Western NY has 4 (of 6), Kansas City has 2 (of 6), and Washington has 3 (of 7).
Ain't that the truth! But what an amazing performance by Vero on Sunday. And I'm glad jigsawill shows the clunkers as well as some of the relatively "simple" and mundane plays to put an individual's game in context, especially a playmaker like Vero. To show how she makes the simple plays, the intelligent plays, and doesn't try to force too much, too often. Really great video recap by @jigsawill and hope a lot of young girls playing youth soccer get to see it, get to see a "wizard" at her work.
I'll put this in its proper place in the Week 15 thread when it appears but for now I'll put this heads up on the referee assignments for this week's games (source Professional Referee Organization website): 07/17/2014 Chicago Red Stars vs. Portland Thorns Benedictine U. Sports Complex (8:00pm ET) REFEREE: JOSH WILKENS AR1: Hagan Barnett AR2: Jordan A. Pramuk 4TH: Edgar Osorio Houston Dash vs. Washington Spirit BBVA Compass Stadium (9:00pm ET) REFEREE: MICHAEL ZAPATA AR1: Mark Boyko AR2: Cory Richardson 4TH: Suzanne Bilbrey 07/18/2014 Western New York Flash vs. FC Kansas City Sahlen’s Stadium (7:30pm ET) REFEREE: ELVIS MAHMUTOVIC AR1: Amanda Ross AR2: Albert Calise 4TH: Christopher Trottier 07/20/2014 Portland Thorns vs. Boston Breakers Providence Park (5:00pm ET) REFEREE: MARGARET DOMKA AR1: Veronica Perez AR2: Marlene Duffy 4TH: Farhad Dadkho Sky Blue vs. Washington Spirit Yurcak Field (6:00pm ET) REFEREE: BERNHARD HOSU AR1: TJ Zablocki AR2: Kyle Atkins 4TH: Neil Barbelescu Seattle Reign vs. Chicago Red Stars Moda Pitch Memorial Stadium (7:00pm ET) REFEREE: DAVID MON AR1: Vicente Cortes AR2: Kelsey Harms 4TH: Timon Berry 07/23/2014 Washington Spirit vs. Portland Thorns Maureen Hendricks Field Maryland SoccerPlex (7:00pm ET) REFEREE: KATJA KOROLEVA AR1: Kathryn Nesbitt AR2: Hagan Barnett 4TH: Danielle Chesky
That was an odd play but I guess we've seen worse. Angeli did come in late and, according to some, after the whistle and of course by that time it's right in front of the ref. You'd think Huster or the 2nd Washington player would've picked up the foul but I guess you could say Angeli wasn't completely innocent there either. Oh well... I don't remember objecting to that much else in the match. No surprise to see Margaret Domka as the ref in the TV match, as she's the highest -ranking female referee right now in the US and our FIFA ref. Not saying how good I think she is although I felt Seattle deserved two PKs last week in Chicago. The interesting assignment to me is David Mon for what could be a heated rematch between Chicago and Seattle, right on the heels of Chicago ending Seattle's undefeated streak. I don't know him at all but that doesn't mean much. I assume he's pretty experienced. But, from the list of assignments (which is not authoritative), he's only been assigned one match this season for the NWSL. However, that doesn't always mean much either. Domka has far fewer assignments than many other refs. In the early part of the season, she wasn't assigned any but she could've been on international duty or any number of things (unavailable due to her day job for instance). However she's picking up assignments now in the latter part of the season. Still I'm very curious to see how he calls this match. Remember, the last time Chicago was in Seattle, nine yellow cards and two PKs were handed out by Dimitar Chavdarov and Keelin Winters left the game after getting elbowed in the head.
I think Domka might be getting more matches now to get ready for the U-20 WC next month. And just for the record, I think Koroleva is the best ref the league has had, even if she does like to give questionable bookings to a certain number 10.
I have a pretty good opinion of Koroleva. My impression is she's very competent and I thought it was no accident that she was among the referees selected for the first weekend of the season. However I think I would put her (tentatively) in the "orthodox" school or philosophy of refereeing. So I may have some objections to her refereeing but they are objections that apply to the majority of referees as a whole and not to her individually. Anyone have any recollections or opinions of David Mon who is scheduled to referee the Seattle/Chicago rematch?
It's not a coincidence that of the 3 playoff matches last year, the only one that was fairly reffed was the SkyBlue/WNY match that she did. I had more complaints about DiCicco's biased commentary than about Koroleva's officiating. She did a good job of keeping that match firmly in control, not being afraid to dish out the cards to do so. I could quibble about the yellow on Lloyd, but that's the only thing. I don't think he's done a match yet this year. He was scheduled to do the SkyBlue/Houston match that got postponed, but that's the only one.