Injury report Fine: Seattle, Orlando, North Carolina, Chicago, Boston Inconvenient: Sky Blue, Houston Bad: Portland Devastating: Kansas City, Washington Playing weather looks great in Portland. Boston should be fine (maybe the awful glare won't be as bad with a later kickoff time). There's a heat wave in Cary which may slow the game down. Toasty in Boyds too but should cool off some by 7 ET; sporadic storms in DC area forecasted tonight. Tomorrow's weather looks crisp and cool for Sky Blue's home opener.
Entertaining game in Cary. Orlando is unlucky to be down. Marta crossed a fantastic ball to Spencer in front and it rolled under her foot from 2 yards out. Later Spencer returned the favor, crossing to Marta to volley home...only for D'Angelo to get a piece of it and Dahlkemper cleared it off the line. In other news, Portland up 1-0 on Nadim's PK. No game in Portland is complete unless the Thorns are given a penalty.
Yeah that PK was questionable not least of which the ball was hit away from the goal and her arm was in kinda a natural position. I did not like the call. The handball on Alleway was the correct call. Orlando is in dire need of a reliable striker. Marta is creating so many chances with no one at the end of it.
They have Alex Morgan, but she's in France. They have Rachel Hill, but she's at school. Sermanni seems to think Danica Evans is best used off the bench.
One wonders where this Portland team will be if it weren't for PK calls at very fortunate moments. In that opening match Orlando was matching them until that PK. Same thing today.
It's one of the things that makes me root against them, as a neutral. They benefit from the referees' calls far too often.
I get the WAS-HOU stream twice, no matter which game I click. And it cut away from the anthem line to a Please Wait. go90 can't/won't show two different streams concurrently? Boo
[WAS-HOU] 10' 0-0 I zap this go90 stream with a Wand of Polymorph, and it becomes -- [BOS-SEA] 10' 1-0 Boston down box right, cross toward 9m center, Mathias backheels it away -- but directly to Leon, who drives to 2m right post and slips a low bouncer under Kopmeyer's sprawling left hand. The wand charge wears off, and -- [WAS-HOU] 14' 0-0 Far-side stands, and Houston's endzone hill, look at about 30% capacity. Roccaro chips toward spot, Hagen collides chest-to-chest with Labbé, stays down clutching left forearm near elbow. Stoppage, trainers, she resumes and jogs to midfield touch to re-enter. It could actually be worse; they could interlace the two streams into one feed.
Boston not content to be Seattle's doormat any longer, leading 2-0 only 15 minutes in. Goals by Leon and Lavelle.
26' 2-0 Kopmeyer gk to Yanez just past midfield, one-touch ping rightward toward Kawasumi, intercepted by Lavelle. Lavelle promptly sprint-dribbles 40m to box top arc left, leaving players on both benches feeling ... old. Backpass lost, Seattle (Nairn?) promptly hoofs long up box mid-left, low and fast over everybody, drops perfectly into Rapinoe's stride. Rapinoe slows up a bit to 12m mid-left, shoots low left post directly into Smith. Seattle's midfield is not nearly as dominant as in the Little era: they look a step behind. [WAS-HOU] 28' 0-1 Bruna to Ohai.
Ohai doing Ohai things. Houston has too much athleticism for Washington to handle. I was surprised by how low many prognosticators ranked the Dash. When they have Andressa and Brian back, not to mention Lloyd creating havoc, along with their pacy forwards, I think they can cause anyone trouble. Defense is a question mark, but I don't think they are as bad as last week's 5-1 loss in Seattle showed. The Boston stream is eminently more watchable with this later kickoff time. Last week you couldn't tell what was happening on the entire left side of the picture, with that glare.
Lol, I was actually talking about the stream but I think I'll go ahead and apply it to the score as well.
[QUOTE=" Seattle's midfield is not nearly as dominant as in the Little era: they look a step behind. [/QUOTE] Seattle is missing both her skill and her passion.
Dowie laces it! 3-0. You can't help but feel excited for the Boston faithful, and for long suffering players like Julie King.