As to Arnim Whistler's broadcasting career, he mentioned that their regular guy Ben Solomon is leaving because of real world commitments (damn jobs!) and they r trying out a couple replacements but want to be sure they were ready before throwing them out there. I actually enjoy Whistler in the booth. While he cant do PbyP he certainly throws out interesting info like they may have one more international coming in.
I also stuck out the rain delay and thought this was a good match, although I had some trouble IDing all the Houston players given the conditions, the fact that I was holding umbrella and had a ton of junk in my lap under poncho, so could not easily consult game program - so sorry I did not come out with as clear an idea of people's play as I would have liked. Thought the Red Stars played well... very happy to see Jen Hoy get her goal - she is a great worker every game. Henninger really helped out the Dash with her play especially given the conditions, the score line could have been much worse. Thought Melissa Tancredi looked pretty good considering it was her first match in who knows how long. Chalupny had a great game, also Hayley Brock, and I would say the whole CRS back line. Concerned about Zakiya Bywaters, have not looked into any reports to see if she was ill or picked up an injury - but she surely did not look like herself and was only on the field about 20 minutes and consistently outrun by her defender (very unusual for her). Dash brought it in the second half and certainly were throwing everything at the Red Stars for the last 10 minutes or so, trying to pull out that tie. Reffing was pretty meh.
You watched Souza for her 15 minutes of fame and thought she was the Dash's best. She is pretty good but not any better than others who started. If you had not seen Noyola since that same game against Boston, you would have thought the same about her. The Dash is having problems because they are missing some players that keep others from playing true to their positions which makes all look bad. The last few games they did not have the same back line, the same midfield they had in training camp so everyone suffered. Since the backs were new to the positions or sometimes slow, the centers had to pinch in more and the outside backs couldn'd push forward like they want to. It also prevented one of the DM to move up and forced the CAM and forwards to drop back many times. With 1 or 2 players out of position they could not play small ball out of the back all the way up the field like they practiced all training camps. When they have the right personnel, you would see: 1) Keeper distributes to one of the center backs who spread out real wide, much wider than most other teams, almost to the either touch line. At the same time the outside backs are already up to the half way line. 2) One of the DMs checks back thru the center to get the ball if the ball cannot be moved up the touchline. She drops as low as or lower than the CB even. Most of the time it's Edwards but if she is covered, she checks away and Bock checks back. They had such good chemistry between them, you'd think they were one person. Right now, the other DM does not read the game as well, the best one is Jackson but she is still not playing the position like Bock did. Also they need the center backs to spread further out so there are room in the middle of the field (for 2 DM to drop back) but they are not doing that. They form 2 triangles on each side of the field to move the ball. CB, DM, OB. Once the ball is off the CB, the CAM or forward(s) joins and forms another triangle and on they go with the outside backs running the whole length of the pitch. They have not been able to do that much since the Boston game.
The problem is, this is a professional league, trying to represent itself as being professional. Not some amateur flybytheseatoftheirpants league. It doesn't matter if there was a monsoon (like the one game in NJ), there should have been someone with the ability to do the PBP in the booth. Even if they had just gotten one of the horrible PBP guys that the US Soccer streams have used, it would've been better. I have no problem when he comes in to do some additional commentary, but that's very different than being the one trying to call the run of play and identifying players. And really, isn't that supposed to be the point of having a person talking over the action in the first place? If you can't even do that, it'd be better to just have the ambient stadium sounds, rather than spending most of the time talking about stuff unrelated to the game at hand while action is happening and then trying to talk over the other person who was continuing your off topic conversation when you get excited about your team getting a shot on goal.
Well, no. Ive seen Noyola play more than enough so I wouldnt have thought the same. Souza on the other hand Ive only seen snippets a couple times. What she showed me is she can move the ball forward and connect passes. Now whether she can play like that over a long period at this level still needs to be answered. Still what's the other choice? Klingenberg could help them if they choose to use her there. What they cant do is the same old thing. Jackson is a nice players but not a play maker. Edwards is solid but needs a partner to link with. Kyle has her uses but possession passing isnt one of them. Noyola shouldnt be starting. Ohai is a wing player. Id still give Souza a look either as the play maker in the 4-3-3 or as one of the mids in the diamond.
Gotta love when Alex Morgan criticizes the lack of professionalism in the league. She watches a lot of Futebol across the world, and compares this to the men's game, especially Barcelona. Baby Horse has higher standards of this league (as does Paulson). She's a big timer now. $4,000,000+.
I saw the Red Stars vs. Houston feed last night and I as a Red Stars fan had no problem with it. We got to learn some inside scoops, etc. He is the only owner who is actually transparent and is willing to give out a detail or two about the league. So quit complaining, please. Arnim has dedicated tons of his money and time for this team and this league. He has probably lost more money keeping the Red Stars brand going so that we can enjoy pro women's soccer in Chicago and Midwest, then most of us will make in a life-time, I'm willing to guess. If Arnim Whisler wants to come on and be a color commentator on a Red Stars feed once in a while, I'm all good with that. You non-Red stars fans may not understand this, but I do.
Hear, hear! I enjoyed the owner's inside info which he shared. Amd I also think Chicago will be improving as the season goes on. Tancredi now, Press later, and I think I just heard they have Van Egmond coming. Chicago has a good chance of making the playoffs.
Or she decided to commit a controversial tweet to bring folks to her Twitter so she can hawk more books. Thre is never any bad press.
The Washington Freedom won 7 regular-season games in a row, but that was split between the 2002 (4) and 2003 (3) seasons. From what I can tell from my comments on the matches, no one to that point had won more than 5 in a row.
But they lost a playoff match in between, right? I count playoff matches in my streaks (unless I want to specifically point out regular-season-only stuff). It's why I don't currently have WNY on a 13-game home undefeated streak, and why Portland came into this season with a four-game undefeated streak.
As I said before, I find it interesting when he comes on to do additional commentary. I have no problem with that. But he's not a PBP guy. It nothing to do with Red Stars fans vs everyone else. So tired of that drivel. If any other owner came on and did play by play of the same "quality" for any other team, people would complain exactly the same. It doesn't reflect well on the league when they can't get someone to do proper play by play. I mean, the guy couldn't even properly identify players on his own team... if you don't think that looks bad to a casual fan, you're a far more optimistic person than I. You can't just constantly give the Red Stars a free pass for all the mistakes they make just cause you're a fan or because Arnim is a great guy (I agree, he seems like a great guy although we've never met). They need to be held accountable for them, if they're ever going to improve.
Yeah yeah. "It doesn't look professional" and all that. I don't want to make too much about it. It IS a startup league. It ISN'T the NBA or NFL or any of the big sports. I think you can look at it as being one of the charms of a fledgling league that the owner steps in to do the broadcast. Casual fans? What casual fans - we're all diehards here and we're a small enough number, a community really, that the word should make the rounds so people understand what was going on. It's okay to voice some irritation about it but it's just as important that fans like MRAD12 remind us how much guys like Arnim are doing for the game we love.
I'm not giving anyone a pass. But this night was different. It rained Biblically on and off for 3 hours. I fell asleep in my car. When I woke up the parking lot was pretty empty except for a few of us diehards who are always there. The stadium crew was bear bones. I'm sure the color announcer had left after waiting three hours. Janet was till there and Arnim helped out. Like I said, it was late, rainy, and a little cold. I didn't get home till after midnight. But, in my opinion, you would have to be there to understand what kind of night it was and why I am OK with Arnim being there. I doubt he'll do it again. He is a soft spoken guy and I'm sure he did his best never having any experience in a booth like this. I'll give him a pass. I don't think it's Red Stars vs everyone else, but it does seem sometimes the Red stars get beaten up quite a bit. Whether it's for a stadium with football lines, to the internet feed to it's owner. And as a fan, I can't help but get a little defensive once in a while. Because it's my home team. They have worked hard to improve this year from last year and I'm glad we have an owner that's willing to "lose" money so that we in Chicago and midwest can watch women's pro soccer. This is a team I have supported and bought season tickets for since 2009 in the WPS. I'm sorry if you're tired of my drivel.
Yes, we are all diehards here in the NWSL forum (all what 20 or so of us that post regularly). But the NWSL attendance and viewership is not all diehards. There are casual WoSo fans that buy a ticket for one game. Or who might decide to watch a game online on a lark cause a player tweeted about it and they are sitting at home bored or something. If they then see a stream like Chicago's, they'll think the league is just a joke and go back to only caring about the USWNT and/or college team that they follow. Portland also had their PBP announcer unable to make a game, but they brought in a fill-in guy to do the job (I know, some people criticized him for not being Anne Schatz, but it appears much more professional to do that than have people that don't know how to do a PBP). Hopefully every team (other than Chicago, clearly) has backup announcers already lined up/in their phone's contact list to call in case the primary ones can not make it.
My last comment on this. There weren't a whole lot of people left around when the game started 3 hours later, it's possible the "regular" guy had another obligation and Arnim volunteered to fill in. The storms were suddenly big. It was a beautiful day just before it started storming. I doubt they anticipated that much of a pause. I'm sure Portland had plenty of time to find a replacement for the regular lady. The Red Stars may have not. I doubt anyone else would have driven to Benedictine to replace in that bad weather. And it was bad. This was on the fly. It was an extraordinary evening. I even contemplated going home. But fell asleep in my car for a couple of hours. There was a Tornado watch for Pete's sake. I understand where you guys are coming from. But again you would have to be there to understand the circumstance. In my opinion.