It's a busy week in NWSL, with all teams playing 2-3 games between this past Saturday and this coming "Super Saturday", which will have 5 games on the same day for the first time since 2017. Before then, though, is our second slate of midweek games. 6/22 RGN vs CHI, 10pm (Twitch) 6/23 KC vs ORL, 2pm[!] (P+) LOU vs NC, 7:30pm (P+) 6/26 CHI vs LOU, 2pm (P+) RGN vs NJY, 4pm (P+) NC vs POR, 7pm (P+) HOU vs ORL, 8pm (P+) KC vs DC, 8:30pm (Twitch) The midweek matches create an interesting dynamic with the standings. With three games last time (e.g six teams in action) and three games this time, it in theory could've worked out that two teams will be a game ahead of the other eight after 6/23. However, Gotham will have missed out on both midweek slates so far, leaving them one game behind the majority and three other teams (ORL, CHI, KC) one game ahead. Obviously this means KC is under huge pressure to produce their first win, as being at the bottom of the table even after playing extra games is a certain death sentence. On the other side of the field, ORL will be seriously hoping to get back in the win column as all of their chasers (including POR) will have a game in hand on the Pride after this midweek - the four teams on bye this midweek include teams 2-4 in the current standings. (And: who the heck scheduled a midweek game at 1pm local time???) On Super Saturday, the biggest match will probably be NC vs POR, as they are not only the two powerhouses of the past few years, but home team NC is noticeably below POR in the standings at the moment, and will be no matter their midweek result. Either POR sends a message to the rest of the league that the Shield is theirs, or we get some of my hoped-for Table Chaos.
The announcers make a big deal out of the three stars for Orlando: Leroux, Morgan, and Marta -- but I believe the big difference between Orlando of 2019 and the Orlando of 2021 is three near-rookies: Korniak, McClernon, and Petersen. In 2019, Orlando scored 24 goals and gave up 53 in 24 games. In 2021, Orlando has scored 8 goals and given up 5 in 6 games. That's a dramatic difference on defense.
Today's game I would choose Reign over Chicago. Tomorrow it will be Orlando over KC NCC over Louisville even with Gemma and Ebony on the team now. Its going to be pretty tight. I'll put in my picks for Saturday games on later date as I watch these upcoming games before making my decision.
I finally had more right than wrong is past weekend 3 to 2, putting me overall 7 correct and 20 incorrect. For Tue-Wed, I am going with wins for ORL and NC, (NC may be impacted if Williams doesn't make the Olympic Team). I would say both CHI and RGN need wins badly, so I will make that game a draw, with no one going home pleased.
To single out a couple of players I'm enjoying watching this year. Caprice Dydasco has finally come into her own as one of the best fullbacks in the league. I remember her at UCLA a few years ago. She and her opposite number, Ally Courtnall, were the best fullback duo ever. A second player I'm enjoying is Angela Salem. I've always believed that she was a good defensive midfielder, similar to and as good as McCall Zerboni, although without the flash of Zerboni -- and here she is starting for Portland and doing a fine job. No small accomplishment that.
Right on. She has done really well, solid as a rock. I think how she fits with the other players on the field is great and illustrates how a player can excel if among other compatible players. Of course, it helps if the other compatible players are Sauerbrunn, Menges, Klingenberg, and Westphal or Kuikka behind her and Horan, Sinclair, and Dunn in front of her.
Watching CHI-RGN. Chicago sucks. Dames can use short turnaround, travel and narrow field as excuses, (not reffing for this one because Chesky has not called many fouls comitted by Chicago), but the truth is that his relationship with the team has gone stale. Whatever he is doing just is not working anymore.
None of the Chicago players don't stand out and become playmakers and help the team since the season started and are missing Sam Kerr since. Hence why I choose OL Reign.
Whew! Chicago was demolished. Lucky it wasn't 4 to 0. The only Chicago player who showed me anything was forward Katie Johnson and she had few touches. "Where have you gone Samantha Kerr? Chicago turns its lonely eyes to you. Woo, woo, woo." Huerta was clearly the POTM. She must have set a record in miles run. Quinn was also very good. Bouhadi is the most nerve-jangling goalie in the world. A risk-taker, but she didn't pay for any of her risky moves tonight.
We only had one match to base it on today, but I guess we can say that "table chaos" reigns, right? X-D Okay that was bad. But point stands that, as of right now, only 2pts separate 3rd from 9th, which is saying something since we're a basically quarter of the way through the season now. (We're actually one game shy at the moment, i.e. average of 5.8 games/team, and will be one game over tomorrow, 6.2 games/team.)
KC puts a second into the back of the net, and this one isn't called offside! Time for Table Chaos? Nope! KC keeper mishandles a shot on the near post to tie it up at 1-1 deep into 1st half stoppage time. Lots of odd injury stoppages in the first half - battle of attrition in the heat, but no players actually off yet - totaling up to a whopping 11min of stoppage time in the first half, btw.
Hot damn, Leroux with a phenomenal curling shot from just outside the box into the far side netting barely 4min into the second half; ORL with the lead now.
And Marta scores from the center circle to make it 1-3 in favor of ORL with 5min left in regulation. No Table Chaos from this match, despite KC having been showing good efforts to get back into the match over the second half!
Looking at the celebration after Marta's goal from 50 yards distance, do you think maybe she still enjoys playing this game?
NC outclassed LOU again, making yesterday a very poor day for home teams (or a very poor day for the new girls on the block). Also, even as we talk about how close the table currently is, SportsClubStats is already seeing a good stratification: the RPI and Strength numbers now largely agree with the table overall, meaning the six in and four out seem largely settled, though the Dash still have an over-50% chance of making the playoffs. The Dash and other playoff teams all have less than 2.5% chance of winning the Wooden Spoon, while poor KC now has a greater than 2/3 chance of doing so. The Shield is still a three-horse race, with those three teams all 90%+ for the playoffs at this point.
On a related note, I really wish NWSL would fix their G*D* standings page for Home and Away losses... Right now, the H&A losses are duplicated from the total losses instead of actually split... Which works fine for ORL but f's up everyone else by giving the appearance of doubling their losses. Poor KC looks like they're 0-12-2 (WLT) if you combine what's showing in the Home and Away columns. I mean, if you know what the error is (i.e. the W and T numbers are fine) then you can properly reason out what the L numbers are... But it's highly annoying.
I can’t help but think that it is human nature that players who are Olympics-bound will be playing with less than reckless abandon. That and no Rachel Daly hurts HOU, and takes some of the bite out of NC-POR. Midweek I was 2 and 1, for running total of 9 correct and 21 incorrect. For Saturday, I am going with wins for CHI, RGN, ORL, and WAS and a draw for NC-POR.
Tough to call on this one. Racing and Chicago wants a win badly. Chicago With the international players and good young players they should win this. Reign It’s Orlando! Orlando Kansas still need to get a win and are desperate. But I don’t think they have enough. Washington This one is tough between the two teams. NCC I’ll say that since the all those players going to Olympics we going to see the younger or other players get to play during that time.
It's kinda unbelievable that OL Reign will all its imported talent loses 3-0 to Gotham. And Chicago was just wiped out by no-name Louisville. Watching the matches, I was thinking Allie Long could do a good job filling in for Ertz at the World Cup. Well, too late for that....
I imagine the new Reign players will take some time to gel with the existing squad. Glad to see Louisville get the win.
I didn't get to watch either CHI-LOU or RGN-NJY, but just looking at the stats, it seems like both games were closer than the score suggests, with both home teams out-shooting the victorious visitors and having higher passing accuracy. RGN I'd definitely believe, and it sounds like some of their best chances came from their internationals. CHI, I'm more worried about, especially since their result played into "Table Chaos" with LOU leapfrogging CHI with the result. (NJY was already ahead of RGN, and this result certainly seems to justify NJY's presence in the Challenge Cup final.)