Quite a lot of games this week. I'll follow SiberianThunderT and include Monday's game in this week's discussion. --Sky Blue @ Spirit, Wednesday 7:00pm --Reign @ Kansas City, Wednesday 8:00pm --Flash @ Thorns, Wednesday 10:00pm --Red Stars @ Dash, Friday 8:00pm --Sky Blue @ Thorns, Saturday 10:00pm --Kansas City @ Breakers, Sunday 7:00pm --Flash @ Reign, Sunday 7:00pm --Dash @ Spirit, Monday 4:00pm
Today has some really good matches. It seems like the entire Redskins team will be at the Plex tonight so it should be an interesting one. The one think I kept thinking about is the fact that the spirit are hitting their ceiling when it comes to attendance. The last two games where virtually sellouts. One have to think that during the summer, there will be an attendance increase and they may have to turn people away.
And they are tweeting about it a lot. It seems that for some it will be first soccer game ever. I hope it's gonna be a good one.
I don't understand this, why not look for a venue change? Also, if the Spirit are starting to do really well, wouldn't DC United be interested in investing in the club?
Well given how the venue change is going for FCKC and Boston, I don't think the Spirit will be rushing to move anywhere. If they have extra cash, they can look to extend the seating at the plex
The Reign made a move and from what I can tell have improved in numbers this year. Boston & FCKC numbers are more likely due to their struggling on the pitch, but then again I guess you can say the Reign numbers improved because of their success. My head hurts now.
Thanks for starting the thread. I've been trying for 2 days and couldn't. Got a terrible feeling about the Flash match, after what happened against the Spirit.
You have to take a lot of things into account: --Ease of access at the location --Ticket prices --Team performance --Marketing and outreach Seattle has been great at #4, and improved #1 and #3 this year. For FCKC, I'm not sure about #1, but last year's success suggests they're good at #4 as well. I think their slump is less from #3 and mostly from #2. Boston has never done well with #4, so the abysmal #3 is hurting them all the more. Remember that last year, the Spirit also were really bad at #3 (and, honestly, #1 and #2 as well,) but were amazing with #4. They've gotten worse with #2 but better with #3, so their attendance has gone up. It might be worthwhile for them to move, but aside from RFK I don't know of a bigger stadium than the main field at the Soccerplex in the area. None of the local universities have soccer stadia with normal capacity over 5k, which is what the Spirit are already drawing, so why move out of the amazing facilities? Especially as (as Blaze said) there's room to expand the seating at the 'plex.
Continuing from the weekend, Dunn starts at RB and Krieger at CB #WAS Starting XI: Harris, Dunn, Krieger, Huster, Gayle, Averbuch, Nairn, Lindsey, Matheson, Perez, Taylor— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) May 21, 2014 As for sky blue, Lloyden returns as GK while Ohara is up front at the 3rd forward #SBFC Starting XI: Loyden, Johnson, Goodson, Rampone, Levin, Nick, Freels, Schmidt, O'Hara, Ocampo, Hayes— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) May 21, 2014
10' 0-0 Freels dribbles to box arc top center, squares left to Hayes at box top mid-left -- and Dunn robs her. 11' 0-0 Washington left corner, to nobody at 14m 6-right. Washington right throw-in, shot wide right as Loyden gathers.
So Cox is still not starting but it seems Harvey open and read my email about starting Deines to have more bodies in the middle. #ReignFC starting XI vs @FCKansasCity: Solo, Dallstream, Barnes, Fletcher, Reed, Winters, Deines, Fishlock, Little, Goebel, Leroux.— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) May 21, 2014
Washington: Dunn for RB #22 Sierra, Matheson up top? 17 Veronica Perez, 14 Jodie Taylor, 8 Diana Matheson 7 Christine Nairn, 4 Yael Averbuch, 6 Lori Lindsey 5 Robyn Gayle, 23 Victoria Huster, 11(c) Ali Krieger, 19 Crystal Dunn 1 Ashlyn Harris Sky Blue: K.Johnson to LB, O'Hara up to LF for #6 Lytle (tibia, meniscus). 19 Kelley O'Hara, 8 Monica Ocampo, 11 Maya Hayes 12 Ashley Nick, 10 Katy Freels, 13 Sophie Schmidt 5 Kendall Johnson, 2 Courtney Goodson, 3(c) Christie Rampone, 22 Cami Levin 21 Jill Loyden
So apparently Dallstream, aka Dave who is a natural forward, is actually playing up top. Barnes shift to LB and Deines drops back into CB. I welcome this change because Dallstream will provide the necessary width on the Left/Right.
19' 0-0 Sky Blue switches to Hayes wide-open at 20m wide right. She takes Gayle down box right, gets past her, cuts inward to 6-top right. Sandwiched 1-v-2 by Huster and Gayle, tries unwisely to make one cut too many -- Huster takes it away. 21' 0-0 Ocampo pounces on a loose ping at 27m arc left, dribbles to box arc top left, shoots to left post low -- Harris dives and saves. Schmidt runs on at 6-top mid-left, clean whiff. Settles ball back to Freels running through 8m left post, one-touch shot blocked wide left and over. One part defense, one part quack, shake well.
Mmmhh. A couple of clumsy touches and uninspired long balls so far. O'Hara would look way better if she could keep the ball closer to her foot (technical deficits?), Schmidt missed a sitter. Ocampo on the other hand looks dangerous.
23' 0-0 Sky Blue longball up centerline finds Ocampo splitting past both CBs at 25m. Ocampo dribbles through box top arc left, allows Krieger to overtake on the left and shoulder-challenge -- ball leaks out, Harris sprawls on it. Ocampo shakes her head. 24' 0-0 LB Gayle takes RB Levin down into box left, does a flick-across Levin's front (facing endline), cuts and runs behind -- beats her, but Rampone(?) clears over. I think somebody's been studying Tymrak ...
25' 0-0 Washington left corner, to 6-top right, Huster heads -- wide right? Stream is buffering. Maybe it's me? 27' 0-0 Matheson shake-and-bakes "LB" #5 Johnson at box top mid-right, gets into box as Johnson stumbles backward -- pulls a low roller across mouth. Loyden a bit nonchalant(?), no dive or sprawl as ball misses wide left by ~1m or a bit less. 27' 0-0 Sky Blue cross toward Schmidt at 7m center, Harris smothers it just ahead of her.
31' 0-0 Washington runs through box top mid-right, taps down to 6m mid-right for Matheson trailing. Hard low cross to 2m right post, Loyden sprawls from the post and only gets a hand on it -- pushes ball out to 4m, behind Lindsey's run to the goalline. Goodson(?) clears. 35' 0-0 O'Hara steals from Dunn at box left foot, wins a corner. 36' 0-0 Sky Blue left throw-in, Johnson turns circles and finally pulls a cross through the spot, too wide and it rolls through box right. Freels(?) chases it down, holds at wide right ... runs a half-moon to 8m box right, crosses left foot to 4m left post waist-high. Hayes is just open past her defender, hops and -- whiffs.
Both team are dedicated on the defensive side but lack precision when going forward. Too many errand passes, lackadasical plays and weak stops. Kinda untidy when on the ball. True for both teams. I liked Lloyden's clearing on the sharp cross ... would have been a tap in otherwise for the Washington striker.
38' 1-0 Levin fouls somebody. Washington fk at 33m box left, Nairn curls it to 12m right post -- bounces around, bounces out to 24m mid-right. Krieger retrieves it, center pass to Dunn up at 24m centerline. Dunn shimmy-shakes, opens hips for right instep touch pass through box top arc right for Gayle timing the backline. #2 Goodson steps across, Gayle has to crab-hop rightward to clear her -- ball is still there at 15m! Gayle shoots under Loyden, into 1/4 right back low. 41' 1-0 Nairn, running at 27m arc left, shoots high with Loyden backpedaling -- curls wide right and over the upper 90.