58' 2-2 Boston subs in (1 of 3) #18 Madlyn Evans for #12 Kathryn Schoepfer. 60' 2-2 Boston subs in (2 of 3) #7 Jazmine Reeves for #14 Lisa De Vanna. 71' 2-2 Boston subs in (3 of 3) #22 Nkemjika Ezurike for #19 Kristie Mewis. Washington: <farside>Say, look what they're doing.</farside>
Boston has a Sanderson-to-Whitehill goal called offside and the Taylor books one for DC a minute later... Sucks for Boston!
73' 2-2 Taylor comes back past center circle right to challenge for ball, sprawls down near ball, then slaps ball in frustration and pops up, claiming a foul. Handball on Taylor 73' 2-2 Boston fk, Sanderson sails it to 9m 6-left. Whitehill emerges back-first from the scrum, heads across her left shoulder -- perfectly past Harris, bounces into right side netting! No goal -- offside?! 75' 2-3 Lohman dribbles back toward own box top at 25m box right, brushes past Whitehill, who steps out of the way. Lohman not expecting that? Taylor overtakes from the right, Lohman stumbles, Taylor takes ball. Alone through box top mid-right to 12m, chips Naeher softly, bends into left side netting.
No kidding. She probably should be praying Sanderson can score again to save her hide. Obviously I know you guys are breathlessly awaiting my commentary on the SRFC v SBFC match. Don't have much to say but will try to forget the first half ever existed as we continue to be stagnant in the attack with players multiple time opting to pull the ball back when they could have made the through pass or just put the ball in the 6-yard box. The second half was the best Seattle have played all season with the attack being dynamic and players making runs into space and not each other. Lastly, someone needs to give Reed a snickers because she haven't been herself lately. Dallstream, can't comment
76' 2-3 Washington subs in (1 of 3) #17 Veronica Perez for #6 Lori Lindsey. 77' 2-3 Washington subs in (2 of 3) #9 Renae Cuellar for #14 Jodie Taylor. 77' 2-3 Perez jumps for a header vs. back pressure -- ball skitters off her left cornea? Perez down with eye pain. 78' 2-3 Perez helped to the far touch sideboards.
81' 2-3 Ezurike backshields 3-4 defenders at 7m center, finally backpasses to Lohman, who snipes for the upper left 90 but misses high and wide left. 83' 2-3 Boston bounces a ball to Sanderson 1-v-1 at 3m 6-right. She clears space and swings left foot chest-high roundhouse, shanks it way high. 84' 2-3 Washington bounce a ball to Adams 1-v-2 at 20m mid-right, one-touch right outstep flick just over bar.
84' 2-3 Boston down box right, Huster cedes a corner. 85' 2-3 Boston right corner, outswings to the spot, Whitehill heads it softly to Harris at 2m. 85' 2-3 Boston pass to Ezurike at 9m 6-right, Huster called for putting it over.
86' 2-3 Boston right corner, over mouth to 6-left. Washington keeps it in, Boston circulates right. O'Reilly crosses low to 14m center, cleared. Soft chip to 10m mid-left finds Whitehill wide-open. One-touch cross low to 2m right post, behind the defense but nobody gets there. 88' 2-3 O'Reilly down wide right through box right foot, Dunn slide-tackles over. 88' 2-3 Washington subs in (2 of 3) #28 Jordan Angeli for #7 Christine Nairn. 89' 2-3 Boston right corner, cleared. Lohman settles at 20m arc right, shoots high and wide left.
The match against Boston on the 19th when most of the NTers are gone is going to be a big concern for Seattle IMO. The replacements just aren't producing.
90' 2-3 Reeves down wide right, Huster pokes into touch. Boston right throw-in, cleared. +3'. 90+1' (of +3') 2-3 Sanderson fouled at circle top right. fk bounces in the box, Evans called for a high kick. 90+2' (of +3') 2-3 Adams fouled at midfield box left.
90+2' (of +3') 2-3 Washington fk up wide left -- Adams offside? N.Washington picks it up while still in play ... eventually takes the fk. 90+3' (of +3') 2-3 O'Reilly drives to 24m mid-right, flicks wide right for Reeves. Unwise low cross into 4 defenders, cleared. Sanderson regathers, goes down wide right, slices cross behind endline -- no touch. FT 2-3.
Well the only comforting feeling right now is Naho will be here. I'm hoping Frisbie will be ready by then but who knows. If I'm Harvey, my strategy will be to park the bus, we have the defensive players to do that. But you are right Foxhoven and Dallstream will need to STEP UP. Deines and Noqueira have been good
All teams suffer when their national team players are gone. But Seattle has many non-NT players doing fine: Fletcher, Barnes, Reed, Winters, Goebel; as subs Deines and Nogueira as you mention. I'm assuming Cox is going to get a callup. I know more is expected of Foxhoven and Dallstream but compared with the pool of other non-NT players they're doing alright.
After review the video the league has awarded the first Seattle goal to Kendall Fletcher which by my estimation makes it at least a 60 yard bomb.
So how much longer before we can say that Seattle has already mathematically clinched the #1 spot. By the end of June?
Most teams would still have 10 games to play by the end of June, so Seattle would need to be 30pts ahead of everyone. Right now they can only add 12pts by the end of June, so with their 7 above CHI that's well short, and that's assuming CHI doesn't get any more points and no-one passes CHI. Now, July 15th or 20th? I could see it.
Explain "alright" please. I thought Foxhoven was really bad in the beginning of the season, then I saw Dallstream vs WNY and it was even worse. But today, Dallstream entered Yurcak Field and I finally caught the essence of "bad performance" phrase. Seriously, except one Dallstream's assists, I see not much there. Kierstin is bad, but running the field at least, doing some work. Foxhoven enters in 7os and doesn't even pretend to care, jogging princess.
Sky Blue and Houston could use Foxhoven. And Foxhoven would look good in orange. If I'm Houston, I offer Tiffany McCarty for Foxhoven, straight up. If you're Seattle at this point, you have to think long and hard at that deal, and seriously consider. McCarty gives them speed & versatility, and can substitute for Leroux, Kawasumi, or Goebel, late in a match. If I'm Sky Blue, I offer a 2nd round pick straight up for Foxhoven and a 4th round pick. The 2015 NWSL Draft isn't loaded with forwards, and Sky Blue knows what they're getting with Foxhoven. Seattle may take that trade, because Sky Blue's 2nd round pick will be near the top of the 2nd round. And Sky Blue still gets a 4th round pick back in a draft in which there isn't much difference between the #11 overall player and the #40 overall player.
Oh, I know Dallstream had like three turnovers in a row or something. That was bad. By alright I just mean compared to the average backup player in the league. With salary caps, etc,, a team is a little limited in its options. Dallstream and Foxhoven will have better days but for a Seattle fan it's bound to be frustrating when, inevitably, not everyone plays up to the same level that many of the others currently are achieving. Let's face it, Seattle, much of the team, is playing really good soccer. I love watching them.
I'm not expecting Foxhoven or Dallstream to be Little or Fishlock. What I'm expecting is that Foxhoven do not be invisible in games and that Dallstream does the minimum of cross a ball that stays in play or the very least in the dying minutes of games when the opponent is pressing, do not boot the ball forward to absolutely no one when you have zero pressure on you. She did that twice yesterday and the funny thing is her clearance did not even cross the center circle. If you are going to just randomly kick the ball, at least do it well. I think it is a testament to the respect and admiration we have for these other players that we actually expect something from them. I think it is much worse to have no expectations from all players on the squad. The Foxhoven situation is even worse in the context of who we gave up (Jess McDonald and Moros) for her. Moros being a free agent most likely would not have signed with Seattle even though we had her rights and given her performance for Portland this season, there's not a great loss there. McDonald on the other hand have carried Portland this first half of the season. Looking at it from that perspective, you can see why as a Reign fan Foxhoven's performance is a bit baffling. Also, one can blame the GM for a bad trade but at the time it was not because Foxhoven was a top performer for Portland last year. Edited: Just to add that I do think Foxhoven had an OK game yesterday. I think I heard the commentator call her name once. That's an improvement from previous games.
Did you like Ochs before or after she got burned on the left side a couple times such that coach swapped her to the right for a few minutes ? Ochs is a forward who fills in at the back, admirably but she is not the best stopper nor attacker there.
Boston v. Washington - I was there and I was surprised at Washington's ineffectiveness first half. I guess they were stymied when they tried to keep the ball on the ground as they kept kicking it long to Taylor the lone forward pressuring Boston's back line. I'm not sure she ever touched it first half. Second half they suddenly were able to make connections and capitalize. DeVanna did what she does and HAO did what she does - both missed some golden opportunities. Sanderson was outstanding. Mewis was running East West (compared to HAO and DeVanna's North South) and was able to exploit a few opportunities that way. If you'd asked me at the end of the first half I would have predicted a Boston win and lots of goals scored.