Seattle plays quite "pretty" ... until it counts in the final third. Not much cleverness on the final touch. It is a good plan to stretch out the game and come from the flanks but high crosses won't do it if Fishlock is the lone lil' striker in the box. Looked almost unfair as she gave it her all. Cheney on the other hand represented everthing the Reign are missing. Always dangerous, engaged and looking for a goal/deadly pass.
Well it's a good thing that one of the best players in the world at doing that will be arriving soon.
Because America has become too "sensitive" today about anything and everything that is said, implied, and revealed, and we have lost some essence of freedom, in terms of freedoms of speech, freedoms of opinion, and overall free-styling in this nation. Everyone has turned into a "follower" in this country. Nobody does things their own unique way anymore. Originality is a thing of the past.
Rapinoe wanted to go to Portland, not Seattle. They should have put Rodriguez/Sinclair/Rapinoe/Buehler/LeBlanc, in Portland. And Morgan/Heath/Solo in Seattle (with Kyle and Zurrer). That would have optimized attendance in Seattle, & Portland would still be drawing > 10,000 fans. Morgan vs. Sinclair Cascadia rivalry (Seattle vs. Portland) would have been crazy on opposing sides. Seattle has Fishlock (instead of Rapinoe). Both of those twins (Fishlock and Rapinoe) would be battling "against each other" in the midfield in that rivalry. That would have been more interesting. Portland eventually signs Ali Riley (in 2014), to team up with her friend Becky Edwards. Both teams have a stacked roster, and are in the playoffs every year.
OR Rapinoe signs with Lyon, misses half the season then dumps Portland entirely for a lucrative career as a second string player in France.
Just got back from the FC Kansas City vs. Reign game. I wonder what they announced for crowd, cause I don't think there was 1,000 people. The main stands on the camera side was barely 1/2 to 3/4th full and you saw what was on the general Adminssion side where I was at. General Admision for Reign games is $19. Red Stars I believe charge $10. IMO, ticket prices for Reign games are too steep for their first year. Here is what I realized today: -Seems to me Lauren Cheney has gained a little weight. Still is fast -Seems to me Melisa Henderson has gained some of her weight back. Still is fast -Becky Sauerbrunn is a really good soccer player -Chicago Red Stars could sure use Kristen Mewis -Chicago Red Stars could sure use Jen Buczkowski -Kaylyn Kyle is a really good soccer player -Seattle's coach looks a little like Emma Hayes -Lately Hope Solo just runs into the dressing room right after the game. Doesn't sign autographs. -FCKC pre-game warms up are weird. The starters do 5 v 5 while the bench players are off on their own juggling the ball non-challantly. At half time, the bench players don't even go inside with the rest of the team, they stayed on the field and weren't really warming up, just joking around and juggling the ball. Like they don't belong with the rest of the team or something. Strange to me. -Seattle moves the ball around well but when they get in front of the opponents goal, they pee down their pants. BTW, Henderson has not lost a step. She did really well and should be playing more, IMO. I had my Notre Dame shirt on and yelled out to her near the FCKC bench "Melissa, how about some ND love!" and pointed to my shirt, and she yelled back at me, "I love it, I love it!"
I didn't get to watch it live, so there may have been issues there. But the archive quality was much better than past games. The finally fixed the deinterlacing problem they had, for starters.
Oh, right. Joking about sexual assault makes you a 100% American original. You're the first person to ever do that, and it is a sign of uniqueness and genius and brilliant opinion-making. When people criticize you, they're not using their freedom to speak, they're suppressing yours!
A few comments; (1) Player of the week: Wambach. Good offensively, good defensively. No. 2 = Lloyd (2) KC needs more offense. 1-0 against Seattle. A two forward offense might work. Cheney and Cuellar up top, Tymrak feeding the ball to them. Or Cuellar and Tymrak up top. Speaking of Tymrak, several people on this board (including me) early realized her potential. She looks frail -- but when she gets the ball she's efficient. In your face, Hope Solo! (3) Poor Seatlle. They've deserved a couple of ties but luck is not with them. Come home Pinoe! Please! (4) Kelly O'Hara now has about 30 shots and 0 goals. Maybe she's more of a defensive player and Lytle or Rangel deserve more playing time as up-top players. Mewis for KC has also been unimpressive as a shooter. (5) I havent been all that impressed with the two German players on the field -- but Chicago looks a lot better with them than without them. Teutonic efficiency? When Boxx comes back Chi might be a force to be contended with.
"None of those mid-fielders can strike it like their striker A-rod. Add Pinoe to the list when she decides to arrive." If you are speaking of Amy Rodriguez you are delusional. She can't hit the broad side of a barn. The only reason she was still on the WNT is due to her speed, and even then she didn't know what to do with it. "When Boxx comes back Chi might be a force to be contended with." I don't expect Boxx to make much of a difference in Chicago. Injuries/age have caught up with her.
So far as I'm concerned, it's not people, it's just WPS_Movement, who seems to have absolutely no comprehension of what comments are relevant and what aren't.
You've got to figure that if Cuellar had been healthy, KC would have managed a lot more than an own goal.
Good club striker with the right coach. Fast and strong for her small size (short but chunky). She'd cause a commotion in the box, given you can't necessarily stop her 1v1, which would open the game up for the attacking mid-field. People talk how great Devanna is, but A-rod did about as well as her at the international level. The dream is, people thinking Pinoe will ignite Seattle's offense. Just another mid-fielder thrown in there to patch things up til the end of the season.
Couldn't watch the games live this weekend, but I did get to finish watching the Seattle and KC match. Not many good scoring chances were created from both sides. The commentators were correct in that KC is exceptional at mounting counter attacks. But I was pretty disappointed at their build up in the attacking third. I really have to question Kristen Mewis for taking those long range shots from distance. She is wonderful at holding the ball, carrying it and shielding it and can strike with either foot. But her decision making is questionable, but that is youth, she just needs more experience. Lauren Cheney played another great game, handling the role of playmaker with aplomb and could of gotten a goal if Lauren Barnes didn't kick the ball off the line with Hope Solo miss timing a charge off her line. Erika Tymrak was a force out there. Creating a lot of pace and attacking the Seattle backline. She needs more starts for KC. Seattle on the other hand had some good possession and passed the ball around. Both clubs played the triangle passing and they almost got a goal with Fishlock one touching the pass to I think Nairn who then attacked the box and they got two great shots in on goal. One with Fishlock hitting the post and then Winters getting defended off the line by Saurbrunn. Seattle plays a much prettier game with a lot of short passes between the backline to the midfield. Sadly for them its in the attacking third that it breaks down for them. I think with more experience Lindsay Taylor will be that target forward that will give them the edge they need up there, but more playing time will be needed. As for the question whether Kansas City is better with Cuellar up top. I can't agree with that since Melissa Henderson showed me why I want her in the game. Her back heel flick to Lauren Cheney was class, though Cheney wasn't expecting it, but with Henderson marked by two players, Henderson opened up space for Cheney to move forward and take the ball on the run with her pass. This is what you need a forward to do and I simply do not see Cuellar being able to play like that. For Cuellar, if not all her goals, then almost all of them have come on the counter. You cannot rely on scoring goals that way, you need to score by building up as well, so Cuellar's injury is sort of a good way for Erika Tymrak and Melissa Henderson to show they have different skill sets they can bring. If KC wants to play Cuellar on top, they should pair her up with Tymrak or Henderson.
My opinion: It should be a goal for Tymrak. She played it for a ricochet off Solo, and that's what happened. I don't know why Solo is so concerned about whether it was an own goal or not.
I agree on both parts. Goals go in off of keepers all the time. Now in the French Cup it would not have counted as a goal for no reasonable reason, but after several meetings they would replayed the game As to Solo, I think it's a loss either way unless theyve added a moral victory column to the table.
General observations from this week: Boston is the most frustrating team to watch. They are so inconsistent- good one game, bad the next. A bit unlucky not to get the win against WNY, or have their goal against Chicago disallowed. Good to see Phillips rebound from her miserable outing against SkyBlue with 2 solid games. Not much she could do on any of the goals, but other than that, she was much better. Defense still needs some work, and offense needs a Plan B when Sanderson gets shut down. They fix those problems, they could sneak in to that final playoff spot. Chicago really seems to be heading in the right direction after their early season struggles. They have a solid keeper duo that can get the job done, and the backline has stopped making dumb mistakes. Sitch is doing well as a holding mid. She really shut down Boston's midfield. Shame about the Bywaters injury, because I think they could have gotten more goals against Boston with her and Chalupny on the field. Once Grings gets going offensively, they're going to be hard to beat. At this point, can anything be done to salvage Seattle's season? With 8 straight losses, and no offense, things are not looking good at all. That game against KC was easily winnable- if they had forwards who could finish, which they don't. Not having allocated players has hurt, but that's not an excuse for those players who are there not getting the job done. Seattle might want to start thinking about next year, and look anywhere and everywhere for offense. I kept asking why SkyBlue has looked bad against WNY in their two losses after shutting them down in the opener, and I think not having Bock for those two games may have been a big reason why. Not that they've needed her against everyone else, just against WNY. What has happened to O'Hara's scoring touch? I didn't think moving to the backline would wreck it this much. SkyBlue may be better served putting her at left back permanently and starting Lytle, but Johnson has been doing a fine job at left back, and it's generally not a good idea to mess with the backline. Portland gets another win thanks to their offense finally coming alive, but the backline that many people pointed to as a weakness in preseason was a mess. There are some encouraging signs- Wetzel did well, and should be starting full time over Washington. That would be a good move in shoring up their weak midfield. Add in Heath, and they could finally move Sinclair up top. The upcoming match with Seattle is going to be one to watch. They need a convincing victory without their NT players. KC's two games show how valuable Sesselmann is to their backline. They could have stopped at least one of those Portland goals with her on the field. Losing Cuellar may have been a blessing in disguise, because after she went off, the offense was much better playing through Cheney and Tymrak instead on long balls to Cuellar. That's the way they should have gone from the beginning of the season.
O'Hara hasnt played forward in a while. She was a midfielder on the US team before the move to LB. One of the reasons she was moved back to midfield is she wasnt a forward on the international level. She prolly hasnt played up front since she was with the Breakers.
Observations on WNY: -After nearly losing their first match thanks to some really soft defending, the Flash FINALLY get a shutout . Only took 8 games, but to get the first one against a team that set a record with 5 goals in their previous match is pretty impressive. Best of the backline for me was Sahlen. She did get beat on Leroux's goal, but otherwise did everything she could to keep Leroux in check and put in 2 solid 90 minute efforts. I think they got a bit lucky that the ref was letting quite a bit of contact go uncalled in the SkyBlue game. A less lenient center ref may have pulled a card out sooner. -I don't think it's a coincidence that Franch's best games this season have all come against SkyBlue, but she did well to bounce back from that forgettable effort against Boston. I have a feeling we're going to see some more games where she may make some silly mistakes, but that's to be expected from a first year player. If Franch keeps playing like she did against SkyBlue, will more NT call-ups come in the next year or so? -What a week for Abby with 2 good goals and 3 assists. 3 90 minute games in one week would be difficult for anyone, but if she was feeling any fatigue, it definitely wasn't showing. By far WNY's best player in both matches, and not just offensively. She is having one of her best seasons at the club level. Having 2 other forwards to play off of is taking a lot of pressure off Abby to score, and she's thriving. -Lloyd was largely kept in check by Boston, and deserves most of the blame for allowing O'Reilly to beat her to the ball on the first Boston goal, but she had an outstanding game against SkyBlue on both sides of the ball. So thrilled for her to finally get on the board, and at the Rutgers field no less. Hopefully that will be the first of many more goals for the Flash. I still have some questions about whether or not Lloyd can keep playing well, based on her WPS days, but those questions should be answered in the coming weeks. -Does WNY have the best midfield in the league? Some could argue for KC or even Boston, but it's hard to argue against the Flash. The trio of Salem, Zerboni, and Lloyd is proving to be better than some expected. Not the best showing against Boston, but they dominated SkyBlue's midfield and made Schmidt a complete non-factor. I'm looking forward to the KC match coming up, because I want to see this midfield play a full 90 together against KC's midfield. -Lesson to learn from this weekend for FL owners: do not play defenders or keepers from teams facing WNY. Their offense will kill any backline, even one as strong as SkyBlue. Defenses don't have the luxury of focusing on one player, because there are simply too many threats on this Flash team. Abby, Kerr, Adriana, and Lloyd is a quartet that will give defenders nightmares. The two games coming up with 3 of those 4 gone could be trouble for WNY, but hopefully the void will be filled by one or more of the young forwards. It could be an opportunity for players like Perez to step up.