Being the math nerd that I am, I went in and tried making some graphs to display the crazy amount of parity we're seeing. The first graph here just takes the points for each team and averages all tied teams to their mean position on the ladder, with each index being a single day on the calendar except for June 5th (indexes 2-4) and yesterday July 18th (indexes 18-20), which I chose to split to exemplify the amount of shuffling that took place on those days in particular. (The graph starts with the standings at the end of May, so it avoids standing silliness from the first two and a half weeks of the season.) The second graph is then the exact same as the first graph, except applying NWSL's tiebreaks so every team has a unique position at each index, which is sometimes better at showing shuffling and usually worse at hiding ties. Lastly, here's a look at PPG over time. Since PPG is naturally normalized by games played, I reduced the indexes to just represent each weekend or midweek, i.e. each index represents 3-5 games played. Obviously the ladder charts are fun with showing back-and-forths like June 23- July 4 (indexes 9-13) and the craziness of the past two days (indexes 16-20). That said, the PPG chart maybe better shows some interesting runs of form, like NC going from 1PPG to 2PPG from June 6 to July 4, CHI getting a similar run from June 26 to now, and ORL's slow and relatively constant decline from the end of may (2.5PPG) to now (slightly under 1.5PPG)
It certainly looks like retaliation. A late hit from behind by Pogarch with no attempt to get the ball.
The best part was the camera caught and followed Krieger saying some things to Pogarch on the way back down the pitch. And a few minutes earlier, Ashlyn Harris put her arm around McLernon to reassure her she was on her side. This should be a MAJOR KRASHLYN GOES VIRAL incident on the internet
I watched from a different angle, Morgan Weaver wasn't touched from behind by Gunny. Morgan jumped a little and slid awkwardly with her right ankle not looking normal while at the same time crashing into McLernon. Don't know if McLernon accidentally or intentional did a karate chop to Morgan Weaver's neck. But you can tell she was trying to body block her because she ran into Morgan's path.
I doubt she was sent in for retaliation; that's not what a coach is thinking on a sub. That she herself wanted to exact revenge? Yeah, I'd buy that. And what exactly would the NWSL (or anyone else) investigate? Retaliation happens all the time in soccer in both the men's and women's game; in the women's game, it's just often months later instead of immediately. It's still just dealt with as it happens with calling the foul and giving the card, if needed.
Short answer is no. (I had a long, thoughtful post written out but then it was lost in the Internet, so I'm going with the summary.)
That would have required some ridiculous anticipation from McClernon in my opinion. She closed down Weaver because it looked like she was going to skip by Jonsdottir and drive into the open space. Then, she extended her left leg in an attempt to win the ball or block off Weaver. However, Weaver then fell and collided into McClernon's right leg. I admittedly haven't been in such a situation myself, but it's hardly surprising to me that a player would instinctively get her arm in place to brace herself when a player (a physically imposing one at that) is falling into her at pace. If McClernon hadn't gotten her arm there, I think she may well could have suffered a notable injury from Weaver's impact. I don't really see how McClernon could have predicted Weaver's neck would have ended up right there, so that contact was accidental to me.
The analysis on the ref forum pretty much matches this regarding McClernon. The refs, except for one, say Jonsdottir committed a cardable foul and McClernon could not have anticipated what followed (one thought McClernon changed direction into Weaver and thought that was a problem), although the refs also felt that in the moment, the carding of McClernon instead was understandable.
Reviewing the infractions and the officiating of the 1st half, I have to say the game was... uglier than my first impression. I'm not blaming the center referee yet. I don't know who to blame. But there's a lot of fouls; some of them at least candidates for yellow cards. At the moment, fair or not on my part, I'm focused on one challenge in 1st half stoppage. I wish I knew how to properly assess blindside challenges but I sure didn't like this one. Orlando's tall target forward Kornieck gets nailed from behind by Portland's Hubly. Kornieck is calling for a pass on a diagonal in front of her; the ball is lofted towards her and as Kornieck reaches out with her leg to control it, Hubly comes in from behind. I don't know the book on blindside tackles. Kornieck, reaching out with her foot, does catch Hubly's foot as Hubly swings her leg to clear the ball, but Kornieck never sees her as she's looking back across the centerline to follow the flight of the ball. It's Hubly who has the play (and her opponent) in front of her at all times. About 3'45 in stoppage; 1:01:40 of the Twitch stream The other thing that gets me is watching Mark Parsons who is visible in front of the touchline. He holds out his arms wanting a foul on Kornieck. But then when he realizes his player is alright and Kornieck is crumpled in a heap, he applauds the tackle.( Replay shows Hubly's shoulder crashing into Kornieck's head.) There's a lot going on from an infraction standpoint in that half, which may pave the way for the tackle on Morgan Weaver later. Or may not. It may have just been an accident. Orlando or Portland, who was the worst offender? Tough call. Bu , man, I have to say what a punk Mark Parsons is. Good coach but what a punk. And after watching her in back to back games, Hubly is a player I wouldn't mind seeing red-carded out of every game she plays
I'll never forgive Parsons and the Portland Thorns for the dirty game they played in the 2017 final against NC. Heath and Raso should have been red-carded in that match. With regard to Weaver, she was involved (but not at fault) in an altercation with Edmonds of KC earlier this year -- and now this. And Kornaki has been beaten up pretty thoroughly in several recent matches. (In fact, I wondered during Sunday's match whether it impacted her performance, which wasn't great.) Weaver and Kornaki are probably the biggest forwards in the league, and I wonder if other players think it's necessary to go into them harder than they might on other players.
NWSL IRP has accepted the Spirit's appeal to Staab's red card https://washingtonspirit.com/2021/07/21/nwsl-independent-review-panel-issues-decision/