- No Morgan is 10000% the right call, even though I'm surprised that she didn't make the roster. Great career, but she's no longer effective enough to make an 18-player roster at a competitive tournament. Macario is simply a better player.
- If you're going to bring Krueger (also the right call imo) over Morgan, I would have brought Williams over Dunn. Williams is a better attacking player straight up, and bringing Krueger means that Dunn's versatility at LB is less valuable. That's really my biggest gripe with the roster.
- Aside from the obvious bigot-related issues, Albert is only there because of how shallow the 6/8 pool is. I understand bringing her because she's been called up recently, but on form both Hershfelt and Flint deserve that spot more. Yohannes clearly isn't ready to make a decision yet and Hayes respected that.
- Again: SO proud of Sam. She had a limited window as a non-youth system product to claim her spot and absolutely grabbed it with both hands.
I was playing around with the Fbref scatter plot data analyst tool for my recap this week and found a very interesting factoid: The entire Thorns midfield --Coffey, Fleming, and Hina-- have the three best ratios of times dispossessed per 90 to progressive passes played per 90 in the entire league. Not sure I would have predicted that!
Hmmm. I love these sorts of very easy to interpret charts, as well as easy to compare to other MF's.
What can this mean though? We generally go through our wings (I'm still reading through your last post on our midfield!), so could this also be colored by the fact that our MF's just touch the ball less, in general? I'm not sure how to interpret it...It's crazy to me that all 3 of our MF's have been A) dispossessed the least (given that our MF still just doesn't seem right; individually and collectively) and B) have the most progressive passes (I feel like I've been seeing side and back passes happen more and more with our MF.) Liv isn't on this one because I guess she's played less, but I'd be curious to see where she sits also.
It would also be interesting to break this down further by midfield position. DM's are prob more often going to have more progressive passes than an AM. I also don't see DiBernardo on here....hasn't she played a ton? I'd be curious where she falls because she's been really good. Claire Hutton as well, who I don't think has been talked about enough.
1. One of the things I found while researching is that the Thorns have a high rate of progressive passes BECAUSE the ball goes forward so much so quickly. I actually disagree --to an extent-- that we see a lot of sideways and backwards passes between our midfielders, though I do think there's a lot of that in defense with our FBs and midfielders. That would generally mean that there was more interplay between the three of them, which I think you would agree we don't see a lot of.
2. The quality in terms of ball retention and passes is something I've been arguing with everyone about all year to no avail re: Fleming, but also applies to the rest of our midfield: All three are very good players that rarely get the ball taken off them. The efficacy of the trio together is much more tactical than individual imo.
3. Data is useless without supplementary context. "Progressive passes" just means "passes that are progressive." It doesn't mean that they're good passes, or even the right passes. More progressive passes is generally a good thing, but is more a puzzle piece than a qualitative answer to specific question about an individual's quality. That's why I like to compare progressive passes to other stats in order to get a better general picture.
4. Hutton is a good example of a player who is objectively good, but doesn't stand out in the data. Krueger is another. Both made my Best 11.
5. Here is another version of the chart where I added "shot creating actions" in place of "times dispossessed. You'll notice that players like DiBernardo and Sanchez (and Ji, interestingly) stand out more here, though DiBernardo has been injured and doesn't meet the minutes threshold for my Best 11 ....which is why I was combing through this data in the first place lol https://ibb.co/zX19VY9
Yeah, I guess I meant in general it seemed like the memo was for players to turn around and build up rather than go forward too quickly...oftentimes it just seemed like the players weren't picking the right moments to wait or to go forward. So many times the high fullbacks and the wingers just stopped a promising attack because they'd literally stop and turn around and pass it backwards. It was pissing Soph off lol. Anyway, so are progressive passes only measured as a forward pass, regardless of if it connects? Or does it have to connect to a Thorns foot for it to be registered? I know it's just a couple metrics, but looking at those charts and seeing our midfielders all clustered together near the top of each is so confusing....is it really just our tactics/coaching that's the problem? Why does it LOOK poor in practice/execution? When the 3 of them are on together, it really does look like we don't have any AM's on the field, though, and there seems to be quite the disconnect from our front line. The balance is just not right.
Barring injury of Liv, what is the best position/use (starter/sub?) of Fleming, in your opinion? It seems like it either has to be Fleming or Hina/Sam...and, well I pick Hina AND Sam every time + an actual AM (preferably a new starting player that's brought in, imo.) I'd say at this point, Jessie coming in to relieve Hina (or maybe even Sam dep on game state) mid-2nd half seems like the best option imo. And then give her the start in games against the Utah's of the world, as well as the cup games? And of course...when Liv is out.
Anyways, reminding myself to get back to finish your midfield deep dive from last week or so because you prob provide some answers to that lol.
The fact is that the Thorns are in the top four (and often top three) in every key attacking stat. They're still a good team, just clearly not as good as the best. So that's a good place to start: It doesn't always look pretty, but it's often effective.
I go into the "why does the midfield feel disconnected from the front line?" question in the recap, but I think it's broadly because they don't use the 10 as a link to the attack very often because the balls are all in behind. So, you don't see the 10 (whoever that is) because they're not asked to play like a 10. They're just in no-mans land. I think I describe it as "two banks of three" instead of connected lines. I imagine that's tough for Liv or Fleming when they don't really get the ball in the spaces where 10s are generally effective. I don't know if this is actually true, but It LOOKS like they're trying to play the old crappy Norris 4-3-3 tactics (which doesn't have any tens), but Gale changed the shape so that there is a ten.....so there's a bit of a disconnect and the midfield (particularly the midfielder who plays highest) hasn't quite figured it out. I don't know what the solution is, but I'd say a different, more patient style would do a world of good.
Progressive passes are completed passes of 30 feet or more.
Interesting situation here in NC. Might get a little bit of a clarity on the types of players on semi-guaranteed SPAs and how NCC handles it, assuming they want to keep Manaka.
Fairly surprised that Morgan didn't make the roster. At this point, I think she's still of more benefit to this group than is Macario. But Macario is the future.
We're extremely thin at forward. I know Dunn is rostered as a forward, but to me she's a Swiss Army Knife player like Sonnett. I'm rather surprised Krueger made the cut, because I don't think she played well in the recent friendlies. So, basically, Dunn is replacing Morgan at forward in order to put Macario and Krueger on the roster. I think I also would have taken Staab over Krueger, based on what I saw.
I think I would have taken Campbell over Murphy, but that's a tough call.
I don't think I would have added Hershfelt over Yohannes among the alternates. Hershfelt doesn't even have a cap, while Yohannes showed out in limited minutes.
Yohannes not ready to commit, so not available as a choice.
I think the team looked much better with Macario in than Morgan.
Dunn & Sonnet both going because of the number of positions they can play, not because they're the best options at any of them. For a small roster, probably the right choice.
I might also have gone Staab for the CB depth, but CB other than GK is the one where you have to rotate the least, so I guess they go with Sonnet as the sole real backup there.
I would have taken Staab for size, leg strength, and her throwing ability (which rivals Jess McDonald).
I agree that the friendly with Morgan in the rotation was a little rough, but she personally did things that showed multidimensionality and team-first.
I just don't think Macario is back yet and that we're going to get 100% of what she can be, which makes her an expensive roster decision on an 18-player roster.
I agree that Staab's throwing and long-ball passing would have been good x-factor skills that might also justify her. I think if they'd called her in sooner so she had more time with the team, she might have made it, so I see that as the big mistake part of it, not really giving her enough of a chance.
I expect should Dunn start it will not be as a striker. Not especially dangerous up front any longer and the last I checked, has not put on any height. She spends a LOT of time on the rug. Can still fill the Ellis-squad role and as such, injury insurance.
Krueger a surprise to me as well. Staab has been lights out the last couple seasons.
Krueger has been just as as good (I'd personally say better) than Staab for club and can play every position along the back line. I imagine that's why she got the spot given they see Dunn as a forward.
Morgan has been straight up bad --not just poor, but legit bad-- this season and is 35 years old. Macario is not only the future, but a better player now. I am also very surprised Alex didn't make it, but I like bringing Krueger (who has been one of the best players in the NWSL season, can play every position on the backline, and fully deserves a call) over her.
Hayes implied Yohannes isn't ready to make a decision yet, and Hershfelt has an argument (purely on-field) to have made the roster proper over Albert imo.
Good post, thanks for that. I'd call your XI more of an "Up-and-Coming XI" or "XI You Should Pay More Attention To" rather than "Best XI" - any team without Naomi Girma clearly can't be the Best XI!
Thanks! I did think about doing a version of that instead of "best 11," but I wanted to rant about how good the front three have been. But yes, Girma has a permanent spot in any Best 11.
(Fwiw though, for the purpose of this exercise neither Girma or Sams qualified in terms of minutes played because of their respective injuries or else one of them probs would have gotten the McKeown spot)
I understand your point, but the Thorns have done a generally excellent job at maximizing Soph and putting her in the spots in the field where she’s best, possibly to a fault. There’s no guarantee Hayes does that, in addition to international tactics and team building being an entirely different ball game
That's kind of my point. To the extent that we have to play hero-ball and Soph reverts to it, it might be helpful to look at how Hayes utilizes and surrounds Soph. After all, it's a very limited roster of forwards, and some say Smith and Macario are the only 9s on it. So, let's see what Hayes does to utilize Smith and the roster to succeed.
Maybe we can't attract an Emma Hayes and 16 more players of that caliber, but we have Soph and Sam and we should be able to improve at the levels of coaching, roster construction, and tactics to keep Soph here for the long term and do something besides utterly rely on Soph offensively.
Broadly, I think hero-ball is a mischaracterization of how the Thorns play. It often *looks* like hero-ball because the Thorns don't have the attacking talent next to Soph when Weaver is out, but I think it's more of an intentional strategy based on Soph's talents that then fails when the personnel isn't good enough around her and they don't have a Plan B. In my opinion, the biggest sin is the lack of flexibility/adaptation.
I looked into the Thorns attacking style (both the flaws and the benefits) and the "hoof the ball to Smith" narrative in detail in my recap last week if you're interested.
For the Nats, they have Mal Swanson and Trinity Rodman outside of her with Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Horan, and Sam Coffey behind her....that's a pretty loaded group!
At their best, they don't play hero-ball. And, sometimes hero-ball is necessary and hero-ball works. But it's pretty clear that Soph is frustrated -- frustrated with the officiating, frustrated with being mugged and being able to be mugged, frustratred with having to carry too much load, frustrated with teammates not being able to connect with her when she does create for them (Beckie and Fleming, I'm looking at you here...).
I don't think she's frustrated with the lack of creation (she gets the ball in dangerous spots more than pretty much any forward in the league) so much as she is with the lack of talent around her. Which is why I think it's fundamentally a roster talent issue, not so much how they use her.
From a more holistic Thorns perspective, I think there's a tactical issue as well. But that's a different, though related, discussion.
The "rely" on Soph is a bit of a red-herring tbh. And kielbj did a nice job looking into "hero-ball" in their NWSL round-up. The way to get away from "relying" on Soph is to get better attacking players, so someone like Morgan Weaver is the third attacker of choice; not because Weaver isn't good, but because that's surrounding your superstar with abundant talent.
Ultimately the Thorns are always going to be somewhat reliant on Smith. That's how club teams work with superstar forwards.
Agreed, and I know we're struggling without Weaver this year, and that Weaver was off even prior to injury.
Let me try again here.
The national team situation is quite different from club because Hayes gets to start from scratch and select who she wants, regardless of salary or contract status, and build a team with an eye to how the team functions. Yes, she's prioritizing interchangeability, versatility, youth, and athleticism to endure up to 6 matches in, what, 17 days?
BUT, Hayes is also looking how to put together a team -- not just an attack -- that leverages Smith's talents as one of only two 9s on the roster while also taking pressure off of Smith to carry the entire load. She's also building not just for the Olympics, but rather she's building a program. And we already have two of those pieces -- Smith and Coffey. So, what else do we need -- what KIND of player and where, what style, what system, etc.
THAT's the part that interests me and what I think the Bhathals should be watching for, if that makes sense. That is, if their aspiration is truly to be one of the top clubs in the world rather than 5th in the NWSL. Learn from what Hayes does well, and what mistakes Hayes makes too.
Ouch to the 3rd power. Interim Wave coach harvests their biggest loss o' the season, at home in front of a huge crowd, while dominating any metric not named scoring (e.g., possession 69:31, I mean, come on). They had not lost by more than a point before, nor surrendered more than two. icing on the cake, the winning goal was technically a Girma own-goal.
How's the tinkering going for you, Jill? One has thoughts.
I see Eva Gaetino is being scouted by Lyon for a transfer, which is a bummer because I thought she could be a good target for us for a young CB.
Overlord Kang is doing her best to starve her competition of any oxygen so that I guess there's NO competition in D1F in France for Lyon? She's just bought the PSG manager for her London City Lionesses project...a DII team in England who she wants to see promoted to the WSL and is already dumping a ton of money into. She's also brought in Kosovare Asllani for LCL....which is pretty pretty wild to me! She must be paying her $$$$$$. She is literally buying out her competition in 3 different countries lol.
Speaking of....it's interesting that she's also thinking of blowing up Lyon's academy (and pissing off lots of Lyon fans in the meantime):
Also also *BONUS KANG* (translated from Spanish): Markel Zubizarreta leaves the RFEF to lead Michele Kang's million-dollar sporting project, which has three clubs: Olympique de Lyon, Washington Spirit and London City Lionesses, whose objective is immediate promotion to the WSL. The offer, he said, was "irrefutable."
Firsly: I don't think the Kang thing is awesome and fun like everyone in the media is treating it. People hate it when it happens in men's soccer and the same should be true in woso. The spending tons of money on women's sports part = good, the football group part = bad. Call me a bitter rival fan whatever, but I think it sucks.
Secondly: "Jocelyn Precheur" is a MAN?!? That's the most french thing I've ever heard.
Oh, if I wasn't clear I hate it also lol. The situation with OL Reign/Seattle Reign didn't get talked about enough also. The league kinda just let one of it's historically higher performing clubs be dragged through the mud for over a year (and now sit in 13th place...not entirely because of that, but it's a huge piece.) All the while she's been propped up as this saviour of woso. Anyways, I have no idea how this will work, but it seems like the lady doesn't sleep.
Tbf to Kang, I think she is doing good stuff as far as billionaires go. She's spending her money on women's soccer and has certainly elevated the Spirit to the point where other teams are going to have to actively work to keep up. Not a savior perhaps, but she's injected some much-needed ambition and drive.
I just hate the multi-club relationship aspect of it. Hate it here, hated it with Red Bull, hated it with the City Group, hated it with the Eagle Group etc etc.
Of course there are benefits to any big money being injected into the women's game, but yes, at what cost...I'm not sure really because we haven't seen it yet. I do very much dislike multi-club ownership in the men's world, though. Wonder what happens with Lyon's academy long-term...turning it into an American pay to play model (or ending it completely) sucks.
We have no real idea if Prechuer is a good coach or not too, tbh.
Kang said a couple of interesting things the other day. She has this idea that LCL will breakeven in two to three years...uh good luck. They don't have a fanbase. While they can buy their way out of the championship, I think they'll find the WSL a lot harder
Yeah and also I get that most of the English women's teams are associated with a Men's club and it's probably difficult (or impossible) to take over control of half a club like she did with Lyon, but I wish she could have bought one of MANY english underfunded women's teams that actually have a real history and a potential fanbase.
Hadn't seen that about Kosovare. She was one of Nadia's teammates at AC Milan. Wonder if that means Nadia will be on the move again too?
But I have to ask you - please don't abbreviate London City Lions as LCL. When I first looked at it I thought "Kosovare had a lateral collateral ligament injury?"
Some takeaways from the Green is Gold charity match last night:
-Emi Alvarado had some excellent saves last night and I would like to see more from her.
-Shelby Hogan might actually be a F instead.
-The aforementioned may fix a few of our roster problems if we start Alvarado and turn Shelby into a forward lol
-How about Ana Dias scoring a hattrick with varying nice goals?! I would like to see her start with Soph and maybe Linnehan v Utah. She's got that dawg that I fear Izzy is missing and can rotate with Soph in and out centrally.
-Speaking of Linnehan...she didn't play at all and was on the sideline in her shoes. Hope that isn't indicative of bad news to come because we literally have no offense.
-Speaking of this game mimicking real life is D'Aquila's play lol.
-How's about that volley goal from one of the Thorns academy players? I yelped!
It's on youtube! All 3 of Ana's goals come after the half when she comes in. In contrast, D'Aquila missed at least two absolute sitters that I can remember...Janine skied a shot or two in front of the net. Shelby might be a better forward than she is a GK. Dias is good when she's close to goal, all of her shots were very much on target and generally low. She hits the ball hard. She's probably better and more comfortable using her head than anyone else and knows how to find crosses. I saw her do it several times during the warm-ups also. I know it's just a silly match, but she seemed to take it as an opportunity (as did Emi Alvarado who had some highlight reel saves against Timbers players.) Worth a watch!
Here's one reason why I think Hayes made a roster construction mistake - you actually do need at least some people who have been there, done that, succeeded, handled media, handled internal conflicts, etc. For example, Morgan and Horan played crucial roles in handling the stuff with Korbin Albert when it arose, which happened before Hayes arrived. They made clear how the USWNT culture was going to handle things, and I think they did a very good job with that.
"Her form with the San Diego Wave this season -- zero goals in eight games -- came at the wrong time for this Olympic roster selection. It is also more indicative of a wider issue with the Wave, who went from Shield winners last year to winless in seven games. Wave coach Casey Stoney was fired earlier this week."
I do think any argument for Morgan making the roster at this point is leadership only....which is a tough argument to make when there's only 18 spots. Kassouf blaming the Wave's issues for Morgan's is a little too much water-carrying for my liking.
I see the majority of poll voters so far chose USA winning gold. Not sure if Emma has enough time to get us there this tourney. I chose bronze. I think she will restore this team to greatness but it will take some time. Would be happy to be wrong though.
My takes:
- No Morgan is 10000% the right call, even though I'm surprised that she didn't make the roster. Great career, but she's no longer effective enough to make an 18-player roster at a competitive tournament. Macario is simply a better player.
- If you're going to bring Krueger (also the right call imo) over Morgan, I would have brought Williams over Dunn. Williams is a better attacking player straight up, and bringing Krueger means that Dunn's versatility at LB is less valuable. That's really my biggest gripe with the roster.
- Aside from the obvious bigot-related issues, Albert is only there because of how shallow the 6/8 pool is. I understand bringing her because she's been called up recently, but on form both Hershfelt and Flint deserve that spot more. Yohannes clearly isn't ready to make a decision yet and Hayes respected that.
- Again: SO proud of Sam. She had a limited window as a non-youth system product to claim her spot and absolutely grabbed it with both hands.
I was playing around with the Fbref scatter plot data analyst tool for my recap this week and found a very interesting factoid: The entire Thorns midfield --Coffey, Fleming, and Hina-- have the three best ratios of times dispossessed per 90 to progressive passes played per 90 in the entire league. Not sure I would have predicted that!
(Chart shown in the following link: https://ibb.co/09YRCBV)
Hmmm. I love these sorts of very easy to interpret charts, as well as easy to compare to other MF's.
What can this mean though? We generally go through our wings (I'm still reading through your last post on our midfield!), so could this also be colored by the fact that our MF's just touch the ball less, in general? I'm not sure how to interpret it...It's crazy to me that all 3 of our MF's have been A) dispossessed the least (given that our MF still just doesn't seem right; individually and collectively) and B) have the most progressive passes (I feel like I've been seeing side and back passes happen more and more with our MF.) Liv isn't on this one because I guess she's played less, but I'd be curious to see where she sits also.
It would also be interesting to break this down further by midfield position. DM's are prob more often going to have more progressive passes than an AM. I also don't see DiBernardo on here....hasn't she played a ton? I'd be curious where she falls because she's been really good. Claire Hutton as well, who I don't think has been talked about enough.
I think it's a few things:
1. One of the things I found while researching is that the Thorns have a high rate of progressive passes BECAUSE the ball goes forward so much so quickly. I actually disagree --to an extent-- that we see a lot of sideways and backwards passes between our midfielders, though I do think there's a lot of that in defense with our FBs and midfielders. That would generally mean that there was more interplay between the three of them, which I think you would agree we don't see a lot of.
2. The quality in terms of ball retention and passes is something I've been arguing with everyone about all year to no avail re: Fleming, but also applies to the rest of our midfield: All three are very good players that rarely get the ball taken off them. The efficacy of the trio together is much more tactical than individual imo.
3. Data is useless without supplementary context. "Progressive passes" just means "passes that are progressive." It doesn't mean that they're good passes, or even the right passes. More progressive passes is generally a good thing, but is more a puzzle piece than a qualitative answer to specific question about an individual's quality. That's why I like to compare progressive passes to other stats in order to get a better general picture.
4. Hutton is a good example of a player who is objectively good, but doesn't stand out in the data. Krueger is another. Both made my Best 11.
5. Here is another version of the chart where I added "shot creating actions" in place of "times dispossessed. You'll notice that players like DiBernardo and Sanchez (and Ji, interestingly) stand out more here, though DiBernardo has been injured and doesn't meet the minutes threshold for my Best 11 ....which is why I was combing through this data in the first place lol https://ibb.co/zX19VY9
Here is the same chart with just DM/8s: https://ibb.co/znZzx5V
Yeah, I guess I meant in general it seemed like the memo was for players to turn around and build up rather than go forward too quickly...oftentimes it just seemed like the players weren't picking the right moments to wait or to go forward. So many times the high fullbacks and the wingers just stopped a promising attack because they'd literally stop and turn around and pass it backwards. It was pissing Soph off lol. Anyway, so are progressive passes only measured as a forward pass, regardless of if it connects? Or does it have to connect to a Thorns foot for it to be registered? I know it's just a couple metrics, but looking at those charts and seeing our midfielders all clustered together near the top of each is so confusing....is it really just our tactics/coaching that's the problem? Why does it LOOK poor in practice/execution? When the 3 of them are on together, it really does look like we don't have any AM's on the field, though, and there seems to be quite the disconnect from our front line. The balance is just not right.
Barring injury of Liv, what is the best position/use (starter/sub?) of Fleming, in your opinion? It seems like it either has to be Fleming or Hina/Sam...and, well I pick Hina AND Sam every time + an actual AM (preferably a new starting player that's brought in, imo.) I'd say at this point, Jessie coming in to relieve Hina (or maybe even Sam dep on game state) mid-2nd half seems like the best option imo. And then give her the start in games against the Utah's of the world, as well as the cup games? And of course...when Liv is out.
Anyways, reminding myself to get back to finish your midfield deep dive from last week or so because you prob provide some answers to that lol.
The fact is that the Thorns are in the top four (and often top three) in every key attacking stat. They're still a good team, just clearly not as good as the best. So that's a good place to start: It doesn't always look pretty, but it's often effective.
I go into the "why does the midfield feel disconnected from the front line?" question in the recap, but I think it's broadly because they don't use the 10 as a link to the attack very often because the balls are all in behind. So, you don't see the 10 (whoever that is) because they're not asked to play like a 10. They're just in no-mans land. I think I describe it as "two banks of three" instead of connected lines. I imagine that's tough for Liv or Fleming when they don't really get the ball in the spaces where 10s are generally effective. I don't know if this is actually true, but It LOOKS like they're trying to play the old crappy Norris 4-3-3 tactics (which doesn't have any tens), but Gale changed the shape so that there is a ten.....so there's a bit of a disconnect and the midfield (particularly the midfielder who plays highest) hasn't quite figured it out. I don't know what the solution is, but I'd say a different, more patient style would do a world of good.
Progressive passes are completed passes of 30 feet or more.
https://x.com/tayvincent6/status/1806356267126096034
Interesting situation here in NC. Might get a little bit of a clarity on the types of players on semi-guaranteed SPAs and how NCC handles it, assuming they want to keep Manaka.
I saw this also and was hoping to get more clarification re: that stuff also!
Other things to note about the roster:
5 Gotham players, including 3 (arguably 4, if you include Dunn) defenders.
4 players currently playing in Europe
2 Thorns, 2 Wave, 2 Spirit, 2 Red Stars, 1 Courage
So, only 6 out of 14 NWSL teams represented on the roster.
Let the second-guessing begin!
Fairly surprised that Morgan didn't make the roster. At this point, I think she's still of more benefit to this group than is Macario. But Macario is the future.
We're extremely thin at forward. I know Dunn is rostered as a forward, but to me she's a Swiss Army Knife player like Sonnett. I'm rather surprised Krueger made the cut, because I don't think she played well in the recent friendlies. So, basically, Dunn is replacing Morgan at forward in order to put Macario and Krueger on the roster. I think I also would have taken Staab over Krueger, based on what I saw.
I think I would have taken Campbell over Murphy, but that's a tough call.
I don't think I would have added Hershfelt over Yohannes among the alternates. Hershfelt doesn't even have a cap, while Yohannes showed out in limited minutes.
Yohannes not ready to commit, so not available as a choice.
I think the team looked much better with Macario in than Morgan.
Dunn & Sonnet both going because of the number of positions they can play, not because they're the best options at any of them. For a small roster, probably the right choice.
I might also have gone Staab for the CB depth, but CB other than GK is the one where you have to rotate the least, so I guess they go with Sonnet as the sole real backup there.
I would have taken Staab for size, leg strength, and her throwing ability (which rivals Jess McDonald).
I agree that the friendly with Morgan in the rotation was a little rough, but she personally did things that showed multidimensionality and team-first.
I just don't think Macario is back yet and that we're going to get 100% of what she can be, which makes her an expensive roster decision on an 18-player roster.
I agree that Staab's throwing and long-ball passing would have been good x-factor skills that might also justify her. I think if they'd called her in sooner so she had more time with the team, she might have made it, so I see that as the big mistake part of it, not really giving her enough of a chance.
I expect should Dunn start it will not be as a striker. Not especially dangerous up front any longer and the last I checked, has not put on any height. She spends a LOT of time on the rug. Can still fill the Ellis-squad role and as such, injury insurance.
Krueger a surprise to me as well. Staab has been lights out the last couple seasons.
This is why I get the big imaginary bucks.
Krueger has been just as as good (I'd personally say better) than Staab for club and can play every position along the back line. I imagine that's why she got the spot given they see Dunn as a forward.
Here's a question I have:
How many of these 22 players (the 18 and the alternates) do we feel confident will be on the 2027 WWC roster?
What color is our medal?
Indeed!
Here are the ages of the current 22 come 2027
GK: Naeher (39), Murphy (31), Campbell (32)
D: Sonnett (33), Davidson (28), Krueger (36), Fox (28), Girma (27), Nighswonger (26)
M: Lavelle (32), Horan (33), Albert (23), Coffey (28), Macario (27), Hershfelt (26), Bethune (26)
F: Dunn (34), Smith (26), Swanson (29), Rodman (25), Shaw (22), Williams (34)
I'm gonna guess:
GK: Murphy, Campbell
D: Davidson, Girma, Fox, Nighswonger
M: Lavelle, Horan, Albert, Coffey, Macario, Bethune, maybe Hershfelt
F: Smith, Swanson, Rodman, Shaw
So, that's 16, maybe 17, of the 22, with a few that could drop out due to performance, health, and/or aging out.
Morgan has been straight up bad --not just poor, but legit bad-- this season and is 35 years old. Macario is not only the future, but a better player now. I am also very surprised Alex didn't make it, but I like bringing Krueger (who has been one of the best players in the NWSL season, can play every position on the backline, and fully deserves a call) over her.
Hayes implied Yohannes isn't ready to make a decision yet, and Hershfelt has an argument (purely on-field) to have made the roster proper over Albert imo.
Nice to see the new coach making those tough decisions. The US team for too long hasn’t developed the younger generation.
New Post: Midway Point Recap & Best XI, featuring:
- The NWSL's first real year of stratification and why that's a good thing
- Ridiculous first halves from Banda, Smith, and Chawinga.
- Claire Hutton!
- Some love for Gabby Robinson and Tara McKeown
https://www.theeaststandnwsl.com/post/the-midway-point-recap-and-best-xi
Good post, thanks for that. I'd call your XI more of an "Up-and-Coming XI" or "XI You Should Pay More Attention To" rather than "Best XI" - any team without Naomi Girma clearly can't be the Best XI!
Thanks! I did think about doing a version of that instead of "best 11," but I wanted to rant about how good the front three have been. But yes, Girma has a permanent spot in any Best 11.
(Fwiw though, for the purpose of this exercise neither Girma or Sams qualified in terms of minutes played because of their respective injuries or else one of them probs would have gotten the McKeown spot)
Bookmarking for whenever one of y'all have a take I disagree with: https://x.com/melinae07/status/1806153051876524283
A suggestion to the Bhathals: Watch closely how Emma Hayes utilizes Smith in terms of tactics and roster construction around her.
I understand your point, but the Thorns have done a generally excellent job at maximizing Soph and putting her in the spots in the field where she’s best, possibly to a fault. There’s no guarantee Hayes does that, in addition to international tactics and team building being an entirely different ball game
That's kind of my point. To the extent that we have to play hero-ball and Soph reverts to it, it might be helpful to look at how Hayes utilizes and surrounds Soph. After all, it's a very limited roster of forwards, and some say Smith and Macario are the only 9s on it. So, let's see what Hayes does to utilize Smith and the roster to succeed.
why?
For ideas for the future.
Maybe we can't attract an Emma Hayes and 16 more players of that caliber, but we have Soph and Sam and we should be able to improve at the levels of coaching, roster construction, and tactics to keep Soph here for the long term and do something besides utterly rely on Soph offensively.
Broadly, I think hero-ball is a mischaracterization of how the Thorns play. It often *looks* like hero-ball because the Thorns don't have the attacking talent next to Soph when Weaver is out, but I think it's more of an intentional strategy based on Soph's talents that then fails when the personnel isn't good enough around her and they don't have a Plan B. In my opinion, the biggest sin is the lack of flexibility/adaptation.
I looked into the Thorns attacking style (both the flaws and the benefits) and the "hoof the ball to Smith" narrative in detail in my recap last week if you're interested.
For the Nats, they have Mal Swanson and Trinity Rodman outside of her with Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Horan, and Sam Coffey behind her....that's a pretty loaded group!
At their best, they don't play hero-ball. And, sometimes hero-ball is necessary and hero-ball works. But it's pretty clear that Soph is frustrated -- frustrated with the officiating, frustrated with being mugged and being able to be mugged, frustratred with having to carry too much load, frustrated with teammates not being able to connect with her when she does create for them (Beckie and Fleming, I'm looking at you here...).
I don't think she's frustrated with the lack of creation (she gets the ball in dangerous spots more than pretty much any forward in the league) so much as she is with the lack of talent around her. Which is why I think it's fundamentally a roster talent issue, not so much how they use her.
From a more holistic Thorns perspective, I think there's a tactical issue as well. But that's a different, though related, discussion.
I think that's fair, but as you get better roster talent around her, you're also going to increase options for using her, I think.
The "rely" on Soph is a bit of a red-herring tbh. And kielbj did a nice job looking into "hero-ball" in their NWSL round-up. The way to get away from "relying" on Soph is to get better attacking players, so someone like Morgan Weaver is the third attacker of choice; not because Weaver isn't good, but because that's surrounding your superstar with abundant talent.
Ultimately the Thorns are always going to be somewhat reliant on Smith. That's how club teams work with superstar forwards.
Agreed, and I know we're struggling without Weaver this year, and that Weaver was off even prior to injury.
Let me try again here.
The national team situation is quite different from club because Hayes gets to start from scratch and select who she wants, regardless of salary or contract status, and build a team with an eye to how the team functions. Yes, she's prioritizing interchangeability, versatility, youth, and athleticism to endure up to 6 matches in, what, 17 days?
BUT, Hayes is also looking how to put together a team -- not just an attack -- that leverages Smith's talents as one of only two 9s on the roster while also taking pressure off of Smith to carry the entire load. She's also building not just for the Olympics, but rather she's building a program. And we already have two of those pieces -- Smith and Coffey. So, what else do we need -- what KIND of player and where, what style, what system, etc.
THAT's the part that interests me and what I think the Bhathals should be watching for, if that makes sense. That is, if their aspiration is truly to be one of the top clubs in the world rather than 5th in the NWSL. Learn from what Hayes does well, and what mistakes Hayes makes too.
Ouch to the 3rd power. Interim Wave coach harvests their biggest loss o' the season, at home in front of a huge crowd, while dominating any metric not named scoring (e.g., possession 69:31, I mean, come on). They had not lost by more than a point before, nor surrendered more than two. icing on the cake, the winning goal was technically a Girma own-goal.
How's the tinkering going for you, Jill? One has thoughts.
Obligatory Burkle hate, engage.
This might be SD's down year before a big bounceback. See KC current 2023 to 2024.
Hope we beat the snot out of them on July 5. Because they won't be down forever.
If nothing else we learn it was not "just a Stoney problem."
Unless it's group PTSD.
I see Eva Gaetino is being scouted by Lyon for a transfer, which is a bummer because I thought she could be a good target for us for a young CB.
Overlord Kang is doing her best to starve her competition of any oxygen so that I guess there's NO competition in D1F in France for Lyon? She's just bought the PSG manager for her London City Lionesses project...a DII team in England who she wants to see promoted to the WSL and is already dumping a ton of money into. She's also brought in Kosovare Asllani for LCL....which is pretty pretty wild to me! She must be paying her $$$$$$. She is literally buying out her competition in 3 different countries lol.
Speaking of....it's interesting that she's also thinking of blowing up Lyon's academy (and pissing off lots of Lyon fans in the meantime):
https://www.olympique-et-lyonnais.com/organigramme-flou-equipe-supprimee-cest-lincertitude-a-lacademie-feminine-de-lol,332517.html?utm_campaign=post-auto&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=mashup-olympiqueetlyonnais
(you'll have to use google translate for this one!)
https://fromthespot.co.uk/11951/major-european-club-on-brink-of-closing-academy-reports-suggest/
Also also *BONUS KANG* (translated from Spanish): Markel Zubizarreta leaves the RFEF to lead Michele Kang's million-dollar sporting project, which has three clubs: Olympique de Lyon, Washington Spirit and London City Lionesses, whose objective is immediate promotion to the WSL. The offer, he said, was "irrefutable."
Firsly: I don't think the Kang thing is awesome and fun like everyone in the media is treating it. People hate it when it happens in men's soccer and the same should be true in woso. The spending tons of money on women's sports part = good, the football group part = bad. Call me a bitter rival fan whatever, but I think it sucks.
Secondly: "Jocelyn Precheur" is a MAN?!? That's the most french thing I've ever heard.
Dusty Springfield would have you believe that Joceyln is the sweet talkin' son of a Precheur man.
(shows self out)
Seriously... Diacre (Deacon)? Precheur (Preacher)? Bompastor? For the love of God, people!!!
Oh, if I wasn't clear I hate it also lol. The situation with OL Reign/Seattle Reign didn't get talked about enough also. The league kinda just let one of it's historically higher performing clubs be dragged through the mud for over a year (and now sit in 13th place...not entirely because of that, but it's a huge piece.) All the while she's been propped up as this saviour of woso. Anyways, I have no idea how this will work, but it seems like the lady doesn't sleep.
Tbf to Kang, I think she is doing good stuff as far as billionaires go. She's spending her money on women's soccer and has certainly elevated the Spirit to the point where other teams are going to have to actively work to keep up. Not a savior perhaps, but she's injected some much-needed ambition and drive.
I just hate the multi-club relationship aspect of it. Hate it here, hated it with Red Bull, hated it with the City Group, hated it with the Eagle Group etc etc.
Of course there are benefits to any big money being injected into the women's game, but yes, at what cost...I'm not sure really because we haven't seen it yet. I do very much dislike multi-club ownership in the men's world, though. Wonder what happens with Lyon's academy long-term...turning it into an American pay to play model (or ending it completely) sucks.
We have no real idea if Prechuer is a good coach or not too, tbh.
Kang said a couple of interesting things the other day. She has this idea that LCL will breakeven in two to three years...uh good luck. They don't have a fanbase. While they can buy their way out of the championship, I think they'll find the WSL a lot harder
Yeah and also I get that most of the English women's teams are associated with a Men's club and it's probably difficult (or impossible) to take over control of half a club like she did with Lyon, but I wish she could have bought one of MANY english underfunded women's teams that actually have a real history and a potential fanbase.
Chelsea floated selling the women’s team. She could’ve waited 6 months lol
Hadn't seen that about Kosovare. She was one of Nadia's teammates at AC Milan. Wonder if that means Nadia will be on the move again too?
But I have to ask you - please don't abbreviate London City Lions as LCL. When I first looked at it I thought "Kosovare had a lateral collateral ligament injury?"
Some takeaways from the Green is Gold charity match last night:
-Emi Alvarado had some excellent saves last night and I would like to see more from her.
-Shelby Hogan might actually be a F instead.
-The aforementioned may fix a few of our roster problems if we start Alvarado and turn Shelby into a forward lol
-How about Ana Dias scoring a hattrick with varying nice goals?! I would like to see her start with Soph and maybe Linnehan v Utah. She's got that dawg that I fear Izzy is missing and can rotate with Soph in and out centrally.
-Speaking of Linnehan...she didn't play at all and was on the sideline in her shoes. Hope that isn't indicative of bad news to come because we literally have no offense.
-Speaking of this game mimicking real life is D'Aquila's play lol.
-How's about that volley goal from one of the Thorns academy players? I yelped!
I didn't see last night's match, but I agree about Dias. She has an edge to her that I'd like to see us have out on the pitch more often.
It's on youtube! All 3 of Ana's goals come after the half when she comes in. In contrast, D'Aquila missed at least two absolute sitters that I can remember...Janine skied a shot or two in front of the net. Shelby might be a better forward than she is a GK. Dias is good when she's close to goal, all of her shots were very much on target and generally low. She hits the ball hard. She's probably better and more comfortable using her head than anyone else and knows how to find crosses. I saw her do it several times during the warm-ups also. I know it's just a silly match, but she seemed to take it as an opportunity (as did Emi Alvarado who had some highlight reel saves against Timbers players.) Worth a watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJOy6LrOrAw
Here's one reason why I think Hayes made a roster construction mistake - you actually do need at least some people who have been there, done that, succeeded, handled media, handled internal conflicts, etc. For example, Morgan and Horan played crucial roles in handling the stuff with Korbin Albert when it arose, which happened before Hayes arrived. They made clear how the USWNT culture was going to handle things, and I think they did a very good job with that.
Did Stoney's performance get Morgan left off the USWNT roster? Did Morgan's performance get Stoney sacked? Discuss.
Kassouf's answer:
"Her form with the San Diego Wave this season -- zero goals in eight games -- came at the wrong time for this Olympic roster selection. It is also more indicative of a wider issue with the Wave, who went from Shield winners last year to winless in seven games. Wave coach Casey Stoney was fired earlier this week."
I do think any argument for Morgan making the roster at this point is leadership only....which is a tough argument to make when there's only 18 spots. Kassouf blaming the Wave's issues for Morgan's is a little too much water-carrying for my liking.
I see the majority of poll voters so far chose USA winning gold. Not sure if Emma has enough time to get us there this tourney. I chose bronze. I think she will restore this team to greatness but it will take some time. Would be happy to be wrong though.