While it felt wonderful to rescue a point and deny ACFC two of them at the last minute, we really should have done better. This draw felt like the fault of coaching. We didn't have our strongest lineup out there, with players out of position (Sugita and Sinclair as forwards), weird subs (leave in Sinclair, who was visibly tired and joggi…
While it felt wonderful to rescue a point and deny ACFC two of them at the last minute, we really should have done better. This draw felt like the fault of coaching. We didn't have our strongest lineup out there, with players out of position (Sugita and Sinclair as forwards), weird subs (leave in Sinclair, who was visibly tired and jogging around the field, and remove Dunn?!), and don't get me started on that Ertz goal. How many times in her career has she scored that goal anyway? Why was no one tracking her run? Did the team not spend the last week practicing defending that very goal? It reminded me all too much of Sawa's last-minute goal in the 2011 World Cup: defenders standing around like statues watching a corner kick while an attacker makes a diagonal run to get in front of everyone and tip the ball into the net.
In the bigger picture, we have the strongest roster in the league (Reign is close, but I think we edge them) and we should win a home game against a team like Angel City pretty handily. That we had to rely on a goalkeeper goal with seconds left in the game to eke out a draw is not a good sign.
Also, great to see Menges starting alongside Hubly. I hope Menges can get her minutes up to a full 90'.
- Bixby's goal helped offset some of her earlier gaffes. She really could have done better on the first two goals, and in particular her poor play on high crosses is a major weakness. (Her only major other weakness is retreating from through-balls that she could easily get.)
- How was Ertz's body slam on the second goal not yellow card, and not even a foul? There's this weird thing that refs do in that a goal getting scored seems to change the standard of what's a foul. Like, you can leap up over top of a defender to head the ball into the net, but if you did the same thing at the midline, the ref would rightly call a foul on you. Ertz's crash into Bixby was another example. Why do goals cancel out fouls?
- This ref was driving me nuts. He had the "no blood no foul" attitude for the most part, which was bad enough, but then he'd call a foul on fairly light contact. There was little consistency.
- Moultrie's pass to Weaver for the goal was a thing of beauty. In fact, that entire sequence was terrific - Moultrie's perfectly-weighted, perfectly-aimed pass, Weaver's first touch to get around Haračić, and Weaver's shot were all wonderful.
- Speaking of Weaver, she had a great game overall. Is Weaver slowly getting better technically? She's always had these kinds of touches in her (e.g., her goal to win the ICC two years ago), but they were rare; now I think they're happening more often, though I could be mistaken.
- I thought Rocky was pretty good too, though she too suffered from the "pass straight to the other team" disease that afflicted our entire midfield.
- How many NWSL teams have had goalkeepers score goals? Now we've had two!
- We gave up more goals today (3) than we had previously all season (2). Is this the Sauerbrunn Effect?
- We relinquished our lead in goals-against, as several teams have 3 or 4, though we still lead in goals-for and goal difference.
Bixby didn’t have a great match - thanks for the goal, tho! - but…
On the Thompson goal Hubly got absolutely torched, leaving Thompson to bore in unhindered and she’s deadly in the situation. Bixby shouldn’t concede her near post, tho, so call that 50% in Bixby.
On Johnson’s Ertz cleaned her out; that should have been a foul and no-goal. Nothing on Bixby there.
On the Ertz goal that’s a tough save; short range hard flick, maybe a quarter of the time the keeper can throw a hand out to block it…but that’s a goal that the defenders have to stop getting to Ertz’s head; call that one 50% on Bixby, too.
I don’t like how hesitant Bixby is claiming crosses, either. But I wonder if part of that is her build. She’s not very muscular, and I wonder if she has trouble fighting her way through the scrum, so she tends not to try?
Bella gave up two at the near post, but as you say, the Ertz goal was close range and difficult to stop. However, not being at the near post in the first place is a bit of a problem. The free kick was coming from that side, and her initial position was wonky. Nadine's got some work to do. Still, grabbing that late equalizer makes up for a lot.
Other notes:
AC's second goal not being overturned by VAR is a joke. The foul on Bixby could hardly have been more obvious.
Thompson's opener was well-times: they countered as Kuikka was upfield with the attack, and no way Hubly was ever going to stay with Thompson. Kelli's not slow, but not at that level of pace. But then as said above, Bella got beat near post. Very save-able goal...
Hina's PK was everything you'd expect from her: calm and perfectly placed, just enough pace to make it impossible to stop, even guessing the right way.
Moultrie's assist on Weaver's goal (which was finished perfectly) was superb. Olivia de Bruyne...
Frankly, if I'm Bixby I want Hubly to put her shoulder into Thompson and try to run her off the ball. You're right - she's never going to stay with her - so she's got to at least try to slow Thompson down or push her wide to let the rest of the backline recover.
But on the replay Bixby looks worse than she did live; badly positioned, weak dive. So more like 75% on her for that one. GOT to be better - she gets near-posted too often.
On the Ertz goal - I couldn't see this in real time - Bixby's there! She's positioned right, and even throws an arm up, but the shot's too pacey and just a seeing-eye bullet.
Oh, and to make matters worse on AC's second? I just looked at the NWSL site and the scorer overturned the Thompson award; it's being called an OG on Kuikka. Not Natu's night...
I didn't notice if Hubly was the last field player back on that one...perhaps worried about a DOGSO red? Otherwise, yeah, she should have accepted a yellow and stopped that attack.
I looked at the Ertz goal on replay, too...I think her positioning was a but (to her) left of ideal, but it was indeed close enough to make the block. Just not enough time. I don't really mind that goal: it was a well-executed play by AC. Sometimes you can defend pretty well and just get beat by good offense.
Norris' substitution decisions seem a bit wonky...but not bizarrely so. I think we just have to get used to Sincy being left out there for a good 15 minutes or more _after_ she's obviously gassed. It is what it is.
Another thing I noticed was a pretty off game by Kling. Lots of bad passes and out of sync with teammates. And those two into-the-stands shots in rapid succession were frustrating: on both of them her head was coming up literally before her foot hit the ball. If it had been a tee shot in golf, she'd have whiffed completely. Shockingly bad technique for a veteran you'd expect _not_ to get over-excited in the heat of the moment.
While it felt wonderful to rescue a point and deny ACFC two of them at the last minute, we really should have done better. This draw felt like the fault of coaching. We didn't have our strongest lineup out there, with players out of position (Sugita and Sinclair as forwards), weird subs (leave in Sinclair, who was visibly tired and jogging around the field, and remove Dunn?!), and don't get me started on that Ertz goal. How many times in her career has she scored that goal anyway? Why was no one tracking her run? Did the team not spend the last week practicing defending that very goal? It reminded me all too much of Sawa's last-minute goal in the 2011 World Cup: defenders standing around like statues watching a corner kick while an attacker makes a diagonal run to get in front of everyone and tip the ball into the net.
In the bigger picture, we have the strongest roster in the league (Reign is close, but I think we edge them) and we should win a home game against a team like Angel City pretty handily. That we had to rely on a goalkeeper goal with seconds left in the game to eke out a draw is not a good sign.
Also, great to see Menges starting alongside Hubly. I hope Menges can get her minutes up to a full 90'.
Other thoughts:
- Bixby's goal helped offset some of her earlier gaffes. She really could have done better on the first two goals, and in particular her poor play on high crosses is a major weakness. (Her only major other weakness is retreating from through-balls that she could easily get.)
- How was Ertz's body slam on the second goal not yellow card, and not even a foul? There's this weird thing that refs do in that a goal getting scored seems to change the standard of what's a foul. Like, you can leap up over top of a defender to head the ball into the net, but if you did the same thing at the midline, the ref would rightly call a foul on you. Ertz's crash into Bixby was another example. Why do goals cancel out fouls?
- This ref was driving me nuts. He had the "no blood no foul" attitude for the most part, which was bad enough, but then he'd call a foul on fairly light contact. There was little consistency.
- Moultrie's pass to Weaver for the goal was a thing of beauty. In fact, that entire sequence was terrific - Moultrie's perfectly-weighted, perfectly-aimed pass, Weaver's first touch to get around Haračić, and Weaver's shot were all wonderful.
- Speaking of Weaver, she had a great game overall. Is Weaver slowly getting better technically? She's always had these kinds of touches in her (e.g., her goal to win the ICC two years ago), but they were rare; now I think they're happening more often, though I could be mistaken.
- I thought Rocky was pretty good too, though she too suffered from the "pass straight to the other team" disease that afflicted our entire midfield.
- How many NWSL teams have had goalkeepers score goals? Now we've had two!
- We gave up more goals today (3) than we had previously all season (2). Is this the Sauerbrunn Effect?
- We relinquished our lead in goals-against, as several teams have 3 or 4, though we still lead in goals-for and goal difference.
Bixby didn’t have a great match - thanks for the goal, tho! - but…
On the Thompson goal Hubly got absolutely torched, leaving Thompson to bore in unhindered and she’s deadly in the situation. Bixby shouldn’t concede her near post, tho, so call that 50% in Bixby.
On Johnson’s Ertz cleaned her out; that should have been a foul and no-goal. Nothing on Bixby there.
On the Ertz goal that’s a tough save; short range hard flick, maybe a quarter of the time the keeper can throw a hand out to block it…but that’s a goal that the defenders have to stop getting to Ertz’s head; call that one 50% on Bixby, too.
I don’t like how hesitant Bixby is claiming crosses, either. But I wonder if part of that is her build. She’s not very muscular, and I wonder if she has trouble fighting her way through the scrum, so she tends not to try?
Bella gave up two at the near post, but as you say, the Ertz goal was close range and difficult to stop. However, not being at the near post in the first place is a bit of a problem. The free kick was coming from that side, and her initial position was wonky. Nadine's got some work to do. Still, grabbing that late equalizer makes up for a lot.
Other notes:
AC's second goal not being overturned by VAR is a joke. The foul on Bixby could hardly have been more obvious.
Thompson's opener was well-times: they countered as Kuikka was upfield with the attack, and no way Hubly was ever going to stay with Thompson. Kelli's not slow, but not at that level of pace. But then as said above, Bella got beat near post. Very save-able goal...
Hina's PK was everything you'd expect from her: calm and perfectly placed, just enough pace to make it impossible to stop, even guessing the right way.
Moultrie's assist on Weaver's goal (which was finished perfectly) was superb. Olivia de Bruyne...
Frankly, if I'm Bixby I want Hubly to put her shoulder into Thompson and try to run her off the ball. You're right - she's never going to stay with her - so she's got to at least try to slow Thompson down or push her wide to let the rest of the backline recover.
But on the replay Bixby looks worse than she did live; badly positioned, weak dive. So more like 75% on her for that one. GOT to be better - she gets near-posted too often.
On the Ertz goal - I couldn't see this in real time - Bixby's there! She's positioned right, and even throws an arm up, but the shot's too pacey and just a seeing-eye bullet.
Oh, and to make matters worse on AC's second? I just looked at the NWSL site and the scorer overturned the Thompson award; it's being called an OG on Kuikka. Not Natu's night...
I didn't notice if Hubly was the last field player back on that one...perhaps worried about a DOGSO red? Otherwise, yeah, she should have accepted a yellow and stopped that attack.
I looked at the Ertz goal on replay, too...I think her positioning was a but (to her) left of ideal, but it was indeed close enough to make the block. Just not enough time. I don't really mind that goal: it was a well-executed play by AC. Sometimes you can defend pretty well and just get beat by good offense.
Norris' substitution decisions seem a bit wonky...but not bizarrely so. I think we just have to get used to Sincy being left out there for a good 15 minutes or more _after_ she's obviously gassed. It is what it is.
Another thing I noticed was a pretty off game by Kling. Lots of bad passes and out of sync with teammates. And those two into-the-stands shots in rapid succession were frustrating: on both of them her head was coming up literally before her foot hit the ball. If it had been a tee shot in golf, she'd have whiffed completely. Shockingly bad technique for a veteran you'd expect _not_ to get over-excited in the heat of the moment.