Ever since Soph went on her initial tear last year, the defensive strategy against her has been to beat her up. It’s a good strategy if you can get away with it, and nothing’s gonna change until the NWSL/USWNT/Thorns/someone does something about it with some early yellow cards and more proactive whistles. Few players get handled the same way, and its an NWSL thing -- it would not be sustainable in international competition or European leagues.
Nice bounce back - Not much to take away and it didn't look like Norris changed anything anyhow, but a few notes:
1. I kept a close eye on the midfield most of the game- It seems very clear that the tactical instruction is for the 8s to play high and not drop into the midfield and isn't just a result of Sinc being bad and slow. Moultrie is clearly just better than Sinc and Chicago is a dumpster fire, but the base position of the 8s stayed the same. Especially Dunn, who is really just playing as a 10 now:(https://twitter.com/arielle_dror/status/1660446647254650886?s=20)
2. The press obviously works better with Liv, but they still need to develop a tactic for when that 15 minute blitz doesn't result in goals. It's a little too chaotic and exhausting to work consistently, but it sure as hell is fun when they can capitalize like they usually do against the bad teams.
3. Poor Coffey --who played her best game of the season today-- has to cover an absolutely *absurd* amount of ground. She's essentially just running horizontal wind sprints all game. This ain't gonna work any better than it did on the road trip when they play more teams that can overload the attacking midfield consistently.
4. Hina's so fucking fun! She and Dunn are developing a nice little rapport on the right- Look at how much of the Thorns attacking moments went through them.
5. Really impressive Moultrie finish. I think the list of Thorns that finishes that chance on their left foot is just her and Hina.
6a. #ProtectSoph! Atrocious refereeing by Tori Penso (ref families scare me), and Smith was absolutely livid with her most of the 2nd half- Not sure if they showed her get in Penso's face on TV, but she was very.....demonstrative with her frustration. She's also still looking a tad off her best and made a few classic selfish Soph shot-when-Weaver/Hina-was-through-on-goal plays, but she clearly just wants that goal- I wonder if that's why Norris left her in even though it would have been better to rest her with the game in hand.
Finally got a chance to watch the replay. First, this game was likely won when Coach Norris finally wrote out his best team available for the starting lineup. Second, Moultrie needs to play all the time. She's seventeen and yet her savvy is up there with the best. She constantly makes herself available as a passing outlet by finding pockets of space. She's more than happy to take the long shot once in a while and she's pretty accurate. It mitigates Sinclair's weaknesses to bring her in as a sub.
Speaking of Sinclair, she can still be quite useful in attack with her experience and precision but holy cow is she a black hole on defense. She can't outrun anybody and is pretty easily dispossessed these days. I wonder what she herself thinks about her play.
Tier 1: Chicago -- Week after week. leading the league in goals allowed and opponents' wins. Impressive consistency. Can they go wire to wire?
Tier 2: KC -- Despite a few weeks out of form, they've returned to their goal-conceding, points-dropping ways. Looking like a strong challenger to Chicago.
Tier 3: Houston -- After that dreadful Portland performance, Tiffany Salmon and crew have returned to form and are separating themselves from Louisville, Orlando, and NC, though ACFCNFT have been gaining ground of late.
Portland beat Naeher all day long on one-touch finishes.
Not only do those players deserve kudos, but we need to acknowledge everything that makes possible those one-touch finishes -- great passing, great movement, sending multiple players toward the goal, no overdribbling, and unselfish play.
Naeher actually didn't play badly. If she had, it would have been 7-0 or 8-0. She just got beat several times by some great offensive teamwork.
Okay, Sophia Smith hasn't scored a goal in six games. From having a commanding lead in the Golden Boot race, with 4 goals in 2 games, she's now in a 2-way tie for 4th place in it. Should we be worried? Have defenders figured her out? Has she gotten the yips?
I'd say no. She's still looking incredibly dangerous, she's still getting lots of shots (in fact she's pretty far ahead in both the NWSL's shots and shots-on-goal statistics), she's working well with teammates, she's drawing defenders like flies and making space for teammates, and most importantly, she doesn't look out of sorts about her shots not going in the net. Also she's contributing a ton of assists - 5 so far, which is 2 more than anyone else. (Incidentally the NWSL season record for assists is 10, set by our very own Tobin Heath.) She's helping the team immensely, and if she keeps up what she's doing, she WILL start scoring again, and scoring in buckets.
Had to miss a home game for the first time in 4 years, and Natu went ahead and reportedly dropped a Käärijä celly and I missed it (Noooo!) . I really hope a video of that bubbles up at some point.
Hey, what happened to our friend jastefano, who used to provide all the social media dish and broke the news of Rhian and Emily wearing matching rainbow sneakers to some Thorns event?
Just finished watching the extended highlights of Gotham v Puget Sound WoSo Team. Long day for PSWST. Some dreadful mistakes by Barnes and Latsko, and Gotham made them pay. Farrelly had a nice game.
Ever since Soph went on her initial tear last year, the defensive strategy against her has been to beat her up. It’s a good strategy if you can get away with it, and nothing’s gonna change until the NWSL/USWNT/Thorns/someone does something about it with some early yellow cards and more proactive whistles. Few players get handled the same way, and its an NWSL thing -- it would not be sustainable in international competition or European leagues.
Nice bounce back - Not much to take away and it didn't look like Norris changed anything anyhow, but a few notes:
1. I kept a close eye on the midfield most of the game- It seems very clear that the tactical instruction is for the 8s to play high and not drop into the midfield and isn't just a result of Sinc being bad and slow. Moultrie is clearly just better than Sinc and Chicago is a dumpster fire, but the base position of the 8s stayed the same. Especially Dunn, who is really just playing as a 10 now:(https://twitter.com/arielle_dror/status/1660446647254650886?s=20)
2. The press obviously works better with Liv, but they still need to develop a tactic for when that 15 minute blitz doesn't result in goals. It's a little too chaotic and exhausting to work consistently, but it sure as hell is fun when they can capitalize like they usually do against the bad teams.
3. Poor Coffey --who played her best game of the season today-- has to cover an absolutely *absurd* amount of ground. She's essentially just running horizontal wind sprints all game. This ain't gonna work any better than it did on the road trip when they play more teams that can overload the attacking midfield consistently.
4. Hina's so fucking fun! She and Dunn are developing a nice little rapport on the right- Look at how much of the Thorns attacking moments went through them.
5. Really impressive Moultrie finish. I think the list of Thorns that finishes that chance on their left foot is just her and Hina.
6a. #ProtectSoph! Atrocious refereeing by Tori Penso (ref families scare me), and Smith was absolutely livid with her most of the 2nd half- Not sure if they showed her get in Penso's face on TV, but she was very.....demonstrative with her frustration. She's also still looking a tad off her best and made a few classic selfish Soph shot-when-Weaver/Hina-was-through-on-goal plays, but she clearly just wants that goal- I wonder if that's why Norris left her in even though it would have been better to rest her with the game in hand.
6b. RIP Bubble-braid Soph, we hardly knew ye :(
Finally got a chance to watch the replay. First, this game was likely won when Coach Norris finally wrote out his best team available for the starting lineup. Second, Moultrie needs to play all the time. She's seventeen and yet her savvy is up there with the best. She constantly makes herself available as a passing outlet by finding pockets of space. She's more than happy to take the long shot once in a while and she's pretty accurate. It mitigates Sinclair's weaknesses to bring her in as a sub.
Speaking of Sinclair, she can still be quite useful in attack with her experience and precision but holy cow is she a black hole on defense. She can't outrun anybody and is pretty easily dispossessed these days. I wonder what she herself thinks about her play.
Sam Coffey rules. That is all.
INVERTED POWER RANKINGS
Tier 1: Chicago -- Week after week. leading the league in goals allowed and opponents' wins. Impressive consistency. Can they go wire to wire?
Tier 2: KC -- Despite a few weeks out of form, they've returned to their goal-conceding, points-dropping ways. Looking like a strong challenger to Chicago.
Tier 3: Houston -- After that dreadful Portland performance, Tiffany Salmon and crew have returned to form and are separating themselves from Louisville, Orlando, and NC, though ACFCNFT have been gaining ground of late.
And so on...
Thorns are leaving the rest of the league in the dust on goal differential.
Portland beat Naeher all day long on one-touch finishes.
Not only do those players deserve kudos, but we need to acknowledge everything that makes possible those one-touch finishes -- great passing, great movement, sending multiple players toward the goal, no overdribbling, and unselfish play.
Naeher actually didn't play badly. If she had, it would have been 7-0 or 8-0. She just got beat several times by some great offensive teamwork.
Okay, Sophia Smith hasn't scored a goal in six games. From having a commanding lead in the Golden Boot race, with 4 goals in 2 games, she's now in a 2-way tie for 4th place in it. Should we be worried? Have defenders figured her out? Has she gotten the yips?
I'd say no. She's still looking incredibly dangerous, she's still getting lots of shots (in fact she's pretty far ahead in both the NWSL's shots and shots-on-goal statistics), she's working well with teammates, she's drawing defenders like flies and making space for teammates, and most importantly, she doesn't look out of sorts about her shots not going in the net. Also she's contributing a ton of assists - 5 so far, which is 2 more than anyone else. (Incidentally the NWSL season record for assists is 10, set by our very own Tobin Heath.) She's helping the team immensely, and if she keeps up what she's doing, she WILL start scoring again, and scoring in buckets.
Can we all just take a moment to say: L'oL
https://twitter.com/Field0fVision/status/1660690765968752652
Had to miss a home game for the first time in 4 years, and Natu went ahead and reportedly dropped a Käärijä celly and I missed it (Noooo!) . I really hope a video of that bubbles up at some point.
Hey, what happened to our friend jastefano, who used to provide all the social media dish and broke the news of Rhian and Emily wearing matching rainbow sneakers to some Thorns event?
Just finished watching the extended highlights of Gotham v Puget Sound WoSo Team. Long day for PSWST. Some dreadful mistakes by Barnes and Latsko, and Gotham made them pay. Farrelly had a nice game.
This formation is wonky, but THIS is what I like to see!
https://twitter.com/Field0fVision/status/1660686528689872897
Everyone looked on form today. But objectively speaking, Red Stars looked really out of sorts for 20 minutes that really decided the match
The Chicago goalkeeper did not have a happy day:
https://www.pdxcite.net/soccercityusa/wp-content/gallery/chi052123/chi052123-10.jpg
So Lyon have one game left to go...when do we think we hear more about Horan's future?
Don't know if anyone saw this yesterday from Ryan Clarke on twitter in all the excitement...but he texted this:
"Ndamakong Suh was in the house for tonight’s Thorns match. #BAONPDX"
Someone asked if he was a possible investor...
https://twitter.com/RyanTClarke/status/1660423181986037760