I'd bet this isn't the last time we see an opponent make an early second half charge- That press is absolutely vicious, but it's gotta be exceptionally tiring as well. Mentioned this in the other thread, but Hina, Sinc, and Dunn were noticeably tired and leaving massive gaps in the midfield in the second half. I thought Moultrie, D'Aquila, and Vasconcelos did good jobs calming things down around the 70th minute which restored a little stability in possession prior to Soph going nuclear.
But, ultimately....Sophia Smith: Absolutely outrageous. A joy and a privilege to have her in PDX.
Smith's three goals were so different: a PK, where it's all mental; dribbling the entire defense and scoring a double-nutmeg toe poke; and a lashed shot from outside the box placed perfectly next to the post. Outstanding.
Wonder who it's worse for during VAR: kicker at the spot or keeper?
Keeper probably very busy silent-praying, so I'll vote the kicker.
Pretty soft contact but I also think there's carryover from last season WRT the shellacking Soph took nearly every match with perhaps a quarter of warranted fouls given. Is our refs learning?
Overall I thought it was a good broadcast. It actually had the look and feel of a professional sporting event. Unfortunate that the commissioner’s mic didn’t work at halftime though
Agree, it was a good quality broadcast. I liked the booth team, the sideline reporter and the fact they were there at the park, not announcing a match from a studio while watching videos. You can tell.
Her leg got kicked out from under her while she was running. It took CBS a long time to show the right angle, and they showed it only once, but as soon as they did it looked pretty clear.
I'm curious as to the VAR setup: how many cameras does the system itself provide and how much do they rely on broadcast cameras?
Today's CBS match had more cameras than typical NWSL matches--CBSSN has fewer and P+ fewer still. Twitch I think uses four iphones.
The "official FIFA VAR" setup: "Camera set-up The video assistant referee team has access to 42 broadcast cameras, eight of which are super slow motion and four of which are ultra slow motion."
All games, if it be Paramount Plus or Cable are to have 6 broadcast cameras. If VAR has more Cameras I do not know. They are using the same technology/central review board that the MLS uses.
Rewatching yesterday's game right now. Just finished the 1st half. Can't fault anything here, but Portland could have been up 5-0 at the turn. KC understandably overmatched, and boy our passing and movement looked awfully good.
Credit to KC for competing in the 2nd half and putting lots of pressure on Portland until KC collapsed in the final 10+ minutes. CeCe is a gamer, and maybe it's just me but Debinha seems incredibly fit - she appears to have added muscle in the arms/torso and legs, but is still incredibly light and quick on her feet. If they ever get anything close to full health, KC will be dangerous.
The collapse came from fatigue, because Smith can get free in tight spaces by speed-bag dribbling with her shins (!!!), and because Franch just fluffed it on the 3rd goal.
A question about using substack: Is there a way to highlight new comments that I haven't seen yet? New top-level comments will show up at the beginning (or end, depending on how I sort them) so they're not a problem, but new replies to other people's comments will show up elsewhere and be hard to find without reading through every previous, existing comment. Reading through them all is fine for, say, 10 comments, but not for 100.
- Portland and San Diego have picked up where they left off last year.
- OL Reign will probably make this a three-team race before season's end, and Washington improved with coaching stability but have lost backline quality.
- Racing Louisville and Houston have firepower and promise but they need their defenses to step up.
- KC's and ACFC's fortunes depend on injured players' timetables for return.
- Gotham and Chicago are off to disappointing starts.
- NC and Orlando will struggle.
I could see up to 10 teams competing for a playoff spot, and 3-4 of them competing for the shield.
I’d say the only other team other than Orlando with a real lack of talent is Chicago, and they still have Pugh/Krueger/Davidson when fully healthy- Almost every other team (including Gotham and Louisville) has some real talented players.
The real issue is roster building and coaching: ACFC have some real talent, but it’s all concentrated in attack and defense. Gotham has a ton of attacking talent and some good midfielders, but they don’t have a system that works at all and don’t really have a defense.
There’s certainly a top tier where the best players are concentrated, but there’s plenty of talent in the league imo. it just doesn’t always translate to good soccer.
I think Chicago will pull it together for a passable season. They often start slow in the season. I think they have more talent than people credit them with. They have national team level talent in Davidson, Pugh, Naeher, Krueger, St Georges and some solid league level players in Nagasato, Milazzo, Wright, Sharples (if she recovers). It's mostly just that overall they are young and not deep, especially in midfield. But they only lost their first two games on PKs and Naeher got fingers to both. World Cup could hit them pretty hard though.
Chicago REALLY need their newbies on the field because the starting XI is trending old and injured (although: Pugh-Swanson happens to be top scorer on USWNT). As a fan, I hope Davidson gets back to full health but an ACL year off is bad for anybody. Luckily, she's only 24.
You managed to snag Hocking in the draft, Red Stars. Get her going! (She's played both matches so far.)
Chicago lost most of those older, injury-prone players in free agency. They have fielded 18 different players; 12 are 25 or younger. Six of those have started each game.
Compare that to the Thorns: 17 players have earned minutes. 7 are 25 or younger. Three of those start consistently.
I did a deep-dive on this a while back. I think the most players the Thorns ever used in an entire season was 27, and the fewest was (I think) 22. It sounds like Chicago are heading for 27, not 22.
ACFC have some talent, but as an entire team they played like hot garbage today. Then again, a bad opponent can sometimes drag you down. Have rarely seen two teams play more ragtag and with less composure.
This might be a controversial opinion, but I don’t think expansion drafts should be a thing anymore. New teams should have to take their knocks instead of being gifted players- we have free agency now, international talent is available, and the draft is stronger than it has been in years past.
There’s no need for another mechanism of forced player relocation. Player stability is important and double expansion drafts suck for literally everyone involved. I’d much prefer the expansion teams get 3-4 extra draft picks or extra allocation money.
The CBA says that teams can only lose one player per team, which I imagine is as close as they're going to get to ending the expansion draft while retaining the idea of parity. Certainly less brutal than the 2020 draft.
I was mildly impressed with Potter’s adjustment to counterpress opening the second half, and more than mildly displeased with how our backline responded to the pressure. Frankly we’re lucky KC couldn’t hit water, boat, etc or they’d have equalized by the hour.
Or that we have Smith and they don’t, because she pretty much put that one away herownself.
Thought that Sinc had another “good half/meh half” again. Our midfield bossed theirs until then, and I think there’s a lesson there…
I think starting with Sinclair with a planned swap with Rodriguez at halftime makes sense. Looking at AD’s face when Sophia got that shot off was kind of priceless
Agreed. If Sinc has to start and if she keeps having 'good' first halves, fine. But the sub for Rodriguez has to happen sooner than 75'. 60' is ok, 45' would be better. Always want to sub before the fatigue has truly started to impact the play and I think we could have taken control of the game back sooner had Rocky been on at the half.
Emslie tried to beat Moorhouse twice in the same spot, and McCaskill's earned PK got VARed. Never should have been that close. Beautiful corner from Emslie and header from Katie J at the death. Otherwise, a grim 2nd half, really, for both sides.
Orlando missed so many good looks in the 2nd half. Which, given how bad Orlando is, tells you how poorly ACFC played. So many heavy touches, bad passes, panic-fire lack of possession. I couldn't stop looking at it, is was so bad.
Watching the KC goal again, Bella has GOT to do better- Great ball by Loera, but Bixby gets totally lost and neither comes to get it or remains on her line, resulting in her getting caught in no-mans land. This has been a pretty consistent hole in her game since she became a starter: Tremendous shot-stopper, really needs to improve claiming balls close to her on set pieces.
Looked more like she initially misjudged the ball’s trajectory and took a couple of steps forward instead of taking several steps to her right that would likely have resulted in an easy save.
I was going to say the same. If as a goalkeeper you come off your line, you have GOT to get the ball. On the KC goal she obviously misjudged it - you can see her start to come out and then flap at the ball as it sails by out of reach. The Ice Bear will have to work on that.
I was watching the game on Amtrak Wi-Fi going from Portland to Seattle and the lag was so bad that my stream paused with the ball in mid-flight. I assumed Bella was gonna get there easily and was kinda stunned when the stream unpaused and I saw the full clip lol
A good win even with several players not having their typical great games. Kuikka, Sugita, Coffey and Hubbly had rough spotty games. Would have liked Sinc to come off sooner and to have seen more of Reyes. Would have even been good to bring her in at about 65 in the second half for Kuikka. I think the first half press was so intense some of the starters were just tired. Even Dunn who was awesome in the first half looked tired in the second half.
She also got tossed around in this one more than she has since the first Seattle game last year. I worry less about here durability now, but in the second half KC came out to kick ass and take names and that worked until the Thorns brought in reinforcements. I didn't mind Norris taking off people in the second half, all of them had worked hard and were tired. My issue was Sinc and Kuikka were also tired. Norris has a deep bench and needs more and sooner.
I'm less concerned about KC than OLR and SD. Last year KC was a mid-table team - they finished fifth - who went on a good playoff run. I've always thought the Shield race is a better indicator of team quality than playoff results.
Anytime the Reign or Wave drop points, I'll be happy. Other teams might join this list too as the season plays out.
Tbf, KC -- if they ever get healthy -- is a totally different team than last year, though that defense is gonna remain a problem imo.
Agree that the Reign and SD are probably the main threats for the shield, but a healthy KC is gonna be right up there if they don't give themselves to big a mountain to climb.
Don't forget that Shittle may have won 3 shields in the 10 years of the league but never won a Championship. And while winning the Shield is a great accomplishment winning the Championship gets more "prestige"
Hi Everyone. Good to be here. I like this a lot better than the old Vox STF. I'm wondering if I can pledge one-time? because monthly support might be a bit much, given what will be infrequent use for me.
Do the Thorns have any weak links? ATM they look to be a complete team.
Sophia Smith is a complete joy to watch. Such an exciting player. It's incredible how hard she goes the full 90 while getting constantly bodied.
I'd bet this isn't the last time we see an opponent make an early second half charge- That press is absolutely vicious, but it's gotta be exceptionally tiring as well. Mentioned this in the other thread, but Hina, Sinc, and Dunn were noticeably tired and leaving massive gaps in the midfield in the second half. I thought Moultrie, D'Aquila, and Vasconcelos did good jobs calming things down around the 70th minute which restored a little stability in possession prior to Soph going nuclear.
But, ultimately....Sophia Smith: Absolutely outrageous. A joy and a privilege to have her in PDX.
Smith's three goals were so different: a PK, where it's all mental; dribbling the entire defense and scoring a double-nutmeg toe poke; and a lashed shot from outside the box placed perfectly next to the post. Outstanding.
Wonder who it's worse for during VAR: kicker at the spot or keeper?
Keeper probably very busy silent-praying, so I'll vote the kicker.
Pretty soft contact but I also think there's carryover from last season WRT the shellacking Soph took nearly every match with perhaps a quarter of warranted fouls given. Is our refs learning?
Overall I thought it was a good broadcast. It actually had the look and feel of a professional sporting event. Unfortunate that the commissioner’s mic didn’t work at halftime though
Agree, it was a good quality broadcast. I liked the booth team, the sideline reporter and the fact they were there at the park, not announcing a match from a studio while watching videos. You can tell.
It was minimal contact but you have to call that foul. If there was no contact Soph has a clear path to the goal
Her leg got kicked out from under her while she was running. It took CBS a long time to show the right angle, and they showed it only once, but as soon as they did it looked pretty clear.
Yeah CBS did kind of a shit job, but it was cool to see the whole "live feed of what VAR is looking at". Hope they iron that out and use it more.
I'm curious as to the VAR setup: how many cameras does the system itself provide and how much do they rely on broadcast cameras?
Today's CBS match had more cameras than typical NWSL matches--CBSSN has fewer and P+ fewer still. Twitch I think uses four iphones.
The "official FIFA VAR" setup: "Camera set-up The video assistant referee team has access to 42 broadcast cameras, eight of which are super slow motion and four of which are ultra slow motion."
I assume we're behind that standard.
All games, if it be Paramount Plus or Cable are to have 6 broadcast cameras. If VAR has more Cameras I do not know. They are using the same technology/central review board that the MLS uses.
KC away is a very nice win to have on the books. Still glad we caught them now instead of a month from now.
Rewatching yesterday's game right now. Just finished the 1st half. Can't fault anything here, but Portland could have been up 5-0 at the turn. KC understandably overmatched, and boy our passing and movement looked awfully good.
Credit to KC for competing in the 2nd half and putting lots of pressure on Portland until KC collapsed in the final 10+ minutes. CeCe is a gamer, and maybe it's just me but Debinha seems incredibly fit - she appears to have added muscle in the arms/torso and legs, but is still incredibly light and quick on her feet. If they ever get anything close to full health, KC will be dangerous.
The collapse came from fatigue, because Smith can get free in tight spaces by speed-bag dribbling with her shins (!!!), and because Franch just fluffed it on the 3rd goal.
A question about using substack: Is there a way to highlight new comments that I haven't seen yet? New top-level comments will show up at the beginning (or end, depending on how I sort them) so they're not a problem, but new replies to other people's comments will show up elsewhere and be hard to find without reading through every previous, existing comment. Reading through them all is fine for, say, 10 comments, but not for 100.
Way too soon to say, but...
- Portland and San Diego have picked up where they left off last year.
- OL Reign will probably make this a three-team race before season's end, and Washington improved with coaching stability but have lost backline quality.
- Racing Louisville and Houston have firepower and promise but they need their defenses to step up.
- KC's and ACFC's fortunes depend on injured players' timetables for return.
- Gotham and Chicago are off to disappointing starts.
- NC and Orlando will struggle.
I could see up to 10 teams competing for a playoff spot, and 3-4 of them competing for the shield.
Orlando vs. ACFC. This is BAD pro soccer.
Marta is not even on the matchday 18.
The longer I watch, the worse it gets.
These are two really unskilled teams, and they're not the only ones around.
Seriously, this is going to be a weak league in 2024, with Utah further depleting roster quality.
I’d say the only other team other than Orlando with a real lack of talent is Chicago, and they still have Pugh/Krueger/Davidson when fully healthy- Almost every other team (including Gotham and Louisville) has some real talented players.
The real issue is roster building and coaching: ACFC have some real talent, but it’s all concentrated in attack and defense. Gotham has a ton of attacking talent and some good midfielders, but they don’t have a system that works at all and don’t really have a defense.
There’s certainly a top tier where the best players are concentrated, but there’s plenty of talent in the league imo. it just doesn’t always translate to good soccer.
I think Chicago will pull it together for a passable season. They often start slow in the season. I think they have more talent than people credit them with. They have national team level talent in Davidson, Pugh, Naeher, Krueger, St Georges and some solid league level players in Nagasato, Milazzo, Wright, Sharples (if she recovers). It's mostly just that overall they are young and not deep, especially in midfield. But they only lost their first two games on PKs and Naeher got fingers to both. World Cup could hit them pretty hard though.
Chicago REALLY need their newbies on the field because the starting XI is trending old and injured (although: Pugh-Swanson happens to be top scorer on USWNT). As a fan, I hope Davidson gets back to full health but an ACL year off is bad for anybody. Luckily, she's only 24.
You managed to snag Hocking in the draft, Red Stars. Get her going! (She's played both matches so far.)
Chicago lost most of those older, injury-prone players in free agency. They have fielded 18 different players; 12 are 25 or younger. Six of those have started each game.
Compare that to the Thorns: 17 players have earned minutes. 7 are 25 or younger. Three of those start consistently.
I did a deep-dive on this a while back. I think the most players the Thorns ever used in an entire season was 27, and the fewest was (I think) 22. It sounds like Chicago are heading for 27, not 22.
ACFC have some talent, but as an entire team they played like hot garbage today. Then again, a bad opponent can sometimes drag you down. Have rarely seen two teams play more ragtag and with less composure.
"California Bay Area Team" joining NWSL in 2024. Yes, 14 in 2024. Double-expansion draft this year. Gonna be a weak league in 2024.
This might be a controversial opinion, but I don’t think expansion drafts should be a thing anymore. New teams should have to take their knocks instead of being gifted players- we have free agency now, international talent is available, and the draft is stronger than it has been in years past.
There’s no need for another mechanism of forced player relocation. Player stability is important and double expansion drafts suck for literally everyone involved. I’d much prefer the expansion teams get 3-4 extra draft picks or extra allocation money.
The CBA says that teams can only lose one player per team, which I imagine is as close as they're going to get to ending the expansion draft while retaining the idea of parity. Certainly less brutal than the 2020 draft.
I wonder who requests to go play there, you know, via a pre-draft "roster protection" trade.
I could also see someone like Macario wanting to be the face of a Bay Area franchise.
This is the final nail in our years-in-the-making NWSL coffin. Thanks as always to Ron Burkle and the League. Something, something, rusty chainsaw.
I was mildly impressed with Potter’s adjustment to counterpress opening the second half, and more than mildly displeased with how our backline responded to the pressure. Frankly we’re lucky KC couldn’t hit water, boat, etc or they’d have equalized by the hour.
Or that we have Smith and they don’t, because she pretty much put that one away herownself.
Thought that Sinc had another “good half/meh half” again. Our midfield bossed theirs until then, and I think there’s a lesson there…
I think starting with Sinclair with a planned swap with Rodriguez at halftime makes sense. Looking at AD’s face when Sophia got that shot off was kind of priceless
Agreed. If Sinc has to start and if she keeps having 'good' first halves, fine. But the sub for Rodriguez has to happen sooner than 75'. 60' is ok, 45' would be better. Always want to sub before the fatigue has truly started to impact the play and I think we could have taken control of the game back sooner had Rocky been on at the half.
Small samples here, but...
Smith leading league with 14 shots (9 on goal). Runners-up (Balcer, Kerolin, Swanson) have only 7.
Thorns have 37 shots, and 24 shots on goal. Seriously? 2/3rds have been on-goal?!?!?
Orlando TRIED to keep LA to 1 pt, but 10 min extra time doomed the effort.
Emslie tried to beat Moorhouse twice in the same spot, and McCaskill's earned PK got VARed. Never should have been that close. Beautiful corner from Emslie and header from Katie J at the death. Otherwise, a grim 2nd half, really, for both sides.
The Emslie corner was a thing of art--done under considerable pressure after her blown PK and the fact it was minute 10 of an 8-minute stoppage time.
As always, Orlando look dire.
Orlando missed so many good looks in the 2nd half. Which, given how bad Orlando is, tells you how poorly ACFC played. So many heavy touches, bad passes, panic-fire lack of possession. I couldn't stop looking at it, is was so bad.
Watching the KC goal again, Bella has GOT to do better- Great ball by Loera, but Bixby gets totally lost and neither comes to get it or remains on her line, resulting in her getting caught in no-mans land. This has been a pretty consistent hole in her game since she became a starter: Tremendous shot-stopper, really needs to improve claiming balls close to her on set pieces.
Looked more like she initially misjudged the ball’s trajectory and took a couple of steps forward instead of taking several steps to her right that would likely have resulted in an easy save.
I was going to say the same. If as a goalkeeper you come off your line, you have GOT to get the ball. On the KC goal she obviously misjudged it - you can see her start to come out and then flap at the ball as it sails by out of reach. The Ice Bear will have to work on that.
I was watching the game on Amtrak Wi-Fi going from Portland to Seattle and the lag was so bad that my stream paused with the ball in mid-flight. I assumed Bella was gonna get there easily and was kinda stunned when the stream unpaused and I saw the full clip lol
So far I do not like this new setup
But it is getting better as I learn how to navigate it. But some easy way to see new vs read is not there.
A good win even with several players not having their typical great games. Kuikka, Sugita, Coffey and Hubbly had rough spotty games. Would have liked Sinc to come off sooner and to have seen more of Reyes. Would have even been good to bring her in at about 65 in the second half for Kuikka. I think the first half press was so intense some of the starters were just tired. Even Dunn who was awesome in the first half looked tired in the second half.
Who had a yellow for Hina Sugita on their dance card? She got more this game - one - than she did all last season.
She also got tossed around in this one more than she has since the first Seattle game last year. I worry less about here durability now, but in the second half KC came out to kick ass and take names and that worked until the Thorns brought in reinforcements. I didn't mind Norris taking off people in the second half, all of them had worked hard and were tired. My issue was Sinc and Kuikka were also tired. Norris has a deep bench and needs more and sooner.
I think she had one last game also?! Who knew lol
2 matches in, +11 on GD and 6 points clear of last year's runner-up. LFG!
I'm less concerned about KC than OLR and SD. Last year KC was a mid-table team - they finished fifth - who went on a good playoff run. I've always thought the Shield race is a better indicator of team quality than playoff results.
Anytime the Reign or Wave drop points, I'll be happy. Other teams might join this list too as the season plays out.
Tbf, KC -- if they ever get healthy -- is a totally different team than last year, though that defense is gonna remain a problem imo.
Agree that the Reign and SD are probably the main threats for the shield, but a healthy KC is gonna be right up there if they don't give themselves to big a mountain to climb.
Don't forget that Shittle may have won 3 shields in the 10 years of the league but never won a Championship. And while winning the Shield is a great accomplishment winning the Championship gets more "prestige"
I'm just looking at this like "The Weakest Link." If PTFC can knock out some of the competition before the end of April, I'm all for it!
Wow. Michelle Kang is buying a majority stake in OL Women. Could Horan head to the Spirit?
Hi Everyone. Good to be here. I like this a lot better than the old Vox STF. I'm wondering if I can pledge one-time? because monthly support might be a bit much, given what will be infrequent use for me.
Do the Thorns have any weak links? ATM they look to be a complete team.