I like the tiers because right now there are only two legit top teams. San Diego and KC have fallen and the Spirit, Gotham and the Dash still have a lot to prove. The bottom tier is what it is.
First of two games on the road up next (NC/HOU)...Maybe this is a bit early to predict, but I think the Courage look like they could run through our midfield and defense, as it currently looks. Yes, they played an unremarkable Gotham for CC, but they're fast, they are constantly moving, and their quick passing has been better than ours. And that was a lot of their reserves on on the pitch. Also read that Broon is out for the next few weeks with her foot injury. Really hope Norris has tweaked some stuff this week...all three lines of ours have some issues. Maybe I'm overly nervy because we have a terrible record in Cary, but I hope they can prove the record wrong!
While it can be very frustrating and takes some of the natural joy out of the game, I’m generally in support of VAR *if* the refs administering it are competent AND the league has the proper technology.
NWSL has neither. The decision in the game last night was almost impossibly incompetent. Fix --or at least improve-- the quality of refereeing before adding technology requiring those same referees to make decisions.
I have ACFC up and ranking or two. They showed well against the Wave, stole a point here, and should have taken 3. Never been a big Ertz fan, but she makes them better. If they bring Amadine in, they get a whole lot more better.
For how bad the Thorns looked, they still nearly tripled ACFC’s xG. Weird game.
Pass maps similar to the norm this season: A lot through Kling. Dunn and Sinc in nearly the same spot as false nines matches the eye test. Weaver the only real attacking threat with Hina’s forward runs limited.
The parity in this league, week to week, is absurd.
Although Louisville are behind Houston on points, I would put them ahead of the Dash. Houston just haven't been dangerous offensively yet. Louisville keep finding ways to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory, but they really are close to being competitive. They might not make the playoffs this year, but that will be a function of league parity rather than Louisville quality.
Exactly. I could see when going on a nice run mid season like kc did last year.
So many draft picks are not making teams anymore so I’m glad expansion is coming next year. The league could really go up to about 20 teams and everyone would be competitive imo.
Louisville will lose a number of players to the WC though. Ary Borges is likely going for Brazil. Same for Kanu to Nigeria, Wang to China, Murray to Jamaica. If Kgatlana is healthy by then, she's going for South Africa. Chidiac might be a long shot for Australia. I know Erceg retired internationally, but it wouldn't shock me if she 'unretired' again for a home WC. That's a mixture of starters and depth, but Louisville isn't super deep to begin with.
In contrast, Houston will likely only lose Schmidt and Chapman to Canada. And I could see Sanchez, Ordonez, and Salmon going on a rage-fueled tear during that period after missing the WC (Mexico) and being dropped from the England squad (Salmon).
This whole story is confusing and raises so many questions.
It seems like the Red Stars as an organization (discounting Lomnicki) actually had nothing to do with Harrington's rehire and were in ignorance until NWSL legal contacted them about it. So Lomnicki is fired for not telling the Red Stars ownership that her husband has hired Harrington to manage/coach a youth team, which somehow feels simultaneously appropriate and harsh. CRS is up for sale and desperately trying to course correct from a slew of bad news articles about the management of the organization, so I understand that they would want to be absolutely squeaky clean on this.
The Sahlen/Lines owner/GM/player/coach situation is the most egregious example of conflicts of interest in NWSL history. I know it's been many years since WNY was a team, but I don't understand how that whole saga didn't get a section in any of the various investigations of the past year as an example of the environments that were considered normal. Pretty sure that Lines was Alex Sahlen's youth coach too.
Exactly. There really was no one left to punish except for Portland because the Sahlens and Lines were out of the picture. But as part of the NWSL sanctions, the Sahlens and Lines should not be allowed to come back into the NWSL in any capacity, without league review and approval.
Is it Portland or Paulson who is getting punished? Portland got bad press because of the actions and inactions of their owner. Chicago is getting bad press now because of the inaction of their GM. But a team can recover from bad press. Lomnicki got fired; Paulson is selling the team, and probably going to make a profit.
But I was mostly commenting on how WNY was messy as hell, even without considering the Riley/Portland element.
I don’t remember if I’ve said this or not....cause I’m old, but whoever Pitch Perfect United is - my kid LOVES the name of your squad. #1 - One of her favorite movies. #2 The play on the word Pitch with the soccer connotation #3 Bringing it back to football with United. Well done. You have a fan in my 17 yo daughter
Hey look, Gianni Infantino is standing up for women's football! He's complaining that in a bunch of European countries, FIFA is not being offered enough lucre for the broadcast rights to the Women's World Cup. That's my courageous moral leader right there!
Good tier-ing, Phuoc. Thanks for the weekly rankings. The one change I would make is to put Houston down a tier. They have only 6 points after 5 games, they just lost a game (albeit weather-shortened), the only team they've beaten is Chicago, and they haven't looked convincing yet this year.
Also it's odd that Gotham moved up after losing, but I get why it happened.
They’ve been weird so far: They’ve set up in mostly a 3-4-3 with Dydasco and Petersen as wingbacks, which has left them horribly short in the midfield- Viggiano and Schmidt aren’t really the types that can make a two-woman midfield work. It looked like they tried a 4 back against Washington, but Havana Solaun isn’t really a good enough creator to play as a primary 10. Maybe a 3-5-2 with a tall/smol striker duo would work better.
The other big thing is that they shoehorned Salmon out wide to make room for Ordonez. Salmon’s game making runs off the CBs, not creating from the wing- It just hasn’t clicked so far. Everything has to run through the Sanchez because they have no other creativity. They’re missing Prince, which hasn’t helped... but really the lack of cohesion between the midfield and the Salmon/Ordonez duo has been lacking.
I like the tiers because right now there are only two legit top teams. San Diego and KC have fallen and the Spirit, Gotham and the Dash still have a lot to prove. The bottom tier is what it is.
Another angle of the Moultrie to Weaver goal.
https://twitter.com/ThornsFC/status/1653472130439454721
Did I know she megged Riley? I did not.
Also Weaver's touch to beat Haricic is way harder/better than it looked from other angles. Sick finish by Morgan.
I had a really good angle on that at the stadium, and was blown away by how good both players' contributions were on that goal.
These are my eye-test tiers after watching most of the last few weeks. Wave, you are on fraud watch until further notice.
Tier 1: Portland, Seattle
Tier 2: Washington, KC
Tier 3: San Diego, Houston, Louisville, ACFC
Tier 4: Chicago, NCC, Orlando
Forgot Gotham- Put them in Tier 2.5
First of two games on the road up next (NC/HOU)...Maybe this is a bit early to predict, but I think the Courage look like they could run through our midfield and defense, as it currently looks. Yes, they played an unremarkable Gotham for CC, but they're fast, they are constantly moving, and their quick passing has been better than ours. And that was a lot of their reserves on on the pitch. Also read that Broon is out for the next few weeks with her foot injury. Really hope Norris has tweaked some stuff this week...all three lines of ours have some issues. Maybe I'm overly nervy because we have a terrible record in Cary, but I hope they can prove the record wrong!
Absolute VAR disasterclass in Gotham-NCC if anyone's watching.
I don’t think I’ve ever wanted something so bad, then immediately not wanted it even more so
While it can be very frustrating and takes some of the natural joy out of the game, I’m generally in support of VAR *if* the refs administering it are competent AND the league has the proper technology.
NWSL has neither. The decision in the game last night was almost impossibly incompetent. Fix --or at least improve-- the quality of refereeing before adding technology requiring those same referees to make decisions.
Totally support it if it actually worked properly
Yeah, it's definitely not getting better lol
I have ACFC up and ranking or two. They showed well against the Wave, stole a point here, and should have taken 3. Never been a big Ertz fan, but she makes them better. If they bring Amadine in, they get a whole lot more better.
I’m excited to see what Henry can add to the squad. They are missing that last piece in midfield.
Not sure I love an Ertz/Henry midfield....better than what they have, but very duplicative.
https://twitter.com/arielle_dror/status/1653165793386049536?s=20
For how bad the Thorns looked, they still nearly tripled ACFC’s xG. Weird game.
Pass maps similar to the norm this season: A lot through Kling. Dunn and Sinc in nearly the same spot as false nines matches the eye test. Weaver the only real attacking threat with Hina’s forward runs limited.
Yeah this has been the recipe all season, but just hasn’t consistently yielded 3 pts. Hard to do so with the passing not as sharp this year.
A little more connectivity with Rocky. Honestly if they play this game with Smith from the start it's probably a comfortable win.
OT: Look what made an appearance at the Met Gala...
The top of that dress is straight Thorns tattoo kit!
https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/c_crop,d_placeholder_euli9k,h_3596,w_2398,x_0,y_0/dpr_1.5/c_limit,w_690/fl_lossy,q_auto/230501-met-gala-suki-waterhouse-robert-pattinson_l5fbmy
The parity in this league, week to week, is absurd.
Although Louisville are behind Houston on points, I would put them ahead of the Dash. Houston just haven't been dangerous offensively yet. Louisville keep finding ways to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory, but they really are close to being competitive. They might not make the playoffs this year, but that will be a function of league parity rather than Louisville quality.
Exactly. I could see when going on a nice run mid season like kc did last year.
So many draft picks are not making teams anymore so I’m glad expansion is coming next year. The league could really go up to about 20 teams and everyone would be competitive imo.
Louisville will lose a number of players to the WC though. Ary Borges is likely going for Brazil. Same for Kanu to Nigeria, Wang to China, Murray to Jamaica. If Kgatlana is healthy by then, she's going for South Africa. Chidiac might be a long shot for Australia. I know Erceg retired internationally, but it wouldn't shock me if she 'unretired' again for a home WC. That's a mixture of starters and depth, but Louisville isn't super deep to begin with.
In contrast, Houston will likely only lose Schmidt and Chapman to Canada. And I could see Sanchez, Ordonez, and Salmon going on a rage-fueled tear during that period after missing the WC (Mexico) and being dropped from the England squad (Salmon).
Yesterday's NWSL: No HR issues to see here!
Today's NWSL: You need to go now!
The latest? Chicago Red Stars fired GM Michelle Lomnicki.
Why? Meg Linehan explains here: https://theathletic.com/4492048/2023/05/05/craig-harrington-michelle-lomnicki-red-stars-nwsl/
This whole story is confusing and raises so many questions.
It seems like the Red Stars as an organization (discounting Lomnicki) actually had nothing to do with Harrington's rehire and were in ignorance until NWSL legal contacted them about it. So Lomnicki is fired for not telling the Red Stars ownership that her husband has hired Harrington to manage/coach a youth team, which somehow feels simultaneously appropriate and harsh. CRS is up for sale and desperately trying to course correct from a slew of bad news articles about the management of the organization, so I understand that they would want to be absolutely squeaky clean on this.
Ah yes, hiring a known abuser to affiliate youth clubs literal days after said abuser was banned from working in the NWSL hoping no one would notice.
Good stuff Chicago!
What's amazing is how similar this is to the Alex Sahlen/Aaran Lines situation and hiring of Paul Riley at Western NY Flash all those years ago.
Hey look... here's Aaran now, who is still ECNL girls director for WNY Flash! https://wnyflash.com/aaran-lines
The Sahlen/Lines owner/GM/player/coach situation is the most egregious example of conflicts of interest in NWSL history. I know it's been many years since WNY was a team, but I don't understand how that whole saga didn't get a section in any of the various investigations of the past year as an example of the environments that were considered normal. Pretty sure that Lines was Alex Sahlen's youth coach too.
Exactly. There really was no one left to punish except for Portland because the Sahlens and Lines were out of the picture. But as part of the NWSL sanctions, the Sahlens and Lines should not be allowed to come back into the NWSL in any capacity, without league review and approval.
Is it Portland or Paulson who is getting punished? Portland got bad press because of the actions and inactions of their owner. Chicago is getting bad press now because of the inaction of their GM. But a team can recover from bad press. Lomnicki got fired; Paulson is selling the team, and probably going to make a profit.
But I was mostly commenting on how WNY was messy as hell, even without considering the Riley/Portland element.
Week 5 scores- Can Pitch Perfect United pls reveal your secrets
Pitch Perfect United 586
PDX Fantastics 548
Dream Weaver 533
Skull Smashers 532
Thornando FC 516
Searchers 504
Tuscan Oilers 503
Danxp2 487
The Slab Serifs 466
Smith is the Face, Fishlock the heel 459
Sharpe's Bay United 437
Artemis FC 433
VARforall 330
I don’t remember if I’ve said this or not....cause I’m old, but whoever Pitch Perfect United is - my kid LOVES the name of your squad. #1 - One of her favorite movies. #2 The play on the word Pitch with the soccer connotation #3 Bringing it back to football with United. Well done. You have a fan in my 17 yo daughter
I'm rapidly becoming the Houston Dash of our fantasy league.
Hey look, Gianni Infantino is standing up for women's football! He's complaining that in a bunch of European countries, FIFA is not being offered enough lucre for the broadcast rights to the Women's World Cup. That's my courageous moral leader right there!
They don't call him the Marzipan Man for nothing!
Good tier-ing, Phuoc. Thanks for the weekly rankings. The one change I would make is to put Houston down a tier. They have only 6 points after 5 games, they just lost a game (albeit weather-shortened), the only team they've beaten is Chicago, and they haven't looked convincing yet this year.
Also it's odd that Gotham moved up after losing, but I get why it happened.
I’m giving them another week haha
I believe in them, but something has been off.
Pretty sure it’s their midfield not being consistent enough.
I agree re: Houston. Their attack should be better than it is thus far. I would move them down.
They’ve been weird so far: They’ve set up in mostly a 3-4-3 with Dydasco and Petersen as wingbacks, which has left them horribly short in the midfield- Viggiano and Schmidt aren’t really the types that can make a two-woman midfield work. It looked like they tried a 4 back against Washington, but Havana Solaun isn’t really a good enough creator to play as a primary 10. Maybe a 3-5-2 with a tall/smol striker duo would work better.
The other big thing is that they shoehorned Salmon out wide to make room for Ordonez. Salmon’s game making runs off the CBs, not creating from the wing- It just hasn’t clicked so far. Everything has to run through the Sanchez because they have no other creativity. They’re missing Prince, which hasn’t helped... but really the lack of cohesion between the midfield and the Salmon/Ordonez duo has been lacking.