- Obaze and Becky need to be the duo at CB. We all knew it already, but mannn, it’s so noticeable how much less hectic things are with the two of them back there. This was probably only their 2nd or 3rd start together?
- Sam being really progressive with her first touches. Happened all over the field where she’d take her mark out of the play with the first touch and directly led to Sinc’s goal. Feels like she’s been a little cautious this season because of how shaky the shape is, but it’s good to remember that she’s an extremely talented attacking piece too.
- Did Spaanstra kill Gale’s dog? Did Izzy rescue it from a fire? I get why Spaanstra isn’t playing in the 3-5-2, but why in the world is she not the winger sub in the 4-2-3-1?
Want to give Moultrie a bit of praise for her defensive work last night. She was far from perfect, but she pressed hard and often and I appreciated the effort.
That was...not a great corner. Lofted and well wide of the goal. It worked because 1) nobody bothered to mark Reyes, and 2) everyfuckingbody along Orlando's back wall started forward AFTER Reyes dinked over their heads, while Weaver went TO the ball and potted it. Credit where it's due, but Coffey's deliveries are SO much better. Like D'Aquila-as-nine, Moultrie-as-corner-taker is a piece of weird KenVision I totally don't get...
It's interesting. I know Liv can whip a ball in and she has better ball-striking technique than anyone on the team, so it's weird that all her corners are floated. It's gotta be coaching direction.
I dunno. Coffey can drive her corners; Moultrie hardly ever does. Unless Ken doesn't think OM can whip balls in so he's telling her to just lob.
But Moultrie's aim is reeeally suspect. From the run of play she can belt it hard, but her SOT ratio has been around 33-35% over the past three seasons, so only about a third of her shots are inside a rectangle about 7 feet high by 18 feet wide. An individual player's head? That's a bit smaller and harder to hit.
So I think it's what she does. Glad it worked! But it hasn't much this season
And Coffey tied the NWSL assist record just last season...in part because of her good service! Why the hell isn't she taking those still?! I see Liv constantly blowing set pieces...it's been baffling.
Same here. It's that Moultrie seemed to care that is different than she's shown in the previous couple.
She doesn't have to be perfect, but if Moultrie expects to be invited to WNT camps again, she's going to have to care a lot more and all the time.
At this very moment, I'm watching Gotham v. Chicago. You can see Lynn Williams cares a lot about defending to the point where she's often backing up Nighswanger going forward. And Rose Lavelle cares a lot, as much defensive midfield as offensive midfield.
Yeah she’s generally been much more active since that disasterclass of laziness she put in in the Bay/Chicago home combo. Sometimes feels like she’s trying to do a little too much offensively, but her work rate has significantly improved.
"Besides the players we already highlighted, we have to mention Payton Linnehan. True, maybe her stats are not outstanding but she put in a great performance, winning duels and taking her chances when she could."
-------------------
I keep saying that on the front line, speed kills. But it takes two. The speedy pair gets the attention of the defense, creating space for the slow.
There are a few players who seem just good enough that teams will take them when they get the opportunity, but not so good that they’ll hesitate to offload them without a second thought. Top names on the list for me are:
I've never "gotten" McKaskill. She always seems prodigiously wasteful to me, and when she's onfield takes opportunities from better attackers. But there's got to be something because she's never out of work. Go figure.
McC had one decent season, 2022 with ACFC. But even then, there's always the "but...". For example, 2 of her 7 goals (her career high) were from the spot. But...she missed 3 of 5 attempts which, given that an indifferent taker usually makes 70%..?
That's McCaskill. Her overall nonpenalty goals - xG total is something like -1.2 (her "average season" is -0.3) meaning that she gets into good position then fluffs or shanks it. Like I said; wasteful.
Hogan, her 8th clean sheet of the season, second most in the league and that’s with “2 goal a game” Arnold in net for a bunch of matches. Has Rob learned his lesson?
"Shit things are actually working...must. make. changes..."
Really smart to make sure we had NO outlets at all when Marta, Banda, and Adriana had just come onto the field...even more so with the Sheva/Linnehan swap. Just...doesn't get it and doesn't learn.
Apparently neither are goals against, Hogan. less than a goal a game under Rob while Arnold has a career average around 2,
Including at Portland, But I guess that doesn’t mean Arnold really lets 2 goals in per game, the team did.
Seriously, it’s the goalie and how she works with her teammate and the competition and lots of factors but if one goalie consistently deliveries more shutout, especially if the rest of the team is basically the same. While the other gives up more than double the number of goals then you might conclude the one goalie is better.
That is, quite literally, correct. Goals against is a defense stat. Is Jane Campbell the worst keeper in the league because Houston can’t defend?
I don’t really have strong feelings over who the better keeper is —both have made some truly horrendous errors this year— but use GK metrics to make the argument. There are metrics that support both. Hogan as the better shot stopper, Arnold at most other things.
Look at Arnold’s league games, over 2 goals per game and no benefit of more Thorn goals from her distribution prowess and no wins. I’d take the 9-4-2 Hogan under Gale and her 0.9 goal average and the 8 “clean sheets” that the team delivered when she’s in goal, any day.
If you prefer Hogan, that’s fine. The stats you just laid out are totally meaningless as far as determining the better keeper. Why is Hogan’s W/L and GA better? Because she was playing when the thorns were playing well! Context matters!
I'm gonna push back on this a little bit. It's not just that Hogan's W/L record is better. It's that Macca's W-L record is a disaster.
Yes, I fully agree that context matters. That's exactly why I would not have replaced Hogan with Arnold midstream. There really was no longer a need to do so, and no advantage to be gained by doing so.
It's not like bringing in Berger to replace Miller, or Haught takes over because Smith is injured.
Rather, much more like what happened in KC last year when Miller replaced Franch, then they went back to Franch.
You can really screw up a team by doing such things unless (1) you're playing a LOT more games and (2) the players are accustomed to keeper changes.
Different sport, but the best I've ever seen at making it work with having a 1A-and-1B situation was the Edmonton Oilers of the mid 1980s.
You give Hogan too much credit. Gale's pathetic coaching, and a shambolic defense and midfield, and inability of the attack to score goals have much more to do with the record.
I assume they had something worked out early after she was traded, but I might have wanted to test FA if I was her given she's been benched for Izzy and Linnehan.
I'm not sure I know what to make of her situation, other than they took a hard look at her in live competition and then decided to work on some things in training instead of game conditions.
I think the initial reason she stopped getting minutes after the first 2-3 matches she started that she can't play in the 3-5-2. There's just not a role for her there in that shape.
I was surprised (though only slightly) that she wasn't included against Orlando. Linnehan has outplayed her, but Izzy certainly hasn't.
My reading of the schedule has the Thorns away at Louisville on October 19 and back home November 1 to finish out the regular season against LA. So one more home game, but hopefully 6 points anyway.
Listening to World Service overnight as they one by one, announced their five finalists for BBC Women's Footballer of the Year. In order they announce Banda, Bonmati--easy and obvious choices--then Girma. Woot, finally some international love. Then Graham-Hansen--hard to argue against--and last but certainly not least, Sophia frickin' Smith.
Girma is the correct answer, but I voted for Soph anyway because I'm biased. It was nice to see a couple of Americans in the mix; much better than that Balloon D'or nonsense.
Well I thought Trinity scored goals with the highest degree of difficulty. Really Soph, Mal and Trinity were all fantastic, but Soph has been more impressive domestically. It wouldn’t bother me to see Girma win in fact I would be very pleased and I think Soph would be as well.
I voted for Soph, but I wish I had two votes! Girma is also super excellent. I will be surprised if either win. For years Wendy Renard has been one of the finest players on the planet, but never won. Defenders never get the attention they deserve. Normally I would think a European will win, but with the US winning Gold, who knows Nae or Soph could win. I would love to be surprised.
I'm surprised Swanson isn't on the list given she scored the Olympics-winning goal. European (and worldwide) knowledge of US players is usually pretty shallow and based overly much on performance in international tournaments.
And another one: They launch the brand with every male sports team in the city + a bunch of random NWSL clips (Savannah McKaskill prominently featured for unknown reasons) but don't actually include the *existing* women's sports franchise in the City. They have also identified their "biggest rivals, Angel City and Gotham FC." Remarkable botch job on almost every level. Excited to see what they do with the logo and kits!
Gotta love that Linehan has already gone in on them and killed them.
Clearly they hired a marketing firm (maybe someone's kid?) who thought the best strategy was to try to attract everybody in Boston who doesn't already follow several teams and doesn't really know anything about sports. That's what, about 37 people? Maybe?
I mean, I know it's tough to break into a crowded market with so much tradition and so much success, but this ain't the way.
AC a rival but Syd Leroux in their marketing video lmao...
Every step of the way, 10/10. I too look forward to a crest and kit reveal. Colors are listed as: "Championship Green", and the team’s accent colors are “Relentless Raspberry, Loyal Charcoal, Daring Pink, Rise Yellow and Orange Press." Sounds like one of those highlighter pens that have 5 different colors in it....which could be obnoxious but also maybe fun lol.
Yes, mentioned that below. Even Proof Louisville had a clear connection to the city and idea behind it, though- Didn't work as a name for a soccer team for obvious reasons, but still better than Bos Nation!
OMG I saw that and thought they had hired a retired Kool-Aid marketer. You have to be a certain age to know this, but remember the Kool-Aid flavors Goofy Grape, Silly Strawberry, Wacky Watermelon, Choo-Choo Charlie, Orange Orange, and all the other names they came up with?
So we got into a discussion about corners and I thought I'd throw this out.
I've tracked corners across 21 games (missed Houston and Chicago while working in Alaska, and Utah on vacation). Here's the raw data:
Norris relied on Coffey as primary taker, but he also tried Moultrie, Fleming, and Muller against Louisville on MD 3.
Ken continued using Coffey; exclusively from MD 6 to MD 11. Then he started experimenting:
MD 12 (NCC) Coffey and Moultrie
MD 13 (SEA) Muller
MD 14 (KCC) Muller
MD 15 (UTA) Coffey, Fleming, and Wade-Katoa
MD 16 (SDW) Coffey and Fleming
MD 17 (GOT) Moultrie
MD 18 (BFC) Moultrie and Muller
MD 19 (WAS) Moultrie and Coffey
MD 20 (CRS) Moultrie and Coffey
After Chicago he settled on Moultrie:
MD 21 (ACFC) Moultrie
MD 22 (SDW) Moultrie
MD 24 (ORL) Moultrie
Coffey has taken a total of 42 corners over this period.
Moultrie has taken 27
Muller has taken 8
Fleming has taken 6
Wade-Katoa has taken 2.
The Thorns have scored two goals directly off corners in these games: the Weaver goal last Friday, and a Beckie header in KC on Matchday 1.
(FWIW, that tally; 2 direct goals off 85 corner kicks (2.3%) is well within historical professional soccer norms)
If you want you can include a weird Weaver goal against Racing that was banged off a bunch of people before Smith latched onto it and fed Weaver. But, still...
Coffey's service also generated 8 good chances that were either saved, blocked, or fluffed by the Thorn shooter.
Moultrie's service also generated 2 good opportunities.
So...
Coffey's corner kicks generated 1 goal and 8 other chances (9/42, or 21.4% of the corners taken)
Moultrie's generated 1 goal and 2 chances (3/27, or 11.1%)
I'm very high on Turner helping, uh, turn Thorns' tepid set piece game into something more consistently dangerous. Will add that while Reyes isn't tall, she's fearless in positioning herself and knows how to put power on the ball on headers. Same for the very popular here Izzy.
Surprised there's not a single Kling corner in your tally. She used to be the designated server whenever on the field. At about four feet tall she's not going to be a scoring threat.
Kling was good with crosses, too, but that was Parsons' squad where he had Heath, Horan, and (on corners) Sonnett as targets (for some reason he didn't use Dagny despite her height...). But I think that changed starting with Wilkinson. I'd have to look.
By those measures Coffey's corners sure look better. The eye test says so too. I wonder if Gale stopped having her take them because he wants her back there on defense to stop opposition counters if they end up with the ball.
Hard to say because the detailed breakdown is a little more complicated.
First, I missed two Coffey "good chances" and 1) two corners in Chicago and 2) two against Utah, so her numbers go up to 11/46 (23.9%), then...
Of Coffey's "chances":
One occurred in the MD 1 game with her goal.
Two occurred on MD 2 against Gotham
Two on MD 4 against NCC
One on MD 9 in Seattle
Two on MD 12 in Cary
Then there's a long streak of nothing; MD 13 (SEA) through MD 18 (BFC). That's when Ken goes with Moultrie. She picks up a "chance" in Washington on MD 19 (Coffey makes a "chance", too - her last is on MD 20 (CRS)) and another on MD 21 in LA, then the goal here.
So what might have happened is that Ken saw Coffey go cold after Cary and thought it would be a good idea to try someone else, hence all the fiddling between MD 15 and MD 20, then Moultrie.
Oh, and I checked the games I missed;
Coffey took two corners in Chicago - no shots, no goals, no "chances"
The Thorns didn't get a corner in Houston
Coffey took two corners against Utah, and Moultrie took one - no shots, no goals, no "chances".
So with the additional data Moultrie's "success rate" drops slightly to 3/28, or 10.7%
Couple of things that stood out on rewatch:
- Obaze and Becky need to be the duo at CB. We all knew it already, but mannn, it’s so noticeable how much less hectic things are with the two of them back there. This was probably only their 2nd or 3rd start together?
- Sam being really progressive with her first touches. Happened all over the field where she’d take her mark out of the play with the first touch and directly led to Sinc’s goal. Feels like she’s been a little cautious this season because of how shaky the shape is, but it’s good to remember that she’s an extremely talented attacking piece too.
- Did Spaanstra kill Gale’s dog? Did Izzy rescue it from a fire? I get why Spaanstra isn’t playing in the 3-5-2, but why in the world is she not the winger sub in the 4-2-3-1?
Yep, yep, and probably yep.
Obaze is also physical but no-drama. She and Julie Doyle had a good battle going early, and Isa got the best of her while keeping her cool.
Want to give Moultrie a bit of praise for her defensive work last night. She was far from perfect, but she pressed hard and often and I appreciated the effort.
she worked HARD all night. Her shots were off but she was relentless with her movement, coverage and defense.
And, she also delivered that dime to Reyes, who headed onto Weaver for goal #1.
Generally very good service from the corners. Good on ya, kid!
That was...not a great corner. Lofted and well wide of the goal. It worked because 1) nobody bothered to mark Reyes, and 2) everyfuckingbody along Orlando's back wall started forward AFTER Reyes dinked over their heads, while Weaver went TO the ball and potted it. Credit where it's due, but Coffey's deliveries are SO much better. Like D'Aquila-as-nine, Moultrie-as-corner-taker is a piece of weird KenVision I totally don't get...
That's fair, but Reyes didn't have to move laterally to go get it. Reyes has shown us she can jump and is good with her head. Unlike most of our team.
But yes, I wonder why when Moultrie is a finisher, and we have both Coffey and Fleming out there, why is Moultrie taking those?
It’s another Ken thing I don’t get. Moultrie’s deliveries are so unpredictable that I’m not sure she was actually diming Reyes. Coffey? Yes.
Good on the squad for making that happen…but I’m genuinely unsure how much was on us being good and how much was Orlando being not-good.
It's interesting. I know Liv can whip a ball in and she has better ball-striking technique than anyone on the team, so it's weird that all her corners are floated. It's gotta be coaching direction.
I dunno. Coffey can drive her corners; Moultrie hardly ever does. Unless Ken doesn't think OM can whip balls in so he's telling her to just lob.
But Moultrie's aim is reeeally suspect. From the run of play she can belt it hard, but her SOT ratio has been around 33-35% over the past three seasons, so only about a third of her shots are inside a rectangle about 7 feet high by 18 feet wide. An individual player's head? That's a bit smaller and harder to hit.
So I think it's what she does. Glad it worked! But it hasn't much this season
And Coffey tied the NWSL assist record just last season...in part because of her good service! Why the hell isn't she taking those still?! I see Liv constantly blowing set pieces...it's been baffling.
Same here. It's that Moultrie seemed to care that is different than she's shown in the previous couple.
She doesn't have to be perfect, but if Moultrie expects to be invited to WNT camps again, she's going to have to care a lot more and all the time.
At this very moment, I'm watching Gotham v. Chicago. You can see Lynn Williams cares a lot about defending to the point where she's often backing up Nighswanger going forward. And Rose Lavelle cares a lot, as much defensive midfield as offensive midfield.
Yeah she’s generally been much more active since that disasterclass of laziness she put in in the Bay/Chicago home combo. Sometimes feels like she’s trying to do a little too much offensively, but her work rate has significantly improved.
"Besides the players we already highlighted, we have to mention Payton Linnehan. True, maybe her stats are not outstanding but she put in a great performance, winning duels and taking her chances when she could."
-------------------
I keep saying that on the front line, speed kills. But it takes two. The speedy pair gets the attention of the defense, creating space for the slow.
Here's my pet theory of what happened to SD this year:
Savannah McCaskill
Has been with 5 different teams in 7 NWSL seasons.
Finishes on the table since she entered the NWSL (out of total league teams):
9th (9), 8th (9), 2nd (9), 9th (10), 8th (12), 5th (12), currently 12th (14)
There are a few players who seem just good enough that teams will take them when they get the opportunity, but not so good that they’ll hesitate to offload them without a second thought. Top names on the list for me are:
Savannah McCaskill
Elyse Bennet
Tyler Lussi
I've never "gotten" McKaskill. She always seems prodigiously wasteful to me, and when she's onfield takes opportunities from better attackers. But there's got to be something because she's never out of work. Go figure.
Work rate. And she has skills.
But, statisically speaking, she's about spot-on with Fleming this year in terms of production.
https://fbref.com/en/players/8546d3ab/Savannah-McCaskill
https://fbref.com/en/players/e47d2297/Jessie-Fleming
Yeah, she runs around a lot.
McC had one decent season, 2022 with ACFC. But even then, there's always the "but...". For example, 2 of her 7 goals (her career high) were from the spot. But...she missed 3 of 5 attempts which, given that an indifferent taker usually makes 70%..?
That's McCaskill. Her overall nonpenalty goals - xG total is something like -1.2 (her "average season" is -0.3) meaning that she gets into good position then fluffs or shanks it. Like I said; wasteful.
Hogan, her 8th clean sheet of the season, second most in the league and that’s with “2 goal a game” Arnold in net for a bunch of matches. Has Rob learned his lesson?
Rob learning lessons? ROFL
He literally put D'Aquila on again as a winger last night when Weaver came out, when Spaanstra was on the bench...so no, he doesn't lol
that was so funny btw. We went from being in control to being immediately on the back foot. And then Sheva for Linnehan.
"Shit things are actually working...must. make. changes..."
Really smart to make sure we had NO outlets at all when Marta, Banda, and Adriana had just come onto the field...even more so with the Sheva/Linnehan swap. Just...doesn't get it and doesn't learn.
Funny? Tell that to my weekly blood pressure spikes.
Clean sheets aren’t a goalkeeper stat people, cmon now.
Apparently neither are goals against, Hogan. less than a goal a game under Rob while Arnold has a career average around 2,
Including at Portland, But I guess that doesn’t mean Arnold really lets 2 goals in per game, the team did.
Seriously, it’s the goalie and how she works with her teammate and the competition and lots of factors but if one goalie consistently deliveries more shutout, especially if the rest of the team is basically the same. While the other gives up more than double the number of goals then you might conclude the one goalie is better.
I prefer the GDG method, or "goalie derps per game"
HDG = Hubly Derps/Game
xGDG is prob high for both haha
I refer to them as "fubars per game." Hogan has made some memorable low-lights.
FPG! and xFPG!
I guess I’d prefer wins.
Does that make Jane Campbell the worst keeper in the league?
That is, quite literally, correct. Goals against is a defense stat. Is Jane Campbell the worst keeper in the league because Houston can’t defend?
I don’t really have strong feelings over who the better keeper is —both have made some truly horrendous errors this year— but use GK metrics to make the argument. There are metrics that support both. Hogan as the better shot stopper, Arnold at most other things.
Look at Arnold’s league games, over 2 goals per game and no benefit of more Thorn goals from her distribution prowess and no wins. I’d take the 9-4-2 Hogan under Gale and her 0.9 goal average and the 8 “clean sheets” that the team delivered when she’s in goal, any day.
If you prefer Hogan, that’s fine. The stats you just laid out are totally meaningless as far as determining the better keeper. Why is Hogan’s W/L and GA better? Because she was playing when the thorns were playing well! Context matters!
I'm gonna push back on this a little bit. It's not just that Hogan's W/L record is better. It's that Macca's W-L record is a disaster.
Yes, I fully agree that context matters. That's exactly why I would not have replaced Hogan with Arnold midstream. There really was no longer a need to do so, and no advantage to be gained by doing so.
It's not like bringing in Berger to replace Miller, or Haught takes over because Smith is injured.
Rather, much more like what happened in KC last year when Miller replaced Franch, then they went back to Franch.
You can really screw up a team by doing such things unless (1) you're playing a LOT more games and (2) the players are accustomed to keeper changes.
Different sport, but the best I've ever seen at making it work with having a 1A-and-1B situation was the Edmonton Oilers of the mid 1980s.
https://edmontonsun.com/2014/10/09/oilers-84-fuhr-vs-moog---making-each-other-better
Ok then, so why did the team play better when Hogan was in goal?
Exactly.
You give Hogan too much credit. Gale's pathetic coaching, and a shambolic defense and midfield, and inability of the attack to score goals have much more to do with the record.
If Gale was pathetic how bad was Norris?
Who holds the record for quickest to 20 “clean sheets” in the NWSL?
Great summary, great night. And what a relief to be able to write just that.
On top of everything else, "Bos" is the genus name of cows. "COW Nation" has quite a ring to it!
Best satire on Boston's balls theme:
"Get ready Boston. The wait for women's professional soccer is OVER....IES."
golf clap
chef's kiss
boffo popping sound
Well, I've already got my nickname for Boston WoSo
BallsNation FC
Also.... this: https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1g4dfli/bos_nation_fc_nwsl_balls_official_name/
...and since "BOS Nation" was picked in part because it's an anagram of Bostonian, I think we're also entitled to call them the Onion Bats.
Team-branded "truck nuts" merch incoming in 3...2...1...
I’d have made the campaign “precisely one ball allowed” and partnered with, I dunno, an athletic cup manufacturer?
Something about "I'd give my left one for..." comes to mind.
https://x.com/tayvincent6/status/1846243192032972868
I assume they had something worked out early after she was traded, but I might have wanted to test FA if I was her given she's been benched for Izzy and Linnehan.
I'm not sure I know what to make of her situation, other than they took a hard look at her in live competition and then decided to work on some things in training instead of game conditions.
I think the initial reason she stopped getting minutes after the first 2-3 matches she started that she can't play in the 3-5-2. There's just not a role for her there in that shape.
I was surprised (though only slightly) that she wasn't included against Orlando. Linnehan has outplayed her, but Izzy certainly hasn't.
My reading of the schedule has the Thorns away at Louisville on October 19 and back home November 1 to finish out the regular season against LA. So one more home game, but hopefully 6 points anyway.
Listening to World Service overnight as they one by one, announced their five finalists for BBC Women's Footballer of the Year. In order they announce Banda, Bonmati--easy and obvious choices--then Girma. Woot, finally some international love. Then Graham-Hansen--hard to argue against--and last but certainly not least, Sophia frickin' Smith.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/ce81vjlge7vo
IIUC coaches and journalists picked the finalists, the winner is based on a reader poll. You know what to do.
The correct answer is Girma I fear :(
Girma is the correct answer, but I voted for Soph anyway because I'm biased. It was nice to see a couple of Americans in the mix; much better than that Balloon D'or nonsense.
I would absolutely love it if the SDW fallout, combined with some attempt at making Soph happy, ended with the Thorns signing Girma.
Is that even possible (i.e. is Girma an unrestricted free agent)? Too lazy to look it up...
No, she's not a FA until 2027. Signing her would require:
a) SD being far more of a mess for the players than it probably actually is.
b) A million dollar plus transfer fee.
c) Her wanting to move to Portland instead of SD for some reason.
Certainly not making any claims that it’s likely, haha!
My only comment would be that in the NWSL, “S Tier” players seem to be able to play wherever they want, regardless of contracts
That was kinda my suspicion. SDW may be a shitshow, but one suspects it's not THAT much of a shitshow.
I'm all for getting her if possible. This sounds like it's imPROBable at best, so I hope our new GM keeps the "needs top-tier CB" thing in mind.
Well I thought Trinity scored goals with the highest degree of difficulty. Really Soph, Mal and Trinity were all fantastic, but Soph has been more impressive domestically. It wouldn’t bother me to see Girma win in fact I would be very pleased and I think Soph would be as well.
I voted for Soph, but I wish I had two votes! Girma is also super excellent. I will be surprised if either win. For years Wendy Renard has been one of the finest players on the planet, but never won. Defenders never get the attention they deserve. Normally I would think a European will win, but with the US winning Gold, who knows Nae or Soph could win. I would love to be surprised.
Will see if my schizophrenic home/work life leads to two separate voting personae here.
It boggles that one Stanford squad produces two of the five and that's allowing for the absence of Cat Macario among the choices.
Team for the ages, that.
I'm surprised Swanson isn't on the list given she scored the Olympics-winning goal. European (and worldwide) knowledge of US players is usually pretty shallow and based overly much on performance in international tournaments.
https://x.com/NWSLBoston/status/1846193497855938956
And another one: They launch the brand with every male sports team in the city + a bunch of random NWSL clips (Savannah McKaskill prominently featured for unknown reasons) but don't actually include the *existing* women's sports franchise in the City. They have also identified their "biggest rivals, Angel City and Gotham FC." Remarkable botch job on almost every level. Excited to see what they do with the logo and kits!
https://x.com/itsmeglinehan/status/1845998960399602087
Linehan really going through it, presumably because she's from New England lmao
Gotta love that Linehan has already gone in on them and killed them.
Clearly they hired a marketing firm (maybe someone's kid?) who thought the best strategy was to try to attract everybody in Boston who doesn't already follow several teams and doesn't really know anything about sports. That's what, about 37 people? Maybe?
I mean, I know it's tough to break into a crowded market with so much tradition and so much success, but this ain't the way.
AC a rival but Syd Leroux in their marketing video lmao...
Every step of the way, 10/10. I too look forward to a crest and kit reveal. Colors are listed as: "Championship Green", and the team’s accent colors are “Relentless Raspberry, Loyal Charcoal, Daring Pink, Rise Yellow and Orange Press." Sounds like one of those highlighter pens that have 5 different colors in it....which could be obnoxious but also maybe fun lol.
At this point I'm assuming the color and accents were inspired by a glop of Guiness and fried stadium food-laden vomit.
Prove me wrong, Boston.
Ok Gotham seems like it could be an actual rival for Boston, but Angel City??? Competing in the "bad sports management" category, I guess!
There's also a "Boss Nation" brand pet food! https://bossnationbrands.com/
That's gonna become a heckling staple!
“Can we feed you, can we feed you, can we feed you to the dog..?”
“Plays like dog food!”
Ralph Wiggum: "My team's breath smells like cat food."
SD 2024: Savannah McRoadKill.
Someone's obsessed with balls. Wishing they had some of their own?
Seriously, I just don't get how eliminating balls but kicking a ball is not STILL ABOUT BALLS.
Folks, soccer is a ball sport. If you want to get away from ball sports, try ultimate frisbee, badminton, or crew.
https://x.com/JeffKassouf/status/1846193280926589392
Ironically, they could have just gone with Bostonian FC and it would have been much better.
(Also, aside from the too many balls thing being childish and stupid, it also makes no sense! WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?? There's no actual punchline!)
Remember that they rolled out PROOF Louisville FC before going with Racing Louisville.
My point: there's still time to correct this mistake.
Yes, mentioned that below. Even Proof Louisville had a clear connection to the city and idea behind it, though- Didn't work as a name for a soccer team for obvious reasons, but still better than Bos Nation!
I agree that Bostonian FC would have been a better choice.
I know why they couldn't go with PROOF Louisville, but I still lament the loss of the "Whiskey Chicks."
As opposed to Yellow Press, which would be a great name for a late 19thC NYC team.
Primary color is "Championship Green," with "accent colors Relentless Raspberry, Loyal Charcoal, Daring Pink, Rise Yellow and Orange Press."
Fun Fact: These were rejected Skittles colors.
I actually like the colors, if, ya know, *waves at every thing else associated with the rollout*.
OMG I saw that and thought they had hired a retired Kool-Aid marketer. You have to be a certain age to know this, but remember the Kool-Aid flavors Goofy Grape, Silly Strawberry, Wacky Watermelon, Choo-Choo Charlie, Orange Orange, and all the other names they came up with?
Now coming to your New NWSL Team!
Oh my god I thought you were joking with those color names
I only wish.
As I said below, Bruins are asking "What the puck???"
So we got into a discussion about corners and I thought I'd throw this out.
I've tracked corners across 21 games (missed Houston and Chicago while working in Alaska, and Utah on vacation). Here's the raw data:
Norris relied on Coffey as primary taker, but he also tried Moultrie, Fleming, and Muller against Louisville on MD 3.
Ken continued using Coffey; exclusively from MD 6 to MD 11. Then he started experimenting:
MD 12 (NCC) Coffey and Moultrie
MD 13 (SEA) Muller
MD 14 (KCC) Muller
MD 15 (UTA) Coffey, Fleming, and Wade-Katoa
MD 16 (SDW) Coffey and Fleming
MD 17 (GOT) Moultrie
MD 18 (BFC) Moultrie and Muller
MD 19 (WAS) Moultrie and Coffey
MD 20 (CRS) Moultrie and Coffey
After Chicago he settled on Moultrie:
MD 21 (ACFC) Moultrie
MD 22 (SDW) Moultrie
MD 24 (ORL) Moultrie
Coffey has taken a total of 42 corners over this period.
Moultrie has taken 27
Muller has taken 8
Fleming has taken 6
Wade-Katoa has taken 2.
The Thorns have scored two goals directly off corners in these games: the Weaver goal last Friday, and a Beckie header in KC on Matchday 1.
(FWIW, that tally; 2 direct goals off 85 corner kicks (2.3%) is well within historical professional soccer norms)
If you want you can include a weird Weaver goal against Racing that was banged off a bunch of people before Smith latched onto it and fed Weaver. But, still...
Coffey's service also generated 8 good chances that were either saved, blocked, or fluffed by the Thorn shooter.
Moultrie's service also generated 2 good opportunities.
So...
Coffey's corner kicks generated 1 goal and 8 other chances (9/42, or 21.4% of the corners taken)
Moultrie's generated 1 goal and 2 chances (3/27, or 11.1%)
Fleming's generated 1 goal (1/8, or 12.5%)
Just something to chew on.
Good work there, if a tedious task.
I'm very high on Turner helping, uh, turn Thorns' tepid set piece game into something more consistently dangerous. Will add that while Reyes isn't tall, she's fearless in positioning herself and knows how to put power on the ball on headers. Same for the very popular here Izzy.
Surprised there's not a single Kling corner in your tally. She used to be the designated server whenever on the field. At about four feet tall she's not going to be a scoring threat.
Kling was good with crosses, too, but that was Parsons' squad where he had Heath, Horan, and (on corners) Sonnett as targets (for some reason he didn't use Dagny despite her height...). But I think that changed starting with Wilkinson. I'd have to look.
By those measures Coffey's corners sure look better. The eye test says so too. I wonder if Gale stopped having her take them because he wants her back there on defense to stop opposition counters if they end up with the ball.
Hard to say because the detailed breakdown is a little more complicated.
First, I missed two Coffey "good chances" and 1) two corners in Chicago and 2) two against Utah, so her numbers go up to 11/46 (23.9%), then...
Of Coffey's "chances":
One occurred in the MD 1 game with her goal.
Two occurred on MD 2 against Gotham
Two on MD 4 against NCC
One on MD 9 in Seattle
Two on MD 12 in Cary
Then there's a long streak of nothing; MD 13 (SEA) through MD 18 (BFC). That's when Ken goes with Moultrie. She picks up a "chance" in Washington on MD 19 (Coffey makes a "chance", too - her last is on MD 20 (CRS)) and another on MD 21 in LA, then the goal here.
So what might have happened is that Ken saw Coffey go cold after Cary and thought it would be a good idea to try someone else, hence all the fiddling between MD 15 and MD 20, then Moultrie.
Oh, and I checked the games I missed;
Coffey took two corners in Chicago - no shots, no goals, no "chances"
The Thorns didn't get a corner in Houston
Coffey took two corners against Utah, and Moultrie took one - no shots, no goals, no "chances".
So with the additional data Moultrie's "success rate" drops slightly to 3/28, or 10.7%
Probably so, and/or to take another crack at it, and/or provide second-ball service.