Soccer Monday: Reflections on NWSL opening weekend, or, the Pride and the Current are still good.
The National Women's Soccer League opened the regular season this past weekend, and one thing was immediately clear: The good teams from last season are still good.
The National Women’s Soccer League opened the regular season this past weekend, and one thing was immediately clear: The good teams from last season are still good.
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The defending league champions Orlando opened their campaign by routing the Chicago Stars 6-0. Barbra Banda scored two goals, giving her the way too early Golden Boot lead. The Stars were unable to help goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher defensively. Offensively, it’s clear that Chicago misses Mallory Swanson, who is out indefinitely for personal reasons.
“Yeah 6-nil, what’s not to love about that?” Pride midfielder Haley McCutcheon said. “I think something we talked about going into the season was just playing a full 90-minute performance and I think we got off to a good start in doing that.”
Orlando’s victory punctuated a celebratory night when the Pride raised two banners — recognizing the championship and the NWSL Shield.
The resounding victory came after the Pride fell to the Washington Spirit in the preseason Challenge Cup.
“I think motivationally, you know, we had the disappointment of last week of not winning the Challenge Cup. We used that as motivation. You don’t want to go through those feelings too often, the feeling of disappointment and the other team celebrating,’ Pride coach Seb Hines said. “So, we made a statement today that we were going to get after it.”
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The Spirit, meanwhile, opened with a 2-1 victory over the new-look Houston Dash, who were resilient in the loss indicating that perhaps they’re on the way to a turnaround.
On Saturday, the Kansas City Current kicked off the season at CPKC Stadium with the Mahomes in attendance, and routed the Portland Thorns 3-1. Temwa Chawinga (Who else?) scored on her first shot of the game. Michelle Cooper added a goal from distance that was perhaps the best of the opening weekend, and Debinha also scored for the Current.
The Current’s plan this season is not to depend as much on the reigning league MVP this season.
“Temwa is still impacting the game so much and we knew that she’s going to be the focal point for lots of defenses, or the opponents’ defenses. So we worked on how to get the other players involved and put them in good situations to score goals,” Vlatko Andonovski said afterward.
Saturday’s theme was 1-1 draws, with Utah hosting Bay FC, North Carolina at Racing Louisville and Gotham at the Reign all ending in identical scorelines. The trend continued on Sunday, when San Diego played to a 1-1 draw with hosts Angel City.
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In the end, it was apparent that:
1.) The Current and the Pride are going to be good again this season.
2) The Dash have improved.
3.) The Thorns are going to have a rough go of it this season without Sophia Wilson and Morgan Weaver.
4.) The Wave have moxie for a team that lost Naomi Girma in the offseason.
5.) It’s too soon to tell when it comes to the rest of the field.
SYD TAKES A BREAK
Some other news happened this past week, notably Sydney Leroux has decided to take some time off to focus on her mental health. She did say she wasn’t pregnant. I think we can agree that Syd should take as long as she needs and we all wish her joy and happiness.
RIP BOS NATION
Boston’s expansion National Women’s Soccer League team is rebranding before the team ever plays a match.
The team scheduled to kick off next year will get a new name to replace BOS Nation in the coming weeks, the club announced on Friday night.
The name BOS Nation was unveiled in October with a widely criticized marketing campaign, “Too Many Balls,” which some considered offensive. A day later, the team apologized, saying it “missed the mark” with an attempt to “create a bold and buzzworthy brand launch campaign.”
LINKS
I wrote about the players to watch this season
Gotham’s Mak Whitham became the youngest player to appear in an NWSL match at 14.
The Guardian looked at three trades that could define the NWSL season
The Spirit sees growth following last year’s run to the title game.
CBS Sports looks at the Wave moving on from Girma and Alex Morgan.
ESPN with the second annual NWSL “Ambition Rankings”
Meg Linehan’s State of the League for The Athletic
Trinity Rodman told ESPN’s Futbol W she’d like to go overseas to play someday
Angel City Captain Sarah Gorden and Alyssa Thompson spoke after Sunday’s match. Here’s a bit of what they said.
Gorden: “We came into the game with the goal to play direct and keep them in their end. It seems like in the beginning they were doing what we were planning to do, but after we got it together and figured it out, we did start to attack the game plan as the game went on.
“A tie is not a win, but in a lot of ways it did feel good, because we created a lot of chances. Obviously, there’s a ton of things we need to clean up… it’s the first game, but San Diego is a really good group with some great players on the ball. So it posed a lot of difficulties for us, especially in the beginning.”
Gorden on playing with Savy King: “It’s a really new partnership for the both of us. We’ve had maybe one and a half scrimmages where we’ve gotten to play together. She’s an incredible defender. She reads the game really well. She’s athletic, smart, technical, so it’s been great playing with her.”
“We’re just trying to figure each other out and I think we’re kind of similar in ways that we’re both very athletic center backs. I’m continuing to kind of see where and when she likes to step, she’s aggressive and I love that so it’s been a joy. So I’m excited to grow in our partnership.
Gorden on the team’s resilience: “I think going into the season, we have ‘relentless’ and ‘ruthless’ written on our walls. Those are things we take very seriously, but we constantly make these home games like playing in our fortress. I think that grit and ruthlessness and also knowing we have something special here.”
“By being direct, pressing high….took us a second to get there, but we find it very important to be relentless and have grit.”
Thompson on her position: “In the beginning, I was playing at the nine because we wanted to get in behind, and then I played on the left and went back to the nine towards the end of the game. I do like to be versatile and play these different positions. Being able to be in a different spot on the field gets me different looks on the goal, so yeah.”
Thomson on Riley Tiernan: “It’s really nice because she is a hard worker and she is going to defend the team. I like that because when she’s high pressing, I know I can high press and everyone behind her is falling … the nine is super important for the press and in the attacking third she’s always moving and ready to get the ball”
Thompson on the two plays: “I feel like they were pretty similar because there was a ball behind on the right side and I’ve been playing on the left so getting that first look was different …but If i’m one-v-one with the goalie I should be scoring…I tried to dribble around her …I could have been quicker or gone near post….with my second I was able to shift the defender and the keeper and go across goal.”
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