It took a few weeks of play in the National Women’s Soccer League, but there are some common trends that are coming full circle. The top teams are separating themselves from the table bottom dwellers, top USWNT strikers are hitting their expected form and the play is really starting to pick up. You would have figured that the first couple of weeks would have been rough because players were in and out of preseason camp. But now with teams training with full squads for the past few weeks, the play has started to evolve and we start to see some separation. Lets take a look back at Week Five of the NWSL regular season:
Alex Morgan: It’s pretty fair to say that Alex Morgan is in good form on the moment. And it was pretty obvious to say this after her performance in Sunday’s 2-o victory for the Thorns over Chicago. The USWNT front-runner had a goal in the third minute when she latched onto a Nikki Marshall through ball through the left flank and beat Erin McLeod to her near post. That would the first of seven shots that she took on the night, five of those on frame. Through five matches, she leads the NWSL with shots (21) and shots on target (14) and has scored in three of the last four matches for the Thorns. On the pace she is showing, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see her name as the leading goal scorer very soon.
Abby Wambach: After a colossal miss against Sky Blue in Week One of the NWSL season and a rough go in the few weeks after with sustaining a head injury, it looks like the USWNT target striker is starting to really settle in. A goal in the match against Sky Blue last week got her off on the right foot and then on Saturday night, the goal could have been a 3-5 foot goal and she would have still scored her two goals that she had against FC Kansas City. The goal of Wambach’s that stood out to me on the night was her second, hitting an absolute rocket with her left foot. It was a curling effort from around the top of the box, something that the novice fans don’t see too often. But Abby does have a great shot on her and it is nice to see her step back and rip one every once in awhile.
Sophie Schmidt: Coming into the season, I wasn’t circling the Canadian WNT central midfielder’s name as one of the top scorers on Sky Blue, never mind among the league leaders in scorers. With her headed goal late in the New Jersey outfit’s midweek match against Chicago, that was her third goal in three consecutive matches. And in both matches that they had this week, Schmidt was all over the pitch. She put in a great work effort as a central midfielder and while she does have a tendency to sit back well behind the strikers, she had a knack for timing headers on crosses as she was unmarked twice in the second half against Seattle on Saturday, one went off the bar and another went just wide. But this player has been special this season for Sky Blue and is a player that teams will do well to keep an eye on her a little more in the coming weeks.
The Little Things
Sky Blue Coming on Strong: After witnessing a pretty dull match on Wednesday night against Chicago (until about the 88th minute when all the action decided to come at once), Sky Blue looked very strong against Seattle on Saturday night. Jim Gabarra’s 4-3-3 (though I could settle that it’s a hybrid 4-5-1; the formation is surely debatable) had constant pressure on Seattle’s back line and attempted 24 shots, 10 of those on net. And the funny thing was they never seemed to run out of gas, even after playing two matches in four nights. The tireless worker Lisa De Vanna gave in two strong shifts (even after doing all the work on Wednesday and basically running herself into the ground) and finally got the goal she deserved. And as mentioned above, Sophie Schmidt was solid as well and right back Caitlin Foord was great too, including putting together a galloping run late in the Chicago match that involved running from her own box, nutmegging one, if not two, Red Stars and going “bar-down” for all my hockey fans (for everyone else thats hitting the underside of the bar, forgive me its Stanley Cup season) but while the shot didn’t cross the line, it was a great play regardless, one that had me out of my seat. Watch out for this team as they make a western road trip next weekend.
Carli Lloyd’s Cameo Appearance: It’s been an anticipated debut for the USWNT midfielder, but after missing the first four matches after recovering from shoulder surgery, it was a little bit of a surprise to see her back out onto the pitch after doctors only clearing her to play a few days before the match. You would figure a little bit of match fitness wouldn’t be there but Lloyd fit right in, making her trademark slashing runs through the midfield, spraying some nice diagonal balls across the field and hitting a few good shots as well. This is a sign of good things to come for the Flash in getting Lloyd back this quick. If she can transition well in getting back to full match fitness, she will be another weapon to add to a team already full of offensive weapons.
The Not So Great
Boston Playing The Route-1 Blues: Every once in awhile it is ok to plan an attack, especially in the second half when legs are tiring, to go “Route 1”, playing long balls over the top and hope your striker can corral the ball. Unfortunately, it has been happening a lot in the Boston camp lately, something that isn’t as pleasing on the eye to watch. We all do know that Sydney Leroux does have great speed and it is a strength to use, but at the end of the Washington game it was getting a little too predictable. I’m going to stop there because obviously the results have been good for the Breakers (two wins, two draws and no losses) but if this starts happening next week when the Breakers face FC Kansas City on the road, they have a strong center back pairing that will make life a little more difficult for Boston if they try playing over the top.
Five Games, One Goal From A Forward: We knew that things would be very hard this season for Washington as they have a very young striker corps to work with. But in five games, four of the teams five goals (which only ranks them above two teams in the NWSL) have come from midfielders, and two of those goals came from the penalty spot. So something has to give for Mike Jorden’s club because if they can’t start getting production from the forwards, their opponents can start wearing down the midfield and not concern themselves with the forwards.
Sleepwalking in Seattle: And I bet someone before me used that line to describe a Seattle pro sports team, but it was the only thing to talk about after their 2-0 loss to Sky Blue on Saturday. They looked very disorganized on the pitch and hardly had any good looks at goal. There were small glimpses of potential throughout the match, including Kiersten Dallstream getting in a quick snap shot on Sky Blue’s goalkeeper Brittany Cameron. But with another dull performance, the Reign have not won a match in five attempts and have not scored in three straight.
Week Six Match to Watch
FC Kansas City vs. Boston Breakers, Saturday May 18, 7:35pm local time
While there will be a battle for first place between Portland and Sky Blue FC this coming Thursday, this match between FCKC and Boston stands out a little bit more. Boston is currently still unbeaten with two wins and two draws but will be facing easily their toughest challenge of the early season away to the Blues. FCKC are coming off of a 2-1 loss away to Western New York, their first loss of the season. But in the early season, the Blues prove to be a much better team playing at home rather than on the road so expect a raucous crowd when these teams take the pitch at the Shawnee Mission District Stadium. It will also pit a nice battle of the forwards between Boston’s Sydney Leroux and FCKC’s Renae Cuellar. Both have been scoring machines for their respective teams but each had a quiet match this past weekend so there is potential for more from these two young strikers.
Week Five Final Results
Sky Blue FC 1-1 Chicago Red Stars
Washington Spirit 1-1 Boston Breakers
Sky Blue FC 2-0 Seattle Reign FC
Western New York Flash 2-1 FC Kansas City
Chicago Red Stars 0-2 Portland Thorns FC