On a weekend where many soccer fans around the world saw beautiful passing and great abilities to go forward during the UEFA Men’s Champions League Final, London was not the only place to see players of this quality. On a rainy Saturday night in a suburb of Boston, the National Women’s Soccer League learned one thing: Lianne Sanderson is a quality number 10 play maker and should be a number one primary concern when preparing to face the Breakers. Other major moments of Week Seven in NWSL regular season action saw a near-triumphant return of a USWNT starter only to be shadowed by a match-changing decision, quick responses to adversity and a defensive wall that still can’t be broken. Here is one last look at the weekend’s fixtures:
The Players
Lianne Sanderson: The former England international has been nothing less than phenomenal for Boston in the early part of the season. The journeyman player has spent a lot of time playing in a lot of different leagues and settings, bouncing around from England to the WPS to Spain then to the USL W-League with the team formerly known as D.C. United Women. But now with the Breakers, she is thriving with the attacking quality around her. And this Saturday night against Washington her performance spoke volumes, as she assisted on all three of Bostons goals in the 3-0 victory over Washington Spirit. That gives her six assists on the season, and while she hasn’t tallied a goal for herself this season so far, I wouldn’t be surprised that in the next few matches she will fire one in. She has been the most consistent player for Boston this season, and possibly the entire league, and will be a key factor going forward for Lisa Cole’s side.
Brittany Taylor: Not to be completely outpaced in the assist category, the Western New York defender had a couple of assists as the Flash came back to defeat Chicago Red Stars 2-1 Friday night in Rochester. You can’t say that defenders don’t always get assists, but Taylor is more of a defensive minded back than one who gets in the offense regularly. But on this night, it was a different story. Her first assist came on a great out-swinging cross that found Abby Wambach’s run behind the defense and leveled the score. Then only minutes later off of an Adriana corner, Taylor headed one towards frame and McCall Zerboni redirected the shot past the Chicago goalkeeper, giving Taylor the primary assist. It’s always a fun night when someone gets their name on the score sheet, but when it comes in a winning effort is even better.
Brittany Cameron: It’s pretty fair to say that Cameron has been the best goalkeeper in the NWSL up to this point. And if anyone wants to argue, you only have to look at the stats to prove it. Five clean sheets in eight matches, including four in a row (a 360-minute streak without giving up a goal) and has successfully relegated USWNT goalkeeper Jill Loyden to the bench for now. Granted, Loyden was hurt at the beginning of the season, but she has been healthy for the past few weeks and while Sky Blue Head Coach Jim Gabarra could have put her in, Cameron has stayed on because she has proven her worth. While sometimes she does take ill-advised ventures out of her box every now and then, her brilliant saves make up for it (if you haven’t, please see her save from this weekends match against FC Kansas City in the 10th minute on Renae Cuellar, it was a beauty). Now with the USWNT playing friendlies in the next few weeks, the job will be Cameron’s for a little while longer until Loyden comes back, then Gabarra really has some choices to make.
The Little Things
Sky Blue’s Impenetrable Wall: As I mentioned earlier with Brittany Cameron’s clean-sheet streak, it also has a lot to do with how the team defends as a whole, from the goalkeeper all the way up to the forwards. And you could see it Saturday night against FC Kansas City. Granted with the Jersey outfit being up a player for nearly 70 minutes after Lauren Sesselmann’s red card, they had to deal with a lot of FCKC pressure. And the Blues are a hard team to beat, especially at home, but Sky Blue did the job defensively at home and are now treated to a bit of a break, playing a few matches at home after traveling to the West Coast last week and then this tricky assignment on Saturday night.
Taylor Vancil’s Welcome to the Pros: You have to give it to the Chicago Red Stars head coach putting confidence in the young Florida State grad as he put in Vancil to face Western New York on the road, in her first professional action. After drafting Vancil in the college draft, she has been the understudy for Canadian WNT goalkeeper Erin McLeod, not seeing any action until this weekend when it was announced that McLeod had an injury and Vancil would start. And outside of the 60th-70th minute where the Flash scored twice, you have to give credit for Vancil playing a pretty nice match, including making a great save on a Carli Lloyd blast, a shot that Vancil didn’t see until late as there were a lot of bodies between her and the ball. This gives Dames some confidence in the goalkeeping position going forward as she will have to play this weekend against Portland with McLeod off on International duty with Canada.
Hope Solo Returns To the Pitch: It was interesting to see when the Reign announced they activated Hope Solo earlier this week, after the USWNT’s No. 1 goalkeeper has been recuperating from wrist surgery. But it was not surprising to see her name on Seattle’s team sheet Saturday night, you wouldn’t have activated her if she wasn’t going to play. And it looked like Hope was back to her old self, knocking the ball around well, making some nice saves and being vocal. It would have been a very solid performance if it didn’t get marred by….
The Bad: The Penalty on Seattle
I would like to preface this saying as a part-time broadcaster, I am always pro-referee/umpire/linesman/judge,etc. They are the ones are out there doing their best to judge the game. Regardless of how they do, their performance always gets criticized by fans, players, coaches, etc. But after looking at the replay of the “foul” against Allie Long in the Seattle box (I still don’t know who committed it) several times, there was nothing in the challenge. Players converged on a bouncing ball and it was cleared away, similar to many other occasions on a soccer field and they always get disregarded. But this one, according to referee Margaret Domka, had something in it that the rest of us must have not seen. But from the angle everyone saw, it didn’t have anything in it and totally destroyed the plot of the game. Neither team really had an advantage throughout the 90 minutes and you have to give Seattle a lot of credit for hanging in there against a tough Portland team. While I won’t say if these two teams deserved the outcome they received, this match was not supposed to end how it did.
Week Eight Match to Watch:
Portland Thorns FC vs. Chicago Red Stars, Saturday June 1, 2pm Local Time, Jeld-Wen Field
With only two matches this weekend, this one has a little more intrigue than the other for the sense that we will see a really depleted Thorns roster. With four internationals gone, which consists of their front line, starting goalkeeper and top center back, it will be interesting to see what the roster will look like. You will have to assume that former UNC goalkeeper Adelaide Gay will get the start in the net, Danielle Foxhoven and Jessica Shufelt up front. But those are for sure starters, but who will replace Rachel Buehler will be an interesting story. On the other side for Chicago, while Erin McLeod, Rachel Quon and Carmelina Moscato are gone with Canada, its time to enter in the Germans. Inka Grings and Sonja Fuss have been training with the club for about a week and should be expected to debut for Chicago on Saturday. This will be quite a boost for the Chicago club, who are currently looking better but struggling in seventh place, with only two points from six matches. With these factors in place, they could make for some interesting stories come Saturday afternoon.
Week Seven Results
Western New York Flash 2-1 Chicago Red Stars
Boston Breakers 3-0 Washington Spirit
FC Kansas City 0-1 Sky Blue FC
Seattle Reign FC 0-1 Portland Thorns FC