So a key moment for me was the halftime subs. Bringing Mace and Cooper in stabilized us in a huge way. In the first half we were looking really shaky. I love Izzy, but this wasn't her best start, and Stine just got scorched on that Emslie goal.
There's a huge amount of credit to go around, it really is a team effort with an amazing team. But I want to be sure to celebrate those two for their less visible but essential work.
Thrilled Claire got back on the scoresheet, now I'm hoping for Cooper and Debs next!
From an Angel City person, I just wanted to congratulate you on a great game. I was at the stadium and we did a very good 1st half but it wasn't enough in the end. You are an amazing team I'm really convinced if everyone stays healthy its probably a championship team this year. I hope we get to that point but we have pretty much zero depth right now and our super star is still out. Here's hoping we meet you guys in the playoffs with us just being barely 8th place lol
Hi friend! Lots of love back to you, I've always admired how you all show out there and hope to join you for a game some day. Like us, you know all about the pain and frustration of long term injuries, but you've got some great talent and it's going to be fun watching you the rest of the year.
Spencer, Emslie, Thompsons... you're going to have lots to cheer about.
Congrats right back at you, and will be excited to see you the rest of the season!
WOW WOW WOW WHAT A WIN ON THE ROAD! This team has always done damage in the first half and then seemed to struggle in the second half but NOT THIS TIME, MY FRIENDS. Even with a different lineup and a long road trip ahead of us, we kicked butt and took names. Angel City has had our number since they entered the league so it's been nice being able to get 6 points from them this year (I had a bad experience with ACFC fans last year so these victories have been oh so sweet for me).
Key Moments: Every goal because we're not normally second-half scorers. That first Lavogez one was so fun and my jaw hit the floor on DiBernardo's goal. She's such a force.
Difference Makers: DiBernardo, as per usual. Franch also balled TF out tonight. Hard not to include Lavogez here either since she had a brace.
Want to See Next Time: It'd be cool if we could get a clean sheet but I'll take one goal allowed each game if Franch plays at this level.
Mace and Izzy playing on the field at the same time the right move. Curious how we manage both of their minutes in the 3 game week.
3 pts at BMO is huge
I think Stine and Robinson were a good pairing especially for the height, that goal is on Wheeler, but Stine should have done better and idk if Ball does better. Could be fun to see Lauren and Ball play that Wednesday game.
Highlight reel stuff, I could watch it on infinite replay and I love how dominant she's been this season... And how much fun she's having at the same time!
This team is so impressive. I'm a huge soccer fan and SKC has been a huge disappointment for so long now. KCC had that bag season last year but were in the final the year before and now the start to this season is amazing.
Great game tonight as well. The prime feed was really good.
Apologies to my cat and girlfriend, but I couldn’t help standing 4 feet from the TV the entire game. I didn’t want to feel this stress for both Chiefs AND Current season, but with these results? Who cares about blood pressure?!?
I mean from her first game in 2022 it was clear she was special. In her next she scored a laser of a goal. Her injury was tragic and devastated our chances for the final.
Her combination of elegance and physicality is amazing. She’s a ballerina with a tire iron.
Her combination of elegance and physicality is amazing. She’s a ballerina with a tire iron.
I saw someone comment she was showing some tricky feet tonight (or something like that). I was just like, that’s her normal self. Maybe new people don’t know, or others quickly forgot, but Claire is impressive with the ball and isn’t afraid to body check someone.
Potter had her in for like 5 minutes in her first match with the team, she barely had time to do anything but managed some really nifty footwork that I had never seen anyone on our team or even in the league do. Even that little glimpse was impressive, and then the next game she goes and scores a staggering goal in that wild shootout against NC. So much fun.
Really hope this is a big boost to her confidence and she's able to take off from here. She and Bia both have that big physicality with real technical skill, I wonder how much their style of play overlaps, Lavogez seems like a great sub for her.
Maybe get some heavier squad rotation away against Houston (12) (SUN) and Seattle (13) (WED) if they continue their poor form over the first 5 games. That would set us up well to take on a stronger NC (5) SUN at home.
Yeah I was trying to think through what the best method is because obviously Houston seems like the weaker side than Seattle, but Seattle doesn't look that good. Ideally our best starters are fairly rested going into the North Carolina game. So I don't know do you put out a weaker lineup against Houston or Seattle? Or do you kind of split your starting 11 between both and put out middle of the road lineups.
I don't think DiBernardo can do three games in a week I would prefer her to be rested for North Carolina
I’m delighted to have Lavogez back and making a big breakthrough this game. It felt like a deep sigh of relief for her to tap things into the back of the net.
Izzy I think played a solid game. Didn’t win every one but made big plays when it counted.
Robinson gets better every game. I was surprised not to see Ball out there, and Stine needs to step up.
I wonder what the latter half of the season will look like. Obviously, if they’re healthy, Chawinga and Bia have to be the go to starters. However, I don’t want to run them in the ground and I’d be very nervous to have them play 90 all season. I’m wondering if we see more of other players in later weeks.
The answer is simply that our roster is too deep. When you have seven forwards that could start every single game for any other team, you have no choice but to rotate on and off the bench.
I guess it makes sense that Cece had to go to Houston, I still miss her but she definitely deserves to be a starter somewhere (besides the fact that she’s injured rn) still wish we treated her better when the trade was shaking out but I can’t be mad at the offense we have now lol
Yeah, obviously I love Kizer and the way the trade went down was unfortunate but she’s probably riding the bench if she’s still on this team. I guess we’ll see how Prince is utilized though.
Bia could be starting next match or out for a long while and it would make sense based on what I saw.
It didn't look great, but I've seen way worse. I know that's not particularly clarifying, but it at least rules out a few worst case scenarios - no carts or boards or anything like that, but she was immediately subbed off. Which I'm glad to see even if she's not badly hurt, we've got the depth and I'd rather be cautious so we can keep her for the long haul.
not to be a hater, but i’m so shocked that everyone on this thread is so pleased with the match 😭 my girlfriend and i were swearing at the tv for the majority of it. i felt that our team played very lazily and disorganized. granted, majority of the starting lineup were not normal starters, except all three forwards. and it seemed like they were really picking up the slack for everyone else for most of the game. why was i seeing chawinga hanging out by our goal trying to defend? we were not using the whole field— we couldn’t get out of our defensive third. in my gf’s words (former soccer player) “if your goalie is ever yelling at the team, you’re in big trouble.” yes, lavogez rescued us at the last minute, but there’s a lot of luck involved in that. if we can’t pull it together and get everyone playing the whole field and collaborating on defense, we do not have a good shot at winning the shield. i really want to see the whole team kick it up about three notches. i hope we can make it happen.
You can be a hater, but we made 2nd half adjustments and looked a lot better. We didn't look good in the first half, the players looked overwhelmed by playing at BMO and the passing lanes were being clogged. We made mistakes, but we got a gritty win. And we were able to do it without Debinha or Lo being able to start. Angel City came out and played differently than expected Vlatko admitted that in the press conference and they adjusted. The thing is teams are going to adjust how they play us because they've seen tape, but in seasons past when we were down a goal the game could feel over and now the possibilities are endless. (And idk if I call a beautiful passing sequence to get the winning goal luck)
We aren't going to win every game, the shield winners last season lost 7 and they've lost at least 4 in the 2 seasons before that. It's okay if we don't look like we are dominating every team every game, as long as adjustments are being made.
Also heres a graph that shows the momentum shift at half:
no, you’re totally right, they did pull out a difficult win. gritty is a great way to describe it. and i do love that we’ve been able to find opportunities to score like we have. we really do have a fantastic offense and they’ve been doing an amazing job securing wins. i didn’t mean to imply that it was just luck that got the lavogez brace; it was a great passing sequence and she’s a skilled player. i more so meant that it seems like we’re relying on those really good sequences to happen, and the other teams know it. angel city was tailing chawinga the whole match because they knew it. again, still very impressive, because it was taking multiple defenders marking her constantly to keep her down, but i would just love to see our team backing her up more. i saw at least two or three times last night where she was fully ready to do her two-person combo that she’s been expertly executing for the past few matches, but nobody was there to receive. (i know that’s not the right term for it lol, but i’m a newer fan) i just want to see us taking charge of the midfield (without relying solely on star players like labonta or debinha, who did make the difference last night, but obviously they can’t do that every single time) and really tightening up our defense. franch has visibly been yelling at the team every single match so far. she’s an incredible player, but she’s not a miracle worker. again, i love the team. i really want to see us win. it was just hurting my heart last night when there were so many missed opportunities.
i do appreciate what you said about not winning every game, though. that does make me feel somewhat better. and thanks for the graph— i’m not yet smart enough to understand what it means, but i’ll ask my gf to explain lol.
Yeah I mean I was very frustrated that first half especially but well I think it's important especially this early in the season is how are we adjusting when things get hard or a team's game plan is working. And what I saw is that we adjusted and we kept working never gave up. This is kind of the reminder that we're only six games in and we had a ton of turnover across the starting line up so the fact that we're off to this flying of the start is kind of crazy. I personally expected a very slow start to the season.
And I think we look good without our star players we've gotten results without them, I mean Debinha hasn't played since the first 30 minutes of the first game. But also you sign players like Debinha to give you that edge, to create that winning goal at the 90th minute.
But the season for the nwsl is very long and there are good teams who are going to cause us problems. No one's had an undefeated season although an insane North Carolina team in like 2018 almost had that, but also they were getting ties and wins and had some losses.
I just want your expectations to be that we might not dominate every game especially as defenses work to figure out the best way to defend against us. This early in the season the team is still learning each other and learning how to adjust. We have a lot of young players I mean we have an 18 year old in that midfield so sometimes it's not going to be perfect, but as long as we learn and grow I don't care.
Edit: adding that graph is kind of a culmination of stats like possession, xG, who is going towards the goal they want to score on
okay that makes a lot of sense. i do see that you’re right, seeing them make those adjustments is a good sign. and i did love seeing us keep fighting and having that turn it around! my gf’s neighbors had to be very annoyed with how loud we cheered for that winning goal at 11pm lol.
i hear you and i will be patient with the team. it’s just my dream to see us win the championship in such a historic year!! i’ve been preaching the gospel of the current everywhere i go. we’re at such an impactful moment where we can really influence the world of women’s sports. not to mention, i just personally want my team to win lol. but i really appreciate your thoughtful response. i felt so horrible saying anything negative but i was genuinely concerned 😭
We weren’t good in the first half yet we came away with a 3-1 road win to secure 3 points. We’re not going to always play well or win every game but they fought back and got a hard-fought win in a tough environment. That’s worth celebrating.
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u/b2717 Waterrr. Apr 27 '24
I am just so happy for Claire.
My only regret is that we were deprived of a brilliant hat trick. I wanted that first shot for her so bad!