The first full-fledged Ranting Soccer Dad podcast features the Soccer America journalist who has been covering, coaching and reffing youth soccer through its rapid changes in the past couple of decades.
Author: Beau Dure
The guy who wrote a bunch of soccer books and now runs a Gen X-themed podcast while substitute teaching and continuing to write freelance stuff.
Podcast: Episode 0
The debut / trial run of the Ranting Soccer Dad podcast, explaining what this is all about. (In short: Youth soccer, branching out to related stuff such as soccer, other youth sports, parenting, coaching, stress management, etc.)
What I’m watching: July 21-31
Friday, July 21
6:10 a.m.: Water polo, men’s Worlds, USA-Russia, NBC Sports online
11:45 a.m.: Women’s Euro 2017, Sweden-Russia, ESPN3
2 p.m.: Track and field, Diamond League Monaco, NBCSN
2:30 p.m.: Women’s Euro 2017, Germany-Italy, ESPN3
11:30 p.m.: Australian rules football, Essendon-North Melbourne, FS2
Saturday, July 22
7:30 a.m.: Tour de France, time trial, NBCSN
11:45 a.m.: Women’s Euro 2017, Iceland-Switzerland, ESPN3
2:30 p.m.: Women’s Euro 2017, France-Austria, ESPN3
3:30 p.m.: NWSL, Chicago-Orlando, Lifetime
4 p.m.: MLS, Minnesota-NY Red Bulls, ESPN
6 p.m.: UFC Fight Night, Fox
10 p.m.: Gold Cup semifinal, USA-Costa Rica, FS1
Sunday, July 23
Ongoing: Golf, British Open, NBC
9:30 a.m.: Field hockey, Women’s World League semifinal final, USA-Germany, ESPN3
2 p.m.: Swimming, World Championships, NBCSN
2:30 p.m.: Women’s Euro 2017, England-Spain, ESPN3
6:30 p.m.: MLS, Vancouver-Portland, FS1
Monday, July 24
11:30 a.m.: Swimming, World Championships, NBCSN
2:30 p.m.: Women’s Euro 2017, Belgium-Netherlands, ESPN3
Tuesday, July 25
11:30 a.m.: Swimming, World Championships, NBCSN
2:30 p.m.: Women’s Euro 2017, Russia-Germany or maybe Sweden-Italy, ESPN3
Wednesday, July 26
11:30 a.m.: Swimming, World Championships, NBCSN
7:30 p.m.: International Champions Cup, Barcelona-Manchester United, ESPN2
9:30 p.m.: Gold Cup final (might include the USA, might not), FS1
Thursday, July 27
6 a.m.: Cricket, England-South Africa, first day of third Test, ESPN3
11:30 a.m.: Swimming, World Championships, NBCSN
2:30 p.m.: Women’s Euro 2017, no idea which game, ESPN3
10 p.m.: Women’s soccer, USA-Australia, ESPN
Friday, July 28
6 a.m.: Cricket, England-South Africa, second day of third Test, ESPN3
11:30 a.m.: Swimming, World Championships, NBCSN
2 p.m.: Cricket, T20, Sussex-Middlesex, ESPN3
Saturday, July 29
6 a.m.: Cricket, England-South Africa, third day of third Test, ESPN3
11:45 a.m.: Women’s Euro 2017 quarterfinal, ESPN3
2 p.m.: Swimming, World Championships, NBC
2:30 p.m.: Women’s Euro 2017 quarterfinal, ESPN3
10 p.m.: MLS, Los Angeles-Seattle, ESPN
11 p.m.: Darts, Las Vegas Masters, FS1
Sunday, July 30
6 a.m.: Cricket, England-South Africa, fourth day of third Test, ESPN3
8 a.m.: Formula One, Hungarian GP, NBCSN
11:30 a.m.: Swimming, World Championships, NBCSN
11:45 a.m.: Women’s Euro 2017 quarterfinal, ESPN3
2 p.m.: MLS, Toronto-NYCFC, ESPN
2:30 p.m.: Women’s Euro 2017 quarterfinal, ESPN3
5 p.m.: BMX, World Championships, NBC Sports online
8 p.m.: Women’s soccer, USA-Brazil, ESPN2
Monday, July 31
6 a.m.: Cricket, England-South Africa, fifth day of third Test, ESPN3
There’s also cricket and cornhole. Yes, cornhole. And Battle of the Network Stars.
(All times ET. Olympic Channel events are pending a dispute with my cable/Internet company, which rhymes with “horizon.”)
The sprawling attempt to prevent travel soccer sprawl
Let’s play Soccer Optometrist.
Better like this?
Or better like this?
That’s the result of my attempt to demonstrate something I’ve been investigating and analyzing for the past two months in a couple of stories — the opus on all Development Academy issues and the five-point plan for reducing the confusion and unnecessary travel in elite soccer — and the first full-fledged Ranting Soccer Dad podcast, in which Mike Woitalla and I pointed to travel itself as the best place to cut costs in travel soccer. The logic is pretty simple — it’s tougher to cut coaching costs and much tougher to cut field costs than it is to cut the bills on hotels and airlines.
So the hypothesis I’m testing with these maps: Elite soccer players don’t need to travel like Odysseus to find competitive games. The Development Academy (adding girls’ teams this year) and the ECNL (adding boys) would be better off if they played each other and top U.S. Youth Soccer teams currently playing in the Eastern Regional League and National League.
I also learned two important lessons:
1. Don’t try to put 332 data points on a map of the Northeast U.S.
2. Most youth soccer clubs have atrocious websites.
But I did compile complete-ish data for most teams playing at a serious or semi-serious level in Region 1 (the East Coast from Virginia to Maine). I put the raw data on Github because I have delusions of becoming a data journalist. (And so people can check numbers at a glance and dive deeper if they wish.)
On the spreadsheet and the maps, all clubs are listed with their 2016-17 leagues EXCEPT the ECNL and DA, which have announced their fall lineups, plus a couple of clubs that have qualified for the National League. I did NOT go through and try to figure new qualifiers for the ERL or calculate promotion/relegation in EDP and local leagues. (But there’s a little bit of pro/rel later.)
The rankings are all from Youth Soccer Rankings. All rankings should be taken with a grain of salt, but this site has the most comprehensive results database. It has the occasional error, mostly because teams often don’t use consistent names (“PREMIER 01 GIRLS FC BULLDOGS” or “PREMIER FC BULLDOGS,” etc.) and because a couple of leagues (looking at you, Virginia Premier League) have sites that simply don’t make it easy to look up results. But it does a remarkable job of compiling and analyzing scores, and I chose the U17 level because that group is old enough for results to be relatively meaningful. I used girls leagues because boys DA teams generally aren’t ranked because they rarely play outside the DA.
I have a plausible reorganization of the “national” leagues in U.S. youth soccer — the Development Academy, the ECNL and the U.S. Youth Soccer regional/national competitions. On these maps, I call that “Division 1.” I’m a little less convinced with what I’m calling “Division 2,” for reasons that will be come apparent.
Here’s how I broke it down:
CRITERIA FOR CURRENT LEAGUES (the “Before” view in the before-and-after of my reorganization; the numbers all refer to rankings)
DIVISION 1: 64 teams
- Elite Clubs National League (ECNL): 6 t10, 9 13-32, 47th, 82nd, 104th
- Development Academy (DA): 4 t12, 2 35-75, 129th, 8 new teams
- Eastern Regional League (ERL) and/or U.S. Youth Soccer National League (Natl): 2 t20, 8 21-50, 10 51-100, 5 101-200, 2 below
- Two independent teams ranked in top 100
DIVISION 2: (105 teams)
NPL (U.S. Club Soccer) regional leagues
- New England Premier League (NEPL): 6th, 6 40-100, 2 below 200
- NPL Northeast: 3 t50, 4 51-100, 6 101-200
- New York Club Soccer League (NYCSL) – NPL Division: 2 t20, 5 51-100, 2 101-200
- Virginia Premier League (VPL): 2 50-100, 4 101-200, 3 below 200
Non-NPL regional leagues
- EDP – 1st Divisions
- North (NY East/CT): 2 t50, 1 51-100, 3 101-125
- Central (NJ): 3 t50, 2 51-100
- East (NJ/PA East): 2 t50, 3 51-100
- South (PA East/MD): 1 t50, 3 51-100
- New England Premiership – 1st Division (NEP): 4 51-100, 5 101-200
- Club Champions League (Va/Md): 1 t50, 2 51-100, 4 101-200, 3 <275, one unr.
- 11 independent teams in top 200 (11)
DIVISION 3 (162 teams)
I only mapped this on the rather jumbled 332-team map. I may go back and do some local case studies at some point. But for posterity, here’s how I came up with a third division.
Complete leagues (or divisions of leagues)
- EDP – 2nd Divisions: majority in top 200; all but 2 in top 300)
- EDP – Premier divisions (third tier): 7 101-200, 10 201-300
- Connecticut Junior Soccer Association – Elite: 2 101-200, 4 201-300)
- National Capital Soccer League – Div. 1 (NCSL; DC/MD/VA): 3 101-200, 3 201-300 (disclaimer — the NCSL has collected some Dure family registration fees over the years)
- NEP – 2nd Division: 3 101-200, 3 201-300
- Northeast Soccer League – Elite (NSL; NE): 2 101-200, 1 200-210, only 4 teams
- NYCSL – NYPL Division 1 (second tier): 2 101-200, 3 201-300
- PA West Spring Classic League – Div. 1 (SCL): 87th, 3 101-200, 2 201-300
- Thruway League – National (NY West): 11th (also ERL/Natl), 54th, 173, 218th, unranked
In the top 300 or champion in a league with multiple teams over 300
- 5 from CJSA – Premier
- 2 each from EDP Championship Central and Championship North (fourth tier)
- 3 from Jersey Area Girls Soccer (JAGS)
- 2 from Long Island Junior Soccer League – Premier A (LIJSL)
- 2 from NCSL – Div. 2
- 3 each from NEP Championship North and Central (third tier)
- 3 from NSL – Premier
- 2 from NYCSL – NYPL Division 2 (plus fall champ that also plays LIJSL)
- 2 from NYCSL – NYPL Division 3
- 2 from Rock Spring League (PA East)
- 2 from SCL – Div. 2
- 3 from Thruway League – Presidents (second tier)
- 2 from Virginia State League – Division 1 (VSL; plus 2 teams playing up)
Champions or top U16 teams in these leagues/divisions/states
- Baltimore Beltway Soccer League (BBSL, Md.): top team 466
- Blue Ridge Soccer League (BRSL, Va.): champion 373 (also beat team playing up at U17)
- Central Pennsylvania Youth Soccer League (CPYSL): top team 412
- Lancaster County Soccer League (LANCO, PA East): top team 344
- Long Island Junior Soccer League – Premier B (LIJSL): champion 238
- Mid New Jersey (MNJ): top team 468
- Monmouth Ocean Soccer Association (MOSA, NJ): champion 414
- Maine State Premier League (MSPL): champion 383, plus team (69) that played up
- NCSL – Div. 3: champion 287
- NEP – League 1 (fourth tier): champion 253
- New Hampshire State League (NHSL): champion 542
- NSL – Select: champion unranked
- Philadelphia Area Girls Soccer – Div. 4 (PAGS, top tier, fall league): champion 318
- Vermont State League (VtSL): top team 334, top-ranked team 328
- West Virginia: remaining top-ranked team 323
So how did I do the “reimagined” maps? Like so:
DIVISION 1: Add champions of Division 2 leagues. (EDP-1N champion New York SC Elite NPL is already in DA.)
DIVISION 2
- Remove those who were promoted.
- Add champions of:
- EDP – 2nd Divisions
- CJSA – Elite
- NCSL – Div. 1
- NEP – 2nd Division
- NSL – Elite
- NYCSL – NYPL Division 1
- SCL – Div. 1
- Thruway League – National (already in)
Here’s how it turned out:
BEFORE
AFTER
That’s an improvement, but perhaps less so than Division 1.
The Division 2 issues:
- Pennsylvania West somehow dropped to one team. They have some company at the western tip of New York and in West Virginia, but that’s not a league. Possible solutions:
- Play up an age group in a local league.
- Cross the regional boundary and play in Ohio.
- Just drop to Division 3 unless they’re utterly dominant.
- Roanoke Star, all the way in southwestern Virginia, also might need to cross a regional boundary and play teams in and around Greensboro.
- Virginia’s high school season is in the spring. (So is Delaware’s, though only for girls.) I should probably split the “DMV” region along the Potomac.
Do we care about high school soccer? Depends on the region. I found most elite teams currently play few to no league games during their high school season. A lot of lower second and third tiers that often play through high school season, depending on the region. In my densely populated area (Northern Virginia), that makes sense — players who aren’t on the top travel teams won’t make their high school teams. That’s surely less common in more rural areas.
High school play is the biggest wedge between the Development Academy and the ECNL. The latter allows players to play in high school. The former doesn’t — sort of. Players can get waivers if their admission or scholarship to private school is contingent on their participation on the soccer team.
If we combine the DA and ECNL, we’d have to let players play in high school. If some teams want to skip high school soccer and play more league games, we can work that out.
Final note: This plan wouldn’t necessarily replace existing leagues. The NPL (U.S. Club Soccer’s network of regional leagues) would get some reorganization, and it could split the second tier with the EDP or share it. (The sprawling EDP already has some NPL divisions in other age groups, so it’s not a stretch to imagine them cooperating.) I do think Club Champions League should reinvent itself as a series of showcase events rather than a “league,” which is another rant.
The rest of the pyramid remains intact, perhaps with the stipulation that teams would need waivers if they’re a certain distance from the league’s geographic center.
There’s no way to prevent all lopsided games. But with this system in place, at least teams wouldn’t travel 300 miles for an uncompetitive game. If they still want to fly to Disney World for a tournament, they’re still free to do so. (Can I join your club?)
Are refs calling NWSL and MLS games differently?
A few of us have gotten the impression that referees in NWSL games are awarding tons of penalty kicks but not many yellow cards. Are we right?
Sort of …
So the PKs, aside from games involving Sky Blue, aren’t that far off. But yellow cards? A rare sight in an NWSL game.
If you’d like to check my work, have at it …
Spirit, Pride still works in progress
Marta is here. Alex Morgan is back. Mallory Pugh is here. Estefania Banini is back.
But the chemistry isn’t quite there. And neither is the service from midfield.
Yes, the Washington Spirit and Orlando Pride each scored twice in a 2-2 draw before a crowd of 5,200 that filled the seats, the hill and the concession lines Saturday at the Maryland SoccerPlex. And yes, we had a couple of moments like this:
(Incidentally, I have no idea how I’m not in that camera shot. I was sitting on the hill today because I brought the little one with me. So I had a perfect view of that bit of Morganinho skill. And a perfect view of the first penalty awarded. Struck me as a little soft. A bit. When Kate Markgraf calls it “just a little bit of a shoulder challenge,” it’s probably not a great call.)
But neither team produced much to trouble the keepers. Morgan was offside a few times. A late flurry from the Spirit padded the stats.
The strangest thing for the Spirit: Tori Huster, usually a game-changer in midfield but not an offensive force, was shooting from all over. Some of the shots, as coach Jim Gabarra said afterwards, were the result of defenders giving her space and trying to contain Franny Ordega, Mallory Pugh and others.
But then there was this:
And she took a ton of shots in pregame warmups. Even more than Cheyna Williams, who helped the Spirit make a late surge when she came on a substitute.
Williams probably should be starting. So should Kristie Mewis. The Spirit could use some possession, and Ordega’s passing was erratic today.
Today was also the return of Ali Krieger to the SoccerPlex. If you love Krieger, you saw a passionate captain and defensive rock. If you don’t, you saw a lot of griping to the ref and some puzzling passes.
And this:
And a lot of people think Tom Sermanni needs to find a way to move Krieger from center back to right back. Probably, but center backs seem to be in short supply these days.
Sermanni, ever the gentleman, came over for a quick work with the media even though the Pride needed to fly out of town. He wasn’t thrilled with conceding the lead twice. He is thrilled, though, with the prospect of Morgan getting into form alongside Marta.
Pugh is a little younger and Banini is a little less famous than the Pride attackers. But they showed glimmers of quality today, too. Pugh had a marvelous finish and kept her nerve on a last-minute penalty kick.
So both sides will get better. For the Pride, that might mean a late push for the playoffs. For the Spirit, that might mean eighth place.
Ranting Soccer Dad has debuted
My new youth soccer podcast, Ranting Soccer Dad, is now available through this site and … well … Podbean. I’ll work on getting it everywhere else.
You can find it on the Podbean site or just check the Ranting Soccer Dad page here.
Future episodes will have interviews. That’s why this one is Episode 0. It’s just me explaining a bit about what I’m planning to do.
Meet the new site, not quite the old site
SportsMyriad had a weird, wonderful seven-year run. The last year was a bit half-hearted, honestly — a hacker attack sapped my energy, and I’ve been retrenching, work-wise.
I’ve migrated my posts and pages over here, essentially combining my two sites. Simplify. Zen. All that Eastern philosophy stuff but with an English-language keyboard.
And I’ll still blog on occasion, but this site will feature work I’m doing here, there and everywhere. That includes a new podcast on youth soccer and related topics (general soccer, parenting, philosophy, migrating to Mars), and I’m quite excited about it.
Follow, tune in, enjoy.
On drug testing, MMA, the Diaz brothers, invasions of privacy, etc.
One thing I enjoy, perhaps more than I should, about my weird career path is the intersection of Olympic sports and MMA when it comes to the ever-entertaining world of drug testing. I did a lot of grunt work on the topic back in the day for USA TODAY, and I like finding a use for that otherwise useless knowledge:
- The BALCO timeline, where we learned athletes can be suspended for doping without failing a test. (This piece is cited in a surprising number of scholarly papers.)
- The Jerome Young case, a classic example of an athlete who had plausible deniability until he didn’t. (That might remind you of Marion Jones or Floyd Landis, another case I followed in detail.)
But I also learn a lot from the MMA community’s response. MMA writers and fans are often looking at drug testing with fresh eyes. And hopefully most people have lost their perception of MMA writers and fans as just a bunch of know-nothing “dudebros.” I’ve written for USA TODAY and a bunch of other big brand names (ESPN, The Guardian, etc.), and I’ve written for Bloody Elbow. I’ve seen Bloody Elbow do a lot of journalism I wish USA TODAY would do.
But my USA TODAY colleagues have done some terrific reporting on drug testing over the years, including this funny collection of anecdotes that show how drug testers can show up pretty much anywhere at any time. The formatting has broken down over time, so I’ll copy the first few paragraphs — follow the link, and you’ll see the rest, including a really funny story from Adam Nelson that I incorporated into a blog post when he finally got his gold medal.
Imagine being an athlete who’s off on a fishing trip, out in the Missouri countryside at a remote pond, and up drives a member of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to get a urine sample for drug testing.’s off on a fishing trip, out in the Missouri countryside at a remote pond, and up drives a member of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to get a urine sample for drug testing.
That happened to U.S. shot putter Christian Cantwell, who says, “We did it right there, in the woods.”
Cantwell also was tracked down recently for random testing while going into a casino. The USADA representative arrived when a dehydrated Cantwell wasn’t ready to produce, and during the ensuing two-hour wait he was certain he was missing out on a hot roll at the dice tables.
“When I got to the table they had just paid out $30,000 in a half-hour,” Cantwell says. “Next time I see that guy, I’m going to tell him he owes me money.”
Such anecdotes are common for U.S. athletes who compete in Olympic sports, and who are subject to year-round drug testing by USADA. And those stories are a reminder that, despite the few Americans who have been caught up in the BALCO steroids scandal this year, there are thousands of U.S. Olympic hopefuls who pass drug tests monthly, or even more often.
All of those athletes must keep USADA informed of their whereabouts at all times, and they all have to be willing to head for the bathroom — or woods — when USADA comes knocking. Which can be at any hour.
The MMA community is still somewhat new to this sort of drug testing, and they don’t find it quite as funny. Not yet, anyway. Maybe when they get used to it. And maybe when it doesn’t involve Nick Diaz, who has already documented an unpleasant exchange with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
The Diaz case is unusual by any standards. Nick and his brother Nate are among the most vocal marijuana advocates in sports. Nick once turned a Strikeforce conference call into a freeform discussion of the merits of pot. (Disclaimer: I’m a little biased here because the smell of pot makes me nauseous, ruining many a good concert for me, and I have a enough life experience to know the “hey, it’s harmless” lobbyists are overstating their case. That said, I don’t see the legal case to treat it any differently than alcohol, and I’m certainly not a fan of draconian penalties, whether it’s prison time or the five-year suspension — later dropped to 18 months — Nevada handed Nick Diaz, prompting enough justifiable outrage to make the White House take note.)
Worth noting here: As USADA explains in a Marijuana FAQ that I’m sure the pro-pot lobby will not enjoy reading, pot is only prohibited in competition. The out-of-competition testing is designed to catch people filling up on every form of steroid known to man, all of which can give athletes an unfair advantage even if the drug has passed out of their system when they compete. Marijuana doesn’t work that way.
And Nick is back in the news now because he has three “whereabouts” failures. Yes, as the story above points out, athletes have to share their whereabouts with USADA, but the good news for athletes is that there’s an app for that. Under USADA’s agreement with the UFC, which is similar to but not exactly identical to USADA and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) agreements with other organizations, he’s subject to a possible suspension of 6-24 months.
Nick doesn’t seem too interested in fighting these days, anyway. But athletes are generally responsible for filing retirement papers if they don’t want to compete any more, as USA Track and Field warns its athletes in a list of doping suspensions that happens to include a lot of “whereabouts” infractions. In fact, that list includes at least one athlete who hadn’t filled out his retirement papers and then refused to give a sample. He was suspended, but that just means un-retiring would be complicated.
So the MMA community has raised a few questions:
https://twitter.com/MichaelTocco/status/880627132816338944
Good question. As is this:
https://twitter.com/_dacofty_/status/880760502770651136
I’ve never understood the random test process, either. But USADA is certainly transparent about the number of tests it conducts. A few random facts:
- Your current 2017 drug-testing leaders, with 7 tests each: Vitor Belfort, T.J. Dillashaw, Mark Hunt, Stipe Miocic, Alistair Overeem, Valentina Shevchenko, Tecia Torres.
- 2016 leaders: Anderson Silva (15), followed by Eddie Alvarez and Dominick Cruz with 14 each.
- Ronda Rousey was tested nine times (cue Ferris Bueller reference) in 2016.
- Rio 1,500-meter gold medalist Matthew Centrowitz was tested 17 times in 2016, more than any other track and field athlete.
And USADA tests a lot of sports, mostly but not limited to Olympic and Paralympic sports. Yes, Paralympic — the current list of sanctions includes athletes in sitting volleyball, wheelchair curling, paralympic judo, paralympic table tennis, etc.
In discussing all this yesterday, this Tweet came up:
This ties into another issue in MMA today — UFC fighters, like most athletes in individual sports, aren’t employed by the organization in which they compete. It’s a bit much to cover in a post that’s already too long — look up coverage of fighter unions and so forth. Labor lawyers are going to have a field day with this for a while.
So we were discussing possible ramifications and this came up:
https://twitter.com/HockeyandBeers/status/880607776661278722
Thereby establishing that all three of us in the conversation are DMV residents who’ve had their hearts broken by the Capitals every year. *%^##@ing Crosby …
And Backstrom was indeed kept out of the Olympic final, though the case was a bit complicated, and it did indeed not affect his play with the Capitals.
Of course, in the world of MMA, you can always fight somewhere else. See Mirko Cro Cop, who’s on USADA’s suspension list until November but has recently been fighting in Rizin overseas.
In the Olympic sports world, forget it. Lance Armstrong’s cycling ban even carried over to triathlons and swimming for four years.
Which raises one question: Will the Diaz brothers’ attitude toward anti-doping eventually limit their triathlon options? Or do they just plan to do recreational triathlons, which aren’t subject to the same scrutiny? (Which seems only fair. Anyone who’d juice up to win a recreational triathlon has some issues.)
In any case, it’s going to be interesting to see over the next few years how the MMA world adapts to anti-doping reality. Or maybe whether the MMA world forces a few changes in anti-doping. Maybe future fighters and shot putters won’t be awakened by someone carrying a badge and a couple of bottles.
Washington Spirit 1-0 Portland Thorns: Rivalry?
The driving distance from Providence Park to the Maryland SoccerPlex is 2,785 miles. Google Maps says I can do it in 41 hours.
But is the relationship between the Portland Thorns and the Washington Spirit a rivalry?
“For me, yeah,” said former Spirit and current Thorns midfielder Hayley Raso with little hesitation. “It’s hard to leave a club the way I did, so coming back here, I feel like I have something to prove.”
Raso is a young soft-spoken Australian who was happy to see Boyd, the SoccerPlex’s field-maintenance dog — “he’s cute,” she said — and doesn’t seem like the sort of person who’d be in the middle of controversy. She had a few fouls tonight and picked up a yellow card (which I missed because I foolishly thought the Thorns might dart through the press area before I got there, so I was heading down to the field) at the final whistle. But this was nothing like the professional agitators so many NWSL teams employ.
And yet, there was an incident immediately after the whistle (again, I missed it) between Washington coach Jim Gabarra and Portland coach Mark Parsons — who was, of course, the man who led the Spirit to consecutive playoff appearances before Portland hired him away. I understand Gabarra didn’t comment (I missed the last part of his comments to catch Raso), but Parsons …
Bear in mind — Parsons didn’t turn up to the postgame interviews with a bright-red face and a hoarse voice from screaming. He thought we didn’t want to talk with him, the result of a miscommunication between some non-PR Spirit staffers and Nadine Angerer, the Thorns’ goalkeeper coach/visiting PR contact. When I suggested to him that perhaps the Thorns could invest some of their gate receipts from their five-figure home crowds in an actual PR contact who isn’t also the goalkeeper coach, he gave me a playful pinch on the arm.
And he was gracious to his former team.
“The Spirit were very good. Packed house (attendance over 4,000) for them tonight, and I know what a packed house does — we have it at home. It pushes you. They caused us some problems, and we struggled to break them down.”
Indeed they did. The Thorns had 62.7% of the possession but generated few chances.
“I don’t think they had any clear possession in our final third,” Gabarra said. “It was all the middle of the park or their half.”
This week may bring a screeching halt to goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe’s weekly nomination(s) for Save of the Week.
“That’s GREAT news!” Labbe laughed. “I guess? I know, they’re killing my saves here, you know? But that was awesome. I can’t even remember having to make a dive at all. Defensively, I thought we played so well and kept everyone in front of us. With so many attacking threats, I think it was almost a good thing for us because we didn’t have to focus on one person, we focused on the whole team.”
Spirit fans are used to seeing Estelle Johnson’s magical recovery power, and they can trust in Shelina Zadorsky’s steady presence at center back. The improvement has been a collective effort, but Zadorsky’s central partner Whitney Church deserves special mention. The thought of putting Church up against Christine Sinclair might’ve seemed frightening in the past. But Church was steady tonight.
Midfielder Tori Huster: “I thought we had really tight lines for the most part. I thought our back four did perfectly. They were dropping when they needed to drop, and I think Whitney had probably 20 headers that we really needed her to have, and they could’ve been a lot more dangerous had she not headed them. I thought she had an outstanding game.”
And yes, that’s Huster, the midfield rock who has been missing with an injury for the last few games. She was so happy to be back on the field that she was still signing autographs 45 minutes after the whistle.
Washington is one of two NWSL teams that doesn’t have a midweek game on Wednesday. Portland has to face perplexing but dangerous Kansas City.
“Individually, we have to look at our performances and examine how we did and go back to work and make sure we’re fixing those things we didn’t do well,” said defender Meghan Klingenberg, who spent much of the game pressed forward on the flank. “And collectively, figure out what we didn’t do well. And fix those things for Wednesday, because it’s a quick turnaround.”
But Klingenberg declined to make any Carli Lloyd-style comments about her teammates. “My teammates are amazing! They work their butts off. I don’t care if we win or lose, I would choose to play with them more than any other team.”
And in any case, the game would’ve been much different if not for this:
Ordega and Cheyna Williams were magnificent up front. Williams forced the best Portland save of the night, and Ordega had a sick nutmeg among other sweet moves.
Ordega was especially inspired:
That goal certainly changed the Thorns’ approach.
Raso: “We went down a goal, so I guess we got a bit anxious out there. From the start, we were chasing the game. We probably could’ve played more simple, but when you’re chasing the game, you’re just trying to do what you can do.”
And the Thorns simply looked tense, making a lot of clumsy turnovers and failing to connect in the final third.
Parsons put it in simple terms: “We were just a little bit off tonight, and when you’re playing a team with a bit of momentum, it’s going to be a rough one.”
Other notes from the game:
Spirit owner Bill Lynch heckled Parsons and a few Thorns during the game. But Parsons didn’t seem to notice anything from the stands this time around.
“Last year, I heard a lot of negative, which was pretty cool and fun. That’s when you know women’s soccer’s growing, when players and coaches come back and get harassed in a good, healthy way.”
But things have changed since last year, when the Spirit had most of the same players from Parsons’ last year.
“It’s been a changeover in players, fans and staff. But it’s great coming back. This is a special place for me that I had some great, unbelievable moments with, and I’ll always hold on to that and know that this gave me an opportunity to get in this beautiful game and work with these great female athletes.”
Tony DiCicco’s passing was observed with a moment of silence and armbands. I missed what Gabarra said about him — check with Caitlin Buckley or Jordan Small. Parsons hailed him as a “person and face and heart of women’s soccer,” and he shared a personal anecdote:
“I remember going to watch his NSCAA Convention sessions when I first got here and wanted to learn. I finally had the opportunity to talk to him when I was trying to sign a Japanese girl here at the Spirit. I reached out to Tony. He didn’t have to help me, and he sat there for an hour on the phone telling me everything I needed to know about this Japanese international and walked me through everything. He didn’t know me, he had no tie to the Washington Spirit, he probably had closer ties to other teams. … Now you read what everybody else is saying about him. I experienced that first-hand. He was all about helping anyone in the women’s game and outside the women’s game. We’ve lost a great there. If we can grab the special qualities that he had consistently every week and keep spreading that love and support for everyone in the game, I’m sure he’d be proud.”
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