Lori Lindsey’s retirement provoked a lot of good discussion. Would a young player coming through the ranks today stick around in amateur soccer to work her way into the national team? Who else makes that great through pass down the center?
What a great time to experiment with podcasting!
I’ve been thinking about podcasting for a while, and with my left hand in a splint that slows down my typing, it’s the perfect time. And it gives me a good excuse to put all the interviews from Lindsey’s home finale in one big audio file.
I’m learning on the fly, and I’m open to constructive feedback. If you’d prefer to skip around and listen only to the parts that interest you, here’s a quick guide:
3:20 Olympic sports recap
9:05 Setting up interviews on Spirit-Sky Blue game
10:15 Jim Gabarra’s comments on Sky Blue’s season. Techncal difficulties erased Mark Parsons’ comments on the game — basically, the occasion got to them, and everyone was trying to hit one big heroic pass instead of combining intelligently.
11:30 Me on Lori Lindsey’s history in Washington. Somehow, I worked Landon Donovan into it.
18:00 Setting up the rest of the interviews:
18:38 Virginia coach Steve Swanson telling an old anecdote on Lori and paying tribute to her attributes that many younger players do NOT have.
(Incidentally, I don’t think that’s me laughing on this one and other interviews. Maybe Kevin Parker? Maybe the other man who was there? We had a group of about 8 people.)
20:38 Christie Rampone on Lindsey’s ability to play a direct ball with great vision
21:15 Spirit coach Mark Parsons on how Lindsey filled a couple of different roles on a playoff team this year and a last-place team last year. Also, there’s some dispute over who won a danceoff in 2013. (It was Toni Pressley, as recorded in my book.)
24:45 Ali Krieger on the Spirit wanting to win for her
25:25 Lindsey on her retirement and favorite moments
31:00 I sign off and show off my mad GarageBand skills.
I’m not going to do a big recap of Sky Blue’s 1-0 win over Washington for the following reasons:
1. Western New York held Chicago to a draw in the later game, clinching a playoff spot for the Spirit despite the loss. (Former Spirit Reserves goalkeeper DiDi Haracic, essentially the Flash’s fourth-string keeper, got the start.) Sadly for Sky Blue, which counterattacked beautifully in this game and got solid defensive performances from Sophie Schmidt and Christie Rampone, that result knocks them out.
2. Spirit coach Mark Parsons summed up the team’s performance with elegant simplicity: “The occasion got to us a little bit.” More specifically, “everyone wanted to hit that final pass.” He’s right. The night was riddled with ambitious passes that skidded away so quickly that Canadian artificial turf apologists will surely use the video to claim the ball is tough to control on all surfaces, not just FieldTurf.
3. Broken finger. Can’t type much.
So the lasting memory of the evening will be Lori Lindsey’s retirement. The Spirit put together a nice video tribute with comments from all over — former coaches such as Clyde Watson and Kris Ward, former teammates such as Becky Sauerbrunn and Megan Rapinoe (the funniest of a fairly witty bunch), even Mia Hamm.
Fans outside Washington or recent women’s soccer fans might not realize how important Washington has been to Lindsey (and vice versa). In the years between the WUSA and WPS, she slogged it out with the Washington Freedom (held together by Jim Gabarra, now the Sky Blue coach, who graciously congratulated Lindsey before the game). She played on this field in front of a couple hundred people at times. In those years, she pushed her way into the national team pool and wound up playing in the 2011 World Cup.
She talked a bit about those years in the postgame interview, after she signed autographs for everyone who hung around. I’m uploading the entire audio here and may add parts of it to the debut SportsMyriad podcast Sunday or Monday. Stay tuned.
For the most startling comment in the wake of Washington’s last-minute winner over Chicago on a pleasant Saturday night at the Maryland SoccerPlex, let’s check in with Chicago coach Rory Dames on how the loss affected the Red Stars’ playoff chances:
“I don’t think (losing) changes a lot for us, to be honest. Winning obviously would’ve helped. But we’re two points back from Portland.
“We always thought the race was going to be with Portland. I don’t think we really ever thought we were in a race with Washington.”
Whoa.
The standings would’ve said otherwise before tonight’s game. A Chicago win would’ve vaulted the Red Stars into a tie for third with Washington. The Spirit would still own the head-to-head tiebreaker, having already beaten Chicago twice, but the Red Stars would have a game in hand. And the Red Stars have three games at home, while the Spirit must travel to first-place Seattle and return home to face nemesis Sky Blue.
And yet, here was Dames after the game, saying they were just competing for the fourth playoff spot with the star-studded Portland Thorns, not the defending wooden-spoon holders from Washington. In fact, Dames and Red Stars all-everything Lori Chalupny were in surprisingly good moods considering what had just happened.
In case you missed it, here’s what had just happened:
4th minute: After missing a good early chance, the Spirit gave up a truly awful opening goal. Tori Huster gave up the ball to Christen Press at midfield, and the Red Stars forward went streaking down the middle. Spirit left back Alex Singer was caught upfield, and Press played the ball into that space for Melissa Tancredi. The Spirit center backs rolled to their left, and Tancredi crossed it back for Lori Chalupny. The should-be national team midfielder didn’t make great contact with her one-timer from the top of the box, but Ashlyn Harris was uncharacteristically slow in getting across. 1-0 Red Stars.
28th and 31st minutes: The Red Stars didn’t necessarily have the better of possession in the first half, but they created the best chances, particularly off Spirit misplays. In the 28th minute, Press again picked the ball away from a Spirit defender (Niki Cross), this time going one-on-one with Harris, who made the big stop. (Dames thought Cross might have held Press back and deserved a yellow; not sure I see it on replay. Meanwhile, the Red Stars were undoing themselves with some silly, nasty challenges, earning yellow cards for Jen Hoy and Jackie Santacaterina.)
Press again had an opportunity as the Red Stars, wisely, went Route 1 with a ball up the middle. Press raced past the defense, but Harris was out in her keeper-sweeper role to clean up. That would be the best Chicago opportunity for some time, while the Spirit started to come back, with Kerstin Garefrekes’ 39th-minute shot cleared away by Abby Erceg.
48th minute: This time, the Red Stars gave up the soft early goal. Christine Nairn has scored some beautiful long-range goals, but this one was a slow grounder that somehow wrong-footed Karina LeBlanc.
89th minute: The Spirit had the better of play in the second half, outshooting Chicago 12-4 while Harris only made one save. But what a save it was. Adriana Leon tapped the ball for Melissa Tancredi, who rushed past Ali Krieger with the ball and crossed for Christen Press, who had found space in the box. Tancredi’s cross was perfect. Press’ header was perfect. But Harris, racing to her left, leaped to knock it away.
94th minute: The ball was surely rolling out. There was no way Diana Matheson would be able to chase it down on the sideline, right? Even if she caught it, how could she keep it in? She slid and hooked a foot onto the ball to play it along the line, then hopped up to chase it down. She played it back for Lisa De Vanna, who held the ball with the poise of a veteran. Finally, De Vanna played it left for Yael Averbuch, who struck it first-time with her left. The other two goals in this game looked a little clumsy. This one was brilliant.
Dames knew the last two big Spirit plays were the sort of thing you could only applaud. “An unbelievable save,” he said of Harris’ 89th-minute leap. Then Matheson saving the ball to set up the goal — “There’s maybe three players in the league who have that thought process and that quality.” And then Averbuch.
Chalupny simply smiled. “The Spirit, they just never quit. Credit to them, they’re a great team.”
Why has Washington managed to sweep the season series with this solid Chicago team? “If we had an easy answer to that, we would’ve figured it all out by now,” Chalupny said with a little laugh. “They’re strong top-to-bottom, and they have some real game-changers and some players who can strike from distance.”
Yet it’s a Spirit team that seems to thrive when its back is against the wall. Porous starts turn to powerful finishes. Harris shrugged off the early goal for a couple of vital saves, including one that frankly deserves some time on SportsCenter. Spirit coach Mark Parsons singled out Tori Huster, who had a bad touch leading to the Chicago goal, as a disruptive presence in defensive midfield. The versatile Huster also had a key clearance late in the game. Lisa De Vanna had squandered a couple of opportunities but came through with a bit of brilliance at the end.
Then there’s Averbuch, who has slid from national team player on the rise to a substitute for the Spirit. In an instant, the low-scoring midfielder (one goal in WPS, she said, and now one goal in the NWSL) found the confidence to rip a goal past a good keeper in LeBlanc, just after passing up a similar opportunity.
“I was angry at Yaya just before that because she passed to someone out wide,” Parsons said. “So I’m so glad she decided to strike.”
And she clearly surprised herself.
“I was just really focused with getting it on frame,” Averbuch said. “So when I got it on frame, I was already happy with the fact that it was going on the goal, maybe get a rebound for someone else to score.”
That’s the second time this season the Spirit have won a home game with a laser in stoppage time. Christine Nairn did it to Houston in May with a goal of the year contender. In the game before that, Matheson’s stoppage-time penalty kick gave the Spirit a 3-3 draw with Sky Blue. In July, yet another Matheson stoppage-time PK salvaged a 3-3 draw with Boston after the Breakers led 3-1.
Other late goals: A 79th-minute goal from Jodie Taylor, who missed Saturday night’s game on national team duty, to win the June 4 game at Chicago that clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Other comebacks: Down 2-1 at halftime before beating Western New York 3-2. Down 2-1 at Boston, won 3-2. Down 1-0 at halftime to Portland, drew 1-1. Down 1-0 at halftime to Kansas City, won 2-1.
“We’ve been a second-half team, for sure, for at least the second half of the season,” Matheson said. “We make games interesting, which is good for the fans.”
(Here comes the call-out …)
“Hopefully we can get some more fans out. I don’t know why we have less fans than last year. So if you could tell the fans that came out last year that aren’t coming out this year to come back out. We miss them. We’re playing exciting soccer.”
No doubt about that. And if Dames is to be believed, the Spirit will be extending that exciting soccer into the playoffs this year.
Circumstances could prove Dames wrong. But so far, the only wrong is … me. When it became apparent a couple of months ago that four teams would be battling for the last two NWSL playoff spots, I figured they would go to Portland and Western New York. That’s mathematically impossible. The Flash can’t catch the Spirit, so there’s no way the Flash and Portland can get in.
This Spirit team is still a strange one. They never control a game from start to finish, something you’d expect a third-place team in a nine-team league to do every once in a while. But their game-changing ability has earned a lot of respect around the league. And maybe it’ll earn them another week of soccer in late August.
Think for a second about the talent on the field at last night’s Washington Spirit-Portland Thorns game. The teams combined to use 27 players. Ten players have made it to the field in a World Cup or Olympics. Six more could make their World Cup debuts next year. Five more played in a youth World Cup.*
That’s great for the fans. But it’s even better for the players. They’re improving, game by game.
These players could be tucked away in residency right now, doing beep tests and going up against the same opponents every day. Instead, they’re coping with new situations in a mix of players bringing different talents to the table.
The international mix helps. The two most accomplished current Canadian players, Christine Sinclair and Diana Matheson, were on the field — Sinclair wasn’t at her best but still hit the post once, while Matheson had a few sharp attacking moments and an assist. Then all six imports from outside North America were in good form:
– Lisa De Vanna (WAS) was a speedy pest down the left flank, nearly combining with Matheson on a brilliant scoring chance.
– Nadine Angerer (POR) showed every bit of veteran poise in goal, dominating the box on set pieces and coming out to sweep the ball away on a Spirit attack.
– Jodie Taylor (WAS) was responsible for that attack and a few more, including a quality finish that leveled the game.
– Stephanie Catley (POR) had a thrilling duel with U.S. phenom Crystal Dunn, assisting on the Thorns goal to Alex Morgan and playing solid defense while wearing out the grass on the flank.
– Kerstin Garefrekes (WAS) might have lost the speed to keep up with the Catleys and Dunns of the world, but she had a couple of moments of class that nearly stole the game for the Spirit.
– Vero Boquete (POR) had an off night. Most other players would call it a highlight reel, turning defenders in knots and scooping a ball over the defense to give Ashlyn Harris a nervous moment in goal.
“That’s what you need in this league,” said Portland’s loquacious coach, Paul Riley. “We didn’t have ’em last year, we didn’t have these foreign players. Now we’ve got some of the top players in the world here. It’s getting more like WPS was. They do bring something to the table. I think they add so much to the team, in practice even.”
In particular, the enthusiastic Riley gushed about Vero, who played for Riley with the WPS Philadelphia Independence, and Catley, a young Australian defender/midfielder/wherever she wants.
“Good decisions on the ball. She can tackle, too. And she’s just turned 20. Think about it — she’s a sophomore in college in our terms in America.”
Australia has already qualified for the World Cup, and Catley is getting a glimpse of a quicker style of play in the NWSL. Vero may finally get a chance to play in the World Cup next year, with Spain sitting atop its qualifying group, and she’s only getting better.
Then consider the effect of these players on Americans who are still on the upswing of their careers. Like Tobin Heath, the skillful Thorns midfielder who missed last night’s game with a knee sprain.
“I told Tobin Heath, if you want to be the Number 10 (playmaking midfielder) for the United States, this is the player you need to watch,” Riley said.
And the league is a learning experience for a player like Crystal Dunn. If you can’t see her quality, you need to consult a soccer coach or an optometrist. But she’s prone to rookie mistakes — a slip here, a bit of matador defense there, an ill-advised run out of position elsewhere. Better to have these teachable moments now than against Germany.
The U.S. depth in field players is growing with each game. Allie Long may have her Twitter detractors, but she was a strong midfield presence for the Thorns last night. Nikki Marshall limited De Vanna. Tori Huster limited Vero. Even if these players don’t make the national team, they’re helping by giving the U.S. players a good test every week. Last year, perhaps you could say a few teams in the league — especially the Spirit — fielded some players who looked out of place against a top team. Not in this game.
Then there’s the goalkeeping question, a dangerous discussion topic in women’s soccer circles. Last night’s game provided plenty of evidence for the cases for and against Ashlyn Harris’ national team future. She was stranded on the Thorns goal and had a couple of rough moments with her distribution. But without her saves, the Thorns win 3-1 or 4-1.
And she was just a little bit defensive when asked whether her play on the Thorns goal, where she came out partway, was “high-risk.”
“I don’t think I would really word it like that. You’re playing against the best striker in the world. To me, it was a great ball, and she dealt with it well. I wouldn’t go as far as to saying it didn’t work for me. I think I had world-class saves tonight, and that game could’ve been much different. So the way I see it is — yeah, I made a decision that may not have worked out in my favor, but I (freaking) got the job done.”
Then came a quote that is surely already being picked apart like the Zapruder film:
When you get so many balls played over the top and your back line’s not doing their job, at some point, you have to come out and relieve the pressure. There’s times where I came out and I intercepted passes, and there’s times that I won’t. There’s times where it’s going to be sketchy and hairy, but until our back line figures it out, we’re in sync and we drop as a line and we don’t create that big of a gap where people can just constantly toe-poke and run after us, we’re going to be beat. That’s something we’re trying to figure out now, but we don’t have the legs. This is coming off of a long week and a half of game after game after and travel, travel, travel.
Could it be better? Yeah, every game could be better. Could I learn from it? Yeah, every game I could learn something from it. At the end of the day, we got a point against a really good team, and we’ve just gotta move forward.
Another reason the Thorns provide a good learning experience: These days, they’re not aiming for the Barcelona-style possession soccer so much in vogue these days. They’re direct. Over the top and far away.
That doesn’t surprise Harris one bit:
Yeah, of course they’re direct. Look at the forwards they have. Why mess with the ball — get it in. These players running at you — it’s not fun. I can tell you that from experience. It put us under pressure. We couldn’t keep the ball. And that was part of our problem.
Going against these players — they want it. Alex Morgan was calling for the ball the entire game. And that’s the difference between her and a lot of other players. She wants (the ball) in all forms — in front, in behind — her movement’s insane. She’s going the entire game. We could learn something from that.
Don’t tell me players don’t care about these games. They’re learning experiences, but they’re learning experiences with far higher stakes than a U.S. friendly against whatever youngsters an international team decides to bring over to face the same old familiar faces in the latest Nike kits.
This game was vital for playoff positioning. Last year, the Spirit might have taken a moral victory over getting a draw with an in-form team like Portland. Not now.
“One point, I think, is a little disappointing,” Cross said. “We were both pushing for three points.”
That said, Spirit coach Mark Parsons is always one to take Eric Idle’s advice and look on the bright side of life, and he’s glad his team has the woeful performances out of its system.
“Sunday (a brutal 4-2 loss at Sky Blue) was not us. Today showed that we’re right up there with everyone.”
HIGHLIGHTS
Check the video for these moments:
FIRST HALF
6:50 Stephanie Catley plays it long for Alex Morgan, who splits the defenders. Ashlyn Harris comes out and winds up in no man’s land. Morgan finishes with a beautiful lob. 1-0.
19:30 Alex Singer makes a strong run up the left and beats two defenders to play a short cross to Jodie Taylor. The Spirit forward, with her back to goal, lays it back for Christine Nairn, who has scored some ESPN-worthy goals from distance this season but is well off the mark this time.
25:50 Direct ball for Taylor, but Nadine Angerer is out quickly to slide feet-first just outside the box to knock it away.
27:05 Another direct ball to Morgan, and Niki Cross does just enough to throw her off and force her shot into a tough angle. Morgan hits side netting.
27:50 Just highlighting a sharp example of good tactical runs. Lisa De Vanna cuts inside toward the middle of the field. Diana Matheson, who was in the middle, sprints ahead while De Vanna occupies the defense’s attention. De Vanna’s through ball is a bit too heavy.
29:25 Once again, it was a rough game for an NWSL ref, who actually managed to get in the way twice and broke up a Spirit shooting opportunity. But here, she did something right, correctly playing advantage after Tori Huster is fouled. The Spirit wind up with a good opportunity, but Taylor can’t quite finish it.
33:20 Morgan beats offside trap, goes 1-v-1 against retreating Harris. Harris pokes ball away, saves resulting (more difficult for Morgan) shot
39:20 Dunn lets Catley glide right past her, setting up a good chance for the Thorns.
SECOND HALF
45:25 A good example of the Spirit almost connecting but just taking a little too much time and not quite being in the right spots. They take a while to swing the ball wide to Dunn, who takes a good quick step to send in a cross, only to find no one anticipating it.
57:45 Watch Vero’s audacious scoop pass. Do any American players ever try that?
62:55 Catley beats Dunn, and the Thorns get a couple of chances in a 30-second sequence that ends with Christine Sinclair’s highlight of the night, a shot just off the post.
67:00 The Thorns defense loses track of Taylor, who takes a heavy touch past Angerer but finishes superbly. Assist to Diana Matheson. 1-1.
72:15 Why did Ashlyn Harris play this ball with her head? Making absolutely sure the ref doesn’t think it was a back pass?
77:00 Morgan rounds Cross, and the well-positioned Harris keeps it level with a kick save.
79:35 Lovely bit of skill from Kerstin Garefrekes, with the shot against longtime German teammate Nadine Angerer going just wide.
Unfortunately, the stream cut off before Garefrekes’ last shot nearly won it for the Spirit, and it wasn’t included in the highlight reel.
* Yes, I looked up every player in the FIFA database. World Cup or Olympics: Lisa De Vanna, Lori Lindsey, Diana Matheson, Ali Krieger, Kerstin Garefrekes, Veronica Perez, Alex Morgan, Christine Sinclair, Rachel (Buehler) Van Hollebeke, Nadine Angerer. Possible World Cup debuts: Vero Boquete, Crystal Dunn, Jodie Taylor, Stephanie Catley, perhaps Ashlyn Harris and Allie Long. Youth World Cups: Christine Nairn, Amber Brooks, Sarah Huffman, Nikki Marshall, Angie (Woznuk) Kerr
What really happened at the Maryland SoccerPlex last night?
We know the Washington Spirit got a 3-3 draw with the Boston Breakers in familiar fashion — a Diana Matheson penalty kick in the final minutes.
But even after going through the video and photos like JFK conspiracy theorists (hmmm — the Plex does have a grassy knoll, though it’s tough to hide in the beer garden), we’ve got no shortage of contrasting opinions on these topics:
The first PK (2:20 into the game). Did Boston deserve a penalty kick when Niki Cross fell next to Jazmine Reeves in the box, just 2:20 into the game? The video is unclear, and commentators Michael Minnich and Danielle Malagari (who are not the homers we hear on so many other NWSL broadcasts) were stunned when the teams lined up for the PK.
One photo from the end line catches the key moment. Is Reeves’ foot trapped under Cross? Or is that just scant, incidental contact that shouldn’t make Reeves fall so easily?
One note Boston coach Tom Durkin raised after the game: Isn’t this a red card for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity? To me, the fact that Cross wasn’t carded suggests the ref wasn’t fully sold on the call.
The second PK (5:58).This time, Ali Krieger definitely made contact with Nkem Ezurike. Maybe a little harsh, but the contact makes it a reasonable call. (Remember that. We’ll return to this principle in a minute.)
The red card to Maddy Evans (69:16). This call also shocked Minnich and Malagari. Ashlyn Harris, in her postgame comments, wondered if it was some belated attempt by the ref to take control of the game. I have no problem with it. Yes, Evans missed Lori Lindsey’s leg, and we can all be thankful for that. But she came sliding in hard, nowhere near the ball. You don’t have to make contact to get a foul. If I try to punch you on the field, it doesn’t matter if I hit you in the face or miss and break my hand on the goal post. I’m off. Evans deserved the red and needs a stern lecture from her team or the league.
The Harris “shove” (86:42). I’ve watched it scores of times, and I basically see a “get your hands off me” gesture with no force behind it. I can see how others might see it in a more belligerent light. As tightly as this ref was calling this game, it seems fair to say he would have acted if he had felt accosted. The other incidents happened quickly, and it’s tough to gauge how much contact took place. For this one, the ref felt whatever contact Harris made and what force she used. But then it’s the league taking a closer look:
#NWSL spokesman says league submitted for review to PRO 88th minute incident Wed. between Wash. GK Ashlyn Harris & ref Dimitar N. Chavdarov.
The final PK (89:15). You can say Jodie Taylor fell a little easily, and some people have. But that doesn’t mean no foul happened. Former Spirit defender Bianca Sierra had her hands around Taylor. They kept moving, she fell, the ref blew the whistle. If you want to say it’s a soft make-up call, fine. But it’s hardly beyond the pale, and you’d have to say it’s consistent with the standard set earlier in the game.
The rest of the game. Let’s say for sake of argument that referee Dimitar Chavdarov got all five of the major flashpoints correct, or at the very least that he was consistent in his PK calls. The players still wouldn’t have been happy.
Consider these quotes (and read Sarah Gehrke’s piece at The Soccer Desk for more complete transcriptions):
Spirit coach Mark Parsons, cleverly choosing vague words: “There were a couple of moments where our players almost lost their cool because I think the players were put in situations they shouldn’t have been put in.”
Spirit goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris: “It was just one of those games where everyone was kind of just losing control. I think the ref kind of let things get out of hand.” She said the refs let down the Spirit and Boston.
And Durkin, while also questioning whether his team can ever get a fair shot, agreed that both teams struggled to comprehend the officiating.
A few other areas of general agreement:
Traffic surely killed some of the walkup crowd. Took me two and a half hours to get to the SoccerPlex from Northern Virginia, most of that time on the Beltway and I-270. An accident on 270 was cleared just as rush hour started, and traffic didn’t quite catch up. Another accident blocked the GW Parkway, leaving people stranded if they were trying to come up from the district.
The Spirit defense made three horrific blunders. PKs or not, Cross and Krieger had ill-timed slips when dealing with attacks they should’ve been able to handle with ease. These aren’t rookie center backs any more. These are veteran pros. (Better defending up the field would’ve prevented such 1-on-1s, too.) Then Crystal Dunn, already on the wrong side of Reeves, slipped and left Reeves alone with the ball for goal No. 3.
The Spirit missed a few chances. “We can’t miss three sitters,” Harris said.
Harris is an exciting keeper-sweeper: “High risk, high reward. There are some sketchy times. But if I’m not there, it’s just a foot race, and who knows what could happen.”
Also, if no one’s in the box, you can’t give up a PK, right? “As long as I was outside the 18 and everyone else was, we were OK.”
Jazmine Reeves is the real deal. She’s fast, she works hard, and she can shoot. Steal of the draft.
“Our rookie strikers, Nkem and Jazmine Reeves, are getting better and better with every game this season,” Heather O’Reilly said. “Nkem is very strong and holds the ball up well. Jazmine obviously is very quick and made the defense work today.”
The last two are the big takeaways. The Spirit will need to tune up this rebuilt defense. NWSL teams will need to figure out how to contend with Reeves.
A few other takeaways:
Breakers love the long ball, and they should: “Direct” is a dirty word these days. Everyone wants to play like Barcelona. But if you have defenders like Cat Whitehill and speedsters with ball control like Reeves, why would you not go long a few times a game? That’s like telling a boxer not to punch with her right hand because the left hand is so much prettier.
And it’s getting the Breakers what they want. Durkin (and others) disputed the notion that the Breakers gave up more chances than they created, with the Breakers coach going so far as to cast aspersions on home teams’ stat-keeping. You could put 100 stat-keepers in isolated rooms in front of that same game, and they’re all going to tell you the Spirit created more good opportunities than the Breakers. But the Breakers may feel it was even because they created just enough. Get Reeves and company a few chances, and then in Naeher we trust.
Harris: “They have threatening speed up top, and they just look to whack it. A lot of their ball are bending, quality balls behind the back line.”
Emotion got the better of people who should know better: Why were Durkin and Harris arguing after the game? Why did Harris and Krieger, “shove” accusation notwithstanding, react so badly to Reeves just trying to pressure the ball?
Krieger is the Spirit’s captain this season. But while others were staying calm, she was fussing at Reeves after picking up a yellow card. Then after the game, in violation of NWSL rules, she declined interviews. That’s questionable leadership.
We know Durkin has a challenge with the Breakers. A quick peek at the standings will tell you that.
But Parsons has a tall task with the Spirit as well. The midfield and forwards are clicking — Lindsey creates chances, Christine Nairn is a long-range shooting threat, Tori Huster is thriving in her new central midfield role, and Lisa de Vanna and Diana Matheson are a dangerous attacking punch behind proven scorer Jodie Taylor. But the defense is still in transition, with no shortage of talent but questionable poise and a few tactical questions to sort out.
“Portland (a 6-1 loss in the Spirit’s last home game) was crazy,” Parsons said. “I think that’s self-inflicted. Tonight, some very extreme events happened. If it happens for a third time … (pause) … we’ve got a lot of training.”
And while the referee may not have been up to the task last night, everyone else needs to step up and dial back the shenanigans. We used to be able to say women’s soccer players didn’t flop and dive. No more. (At least they don’t writhe around as if shot.) I’m starting to see more reckless or even intentional brutality in this league than I see in most men’s leagues. Team officials don’t need to be leading the heckling from the stands.
Time to respect the game. Then maybe I won’t get 1,300 words into a game report without mentioning de Vanna’s sublime cross to Taylor for the first Spirit goal and other great highlights.
Speaking of which — here’s the game in full. Joanna Lohman has a great block on a Matheson shot at 13:20. The Taylor goal is at 27:30. Reeves’ well-taken goal is around the 44-minute mark. Taylor’s second (a scramble off a close-range free kick) is at 55:45. Taylor bids for the hat trick with an audacious chip at 58:10. The lightning delay is at 64:54. Krieger just misses the equalizer at 82:25.
Harris: “You could (after the two PKs) put your head down and just say it’s not our day. But we continued to fight, we continued to battle. We had chances to win that game.”
One of the neat features of the Maryland SoccerPlex stadium field is the hill behind the south goal, which the Spirit sells as general admission. I’ve seen games from “end zone” seating, but I had never been up close and personal with the goal.
Until tonight.
The kickoff was early enough (4 p.m.) to take one of my kids, and I couldn’t pass up that opportunity. And I figured we’d make it especially interesting.
I wouldn’t want to watch every game from that vantage point. For one thing, you lose any credibility in terms of arguing offside calls. The action at the other end is distorted.
But this game had a lot of action for those of us on the hill. Here’s the video, some highlights and a bit about how it looked from close range:
– 3:56: Dash defensive breakdown, Jodie Taylor presses, ball pops out to Diana Matheson, who chips Erin McLeod for the opening goal. I actually said to my son, “Oh, too bad, it went high.” Then it floated into the net. So, yeah — you’re not going to get a good view of everything from this view. 1-0
– 11:24: This didn’t look the least bit dangerous, and I still have no idea how this ball rolled past Ashlyn Harris. 1-1
– 25:23: Harris’ best moment of the first half, shutting down the near post on Ella Masar.
– 37:10: Even from the other end, we could see Taylor astutely letting the ball bounce in front of her before finishing past McLeod. 2-1
Another first-half highlight: While I didn’t hear a ton of the legendary Harris shouting, I did hear her say something like “OK, no stupid throw-in, right?” before former teammate Stephanie Ochs tossed a long one into the box.
In the second half, most of the action was coming right toward us. It was full of squandered opportunities for the Spirit, who outshot the Dash 11-3 in the half. But every time, the ball just wouldn’t quite sit right. A lot of Spirit attackers were a little off balance when they shot. Lori Lindsey (45:35) couldn’t generate much power on her shot. Matheson (56:25) had a tough angle, and McLeod made a strong save. Tori Huster (61:58) wasn’t really in position to do any more than poke at it.
One distinctive feature of the angle I had — on several occasions, I saw Crystal Dunn cutting into the box, pointed straight at me. It’s scary. She’s not the biggest player, of course, but you just have the sense that she could do anything. But she, too, couldn’t do anything with the shot (63:52) she created.
Then the Dash had its one good spell of the second half. And even from across the field, we could see Osinachi Ohale hanging over the Spirit defense and finishing clinically at the post (76:22). 2-2, and you will never convince me that it’s a good idea to leave a post unguarded on a corner kick. No way Harris could’ve made it over there in time.
We do have to talk about the PK call (80:44). In real time, about 10 yards away,I saw McLeod charging out and figured the call was coming. She wasn’t getting that ball without getting Taylor. And now that I see the replay … I’ll stand by it. Some people on Twitter have said they saw Taylor dragging her feet as if in preparation to dive. Frankly, it doesn’t matter. Contact is contact.
This play — forward going at a diagonal wide of goal, with little opportunity to do much, and a goalkeeper sliding out in a way that makes it too easy for a forward to trip over her — is always controversial. We’ve all seen it so many times. And about two-thirds of the time, the ref gives the PK.
McLeod argued, of course. And she was still mad when Matheson saved a ball on the end line (82:15). “Brutal!” she yelled at the AR. It wasn’t, but her frustration is understandable.
In between those plays, of course, McLeod saved a PK from Matheson. And what you can’t see on the replay is Matheson giggling as she steps up to the spot, as if a little embarrassed to be face-to-face with her Canadian teammate in that situation. It wasn’t Matheson’s best PK effort, but credit McLeod with the save.
And though I don’t think McLeod, in hindsight, could really complain about the call, we can all be glad it didn’t decide the game.
Because what DID decide the game was spectacular. If the Spirit could promise a finish like that in every game, it could charge $200 for hill seating. My thought process as Christine Nairn’s shot (stoppage time, see it on Instagram if you don’t want to work through the video) was airborne: “Holy (bleep), that ball has a — wow, it’s the upper corner.”
You have to feel for the Dash. They didn’t have the better of play, but the defense managed to limit things in the second half. They battled back for the equalizer. And it was all taken away so swiftly.
Houston has some good components. Kealia Ohai came on in the second half and just carved up the Spirit defense. Nina Burger is legit. I was impressed with Rafaelle Souza and surprised she was taken off at halftime. Ella Masar is always dangerous. Ohale and Holly Hein aren’t bad at the back. And McLeod never gets enough recognition.
I’ll be back in the pressbox for the next one, peeking around the obstructions and missing out on the sounds of the game. Memorial Day didn’t draw the Spirit’s biggest crowd of the season, but the Spirit Squadron’s chants and songs are fun.
And at the risk of sounding like a Yelp reviewer, the hill gets five stars.
Soccer karma does not exist, most of us have agreed. But can a team make its own luck?
Saturday at the SoccerPlex looked like a typical Washington Spirit game against the Western New York Flash for 45 minutes. The Spirit had a few promising moments — one difference from previous engagements would be the world-class goal from Jodie Taylor that gave the Spirit the lead. But the Flash led 2-1, and it could’ve been more.
In the second half, the Flash either forgot or declined to play soccer. They looked less like the Flash playing the Spirit and more like the Virginia Beach Piranhas bringing their “physical” presence against D.C. United Women.
Stating for the record: The Flash are not a dirty team. But it’s still stunning to watch a team riddled with world-class players and a history of accomplishment come in against the Washington Spirit and foul out of frustration and retaliation. Their petulance — and what coach Aaran Lines described as an inability to string three passes together — was costly.
And the Spirit made their own luck as well. A couple of tactical adjustments gave the home team quite a bit more of the ball, and they dominated the second half to a greater degree than the Flash dominated the first. Final score: 3-2 Spirit.
That’s a confidence-booster for the hosts. Jodie Taylor finally got her goals — two, nearly four. Yael Averbuch played her best game for the Spirit. Lori Lindsey got an extended run and fared well. Robyn Gayle defended well and was close to a goal and an assist. Ali Krieger did just fine at center back.
Referee Katja Koroleva had a puzzler, often allowing outright muggings while punishing the odd single-handed shove. Lines wasn’t happy: “The referee was inconsistent, regardless of the result. But that seems to be a tendency within the NWSL.”
But the Flash simply forced Koroleva to blow her whistle. She went nearly 45 minutes without calling anything on the Flash, but some fouls were just too obvious.
Here’s the video, and here’s how it unfolded:
FIRST HALF
6:15 – Big flurry for the Flash as Ashlyn Harris can’t hold a hard shot.
7:15 – Hard sliding foul from Spirit defender Bianca Sierra on Sonia Bermudez. Sierra started at right back, with Ali Krieger going to the center to replace the injured Toni Pressley.
8:15 – Spirit midfielder Veronica Perez goes hard for a 50-50 ball, banging into the midsection of a Flash player.
8:20 – To paraphrase The Untouchables, she sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of hers to the morgue. The Flash’s Carli Lloyd clobbers Christine Nairn, who gets up and looks back as if to say “What the …?” Danielle Malagari, the Spirit’s color commentator, goes out on a limb and predicts a physical game.
But that’s the last foul called on the Flash in the first half.
10:35 – Lori Lindsey sends a well-weighted ball ahead to Jodie Taylor, who finishes with a world-class chip. 1-0 Spirit.
12:55 – Adriana hits the crossbar for the Flash.
16:35 – The camera doesn’t quite catch the dubious decision involving Tori Huster, a required part of every Spirit game. Abby Wambach flings the Spirit defender to the grass like a Nickelodeon game show contestant ridding herself of slime.
16:55 – The unlucky Huster finds herself isolated against Wambach in acres of space, and Wambach simply heads exactly where she wanted it to go. 1-1.
19:00 – The crowd doesn’t like an offside call that nullified yet another Taylor goal. Replay is inconclusive.
29:25 – Lloyd wins a duel with Huster, then beats Krieger and Harris while avoiding Gayle. 2-1 Flash.
34:20 – Lloyd takes a knock to the eye or nose when she tangles with Averbuch. Hard to see what happened, but no one complains.
HALFTIME
Flash coach Aaran Lines was pleased with how the first half proceeded. But oddly enough, so were the Spirit players and coaches.
“We were really happy at halftime,” Spirit coach Mark Parsons said. “Really positive at halftime despite being 2-1 down.”
Parsons made a couple of changes. Krieger was already at center back, replacing the injured Toni Pressley. At right back, Sierra started but gave way at halftime to the small Swiss Army knife that is Crystal Dunn, who shifted back from midfield with the intent of containing Bermudez, a Flash’s Spanish international.
And the Spirit merely brought on one of the best players in the sport, Diana Matheson, who sat out the first half and spent halftime jogging and smiling at the parade of ODSL youth players being honored for sportsmanship. You have to hope they didn’t get any ideas from what they saw in the second half.
“We came out the second half and we were really flat,” Wambach said. “Credit to the Spirit for making changes and making life difficult for us on the other side of the ball. To be honest, the second half, we were defending the whole game.”
So the Flash tried to make life as difficult for the Spirit as the officials would allow. Matheson stepped into a hornet’s nest, credited with two fouls suffered but roughed up much more often than that.
SECOND HALF
55:25 – Save, Abby Wambach
56:05 – Lloyd clatters into Matheson from behind, drawing a whistle and some words from the ref.
64:30 – Lloyd gives a little “Who, me?” look after getting a little bit (not much) of Dunn’s foot along with the ball.
68:15 – Kristen Edmonds drapes an arm over Matheson and brings her down. Foul and a lecture.
69:15 – Gayle nutmegs a defender. Cross is partially cleared to Yael Averbuch, who beats Lloyd and shoots. Deflected, then Taylor fires up off the crossbar. Bounces off Kat Williamson’s back and in. 2-2.
72:45 – It’s nothing, really, but it’s funny to see Wambach reaching out to grab Matheson like she’s swatting at a fly. Just a slight size difference there.
73:05 – Harris comes out for the second time in a minute to deny an onrushing Flash attacker — Salem this time, Spencer earlier.
73:30 – Nairn shoots high while Lloyd slides through her legs. No whistle.
74:10 – Salem gets the yellow, again for a foul on the unfortunate Nairn.
77:05 – Nairn suffers another foul. And that eventually leads to …
77:30 – Averbuch flicks a header, Taylor finishes. 3-2
85:05 – Gayle seems to be attempting to jump OVER former teammate Jasmyne Spencer. Not quite. Ref starts to play advantage but then calls it back.
85:35 – The Wambach-Huster incident (replay at 87:15). We’ll come back to this.
89:05 – Ref doesn’t think Angeli fouled Lloyd
90:15 – Spirit commentator Michael Minnich isn’t imagining things. The sign on the fourth official’s table says “3.” But by the time he actually raises it, it says “5.” (No, there wasn’t a sub wearing No. 3.)
91:55 – Maybe this is karma. The call for a corner kick is clearly wrong. Harris sets up for a goal kick. What you don’t see is a very confused ballgirl. Then Harris makes a save off the corner kick. The rebound … goes wide.
93:45 – Hey, Spirit? Need help killing those five minutes? Sure — I’ll just slide through the back of Renae Cuellar here, drawing my second yellow, and I’ll be slow to get up while the ref holds my red card.
Lines faulted his player, Angela Salem, not the ref. “At that point in the game, to see Ang go in was unfortunate.”
But that was the story of the second half for the Flash. They played nothing that really resembled soccer.
Malagari, sometime in the second half: “I think the Flash have kind of dug themselves a hole here. They’re kind of playing, I personally think, for blood a little bit. The fouls have been pretty dangerous in and around their own 18.”
We can’t let the game go without mentioning the Wambach-Huster incident at the end. While Harris calmly collected the ball, Wambach raced past Huster. From the replay, it appears Huster was actually turning her body out of Wambach’s way. And still, they bumped into each other — in the same way that my car recently bumped into a concrete wall in a parking garage.
Did Huster embellish her fall? Hard to say. But from one reliable reporter on the sideline, Wambach didn’t exactly deny making contact:
I thought at first Cynthia was kidding, like I was kidding last summer when I suggested what Alex Morgan could be saying and unleashed the wrath of Morgan’s Twitter followers on myself. Cynthia says no.
Tori, care to comment?
“Not really,” she said. “Just gotta leave that kind of stuff on the field. It gets heated. There’s not really not much to say.”
Rough game, though, right?
“They are definitely intense,” Huster said. “They can move the ball around, but they have that grit to them. So we were definitely trying to prepare for that in the week leading up. We knew we had to get stuck in the first five minutes and impose our rhythm.”
As she left, I reminded her to tend to the blood on her left wrist. Not sure how she got that.
Matheson was diplomatic. “They’re definitely a physical team. Lloyd and Wambach always come to battle. But in this league, every team is a physical team, so I don’t think it’s too different.”
But that physicality can be self-defeating. Look at the second half, and it seems the Flash literally took their eyes off the ball.
Over the winter, Seattle coach/GM Laura Harvey was elevated to mystical status. Soft-spoken and youthful, the veteran of England’s top-level game somehow pulled off deal after deal.
If you see this woman approaching, be careful to avoid trading away your house for the rights to a player still in Sweden.
Women’s soccer fans joked that Harvey was making another deal at every waking moment. On a panel with Spirit coach Mark Parsons? Surely offering her backup right back for Diana Matheson. Reading the paper? Surely perusing more trade options. Ordering at Panera? Maybe they would take a fourth-round draft pick for Erika Tymrak and some soup in a bread bowl.
Those were the jokes when we didn’t see how all these deals would pay off. What can we say now that the Reign have won their first five games?
The fifth was in many respects the most fortunate of those wins. After all, this was the first game Seattle has won by less than two goals. The Washington Spirit had Seattle on its heels for portions of the game, causing some confusion in central defense. One defender nearly kicked Hope Solo in the head on a muddled clearance. And for the first time this season, the Reign — please sit down and brace yourself — surrendered a goal in the run of play. (Washington has scored both goals Seattle has given up this year — the first was a penalty kick in their prior meeting in Seattle.)
But Seattle never backed away from its simple strategy.
“The old adage of ‘attack’s the best form of defense’ is something we definitely employ,” Harvey said.
And the lineup was attack-minded in every sense. Maybe you could call it a 4-2-3-1, with Jess Fishlock and Keelin Winters at holding mid and Beverly Goebel, Nahoma Kawasumi and Kim Little buzzing around behind target forward Sydney Leroux. But it really looked a bit more like a 4-1-2-3. And if that wasn’t enough for the attack, right back Elli Reed constantly streaked up the flank and put in dangerous crosses while defenders were occupied with everyone else.
“As an outside back, it’s pretty much expected of you today to get forward and get crosses off,” Reed said. “This is a nice big field, so it allowed me to get forward a bit more.”
Five, six, maybe seven attackers at once. Could Harvey explain that concept to Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho, Europe’s best-paid bus-parking attendant? The former Arsenal women’s coach laughed. “You can’t knock him — he still might win the Premier League!”
It’s fun to watch, especially against a team like the Spirit that’s willing to go toe-to-toe with the Reign. And that style attracts players.
NWSL Player of the Month Kim Little: “I know Laura very well. I worked with her for three years at Arsenal. I love the way that she wants to play football.”
Spirit coach Mark Parsons countered with a novel move, playing the irrepressible Crystal Dunn at attacking midfield to tie up Fishlock and Winters. Sounds crazy, but he was right. Fishlock was involved in some chippiness in midfield but wasn’t much of a factor, nor was Winters.
That just left room for Seattle to press on the wings.
“Yes, Seattle were tired on a long trip, but they’ve got sheer quality everywhere,” Parsons said. “They’re a Dream Team. They’re an absolute Dream Team all over the pitch.”
And apparently quite fit. Seattle has played four games in 11 days — two at home, one in atrocious conditions in New Jersey, then last night’s game. (At least the threatened rain never materialized — the evening was pleasant.) A lot of coaches would rotate players in those circumstances.
Not Harvey. Six Reign players have played all 450 minutes this season. Three more have played at least 440. Take away the one change Harvey has made in her starting lineup (Megan Rapinoe went 90 in the one game for which she has been healthy and available), and non-starters on the team have played a total of 79 minutes.
Harvey: “The reason why I haven’t rotated the side yet is that when you’re winning games, it’s hard to.”
Like Yoda, this coach is.
Leroux scored her first goal of the season last night, pouncing on a Spirit giveaway and getting just enough space past Tori Huster to fire far post past Ashlyn Harris. She doesn’t mind seeing seven teammates open their scoring tally before she did.
“It felt, in Boston, a little bit like me and Heather (O’Reilly) and a few others had to really be on point. With this team, I feel like we have so much depth. Every single player on the field is unbelievable. That’s no discredit to Boston at all, but I do feel Seattle is the team to beat right now, for sure.”
Harvey, looking ahead to the next game in a tough schedule in May, disagrees.
“Portland-Seattle is a great rivalry. Portland are champions. They are who they are for a reason. They were the best team in the league last season, and for me, they’re the favorites for the league this season no matter what results have been so far.”
Yes, that next game is in Portland. The Northwest rivalry. Defending champ vs. unbeaten team. No. 1 vs. No. 2.
(Opens Google Calendar — makes appointment for 10 p.m. ET Saturday.)
What’s changed for the Washington Spirit this season? It’s pretty simple. Goals.
Never before had the Spirit scored three goals in a half. Only once last season did they have three or more in a game. Tonight, they had three in the first half and held on to beat FC Kansas City 3-1.
We can’t read too much into one game. Sometimes those shots go in, sometimes they don’t. The first goal was the result of a fortunate bounce toward Diana Matheson and a little deflection — exactly the sort of goal Mike Jorden often hoped for but never saw in his tenure as Spirit coach.
Maybe on another night, Ashlyn Harris isn’t in the superior form she showed tonight. Or Lauren Holiday is slightly more clinical in her finishing. Or soccer karma (which doesn’t exist) doesn’t help Harris make the big PK save on Holiday after a dubious penalty call.
FCKC outshot the Spirit 17-7. They had nine corner kicks to the Spirit’s zero. Three of the Spirit’s shots went in; another was saved only by the grace of Becky Sauerbrunn, KC’s best player on the evening.
“We had the better of the game, I thought,” KC’s Amy Rodriguez said. “We had the chances — we just didn’t convert them.”
“We can look good and play the beautiful game, but if you can’t put the ball in the net, nothing else matters,” KC coach Vlatko Andonovski said after graciously congratulating the Spirit.
It won’t be like this every game. But there’s one thing that has substantially changed for the Spirit:
Crystal Dunn.
My goodness, this rookie can play. She just gets the ball at her feet and drives straight at older, bigger defenders, usually with good results. Twice, the ball wound up at Matheson’s feet, and the Canadian sparkplug didn’t miss. Another time, she got past defender Kassey Kallman, who was forced to haul her down to set up a free kick and a yellow card.
I counted one mistake — a giveaway midway through the first half. She turned around and got it back.
She was supposed to be working her way back to match fitness, not playing the full 90. But there she was, in the inexplicably long second-half stoppage time, making a diagonal run across the field that killed off much of the remaining time. After the game, she hopped up into the stands to take a selfie with one of her many admirers. She looked like she could play another 90.
“I’m glad I look like I could run 90,” Dunn said with a laugh. “I felt great out there. Going into this game, I thought I was only going to play 75. But I’ve got a full game under my belt, and I’m ready for the next one.”
Dunn and Matheson lined up on the wings and shifted back and forth a bit. Good luck dealing with that, NWSL defenses.
The Spirit have a few leaks at the back. The center backs lost track of Holiday and company more than once as they tried to play a high line — a tactic they wisely abandoned as the game wore on. Good thing Tori Huster and Toni Pressley have recovery speed and a lot of heart. Tonight, it wasn’t costly except for one lapse in which Rodriguez was able to pounce on her own rebound after a strong Harris save. And they blocked a lot of shots — Parsons said Robyn Gayle took three shots to the face. Probably feels better after a win.
The center midfield — Lori Lindsey playing in front of Yael Averbuch and Christine Nairn — was solid, and Nairn scored the third goal on a gorgeous bending free kick to the same upper corner in which Matheson drilled her second goal.
So let’s say it one last time — games aren’t always going to go this way for the Spirit. But with Harris, Dunn and Matheson providing the highlights for a team with much more experience and depth than the 2013 Spirit, the good games shouldn’t be as far between this time around.
“The players decided to put a flag on this stadium and say we’re not going to get rolled over,” Spirit coach Mark Parsons said. “One of the players spoke about putting a flag down and make sure when people come here, they’re not just looking at the pitch going, ‘What a great field, we can’t wait to knock it about.’ It’s ‘We’ve got to play the Spirit tonight. They’re going to kick the crap out of us at every opportunity. They’re not going to stop running.'”
MISCELLANY
Rodriguez on playing after pregnancy and childbirth: “I didn’t think it was going to be this difficult. I’m working my way back. I feel like I’m not quite 100%. …
(I asked: Did Joy Fawcett make it look too easy?)“She did. They didn’t warn me at all. I give a lot of respect and credit to those girls who’ve had children and come back.”
Speaking of soccer-playing parents …
Confirmed: Tonight's goal is Christie Rampone's first in professional club play. Three years in WUSA, three years in WPS, plus 2013 in #NWSL
Sauerbrunn, less impressed with her game than I was: “Unfortunately, I’m going to take a lot of responsibility for the goals the other team scored, so I’m going to say (her save and her saving tackle on Lindsey) were neutralized.”
Harris on her PK save: I’ll have to upload the audio on this conversation to do justice to Harris’ outstanding comic timing.
UPDATE:As promised, here’s the audio of Harris on saving a PK after Rodriguez fell in the box.
With the second NWSL season starting this weekend, it’s time for a reminder about the book I wrote on the first season of the Washington Spirt.
Enduring Spirit: Restoring Professional Women’s Soccer to Washington tells the story of a team keeping it together through a stressful season. They didn’t win a lot. They had plenty of injuries. People lost jobs.
I went to a lot of their practices, went on one and a half road trips, and saw one team meeting. That gave me a chance to flesh out the team beyond the epic winless streak. I saw their sense of humor and their determination. I can no longer watch basketball without hearing goalkeeper coach Lloyd Yaxley asking why anyone would invent such a noisy sport.
A couple of excerpts are available here: one from the road trip, one from the team’s preparation for Game 1. (That was one of the few times I was able to see them working on tactics.) I also ran through a quick list of what you’ll learn from the first couple of chapters.
Duresport.com 