hey that was neat: taylor flint is tall, sam meza is leveling up, dorian bailey did a magic trick

There are people out there—I refer to them as losers—who think that soccer is boring because goals can be infrequent. Goals are tremendous and typically the crescendo to some level of orchestration which makes it all worth it. But a lot of other neat stuff happens in between the ball hitting the back of the net, and enjoying those moments is the key to falling in love with the sport.

So I’m starting a new (hopefully weekly) series about the cool stuff that happens in between. Maybe it led to a goal, maybe it didn’t. Nevertheless it was cool and deserves a second look. Possibly even third. Maybe fourth. Numbers are infinite so why limit ourselves? Here’s some stuff I thought was neat last weekend.

taylor flint is tall and orlando was much too aware

Set piece design has become a necessity across soccer’s top tiers. The days of ‘just get it in the mixa’ are dwindling, if not already over. Teams now orchestrate all sorts of movements and routines to try and increase their chances of scoring from set pieces. Against Orlando, Louisville did something funny and it worked, brilliantly.

Taylor Flint is pretty much the tallest player on any pitch she steps onto. You know this, I know this, and Orlando knew this. Flint is also not one of those tall players that likes to try and play small. According to FBref, Flint not only has the highest number of aerial duels won (76; second place is 47), she also leads in percentage of aerial duels won, with an outrageous 83.5%.

Louisville used Orlando’s understanding of this to play a very mean trick on them. The corner routine started with Flint, and the 5’10 Emma Sears, hanging out beyond the far post. Once the corner was about to be taken, they sprinted to the near post, dragging multiple Orlando players in their wake.

By the time Arin Wright was nodding the ball into an open net at the back post, six (6!) Pride players were surrounding Flint (and Sears). The ball floated over the heads of two others, including the keeper, who all remained fixated on Flint until it was too late. Tough.

sam meza being a real midfielding midfielder

Real midfielding ass midfielders are rare, but if you have a great one, you enter most games with an advantage. The thing I love about Meza is how progressive and patient she is. She rarely immediately passes back to a defender, instead she either moves the ball forward quickly and accurately, or buys time until she’s able to.

In the sequence below, she did the latter, and with a little razzle dazzle. Meza received the ball then dragged her defender to open space to avoid inviting a second defender, hit her marker with a nifty matador move to progress up the pitch and buy time, then stopped, turned and waited for Ji to run into space so she could pass to her in stride. This is real midfielding, and it is delightful.

dorian bailey did a magic trick

As much as I like to explain things via meme, I cannot say I am unfamiliar with Dorian Bailey’s game. I watched her a lot with the Spirit, before I started covering them and then more analytically after. I know she’s a real hooper who unfortunately struggled with ill-timed injuries early in her career, and suffered through Richie Burke’s Washington Spirit.

Now she’s in her seventh year in the league and trying to find her way within a very oddly constructed, and coached, Bay FC team. But every now and then, she shows she can still hoop.

I love when a player’s on-pitch vision outshines what we can see on our couch. We’re just sitting there consuming all possibilities through a broadcast angle above the pitch, a view impossible to have while on the grass with the ball at your feet. So when a player’s vision and technical ability uncovers a solution unseen on our television screens, it feels like a magic trick.

Bailey’s lefty clipped pass cut through five Gotham players and bounced invitingly in front of Hocking with only the keeper left to beat. Hocking scuffed the shot, and likely would’ve been offside had she scored, but none of that is Bailey’s fault. Any pass that immediately leaves a defense with prayer as their only hope is something to be proud of, and a beautiful element of this sport.

bonus: hal hershfelt laughed after being slapped

Built different.