hey that was neat: the menacing of kansas city by taylor flint, jess fleming's assist, and the stars do some soccer

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 in week 14.

jessie fleming’s reverse pass

For large portions of the first half, plus the eventual Trinity Rodman Show that was to come, the Portland Thorns were simply bystanders. They did, however, manage to slice away a couple decent minutes for themselves. The best of which came in the third minute of first half stoppage time, after they’d spent the previous forty-seven minutes being bossed around the pitch by the Spirit.

This sequence eventually led to their only goal, stunning Audi and sending teams into halftime with an unexpected 1-1 scoreline. There was a lot of good movement to keep possession against a rabid Spirit team, but Jessie Fleming’s decisions and execution to get herself into space to make something happen deserves a second, or nineteenth, look.

First, she had to spin away from Gift Monday, who was part of a front two dropping deep to make sure there was no safe space in the Spirit’s defensive half to establish possession.

Fleming sees the space she can spin into and does so brilliantly, but the numbers still aren’t in her favor. She’d be dribbling toward the speedy Rosemonde Kouassi, then needing to head forward into a pack of defenders that included Narumi Miura, Gabby Carle, Esme Morgan, Tara McKeown and Rebeca Bernal. The space is there, but with three teammates surrounded by Spirit defenders at the top of the box the situation seems under control.

That’s where Fleming’s patience and vision takes over, and is rewarded.

Her spin draws out Miura and drags Monday across, and a step up from Sam Coffey got the attention of Hal Hershfelt. Once Hershfelt drops to react to Coffey’s position, a lane opens to Olivia Moultrie on the other side of the box. Fleming sees it and executes a sweet reverse pass with her left foot. The pass seems simple, and would be on an empty pitch, but in a game situation she had to thread the ball through multiple defenders with her weaker foot without telegraphing her intention beforehand.

If Fleming takes another touch to slide the ball over with her right, chances are Miura, Hershfelt or Monday pressure the ball and/or block the passing lane. Contorting her body to complete the pass with her left was the only way Moultrie would receive the ball with enough time and space to do something with it. Saucy.

@nwslsoccer

Incredible movement from Jessie Fleming ✅ Incredible strike from Olivia Moultrie ✅ #NWSL

taylor flint being an absolute menace

Rahsing Louisville have settled into an identity that is tough, scrappy, aggressive, and sometimes—often in the case of Kayla Fischer—habitual line step-y. Turns out Taylor Flint is the perfect defensive midfielder for a team that seems to go into each match with the primary goal of winning duels. If enough goals are scored to win a game or two in the process, fine, but their scoreboard is written in blood.

Against Kansas City, league leaders (by a lot) and highest scorers (also by a lot), Louisville were doing their best to make the match scruffy and difficult. At the center of all that was Flint, who put in an elite shift of being in the way literally all of the time.

You may be thinking ‘Wow, yeah, she was busy. Good game.’ But no. Oh no. Oh my, dear reader. You sweet summer child. This is just her first half.

If I had the time and skill to supercut all of her interventions I would, and it would be so worth it. Seemingly every time the Current tried to progress the ball she was somehow just in the way. According to Fotmob, Flint finished the game with 7 clearances, 6 interceptions, 8 loose ball recoveries, 9/13 ground duels won, 8/8 aerial duels won, and being dribbled past exactly zero (0) times.

Her first half in particular was outrageous, and a big reason why a team averaging 1.7 xG per game was limited to .35 in the first half (with .12 coming from a blocked shot by Kansas City left back Izzy Rodriguez).

In particular, this sequence three minutes in cracked me up and set the tone for the rest of the half. Lacho Marta was making her second ever start in the NWSL and found herself immediately bewildered by the giant in midfield who wouldn’t stop being in the way.

Lacho first tried an outlet pass along the ground, which Flint used her length to cut out and keep the Current pinned. Next time around Lacho said ‘fine I will simply take to the skies' and attempted a lofted pass from deep in her defensive third aimed at the halfway line. Flint jumped and intercepted even that, to once again keep the Current pinned. Lol. Lmao.

chicago stars of an undefined color??? is that you?????

I’ve talked a lot about the Stars’ no good very bad season, largely due to their front office’s no good very bad offseason, thanks to that front office’s no good very bad Soccerdonna-aided recruitment “plan”. The team is now on its third coach of the year, and that coach happens to be former professional player (and Chicago then-Red Star, twice), Ella Masar.

Masar was playing professionally at Wolfsburg as recently as 2019, and began her coaching career as an assistant with Kansas City Current in 2022. Now she’s tasked with figuring out whatever the hell the front office wants, but also rallying a fairly dejected and frustrated group of players who were only a point above bottom table side Utah at the break.

So then, with only the summer break to figure something out, I was not expecting this. At all.

What in the jogo bonito is this? Where in the Barthelona did this come from? Chiçagó Stárs amirite?

This whole sequence was so fun, though I am a little sad that it didn’t end up in a goal to be memorialized in a social clip that’d likely go viral. But this is tremendous pass and move soccer to build to a doorstep shooting opportunity from a sequence that began with Alyssa Naeher, and deserves to be relived.

There are so many neat little things I love about this move: Every player involved making themselves available, at the right distance, at the right time; the shell game Jenna Bike and Julia Grosso played on Gotham defenders; Maitane López and Ally Schlegel both making inch perfect first-time lofted progressive passes.

I don’t know if we should expect this from the Stars every week, but it was a beautiful and unexpected sequence against a Gotham defense that’s typically quite difficult to pull apart.

bonus: obvs

Like, ofc.

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