photo courtesy of @utahroyalsfc
Your Week 8 edition for Neat Sh!t was delayed thanks to NWSL+. I was waiting for a couple match replays to hit the site within the ~72 hour timeframe, but they never showed. Even now you can click on what appears to be the Courage v. Stars match, but instead if the Current v. Stars match that happened the week prior—unhelpful. I reached out to ‘support’, and you can count on a hand without fingers how many times they’ve sent a response.
Anyway, I was still able to clip a few things from the bevy of broadcasters, so let’s get to them.
kerry abello flip throw heritage
I cannot tell you how delighted I was to see this. Not only are flip throws cool as fuck, they’re a deep connection to women’s soccer in America—.especially for the sickos.
If you’re one such sicko, chances are you’ve been up past 11 p.m. on a random Thursday watching Louisville versus Wake Forest after a lengthy weather delay. Your reward for such a thing just might come in the form of a player busting out a flip throw.
I love Abello’s throw in particular because she holds onto the ball long enough to not rainbow the throw but launch it at velocity to the penalty spot. I’m not sure anyone should execute several flip throws in a match, but it’s a dangerous weapon and it is my dream for someone to score directly from one of these.
That didn’t happen here, but that just means I got to giddily clip and drop it here. Worth it IMO.
izzy to coop
As a major Izzy Rodriguez truther, I had to clip the entire move to make sure people weren’t solely focusing on Cooper’s touch (which is exquisite). Rodriguez’s passing from the left flank is a devastating weapon. There’s just aren’t that many left backs who can wind up along the left flank in their own area and sky a cross-pitch dime to their right winger that drops perfectly in stride on their outside foot. The pass alone is worth reliving.
But then Cooper matched it by feathering a touch in stride and sending the ball to the spot she was headed toward before it arrived. A clean touch doesn’t always settle the ball at the feet, and in this case had she done that it would have halted her momentum. She already had a step on her defender, and the touch she took allowed her to maintain that advantage and enter the box while keeping the goalkeeper in the six-yard box.
After all that, why not have a crack at goal? I don’t mind it. Sentnor’s cut back behind her marker came a bit too late anyway, so it’s fine. It beat the keeper but rattled the bar. I’d like to thank Rodrigues and Cooper for their donation to this week’s Neat Sh!t.
the haunting of taylor flint by the menace mina tanaka
Look familiar? Tanaka used the same movement in this clip that she used to score the winning goal late in the game. The bones of that goal were setup by this move to create a similar shot and scenario just five minutes into the game
Commentators (rightly) praise Tanaka a lot for her movement, but because the camera—and our eyes—tend to follow the ball, it can be hard to grasp what that looks like beyond ‘running a lot’. In this clip you can see the impact and intentionality in Tanaka’s movement, and how she plays games with opponents to open the space she wants.
Early in this buildup, and with the entire midfield open to run into, Tanaka intentionally bumps into Flint. her little ‘ope, didn’t know you were there’ bump tells Flint that Tanaka is close. To reinforce that message, Tanaka stays tucked into Flint’s shadow, making sure her periphery doesn’t alert her to the fact that she’s one the move.
One the move develops and a teammate is charging down the flank with the ball, Tanaka separates and flattens her run to the penalty spot, away from Flint, who was still working off the latest information she had about Tanaka’s whereabouts. By the time she recognized that her info was outdated, there was too much ground to cover and Tanaka was lining up a first time shot from a low cross.
It’s cliché to liken soccer to chess, but there is a necessary layer of deception needed to create openings to exploit. Tanaka does that expertly, and continued to do it to Louisville (and Flint, specifically) until it paid off in a 76th minute match winning goal. Diabolical. ■