May we never speak of week 13 again. While some stuff was fun, like Chicago getting a classic football heritage draw against Kansas City and the dramatic ending in Washington/San Diego, we suffered through three 0-0s and multiple teams posting sub 1.0 xG totals — including Gotham and Portland.

Gross.

Anyway, here’s what the week looked like according to StatsBomb’s xG race charts and passing networks.

kc current 2-2 chicago red stars

Chicago had to feel great about stopping their three game losing streak but also Lorne must’ve hit a villain cackle at the moon alone in his car after the match. Getting two goals from .50 xG to frustrate and draw the most dangerous team in the league, who had plenty of chances, is the good stuff.

current

Yep, the Current remain terrifying. Though there is some credit due to Chicago, as aggressive as this passing network looks, they kept the xG quality low on a the bulk of the chances. Still, Temwa Chawinga (.51) and Debinha (.23) missed the biggest chances of the match. In another reality very similar to ours this is an easy 4-0 or 4-1 dub.

red stars

I mean, sure. Chicago were in fight mode since the first whistle, and luckily for them they weren’t at home so could focus on swinging chairs rather than being expected to create.

rahsing louisville 0-2 nj/ny gotham fc

This looks like an absolute demolition until you read Gotham’s actual xG total. Yazmeen Ryan scored a .06 chance, and Ella Stevens’ falling side volley was .09. Lavelle missed the biggest chance of the day (.24), but Louisville only managed five shots that registered xG and just two were above .08.

This match also had way too much stoppage time and was played in midday summer heat, which probably explains the late game stalemate.

rahsing

Squished.

Taylor Flint’s high pass OBV suggests she had a good passing day trying to find seams through Gotham’s press, but the lack of chances suggests Rahsing wasn’t able to do much with them.

gotham

Another optical illusion from Gotham. Bar Ella Stevens isolated without any passing connections up top, this looks quite devastating. But the size of the bubbles matter.

Sonnett having the largest plus negative pass OBV suggests Gotham struggled a bit more than the scoreline suggests. Though the bubbles are small in attacking wide areas, their bright red suggests that they did a good job of maximizing their limited chances to create.

washington spirit 1-1 san diego wavé

Can’t call this a game or a match, it was a bout.

spirit

Right back Gabby Carle had to leave the match in the first half after a blow to the head, and midfielder Hal Hershfelt filled in for the rest of the game. Ashley Hatch subbed on for Carle and Courtney Brown dropped from the forward line into midfield. All those moves were necessary but means the pass network is a bit off.

One thing unaffected was Casey Krueger, who had an incredible game, defensively and in attack.

wavé

Sofia Jakobsson wasn’t invited to the party so if you saw her in her car outside the venue screaming at the steering wheel no you didn’t.

nc courage 0-0 orlando pride

Not all 0-0s are created equal. North Carolina managed fourteen shots that registered xG, while Orlando hit twenty-one. They combined to miss chances of two .15 and .16 chances, plus a .24 and .43.

courage

This actually looks quite good from the Courage but their problems aren’t in linking passes, keeping the ball and moving it into dangerous areas. The problem has been finishing, and a lack of a high central attacking target but that’s not new either.

pride

The Courage actually kinda bothered the Pride, which was a bit unexpected given that they sat at polar ends of the form table coming into the match. Marta cooked a bit, but their right side was a desert and they weren’t able to get either fullback high enough to help the attack.

houston dash 0-0 angel city

The variance between the xG totals are a bit of fool’s gold. While I think Messiah Bright got the ball across the line at the end, the refs didn’t. The xG gods tallied the scramble as two chances for a combined .75 xG, dropping ACFC to 1.29 without them.

The number plummets further when you factor in Claire Emslie’s missed penalty (.78). Without those opportunities this was .51/.52, ew. However, those chances did happen, and Angel City should be quite annoyed about missing out on the additional two points, which would have left them just one point away from a playoff spot.

dash

Dash took a few steps forward in recent weeks but hit a mean moonwalk for this game.

acfc

“Everyone stay compact and keep it tight between the lines – EXCEPT you two!”

It’s been fun seeing Gisele Thompson cook over the past few games, and she put up the highest pass OBV for either team. Now if Becki Tweed could only figure out how to get a central attacking player higher up the pitch as maybe a target of sorts in and around the box. We could call it a striker, perhaps. Hm, yes, I hear those are handy.

seattle reign 0-0 portland thorns

Harv’d.

reign

Turn the midfield into an overcrowded parking lot, occasionally try to get up the wing for wide crosses into the box. Yep.

thorns

With Soph Smith, Sam Coffey or Olivia Moultrie there was a lack of risk taking in attacking areas from the middle of the pitch. To be expected, but it played right into Harvey’s hands.

bay fc 0-1 utah royals

Finish. Your. Chances. Bay tallied 1.35 xG from just nine shots that registered a number, and even further, 1.19 of their total came from just four shots. If you don’t score those, the finishing gods will punish you, vol. ♾.

bay

This is more squished than we’re used to seeing from Bay, whose problems early in the season were being too expansive and far away from one another. They’ve been fixing that, but couldn’t regularly get support for Oshoala and Kundananji.

Good news for them is that they’re both good enough to cause lots of problems even with minimal touches, as evidenced by both having a bright red bubble.

royals

And now you see why Bay were squished in midfield. Coach ARod gummed up the middle of the pitch and prayed for poor finishing from their opponent. They got it, and in the end were rewarded in the 89th minute by scoring one of their only two chances over .10 xG.

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