Week 15 was a fun and confusing one in the NWSL. Turns out firing Casey Stoney was not the answer Jill Ellis thought it would be, and the move somehow got Utah feeling spunky enough to fire their coach a day after the team’s best performance of the season. Mmkay.

Bay FC keep falling into results that keep The Big Question away, but I ask it anyway, Angel City keep playing the same game, Ashley Sanchez and the Finishing Gods ensured her revenge, and they clocked in for a bit of overtime to ruin Gotham’s Sunday.

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

kc current 2-0 dash

After Houston had a spell where they seemed like they were improving they’ve been back to their worst. Although last time they played KC they conceded a ton of xG but only one goal, which gave them a draw. This time they were on the same path until Temwa said never again.

current

I still find it fascinating how the Current are able to stretch the pitch by getting the ball to Rodriguez who then sprays it forward for Chawinga.

Temwa makes it look easy, but some credit must go to Izzy because the easiest way to limit dangerous attackers is to cut off their service, and the Current’s pass networks always look like this.

dash

Pushed into their own half with no outlet other than Alozie trying to dribble through three Current defenders.

san diego wavé 0-3 chicago red stars

Guess Casey Stoney wasn’t the problem so what now.

I haven’t been the biggest fans of Stoney’s tactics since she entered the NWSL, but couldn’t deny the results. This season started poorly, and the league as a whole experienced a vibe shift, and Stoney had been adjusting. It’s not an easy thing to do, and most matches looked like this — impressive xG, but few (or no) goals.

wavé

The Red Stars are a team that invite pressure, and San Diego eagerly took the space. I liked getting María Sánchez narrower, but McCaskill missed chances worth .17 and .26 xG, and in addition to Alex Morgan’s missed pen (.78) she also missed a .33 chance seven minutes later, Stoney was not the problem.

red stars

Wild behavior lol. Having Mallory Swanson allows you to do this and still win 3-0.

rahsing louisville 0-1 bay fc

Bay FC keep getting results they probably shouldn’t so it’s not becoming a bigger thing but twith the attacking talent they have they routinely put up sub 1.0 xG games. Even with a pen, this was another. Without it, they drop all the way to an absurd .20.

rahsing

Getting the ball wide and letting players cook is a good idea, but it was hot as hell and that means those player might’ve cooked but also been cooked. Like by the sun.

Yanez keeps leaving Reilyn Turner on the bench for Elexa Bahr and it remains an odd decision. Bahr wasn’t involved in the passing game and posted one shot for .10 xG all match. Turner came on in the second half, but ten minutes later they conceded the penalty and Bay hunkered down.

bay

Uh, guess this is how you generate .20 non-penalty xG. Ew.

washington spirit 0-1 nc courage

Ashley Sanchez got her revenge goal thanks to a fluke fumbling of the ball by Aubrey Kingsbury. Then the football gods, with the aid of the Spirit’s poor shooting, refused to let in an equalizer.

spirit

Notice the Spirit fullbacks. They typically like to use them as outlets to help ball progression, but both were in their own half, with Carle in line with the center backs. This is a tactic Casey Stoney first deployed against Washington, and it has turned out to be a successful on.

Without Andi Sullivan, the Spirit struggled to progress the ball through the middle of the pitch, or find that link pass that springs Rodman, Bethune and Sarr.

courage

Sanchez’s goal was a karmically deserved blessing and the Courage took advantage, Miura and O’Sullivan helped clog up central areas and the result was the Spirit only managing two shots over .10 xG ( .11 & .12) out of twenty-one.

utah royals 0-0 portland thorns

By far Utah’s best performance of the season so naturally, like any healthy, successful organization, they promptly fired their head coach. There might be more to the story, and hopefully we find out soon, but for now it looks like a bit of clownery.

royals

Racking up 1.7 xG against Portland, without a penalty and without a player standing out in pass OBV is kind of wild. It suggests they were direct and aggressive, and twenty-five shots registering xG def backs that up!

Ally Sentnor playing centrally was fun. Her balance, acceleration and close control caused several problems for the Thorns defense.

thorns

He was Kenough but it might suddenly be Kenover, cause wtf is this.

nj/ny gotham fc 1-1 seattle reign

It took Gotham a half to get going but then they took the lead then racked up chances to make it 2-0. They couldn’t, and the finishing gods did the rest.

gotham

Yep, looks Gothamy.

reign

The Reign are straight up not having a good season but getting a 90+9’ own goal to equalize against last year’s champions is hilarious. To be fair, they probably could have had more.

It’s been a minute since they’ve been able to get Sofia Huerta free, but they finally did and her .21 pass OBV was the highest of the match. Unfortunately they still struggled finishing. Tziarra King missed a .24 xG chance, and Balcer missed chances of .17, .52 and .16.

angel city 1-1 orlando pride

It’s kinda wild how every Angel City game pretty much looks the same. There were a lot of inspiring moments in the first half, but it was still 2-0 at halftime. Then they tried fighting back, but couldn’t score, and a mistake at the back turned it into a 3-0 loss.

acfc

Super narrow and now central attacking outlet. Same as it ever was.

pride

The Pride are entering real scary territory. They can do this and still be fine, even dominate a match. Goals change games, and the top two teams on the table make it their mission to prove how true that is every single week.

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