nwsl week 17: xG race charts & pass networks

The NWSL returned with banger matchups, banger results, summer signings hoopin, and teams who didn’t do anything during the break looking real suspect already. Whomst would have thought. Anyway, in seven games we had zero 0-0s and just two 1-0s, the rest was the same great tasting goals and chaos we’ve come to expect.

Data dashed the Dash’s moral victory (I hate that I did that too, just so you know), the Washington Spirit do analytical crimes, Landon Donovan’s San Diego Wavé are off to a hilarious start, Seattle and Utah prove that signing good players is good (even if done too late), and Bay FC continue to Wile E. Coyote themselves.

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

houston dash 0-1 orlando pride

The final score flatters the Dash something serious. Orlando flirted with dropping points after all their missed chances until Summer Yates came to the rescue. It wasn’t even a Jane Campbell masterclass either, her .74 goals saved above average was her fifth highest this season, but two have been well over 1.0. When the final non-penalty xG number is 2.50 that’s just ungood finishing, but Orlando survived.

dash

Apart from being pushed quite deep this looks better and more connected than most things Fran Alonso was doing earlier in the season. Patterson was a dangerous outlet from pressure and created a couple scary moments for the Pride. Ultimately Houston needed to make moves in the summer and didn’t, making a smash & grab really hard to execute without that bit of dynamism in the final third.

pride

This pass network is extremely funny to me. Orlando did not care about Houston’s defense and just funneled every attack straight at the heart of their backline. Disrespectful, and one neat trick to racking up 2.50 non-penalty xG.

utah royals 2-1 bay fc

Remember what I said about Houston not having the players to execute a smash & grab? Suddenly, Utah do, and this can be the result. Ana Tejada pinged the cross pitch pass to pick out Paige Monaghan for the first goal, and more recent summer signing Mina Tanaka forced an Emily Menges own goal. As for Bay, well, the goal concessions will continue until morale improves. Or until Albertin Montoya tweaks his method. Or they sign Abby Dahlkemper from San Diego and maybe that helps. Or maybe a combination of all three.

royals

Yeah when you go up 2-0 in the first ten minutes of the second half you can afford to just station players in positions to muck up the other team’s buildup. Still, with the players Utah brought in I am eager to see how they improve in possession.

bay

Meanwhile, Bay were deeply committed to falling into the same trap they’ve Wile E. Coyote’d themselves into all season. Big, expansive shape, leaving a lot of space to attack centrally against their midfield and defense. It’s not helping them generate attacks, but it has allowed them to concede the most goals in the league. You’d think a coach would want the opposite of these two things but either Montoya is the most optimistic man in the world, or he’s just being stubborn.

nj/ny gotham 2-0 portland thorns

The Fighting Sophia Smith’s did not have Sophia Smith, so this happened. Meanwhile, the Ella Stevens Agenda™ remains on course, and is expanding ninety-minutes at a time.

gotham

Gotham are just kinda evil lol. This is basically just balling all your very good players up into a fast and punching the backline over and over again.

thorns

The Fighting Sophia Smith’s not only missed Smith, but Sam Coffey as well. Both were given the day off as they returned from Paris after a grueling Olympic tournament. Without anyone protecting the defense and dictating play from deep midfield, and no one attacking central space to worry the defense, Rob Gale made his team quite easy to play against. Sure, they don’t have players who can do Sam Coffey or Sophia Smith impressions, but you gotta try something.

san diego wavé 1-2 angel city

The Landon Donovan Experiments™ are off to a worrying start. Angel City made a very important move to get Katie Zelem to add to their midfield, but she didn’t start and by the time she made her debut in the 65 minute her team had been up 2-0 for over half an hour. Either Angel City rediscovered the good vibes or Jill Ellis’ mashing of the self-destruct button had predictable consequences detailed by the label above said button.

wavé

Yeah sure ok. Emily van Egmond fighting for her life in midfield with Makenzy Doniak next to her for some reason while everyone else is shoved toward the wings, with no central attacking threat anywhere near the final third. Good luck with that.

acfc

The 2-0 win and getting Alyssa Thompson out of her scoring slump were the good vibes Angel City needed. But also this pass network is rather deflating, and makes me question the sustainability (or substance) of the vibes. Going up 2-0 in the 29th minute probably had a lot to do with this though, and Zelem should be fit enough to start games soon. At first glance it seems nothing of consequence was actually figured out, but I’m willing to reserve judgment until they face a team not flung into absolute turmoil by Jill Ellis.

rahsing louisville 3-1 chicago red stars

The Fighting Mallory Swansons™ without Mallory Swanson were, unsurprisingly, toothless in attack. New signing, Ludmila, wasn’t in the matchday squad either. However Julia Grosso was, allowing Lorne Donaldson to test out his new midfield. They didn’t have the expert-level attackers to aim at, but defensively they were poor too, and that’s not a thing a Donaldson team is supposed to be.

rahsing

Taylor Flint just hung out in midfield and did whatever she wanted while Balcer made a statement in her debut for Big Purp. She notched a goal contribution twelve minutes in by sliding a ball through the box for Uchenna Kanu to finish. I wondered how the midfield would take shape without Howell, and we kinda got that answer. Though I hope Savannah DeMelo on the wing isn’t a permanent solution (I’m sticking to my hot take that she should become a very annoyingly press resistant CM).

red stars

Well, yuck. Yeah.

washington spirit 4-1 kc current

The smashiest and grabbiest of smash & grabs. That might be a bit misleading, the Spirit were hyper-clinical but also worked hard for one another and coped will with the things KC do best: press high and get the ball to Chawinga & Debinha in transition. Still, four goals from .52 xG is hilarious, hang it in The Louvre type stuff.

spirit

The goals and containing Kansas City had a lot to do with this, but you can still see structure and several passing triangles. Tactically, the Spirit are going to be one of the most fascinating teams to watch these next nine games.

current

Honestly, looks good! Well except the very low pass OBV of Debinha, Chawinga and DiBernardo. That’s sort of expected of the last two, they’re typically scoring the goals. But DiBernardo has been playing at an MVP-conversation-worthy level and just didn’t have the time or space to execute against the Spirit.

seattle reign 1-0 nc courage

I would like to conduct a scientific study on just what the hell happens to the North Carolina Courage when they play away. Seriously, their record is absurd. They have one win in nine away games and every single other game is a loss. They’ve conceded fifteen goals in those games, and scored four. If they played nothing but away games they would be bottom of the table, yet they’re sixth and six points clear of the last playoff spot.

Who knows how to write grant proposals? I need our best minds on the case.

reign

The Reign might be trying to break out of their StruggleBall™ nature a bit. This is still a bit squished, a telltale sign of Classic Harvs. The difference is that players on all three lines registered high pass OBV, which suggests they were at least trying effective forward passing things, and succeeding.

The Reign might be too far down the table to do much but they should be one of the more interesting teams to watch in this final stretch. They upgraded in the summer with Nerilia Mondésir and Jaelin Howell, and after both entered the match in the 75th minute Seattle had nine shots totaling .66 of their 1.76 xG overall total. (Removing Tziarra King’s .44 chance, the highest of the game, would put the total at 1.32, and my math tells me that .66 is exactly half of that number.)

courage

Aww, they made Pac-Man. How cute.

In partnership with