NWSL’s week 8 saw the Washington Spirit survive an onslaught, Orlando continuing to cook, Portland and the finishing gods trolling Seattle, the Chicago Red Stars in their high xG era, and Fran Alonso finally recognizing that he is coaching in the NWSL (at the expense of Becki Tweed and Angel City).

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

rahsing louisville 1-2 washington spirit

This looks like a battering, but .87 of Louisville’s total was from the penalty saved by Kingsbury and the rebound she kicked away, which puts the rest of the chances at a total of .82.

Given the XI that ended the game for the Spirit, and no registered attempts after the 70th minute, Louisville should not be happy about not claiming at least a point.

rahsing

On the right it was ‘save us Emma Sears ave us’, and on the left it was ‘save us Carson Pickett’. Anything Louisville attempts to do in attack should require Reilyn Turner at center forward.

spirit

Spirit scored early, got a massive penalty save, only gave up a free kick banger, and opted to stuff midfield and gum up Louisville’s buildup rather than dropping into a low block. More teams should do this, #DeathToLowBlocks.

orlando pride 1-0 bay fc

Good. Lord. The goal was a penalty, but Orlando racked up twenty-damn-five shots that registered xG. Bay, on the other hand, had six.

pride

Orlando are becoming more frightening by the week. Seb Hines is in his bag, they’re finding fun tweaks to help with their buildup, Summer Yates and Kerry Abello are hoopin, and they have an absolute terror in Barbra Banda. It’s early, but this ain’t your two-year-old nephew’s Pride.

bay

This is hilarious, but also wrong lol. Caprice Dydasco came on at halftime for Alyssa Malonson, and Savy King swapped flanks. The pass networks track the starting XI, so that’s how this happens.

The first half pass network is more representative of how things actually played out. This highlights the problem Albertin Montoya is having. New teams need identities so I get being adamant in a particular style, but it’s also true that they had a lack of depth, have unbalanced levels of quality from line to line, and have suffered key injuries.

It might be time to chill on the #beautifulfootball and bit, cause this ain’t it.

portland thorns 4-0 seattle reign

Portland were given and scored a (wrong) penalty, but that makes this even more brutal for Reign. Coach Kenough’s squad managed to squeeze three goals out of the leftover .63xG.

Meanwhile, Reign’s three biggest chances counted for .51 of their total, and they missed each one. This sport is very mean.

thorns

Left a whole flank empty just to scrap in midfield, this is a team that knows what it’s like to play against a Laura Harvey squad.

reign

All of Portland’s midfield clogging forced Reign wide where the front three struggled to connect with one another. This pretty much explains why two of their three best chances came via free kick deliveries into the box.

chicago red stars 3-1 utah royals

After building some solid defensive foundations it appear the Red Stars are ready to enter their high xG era.

Even removing the penalty, this was their highest total of the season. Some of this is certainly ‘Utah: Bad’, but Chicago’s three goals from five shots wasn’t a hot streak of clinical finishing, it was reward for consistently creating high value chances.

red stars

Watching teams progress is always fun. After a streak of teams cutting off service to Swanson, the Red Stars routinely found her to create problems. Penelope Hocking also helped

royals

I feel for Amy Rodriguez, injuries are a factor, but Utah’s front office did her no favors with her first squad. A rookie coach with a brand new team was always going to struggle (tho Bay is evidence that they could have also spent a ton and still struggled), but there’s a lot of incoherent play once the ball leaves the backline.

kc current 1-0 nc courage

The Kansas City Current’s rampage will continue until morale improves.

current

Temwa: go.

courage

Suddenly North Carolina are in a bit of a rut, and winless in their last three. They’ve been a tough three (Pride, Gotham, Current), but the Courage have the capability of being in that class.

Dani Weatherholt having to play CB against the Current was certainly not part of Nahas’s ideal gameplan, but too frequently now the Courage are building (or being pushed) very deep, and without a way to threaten the opposition’s backline, you end up with this.

angel city 0-1 houston dash

Angel City consistently play to the level of their opponent and it’s gotta be real frustrating for fans.

angel city

Whole lotta passing to one another in their own half, and not a lot of anything else. Can’t get hemmed up by the Dash in 2024, that shouldn’t be an option.

dash

The sense is that Fran Alonso has been fighting for his job the last few weeks. While this is still a mess, they’ve seemingly abandoned his preferred ‘sit low and ping pong the ball up the pitch’ approach for a higher line and a high press, which probably caught Becki Tweed off guard.

san diego wavé 1-1 nj/ny gotham fc

Casey Stoney’s continued torment of Juan Carlos Amorós is hilarious, but on the bright side a point is the best he’s managed in ten matches.

wavé

It remains a severe case of hustlin backwards to have the option to play Jaedyn Shaw as the 10 and opt not to.

gotham

Gotham cooked a little bit, and perhaps if it wasn’t for The Haunting of Juan Carlos Amorós by Head Coach Casey Stoney they would have won. They created, and subsequently missed, chances of .21, .16, .25, and .30xG.

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