saving grace

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how Kansas City approaches the last batch of regular season games now that they’ve already secured the shield. Priority should be getting into the playoffs healthy, but you also don’t to encourage habits that lead to substandard performances. It’s a champagne problem, but an interesting problem nonetheless. Chicago, meanwhile, might already be succumbing to Norwegian unseriousness. An unexpected result from this match would be enough to keep the unserious demon locked in the closet for at least another week.

The match I am more intrigued by is Gotham against the Thorns. These two are 3rd and 4th on the table, tied on points, and only separated by a goal difference of 4. Any gained or lost points in this match are likely to be the difference between a home playoff match and going on the road. Also, we’ll find out how committed Juan Carlos Amorós is to the Lavelle-Howell-Shaw midfield work if he fields them against Portland. Portland have one win in their last six and could swiftly start tumbling down the table given that there’s only three points between their spot in 4th and the team in 8th.

Speaking of teams in freefall, San Diego and Orlando are both in full on panic button mashing mode. Marta is also listed as out for this match along with Kylie Nadaner, while the Wavé won’t have Delphine Cascarino, Gia Corley or Savannah McCaskill. They both need a result, and will have to get it without key pieces of their teams. Oof, and, godspeed.

Even though Aston Villa have are 10th, they’ve conceded fewer goals than Manchester City, while Arsenal are tied with the red part of Manchester for most goals scored. Villa have showcased an impressively disruptive press so far, they just aren’t scoring. This will either be an unexpected and frustrating test for Arsenal (as it was for Chelsea), or Villa will be exposed. If you’re gonna get up at 7am ET might as well learn something.

It’s time for Lyonnes (formerly Olympique Lyonnais) to do their annual very early placing of one hand on the league trophy by beating the very unserious yet somehow still the only possible “competitor”, PSG. Enjoy.

Feel like given everything Rahsing Louisville and Angel City have been through this season with teammates suffering medical emergencies on the pitch they should just shake hands in the center circle and chat amongst themselves for 90 minutes and both take home three points.

Not sure what point Bay head coach Albertin Montoya was trying to prove by bringing Racheal Kundananji off the bench last weekend but he should probably not do that against Utah. The Royals are doing their annual ‘fine it’s the second half of the season guess we’ll try now’ thing. They’ve only lost once in the eight games since the break (a narrow 1-0 to the shield winners), and have completely turned around their non-penalty xG differential.

I am convinced that a demon created London City’s schedule. They’ve already faced Arsenal and Manchester United, and now they get Manchester City. The goal of a newly promoted team is to stay in the league and stay competitive, which means it’s far more realistic and important to see how they measure up to non top-4 teams. So far they’ve only had one such match, a 2-1 win over Everton. At least once this is over they’ll be able to focus on teams lower down the table, that is until they play Chelsea on November 2nd. Heavens.

Hilariously, Tenerife are above Real Madrid on the table. It’s just four games and it’s only by a point, but they’ve yet to lose a game so not undeserved. They have two 0-0 draws and two 4-0 wins, which is some very funny ‘if there are to be goals today we will be scoring all of them or there will be no scoring of goals, you decide’ behavior. Real Madrid should beat them, but then again Real should’ve beaten Logroño too.

Since the break Houston have been very tough to beat but have also had some extremely weird performances that sit on polar ends of the spectrum. Last week 18 of their 22 shots were taken inside the box against Chicago, but the week prior they were thoroughly dismantled by Utah—managing just .31 xG and 0 shots on target. Washington are looking to stay out of the mess developing beneath them on the table, and can also clinch a playoff spot with a dub.

The current NWSL table has Seattle sitting 6th while North Carolina are 8th, with just two points between them. Crucially, the teams in between and directly above them—Orlando Pride, San Diego Wavé, Portland Thorns—have won a combined three games since the break. That’s right, three games out of a combined 24 played. If Seattle or North Carolina claim three points, they can do some prime table jumping.