Hello it’s your friendly neighborhood woso nerd. As promised, I come to your inbox this mighty fine morning bearing the gift of xG race charts and pass networks from every NWSL week two matchup.

I altered the format a tad so you’ll see the race charts right below the final score, followed by landscape pass networks for each team. Because I am super smart and attentive I realized that standalone landscape pass maps were far more readable than one image that combined both teams. Amazing, readability, what a concept. Ugh, anyway.

Here they are!

orlando pride 1-1 angel city fc

orlando pride

Methinks Orlando enjoys attacking through their right side.

angel city fc

I hope M.A. Vignola’s injury is minor, her development at left back has been fun to watch. She left the pitch in the 35th minute but still finished the match with ACFC’s fourth highest pass OBV (On Ball Value).

utah royals 2-1 nc courage

Statistically, this may have been one of the funniest matches ever. North Carolina huffed and puffed, missed two penalties, racked up xG and non-penalty xG, and still couldn’t score more than one goal. Sometimes it be like that, and when it’s not your team, it is quite hilarious.

utah royals

The one thing Utah did was clog the middle of the pitch. No one is even close to North Carolina’s box, but five players are near the center circle, six if you’re generous enough to include Ally Sentnor.

nc courage

To be honest, there wasn’t much more North Carolina could have done. You could maaaaybe nitpick a lack of width on the left side, and certainly a center forward staying high rather than joining the midfield fray.

But they play the way they play, typically it works, this time it didn’t, it’s gotta be annoying for them. Ultimately it’s fine – funny, even – but they’ll be ok.

chicago red stars 2-1 seattle reign

This match was a top-tier NWSL squabble.

chicago red stars

Yup, you can see the two lines of four (bar Nádia Gomes vibin off to the left) making up the preferred formation of those prepared to squabble: the flat 442.

seattle reign

Reign didn’t shy away from it either. The backline formed a pocket and a bunch of players piled themselves in between.

washington spirit 2-1 bay fc

washington spirit

Ouleymata Sarr playing centrally and Ashley Hatch deployed on the left, but far more defensively, is something to keep an eye on. It worked, Sarr was great at receiving, holding up the ball and keeping it moving, but how Hatch integrates into the new system doesn’t seem quite settled.

Her contract extension suggests they believe she’ll flourish, but the last two weeks have been a struggle.

bay fc

Bay tried really hard to overload the left side of the Spirit’s defense, which definitely impacted Hatch’s positioning. Watching this game in person I can tell you that when Castellanos, Oshoala, Boade and Dydasco press or win the ball, it is terrifying.

The Spirit rode some luck some times, defended well other times, but as those connections grow expect more of what happened versus Angel City, and not their combined .73xG from this game.

houston dash 0-0 rahsing louisville

I wanted to see what Fran Alonso learned after his extremely rude welcome to the NWSL and the answer appears to be: nary a damn thing. Or, if he did, he’s yet to accept that he needs to alter his approach.

houston dash

Defensively roles seem defined, but there are very few options going forward. And also, conceding 2.81 xG to a Rahsing team that didn’t even start Savannah DeMelo is not at all promising.

And now we wait for week 3 of the Fran Alonso Experiment.

rahsing louisville

I feel bad for Reilyn Turner, she was immense this game. Eight shots overall, six on target, totaling 1.3xG all by herself.

san diego wavé 1-2 kc current

san diego wavé

Stoney. Ball.

kc current

Vlatko. Ball.

(Also this pass map is hilarious, it looks like Izzy Rodriguez and the rest of the team decided to keep the ball away from Ellie Wheeler. Rude, tbh.)

portland thorns 0-1 gotham fc

How do you stop the Thorns from scoring? Well you foul Sophia Smith a lot, hope VAR disallows a banger, and pray Mike Norris waits too long to bring on Hina Sugita.

portland thorns

Sam Coffey is the sun.

gotham fc

Textbook defensive spacing and then: chaos.

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