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What would you do with a three-hour half? That was the reality for the Houston Dash and KC Current on Sunday. I am Emilie Olsen attached Meg Linehan And Steph Yang — welcome full-time!
Hayes backtracks
Learning from a midweek loss
Chelsea manager Emma Hayes all but conceded the Women’s Super League title in England on Wednesday after her team lost 4-3 to Liverpool in a midweek match. This is the last hope she has of winning a trophy in her final season.
“I would love to bring titles back to Chelsea, but it won’t be this year, I’m afraid,” Hayes said after the match. “I think my job now is to prepare the team for the last few games so they continue, compete and enjoy.”
At the time, Chelsea had three games to play and a game in hand against league leaders Manchester City. The Blues were behind by six points. The Athletic wrote how, in 32 days, Hayes went from a potential quadruple-trophy season to barely staying in the race for one. Even our last newsletter wondered if Hayes could handle the pressure. This weekend, Chelsea and Hayes proved that was a stupid thing to do.
“It is not finished”
In the 88th minute of their match against Arsenal on Sunday, Manchester City had the title under lock and key with a 1-0 lead. But Swedish international Stina Blackstenius had other ideas, scoring twice in the final minutes of the match. In a strange twist of fate, Hayes’ rival Jonas Eidevall & Co. gave Chelsea a lifeline – one they took with gusto.
Chelsea scored eight unanswered goals, led by Guro Reiten, against Bristol City. The dominant victory not only brought Chelsea closer to Man City, but it also reversed the goal differential advantage in their favor with +46 to City’s +45.
“Let me be clear, this is not over,” Hayes said. during a post-match ceremony in honor of his final match at Kingsmeadow. The team also paid tribute to longtime players Maren Mjelde and Fran Kirby, who both announced their departures from the team last week.
“There is no time for sentimentality. All work drinks are canceled. There’s a title to be won,” Hayes said as she stood on the field with her son Harry. “This group taught me something so special this week that you never give up.”
What does this mean for the USWNT?
Hayes will join the United States for his first match on June 1 with a renewed fight whether Chelsea secure the title or not. It felt like a grim farewell for Hayes, comparable to the end of Megan Rapinoe’s playing career or the final season of Liverpool men’s manager Jurgen Klopp. But Hayes still has something to fight for, and based on her previous 12 seasons at the helm of one of the WSL’s most successful clubs, she’s a fighter. She’s also a human.
Hayes recently deleted his public social media accounts. It turns out a conversation with Klopp inspired the move.
“I discussed it with Jurgen Klopp this week,” Hayes said. “I think it’s ridiculous what everyone expects from a football coach. We’re human beings. We have lives.
“For football managers we are in an impossible position because every day we are in a place where whatever we say will turn into something that will make you (the media) money and at the same time put us in a position where we are just pieces of meat.
“I won’t miss it, that’s for sure.”
Her role at Chelsea has been highlighted, but that’s nothing compared to what will shine on her as she takes her place on the USWNT sidelines, especially before the Olympics.
NWSL Takeaways
Two undefeated teams remaining
Vlatko Andonovski, who knows the pressure of coaching the USWNT, has now led his club to an undefeated start to 2024. With dynamic duo Bia Zaneratto and Temwa Chawinga, who have both scored four goals this season, the KC Current went from the bottom in 2023 to the top, just behind the league’s other undefeated team, the Orlando Pride. (I can’t continue without mentioning that Barbra Banda scored again this weekend, bringing her total to four goals in four games.)
⭐️ @emilymadril with the cent ➡️ @BarbraBanda11 with the finish ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/IQYZzsY6bx
– Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) May 5, 2024
Although they have had success on the field, the road has not been easy for the Current, according to Andonovski…
Steph’s set piece: NWSL scheduling issues
When the Current meet the North Carolina Courage on Sunday, their head coaches will have a lot to say. Andonovski and Sean Nahas delivered harsh remarks on the NWSL’s scheduling woes after facing travel delays, which they said took a serious toll on an already busy schedule.
Although the NWSL has attempted to limit games to midweek, two sets of games in May are taking place in that window. Angel City and Racing Louisville are the only two teams not affected by the schedule. The Courage played a home game at North Carolina on April 27, at Orlando on May 1, at Gotham on May 4, a home stop, then they will be at Kansas City on May 12.
“The congestion is crazy, but you’re going to lose players to injuries and the league is going to pay the price because the best players or teams won’t be on the field because of potential injuries,” Nahas said after playing . Gotham. “It’s such a vital thing if you want all the eligible players to play, especially when you have a smaller squad. And the (trade) window is closed, so if someone suffers a long-term injury, we now have difficulty finding (a replacement player).
The Current, meanwhile, went from a home game at KC on April 20 to an away game at Los Angeles on April 26 and then at Houston on May 5, followed by an away game at Seattle on May 8.
Both teams lost a day due to travel delays. The extremely long rain delay in Houston pushed back the Current’s travel plans. Andonovski said after the match that they had missed their initial flight and the delay would also affect some players’ planned training before Wednesday, while losing a recovery day.
“The schedule…it’s already a challenge at the beginning,” Andonovski said. “We have by far the worst schedule in the league, and this has only made things worse.”
GO FURTHER
NWSL fines Kansas City Current for taking charter flight in July
The NWSL has a case-by-case policy when it comes to chartering, but the Current was fined more than $55,000 last year for chartering to avoid putting players on a commercial flight to several stops and spending an extra night in a hotel for a trip from KC to Louisville.
Planning a season is difficult, but it’s even more difficult in a league where not every team controls their venue and teams are always at the mercy of commercial theft. Even as site control becomes more and more of a priority, charters remain a delicate issue.
Two-time USWNT World Cup winner Kelley O’Hara has announced she will retire after the 2024 NWSL season. So I asked Meg Linehan for her favorite KO memory:
I’ve been covering O’Hara for over a decade now, and while my favorite lens will always be this one goal in the semi-final against Germany in 2015 (back in the day long before it was a full time gig I was in the stands as a fan…in a Kelley O’Hara jersey) my favorite moment was a smaller moment. Before a friendly match in 2013, I requested an interview with her through US Soccer, and after practice we ended up sitting on the grass near the field and talking for 20 or 30 minutes.
They were different days and, although the team had enjoyed success after winning the 2011 World Cup and 2012 Olympics, there wasn’t much media outside of a major tournament . I don’t even remember what we talked about – probably his conversion back, his future with the USWNT, the start of the NWSL – it was just a perfect summer day, the breeze, the feeling grass, amazed that we had as much time as us.
First looks at full time
- Scores since: THE Portland Thorns are on a four-game winning streak after a rough start to the season. This weekend, the midfielder Sam Coffey and Canadian legend Christine Sinclair helped keep that streak going by beating the Washington Spirit 2-1. Sinclair credited as acting coach Rob Gale for the boost. “Rob just helped me rediscover my love of the game” Sinclair said. “It’s been a lot of fun, I’m not going to lie.”
- Baby news: Carli Lloyd announced that she is expecting her first child with husband Brian Hollins after undergoing multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization. Lloyd announced her pregnancy on Instagram on Wednesday and said her baby was due in October.
- Injury news, the good kind: FIFPro, the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), Nike and Leeds Beckett University have joined forces to launch the ‘ACL Project’, a research project. aimed at reducing ACL injuries in women’s football. It was time. Women are two to six times more likely than men to suffer ACL injuries.
- What purpose: This doesn’t take anything away from Sinclair’s return to the scoresheet, but Veronica Latvia knows how to score mind-blowing goals For Seattle Reign:
Veronica Latsko’s precise header lifts Seattle late! 🎯 pic.twitter.com/5pKyzA5X1g
– National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) May 4, 2024
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(Top photo: Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports)