spending money fixes everything (temporarily)
I’ve hesitated to write an in-season piece for fear of being reactionary and unfairly critical (that’s what tweets are for!), but I think 5 games is enough context for some evaluation.
The football activities on the field have not been good. Despite a Challenge Cup win and the first ever 3 points taken from a Laura Harvey coached side, Stoney Ball has been hard to watch. As of today, April 22, 2024, our Wavé sit in 10th place four games into the season, having scored 2 goals and allowed 3, on some massive 2023 Houston Dash energy.
Obviously not scoring goals is a major issue, but the lack of chances they’re creating is just as concerning. There doesn’t seem to be a focal point or style of play when SDWFC are in possession. When they do get into the attacking third, there are even less ideas, just a continuation of moving the ball around the box hoping something happens. This is the same 2023 league winning XI with multiple offensive upgrades yet somehow the attack has massively regressed.
So is it all bad? No. Fixable? Probably. Do I have the answers? No way, but let’s identify some of the simpler things the team can change to get their groove back.
Parity Party at the League Table
San Diego’s best performance this season was a 2-1 loss to KC Current. It wasn’t necessarily a great game, but it’s been the only one where they created multiple chances and didn’t seem like they were on their heels all game. It was also a game where Jaedyn Shaw and Danielle Colaprico did not start, both dealing with minor injuries. That said, with four league games worth of context now, KC is looking like the team to beat (undefeated) and more like the team we all expected to see in 2023, rather than the near bottom of the table one we witnessed.
Speaking of turnarounds, Washington Spirit (non-playoff team in 2023) and Chicago Red Stars (last place in 2023) round out the top 3 teams in the table so far. In fact, only 2 of the 8 teams currently holding playoff positions made it last season (ACFC, NC Courage). Free Agency champions Gotham FC sit 11th (1-1-2), Seattle Reign (2023 finalist) sit 13th, and Portland Thorns (2nd place in 2023) won their first game of the season this past weekend. In a sense, seeing other good teams struggling may be indicative of something else.
Gotham and Portland have at least 7 players on regular international duty (went off what I know from the rosters, could be more), San Diego has 10 (12 if you count Mel Barcens and Kimmi Ascanio on youth national squads). These teams didn’t get a full offseason with their best players in camp which could be messing with chemistry early on. Injuries have been an issue too. Naomi Girma missed a game due to a thigh injury she got on international duty and Shaw has been on limited minutes.
Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t excuses for playing poorly–there are 20+ players on the roster for a reason. But this is why I haven’t been so eager to criticize the play. These other factors are affecting play, and other good teams on paper struggling kind of validates that. I also don’t want to get too into Casey Stoney’s questionable subs in some of these games because we don’t know who is fully fit. I’ll just say this: Barcenas needs to be a regular sub, a rotational starter even, like now. I have hope that will be the case soon, seeing as Ascanio has seen more minutes in her first 2 league appearances than Barcenas did in her first 4 league games last year. More Elyse Bennett too please.
SACA LA BOMBITAAA
Thankfully, the front office's response to the early offensive struggles was trading for one of the best and coolest players in the league, Maria Sanchez.
If there was any trepidation about a new ownership group coming in and coasting on the established green margins, this has quelled the feeling for now. Salary cap info isn’t public, but what we can see is they sent over $500k to Houston and took on Sanchez 3 year/$1.5M deal (I believe it’s only $1.5M if the 4th year mutual option is triggered).
Look at money doing work, buying happiness and peace of mind and forgetting the loss to Orlando Pride where there was only 1 shot on target.
It couldn’t come at a better time because Alex Morgan injured her ankle in that match and there still hasn’t been an update on her status. If Morgan is out next game and Sanchez gets into the XI, I assume Shaw moves to a central role (FINALLY FFS!) and Sanchez is on the left wing of a 4-3-3.
We Want Jae10 Shaw Now
Look, I thought Stoney saw the light during the Women’s World Cup window when she was forced to use Shaw in a central role and witnessed her shine firsthand. She’s the best player on the ball, so she should have the most touches among offensive players. Instead, she ranks towards the bottom of total touches this season, just below Alex Morgan (another issue in itself but would probably be solved if Shaw saw the ball more). Savannah McCaskill is the non goalie, non defender with the most touches and she’s been a rollercoaster to watch. There are moments when she sees these great passing windows and plays great through balls, while also chasing players down and making tackles. Just classic box-to-box, all tools type stuff. Then there are other games where McCaskill looks disinterested, reacting slowly to passes, not chasing balls and even showing up teammates. A player with inconsistent games should not spend the most time on the ball when you’re trying to create offense.
The player right below McCaskill in touches is Emily Van Egmond. All I’m going to say: there is no reason both Colaprico and EvE should be in a starting lineup together and Colaprico is by far the indispensable one, so…
Next match vs Bay FC (8th // 2-0-3, 6 pts)
Assuming Morgan is out for this game, I would like to see this Saturday against Bay FC:
I wonder if Sanchez offers Amirah Ali something for the 7 kit.
This is an IDEAL XI, not a prediction. I think Sanchez probably won’t start, so I bet we see Kyra Carusa on one of the wings. Regardless, I’m tired of seeing Shaw on the wing with no one to feed the ball to, and we need her playing a strong 90 minutes, not tracking down fast wingers and getting gassed. Let her play deep in the middle, with plenty of passing options and limited defensive duties, please.
Bennett does well finding spaces in the box and can win crosses, or flick long balls through, I think she’s our best bet up top early in the game.
We get the K/Christen duos (McNabb and Westphal) starting just for familiarity. Let the attack figure itself out first, then worry about what you want from the outside backs.
It’s a bit early for must-win games, but the longer this bad stretch goes, the more each game weighs.
