What’s Emerged
A-Rod on a Scoring Streak
FC Kansas City’s offseason trade for Amy Rodriguez might be one of Head Coach Vlatko Andonovski’s best moves thus far in his tenure. Kansas City needed a goal-scoring striker, a position the squad didn’t get a lot of production from in 2013. So far, A-Rod has been the answer. Four goals in five games puts the USWNT forward at the top of the goal-scoring league lead along with Seattle Reign’s Kim Little. A-Rod’s proven to be one of the bright spots in the Blues’ lineup, as Andonovski’s side is still looking to re-create the form the team displayed in 2013. Kansas City went down to Houston this past weekend and gave the Dash a drubbing, so the good form is slowly but surely starting to take shape.
The Reign Are the Real Deal
While the Seattle Reign’s lineup coming into the season was very solid, looking good on paper doesn’t always guarantee you three points every week. But the Reign have passed every test so far: Pick up the team’s first clean sheet — done; Win at home — done, done, and done; Carry over the momentum on the road — done and done. And in the process, the team has knocked the ball around on the pitch like they have been playing together for years, which truly makes this side so scary to play against. The Reign are 5-0-0 with 15 points to its name and have put a seven-point gap between itself and the second-place Portland Thorns (who have a game in hand at the moment on their I-5 rivals). One thing to note is the Reign are losing Nahomi Kawasumi, as she heads to Vietnam to play with the Japanese National Team in the AFC Asian Cup and will miss the majority of games in May. We know the Reign have a deep bench to fill the gap left by Kawasumi, but will the team continue to pick up more points? Only time will tell.
International Sensations
When the NWSL expanded the international roster spots to three, in a blink of an eye, foreign players have come in and put their mark on the league. Scottish international Kim Little and Japanese international Nahomi Kawasumi have both been forces to be reckoned with in Seattle. Spanish internationals Vicky Losada and now Sonia Bermúdez have done big things up in Western New York. German international Nadine Angerer has been a stalwart in between the sticks in Portland and familiar overseas players like the Boston Breakers’ Lianne Sanderson and the Reign’s Jess Fishlock have continued their excellent 2013 form into 2014. I’ve always maintained the thought that expanding the roster spots for international players was a good idea, and the quality of players to come over this season has grown the overall talent in the league immensely.
The Waiting Game is Tough
For teams like the Chicago Red Stars and the Houston Dash, it’s been a rough go during the early part of the season while they wait for their full complement of allocated players to arrive. The Dash could have really used the defensive prowess of Whitney Engen and Meghan Klingenberg in the early part of the season as the Dash have conceded nine goals in four games and are playing with an all-rookie back line in front of Erin McLeod. There needs to be a veteran or two in that lineup and now with Nikki Washington shipped off to the Breakers, it could be a long wait for the Tyresö duo to arrive in Texas. Meanwhile in Chicago, the Red Stars have scored one goal in three matches, and that goal came off of a corner kick in the first match of the season. Waiting in the wings for the Red Stars is Christen Press and Melissa Tancredi but he Red Stars’ problem right now is to try to find a way to get the ball in the back of the net on some sort of a consistent basis until Press and Tancredi get to the Windy City.
This Year’s Rookie Class is Already Contributing
With players like Crystal Dunn and Julie Johnston in the mix, the rookie class was expected to have an immediate impact for their respective teams from Day 1. But it has been nice to see some of the other young players make an impact as well. Nearly every first round draft pick is a starter or is one of the first players off the bench for their squads, while the majority of second and third round players, like Jenna Richmond (recent starter for Kansas City), Rafaelle Souza, Morgan Marlborough and Mollie Pathman, have played key minutes this season. We knew coming in the college draft class could be the deepest one for awhile and the fact that several first-year players are making such strides is a big positive.
What’s to Come
The big key in the coming weeks is how teams will manage the tightly packed game schedule along with squad rotation as national team players come in and out of action due to international duty. There will be a lot of crucial points to be had and if managers can’t get their squads right through this stretch, their teams could fall in the standings rather quickly and face a large mountain to climb to get back into the playoff hunt.
USWNT vs. CANWNT
You don’t need much motivation to get hyped up about this regional clash. One thing to note is the fun internal battles it sets up as club teammates square off against one another this week. This match will probably be as physical as any other USA-Canada match, so coaches will be on the edge of their seats biting their fingernails hoping players return healthy. It’s an interesting dilemma for coaches but a fun one for fans: How often do you see two high-profile national teams face each other with rosters full of players playing in the same league? With just over a year until the start of the 2015 Women’s World Cup, host Canada wants to start building the hype and this is the best match to start the lead-up to the tournament.
Thorns vs. Reign
The Thorns welcome the Reign at home on May 10 and the league wisely has made it the only game on that day. It will be the battle of the top two as the Thorns will need a win to make a dent into the seven-point gap the Reign have on them.