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| 'How many domestic Championships have we won Amy?' A-Rod and Lauren Holiday with the medals |
What a season this was, the very first time I had followed any American league down to the wire. I now get the ‘play-offs’ picture, I still don’t understand what ‘drafts’ and ‘trades’ are though, me being used to plain transfers and loans but I got on just fine along with the rest of the WOSO (Women’s Soccer) fans.
I also have to give my gratitude to the NWSL Fantasy League (@NWSL on twitter), it really made it interesting as sometimes after setting my English Premier League fantasy team for few minutes I would have to think extra hard about my NWSL one, but in the end I couldn’t follow through, I just gave Kim Little my captaincy till the end of the season…or maybe it was Sydney Leroux…anyway my overall position and points is nothing to write home about, but it was fun, so thanks.
Ages before Seattle Reign fell to FC Kansas City in the final, before the season started I think some of us ‘Europeanish’ fans were already attracted to the Reign, they had secured Megan Rapinoe on a permanent basis, Kim Little’s switch there even made it more interesting and the acquisition of INAC Kobe’s attackers, Berv Goebel and Nahomi Kawasumi really did us in. I already felt hands down this was the team to beat.
Having watched last season’s final and followed the regular season to a certain degree, I know Portland were also some sort of top dog, they always say it’s the ‘soccer city’ and securing Nadine Angerer was/is a great addition to any team in female football, as I still think there’s nobody better in goal than her and she’s 36 years young. Alex Morgan was still injured and had increased appearances on Chap Stick, McDonald’s adverts and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition more than the pitch, so it was interesting to see how Portland would cope to defend their title.
Looking back at the 2013 season, I thought it was crazy how the top 3 teams all tied on points on the league table, Western New York Flash on top followed by FC Kansas then Portland. Apparently, Lauren Holiday was phenomenal last season as well, 12 goals and 9 assists, the signs were there for next season.
Fast forward to the end of the 2014 season, Houston Dash are last on the league table, expected really, being the ‘newbies’ and all that, Seattle Reign are regular season champions, expected as well, but then fall short to FC Kansas City in the playoff final, 2-1.
Kim Little wins the golden boot, 16 goals, and MVP as well, her 7 assists along with those goals showed her impressive class on the ball above the rest.
Becky Sauerbrunn won the Defender of the Year after being proclaimed ‘the best defender in the world’ by a couple of her team mates (no comments on that one), Chicago Red Stars’ starlet defender, Julie Johnston won the Rookie of the Year, Laura Harvey won the Coach of the Year, an obvious one, and Alyssa Naeher won the Goalkeeper of the Year, which I thought was an interesting one since her club side Boston Breakers were 8th in the league, although she made the most number of saves in it, all 106 of them.
The Team of the Year: GK: Alyssa Naeher; DF: Ali Krieger, Kendall Fletcher, Becky Sauerbrunn, Christie Rampone; MF: Verónica Boquete, Jess Fishlock, Kim Little; Lauren Holiday; FW: Nahomi Kawasumi, Amy Rodriguez.
There was also a second XI, but I think it’s all consolations, Jessica McDonald of Portland Thorns ends up there having scored 11 goals, none which were penalties, I thought that was impressive, she also scored the fastest goal this season in 33 seconds, which is now the fastest goal in NWSL season.
The match of the season for me is definitely the 9 goal thriller between Portland Thorns and Boston Breakers, which was on ESPN, Christine Sinclair with the hattrick to sink the Breakers. If you haven’t seen the highlights à https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFfg2_9Hlg&list=UUL4xu08EDu0ZFZsBJUB0chw
In general what a fantastic season, remarkable how this is only the second season of the American league, I thought they would have had dozens of seasons beyond, so I hope this league continues to go on and grow stronger.
I won’t pretend like I watched every game but it was a pleasure watching the ones I could and following till the very end, my focus shifts to Europe and Australia now and so should yours but here’s the top 25 goals of the NWSL 2014 season to relieve some moments. à https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRUQT5KDCug&list=UUKZUJuid_BDveqz6Shyn4Xg
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