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What would you do with a three-hour halftime? That was the reality for Houston Dash and KC Current on Sunday. I’m Emily Olsen here with Meg Linehan and Steph Yang — welcome to Full Time!
Hayes Backtracks
Learning from a midweek loss
On Wednesday, Chelsea manager Emma Hayes all but conceded the Women’s Super League title in England after her team fell 4-3 to Liverpool in a midweek match. It’s the last remaining hope she has at a trophy in her final season.
“I’d love to bring titles again to Chelsea but that’s not going to be this year I’m afraid,” Hayes said after the match. “I think my job now is prepare the team for the last few games to continue and compete, and enjoy.”
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At the time, Chelsea had three matches left and a game in hand on league-leaders Manchester City. The Blues were six points behind. The Athletic wrote about how, in 32 days, Hayes went from a potential quadruple trophy-winning season to barely staying in the race for one. Even our last newsletter questioned if Hayes could handle the pressure. This weekend, Chelsea and Hayes proved that was a foolish thing to do.
‘It’s not f—ing over’
By the 88th minute of their game against Arsenal on Sunday, Manchester City had the title under lock with a 1-0 lead. But Swedish international Stina Blackstenius had other thoughts, scoring twice in the final minutes of the game. In an odd twist of fate, Hayes’ rival Jonas Eidevall & Co. gave Chelsea a lifeline — one they took enthusiastically.
Chelsea scored eight unanswered goals, led by Guro Reiten, against Bristol City. The dominating win not only pulled Chelsea closer to Man City, but it flipped the goal differential advantage in their favor with +46 to City’s +45.
“Let me be clear, it’s not f—ing over,” Hayes said during a post-game ceremony honoring her final game at Kingsmeadow. The team also honored long-serving 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 while standing on the field with her son Harry. “This group taught me something so special this week that you never ever give up.”
What does this mean for the USWNT?
Hayes will join the U.S. for her first game on June 1 with a renewed fight, whether Chelsea secures the title or not. It had looked like a bleak farewell for Hayes, comparable to the way Megan Rapinoe’s playing career ended or Liverpool men’s coach Jurgen Klopp’s final season. But Hayes still has something to fight for, and based on watching her 12 previous seasons in charge of one of the most successful WSL clubs, she’s a fighter. She’s also a human.
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Hayes recently deleted her public social media accounts. It turns out a conversation with Klopp inspired the move.
“I had a chat with Jurgen Klopp about it this week,” Hayes said “I think it’s ridiculous what everybody expects of a football manager. We’re human beings. We have lives.
“For football managers, we’re in an impossible position because every day we’re in a place where, no matter what we say, it will be turned into something that gets you guys (the media) paid and at the same time puts us in a position where we’re just pieces of meat.
“I won’t miss it, for sure.”
Her role at Chelsea came with a spotlight, but it’s nothing compared to what will shine on her the moment she takes her place on the USWNT’s sideline, especially ahead of the Olympic Games.
NWSL Takeaways
Two remaining undefeated teams
Vlatko Andonovski, who is familiar with the pressure of coaching the USWNT, has now led his club to an undefeated start in 2024. With the dynamic duo of Bia Zaneratto and Temwa Chawinga, who both have four goals this season, the KC Current has gone from the bottom in 2023 to the top, just behind the league’s other undefeated team, the Orlando Pride. (I can’t go on without mentioning Barbra Banda scored again this weekend, bringing her tally to four goals in four games.)
⭐️ @emilymadril with the dime ➡️ @BarbraBanda11 with the finish ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/IQYZzsY6bx
— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) May 5, 2024
While they’ve enjoyed on-field success, the road has not been easy for the Current, according to Andonovski…
Steph’s Set Piece: NWSL scheduling pains
When the Current meets the North Carolina Courage on Sunday, their head coaches will have plenty to talk about. Andonovski and Sean Nahas had strong remarks about NWSL scheduling issues after they got hit with travel delays, which they said had harsh impacts on an already congested schedule.
Though the NWSL has tried to limit midweek games, there are two sets of matches in May that fall in that window. Angel City and Racing Louisville are the only two teams not affected by the scheduling. The Courage played a home game in NC on April 27, at Orlando on May 1, at Gotham on May 4, a stop at home and then they will be in Kansas City on May 12.
“Congestion is crazy, but you’re going to lose players to injury and then the league is going to pay for it because the best players or rosters aren’t going to be on the field because of potential injuries,” Nahas said after playing Gotham. “It’s such a vital thing if you want all the players eligible to play, especially when you have smaller roster sizes. And the (trade) window is closed, so if someone has a long-term injury now we’re struggling to find (a replacement player).”
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The Current, meanwhile, went from a home game in KC on April 20 to an away game in LA on April 26 and then at Houston on May 5, followed by an away game in Seattle on May 8.
Both teams have lost a day to travel delays. The extremely long rain delay in Houston pushed the Current’s travel plans. Andonovski said after the game that they missed their original flight, and that the delay would also affect planned training for some players ahead of Wednesday while also losing a day for recovery.
“The schedule…it’s already challenging to start off with,” said Andonovski. “We have by far the worst schedule in the league, and this just made it even worse.”
GO DEEPER
NWSL fines Kansas City Current for taking charter flight in July
The NWSL has a case-by-case policy on charters, but the Current was fined over $55,000 last year for chartering to avoid putting players on a multi-leg commercial flight and staying an extra night in a hotel for a KC to Louisville trip.
Scheduling a season is hard, but it’s harder in a league where not every team controls their venue and teams are still at the mercy of commercial flights. While venue control has increasingly become a priority, charters are still a touchy issue.
Meg’s favorite Kelley O’Hara memory
USWNT two-time World Cup winner Kelley O’Hara announced she will retire following the 2024 NWSL season. So I asked Meg Linehan for her favorite KO memory:
I’ve covered O’Hara for over a decade now, and while my favorite goal of hers will always be that semifinal goal against Germany in 2015 (back in the days well before this 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 one. Ahead of a friendly in 2013, I had asked for an interview with her via U.S. Soccer, and after training, we ended up just sitting in the grass by the field and chatting for a solid 20 or 30 minutes.
Those were different days, and, while the team had gotten the bump from the 2011 World Cup and 2012 Olympics win, not much media was ever around if it was outside of a major tournament. I don’t even remember what we talked about — probably her conversion to outside back, her future with the USWNT, the start of the NWSL — it was just the perfect summer day, the breeze, the feel of the grass, marveling that we got as much time as we did.
Full Time First Looks
- Sinc scores: The Portland Thorns are on a four-game winning streak following a rough start to the season. Over the weekend, midfielder Sam Coffey and Canadian legend Christine Sinclair helped maintain that streak, defeating the Washington Spirit 2-1. Sinclair credited interim coach Rob Gale for the boost. “Rob just helped me re-find my love of the game,” Sinclair said. “It’s been a lot of fun, not going to lie.”
- Baby news: Carli Lloyd announced she’s expecting her first child with husband Brian Hollins after going through multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization. Lloyd announced her pregnancy on Instagram on Wednesday and said her baby is due in October.
- Injury news, the good kind: FIFPro, the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University have joined forces to launch ‘Project ACL,’ a research project aimed at reducing ACL injuries in women’s football. It’s about time. Women are two to six times more likely to suffer from ACL injuries than men.
- What a goal: Not to take away from Sinclair returning to the score sheet, but Veronica Latsko knows how to score mind-bending goals for Seattle Reign:
Veronica Latsko's pinpoint header lifts Seattle up 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)