NWSL, week 14 in review: Pour one out for Seattle’s unbeaten season

Week 14 was bound to be an interesting one. All three of the weekend’s games had big playoff implications, with all four of the teams - all separated by just a single point - in the race for the final two playoff spots in action. And while there was some movement on the table, when it was all said and done, this was a week that will go down in NWSL history for a very different reason, or two.

The two teams at the top of the table, previously unbeaten all season Seattle and previously unbeaten since mid-May FC Kansas City, both lost. One in spectacular fashion, the other in a spectacularly normal way. Because of defensive meltdowns, and because all things must end eventually, we pour one out for the Reign’s undefeated season, and for the Blues’ two-month run, too. And then we keep going, and leave the story of that undefeated season to be written another year. We don’t need it anyway. Not with a month left and a playoff race and record-setting wins and worst to first and the inevitable collapse and/or late-season push. Not with so many stories still left to be written this season.

Our record will be like a strobe light, because “Flash.” Get it?
Are you vaguely obsessive-compulsive? Do you like order and patterns and to only eat one color of M&M at a time? Meet your new favorite team, the Western NY Flash. Not only will you get Abby Wambach and Scorer of the Game Winning Goal in Not One, But Two - TWO - Gold Medal Games Carli Lloyd, and probably free (or at the very least deeply discounted) hot dogs, but also a team that wins at a rate of exactly every other game. All nice and neat, like.

A defensive miscue from Western NY left Kerstin Garefrekes on a breakaway, but before the German could get a shot away, she appeared to be taken down from behind by Katherine Reynolds. Reynolds was ejected and Diana Matheson converted the PK to give the Spirit the 1-0 lead. Western NY wasn’t able to find the equalizer, either because the Flash were forced to play down a player for nearly 40 minutes, or because they won their last game, lost the one before that, won before that, lost--- this has been going on for nine games now and since the beginning of June and you get the idea, that’s just how this works. The Flash’s Where’s Waldo shirt of a season has dropped them into sixth, two points behind fourth-place Portland. The win put Washington back into third, a point ahead of the Thorns.

A hard Reign’s a - gonna fall
It would be - and will be forever - from the foot of Melissa Tancredi that Seattle’s unbeaten run ended at 16. Tancredi’s strike put the Red Stars up by a goal in the 8th minute, and cue the magic and the comebacks that have defined so much of the Reign’s season up until now ... I said cue the magic and the comeback.

HELLO? CUE THE MAG--- It’s... Seattle is losing.

This is the part where there’s a PK or a cheeky little flick or Kim Little or Jess Fishlock or Megan Rapinoe does something. Where Sydney Leroux steals one late. Are you listening? You’re supposed to do the thing where... is anyone there? You missed your cue. You had like 82 minutes. Did you even read the script? The play was called The Undefeated Season, for Pete’s sake. If you miss that part it ruins the whole thing and you really missed it. The reviewer from the Times is going to totally pan us. This was supposed to be like Cats, all now and forever. Now we’re going to be done. Finished! Who’s going to come to a thing called The Undefeated Season where the team isn’t even undefeated? Have I read the script? Of course I have. The part where the team plays to a 0-0 draw? Yes. I know about it. I know. Is it... What? I know about the comebacks and the draws and the cracks that were starting to show. It’s all in the scri--- foreshadowing? Just get out. I said...

What? Oh. Yeah I guess a play about a team that took more than half a season to win its first game a year ago and that finished second from the bottom in that season coming back in year two as the league’s best team would be a pretty solid show too. Yeah, we can make that one, just, we’ll have to think of a new name.

That score is not a typo.
A week after FC Kansas City crushed Sky Blue FC 5-0 in Jersey, the Blues found out what it was like to be on the other end of a crazy lopsided shoreline. Vero Boquete and Allie Long each scored twice and Christine Sinclair, Alex Morgan and Amber Brooks netted one apiece as the Thorns grabbed a convincing win over Kansas City on Sunday. The 7-1 win is the largest margin of victory in NWSL history and Portland’s seven goals is also a league record. The Thorns also snapped FCKC’s nine-match unbeaten run and moved back into a playoff spot with the win.

Scores
Wednesday
Chicago Red Stars 1 - 1 Portland Thorns FC

Friday
Houston Dash 2 - 1 Boston Breakers

Saturday
Western NY Flash 0 - 1 Washington Spirit
Chicago Red Stars 1 - 0 Seattle Reign FC

Sunday
Portland Thorns FC 7 - 1 FC Kansas City