NWSL, week 12 in review: Clean sheets

Some weeks you get 5-0 wins and 6-1 wins and 3-3 draws. Others, you get a pair of 1-0 wins and the season’s first 0-0 game. Week 12 was the latter, with no one managing to win by more than one goal in all five games, and only two teams actually scoring more than one goal in a game.

Seattle, FC Kansas City and... Sky Blue F- really? Sky Blue FC? Really. Anyway, Seattle, FC Kansas City and Sky Blue FC all continued their unbeaten runs, while Portland dropped its second straight, Washington got back on the horse, Houston was released from solitary confinement, and Western NY beat Boston, because who hasn’t beaten Boston at this point (Portland, and only Portland).

FC Kansas City closes the gap
FC Kansas City continued its hot streak on Saturday with a 1-0 win over the struggling Portland Thorns. The win is the sixth straight for the Blues, who now take an eight-game unbeaten streak into the final two months of the season. Lauren Holiday netted her sixth of the season in the 41st minute on a low shot that deflected off the foot of Rachel Van Hollebeke and past Nadine Angerer. FC Kansas City now moves within six points of first place Seattle, the closest anyone’s been to catching the Reign in a very, very long time.

For Portland, it’s the second loss in a week and Paul Riley’s club has now slipped all the way into sixth, stuck on 20 points and locked in a three-way tie with Chicago and Western NY for the final playoff spot. The loss to Kansas City also marks the fourth time the defending champions have been shutout this season.
Washington rebounds
Before Saturday, the last time anyone saw the Washington Spirit was on the wrong end of a 6-1 scoreline. That loss, to Portland, capped off a three game losing streak that saw the Spirit outscored 10-1. Which is the perfect time to play the perpetually struggling Houston Dash. Houston hadn’t played a game in two weeks before Saturday, and the Dash couldn’t get much going in its return. Not that Washington ran rampant over the expansion club. Each team had nine shots each, with Washington’s Jodie Taylor scoring the game’s only goal in the 62nd minute. Taylor’s seventh of the season puts her past Carli Lloyd and into fourth in the Golden Boot race, but more importantly, the Spirit are now back in third on table, with nine games left to play. And there was more good news for Washington, too, as Kerstin Garefrekes finally made her debut, playing 11 minutes after coming in for Lisa De Vanna.

Scoreless in Seattle
Through the 13 games Seattle had played before Saturday, the Reign had scored two or more goals 11 times. Seattle had scored just one goal just twice, and the Reign had never, through all those games, failed to score at all. Enter Sky Blue FC. Adorable, barely able to score goals at all, Sky Blue FC. Through its previous 15 games, Sky Blue had been shut out four times, and the Jersey side had scored more than one goal in a game just four times all season, and somehow still managed to win only two of those four games, one of which was Wednesday. But as much as Sky Blue FC has an aversion to scoring, Jim Gabarra’s side is very good at ties. Sky Blue leads the league in draws, now with seven, thanks to Saturday’s 0-0 affair in Seattle.

Neither team managed to generate much in the way of chances, with the Reign outshooting Sky Blue 12-8, but putting only six of those shots on target. Hope Solo, who the Reign made clear was available to play, spent the game on the bench as Hayley Kopmeyer earned her second clean sheet in three games and brought Seattle’s unbeaten streak to 14. Sky Blue FC meanwhile, is now unbeaten in four, earning four of a possible six points on its final west coast trip of the season.

Scores
Wednesday
Portland Thorns FC 1 - 2 Sky Blue FC

Friday
Western NY Flash 2 - 1 Boston Breakers

Saturday
FC Kansas City 1 - 0 Portland Thorns FC
Houston Dash 0 - 1 Washington Spirit
Seattle Reign FC 0 - 0 Sky Blue FC