Soccer

NWSL, week 15 in review: And then there were three

Seattle books a ticket to the postseason, Portland and Sky Blue win big, and the playoff race heats up.

Jul 21, 2014, 4:52 PM UTC

USA TODAY Sports

The 2014 season is entering the home stretch, and with Seattle officially clinching a playoff spot thanks to a draw with Chicago, there are now only three more postseason spots up for grabs - and four weeks still to play. The four teams currently occupying the third through sixth place spots on the table - Portland, Washington, Chicago and Western NY - are separated by just five points, and mathematically speaking at least, the postseason dream is still alive for the bottom three teams too.

Most of week 15 - four of the six games, to be exact - ended with 1-1 draws. But the two games that didn’t featured a whopping 15 goals. The Thorns made another high-scoring case for inclusion in the top four by knocking off the Breakers to the tune of 6-3 in the NWSL’s 2014 television debut. And in New Jersey, Sky Blue FC finally found some offense, putting up four against the Spirit.

These boots are made for scoring

From July 13th until now - so, one week - the Portland Thorns have played the following three games: 7-1, 1-1, 6-3. That’s 14 goals in three games for a Thorns side that spent most of the first half of the season as one of the NWSL’s lowest scoring teams. For comparison, the entire rest of the league scored 17 goals in that same week span. Total. The Thorns latest goal outburst included a hat trick from Christine Sinclair that took roughly eleven minutes - with two coming in the final 10 of the first half and the third less than a minute into the second fame, and a goal each from Allie Long, Alex Morgan and Jessica McDonald. McDonald’s goal - Portland’s sixth - is her eleventh on the season, putting her even with Seattle’s Kim Little in the Golden Boot race.

Katie Schoepfer, Nikki Washington and Heather O’Reilly all scored for Boston, and the Breakers actually had the lead three times before managing to Boston the whole thing up - this time on national television, turning a game they were thrice winning into a 6-3 loss, because, well, Boston. Portland climbs into third on the table with the win, now just five back of FC Kansas City. Boston is still last, now six points out of anywhere that is not last and isn’t this over yet? We still have to do this six more times?

New player, new confidence

There have always been questions about how and where Kelley O’Hara fit with Sky Blue FC. A USWNT allocation, O’Hara initially seemed like a good get for the Jersey side. She was young and versatile, a forward converted to outside back - able to score goals, or defend but still get forward. Except things never worked out for O’Hara - in either position - in her first season in New Jersey. She spent much of 2013 looking slightly uncomfortable, mostly invisible and eventually injured. Back with Sky Blue for a second season, questions remained about how - and where - O’Hara fit in Jim Gabarra’s team.

O’Haras spent most of the 2014 season in her old forward position, and looked less lost at least, with three goals on the season, but those questions lingered. Sunday, maybe, finally brought an answer. Playing with new forward partner Nadia Nadim, O’Hara looked, for the first time, comfortable.

Nadim, acquired a month ago on loan from Danish club Fortunna Hjorring, but making just her second appearance for Sky Blue, instantly made her presence felt as the offensive player the league’s lowest scoring club has been missing all season. Alongside the Afghanistan-born Denmark national team veteran Nadim, O’Hara had a goal and two assists. Nadim, making her first start, had a goal and an assist and Sophie Schmidt - last season’s leading scorer - finally netted her first of the season as Sky Blue topped Washington 4-2. Jodie Taylor and Robin Gayle both scored for Washington inside the final ten minutes as the Spirit slipped into fourth and tied on points with Chicago for the final playoff spot.

Postseason bound

A year after finishing the season with the league’s second-worst record, the Seattle Reign became the first team to clinch a playoff spot in 2014. The Reign, coming off its first loss of the season last weekend to this very Red Stars team, took the 1-0 lead in the 70th minute on a Beverly Goebel goal. But just as Seattle has stolen so many points and games late this season, and just as the Red Stars were famous for doing a year ago, Christen Press tied things up for Chicago in the 81st minute. The Reign is now winless in two, but the point was all Seattle needed to officially book a ticket to the postseason. The Red Stars are unbeaten in the month of July, but that five game run includes four draws and just one win.