NWSL week 5 in review: Alex Morgan is back to her best

Once at Yurcak Field, Lisa De Vanna scored on a bicycle kick. Twitter quickly delivered a GIF of this to the press box at Yurcak and I really have no idea what happened for the rest of that game because GIFs just keep playing over and over and over until someone is turning off the lights and sweeping the floor around you.

So far this season, we haven’t really had one of those goals. There have been some good ones, and something is winning Goal of the Week every week, but I don’t know that I’d want to watch any of them in perpetuity. Saturday, though, that changed. The goalscorer was Alex Morgan and the goal was a 30-yard chip over the head of Western NY’s Sabrina D’Angelo. It turned out to be the game winner, because that’s what happens when only one goal gets scored in the entire game. But if only one goal is going to be scored in a game, this is the kind you want.

It’s not even that it’s kind of an audacious shot or a shot that goes sailing over the bar the other 99 times someone tries it that makes it so good. It’s everything leading up to it and involved in it.

It’s the 79th minute, D’Angelo takes a free kick after Lianne Sanderson is whistled for offside. The ball bounces around at midfield among the heads of players from both teams before Sanderson settles it and plays a short ball to Kristen Edmonds. This is where it gets good. Edmonds plays a ball that’s perfect for Morgan to run onto, and Morgan’s timed her run exactly right. The turf at Camping World Stadium has been doing funny things all night though, and even with the perfect pass and the perfect run, the ball is already bouncing and speeding away in front of Morgan when it lands, and she’s also got a pair of Flash defenders right on her heels. Morgan knows she’s got a step on both of those defenders though, and also that she’s faster -- she lets the ball bounce a few times in front of her and then catches up to it and one-times a shot over D’Angelo, who’s way off her line.

The goal gives the Pride a 1-0 lead, and becomes the game winner 11 minutes later. It will also become the Goal of the Week winner later this week, because it’s a really great goal -- and because only four other goals were scored this weekend, and one of them was a Boston own goal.

After Western NY’s win last weekend in New Jersey, Paul Riley talked about the struggles of having a young team. One of the biggest: That they often appeared somewhat awestruck when walking into some of the league’s larger venues. The Flash opened the season with a pair of games in MLS stadia (Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City and Toyota Park in Chicago).

It wouldn’t have been that surprising then if Riley’s Flash team had had a tough time playing in the 60,000-plus capacity Camping World Stadium in Orlando. Instead, Western NY held the Pride scoreless for 79 minutes before allowing Morgan’s world-class goal.

Western NY looked comfortable with the fast pace and wide-openness of Saturday’s game, and though they’re still struggling with finishing in the run of play -- two of the Flash’s three goals this season have been from penalty kicks -- there were also glimpses of a more coherent attack than we’ve seen previously.

The Flash probably won’t get back to the postseason this year, but young and oddly built teams are a Paul Riley specialty, and Western NY is already showing flashes of what’s to come with a little more time.

We’ve played five games and the Spirit -- yes the Spirit -- is atop the table, with a 4-0-1 record. Perhaps even more impressive though is that they’ve allowed just one goal through those five games. And sure, Washington hasn’t exactly faced any offensive powerhouses yet, but still, a single goal?

For some context on just how good that is: In 2013, the Spirit allowed seven goals through the first five games. In both 2014 and 2015, they allowed nine. But it’s not only Washington’s best-ever start, it’s also the best defensive start by any NWSL team, ever. Through the first five games, no other team has ever allowed fewer goals.

The next best is the 2014 Seattle Reign, who allowed two goals through the first five games. Five teams -- the 2013 Portland Thorns, the 2013 FC Kansas City team, the 2014 Chicago Red Stars and this season’s Red Stars and Thorns teams -- have allowed three goals through five games. Last season, only FCKC allowed fewer than six goals in the first five games (the Blues allowed four).

Goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé, who’s playing her first season in the NWSL after several years in Sweden, has a 0.20 goals against average and has saved 93 percent of shots she’s faced, both league bests.

The Spirit’s next five games will feature some tough opponents, including Portland and Houston away, and Orlando at home, but the Spirit has also already shut out both the Dash and Thorns once each this season. It’s still too early to pick a definitive favorite, but repeating those results and doing well against Orlando means the Spirit could very well be competing for the shield when they meet the Reign for the first time this season in mid-September.

Saturday