Soccer

NWSL Week 7 in review: Rookie goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan already making a big impact

Eight games in, Sheridan has been an unlikely standout for Sky Blue FC.

May 30, 2017, 4:42 PM UTC

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If there is one advantage to a mediocre season, it is the relative reward of a decent draft pick the following year. Sometimes, teams use these high draft picks as bargaining chips, making them parts of package deals to bring in some high-profile player that’s already in the league and would fill some need in a more immediate way than taking a chance on a rookie would.

Most teams use these picks in the more intended way, though, and that’s to pick up a top college player to help bolster a roster or build a team around, time to develop and looking toward the future very much factored in. Houston did it in 2014, using the No. 2 overall pick to make Kealia Ohai the first real public face of the Dash. Three years later, Ohai is the team’s captain and leading scorer. In 2015, Western NY selected Abby Dahlkemper, Sam Mewis, Jaelene Hinkle, and Lynn Williams in the first round. A season later, all were integral parts of the Flash’s run to the NWSL title.

This year, Boston’s turned a last place finish into Rose Lavelle. Seven games in, she’s a major part of the Breakers looking better than they have in a long time.

Ohai, Dahlkemper, Hinkle, Mewis, Williams, and Lavelle are just a few examples of first-rounders who’ve gone on to find success and become major contributors to teams that pretty desperately needed them. Sometimes, though, the players making the biggest impacts aren’t the ones taken with the top 10 picks.

Seattle goalkeeper Haley Kopmeyer was the 31st pick in the 2013 draft. Now, she’s third in the league in saves and major part of the Reign’s climb into fourth. Chioma Ubogagu was originally selected by Sky Blue FC in the fourth round of the 2015 draft, and though she ultimately opted to spend that season playing for Arsenal, Obogagu ended up playing in NWSL, for Houston, the following season. Now, she’s in Orlando, and has been a bright spot on a Pride team that’s struggled through the early part of the season.

Last year, Sky Blue selected Leah Galton in the second round and Erica Skroski in the third. Skroski immediately become a key part of Sky Blue’s back line and Galton, though she opted to finish school before joining the team, made an immediate impact offensively once she finally arrived in New Jersey. That same year, Boston selected goalkeeper Abby Smith 27th overall, and though her rookie season was cut very short by injury, Smith returned to the field this season, and has been good enough for Boston that it’s earned her a USWNT call-up.

It is in many ways too early to tell which players from further down the draft order will end up paying off the same way this season. We’re only seven (or eight, if you’re North Carolina or Sky Blue) games in, and many teams are still shaking off some lingering offseason cobwebs and and experimenting with formations and lineups. This week, though, with June and the first break for FIFA dates fast approaching, the season and the table are starting to take on more definite shapes. Teams look more consistent — consistently good, consistently stealing games late, consistently mid-table and mediocre, consistently confusing, or in the case of Washington, doing a pretty consistent #tbt to 2013.

This week, the player who entered that conversation was Sky Blue’s Kailen Sheridan. Selected in the third round and 23rd overall, Sheridan was already having a pretty solid season for Sky Blue before this week, but with three games in seven days — two of them wins — she’s established herself as one of this year’s best late-round picks.

That Sky Blue even ended up with Sheridan is a testament to how highly the club ranked her before the season even started. With six picks in the draft, the team had the opportunity to select Jane Campbell, an up-and-coming name in the USWNT ranks. Campbell, who was selected 15th overall, was still available when Sky Blue made its first two picks. Instead, the team left Campbell on the board and picked up Sheridan in the next round. Campbell ended up in Houston, where’s she’s made just one appearance for the Dash, a 5-1 loss to Seattle.

Sheridan’s Week 7 performance was in many ways nothing new. Sheridan has been in goal for all eight of Sky Blue’s games and is major part of why the team is currently in third. An allocated player as a Canadian international, Sheridan’s made just three appearances for her country at the senior level, but she’s also only 21 and there’s a pretty impressive list of names above hers on the depth chart.

With three games in seven days, Christy Holly made several changes to Sky Blue’s lineup to try to rest some players. After beating Houston 2-1 last Saturday, Sky Blue traveled to North Carolina for a midweek game with the Courage. The lineup for the Wednesday night game looked decidedly different from what Sky Blue’s been playing with lately, with Sam Kerr, Raquel Rodriguez, Taylor Lytle, and Erin Simon all starting the game on the bench.

The one consistent thing in Sky Blue’s lineup was Sheridan, and in a game that was delayed by weather and played in less-than-favorable conditions, the rookie goalkeeper stood out as a bright spot. Sheridan made 11 saves, an NWSL-era Sky Blue Record (Karen Bardsley holds the all-time SBFC record, recording 13 saves in a game in the WPS days).

The Courage won 2-0, and with Sky Blue having a rough night defensively, it was mostly Sheridan that kept things even that close. We’ve seen this a bunch from goalkeepers this season; fellow Canadian Stephanie Labbe has kept things from getting completely out of hand more than once for the Spirit, Haley Kopmeyer’s come up huge on several occasions for a Seattle team that still looked rusty in the season’s opening weeks.

Among Sheridan’s saves on Wednesday: A sliding save to strip Debinha one-on-one, a few fingertip saves to deflect the ball to safety, and a sliding kick save on a shot from Lynn Williams from close range.

Sheridan was decidedly less busy in Saturday’s game, a 2-1 win over Orlando, making only two saves, but one of them was an impressive diving stop to deny Alanna Kennedy when the score was 1-1.

Sheridan is still young, and with only limited experience on the international level, there are still definitely moments where she looks like a rookie. Mostly though, Sheridan has played like she’s been in the league for a season or two already, and that’s a huge asset for a Sky Blue team that’s looked a disorganized and a step slow defensively on more than few occasions this season.