The NWSL Shield winning Reign came close to capturing it all, but fell short in the final. With just a few changes from 2014, is Seattle still the team to beat and ready for another shot at the title?
Head coach: Laura Harvey, third season, did not make a trade on Thursday.
Where we left off: Seattle Reign FC finished the NWSL regular season as Shield winners, with a 16-2-6 record. In the postseason, the Reign knocked off Washington in the semis, but couldn't quite recover from a two-goal deficit against FCKC in the final, losing the title game 1-2 to the Blues.
Solo duo: Haley Kopmeyer probably wasn't planning on seeing a ton of time last season, what with Hope Solo on the roster and all, but things have a way of working out/not working out sometimes. Kopmeyer ended up making four appearances in 2014, winning three, drawing one and allowing just two goals. She'll have to step up again this season, with Solo seemingly getting her life personal life sorted out and back with the USWNT. As for the non-World Cup times: Seattle has Hope Solo, they're probably going to be fine. Plus, the Reign decided to go almost full-purple this year, so now they can all fight about who gets to dress like the Grimace on a given game day.
Solid: Defensively, Seattle was the stingiest team in the league. They not only allowed an NWSL-low 20 goals in 2014, but just 198 shots total. That's at least 44 less than any other team (Kansas City was next with 242 shots allowed). The Reign's entire defensive corps returns for 2015, with the exception of Kate Deines who was traded to Kansas City in November, but decided to retire anyway so you win again Laura Harvey, and Amanda Frisbie, who was traded to Western NY but never played in 2014 due to injury anyway, so...
Returning are Stephanie Cox, Lauren Barnes, Kendall Fletcher and Elli Reed, plus new additions Rachel Corsie and Michelle Cruz. None of these are people that have any World-cup related national team commitments. Sigh. Point: Harvey.
Stable: The Reign doesn't look much different in the midfield from a season ago either. Kim Little, who you may remember as the 2014 MVP, Golden Boot winner and scorer of 16 goals, and Jess Fishlock, who you may remember for her four goals and eight assists a season ago, will both be back in the shadow of the Space Needle for another season. Little and Fishlock are internationals, but for Scotland and Wales respectively, two countries that didn't qualify for the World Cup. They'll be joined by fellow returnees Mariah Noguiera and Keelin Winters. Seattle also picked up Amber Brooks in part of a little trade that also included Frisbie, Sydney Leroux and the rights to some player no one's ever heard of named Abby something. If you're not following along, none of Seattle's midfielders have any World Cup commitments either. Point: Harvey.
Oh, something did change: This is where things get strange, relatively speaking. The Reign actually will look slightly different at forward. Seattle's league best 50 goals owe a lot to Little sure, but Naho Kawasumi wasn't exactly doing nothing up there either. Kawasumi was responsible for nine goals in 2014, but played in Seattle while on loan from Japanese club INAC Kobe Leonessa. As of now, she isn't expected to return to the Reign, though with Harvey at the helm, anything is possible.
There's also Leroux, who was shipped to Western NY as part of the aforementioned trade, but her time in Seattle wasn't particularly productive anyway, tallying just five goals in 22 appearances. And Leroux is a part of the USWNT, so how much of a contribution was she really going to make? Seattle is also set to miss Megan Rapinoe for World Cup duties, but like Leroux, Rapinoe's contribution to the Reign last season was limited, though in her case it was due to injury.
Returning to Seattle's front line, and without any pesky international commitments, are Kiersten Dallstream, Danielle Foxhoven and Beverly Yanez (Goebel). The Reign also picked up Merritt Mathias from Kansas City in the Deines trade, and Denmark's Katrine Veje, who most recently played with Brondby IF in the Danish Elitedivisionen.
There's also Abby Wambach, the other part of the Frisbie-Leroux-Brooks trade. Or, the rights to Wambach, anyway. The 34 year old Wambach said -- before she was traded from Western NY -- that with the World Cup on the horizon she had no plans of playing in NWSL this season, and so far there's no indication that that's going to change. Seattle will probably be fine without her.
In conclusion: Laura Harvey didn't do much this offseason, which is a complete 180 from a year ago, but when you've got pretty much all the same pieces from a team that lost just twice last season, why would you?
Source SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1Guz9mV
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