While the World Cup is ready to begin off in the Land Down Under, the NWSL plows on with the 2023 Challenge Cup continuing through July and August while the top international players vie for glory. With the best players away, it poses an interesting question for fans and organizations alike, who is going to step up?
Read MoreWith the Challenge Cup kicking off two weeks ago, this is the first of a series of biweekly articles on American Soccer Analysis analyzing interesting tidbits across the season - both at a team and individual level. As the season continues to heat up, these articles will come at all angles of the game: tactical information, fascinating data quirks, and as well just basic match reports. The NWSL, as is the case with American soccer across the board is a wild ride - hopefully this series will provide everyone with things to keep an eye on throughout the year!
Read MoreThe NWSL Challenge Cup looked to be set on a predictable path when the knockout stage started but some penalty heroics and general top-notch goalkeeping gave way for the top seeds booking early travel plans back home. But which goalkeeper stood on their head to keep their team’s tournament hopes alive? And what questions do they need to answer going forward? And how many rhetorical questions can we fit in this post? Keep reading to find out!
Read MoreThe preliminary rounds of the Challenge Cup are wrapped up. The seeds are set.
While the first few games saw teams experiment with styles of play and roster rotation (at least for some teams), teams now have to put the pieces together as the knockout rounds begin. We looked at the performances of a couple teams to see where they’re succeeding, and more importantly, what they need to improve upon to be successful in their knockout matches. Here's a look at four of the teams we found most interesting thus far.
Read MoreTwo rounds down, two more to go, and then the real action starts: knockout rounds! Read up on last week’s goalkeeping round up here, if you’re a true goalkeeping nerd.
1.) Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars) - Naeher wasn’t featured against the Portland Thorns. Return later in the week for a recap on round three or scroll down to see how Emily Boyd and Cassie Miller did in her stead.
Read MoreRound one of the NWSL Challenge Cup didn’t give us much time to rest, and round two kicked off just 10 hours after the opening round’s conclusion. For this recurring string of posts, we’ll be looking at the goalkeepers’ performances in the tournament and (power) ranking each one’s chances of being named the Challenge Cup’s best goalkeeper. At the end of the tournament, we’ll name ASA’s top goalkeeper of the tournament. We’re in the early stages right now so it’s still anyone’s game, but here are the NWSL Challenge Cup goalkeeper power rankings after round one.
Read MoreThis is a site for the objective analysis of Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer
