With the FIFA international break behind us, Week 10 of the Gainbridge Super League season kicks off tonight. Eight teams are competing across four consecutive nights of action, so here’s one thing to watch for in each match.
SPKvCAR: Which team scores first
In the series between Spokane and Carolina, scoring first has proven to be the key to winning. Aside from one scoreless draw, the winning team scored first in each of the other four matches. Additionally, the momentum seemed to shift to the team with the lead; only once did the losing team even get on the board, and it was a late penalty kick to bring the score to 2-1.
The challenge for Carolina – and most other teams in the league – is the difficulty of getting past Spokane’s stout defense. Ascent was held scoreless by the Zephyr last month, even while recording more shots. But Spokane isn’t necessarily an attacking powerhouse. The team has scored 10 goals across 10 matches, tied for the lowest goals-per-game mark in the league. Thursday’s match will likely be low-scoring but tightly-contested and could swing either way.
LEXvJAX: How JAX performs without Puerta and Brown
Sporting JAX is set to face Lexington for the first time this Friday as the seventh team attempting to end the Girls in Green’s undefeated streak. However, the visitors will be without their star midfielder and center back Ashlyn Puerta and Georgia Brown. Both players have competed in nearly every minute this season but will be unavailable on Friday due to international duty.
Paige Kenton and Jade Pennock have combined for goals multiple times this season and will likely pick up the offensive load without Puerta. On the defensive end, Grace Phillpotts and Julia Lester will have to step up to cover for Brown, who leads the team in clearances and blocks. If JAX can take down a team like Lexington without two of its starters, it’ll add even more credence to how good the expansion club can be the rest of the season.
BKNvFTL: Brooklyn’s first-half offense
All 12 of Brooklyn’s goals this season have come in the second half, and while it doesn’t hurt to be a comeback team, Brooklyn could be much farther up in the standings if it jumped on teams a little earlier. Its best match of the season was its opener against Tampa Bay, and although it was scoreless at halftime, the first 45 built a lot of momentum that Brooklyn used to net two goals to start the second half.
It would be especially advantageous to strike early on Saturday as Fort Lauderdale plays its first full match without starting goalkeeper Bella Hara, who is serving a red card suspension. FTL UTD has barely had to play from behind this season, but we saw what happened when Lexington jumped to a 2-0 lead by the 25th minute in Week 9.
DALvDC: Star strikers
Both Dallas Trinity and DC Power are in winless ruts right now. Dallas has played just one league match in the past month and has fallen down the standings after its strong 3-0-0 start. DC hasn’t won since opening night and is earning just a point per game through seven contests. The spark for both teams is often provided through their strikers and all-time leading scorers, Allie Thornton and Gianna Gourley.
Thornton has been off to a slow start this season, scoring half the number of goals she had at this point last year, but Dallas as a whole has scored five less goals through its first seven games compared to last season. Returning to the Cotton Bowl after a five-match road stretch might give Thornton and Dallas the energy they need to find the back of the net.
As for Gourley, she tends to rise to the moment when DC needs her most, as we saw with her equalizer in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time against Spokane in Week 9. Surprisingly, eight of her 11 goals in the league have been scored on the road, so she will surely look to get past Dallas’ backline on Sunday.