What's going on with our Royals? 2: We Won a Game Boogaloo
We won a game!
Well, it’s been a few weeks since I last wrote about our Royals, and both fortunately and unfortunately, a lot has happened. I thought I’d hop on for a brief review of the Portland and Chicago games and the ~news~, so that we can check in on how our Royals are looking and what the team still needs to do.
Guess what? We have more excuses!
As if URFC’s loss to Portland didn’t hurt enough, we also got two pieces of terrible injury updates that night:
First, Mina Tanaka is out for 6-8 weeks following a hamstring injury sustained while she was on international duty with Japan. And this just sucks. She’s one of the Royals’ most versatile attackers and adds some much-needed experience and clinical finishing to URFC’s attack. Between Tanaka’s injury, captain Paige Monaghan’s (I’m assuming) broken foot, and Cloe Lacasse's ongoing ACL recovery, the Royals’ first choice frontline is spending the next month (at least) in the stands. Notably, not where you want your best attackers to be.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jimmy Coenraets shared in his post-game press conference that Kaleigh Riehl was a week away from returning to the squad, but reinjured whatever mystery lower leg thing she originally hurt and was now- and I struggle to even type this honestly- 8-9 weeks away. (By the time this is published, she should be 6-7 weeks away… so yay… I guess.) Not only is Coenraets very nearly out of center backs, but the team is also missing Riehl’s speedy recovery runs and secure passing. It also, as we know, delays the Royals’ ability to get Ana Tejada back into the midfield even more.
But in slightly better news, the Royals signed attacker Cece Kizer from Gotham FC. Kizer is a proven attacker in this league, who’s defensively strong and comfortable getting into the box and creating chances. Her numbers from the 2023 season are good, but she hasn’t recreated them since. Though, this could be due to her not being used properly in the teams she spent the subsequent seasons with. URFC faithful shouldn’t expect her to revolutionize the team’s attack just yet, but at least until Monaghan and Tanaka are back, it’s time to hand the keys to the car to Kizer and Ally Sentnor, and let them take on defenses and create opportunities.
URFC v. Portland: Oof.
Blegh. Ugh. Ew. This was not a good night. As you can tell by the length of this section, I’m not going to dive into this game as much as I will the Chicago match, simply because I don’t feel the need to rewatch this one. But I’ll give a quick overview:
The defensive line wasn’t winning their duels, and Reilyn Turner was able to use her speed to get into dangerous areas, getting 5 shots off in the 84 minutes she played. The Royals defense and midfield also committed 10 fouls, giving Portland ample opportunities to serve the ball into dangerous areas. And Hina Sugita did what she does, and Coenraets’s midfield looked completely unable to stop her.
Offensively, it is notable that FotMob pinged the Royals for three big chances on the night. Unfortunately, all three were missed (and I’m not convinced they had three to begin with). The difference in the teams’ ability to create chances fleshed out pretty starkly in the xG split: 0.84 for the Royals, 2.38 for Portland. At home against a team that had struggled in its previous 3 games, not great. Not great at all.
Most frustratingly, the Royals again had a deeply underwhelming first half- to the tune of zero shots in the full 45 minutes. And yes, they did improve in the second half, but as we know, teams that can’t play well for 90 minutes will not succeed in this league. This was absolutely a winnable game, and frankly URFC should feel like they blew it.
URFC v. Chicago: Yay!
Going into this game, I will be honest and say I did not have hope. Looking at Ludmila’s performance the week prior and the left side of the Royals’ backline, I was convinced Ludmila was going to feast this game. But, I was thrilled to spend my Friday night watching the Royals’ first complete 90-minute performance of the season.
So many things started going right for Coenraets’ squad this game. Starting with the backline: wow, the gals can defend! For comparison, in the game against Portland, the Royals’ starting defenders were dribbled past four times, while winning 71% of their tackles. Against Chicago, URFC’s backline were dribbled past only twice and won 100% of their tackles, while also completing 21 recoveries and winning 15 duels. Hey, that’s better!
And the midfield was midfielding, for maybe the first time this season. Much of the credit here goes to Dana Foederer, who looked like her old self this game. Defensively, she won 75% of her tackles and 70% of her ground duels, and was dribbled past only once. Offensively, we finally saw some classic Foederer long balls forward and 33 completed passes, which included 7 passes into the final third. Not to mention she earned the game-winning penalty with a great run into the box.
The forward line is where there’s still some issues. The team is still lacking an ability to create clear, high quality goal scoring opportunities. If you don’t include Sentnor’s 100th minute penalty, the Royals created a mere 0.2 xG against Chicago. In a league where most teams are averaging 1.5 (ish) xG per game, 0.2 is a concerningly low total. Granted, this does not include the two times the Royals hit the woodwork.
It also doesn’t include two of the best chances the team created: First, in the 59th minute, St. Georges drove to the endline and flashed a cross across the face of the goal. Solorzano was there and Imani Dorsey was sliding in at the back post, but neither got a touch. Then in the 96th minute, Sentnor lifted a cross into the box, but Kizer couldn’t quite get her head on it. Now I’m no xG calculator, but a touch towards the goal in either of those chances probably makes the URFC xG total a little more flattering.
Part of the Royals’ attacking issues can definitely be chalked up to newness: URFC’s front four has changed every week, and any grouping has started only one game together:
v. Bay: St. Georges, Tanaka, Fraser (w/ Sentnor as the 10)
v. San Diego: St. Georges, Solorzano, Sentnor (w/ Tanaka as the 10)
v. Kansas City: St. Georges, Sentnor, Fraser (w/ Tanaka as the 10)
v. Portland: St. Georges, Solorzano, Mozingo (w/ Sentnor as the 10)
v. Chicago: St Georges, Solorzano, Thomsen (w/ Sentnor as the 10)
The team is still working on creating relationships between attackers and are certainly still learning each other’s tendencies. And they probably will be for a few more weeks, as Cece Kizer arrived less than a week ago. Given the Royals’ injuries and general newness, I’m absolutely fine with the gameplan for the next few weeks becoming “lock it down defensively, scrap for the one goal you need.” In fact, I would maybe prefer that to the Wile E. Coyote stuff URFC was doing in the early weeks of the season.
Onward and Upward
In my last blog, I said the Royals needed to spend April:
Showing that they are able to build out from the back.
Demonstrating better decision making in the final third.
Putting together full 90-minute performances.
Two games in, we’ve got one game of absolutely not doing that and one game of (relative) success. Like I said, given all the injury problems and incorporation time needed for a lot of new players, there ain’t no shame in defending well and creating (and preferably scoring) one good chance a game. Coenraets has the players to do that, as long as he adjusts his gameplan and lineups accordingly. ***
And listen, I know URFC didn’t perform great against the Red Stars. But our Royals are playing with about 5 and half healthy players and a dream, so we’re celebrating what we can. That performance also gave the team a minimum standard, and we’re only going up from here.
***Just for the record, here’s how Coenraets should probably line up his squad for the foreseeable:
