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Graham haysESPN.com
The first professional sports league in the United States to resume competition amid a pandemic, the National Women’s Soccer League demonstrated that there was a way for the games to continue.
By winning the month-long NWSL Challenge Cup after making the playoffs in its first six league seasons, the Houston Dash proved that those games could still be important.
Why else would Houston midfielder Kristie Mewis struggle to hold back tears after a hamstring injury forced her out of the final in the first half? Why would defender Megan Oyster throw her head at a cross in the final minutes, knowing she left her injured ribs open in the face of the collision that inevitably knocked her to the ground when an equally desperate opponent threw herself at the ball?
Why is league MVP Rachel Daly, showing exhaustion in the second half’s halting time, finding enough energy to throw a pass to midfielder Shea Groom, who somehow still had legs to run around the Chicago goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and score the goal that sealed a 2 -0 win?
Why would forward Nichelle Prince even want to be in Utah, let alone create opportunity after opportunity and pursue the defense, just a month after her father’s death? And just a few weeks after she was quarantined alone in a Utah hotel room after returning to the bubble of her home in Canada?
Why would someone do any of that if their paycheck was guaranteed even if they chose not to participate?
In a year when control over our world has never felt so fleeting, the ability to accomplish something is a powerful motivator. Even if it’s only for 90 minutes in a chalked field.
“We are only winners today,” Daly said later. “And I think this is how we want to be known.”
During the briefest of moments on Sunday, it looked like Houston would play the role often attributed to rookies in the championship – the role that Chicago coach Rory Dames admitted his team played a season ago in his first championship game when it came out completely against North Carolina. in the first minutes. This time, with Houston hesitant at kick-off, Chicago’s Savannah McCaskill broke loose on the flank in the opening minute and crossed the ball into dangerous space. The board finally cleared the ball, but the warning lights glowed brightly.
Except Houston, who spent essentially the entire month in Utah ceding possession to his opponents and creating his own opportunities in short bursts with the ball or on the counterattack, continued to do just that. Mewis ran down the left side in the fourth minute, played by Daly despite being knocked down in the process, and dribbled to defender Kayla Sharples, who pulled Mewis from behind for obvious punishment.
Daly, who said he was still recovering from the midfield collision, handed the penalty over to midfielder Sophie Schmidt. The Canadian international veteran calmly converted the opportunity.
“I don’t think the game plan will change a bit because you’re in the fifth or sixth minute, so there’s a lot of play left,” Dames said. “But the worst thing you can do, even if you are in the regular season in a three game week, the worst thing you can do in that third game is drop a goal early because now you have to gather energy to chase and be able to play higher and push “
The moment encapsulated a lot about the entire tournament. A promising but inexperienced sophomore player, Sharples was in the starting lineup for the final because Casey Short, one of the league’s best defenders and a regular part of Vlatko Andonovski’s national team rosters, was injured in the head. The Red Stars also played most of the tournament without highlighting Tierna Davidson, Morgan Gautrat and Yuki Nagasoto due to injuries.
If the players were injured during the tournament or were excluded from participating beforehand, there was a significant list of stars missing during all or part of the tournament. No team was going to win with their first-choice lineup. Everyone had to adapt, and that after a limited preseason.
The only team without a member of the American team to win the World Cup last summer, Houston was not immune to the rotation. Not long after she targeted the penalty and seemed to grip her left hamstring with some discomfort, but long enough for her to do at least one more sprint down the left side, Mewis admitted to Dash coach James Clarkson the pre-existing injury in the hamstring. would not allow her to continue.
Enter CeCe Kizer, who played just 32 minutes in his first five appearances in the tournament. The Dash barely missed a beat.
“I think it is really important to give CeCe credit,” Daly said. “She has been an integral part of our team. She stepped forward today, she played great. And filling someone like Kristie’s boots is very difficult. For me, as a natural center forward with her behind me, I communicate, I get the ball was fed to me. It’s hard to lose a player like that, but credit where it should be. “
And at the time of the strike, it was up to Daly to offer one last example. So seemingly exhausted on another extremely hot day at the end of a brutally long month that he could see his hands drop to his knees as the ball bounced off midfield, Daly prepared to pay Groom the final goal. The goal that guaranteed the Dash will never again be an afterthought in NWSL history.
“I was probably running E at that point, my tank is a little empty,” Daly acknowledged. “I just saw Shea go and I knew he was going to score. In the past, I could have tried doing it myself and trying to dribble the entire field. But I think as a leader on this team, I’ve had to step up and be more for other people this year. Shea has come in and done great. I mean, I keep helping her, but she doesn’t help me. “
It was, to be clear, he was only joking about the last part, and according to Clarkson, the assistance that earned Daly the Golden Boot through the tiebreaker was even worth an additional $ 10,000.
If Dash played fewer games to win their trophy than any other NWSL champion, they and the rest of the tournament field also passed a test unlike any other sport we’ve ever seen.
“This was a unique tournament for us,” Red Stars star Julie Ertz later said with a wry, tired smile. “But one of a lot of growth: a lot of growth on the field, a lot of growth off the field. For me, a lot of growth as a leader. This is definitely a tournament that I will never forget, obviously playing soccer games and being able to come back and be with my team and work every day. I think we’ve learned a lot about mental health for sure. Which is obviously important. “
The first league to return, the NWSL now becomes the first to discover what comes next. NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird last week indicated, though she did not confirm or offer a schedule, that the league will explore ways to play more games this year.
But last month, it featured more than 2,000 soccer minutes and, according to the league, more than 2,000 coronavirus tests without a positive result (excluding the positive tests that forced Orlando to withdraw before traveling to the Utah bubble) It was his own feat for everyone involved.
“It’s interesting because every tournament or any team I’ve been a part of, it’s about the journey to get somewhere,” said Ertz. “For us, this was really special for many reasons that really only 28 of us who are here plus the coaches will really understand it.”
The atmosphere was slightly different for the Dash, Daly happily sipping a celebratory beer from a league sponsor as he answered questions. But that particular feeling was shared.
“We have faced so much adversity,” Daly said. “More than anyone in the world could understand, and they probably never will.”
The NWSL was the first league to return to the field. The Dash was the first team to remind us how much that can mean.
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