Kansas City v Louisville Pre Match Thoughts

Louisville prepared for their upcoming match in Kansas City on Thursday. With a semifinal spot secured, seeding is all that is left to play for. Louisville will surely push for a win to secure a home semifinal match. However, Kansas City will be looking to grab a win and try to salvage something out of what has so far been a disappointing season. They are by no means out of playoff contention, but I doubt anyone was projecting them to be at the bottom of the table especially this late in the season. I think this makes the Current especially dangerous on Saturday.

Louisville had to navigate the last match without Abby Erceg, and Bev Yanez (substituting for an ill Coach Björkegren) said there was “no update” on her availability. Sometimes the club provides an availability update prior to the NWSL's official availability report, and if I see it I will post in on social media (1am not calling the erstwhile Twitter by its new name…by the way, Elon Musk is a stupid person's idea of what an intelligent person sounds like.)

Louisville's forward and attacking midfield ranks are starting to get a bit overcrowded, so this might be the last chance for players like Goins, Davis, and Ekic to show that they deserve minutes. Nadia Nadim can't be too far off from taking over the starting center forward role and Kgatlana and are Kanu certainly higher on the depth chart than Ekic (Goins is debatable, so she and Kanu might be a toss up). I asked newly named July Best XI member Paige Monaghan about the competition at forward. She believes that the number of attacking players at Louisville's disposal makes them dangerous against opponents due to the options they have off the bench. I think it's fair to say that Björkegren likes to plan his substitutes and in this season subbing on forwards has been the tendency. At practice you often see players switch teams during the scrimmage and this typically indicates who is going to be subbing on in the upcoming match if things go to plan. At full strength he will probably continue the trend of naming 4 to 5 attacking options on the bench. However those 4 to 5 will no longer be as easy to select.

I think Jordan Baggett has been a key addition and could end up being the pivotal player on Saturday, so maybe keep and eye out for her against the Current. It has turned out to be a really shrewd move by Ryan Dell.