Craig Mitchelldyer-Imagn Pictures
No fewer than three groups had been slapped with the “peaking on the proper time” part because the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League’s common season got here to an in depth over the weekend.
There are plenty of sports activities axioms like this that shortly tumble into cliché when you hear them sufficient. One other good one is what I’ll name Win-One-For-The-Gipper Syndrome. Who doesn’t love an excellent sports activities film narrative about rallying round a membership legend and sending them into retirement with a trophy? Ali Krieger was a universally liked and revered veteran who had by no means gained a membership title, so when NJ/NY Gotham FC raised the trophy in San Diego final yr — after three scrappy knockout video games and an equally scrappy regular-season marketing campaign — why not assume that the staff’s use of Krieger as a motivational tactic was the first cause for his or her victory?
The reality turns into extra sophisticated when you begin digging underneath the hood and take into account the complete historical past of the league. A few of these narratives have some sudden, data-driven weight to them. Others are the tales we inform ourselves with the intention to reside. So, let’s unpack a number of and see if we will discover some sign within the noise that may inform us one thing concerning the 2024 playoffs.
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