Lexington SC 1-3 Ft. Lauderdale United

It seems not that long ago that we talking about Ft. Lauderdale as a team that didn’t quite have everything together. Boy, has that changed! Four matches into the season, Ft. Lauderdale is every bit together and looking the part of a club on the rise. Part of that, of course, is thanks to the transcendent play of Addie McCain. The midfielder has more goals (5) than matches (4) and is the Super League’s early frontrunner for golden boot.

Addie put all three of the goals on the board for United in this match - the opening goal, the winning goal, and the insurance goal - completing her hat trick. But the first 15 minutes of the match was mostly Lexington trying to get the goal into the net. Shot after shot, chance after chance, including one off the crossbar that somehow didn’t get in. McCain would respond in the 22nd minute. After a long cross missed her in the box, a quick pass back to her from Cameron Brooks found her ready foot. She placed it into the far corner and 1-0 FTLUTD.The rest of the first half was chance after chance for the visiting side, including a delightful long range shot from Hamid that just barely went wide.

That pressure would continue in the second half, capped off in the 57th minute when McCain took a beautiful shot past the keeper into the net. Spectacular goal. But a minute later, Lexington would respond with a beautiful set-piece goal that Shephard would one-time past the keeper. The final goal would come on a penalty call, setting up McCain for her hat trick. She calmly slotted it past the keeper into the corner.

Spokane Zephyr 1-0 DC Power

Heading into the match, the entire crew of the Super Show picked DC Power to get its first win on the road at Spokane. DC felt like it was working out the kinks and coming together. Spokane, on the other hand, had just taken a 2-0 loss to Carolina and, regardless of playing all their matches at home, had zero wins in the season. So we felt confident that Power would get the 3 points on the road. The 1-0 result further proves that we know nothing.

The only goal of the match would come on a stupendous free kick for the home side. Team captain Sarah Clark hit a beautiful curving set piece into the box and no one was getting to it other than fellow center back Haley Thomas. She crushed the ball into the net, past the keeper. Beautiful play and enough for the win.

Spokane looked the better team in both aspects of the game and were able to make a single goal stand up. Will be interesting to see if Power can snap out of this funk. They’ve got plenty of firepower, but can’t seem to find a win.

Weirdness in the Schedule

I know there’s plenty of reasons for why the league structured this week’s games across 6 days, but Jeez, I think it’s a bad idea. Bunching matches up allows people to focus on them, tune in, post on social media about them. Spreading them across the week seems like the opposite of that. And even weirder, how is Friday’s match part of this week’s schedule? Shouldn’t it be grouped with next week’s matches?

Top Three (Power Rankings)

Carolina Ascent - Everything I said about them a week ago is true. Going up against Tampa on Friday will be a test, but they are at home.
Dallas Trinity - Again, nothing has changed for this team, but they have a mid-week road match against Brooklyn who have looked good so far.
Ft. Lauderdale United - FTLUTD leapfrog Brooklyn for this spot and I feel no shame. Addie McCain is out of her mind and this team is cruising.

- Dan Vaughn