Tobin Heath, Meghan Klingenberg and Sarah Hagen have returned from Europe to finish off the second half of the National Women’s Soccer League season with their respective clubs.
Klingenberg is likely to make an immediate impact for the Houston Dash, a team that is 4-8-1 through 13 games and whose 13 points have them in seventh of nine clubs.
Hagen’s arrival at FC Kansas City, as we wrote earlier in the year while analyzing upcoming roster changes, throws a curve ball into coach Vlatko Andonovski’s plans. Two things are clear: Kansas City is best in a 4-5-1 formation, and with Amy Rodriguez as that forward. The Blues are winners of five straight matches, so how will changes be made? We’ll find out soon, but Hagen may come off the bench.
And for Heath, this scenario is nothing new. She returned from PSG last July to boost a Portland club that was sluggish and inconsistent, and she returns home to a very similar situation this year. Two weeks after losing to the Western New York Flash, 5-0, the Thorns went on the road on Saturday to pound the Washington Spirit, 6-1. Heath won’t be available until July 1, for reasons unknown.
“I think the transition from PSG to the Thorns — this is my second time doing it, so I think I’m pretty familiar with how it goes,” she told ussoccer.com. ” I think you kind of go from being fully focused on one team to then investing everything into another.”
