Saving Players from Themselves: The Decision to Sub Out Meikayla Moore

If you’re reading this, you undoubtedly know that, in the US Women’s National Team 5–0 victory over New Zealand in the She Believes Cup, three of those goals were own goals by New Zealand defender Meikayla Moore, two of which were in the first ten minutes of the game. New Zealand coach Jitka Klimková subbed Moore out in the 41st minute, after the third goal.

Sebastián Salazar, who was calling the game for ABC with former USWNT player Julie Foudy, asked Foudy, rightly, for the player’s perspective. Does Moore, at that point, after giving up her third own goal, want to come off? In effect, is Klimková doing Moore a favor by subbing her out? Foudy responded in the negative, that players want to right the wrong.

Foudy’s response, while no doubt accurate, raises an interesting issue in the relationship between player and coach: who’s job is it to make such a decision? The easy answer is of course the coach. She’s in charge and she’s the one on the hook if things go wrong. But there are plenty of counterexamples, of coaches being overruled (rightly or wrongly) by players. Perhaps the easiest example is how often baseball pitchers are able to send managers who are there to pull them from the game back to the dugout.

The real question then becomes, I suppose, as a coach, how do you know? How do you decide when to save a player from themselves? And when to let them play on, even to their potential personal (physical and/or emotional) detriment? Tony DiCicco describes how, in the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final, Michelle Akers, who had been knocked out cold going up for a header, not to mention her suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, would have continued playing had he not overruled her, despite the fact that she could barely stand. As DiCicco said, at that point the doctor became the coach. But any player playing at that level got there through unrelenting hard work, commitment, dedication, and competitiveness. If it were in their nature to give up, they likely wouldn’t be there in the first place.

Which brings us back to Foudy’s response. The TV camera lingered, perhaps a bit too long, on Moore’s face after the third own goal as the teams set up to restart. It was clear that she was, at best, distracted by those three girls and, at worst, and, in my opinion, more probably, just mentally broken. Her vacant stare, granted from a telescopic perspective that her coach would not have had from the sideline, suggested what her coach knew and why she was subbed out, that, even if she did have something left, it wasn’t worth the risk of another potential miscue; enough damage had already been done.

And the timing of her substitution is not insignificant. First half subs for non-injuries are rare, to say the least; they occur only in the most dire circumstances. That the substitution happened five minutes from halftime, a natural break point and a more conventional time to sub, especially in what amounts to a friendly (though technically it is not) suggests how dire New Zealand coach Klimková thought the situation was.

So did Klimková make the right choice? There’s no right answer; it’s about perspective, but here’s what Klimková had to say:

“It could be a situation where she stays on and goes through it by herself, but for us, what was a better decision [was] to switch and sub, and now she really needs to reflect.

“We are going to look at the moments, maybe her decision-making could have been better, but a huge part in our game is mentality and if someone is ready to fight then she is going to stay, but Meikayla is a thinker, we know that about her, and it was tough for her.” [quoted from https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/127835472/football-ferns-throw-their-arms-around-meikayla-moore-after-own-goal-hattrick]

The New Zealand commentators had a different perspective: They questioned whether Klimková should have waited until halftime to take her off:

“You never like to see this in football. It’s tough as a player and I can only feel for Meikayla.

“Jitka has made the decision to sub her before halftime which is a little bit questionable but she’s got a point to prove in terms of selection. She said she wants to go out and win games so it’s a tough call on that one.

“I would’ve kept her on until halftime and then made the change but you never know how a player is feeling. Meikayla could’ve signalled to the sideline ‘I’m done, I’m not comfortable out here, I’m out of my zone’.

“You don’t know what happens out on the pitch and she might have made that call herself.” [quoted from https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/127835472/football-ferns-throw-their-arms-around-meikayla-moore-after-own-goal-hattrick]

Others have similarly questioned the timing of the substitution, if not, as Foudy did, the substitution itself. But I’m going to ultimately side with Klimková here. 1. It wouldn’t surprise if Moore herself did signal that she wanted out. It would surprise me if she didn’t, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she did. 2. Moore’s body language after that third goal was so despondent that I understand Klimková’s impulse to sub her out immediately. And the reaction to her exiting the game, both by her coach and her fellow players, seemed to confirm that.

But Moore’s situation is a microcosm of the difficulties of coaching, and that is why it is so compelling (at least for coaches). Coaches are required to be constantly analyzing the psychology and abilities of their players to maximize both for maximum success. There is no playbook for either (not even getting into how intimately connected both are); at least abilities can be seen and measured. (With that said, Duke’s Coach K is famous for making body language videos for his players, generally to highlight negative body language.) Klimková might not have made the right choice. But she made the choice that seemed best to her and, more important, for Moore. Because the coach has the long game in mind and Klimková’s number one priority is to ensure that Moore comes back from such a game the same player that she went into it. If that means pulling her five minutes before halftime, so be it. I’m not going to argue with her.