Another way to look at it is that, if you include the 4 developmental slots, 22 of the 24 get to stay. That leaves only 2 people that will have to go. For goalies, the calculus is pretty simple: 2 make the roster proper, 1 makes the dev roster, 1 goes home. I will guess Barnhart and Cameron make the roster with Guthrie on the dev roster. For non-keepers, that leaves 16 spots plus 3 dev spots for 20 outfield players. I will guess that Harkin is the one player who will be cut outright, and that the 3 non-keeper dev slots will go to Fountain, Bowyer, and Tantillo. Putting it together, my prediction is: F (5+0) : Marta, Sinclair, O'Hara, Milbrett, Bosio. M (5+2) : Abily, Gulbrandsen, Dew, Edwards, Yokers, (Bowyer), (Tantillo). D (6+1) : Buehler, Chapman, Cross, Wilson, Riley, Graczyk, (Fountain). GK (2+1) : Barnhart, Cameron, (Guthrie).
Kudos to the FCGP's media people! There are videos now up of the team training. You have a great product, now make sure everyone notices it; facebook videos is a great way to build awareness and give info the the fan base.
I am glad we have video too. We invested in a few flip videos so there will be more. I was at practice and am glad we captured the 2 v 3 because the nutmeg by Abily was fun to see. Love it!
great! and because I love video (being a film major and all) here is a flip video of Kiki's flip throw. http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/bayarea/video/index.aspx you know, since you already have the equipment, dumping all those videos here http://www.youtube.com/user/FCGoldpride will be great too (that way we can direct-link here in BS)
From womensprosoccer.com I suppose that's one reason why Fountain didn't see playing on Saturday. Also, mildly interesting article on draft pick Liz Harkin: http://www.rocklintoday.com/news/templates/community_news.asp?articleid=8690&zoneid=4
Good catch! I wondered why she dropped out of sight. Guess I will have to reevaluate my prediction that she'll only make the dev roster.
From the WPS transaction wire: That means there are now 23 players in camp fighting for 18+4 = 22 roster spots.
Yup, that means they have decided to go with Barnie, Cameron, and Guthrie, one more field player to go.
Yeah, barring any surprises it looks like we have our 22. F (5) : Marta, Sinclair, O'Hara, Milbrett, Bosio. M (7) : Abily, Gulbrandsen, Dew, Edwards, Yokers, Bowyer, Tantillo. D (7) : Buehler, Chapman, Riley, Wilson, Graczyk, Cross, Fountain. GK (3) : Barnhart, Cameron, Guthrie. The next question is, who gets stuck on the developmental roster? For goalies it's obviously Cameron vs Guthrie for one spot. Beyond that, it's a tougher call. We have to move 3 field players to the dev roster, but it's not so obvious who should go. My first inclination would be to move Yokers, Bowyer, and Tantillo. But that actually might not make sense, since all three are midfielders. Might leave the roster unbalanced.
Bosio can play in the midfield, so can Chapman and Graczyk so you might not be too far off. I think it will be two midfielders and one defender. Players that can play multiple positions will probably stay. I think Yokers and Tantillo go and my third guess is Fountain.
Cameron will get the nod for #2 GK and Guthrie will be developmental. Brit is a quality keeper and seasoned her game at LA last year.
FCGP wins 10-0 tonight against USF. Since Barnie and Beuhler are off at Nats, it's a good sign that the backups had a clean sheet. Who played? The GM twittered that Yokers got 2 goals. Does that mean 8 others scored? That raises a bunch of questions from those of us who couldn't get to Kezar. 1. Who scored the other 8. 2. How did Marta do? 3. Did USF really show up to play? 4. Did Sinc, Milly, Dew, and others get a score? Inquiring minds want to know. If FCGP can keep putting on this kind of show in the regular season, this is going to be pretty cool.
Starting Lineup: [LINEUP-4-3-3]Milbrett, Sinclair, Bosio, Edwards, Marta, Yokers, Fountain, Dew, Graczyk, Riley, Cameron[/LINEUP-4-3-3] It looked like Edwards played under Yokers and Marta in a triangle. BTW, everyone played very well but I thought Edwards and Yokers played excellent. The two were everywhere and held the middle well. Yokers obviously getting a hat trick and making the deceptive runs to create space and opportunities and Edwards was the enforcer - very composed, played simple, and stopped any attack that went through the middle. Subs: Wilson, Boywer, Cross, Guthrie. The Pride were without Barney, Buehler, O'Hara, Abily, and Solveig Gulbrandsen due to national team duties. 1. Yokers earned a hat trick. Sinclair had 2. Milbrett had 2. Wilson, Edwards, Dew each tallied 1. 2. Marta played very well.. Had some great opportunities to score but the USF Keeper came up with some great saves against her. She got an assist to a Yokers goal. She shaked and baked through a few defenders and squared a ball to a running on Yokers who one timed it into the right corner. 3. In my opinion, I think they showed up to play and they were pretty physical, but they just got destroyed. Out-muscled & out-played. Hence the score...
I think USF definitely came to play, but they just weren't in the same league (no pun intended). I agree that Edwards and Yokers were both very impressive. I forgot to bring my binoculars, and so I had a hard time keeping track of who was who with no names on their shirts :-} It was nasty cold, and we even got a rain shower right as the game was starting...so make that wet and cold. The crowd was somewhat disappointing...I think there were a lot more USF supporters there than FCGP, but I suppose we were the visiting team. It's hard to be enthusiastic and cheer when you're that cold. Overall, a very impressive performance by FCGP even though they faced a much weaker team. This is going to be a great season!
I wouldn't read much into this result as the difference in talent was massive. Also, USF is in their offseason. USF had trouble getting the ball past midfield. The Gold Pride goalie never touched the ball. The game was a total mismatch. As for Marta, she played centrally and withdrawn. Basically she was an attacking midfielder.
It's really hard to read the tea leaves here about who's going to end up on the dev roster. The problem is that the public pre-season games are pretty meaningless (they're huge mismatches) while the important pre-season games (against local boys teams) are not publicized. Still, since half the fun of being a fan is irrational speculation based on virtually no information, I'll update my guesses. First, since Cameron got the start over Guthrie, I'll assume it's Guthrie who'll end up on the dev roster. I'm still guessing that Tantillo and Bowyer will also be on the dev roster, but after that it gets very, very difficult. The fact that Fountain got the start over a healthy Wilson kind of suggests she won't be moving to the dev roster. But who else is there? Yokers? Scored a hat trick. Bosio? Montoya has been raving about her in interviews. Cross? Seems likely another team would snap her up. Basically I'm pretty baffled here. Whatever happens we're going to expose a very solid player.
Sure is And here's some baseless speculation from the other side of the continent. It could be that playing Fountain was a test rather than a statement. If a coach knows who his starter is at a position, then a pre-season such as that one is a perfect chance to rest up a starter and see if a developmental player can contribute.
Did not see that coming. On the other hand, this makes it easier to pick our 18. I wonder if they're going to bring in a 22nd player or try to get by with 21? I think I read somewhere that you can have up to 4 dev roster players, but you aren't required to have all 4.
It may also be that FCGP will bring Cross back in as a developmental player. I think a team wishing to move a player under contract to the developmental roster has to place her on waivers first; then, if no other team picks her up after so many days, they can bring her back in as developmental. The Freedom did this with Jo Lohman last year to make room on the main roster for either Ali Krieger or Sarah Huffman (can't remember which, now). In any case, it appears that Kandace Wilson and Kaley Fountain have both made good impressions during the preseason--good for them and good for you all. Yup. Goes to show the depth of quality on this roster, and league-wide as well.
The Sol did not carry the full 18+4 for a good chunk of the season. There was speculation that it was due to salary cap issues cough....Marta....cough but no confirmation as to why there was that empty slot.
This makes perfect sense. I forgot they had already signed her to a non-dev contract. Clearly this is what they need to do to move her to the dev roster. So, assuming they still have room to carry 18+4 even while paying Marta's salary, my guess is the 4 are: Guthrie, Cross, Bowyer, Tantillo. If that's right, it means Fountain made the 18. Given that she started ahead of Wilson in the last pre-season game -- which isn't much to go on, but, hey, at least it's something -- it occurs to me that there is at least a chance that the first-choice starting lineup will include four rookies (O'Hara, Edwards, Riley, Fountain) to complement our magnificent seven: [LINEUP-4-3-3]Marta, Sinclair, O'Hara, Abily, Edwards, Gulbrandsen, Fountain, Buehler, Chapman, Riley, Barnhart[/LINEUP-4-3-3] On the other hand, I'd say that of the four, only Riley seems absolutely guaranteed of a starting spot. O'Hara (Milbrett), Fountain (Wilson), and Edwards (some other midfielder) each have players that could in theory start ahead of them.
