This lack of club commitment may actually allude to the main reasons/factors behind the U.S. and Canadian players eventual success within the Olympic tournament though, as many of the globes top national teams and players had already clearly peaked for the world cup. Plus you also highlight the fact that the U.S. had better performers than Wambach, like Canada had better performers than Sinclair, but the women's vote has been a popularity contest for so long now, that if Marta hasn't had a prominent year, the only way a popular name won't win is if somebody comes along with a ridiculously good Sawa level years CV.
You totally discount a Japanese player in top 3? No-one of them had an outstanding season, ok, but I would say that as a national team their achievements look bigger than France's ones. Or are an Olympic silver medal (with a final match that many neutral observers deemed as played better than USWNT) and a second place at Algarve Cup, plus some good results in friendlies (Kirin Cup, and basically everything apart from two losses vs USWNT and France) worth nothing? Yes as for France it's difficult to single out a name, since both Miyama and Sawa had their highs and lows in this season. If defenders could stand any kind of chance in the POTY rac (but I am aware they don't), I'd say that we have the best CBs duo in the world in Iwashimizu and Kumagai, and I would like a lot having one of them in the shortlist (Kumagai even played WCL final with Frankfurt)... Last but not least, I guess japanese Nadeshiko League it's not as easily discountable as French League: I dare to say that it could actually be currently second or third in the world for general level of the competition, behind Frauen-Bundesliga and probably Sweden League. Sawa's team did constantly well in national league. That's not something players without a league can say, at the very least...
Come on Blissett, Japan lost to Germany in the Algarve final, and couldn't even maintain a decent FIFA rank all year, with an Olympic silver medal meaning nothing to a players individual performance; well, if beyond Sawa and Miyama we can't even remember any of the other players names. Nadeshiko League , well that doesn't even begin to sound credible if you place it behind other second rate semi pro leagues, and when was the last time a USWNT player even wanted to play there too? If you wan't to argue Japanese players credentials, please, the least you could do is stick to things that really matter..... lol
I'm basing my 3rd place finish for Morgan on the fact that she was the assist leader in the Olympics with 4, had 3 goals, and won the gold medal. We can argue all day about defenders and goal keepers winning the award, or how important club teams are. However, based on past POTY winners, player popularity and the WC amd Olympic results seem to matter a lot more to the voters. the perfect example is Grings not winning the award a few years ago.
1. Alex Morgan should be nominated. 2. Aya Miyama must be nominated. 3. Abby Wambach is a POTY 2012 IMHO.
That still pisses me off - Grings was robbed IMO, and I have a rivalry-inspired hatred of the German program. =-/
1. No, she shouldn't. All over-the-top NT caps and stats. They're like an exclusive club. She needs to be tested against the best in Sweden, not running wild on homemade teams like Seattle and WNY. 2. Does Japan even have any REAL forwards? 3. I guess we are talking carry over from 2011. Really, I'm not impressed by anyone this year. I'd give it to Rampone or Formiga, just for staying around so long and still being pretty good old girls. If it was a keeper, I'd go with Andreia Suntaque. She's actually been better than Solo since the WC.
If you use that logic then Alex Morgan should tie with Megan Rapinoe for third place who also won gold, led in assists with 4, and scored 3 goals in the Olympics. I do think Wambach has this POTY in the bag. Does anyone have any favorites and/or predictions for the ten players shortlisted?
Definite: Wambach Morgan Sinclair Marta Sawa Abily da Mbabi Maybe: Lloyd Rapinoe Tancredi Thomis Le Somner Miyama Solo Boquette Panico Bachmann Popp
A. Do you have any REAL objectivity in your comments? B. Yuki Ogimi - silver at the Olympics, silver in the CL with Potsdam, one of the best in the world, and I would give her POTY.
Not according to official FIFA stats, in which case Morgan had 4 and rapinoe 2. Thomis of France was 2nd with 3 assists.
1. she was tested agst the best in London, Algarve Cup and Kirin Cup 2. I dunno if they have real forwards, I know Aya Miyama is for REAL 3. There would be no gold or even medal for USA without Abby Wambach - if you think otherwise, you must be high
It would be a sad day to give it to a USA player when the USA has failed to sustain a pro league. I would also like to propose two DFs, seeing as DFs dont get a shout: Azusa Iwashimizu who kept Marta, Sinclair, Schelin and Wambach - the 4 usual suspects for the world's best strikers - completely locked up in 4 games at the Olympics. Sonia Bompastor is France's best player, and she won the CL with Lyons.
I suppose it is true, they shouldnt be penalized. But success in pro leagues, or rather semi=pro leagues, should count, where they exist - not just the Olympics. Of course the CL is quite a tournament too; in 2013 and 2014 perhaps the premier event of the year. All told, its probably the most open POTY competition in many years. I hope that the mainstream media dont decide (foolish me?).
as I said before, I am fully aware that DFs don't stand any realistic chance. And still I keep thinking this is wrong: you go ahead and win in tournaments not only with great forward-lines, but also with solid defense-lines. Offensive players are more eye-catching, but good defenders are quite equally important. It's true that to win you have to score goals, but the ones who deny goals are a also key-part of this equation. I guess there's no doubt that, if Japan reached Olympic final, it owes a lot of it to its defense-line, and so I wouldn't mind watching one of japanese defenders (Iwashimizu or Kumagai) being rewarded with a place in the POTY short list. It's impossible that one of them reach top 3, but top ten should be open to DFs. In particular I totally subscribe to what mumf said about Iwashimizu: if we're talking about potential short-lister (or even square POTY winners) with Sinclair, Marta, Schelin, etc., how do you rate a player that prevented all those players from scoring, with world-class one-on-one marking?
In the more established men's game only Canavaro has won the best player award as a defender in over 20 years. I personally don't see this happening in the women's game for at least another 10 to 15 years. Perhaps there should be an additional award given to the top defender/goal keeper to keep things interesting. At this point, the voters will keep giving the award to the most popular players that performed well in a given year, and in major competitions. The four players that have won the award thus far are easily in the top 10 players category of all time (Hamm, Prinz, Marta and Sawa). Hamm was given the award as a lifetime achievement and during non major competition years. Prinz came along and played outstanding soccer en route to Germany's WC women in 2003. There was no denying that she was the best player in the world at that time. Then came along Marta who absolutely transformed the game. Her technical skills legitimized the women's game in a lot of people's eyes. Giving her the award after good performances in league competitions and major tournaments was a no brainer for a lot of fans. Then last year an already well established player (Sawa) came along, won the golden boot and scored the winning goal in the WC. In every case I don't believe that 90% of fans watching the sport would complain about the eventual winner. This year the 2 players that have had major success in the past and performed extremely well in a major tournament are Sinclair and Wambach. If one of these 2 players is chosen as the winner (rightly or wongly), then 90% of people watching women's soccer would not complain much. This is ultimately what the voters are faced with, which is why Grings was not chosen as best player a few years back. Since Marta was still performing extremely well, it would be hard to choose anyone else over her at the time. Heck, it took an extra ordinary effort from Sawa to finally dethrone Marta last year. As far as league competitions are concerned I still believe that it's too early to choose the best player in the world solely based on stats in those leagues. For instance, in the US we've already had two leagues crumble in less than 10 years. In the French league we have Lyon blowing out their less talented opponents by 8 goals. The German league seems to have more parity at this point, but the Germans unfortunately didn't qualify for the Olympics. I don't want to sound ignorant, but I don't know anything about the Japanese league. I'm sure it's a great league, but will need sign more recognizable players from around the world to gain more attention. Perhaps more attention will go to these leagues next year when players from the US and Canada sign, and other players are brought back to play in their home countries.
Hmm players cannot control the owners and investors in a league. POTY is about the player who performed the best overall during the year.
Considering who actually gets to vote for the POTY, the mainstream media can't do squat. Votes are coming from all of the member countries of FIFA. The women's team coaches are the ones who vote. Now you do have the problem that some of the smaller countries don't pay much attention or watch many games. So they don't really know who performed well and played best during that year. So there is a bit of name recognition with the picks.
The FIFA stats were (unsurprisingly) incorrect. They incorrectly credited Rampone with one of them for instance, the names are too close apparently. Rapinoe had 4 assists, look at the box scores on US Soccer or here look under U.S. ROSTER NOTES: 4th bullet down or watch the games again.
The US Soccer stats are based on how the US defines assists, which is the last player touching the ball prior to a shot being taken by the goal scorer. FIFA defines an assist as a goal scored directly from the pass, which means the scoring player can't dribble around defenders before taking the shot. For instance, Rapinoe was credited with an assist by US Soccer on Lloyd's second goal against Japan even though Lloyd did all the work by running 30 yards and dribbling around a defender. As far as the other information being incorrect on FIFA's site I wasn't aware of that. There's definitely some discrepancy though.
I guess by the FIFA definition she should have 3 then. The other three were direct and did not involve the dribbling like the Japan goal. They must have given one to Rampone who clearly didn't have any assists. FIFA gets things wrong all the time in the women's game.
I agree. This question also came up in another thread regarding assist totals. For instance, I'm sure Mia Hamm leads the all time list with a 144. However, how will she be compared to a player from another country nearing that total if there are 2 different criteria being used for scoring assists?
Good point, I wish there was a standard way for keeping these stats. On another note, do you happen to know how many assists Miyama or Necib had during the Olympics? I would have thought they would be up there as well.
I found the FIFA website which shows Miyama with 1 assist and Rapinoe with 3. There must be a typo since Morgan supposedly has 5. I thought I read a list that someone posted with Necib being credited with 1 assist as well. I thought she had 2 though. http://www.fifa.com/womensolympic/statistics/players/topgoals.html