seems like a good time to ask WNT alltime best XI?

I'm more interested in the respones than my opinion, but to get things rolling.....

-------------------------Wambach
-----------------------------------------Hamm
--------------------------------?
Lilly--------------------------------------------------------------Rapinoe
------------------------------Akers
----?----------------Overbeck----Whatshername(you kn0w)-----?



I'd be tempted to replace Wambach w/ Akers at forward, but this gets them both in the squad

Giving significant weight to longevity and accomplishments, and not projecting forward for the current players who are still in the first half of their careers. I would think it would look something like this, perhaps playing the currently en vogue 4-2-3-1. 8 of the 9 players who have the most starts in national team history plus Akers, Solo, and Milbrett. The 5 100 goal scorers in national team history who are basically separated from everyone else on the scoring list backed by arguably the best defensive players.

Solo
Rampone
Fawcett
Overbeck
Markgraff

Boxx
Akers

Hamm
Lilly
Milbrett

Wambach

No place for Carin Jennings?

OT: wambach at her peak was awesome to watch

I know many of you don't recall USWNT before 1999.
But I remember US womens soccer before the "shirt pull-0ff".

Carin Jennings, April Heinrichs, and Shanon Higgins were big-time players in 1991 and deserve mention in top 11.

...and until Hope Solo wins a World Cup, to me the distinction of best goalkeeper ever belongs to Briana Scurry.

Solo is better as a GK.

Is it just 11 best players with great ability and achievement or we have to consider their combined effect as a team?

1) By your logic, Trent Dilfer was a better NFL quarterback than Dan Marino, since Dilfer won a Super Bowl with the Ravens, and Marino never won one with the Dolphins. I thought soccer was a TEAM game, and Scurry happened to be on TEAMS that won the World Cup, rather than doing it herself.

2) Greg Ryan made sure of the fact that we'll never know whether the USWNT may have won the World Cup with Solo in goal. I personally believe we just might have.

Expecting one player to make a four-goal difference (and then to beat Germany on top of that) is a very tall order.

A goalkeeper directs the defense. Our defense looked unsure and tentative against Brazil. Brazil's first goal (an own goal by the USA) was a result of poor communication. It set the tone for the game. The other three goals... Solo could have stopped them.

A tall order? Yes. But the best keeper in the world may have been up to the task. Like I said, we'll never know, thanks to Coach Butthead.

Briana Scurry was a great goalkeeper and a legend. And jackiesdad, Scurry didn't just happen to be on WWC winning teams, she was a reason they won. Comparing this situation to Trent Dilfer, give me a f___en break.

Hope Solo is an excellent goalkeeper but Scurry is still the #1 of all time in my book. Solo may surpass her one day in my eyes but for right now it's just my opinion.

Too much worship of "Cults of Personality" on this thread.

And here's another thin jackiesdad, it was Greg Ryan who gave Solo her shot at #1. For all the hatred people throw at Greg Ryan they forget that Dicicco never considered her, and under April she was 3rd keeper behind Kristin Luckenbill. Greg Ryan when he took over named her # 1.

Solo's better in my book, if you consider everything.

Solo has faced tougher competition and faced it more often. Back in 1999, there were probably only three or four teams good enough to challenge and beat the US. Today, there are probably 15-20 teams that could give us a tough game and beat us on a given day. Canada and Mexico used to be walk over games, now they are legitimate world class teams. In 1999, we didn't have to qualify, but in 1995, we won our WC qualifiers by a combined 36-1, with the closest game being a 6-0 rout of Canada.

The only three teams that I think are weaker than they were 13 years ago are Norway, China, and Denmark. Look at Australia, England, France, Sweden, Brazil, Japan. The competition is so much better now, it isn't even funny. Every team has a big scoring threat now, most have multiple big scoring threats.

Scurry had a much stronger defense, maybe one of the best all-time in women's soccer, and arguably a much stronger team in front of her. Solo has a mish-mash defense, whose starting back line includes three center backs and a wing/forward. Solo doesn't have a dominant Mia Hamm in the midfield for her either.

Solo is often called on too make big saves, and far more often than Scurry had to. Brazil in the 2008 Olympics and 2011 World Cup. Japan in the 2012 Olympics. Numerous times at Algarve. It goes on and on. While Scurry was a major reason for us winning in 1999, the biggest save was probably made by Kristine Lilly in the final.

I'll give Scurry her due, but I would rate Solo slightly better.

Y'know now that I think about it, you're right! She WAS the reason they won. Michele Akers, Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy, Christine Lilly, and that other chick... Ham somethingorother... they had nothing to do with it! Now it is YOU who must give ME a f'in break.

The PK? Solo also saved one. If the others didn't miss the PK in the 2011 final we would win, too.

And Hope Solo has an AYSO youth team in front of her? There's no Rampone or Wambach or what's her name Morgan or something or other.
I also said Scurry was a reason not THE ONLY reason. You don't have to tell me who was there. I've seen the 91ers and 99ers many times, live just as I have seen this team.

And Scurry has won more then just one major event (Dilfer). Briana Scurry is still considered a soccer legend.
The disrespect for Briana Scurry always amazes me.

If nothing else at least Hope can take her own goal kicks. If you go back and watch it is evident how much Scurry's limitations with her feet limited the team.

Please don't interpret my arguments as disrespect for Scurry. I'm not calling her a scrub. She's clearly #2 in the history of the team in my mind, I just think Solo is a little bit better.

Here's a question: You've mentioned Wambach, Rampone, and Morgan in your previous post. How many of the current players would you have on your top 11? How many players from 99 do you have on your top 11? If your answer to the second question is a higher number than your answer to the first, then you are essentially saying Scurry had a better TEAM in front of her. Thus explaining her better results.

I'm not going to get in a pissing contest here. These are my opinions of following the USWNT for 2 decades and going to countless games from coast to coast over the years.
To me Briana Scurry is still #1 US goalkeeper of all time. That may change over time, but that's how I look at it as of now.

Just to get my vote in here. Hope Solo is the best goalkeeper that the USWNT has ever had. Watching Bri over all of those years, she was amazing, and in bad situations I believed she would come up big. One of the best to be sure. But Hope is better, and she doesn't get her due because people dislike her personality.

As far as I'm concerned, I said this long time ago, after watching Hope Solo in a practice in Cary, NC (during the Greg Ryan days) I think it was in 2005 or 2006 that I thought she will be the best goalkeeper the US ever head. I believe I even posted it here on BS.

I still believe that. HOWEVER, she is not there yet in my eyes. I have my own criteria.

I'm gonna call bs on this part. Solo *very* much gets her due on her playing abilities. She's *always* been seen as either potentially the best ever (eg when she was young & got her first cap at 18) or seen as one of the best in the world.

Regardless of whether people like her personality or her outbursts or hair color choices or silly faux gang signal flashing as a kid her detractors and her fans *always* give her her due regarding her playing abilities. Even when noting times that she has made playing mistakes, those mistakes are usually described with some sort of synonym for "atypical" or "unusual for her"

I am saying that there is a very sizable group of people who do not like Hope Solo for speaking out in 2007 (and the rest of her attitude springs from that occasion), and they will never accept her as the best gk for that reason. MRAD has other reasons, and some other posters here might have other reasons as well. But if you look in the world at large, say any thread on ESPN, SI or Youtube, you will find a thousand comments from people who call her a choke artist who lost us the World Cup last year, that she was never any good, and that they should have dropped her when she mouthed off back in 2007. While she might great credit for her abilities from people more in the know, I am sure when you are taking a poll of her versus Scurry, some of the no votes are because they don't like Hope. It is a testament to how good Scurry was that it isn't more obvious that people are casting votes for that reason.

If you're using youtube comments and espn comments to bolster your argument, well, good luck w/ that. Those places are cesspools.

We're much classier here People who actually watch soccer and have followed women's soccer for more than three minutes give Solo her due for her playing abilities.

MRAD gives Solo her due (ie saying she is world class) for her playing abilities. Greatest of All Time discussions always end up w/ people having their own criteria. That doesn't mean people don't give credit to whomever they have as the 2nd greatest of all time.

Close to what i'd have.
Bench:
Foudy, Morgan, Chupa (left back), Rapinoe, Scurry, Shannon Mac,
maybe Jennings or April H. I haven't had the opportunity to watch those two play that much though...unfortch.