Right. And some Norwegian players seem to retire "early" in general, iirc. If there was more history of income from club ball here I'd be less inclined to wonder if Boxx/Rampone are going to be 100% done after the Olys. And then there's the Boxx jinx for WPS teams
At the level that Rampone continues to play at, why does it make sense for her to retire from club play?
what level? before the wc, there wasnt much said about her. ok, she made two passes to abby and a header on a press run for magicjack against boston. outside of that she wasn't that big. nice little run she had and hair. unless she's going to a team with abby, i probably wouldnt take her.
Sky Blue is in serious talks with Tobin Heath (via Emma Hayes' twitter). There are some other interesting hints on her twitter: emmahayes1 As mentioned in the draft thread, Riley said to AWK that he is finalizing negotiations with a "attacking" USWNT player who can "play midfield and is good on both sides." Sounds like Rapinoe or Cheney. Regardless, Philly is going to be stacked.
She is a serious shutdown defender and leader of the back line. Other then one play in the WPS Super-Semi I thought she played great.
What I find funny is in men's football evryone accept that any player who has not played regular club football in the season/6 months preceding a big competition won't be called up due to lack of competition rhythm. Here it seems like not worrying at all to have players preparing for the olympics without any club game time. Obviously men and women's football are not the same but it is a bit of a paradox.
I agree with you about match sharpness. Even though Men's and womens football are different, I still think the unoffical rule should apply to women football regarding competition rhymthm. WC/WWC and Olympic are already cagey affairs.
The biggest difference is the limited number of opportunities for the women to play. There are top flight leagues all over the world for the men to be playing in. The gap is closing with more leagues springing up in Europe now. In the past there was no league to be playing in in the US. Hence the full season training camp.
There are plenty of opportunites for women to play, the WPS is new. The W-League(1995) which is bigger has been around a lot longer. Same goes for J-League(1989), Bundesliga(1990), Damallsvenskan-Sweden(1988), Elitedivisionen-Denmark(1973) just to name a few leagues that have been around a descent amount of time.
But the US WNT started 1985, so for 10 years there was no good league in US and until almost ten years later there was hardly any full time professionals in the European top-leagues (IIRC before WWC 2003 Damallsvenskans had two (players not teams) and I don't think it was muchy more in Frauen Bundeslige). And since USWNT didn't think demanding players to go overseas to play unpaid was a good idea they didn't (the most dedicated did anyway). This way which was used by necessity until 1995 is still used by USWNT even when it no longer is needed and experience from men soccer and most other WNTs program do indicate it may not be optimal since it is convenient for the WNT coach and players. Keeping full salaried WNT players gave the US WNT an edge over European* teams until enough fully professional position had been created in the European leagues (about 2007 I would say) but is now (I think) a comparative disadvantage for the USWNT compared to the top European WNTs. *I don’t know enough about the leagues outside Europe and North America to mention them.
I was merely saying the differences in playing opportunities for mens and women's football make this no paradox at all. Hell would the US women even get in the best teams in Europe where few players get real salaries? The top 3-4 teams max have truly paid squads. And we can see how that works for the top national teams over there. France WWC team was what Olympic Lyon +1 outsider because Lotta Schelin is Swedish so they had to fill in for her. 80% of the German National Team is from Frankfurt FC. Our players would be spread out among the smaller semi-pro squads getting steamrolled each week. Is that really game fit?
As JanBalk said, though, these really haven't been professional in any meaningful sense. When the WUSA started, it got pretty much any player in the world it wanted other than Hanna Ljungberg, who was one of very few full professionals elsewhere. Even in the years in between the WUSA and WPS, when the mostly amateur W-League was the top league in the USA, this country was still a popular destination for many. The New Jersey Wildcats had Kelly Smith and Marinette Pichon on the same field. A few years ago, I asked an Australian player with the Freedom about the quality of play back in Australia. She said it was better in the USA in, again, a mostly amateur league. So those other leagues have continuity, yes. But only recently have they rivaled or, in some cases, surpassed American opportunities for pro play.
Is this a inside joke, but I don't see the sarcasm tag on. Megan Rapinoe has the hair...Christine Rampone is the shutdown defender. Two different players. I would add about NT vs Club. In the US Women's game the paycheck is probably with the NT. So maybe it is more about preserving your paycheck as long as you can, so the women's game might be backward compared to the men's game.
i already talked about rampone and her value to that cotton candy backline so nothing to say there. Rapinoe, another superwomen who hasnt been there year in and out, just a couple of serves to abby in the WC and she's another savior like cheney who by the way i couldn't even remember who her wps club was.
Cheney's rostered with the Riptide. However, she skips big WPS game appearances to attend the MLS all star game. Is this why you forgot where is rostered? (Perhaps she was still injured from the World Cup incident and would not have played vs. Philly.)
Cheney was still injured at that point. Newsouth keeps repeating ad nauseum that he/she cannot remember which WPS team Cheney played for as attempt to denigrate her because other posters, myself included, think she's a more well-rounded player than one of his favs, ARod. I like both players and think their different styles of play will blend into a nice team up front for Philly this year.
Yep...and even though their season is our off-season; I know of one Aussie Westfield W-League club talking to an agent whom represents two members of the US WNT!
http://blog.ellamasar.com/ what are the players in the usnt going to talk about now?ABBY you ruined it forall