Can it really happen? Article by a japanese on-line newspaper in english: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/sports/soccer/AJ201202040023 What do you think people? Could it really be?
anything can happen...but didn't pia say that it might even be better to not have a wps season, so that the wnt players could be more available for the us wnt camps, and get ready for the olympics?...so when should she find the time for the japanse league one might wonder?....i don't know if i would have taken her if i had a team and resources to make it happen...the us tends to have so many camps, that they tend to overlap...only my opinion though..
That's right, but don't forget a simple fact: US National Team and Nadeshiko Japan National Team have planned a similar way to approach Olympics; in particular, Algarve cup in march and then the USA-Brasil-Japan triangular tournament held in Japan in april. So Japan league is likely to stop just when it's needed for WUSNT appointments, and I guess that can't be said for most european leagues. And there is another fact: european leagues normally bridge two calendar years. This means that in most european countries 2011-2012 season is well underway, sometimes past the second half of the season, while in Japan clubs are still preparing for season 2011. Having a full 2011 season instead of a 2011-2012 one is something more similar to what US players are used to, and it would be much more useful to prepare for Olympics. And then european clubs have already established roosters, while Japan clubs are going to put their teams together for the incoming season just in these days (market hits, like Sakaguchi at NTV Beleza or Yamaguchi at Okayama Yunogo Belle are story of these days). That means that Abby could find a proper place way more easily in a japanese club than in an european one. Thats' just to say that, if Wambach wants to play in a league, Japan would be probably a better choice than an european league for a number of different reasons... As if she's supposed to play in a league at all: yes, that's true, she could just train with WUSNT and Pia seems to think it's even better, but, as the article linked above points out, are we sure that this is just enough in a so important season? I mean, shouldn't a player need to play at least some "real" games, during a season, to prepare for such an important event as Olympics? Just a bunch of "friendlies" can do? Don't forget that players with a physical structure like Abby's one sometimes need to play a certain number of matches in a season to get really fit at full level... Just my two cents about the subject. It's clear by the article that we're just talking about a possibility, but if Wambach herself and INAC's president bothered to talk about it, it could mean that it's not totally airy-fairy...
i fully agree that wambach and others in her position (uswnt), should participate in a league... a league gives both physical training and understanding of other teams and how they play...this isn't something that can be taught by seeing a recording. i read and understand you about most leagues in europe...but, the only leagues of note for her in europe are the german and the swedish...both the french and english league has far too big gaps in terms of quality of the teams...russia might be a contender in a few years, but not yet. bundesliga has a 2011-2012 season, but not the swedish..neither has the norwegian...so, she could contemplate the swedish according to your model....since sweden too participate in algarve. the swedish league starts in april, the 9th to be exact, not counting the teams in womens champions league. in france 2-3 teams that are good, in england there is 1, in russia there is 1...only the german and swedish leagues are quality wise good when you look at the larger scale...if pia would restrain from hogging her and others on the wnt, she could play most games in the league AND have time for a camp or two... don't really know anything about the japanese league...but since INAC (have the cream of national team members) seams to be like the OL in france, maybe the league is too...with that i mean that 2 or 3 teams have all the fun so too say...when the worst team in the league can overcome an contender for the title on occasion, then there is a league of note...but that's just me...
I'd say that, after the boom that followed WWC 2011, now japanese league seems like a "healthy" league (if not really "rich"), especially if compared to a lot of other "shaky" leagues in the world. It sports 10 teams, that could be a good number in my opinion: some variety and difference it's needed to make a league more testing; you can't always play the same 4-5 teams... But you're right that this works only if they are "real" teams. I'd say that, apart from INAC (that dominated 2011 season OL-style, without losing a single match), there are 2 teams who are serious contenders (they are NTV Beleza, that, despite INAC's record, was still battling for the title when there were just 3 turns to go, and Urawa Red Ladies) and another pair of teams who could be considered legitimate contenders too and always gave troubles to INAC when they met (Okayama Yunogo Belle, that's Miyama's team, and Albirex Niigata). After this 5, though, the quality sorta plummets down and I must admit that, using your "worst team test" criterion, I don't think that the idea of the last pair of teams in the league ever beating INAC belongs to the realm of possible. Anyway, we'll see what's going to happen. I agree that Swedish league is probably the only other legitimate league were Wambach could play (by the way, I don't know it very well: it's a "league of note", as you'd say, with an interesting competition?) and I also agree that she should try to play some league if she wants to do well at Olympics. A point for Nadeshiko league is that, if there is an international women player that most japanese should know (even the not die-hard women football fans), that player is Wambach: WWC 2011 final was the most followed sport event of 2011 in Japan and I guess everyone remembers Abby.
Sorry to bump this discussion, but this article says Wambach is seriously considering signing with INAC after Olympics: http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=8958
Maybe the reason a lot of people aren't responding to this thread where in the past they probably would have is fore one, I think people are tired of Wambach and Solo shananigans and side stories. Two, if the WPS was still around, it would raise a bigger eyebrow among fans. She also I believe, has friends among the Japanese players. I wish she would sign with one of the WPSL Elite teams, but if she wants to go overseas for this season, then more power to her.
As she ages, you can't blame her for going wherever she can make the most money so that she has a secure financial future.
Well, recently INAC Kobe Leonessa played many matches with international clubs: Arsenal Ladies, Barcelona Féminino, Goyang Daekyo WFC (South Korean champions), Sky Blue FC, and they showed they can measure up with basically any club (they drew or won all of these matches, and are unbeaten in official or friendly matches since 2010). INAC is a force to be reckoned with: I am not sure if they can really pay Wambach the same amount of money she was getting in WPS, maybe yes and maybe no, but for sure for Wambach it would be also a technical choice, because she would got to play in a great club and in a league that it's at the very least quite interesting: maybe not like German or Swedish leagues, but quite entertaining anyway. Oh, and please no-one start singing "You're big in Japan"!
I seriously think it's for the money. What are the Japanese willing to pay vs a WPSL club? Did you not notice how she was Dan's right hand man for the condo, mercedes and the money? But I don't blame her since she is in the twilight of her career, and isn't as marketable as greedy Ms Solo, who even has more appeal than Morgan to marketers.
I just don't get this one . First off Wambach won't have any kind of higher earning potential in Japan, but it's really in the footballing sense I don't see who benefits from this either. Of all the U.S. players, Wambach's skill set makes the least sense for the precise style of Japanese football. She's an elite goalscorer with deceptively good footwork, but usually only within a team that is set up to play directly to her most obvious strengths. Why would a team like Inac, which is so heavily based on ball retention, intelligent movement, leaning on the development and progress of national team talent, be willing to change the way they do things for the benefit of a veteran foreign star? If Inac were really trying to attract U.S. stars to improve their side, they would be looking at HAO, Cheney, or Solo. I'm also skeptical of the star name kudos Wambach could bring to the league. We all know foreign stars never carry the same appeal as domestic talent, and in Japan few female athletes carry the appeal of players attached to the Nadeshiko WWC winning team. I mean even with all her ability, did Marta really make WPS any more appealing than the U.S. star names to a domestic market?
I feel this is relevant here. Hope Solo is playing for the Seattle Sounders Women FC for free. While we are at it, so are Leroux, Morgan, and Rapinoe. http://www.sounderatheart.com/2012/3/27/2902635/Sounders-Women-Play-For-Free (I am sure your next statement will be, Well of course she can afford to play for free, because she is soo greedy and gets soo much money from Ads)
First of all, I guess there would be nothing wrong if high level international players in the women's game had the legitimate wish to gain some money with a pro-contract... In the end they play this sport at a professional level, and it's not like women's football it's the realm of millionaires like males' one. But, after saying that, i still think that moving to Japan wouldn't be mainly about the money for Wambach, as much as about the wish of keeping playing football in an high level internatonal league, with a challenging competition. I am quite sure it would be a good choice and a good move for Wambach. As for what Batfink says, if it would or it wouldn't be also a good move for the Nadeshiko League as a whole, I am torn, but I guess it's possible that Batfink is right and Nadehsiko league should remain mainly Japan-based. But, while my brain says that, my guts would like a lot the "spice" of some international star in Nadeshiko League...
I guess we all realise now that Wambach's earning potential will never be higher in any other country, at any other time, than it is right now within the states. On the football side of things though, every women's league can benefit from right types of quality foreign talent, just like every men's league has since the global onset of professionalism. However, having seen the negative effects of short term dependence on foreign stars within certain male football leagues, I think the women's game should remain focused on promoting it's own national talent until professionalism is a more manageable and understandable process. Right now two nations seem to have found the best balance for present day relevance and future growth. First you have Germany's Frauen-Bundesliga, who are still the global leaders in stability and player development, and then you have Sweden's Damallsvenskan who have the best balance of league wide professionalism through inventive commercial strategies. Both countries have been equally successful using different models, and yet we continue to see both these nations churn out quality football teams, whilst also continuing to developing domestic and unique foreign talent year after year. Japan now find themselves in the same situation as France, as new but highly respected women's footballing power, but neither nation has a league model robust enough yet to house anything more than 1 elite club right now. In that situation the interests of the national program must come first, and doing anything that disrupts that process would be disastrous. Lyon as France's 1 elite global power club, have prominent long term foreign talent in Schelin, Dickenmann, and a little Costa Rican girl who's name I can't remember, all fitting perfectly into a French philosophy of football. While I like Wambach, she's a short term option that's seriously left field of any kind of Japanese philosophy on football, and in that situation without the financial incentive nobody benefits.
I don't suppose it has occurred to anyone else that that kind of environment might be ideal for Wambach if she is hoping to improve the kinds of skills she is going to need to stay in the game as she loses speed? In the future she's pretty much going to need to play with her back to the goal, take the entry pass, dish to one of the runners coming up, and roll to somewhere where she's positioned to be a secondary option but still clean up the garbage. Use her primary talent as a starting point as it becomes less and less effective as a finishing one. In Japan she'll need to develop a bit beyond her current skill level to make it work. She'll be able to pick on smaller, slower players in the air in the box some, but she'll have to do enough other stuff to help get the ball there in the first place-- and there's no reason to think she can't. She has never been afraid of a challenge, and surely she's aware that she's facing one.
I find most of the things you said make sense, including the comparison between France's and Japan's leagues and National Programs (by the way: multi-national Olympique Lyonnaise recently also signed a young japanese talent in Ami Otaki ^__^). I just want to make a pair of points: it's true that OL is high up there with the continental (and world) elite, but it's not like there is OL and then the desert in french League: clubs like Juvisy, PSG and Montpellier, although probably can't still hope to beat OL on a regular basis, can anyway put up a good fight. The League for sure isn't still "healthy" like Bundesliga or Damallsvenskan, but in my opinion it's not "frozen still": it could be on the way to become something better, maybe also with the contribution of foreign talents... In a similar way, it's true that INAC Kobe Leonessa dominated last season OL's style, but it's not like there aren't other more than decent clubs in Nadeshiko Legue (NTV Beleza, Urawa Red Ladies, Okayama Yunogo Belle...) and I am still not sure they couldn't benefit from a little number of high profile foreign players, maybe also from the asian/oceanian area. And anyway, if the confront OL/INAC is sound (and I guess it is) there would be nothing wrong at least for INAC in sporting a pair international players, to support its 7-8 National Team members... In fact INAC does this already (Ji So-Yun, the young South Korean star, it's not much less vital to INAC's MF than Homare Sawa herself). If I remember well, one of Batfink's argument is that INAC and other japanese club don't have the Champions League as a way to make use of a wider rooster: well, I guess they're working on it... A pair of weeks ago INAC won a match vs Goyang Daekyo WFC, South Korean champions: it's 3 or 4 years that SK's and Japan champions play regularly a "championship" match and they want to transform it in a sort of Asian CL, by trying to gradually involve other nations. I guess that the fact that Japan's become a so high profile nation in women's football could increase the chances that this project take off (and maybe JFA could think it's worth investing in it and pushing it at the FIFA level).
I guess this is a good point: if Wambach wants to stick around for some more (if she'd ever hope to play WWC 2015, she would be 35 by then), there no doubt that she has to change something in her now quite one-dimensional style of play, because her physical fitness can't support her forever, especially in an evolving women's football scene, like we have currently.
At this point she can't take 2013 for granted. Time enough to worry about 2015 if and when she gets there...
Yes, I wanted to obviously write 2015, and I wrote 2011 instead (now edited it in the original message). Obviously WWC 2011 is carved in my mind as the only real legitimate WWC...
Everybody seems to be making perfectly valid points in arguing why thoughts of Wambach moving east would work for Inac, Japan, and the U.S. women's team, but while I agree that Wambach as a player is technically competent enough to deal with a new brand of football, is she really the perfect fit for the long term objectives of Japanese women's football? As taosjohn mentions, Wambach's ability with the ball at her feet is definitely better than many people think, but Wambach shouldn't be going over to Japan learn things, she should be going there to elevate things. With all the promising young Japanese talents about to come through, the next four years are huge for the development of the club game in Japan. So beyond the short term post London Olympics buzz, I don't think it provides all parties many favours to have a veteran Wambach in Japan simply trying to remain relevant for her national team. I mean does the L-League need a Beckham experiment on their doorstep? blissett I understand that France and Japanese women's leagues have more than one good team. It's a similar misconception/lazy reasoning people have in thinking England only has Arsenal Ladies doing anything . Ridiculous, right? Saying that though, just like the men's game, a healthy national team will tend to be formed off the back of the domestic leagues best club side. So while France have Juvisy, PSG and Montpellier, all competing for domestic prizes using various domestic and foreign talents, it's only Lyon who seriously fly the flag for France in continental competition as the heart beat of the French WNT. The AFC seems to be a very progressive federation, so I can imagine a time when they formulate plans for a smaller version of UEFA's WCL. Until then though, it's down to the JFA to continue to push the course of the women's club game to greater levels of competition and quality. As a very homogeneous country I don't see the L-League looking any more international in the future than it does right now. So if and when quality foreign talent does become available, L-League teams need to seriously evaluate the long term benefits said players will provide. In that scenario, the areas of real benefit to L-League and WNT football would be goal keeping, central defending, and maybe forwards. If Solo (never going to happen) said she was interested in Japan, that's a smart move. If Engen, Cheney, O'Reilly, or Morgan (never going to happen) said they were interested in Japan, again it's a damn smart move. Then you have a host of U.S. players that would benefit more from time in Japan than the Japanese benefiting from them. These are players like Llyod, Lepeilbet, Rapinoe, Heath, and last but not least the one and only miss Wambach.
I think that it would be graceless of me to presume I understand the needs and wants of her potential employers in Japan better than they themselves do. And of course there's no reason Wambach cannot go there BOTH to elevate things and to learn things. Sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn't, but we're not really omniscient enough to know that it won't in advance.
I also understand and agree with most of your reasoning, I guess we basically disagree just in details at max... I can agree that probably Wambach couldn't be the best choice of foreign player for Nadeshiko League, but she's anyway the most likely to really want to move in Japan (as you rightly say, other names just "aren't going to happen", at least in the short term), both for her ties with Japan and japanese culture, her friendship with Sawa, etc. So in my eyes, Wambach would be an interesting choice for Nadeshiko League not only in herself, but also because she could pave the way for a small contingent of high-profile foreign players, that could somehow "spice up" japanese league without seriously compromising the National Team development program. It's obvious that a serious attempt at an AFC equivalent of WCL would make things much better, but I guess that a small number of foreign players in Japan could be a mild-good to good thing anyway... I am not sure about the Beckham comparison... Wambach seems to me still more relevant to the NT than Beckham was when he moved in Los Angeles Galaxy, but maybe I don't know enough about the subject... About this point, what do you think about this video, obviously part of a kind of "operation popularity", aimed at making Wambach more popular in Japan (so everyone will be happy and clapping when she finally decides to stop by at Nadeshiko League )? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaR86PQN2pk&context=C491b0a0ADvjVQa1PpcFP4Nin-mhg15ZMlWrx2-vF8ZUwYeP71h1o"]Wambach x Sawa - YouTube[/ame]
True, but I can't see Wambach providing moments that elevate the Japanese league any more than the players they currently have, and will soon have coming through in the near future. Few players can elevate a whole league, and to be honest Japan are no longer the mugs of world football to have Wambach's skill set seen as anything more than effective. If Inac want a star name the Japanese know, Wambach would be near the top of the list. If Inac want a star performer able to elevate an already high calibre team, I'm not so sure Wambach is the name they would have thought of first. At 5'11, built out of solid muscle, I don't see many players globally doing what Wambach has done throughout her career. Wambach's not the model forward Japanese players will be having to face in the next 4 years and beyond.
