I am in the belief that we have many players who have the talent to step up and be on this USWNT team. However they don't always get a chance to prove themselves. Pia would bring these players into camp for a few days and then you never hear from them again.Players need games to prove themselves, IMO. Not just a few days of camp at the HDC! I am convinced, Anson Dorrance or Randy Waldrum could pick a squad of senior college players from around the country that may beat this team or at least give them a good game every time. Other then Morgan, any player on this team can be replaced, IMO. Morgan is too valuable player-wise and Marketing-wise. She is fast becoming the FACE of this team. Players need opportunities. Pia did not give that. I'm hoping the new coach will.
Thought Kling was a LW / LB type. Also, for CDM? Julie Johnston! Would love to see her get a look. Hahahahahaa. Are we handicapping the USWNT to 8 players or something? In a FIFA rules game, the USWNT would win and it's not even close. It'd be 5-0 or so. Different parts of the cycle.
Well yes and no. The last "off" year was 2009 where they played only eight games. If that's what they r planning this year it's a mistake. If they doubled that schedule, and Im sure a lot of the teams getting ready for Euros would love to host a friendly, that still gives them a light schedule. They then use those games to field a roster made up half the WNT regulars and the rest up and comers. Flip flop the WNTers with each call up and give the new people actual time on the field in international competition. It would still be a competitive product and they may actually learn something in the waste year.
You don't need to handicap. There are players in this country who have been out of college for a year or 2 or are upperclassmen in college that are fantastic players and IMO are just as good or better then what we have on the USWNT now with the exception of one or two players. They just don't get the chance to prove themselves. Most Federations around the world use many friendly matches to test young players or players that have shown promise in leagues. The USWNT plays the same ole, same ole against crap oponents just so Abbey can get more goals or Lloyd can get another cap or because the screeming little girls and soccer dads want to see Hope Solo stand with her hips on her hands at the arch at the top of the box. I'm tired of looking at this sh_t. Press should be getting games, Henderson should be getting games, Hagen should be getting games, Barnhart should be getting games and I can go on and on. I would love to see someone seriously challange Solo for the goalie spot and beat her. I would love to see someone challange Lloyd for her spot and beat her and get her off this team and that goes for some of the other ones.
You said senior college players from around the country (i.e. US). Assuming the usual (FIFA rules, people are healthy), they're not going to win, regardless of who's the coach. Prodigies who can make the jump from college to international right away are rare - and no, no one misses the effing prodigies. Those ones get pulled onto the team as a teenager and that is rare the world over among established teams. Do I think the squad can be improved? That there are players out there who should get looked at? That there should be more competition? Of course! But I'm not going to claim that there's an entire squad of college players out there who just aren't getting looked at and would def. make it onto the team and win international tournaments if only they had the chance, the poor babies. Ridiculous claim.
Ridiculous huh? Well that's my fu__en opinion. And over the years I have seen my share of college Cups, games and USWNT games around this country. Including 3 USWNT games from this tour, Chicago, Portland, LA. I don't give a sh_t what you think. I still think the talent in this country is loaded but we only get to see the same ole, same ole every time.
And mine is that that opinion is ridiculous. Glad we're in agreement on one point! And yet, the turnover statistics are roughly the same from cycle to cycle. What, are you expecting massive turnover yearly? Between two major tournaments a year apart? New starting line up every game? Most coaches don't decide to throw out everything and restart every game. It's silly and unproductive because you have to restart teaching your style and the quality fluxuates massively as new players must learn new teammate traits all over and chemistry / flow, of course, suffers. The talent in this country is more than others because we have a wider base of participating players and a fairly high population. That being said, our youth development quality lags behind other countries and I wouldn't consider ourselves loaded either in comparison to our peers.
I dont expect massive turnover yearly nor do I care about winning friendly matches in off years. All I care about is fielding the best team possible for WWC. To do that they need to cap players and see how they play against international competition. Germany spent this year doing that same thing and it doesnt seemed to hurt their program very much.
It would be pretty interesting to see the percentage of young players per game for Germany this year. Their two games against the US were not particularly young. They did have Marozsan but that is the case of the supernaturally talented player being obvious. Of course she has been playing professionally for a few years already. With the injuries to a couple of major guaranteed starters of course there was a bit more room for new caps. Overall they didn't seem young. So does anyone know the percentages for their games across the year?
Here is a listing of the current roster that includes age and caps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_women's_national_football_team Of the 24 payer roster half r under 25 yo. Below is the 2011 WWC roster. They has retained 13 players this year and have at least one member injured. wish I could put my hands on the 2011 ages and caps. http://www.examiner.com/article/germany-release-world-cup-2011-roster
Yes, I was hoping someone who have a game by game breakdown of who has played. That will show us how many games and minutes new players were getting.
A. Im not that ambitious B. I dont speak German In the 2 friendlies against US: Schmidt 22 yo DNP/45 Angerer 34 yo 90/90 Bartusiak 30 yo 90/90 Peter 24 yo 90/90 Krahn 27 yo 90/90 Wensing 19 yo 90/45 Faisst 23 yo 90/45 Laudehr 26 yo 45/90 Odebrecht 29 yo 45/45 Bresonik 29 yo 90/75 Goessling 26 yo 90/DNP Popp 21 yo 45/13 Marozsen 19 yo 45/90 Mittag 32 yo 78/77 Lotzen 19 yo 12/DNP Behringer 27 yo DNP/45 Huth 21 yo DNP/15 Kulig 22 yo DNP/45
three 19 year olds! (who actually played in a friendly against worlds number 1) heads would roll on bigsoccer if pia or tom had three teens on WNT. I'm all for giving youth a shot at this stage of our nat team though.
19 year olds with multiple years already played in a competitive pro league. They proved themselves against good competition before call ups to the senior team. NCAA rules prevent the US from having similar players.
Yes, players can mature faster in the league system than in College. It is only an advantage for the best players since most wouldn't reach their top until about 23-25 years of age anyway, but for the really good it is a BIG advantage. I fully expect to se Lindsey Horan in the USWNT before the WWC 2015, but none other of her age since they will still be seniors in College.
Exactly this. With the NCAA blocking college players from being able to play with paid players even if they are not paid themselves, a set of the best players are slowed in their development. Most players probably end up at the same pace. It just leaves room for people to point at Germany and say "but they have 19 year olds on their team."
Heads should roll in that case. We don't have any 19 year olds that good as the Germans do. As Balk says, Horan aside, I don't expect most players her age to compete to compete for a USWNT slot. (Although I think if the USWNT decides to go young to start grabbing and seasoning a goalkeeper, I can see Campbell getting some caps. She's almost the same age as when Solo got her first caps!) Yep. Maro's been pro since 14 (!) and the rest have been playing on Wolfsburg the past few years in the Bundesliga. And they proved themselves by making it into the Champions League, surpassing Frankfurt (!) to grab the spot.
Actually there r two more U-20 who didnt play who were on the bench, back-up GK Benkart who allowed just one goal in U-20 WWC and Maier who was a DM or Right Back I think. She was the one who hit that rocket from 40 yards that nearly found the upper left hand corner. I personally dont believe we need any college players unless they r good enough to start. Im not even sure that the NCAA slowing development of players is a bad thing because Im not convinced that someone who is playing at a super competitive level in her teens will still be as competitive in her early thirties. Pro level takes its toll whether international or club. If a strikers has 12 (just guessing) prime years r u better getting those from 21-33 or 18- 30? By choosing post college players u generally end up with more emotionally mature athletes. College is more than just a place to place soccer.
This seems like a good enough place for my first post. Three players I think are ready to go now who are still technically in college: Kristen Mewis (BC), Cyrstal Dunn (UNC), Christine Nairn (Penn State). Nairn & Mewis have both been called up before, while Dunn is playing world class football and looks like a man amongst boys on the pitch, er . . .woman amongst girls. College players tend to be more well rounded players and human beings in general. If you look at the general longevity of players in the US vs other countries across the world, the numbers are staggering. Hamm, Lilly, Boxx, Rampone, Wambach, the number of players who continue to play at a high level for the US dwarfs the rest of the world. Ironically I think its for this same reason that we struggle in the mens department. The Mens game is a young mans game, while the Women's game is much better with expierence.
No, Marozsan wasn't a pro at 14, and just like many of her German wnt peers, she still combines a regular job or student life alongside that of being an international athlete too. What made her rise unique though, was an ability at 14 to regularly excel amongst a rather talented older generation of players, in the humble surroundings of a soon to be promoted second division FC Saarbrücken. Besides Marozsan (Frankfurt), Wensing (Wolfsburg), and Cramer (Potsdam), all the other players on the last German U-20 team who can claim to be regular starters at club level, all find themselves playing for clubs who's ambitions often go no further than avoiding relegation, or fighting it out for mid table mediocrity, with a possible view to a decent cup run. This isn't saying their not good enough, but you'll only ever see the very very best of them find regular playing time at the heart of domestic/UCL leading teams as teenagers, and teams on the rise like Wolfsburg are no different.
Yeah, I know that happens. But still, it's great to play against top domestic players. Thought she made it into Frankfurt pretty quickly? Oh I guess I misread this on the Wiki... ??? Bayern Munich and Lotzen seem to have Frankfurt's number in the Pokal and seem to be doing a bit more than a decent cup run. In any case, the ones that have made it to the German senior team have been stand outs. Yep. Thanks for your insights!
Yeah, I know that happens. But still, it's great to play against top domestic players. Thought she made it into Frankfurt pretty quickly? Oh I guess I misread this on the Wiki... ??? Bayern Munich and Lotzen seem to have Frankfurt's number in the Pokal and seem to be doing a bit more than a decent cup run. In any case, the ones that have made it to the German senior team have been stand outs. Yep. Thanks for your insights!
Sure, I see what you're saying. But our group of college players beat a u20 german team that was entirely composed of professionals. I think the gap is closing, but fortunately for the usa women, the college game for now is still competative. in 5 years though?? 10? As the women's game becomes more like the men's (in terms of development and pro leagues), our college system and women's place in it will have to adjust. Will more leave to play in the better leagues like Horan?
Or will USSoccer decide to build in protection to keep the NCAA as it's feeder system like u see with football and basketball? It's certainly an interesting question.