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WPS: "Our fans are idiots"
Posted 05 Aug 2009 at 07:21 PM by Dan Loney
Your inaugural WPS All-Star Team:
Karina LeBlanc GK - Los Angeles Sol, Canada
Tina Ellertson D - Saint Louis Athletica, United States
Amy LePeilbet D - Boston Breakers, United States
Alex Scott D - Boston Breakers, England
Camille Abily M - Los Angeles Sol, France
Sonia Bompastor M - Washington Freedom, France
Shannon Boxx M - Los Angeles Sol, United States
Lori Chalupny M - Saint Louis Athletica, United States
Kelly Smith M - Boston Breakers, England
Eniola Aluko F - Saint Louis Athletica, England
Marta F - Los Angeles Sol, Brazil
The first order of comedy, of course, is that half of this team won't be available for the All-Star game itself, or for the WPS championship, thanks to the UEFA Women's Championship. Oops.
But what I got a kick out of was the huge disconnect between the four electorates. If you're like me, you got a good cackle at the gap between the announced team and the fan leaders. From the website:
Coaches:
1.) Marta & Amy LePeilbet (tie)
3.) Eniola Aluko & Lori Chalupny (tie)
(I wonder if they threw out Kelly Lindsey's vote.)
Media:
1.) Marta
2.) Camille Abily
3.) Sonia Bompastor
Players
1.) Amy LePeilbet
2.) Marta
3.) Sonia Bompastor
Fans
1.) Hope Solo
2.) Lori Chalupny
3.) Shannon Boxx
I may be reading a little too much into this, but here's what I read between the lines.
From the fans to WPS: "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Why isn't Mia on the ballot?"
From the media, players and coaches to the fans: "This isn't American Idol, you pinheaded marks."
From the media: "The American game has stagnated, and is sorely lacking in the kind of flair and skill necessary to produce either an entertaining product or a truly great team."
From the players and coaches to the media: "Ever hear of defense, you effete, short-sighted, ignorant snobs?"
From the players: "We respect tough, fiery competitors, because we're the ones out there week in and week out striving for glory."
From the media and coaches to the players: "Oh, boo hoo, Marta makes more than you. If you don't like it, try preventing her from scoring at will, you jealous whiners."
I actually like the First XI picked, certainly much more than I thought I would. I still think the fan vote should count for -25%, instead of 25%, though.
However, while the fans should be ignored, they unfortunately cannot be. It has to be a little alarming that Marta, the best and highest-profile player in the league, was comparatively rejected by the fans. She was the fourth highest vote-getter among the fans, granted. But since she should have been as close to a unanimous pick as possible, the fact that she's less popular among the lumpenproletariat than the infinitely less flashy Chalupny and Boxx has a lot of implications.
For one thing - U-S-A! U-S-A! The fan base is still partying like it's 1999. They want American players. Not only does this mean WPS will have to work hard to get its international players fan support, but it makes WPS cruelly dependent on the US National Team's performances. So whenever the USWNT gets it handed to them by Brazil or Germany, that's going to have a terrible knock-on at the club level. MLS is also dependent on the USMNT, but on the club level fans will turn out to see Blanco, Angel, and English players like Terry Cooke and Kyle Patterson. Bompastor and Abily are fantastic, but I don't know how WPS sells French players.
It also implies that, unless someone educates the fans, they would rather see substandard US players than international stars. WPS will spend accordingly, international players will flee to Europe, and the quality of WPS will suffer. WPS doesn't have to be the unquestioned best women's league in the world to survive - for one thing, that didn't help WUSA - but US players are by and large better off playing with and against the best international players. If they don't, down the road the USWNT suffers, which affects WPS, which...and so on in the downward spiral.
Fortunately, all the Euros will be away for the All-Star Game. U-S-A! U-S-A! Wow...maybe scheduling the All-Star Game and the championship to conflict with the Women's Euro was deliberate.
Let's hope Abner Rogers and the league sticks by its guns, and tells the Athletica home crowd that their hometown keeper will come in at halftime at the earliest.
Karina LeBlanc GK - Los Angeles Sol, Canada
Tina Ellertson D - Saint Louis Athletica, United States
Amy LePeilbet D - Boston Breakers, United States
Alex Scott D - Boston Breakers, England
Camille Abily M - Los Angeles Sol, France
Sonia Bompastor M - Washington Freedom, France
Shannon Boxx M - Los Angeles Sol, United States
Lori Chalupny M - Saint Louis Athletica, United States
Kelly Smith M - Boston Breakers, England
Eniola Aluko F - Saint Louis Athletica, England
Marta F - Los Angeles Sol, Brazil
The first order of comedy, of course, is that half of this team won't be available for the All-Star game itself, or for the WPS championship, thanks to the UEFA Women's Championship. Oops.
But what I got a kick out of was the huge disconnect between the four electorates. If you're like me, you got a good cackle at the gap between the announced team and the fan leaders. From the website:
Coaches:
1.) Marta & Amy LePeilbet (tie)
3.) Eniola Aluko & Lori Chalupny (tie)
(I wonder if they threw out Kelly Lindsey's vote.)
Media:
1.) Marta
2.) Camille Abily
3.) Sonia Bompastor
Players
1.) Amy LePeilbet
2.) Marta
3.) Sonia Bompastor
Fans
1.) Hope Solo
2.) Lori Chalupny
3.) Shannon Boxx
I may be reading a little too much into this, but here's what I read between the lines.
From the fans to WPS: "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Why isn't Mia on the ballot?"
From the media, players and coaches to the fans: "This isn't American Idol, you pinheaded marks."
From the media: "The American game has stagnated, and is sorely lacking in the kind of flair and skill necessary to produce either an entertaining product or a truly great team."
From the players and coaches to the media: "Ever hear of defense, you effete, short-sighted, ignorant snobs?"
From the players: "We respect tough, fiery competitors, because we're the ones out there week in and week out striving for glory."
From the media and coaches to the players: "Oh, boo hoo, Marta makes more than you. If you don't like it, try preventing her from scoring at will, you jealous whiners."
I actually like the First XI picked, certainly much more than I thought I would. I still think the fan vote should count for -25%, instead of 25%, though.
However, while the fans should be ignored, they unfortunately cannot be. It has to be a little alarming that Marta, the best and highest-profile player in the league, was comparatively rejected by the fans. She was the fourth highest vote-getter among the fans, granted. But since she should have been as close to a unanimous pick as possible, the fact that she's less popular among the lumpenproletariat than the infinitely less flashy Chalupny and Boxx has a lot of implications.
For one thing - U-S-A! U-S-A! The fan base is still partying like it's 1999. They want American players. Not only does this mean WPS will have to work hard to get its international players fan support, but it makes WPS cruelly dependent on the US National Team's performances. So whenever the USWNT gets it handed to them by Brazil or Germany, that's going to have a terrible knock-on at the club level. MLS is also dependent on the USMNT, but on the club level fans will turn out to see Blanco, Angel, and English players like Terry Cooke and Kyle Patterson. Bompastor and Abily are fantastic, but I don't know how WPS sells French players.
It also implies that, unless someone educates the fans, they would rather see substandard US players than international stars. WPS will spend accordingly, international players will flee to Europe, and the quality of WPS will suffer. WPS doesn't have to be the unquestioned best women's league in the world to survive - for one thing, that didn't help WUSA - but US players are by and large better off playing with and against the best international players. If they don't, down the road the USWNT suffers, which affects WPS, which...and so on in the downward spiral.
Fortunately, all the Euros will be away for the All-Star Game. U-S-A! U-S-A! Wow...maybe scheduling the All-Star Game and the championship to conflict with the Women's Euro was deliberate.
Let's hope Abner Rogers and the league sticks by its guns, and tells the Athletica home crowd that their hometown keeper will come in at halftime at the earliest.
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Holistically, I must say I'm glad the fan vote was only 25% of the total ballots. Besides the fact that I thought Hope Solo should have been in the starting XI, my ballots were much more in line with what happened versus what "the fans" wanted to happen - and please note I consider "the fans" as separate from "us know-it-all BigSoccer fans", where many of the latter were horrified as to what the former stuffed the ballot box with.
As a side note, while I voted for Hope, I admit you could probably flip a coin between here and LeBlanc. If each gets their 45, I'm happy.
I think WPS should have listed the top five in each category instead of the top three, you probably would have seen more consensus then. Though still I do find it surprising that Marta was only #4. Then again, I didn't vote for here while I did vote for Solo&Chalupny. ^.^
Maybe people were just tired of her beating them all the time? And I'm sure the FCGP fans are still kinda sour over the whole Wilson hip thing.
I think WPS has done a really good job of advertising their international stars, at least ever since the seven "extraordinary" commericals were filmed.Posted 05 Aug 2009 at 07:31 PM by SiberianThunderT 
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FYI, Terry Cooke got released from the Rapids and is no longer in the league. Unless you were trying to be sarcastic, which wouldn't surprise me.
I couldn't think of another English player in MLS. So, I picked the best one I could recall. -D.Posted 05 Aug 2009 at 08:27 PM by Mattjv
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I'd love to see the position-by-position breakdown.
Until then, I can't be too hard on the fans. Solo vs. LeBlanc is indeed a coin flip. Chalupny's a perfectly good choice. Boxx probably deserves a little bit of credit for the Sol's success, no?
In any case, it's better than baseball, where .240-hitting fan favorites can make the All-Star Game and a player can win 14 straight Gold Gloves because reporters saw him make a good play in 1994.Posted 05 Aug 2009 at 09:15 PM by Beau Dure
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I don't think the fans vote was simply a case of U-S-A!!! I mean, if all XI of the fan votes were American players or if Lloyd had made the roster you would have a better case. Chalu & Boxx have been hugely influential for their teams (currently 1,2 in the standings) and arguably the best at their position (although, it would depend on where you would play Bompastor or Chalu--both have played both left mid & left d)
Their roles are not primarily goal scorers but to make everything else work. Chalu has been fouled & hacked more than any other player in the league. You don't think that's by accident, do you?. Yet, she not only can still walk but also is relentless on both sides of the ball. Boxx has proved that she is not an aging player simply hanging onto past glory but a world class dmid w/ offensive skills.
I think the starting XI is about right--although, you'll have to slide either Chalu or Bompastor to left back (or just let them decide for themselves play by play). Of course, it will never happen b/c of the Euros. Which we won't be able to watch on tv here in the USA.Posted 05 Aug 2009 at 10:33 PM by kool-aide
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Yes, the all-star ballot indicates that fans don't want to see the best foreign players in the world . . . uhhh, what???? Baseball fans elect dead guys and still the game limps on. I think WPS can survive the fact that American fans tend to have favorite players that are American (yes, that's news - you going to do an article about how Wayne Rooney is more popular in England than Cristiano Ronaldo?).
WPS is going to live or die on its own merits - the USWNT can provide a boost, but the fact that WPS fans don't vote for Marta certainly doesn't mean they're not going to pay to see her play! On the plus side, great to see you talking about WPS rather than the latest stupid factoid in MLS, but the fact you're really not paying attention to WPS (really good crowd in St. Louis Saturday - and all of them were sitting closer to the field than Tony D) kind of reduces the good vibe.Posted 05 Aug 2009 at 11:09 PM by Morris20
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Just curious, is the WPS the best woman's league in the world? Or would it be the Woman's English Premier League? I do watch some of the USWNT games but I admit I do not follow the woman's game closely.
Posted 06 Aug 2009 at 01:28 AM by soccerusa517 
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Jack Bell's NY Times story on this actually lists the top ten vote-getters from fans.
http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/international-flavor-to-first-xi-wps-all-stars/Posted 06 Aug 2009 at 02:45 AM by EintrachtFan
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I was at a US game a while ago and the fans literally exploded when Hope Solo picked up a ball. Americans vote out of their ignorance just like they cheer out of their ignorance. They don't know what makes a player great. Not a surprise here.
Posted 06 Aug 2009 at 03:35 AM by EL AY FAN
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It's supposed to be the best women's league in the world. It's the only one that's full-professional, and it's got the best players from (I think) eleven of the best WNTs. Of course, without any direct competition between WPS teams and other teams, it's hard to say for sure. I know the Chicago Red Stars played the Irish WNT a while back, but I never heard the result.Quote:Just curious, is the WPS the best woman's league in the world? Or would it be the Woman's English Premier League? I do watch some of the USWNT games but I admit I do not follow the woman's game closely.
Posted 06 Aug 2009 at 08:29 AM by SiberianThunderT
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@soccerusa517: I think the best women's leagues in Europe are the Swedish & German leagues. But specific teams in other leagues are strong, like Olympic Lyon & Arsenal. A Russian team lost to Duisburg in the Champions League final this past season. (I hope a more knowledgeable poster -- Bonnie? Smulan? Micol? -- will correct me, if I'm off the mark).
WPS has a lot of talent (domestic & international) but as a first year league, every team is an expansion team so there are kinks to work out. Also, since there won't be meaningful on-field competition btwn WPS & European teams any time soon (reasons of calendar, different confederations, etc) there really isn't a good way to tag "best in the world." However, other leagues are not fully professional--as in players must have other jobs to support themselves. WPS is fully professional (although, players aren't raking in the $$ and I think developmental players make around 12,500).
Back to Dan's point about fan voting, I also think there might be a bit of push back against the Marta adulation found in the media. That and some fans deciding that they aren't going to vote for players not actually available to play in the game. I seriously contemplated tilting my ballot that way. I was very close to not voting for any one that I knew wouldn't be there because I didn't want to give the Commish too many extra picks. WPS had not announced (that I saw, anyway) the format for filling vacancies if players couldn't make it to the game.Posted 06 Aug 2009 at 08:49 AM by kool-aide
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