Breakers win. Entertaining game. Game winning OG by Lloyd on a nice tap in. High water mark I think its the 1st time at .500 under Durkin other than 0-0-0? Naeher spectacular on a couple saves. McCaffrey, Verdoia, Rafinha especially fun to watch. Stream pretty good only a few glitches. Lots of awkward silence from PBP crew.
Thought it was good game and the venue was not bad.. Some kinks to work out but on the whole a fun night. One thing missing was the band.. I always thought they brought atmosphere to home games and it would be a shame if they were not returning this year.. Anyone know? -Don
Anyone see the @BostonBreakers adverts at the T stations last week?#FearTheWave pic.twitter.com/9NuMgtyx6V— Seve Hirst (@CoachSeve) April 29, 2015 (Might've been a good idea to have the website url or a phone number to call for tickets, though)
I saw one on the red line at Harvard station last week that did include the website and phone number. I think these could've had 2 pages and the 2nd page had the contact info.
Well, they would've had to have 3 pages. You can see two pages in the tweet. One says the home opener and gives the date and stadium location, the other has the Breakers, NWSL, Nike, and Steward health logo with the text Boston Breakers (you can even faintly see the home opener text on the other one, so you know they were shown one after the other).
@RWBreakers @Lee Billiard So I saw this tweet today: Back to business........players back on the training field preparing for Saturday's game! #FearTheWave pic.twitter.com/1LHO0X4ySd— Boston Breakers (@BostonBreakers) April 30, 2015 And the lacrosse lines are still there even though the Harvard teams don't have any more home games scheduled. Can either of you confirm whether the lacrosse lines are permanent? And if they are, could you at least paint over this one red splotch on the center line:
sorry if I have posted this before, butthis is one of my favorite soccer photos - Julie King gots Hops - see her waist compared to Wambach's and how much air space is under her cleats
Oh, and whoever told Tom Durkin to clean up his game day look- thank so very much. That "I just rolled out of bed" attire he was wearing for most of last season was so unprofessional.
No wonder she was on both the soccer and basketball team at Auburn. Judging by the objects in the background her feet must be at least 2.5 feet off the ground.
I am curious now who won that ball too because it looks to me that Wambach jumped late and is trying to push King off her position with a forearm to the mid-section. King's left leg appears to be driven upward with Abby's contact with her hip as well.
I'm pretty sure that's a low camera angle, which exaggerates elevations from half-way across the field. a) Field severely foreshortened ==> camera is almost in the plane of the field b) Compare their shoes to third player #_3 (#23 Bianca Sierra? 5'7") behind them both. Assume #_3's hips are 3' off the ground. Is King's left shoe really ~30" up, jumping with studs on grass? Probably not; it's just an illusion from the angle. Using #_3's left leg as a ruler to the ground, the projection of Wambach's shadow straight down to the ground is not much below #_3's shoe bottom (due to foreshortened ground). Then we can reasonably estimate that: c) Wambach's heels are ~2.5 - 3.0 of her shoe lengths above ground ~= 20-24" up. Her CoG elevation is less than that because her legs are way bent, so that's maybe a 16-20" vertical, which seems reasonable given soccer and her age. These are not volleyball players on an ideal Taraflex mat; I haven't noticed abnormal hang time from any of them when they jump for contested headers. d) Estimating hip positions from their shirt hemlines, King's hips (and thus CoG) are about 0.7 shoe lengths higher than Wambach's, so that's maybe 24". Pretty good for soccer on the run, but not dangerously good. And yes, I think King is leeching some impetus from Wambach
Nice Equalizer article on Whitehill upon her retirement: http://equalizersoccer.com/2015/06/02/the-lowdown-the-cat-whitehill-story-retirement/
Who would have guessed Boston would have turned out so strong defensively at home? Their GAA at home is .75, compared to 3.33 GAA on the road. Have we had a team with that big of a discrepancy before?
Is there a beer garden at Soldiers Field Stadium that I'm missing? Still, Billiard is also aware that, for all of his success in building a base with youth soccer fans, the Breakers' need to be aiming at one of Boston's most prominent demographics. And one of the now-constant team promotions, an in-game beer garden, is intended to target this group. "Part of that (the beer garden) will help us draw in that demographic that we're looking for: The twenties and thirties as well as just the young kids with their parents," said Billiard, referencing the so-called "young professionals" who are such a core fanbase for the Revolution. http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/...ance-grows-in-wake-of-womens-world-cup-video/ I assume that's a future addition and doesn't refer to the beer stand that sits with the other concessions.
Just to bring some closure to 2015: http://www.soccerwire.com/news/pro/nwsl-by-the-numbers-2015-season/?loc=psw "0 The number of away wins by the Boston Breakers, who became the first team in league history to not win a road game in a season. The Breakers were 0-8-2 on their travels in 2015 and the two points is the record for fewest in a season."
They just terminated their partnership with the Club that had brought in all the youth teams. They plan to continue on their own but will now be competitors (both on the field and presumably in the market for players) http://www.bostonbreakerssoccer.com/NEWS/900036.html
I thought the youth program was one of the things the Breakers were doing right. Now it looks like even that has failed...
It wasn't really a Breakers youth organization as much as a marketing deal. The pro club provided some support but in my opinion was more analogous to the 90's when North American Soccer camps suddenly became MLS soccer camps. MLS had nothing to do with most operations, just sold the name for marketing, the same folks ran MLS the same way as NASC. Youth soccer in the area is going through some transition/upheaval the last few years. Mass and CT are somewhat unique having a large and strong town/residency based core of clubs and leagues. "Town" vs "Club" has been an ongoing conflict in some cases but basically co-existed under state youth soccer association/US Youth soccer umbrella for years. Some of the larger clubs, led by GPS, (the successor to MPS that operated the W-League Renegades and other USL and A-League/PDL men's sides) formed a new league for "elite/premier" players, and subsequently renounced state and USYS affiliations to go with US Club Soccer. All well and good until some of the smaller clubs were denied membership in the new league and began merging, consolidating and selling to get the numbers to qualify. This is what happened to some of the clubs mentioned in the Breakers press release. On the sales side, most of the numbers pulled for ticket sales came from the "Town" side. Academy/future players from the "Club" side, now enduring the mergers/acquisitions and break-ups. Fun stuff. Sooooo....... I think the statement in the press release about the relationship not working any longer due to a shift in the goals of the new FC Boston is not far off, although I am equally certain there is more to the break-up story than is being made public. And the Breakers got far more credit for their youth program than they deserved. Sorry if I bored anyone with Massachusetts youth soccer trivia...........
This actually makes Durkin's appointment as Academy Director a bit more meaningful. Makes sense if they are actually developing their own youth club organization rather than licensing their name.
Is GPS a member of ECNL? Or were you talking about another league? Scorpions and Stars are the only ECNL clubs in Massachusetts as far as I know. I assume that Scorpions is keeping the ECNL member teams. Scorpions has merged and unmerged many times.
So no, they aren't developing their own youth organization, just found a more attractive partner. http://www.bostonbreakerssoccer.com/home/902990.html
I keep reading about all these signings at other clubs. (Henry to the Thorns? Sheesh. Talk about greedy.) Is there anything in the works for the Breakers for a player one can build a franchise around? Should Boston throw in the towel?