The Equalizer say it is Farid Benstiti. Someone I know very well and then you see the reactions on social media all linked to Horan. It is quite bizzare how people are reacting, she arrived overweight, the coach told her to lose weight because she was too big. If you are a professional athlete, you need to be fit, it is quite simple. Now the method of shouting at players when he is not happy. I understand that fans are offended by this. This is obviously old school management tricks. And can be considered outdated. But in context, an 18 year old player who moved away from home on her professional contract, it is obvious that the cultural change hit her hard and she probably was expecting more TLC. But if you are a coach with 20 pro players to take care of and having to win things, you just get on with it and try to get everyone fit and ready to play.
Yeah I don't understand the reaction as well. It is 100% valid to tell an athlete to lose weight. Heck when Horan moved back to the states some of these same fans were saying she needed to lose weight if she wanted a consistent starting role in the team. All that been said, can you tell us what to expect from Benstiti coaching-wise? I mean it's one think to coach a team full of all stars in a league with no competition. It's another to coach a mid-level NWSL team in a league where every league match is a challenge.
Also, not sure how I feel about aquiring the #9 pick. Granted I know next to nothing about this draft class but I think if you are not going to acquire the top 3 pick you may as well just wait it out. Also, our roster is very bloated at this point, I rather we had traded some of those players for draft picks instead of losing them for free which would happen at some point.
He is good, but I would not say he is top of the top of managers. He was champions league runner-up twice with two different clubs so not bad at all. With Lyon he was obviously playing the attacking game, but was more conservative with PSG especially against Lyon where he was very defensive, despite having good players. He is definitely attack minded in general and likes technical players. The fact that he has won League titles in Russia and China means he can communicate and his English is ok enough. The question mark is on player acquisition because it is an easier job to buy players for PSG/Lyon than trade in the NWSL where many factors come into the equation.
So the Benstiti appointment is official. Not sure why they couldn't announce this at the beginning of the week so that he would attend the draft. Oh well. Let the fun begin with roster trimming We are excited to announce that Farid Benstiti has been appointed as head coach of Reign FC. Read the details here: https://t.co/BRWePeobry pic.twitter.com/Ea5LrkAe0z— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) January 17, 2020 Probably should skip comments on the tweet, lol. But like most things I expect people to get over it in a few months.
Seems like the trimming of the team have commenced. So let's see if I can keep track of this. So this year the team did a good job at the end of the season of listing all the players that had their contract extended, renewed or waived. So that is the baseline I'm going to start from and every subsequent change will be added. Drafted 9th - Kelcie Hedge - Midfielder 33rd - Sam Hiatt - Defender 34th - Meg Brandt - Midfielder Goal Keepers Sammy Jo Prudhomme Casey Murphy Michelle Betos Lydia Williams Scout Watson - Waived Defenders Lauren Barnes Steph Catley Steph Cox Schuyler DeBree Celia Jiménez Delgado Kristen McNabb Megan Oyster Taylor Smith Julia Ashley - (01/17/2020) - Acquired in trade with SBFC for Ifeoma Onumonu Theresa Nielsen - (11/27/2019) Offered a new contract but opted to return to Europe. Christen Westphal - (01/17/202) Traded to Portland for 34th overall pick in 2020 draft. Midfielders Morgan Andrews Allie Long Rebecca Quinn Rosie White Bev Yanez Morgan Proffitt Rumi Utsugi Jess Fishlock Forwards Shea Groom Darian Jenkins Megan Rapinoe Addison Steiner Jodie Taylor Bethany Balcer Jasmyne Spencer Jaycie Johnson - Waived Ifeoma Onumonu - (01/17/2020) - Traded to SBFC for Julia Ashley
Here are a couple of article from the French press: https://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Act...gn-fc-la-franchise-americaine-de-l-ol/1099691 https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/football...r-une-suprematie-comme-avec-lyon-1845117.html Benstiti seems very ambitious and confirm exchange of players between the teams will happen...
More roster moves today, namely three players out and one in. More importantly we are out of our first two round picks in the 2021 draft. (extended, renewed, waived) Drafted 9th - Kelcie Hedge - Midfielder 33rd - Sam Hiatt - Defender 34th - Meg Brandt - Midfielder Goal Keepers Sammy Jo Prudhomme Casey Murphy Michelle Betos Lydia Williams Scout Watson - Waived Defenders Lauren Barnes Steph Catley Steph Cox Celia Jiménez Delgado Kristen McNabb Megan Oyster Taylor Smith Julia Ashley - (01/17/2020) - Acquired in trade with SBFC for Ifeoma Onumonu Theresa Nielsen - (11/27/2019) Offered a new contract but opted to return to Europe. Christen Westphal - (01/17/202) Traded to Portland for 34th overall pick in 2020 draft. Schuyler Debree - (01/22/2020) Player elected leave. Midfielders Morgan Andrews Allie Long Rebecca Quinn Rosie White Bev Yanez Rumi Utsugi Jess Fishlock Dani Weatherholt - (01/22/2020) Acquired from Orlando for the second round pick in the 2021 draft. Morgan Profitt - (01/22/2020) Retired from professional soccer. Forwards Shea Groom Darian Jenkins Megan Rapinoe Jodie Taylor Bethany Balcer Jasmyne Spencer Jaycie Johnson - Waived Ifeoma Onumonu - (01/17/2020) - Traded to SBFC for Julia Ashley Addison Steiner - Waived
Very aptly, @SiberianThunderT explained here what a "Player elected leave" is, or I wouldn't have known anything about that!
Hi, everybody. new on the forum , and fan of the OLYMPIC LYONNAIS man and woman ...happy with the partnership between our two clubs ... JMA (jm.AULAS) has always made his club and all his teams grow ...we already know at the club that exchanges of players will be made between the two clubs...
C'est déjà la cas! Le FC Nantes féminin est deuxième du groupe A de la D2 française. Welcome on board Alex!
hi everyone I put you below an article concerning the ambitions of JMA on female football and the acquisition of FC REIGN ... translated by a web translator because even if I got married in Hawaii and am often in the USA I am not strong enough in english to translate it myself (lol)
The acquisition of Reign FC by OL Groupe confirms the planetary ambitions of Jean-Michel Aulas Philippe Jallon | January 15, 2020 Why did Olympique Lyonnais (through OL Groupe) and Jean-Michel Aulas acquire Reign FC, a 100% female club where Megan Rapinoe and Allie Long play? Certainly not to do figuration in the United States or to limit their ambitions to American territory. This luxury shopping formalizes the wish to transform the OL brand into a hub in the feminine world of football. Unveiled on October 10, 2019, negotiated on November 25, formalized on December 19, 2019 and finalized in January 2020. The acquisition of Reign FC by the parent company of OL is neither a whim nor a dice , neither a single hit, nor a prohibitive cost. This is a carefully thought out sporting, financial and strategic operation. All the official elements of this operation confirm it, as well as all its potential implications. Recall of facts Reign FC co-founded in 2012 the NWSL (National Women's Soccer League), the championship of which will drop from nine clubs in 2019 to twelve clubs for the new season which begins in April 2020. Established in the northwest of the United States in the city from Tacoma, some 50 km from Seattle, Reign FC has both a first team and a training center for women footballers of all skill levels, especially the elite. World champion and Ballon d'Or 2019, Megan Rapinoe, is the iconic player of this club, which includes Welsh Jessica Fishlock. The two women have already worn the OL jersey and have said all the good they think of Lyon’s takeover of Reign FC.
A shower of skills Before even mentioning the contractual aspect of the transaction itself, let's do a bit of name dropping by highlighting the presence of key figures during the official announcement of the takeover. There were of course Bill and Theresa Predmore, the founders and now minority shareholders of the American club, as well as Jean-Michel Aulas, boss of Olympique Lyonnais and president of its parent company OL Groupe. The presence of three other people suggests an unsaid of the operation, in this case the strategic gesture and the formidable ambition which underlie it. Former basketball player Tony Parker, boss of Asvel (Villeurbanne), OL international ambassador, personal friend and business partner of Aulas had made the trip, as did Sonia Bompastor, who heads the training center for OL football players. Finally, Amanda Duffy, the president of the NWSL, was also on the podium. Jean-Michel Aulas signs a contract Jean-Michel Aulas, a tireless promoter of women's football, no longer limits his ambitions for France or Europe to the king sport played by the queens of the stadium. It is a safe bet that the contract, reviewed and corrected by a battalion of jurists, contains revealing clauses in this regard. Note that during the official presentation of the acquisition in Tacoma, Jean-Michel Aulas said nothing about the culinary and architectural heritage of the former capital of Gaul. He immediately highlighted the entrepreneurial dimension, the purchasing power and the keen interest of Lyon for high-level business. The era is no longer in the absorption in 2004 of the female section of FC Lyon, but in the preparation of a galactic project, both by the influence of Reign FC, OL and their players in their own championships, only by exporting the brand and OL's know-how to the whole planet. The sale contract (3.15 million euros) stipulates that Theresa and Bill Predmore retain 7.5% of the shares in Reign FC, that Tony Parker acquires 3% and that OL Groupe holds 89.5% of the capital. If Jean-Michel Aulas becomes president of the board of directors of Reign FC, the founder of the club continues to lead it on a daily basis (CEO) and the founder remains at the head of the Reign Academy, the training center that the club only devotes to soccer players.
A bold strategy All the elements that we have just listed undoubtedly foreshadow a large-scale operation with many ramifications. Let’s answer the most basic question right away: yes, of course OL Groupe and Aulas want to win both the American championship with Reign FC and the French championship with OL. But we have to look even further and offer deeper roots. The training sees double Sonia Bompastor's presence in Tacoma last December and the continuation of Theresa Predmore in her post are nothing anecdotal. It is first and foremost through training that the two clubs want to seal the excellence of their cooperation, in other words their sorority. In fact, the two clubs offer promising complementarity. OL is known for the quality of its center and its training facilities, comparable to those of men, while Reign FC enjoys a much more impressive stadium in Tacoma than those where the women's teams play in France. It is therefore a safe bet that the footballers in training centers in Lyon and Tacoma will have the opportunity to intermingle their destiny if not their daily life. The confrontation with another country, another language, another sporting context and another style of play, all this allows a footballer in the making to gain experience and maturity. Same thing, moreover, for players who are already playing in the first team. And it is likely that the flows will be in both directions, OL-Reign and Reign-OL, for the good of all.
Girlfriends first The female section of Olympique Lyonnais understood before many other clubs the importance of an effective training center. The Rhone club today derives the benefits and garners national and European titles like no other on the football planet. This excellence is also destined to become the hallmark of Reign FC (which once reigned over American football) and its training center. The Lyon club will find it of major interest in perhaps obtaining a right of preemption by OL over the players trained at Tacoma. Because even if the American salary ceiling is raised in 2020 for the clubs of the NWSL, the footballers gain more to play among the cadors of the big European championships. A preferential pact would facilitate the transfer to Lyon of a player playing at Tacoma. Something to prevent nuggets from going to competing clubs, like Sam Kerr to Chelsea after his stint with the Chicago Red Stars. The seasonality of football is not the same on both sides of the Atlantic, it is a safe bet that Lyon will not hesitate to pay freelances to the best American players before the start of their championship or at the end of the season, so during the traditional slack shots of French teams whose season begins in summer.
The ROI (KING) of business Jean-Michel Aulas is, as everyone knows, the man of a stadium. Groupama Stadium is him. The Reign FC players play in the Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, which certainly has nothing to envy to French football, but which was not built for soccer either. The builder Aulas will no doubt want to build a stadium commensurate with his female ambitions in Tacoma. It is not yet topical, but we can already take bets. Jean-Michel Aulas and Tony Parker are, as everyone knows, the kings of merchandising. They know how to sell the jerseys and the image of their stars better than anyone. There is no doubt that with Megan Rapinoe at the head of the American bow, sales of jerseys will reach new heights at OL as at his new subsidiary. Women's football will still have to gain popularity in the United States. Not in relation to men's football (it’s already done), but in relation to other sports. The presence of the boss of the NWSL at the time of the announcement of the takeover is certainly not trivial either. Money from OL Groupe and Aulas could, for example, finance advertising campaigns for soccer played at Reign FC and across the country. Or finance an image campaign whose flagship would be Megan Rapinoe.
A triple band game The acquisition of Reign FC is not an end in itself for Aulas, but a means of contributing to the continental influence of the OL brand. We are talking about the American continent, which itself is part of a planetary strategy for Lyon. Because the ultimate goal of the French businessman is to export the OL brand to all continents. Entrepreneurial mechanics has already started in the direction of China. The Chinese IDG Capital Partners now owns 20% of the Lyon club. In return, OL Groupe exports its know-how in training, merchandising and ticketing to China. It can be assumed that synergies will arise not only between OL and Reign FC, but also between the two training centers, and even between Lyon, Tacoma and China. As suggested above, this would involve player internships in the partner training center, or exchanges or loans of football players. Both sporting and professional operations could therefore arise from a Franco-American-Chinese partnership under the aegis of Jean-Michel Aulas. For example, through the organization of matches between the training centers managed by Sonia Bompastor and Theresa Tredmore, between the first teams (but also U20, U19, etc.) of OL and Reign FC. And, why not also, by organizing matches of a national championship in another country, which would explain why the boss of the NWSL is so interested in the Reign-OL rapprochement. We could even organize gala matches between the two teams, in Lyon, in Tacoma, or even in stadiums in China. Such a strategy does not depend solely on the monetization of a club and its membership. The footballers themselves have everything to gain. By obtaining bonuses, of course, but also by more diversified teaching methods and by direct sports confrontations likely to raise their level of play - thus to increase their own financial valuation.
"voila", hoping that i didn't break the forum rules too much with texts so long, i prefer to translate it (badly) so that you don't have to do it (it's often boring) enjoy
https://www.sounderatheart.com/platform/amp/2020/1/31/21116722/ol-reign-trademark-logo Utah Royals already have a lion for their crest. Difference is the head facing different direction.
This makes me so sad. I understand why, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. The Seattle Reign had a distinctive crest; can't the team just change names to the OL Reign but keep the crest? Also I really want to know if the colors are changing, too.
I agree: more in general I don't like how easily in NWSL teams change names, crests, jerseys, locations, as soon as a change of property happens. It ruins any sense of continuity, especially for fans who had emotionally invested on a particular team: seeing it change skin doesn't let feelings unchanged. It's probably more common for team sports in USA than it is in Europe, where I live, but I can't believe that it has "no effect" on the supporters.
It's definitely more common in the US than in Europe, and it certainly can have an effect on supporters. Usually, it's not too bad as long as the team stays in the same metro area - for example, the rebrands of the LA Galaxy, Columbus Crew, Dallas Burn -> FC Dallas, and KC Wiz -> Sporting KC were all generally quite welcome (to my memory; I welcome corrections on that since I didn't live in any of those cities). On the other hand, you can still have dumpster Fires like the new logo for the other Chicago team, and of course a team leaving a metro area always loses most of its existing fans.