Thanks Really? and chch for your comments. The issue that the Stanford players' decision raises (I would imagine) in some minds is the one of the privilege of playing for one's country. The idea of declining an opportunity to play on a national team in a World Cup would seem to be an honor that is a life-time memory and most would jump at the chance. It would be interesting to know what the key reasons are that Stanford and PSU players have made such opposite decisions? Each squad could have legitimately placed 4 or 5 players on the team. PSU did, Stanford did not. It would appear that there was different guidance at the school/program level (or a heck of a coincidence that each player made the same decision.) From my view Sullivan and Cook were locks to start on the U20 team and DiBiasi and Davidson not far behind, and McGrady should have garnered at least a long look to make the team. Yes, Scarpa redshirting is a puzzle. She will likely be coming off the bench on the U20 team. Is she listening to the same advice as PSU players got? Taylor Otto not? Very mysterious to me....
Stanford and Penn State are worlds apart academically so that may rub off on their soccer players. Otto is such a physical specimen that it's not inconceivable she could start on the WNT someday. But still I have the question, so all these redshirting students are they going to miss a semester of school? And seriously if they get injured are the schools supposed to honor the scholarships even though it's not a school activity per se.
Sullivan is not eligible for the U20 WWC. She is a '95 birth year and the cut off is on or after January 1st 1996. Even with a 75% scholarship parents have to pay $17k for a Stanford education. That makes the math simple and redshirting not likely unless a player has pretty wealthy parents or a good amount of money (over $100k) in the college savings account. The Pac 12 guarantees the first 4 years of a scholarship but not the 5th year. Considering how early they recruit and thus commit their money, they need and want their players to be done in 4.
Whats interesting is some of these players have already utilized their redshirt year. How does a kid make that decision? I believe Rose Chandler at Penn State is one of those
This is not the first time Stanford players have declined to play for the NT in a U20 WWC, so it seems doubtful to me that there's any coincidence involved. I have my own question whether it's wise for a player to play the Fall college season and simultaneously be prepping for and playing in a youth WWC. The US coaching staff has had a bunch of years now to consider that question and try to reach some conclusions about it. Maybe they've concluded it isn't a good idea, thus telling players they can do one 100% or the other 100%, but not both 75%. This would seem to me to be consistent with the youth development academy approach USSF is taking.
Somebody else pointed out to me that there is an exception built into the red shirt rules that essentially allows for an additional red shirt year for major national team duty. Sorry don't remember the exact conditions or who reminded me of the exception.
I am certain U20 WC isn't an exempt event recognized by the NCAA. Unless it was medical red shirting(which wasn't as far as I know), she will not get another year of eligibility.
Who are the other team captains besides Alvarado? I would think Alvarado, Jenkins, Goralski, Mace & Miranda are definite starters. Hernandez, Kaskie, Rodriguez, Munerlyn, Cerda & Matulich would be in the next group. Pugh, Fleming & Canales are the only definite locks to start of the freshmen. Goalkeeper will be interesting between Ervik & Sternbach.
First Sternbach has graduated and is no longer on the team. Second, Jenkins, Cerda, Mace, Goralski and Alvarado are sure starters. Ervik is the likely starter at keeper however, Micah will be given every opportunity to compete for the job. Matulich didn't play much in the last 8 or so games (Bzeih and a couple of others platooned at the outside back spot). Pugh, Fleming and Canales aren't the only locks to start as freshman as they have two defenders in the class that are both competing with YNT's internationally and are on campus training with the team now. Defense was the biggest issue last season, although the offense wasn't exactly lighting it up, and both fit the bill. Hernandez will contribute and if you like her you will really like the other 5 attacking players. Dunphy and Umehara are studs that will definitely take minutes this year. The team will be very deep as lots of players got a chance to earn a spot last season. 5 players succeeded in locking down spots. The other 6 are up for grabs and don't be surprised if the first group of players that the staff actually recruited earns the majority of those spots. We will know on August 12th when BYU comes to town. My bet is the lineup that starts against Texas A&M (their 2nd game and the first game after the Olympic Final on the schedule) will look like this: Ervik, Goralski, Mace, McCullough, Pedersen, Alvarado, Canales, Fleming, Cerda, Jenkins, Pugh. Significant minutes will be played by: Miranda, Dunphy, Kaskie, Umehara, Hernandez, Munerlyn, Winter Micah could see some PT at keeper although that will depend upon camp. Anyone outside of those 19 players is going to see limited minutes IMHO.
Pedersen was in the same U19 camp as Mace and was selected for the squad that went to New Zealand and Mace wasn't. Dunphy and McCullough will be traveling to England in a couple of weeks for a tournament with the U18 WNT. Dunphy has trained with the U20 WNT and McCullough was invited to camp with the U19's but declined due to injury. This class is perhaps the most talented recruiting class ever assembled in Women's soccer. If they live up to their potential they should be better than the class that had Mewis, Killion, Dahlkemper, Dydasco, Oyster and Rowland.
Racioppi Decides to Pursue Academic Commitments: http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=211029889
It's all about winning and with UCLA missing the NCAA tournament last year. I wouldn't be surprised, if 5 freshmen start this season. Similar to Stanford starting 4 freshmen last season.
True - I'm not disagreeing with you but you have to remember that the majority of returning players on UCLA's roster also had extensive Youth NT experience coming in as freshmen (Jenkins, Goralski, Miranda, Kaskie, Munerlyn, Winter, Cerda, Matulich, Hemingway, Dutto, Schechtman, Rodriguez, Mace, Castaneda to name a few). Some make the adjustment to the college game more quickly than others. It's a whole different level (speed of play, physicality, etc). Also, I noticed you didn't mention Anika Rodriguez - I know she redshirted last year due to injury but I would assume she could also earn some quality minutes this fall.
Good for her! Sounds like she's premed- she will make more in 5 years as a doctor than a someone's typical career on the women's national team. I can't believe they ask these kids (some just graduating high school) to skip a semester of college.
So it is announced that Racioppi is opting out of the U20 team on which she would have likely started and is looking forward to the season at Duke. And we have confirmation (above) that the three Stanford players who would also have been key have decided to participate on the u20 team either and will play their fall season at Stanford. We are told that Pugh will not play on the U20 team either and will play for UCLA. Are there other players who are known to be considering or have declined this opportunity? Is Michelle French and her staff getting worried about not fielding a competitive team when potential starters opt out?... (especially after the 5-0 drubbing by Japan last month in the "dress rehearsal" in Papua New Guinea.) Certainly the selection of the dates of the U20 WWC tournament made every college coach who had potential players cringe when they heard, and it seems that at least three will be breathing a sign of relief as they contemplate this fall college season. Will these announced decisions lead other players (from PSU, Notre Dame, UNC, Tennessee etc.) to follow suit? Although this dilemma was not of the YNT making (the dates were approved by FIFA) clearly, this trend is not good news for the Youth National Teams. Hopefully this issue will be solved in future years by not choosing such dates, although I suspect that the rest of the soccer world does give a hoot as to when the college tournaments are held in the US.
FIFA absolutely doesn't give a hoot about college soccer. Although it seems they don't care all that much about women's soccer in general, and even less about women's youth soccer. After all, they decided to host the tournament in Papua New Guinea where the teams will be confined to their hotels for safety reasons when they aren't playing.
I agree: Who the hell thought it was a good idea to have a major tournament in freakin' Papua New Guinea? Of the all the places in the world.....
Social change through spotlight and carrots (and a veiled fist). It's a noble ideal. PNG surely has a silent majority of people who are sick of being defined by that one taint. We'll see if Infantino's more transparent FIFA sticks with the sunshine agenda.
To be fair, college soccer doesn't give a hoot about FIFA. Sure, a dozen elite programs want to see their players go to u20's so they can recruit more players, but the other 1,000 or whatever schools across divisions have completely different agendas. This includes: Substitution rules to get more players involved for title IX quotas, limit of 20 matches a year, no offseason coaching ( ok, 2 hrs a week) and using a different set of rules.
But, the players you named with YNT experience means nothing now, because they grossly underperformed in the Pac-12 last season. They had the worst season ever in UCLA womens soccer history. It was there time to prove, shine and secure their starting positions. Unfortunatley, they struggled, leaving the door wide open for incoming freshmen to beat them out of their starting positions this season.
Schectman is now at Georgetown. Once she realized Ervik had won the job she got the heck out of Dodge. Castenada went to one U17 camp and was never called back in. I have seen her play on multiple occasions and unfortunately they have recruited over her. With her redshirting she is now stuck with the 2016 class and she will not play over Canales, Fleming or Umehara. Rodriguez unfortunately got injured at the absolute worst time and now has to beat out Pugh, Jenkins, Cerda, Hernandez, Munerlyn and Dunphy. That is going to be a near impossible task. With Sanchez and Flynn coming in the next couple years she might not ever see meaningful minutes. If the Bruins also get Deanna Rose the 1999 player that starts at forward for the full Canadian WNT then she might as well transfer now. Regarding it being a whole different level in college. I agree and some players don't adjust well. All of these players are currently competing with YNT's and they are scrimmaging college teams and WPSL teams all the time and have shown well against the competition. Like I said about Pugh this recruiting class is special. It's rare that you get so many impact players at one time. They are showing their stuff in the offseason inter-squad scrimmages that they have been having. I know that at least one of them has already tied the UCLA record in the beep test that Annie Alvarado set last year at the last U18 camp. We are 32 days from the start of camp and about 41 days from the scrimmage against BYU. We will see very soon.
Just an update regarding the U-20 preparations and the effect on college teams this year. With what looks like near the final roster, the US looked dismal this last week coming in winless and dead last in their own invitational. They were out-shot in every game and didn't score a goal in the three-game round robin. And it's not like the competition was world class like France, Germany, or Japan (who probably weren't invited on purpose!) No, they chose three middle to upper end teams so as to give them a challenge, but not to get humiliated. Our girls were lucky to tie the Republic of Korea team who had a 5-2 shots on goal advantage, lost 0-1 to England who did not qualify for the U20 tournament, and then fell to Brazil 2-0 without registering a single shot on frame. One can certainly see why Pugh was recruited to come back and play for the U20s (but her playing time was limited as she is apparently still recovering from an ankle injury suffered at the Olympics.) With perhaps 5 or so key college players opting not to join (and likely start for) this U20 team, it is looking like the US team will have a tough time getting to the elimination rounds. Changing the subject to impact on the college game, as of this time the following college teams are providing players to the U20 team. 5 - Penn State (all starters on the U20 team) 2 - Notre Dame (plus a third player on the U20 Mexico team) 2 - UNC 2 - UCLA It is interesting to note that each of the above schools are posting similar (moderately good) W-L records this fall so far. Penn State, however, still may have the talent to have a legitimate shot at the Big 1o title even missing 5 stars. 1 each: Tennessee Washington Santa Clara Rutgers Texas Tech Arkansas Duke 2 High School players