Well then card the other player. Card someone. Just decide who can or can't grab the ball in that situation and card the player who shouldn't be grabbing it.
Eh, the U.S. may not have the handful of elite best players, but we're far and away the best team, with by orders of magnitude the deepest potential player pool out there. We are the Brazil of women's soccer. Our second 23 should be able to compete deep into the knockout rounds. But there are structural problems. As you're well aware, I'm at the far end of the political spectrum from you, and I have many problems with the USWNT right now. The #equalpayforequalplay social media campaign is horse shit. The USWNTPA wants more than its fair share. It wants the per game fees and marketing cuts that the USMNTPA has collectively bargained for with USSF without surrendering the guaranteed salaries, maternity benefits, and roster security that do not exist in the MNT CBA. If USSF offered the USWNTPA the contract that the USMNTPA signed, the USWNTPA wouldn't touch it. I've always wondered why the USSF never called the WNT union's bluff. And as for "Equal Pay", that certainly doesn't include other women. I haven't read the current CBA, but the previous one included phrasing that indicated that the lowest paid NWSL "Federation Player" could not be paid less than the highest paid non-Federation Player. And with Federation Players missing large chunks out of 2 out of every 4 seasons (on OG and WWC duty) that's particularly egregious. Lynn Williams, who'll play 22-24 games for the Courage this summer can't get paid more than teammate Jessica McDonald who is now a Federation Player, that will likely never take the field in the WWC, yet will miss a bunch of games right now, not to mention when USSF sabotages the second half of the NWSL season with its post-World Cup Take The Money Tour that stipulates 95% of players being from the WWC roster, and not paying any attention to building for next year's Olympics. The USWNTPA is far too much about preserving the status quo of current players. The USWNT has been calling in a stream of college players in the last year to save money (they can't pay them appearance fees) rather than non-Federation NWSL professionals. For marketing and budgeting reasons, the WNT is hamstrung to continue trotting out the known players. Developing unknowns into internationals is expensive and usually money losing. Even still, the USWNT has won either the WWC or OG Gold Medal in every four year cycle. Until the USWNT starts getting punished for business as usual, and a Trinidad 2017 type event unfolds where we get back to back embarrassments like Rio 2016, don't expect too much to improve. We took 3 injured players to France. Lindsey Horan is to this team as John O'Brien was to the MNT in 2006. She's not healthy and fit. She really shouldn't be on this team. Neither should Kelley O'Hara. But there they are. Megan Rapinoe in Rio 2016 was a crime. We're old, and we're injured. There are plenty of healthy, match fit players in NWSL that just aren't getting chances. And we have no real healthy outside backs of class on this team. Tobin ********ing Heath was used at outside back in one of the last friendlies. Crystal Dunn is not an outside back, but she has two club teammates technically in the WNT player pool who start at those positions ahead of her. But then here we are. Even if we ignore the Jaelene Hinkle sized hole on the back line, that doesn't explain Casey Short. The semi-frustrating thing is that the roster we have taken reminds me of WWC2003. We probably are the best team at the World Cup. If we play any of the other teams, I'd favor us straight up. But the World Cup isn't one game. It's seven games over three weeks. Our roster is a self-inflicted wound several players shorter than the other, and our healthy players are older than everybody else. We had a better roster than Germany in 2003, but I picked them to win that game before the tournament started - because I could see the train wreck coming. This feels the same. Late in the tourney, I fear we'll run into a younger, fitter, hungrier team and we won't have the legs. For me the big hope is that we keep Carli Lloyd in bubble wrap and on the bench until needed. The U.S. has always had a Michele Akers or Abby Wambach or Heather O'Reilly - get on my back player, I'm taking us to victory. Carli Lloyd has that big game thing, always had - but she's really old right now. I'm not hoping for the U.S. to get crushed because 1) I want us to win and 2) I don't think we'd learn the necessary lessons if it did happen. To be honest, I think the long term salvation will come from the NWSL if the ownership group finally breaks the umbilical to USSF and takes over the contracts of all of its players, and only releases players for FIFA/CONCACAF mandated international timeframes. No more Carli Lloyd taking a few weeks to get back to Houston from Rio and a book tour.
Ugh, I think we have to be careful here. There is a societal ingrained pressure to attack women in the public eye. The fact is, acting one one's self interest is as American as apple pie. Trying to leverage what little power one has to one's advantage isn't really a problem. Especially for professional athletes who are mostly just delaying their real careers. $36k to play soccer at 28 with maybe double or triple that in bonuses, match fees, and so on isn't exactly hitting the lottery. For every Alex Morgan there are several players whose WNT/NWSL earnings are "enough to get by without taking out a loan". And for most of these players the top earnings window is incredibly short. I don't begrudge them the opportunity to maximize it. The real questions should be raised with USSF for why PA pressure mattered with Tom Sermanni. The fact that his continued calling up of down-pool players was threatening to double the USWNTPA membership - and drastically changing what the membership would want in terms of benefits and guarantees - is the real problem. And it brings up another huge difference between the two unions. Getting into the men's union is pretty easy. I think if you dress for a game, you're in. With the women, you need to play a minimum number of games. As long as the membership is barely larger than the number of NWSL Federation Players or WWC roster slots, the desires of the union are towards self-preservation of the current roster. It sucks for McCall Zerboni to be the odd-women out, but the 23 in France are going to out vote her. If, however, just dressing for the WNT got you a vote, the PA would be very, very different, and the interestes of the Zerbonis would be able to outweigh the 23 in France. It's why I roll my eyes at MLS CBA time when people talk about DPs and Salary Caps and such. For every David Beckham there are 10 scrubs that make the minimum and rarely dress. The membership of the MLSPA wants relocation expenses, an apartment that they don't share with 3 teammates, and health insurance in the off season. The USWNT is where its at for reasons that are obvious if you actually figure out how things work structurally. Jill Ellis is a good coach in an almost impossible situation. But she knew the restrictions and pressures when she replaced Sermanni.
If I'm a defender in a panic in the back, I'm kicking the ball at the referee if he's within ten yards.
I don't know, I think the 2009 Los Angeles Sol was better than either of those Gold Pride or Flash squads - and during that period, I was one of the main women's soccer media members. The Sol failed in the championship game, but shit happens.
Er, I know people who self-identify as politically correct or as social justice warriors. They don't consider it a perjorative.
Sure. I call myself a Punk. "Punk" is a pejorative. But words change. I also embraced "Liberal" in the 90s when those on the right tried to use it as an attack. It's natural for some of those being insulted to embrace the turn and change it from an attack to a badge of honor.
Even the Women's WC gets discussed on MLS N&A now? No wonder the international forums are dying on Bigsoccer...
Now? We had long discussions here during Canada 2015, and the Germany 2011 games were also covered in our PBP threads. The only real difference is that someone created a WWC specific thread, which I'm not particularly a fan of, but hey - I'm just one poster. The international posters are dying because those forums have terrible communities that don't play well together. Most of the content has moved on to Twitter and other platforms. MLS N&A, with its heavy moderation, has managed to main a signal to noise ratio that keeps people coming back. People disagree, but agree to disagree. Paranoia and delusional posters get called out, and the fact that it's neutral territory is fiercely protected. I can complain about SKC all I want, but if El Jefe starts getting into it and won't let it go, he'll get some shit. But the reverse goes with FCD. We let the Columbus fans have their space during their year of hell, but we're starting to rein them in, and as the reality of Austin in MLS gets closer (but still not a guaranteed thing), they'll be expected to knock their shit off. It's all about signal to noise, and for us old-timers, this forum is our neutral ground where actual discourse can take place. It's not perfect, but it's a lot more sane than most of the international forums on BigSoccer.
Being an old-timer myself I enjoyed Bigsoccer a lot more when people occasionally left their comfort zone to interact with others. All we have now is a collection of cliques. Call me crazy, but shouldn't FIFA tournaments be discussed on the FIFA forum? That forum was always well moderated (by yours truly as well). In any case, by all means continue but Bigsoccer needs to re-structure its forums. So many are virtually dead now.
I get what you are saying about the women, but there are multiple things that they have done that have come across as very selfish. For instance, negotiating the NWSL salary thing into their contract while the other players weren't represented was just mean. The Carli Lloyd unauthorized wandering after the Olympics would have been rightfully ripped were it a Male who did that. More than anything, I think the USWNT has shown a blatant disregard for the NWSL and everything it is trying to accomplish, and I think it has everything to do with supplying the biggest competition for them. I understand your sentiment, but not criticizing them because of a knee jerk reaction from previous injustices does nobody, any good, and hurts the non-allocated American NWSL players quite a bit. I'm an American, so I can't cheer for anyone else. However, I'm finding it incredibly difficult to cheer for this particular collection of women, mostly because they seem to have decided that they are the team, rather than actually representing the USA. Also, I have predicted that they would be out by the Semis. When they are hungry, they are a juggernaut. They just don't really seem as interested in the soccer this time, and it will come back to bite them.
So my understanding of this is quite poor. But what kind of compensation do they give NWSL women who are not one of these Federation players on contract if they are called in? And how often does that happen, relative to NCAA player call ups?
I just learned today that all of the relevant parties have agreed to make Great Britain eligible to send a women's team to the 2020 Olympics for the first time as non-hosts. Not men, just women. Qualification is England's responsibility, but the Olympic team would be GB. UEFA has always been lazy with setting up women's Olympic qualification competition, just sending the top UEFA finishers from the previous World Cup. With 3rd place in Canada 2015, England would have been the top UEFA qualifier, but were not eligible. This time GB will go to Tokyo if England is amongst the top three UEFA teams in the World Cup, while Scotland's results will be irrelevant for this purpose.
Personally, I think it's time for the IOC, ICC, FIFA, IRFB, and anyone else I am missing to either make Team GB for all sports or split all sports into various home nations.
Is there still a separate Northern Ireland team? Or is it part of an island of Ireland team? If the latter, the gentlemen with orange sashes will love that.
For soccer, yes, there is a separate Northern Ireland team. However, the Republic of Ireland grants citizenship automatically to residents of Northern Ireland so players can declare for them. For international Rugby Union competitions all of Ireland competes as one team under the name Irish Rugby Football Union. I believe Rugby League is done the same way as Rugby League Ireland.
Interesting. I didn't realize the GB women's team had Scottish players in 2012 unti just now. The men collectively refused call ups IIRC and the team was only English and Welsh.
It always bugs me to see 'GBR' listed on the Olympic roster. Great Britain is the larger of the two principal British Isles, but if the London government insists that Northern Ireland be a part of the United Kingdom, and most people in the 6 northern counties of Ireland want to be considered as loyal subjects of the crown, I wish there would be a move to change 'GBR' to 'UKD' for future Olympiads. Gamecock14 has the right idea. While Scotland, Wales, England, and Northern Ireland would bitterly hate any move to consolidate its teams into one for the World Cup, it's no different than having individual states in the USA competing on their own. At least here, we don't make a big deal about where a player comes from; if they're picked for the national team, they represent the U.S. collectively. If there were a consolidated Team U.K., there would be a lot of scrutiny over how many players came from where and whether or not the selection process was equitable. In most countries, fans would passionately discuss players who did and did not make a national roster for an upcoming tournament. I think fans in the U.K. would make a bigger deal about where a player came from rather than whether their selection was a good choice by the manager.
But since shes arguably one of the top.five players in the world - after maybe Harder, Kerr and Hegeberg- and is now winning everything with that insane Lyon team, I'm just not sure what another year under Anson Dorrance would have done for her
Well, to be fair - she wasn't "all that" at UNC. My transition to full-time college sports shooter for hire the last two years has seen a marked decrease in number of college games I see (as I show up when I'm paid), but that was back when I was generally shooting 10+ UNC women's games each year*. Lucy was a freshman. With all the ups and downs. Additionally, she was a defensive player which tends to be more revealing of mistakes than successes. She was good, but nothing that screamed world beater to me, but then I'm not Anson Dorrance. And I'm pretty sure that Anson was well aware of her scholastic progress, so it's probably not a germane topic, but there a few players - men or women that probably wouldn't have been helped at that age of development by being coached by Anson Dorrance. *the best player I ever watched at UNC was not one of the usual suspects. It was Casey Nogueira (Loyd) (yep, married to UNC contemporary Zach Loyd). Her potential was off the charts, but the she didn't fit into the WNT program which way too often picks malleable players over the spectacular. You bring up the lack of elite world class players at the top of the roster, Casey is that player missing for the last decade. She was the yin to Tobin Heath's yang. She was better, when she wanted to be and needed to be. Frankly, it was the dissolution of the Los Angeles Sol that, in my opinion, sank her career. There were two Caseys. The good one that destroyed opponents in finals or when Tobin was around. The bad one that coasted through games seemingly uninterested. The type of player that in men's sports is given opportunity after opportunity, that teams go out of there way to find a way to make it work. (Think Derrick Coleman). I was always concerned about where she'd wind up in the WPS as it wouldn't be with Tobin. (They were taken #1 and #8 in 2010). I was relieved when Casey was drafted by Los Angeles because I knew with Marta, Casey would be there with the role model to play up to. http://andymead.photoshelter.com/ga...HfpVSmxetZg/I0000gCKNRiR2j5o/C0000fDK8VkWUyjU A week or two later the Sol folded and that was that. Casey reappeared briefly a few years later as a scrub for FCKC when Zach was in Dallas, but the moment was lost. What I really remember of Nogueira is that her corner kicks sounded like they were struck by a man. I'd often shoot just up the line from the corner flag at Fetzer Field, I get chills of thinking of her striking the ball. She also owned pretty much every ACC/NCAA championship game she ever played. She played 3 NCAA title games and scored in two (Freshman and Junior Year) and served up the spectacular assist to Jessica McDonald in the 1-0 win over the Kelley O'Hara and Christen Press led Stanford in the other.
I was at that 2010 draft. I think I recall you being there as well. I definitely remember you being there the day before at the Superdraft It was memorable for.me because I sat in the media section between Steven Goff and Frank Isola. It was notable for all the people who stopped by to shake their hands and skipped right past me. (Isola was very polite, introduced himself to this non entity sitting next to him and shared the occasional chuckle. Goff has never once in his life felt the need to be polite to anyone, and even though we had met a couple of times, he ignored me) ( My favorite story about that day is when the league media guy ( the guy who quit to work on that year long around the world boat race, as if that was a tough choice) came by repeatedly asking if we wanted to have lunch at the buffet. None of us did but he kept coming by and asking. Finally, he explained that all those kids in the row behind us, team media interns, werent being fed until.the league was sure.thered be enough food left over. If there wasn't, they'd have to go find something on their own. With no money. In Philadelphia. Everybody immediately exclaimed about the huge breakfasts they had eaten, still full, blah blah. So they finally let the poor starving kids have some food. It was my first real.evidence that these people had no money) Anyway, as you point out that was quite a draft class. Tobin was obviously the prize, but Cheney, OHara and Engen were 2,3 & 4. Basically that whole first round was killer. You could barely go wrong.