I wished that Abily would stay with Sol...But, she is now gone...I guess that we should move on, trusting the Sol's GM. I don't think DiMartino will end up in the top 5 in scoring...Let's hope that she would finally score a goal in WPS...3 goals would be nice...Even Han Duan scored 3 goals... With Abily gone, Boxx should take all the PKs? I don't think Abily missed any PK last season...
It has been proven that International Players are better at goal production. I think it has to do that they have more experience on the international level, as in the US we have limited spots on the USWNT. Han is not that bad a player, she is just not the kind that fits with Marta. According to the soccerfix we really got screwed in this trade. We didnt get a draft pic to move up.. They had a great draft and we got a bunch of injured players. Guess time alone will tell FC GOLD PRIDE: A+
I'm excited by this draft. Excited and a little scared, too! Charlie went for IMPACT. If any team was in a position to gamble, it was probably the Sol. He went for impact players and there's no denying that outside of the top 4, we got some of the few remaining players that have a chance to be impact players in the pros as opposed to being "merely" very good ones. It violates the rule that you look into international players for your offense. But that's a rule based on one other draft (last year). And it's smart to not get locked into a rule like that when the talent seems to run counter to that. Washington is hugely talented and the only reason there were doubts about her being a top draft pick was her injury. Enyeart was, for me, the player who stood out at Portland on a team full of good players. Nogueira is the American college player who seems to have the knack for scoring goals in the big game, more even than O'Hara and Cheney. If anyone coming out of college can break the "rule" that international players score and Americans don't, it's Nogueira. Dallstream, from what people are saying who've seen her, is also a terrific talent -- and of course she's the one who has experience playing defense which is an area we needed help in. Riley is excellent, too, and most people seemed to predict the Sol would take her. But Charlie knows his stuff - if he went with Dallstream, she must be good. She wasn't as well known or publicized but she's not a nobody for sure - I saw her on several mock drafts. Cachundo's excellent series usually had her going as the next defender after Riley. Kaley Fountain got more publicity playing for Wake Forest. I was a little surprised she wasn't taken earlier but several teams besides the Sol had a chance to take her earlier and didn't and they know more than I do. So the Sol did all right (for the moment) given what they were trying to accomplish in this draft. They took a chance on a fast ride. They're swinging for the fences. We'll just have to see.
Naimo probably realized that Dallstream has much better technique than Ali Riley, and is a genuine 2-way threat. If Dallsteam played for a college powerhouse, she wouldn't be flying under the radar and might have been taken even much higher than # 9.. From reading the various threads in the various Wps subforums, and even from the soccer writers' cognoscenti, it is very clear to me that most people do not realize how deep and special the attacking talent are in this particular draft. If you had a team, pro or college, that had 1st-year players in Washington, Nogueira, Dallsteam, & Enyeart, your knees would go weak for all the wrong reasons. You can not assemble that kind of attacking talent in last year's draft, and definitely not in next year's draft. The talent in the 2011 draft is not that deep, making the 2009 crop look deceptively good. After the 1st 3 picks in 2011, one will realize that the talent pool is not that deep. Teams will look to trade out after the 3rd pick onward because you can get the same level of talent in the 2nd round, it's not that deep that the 4th pick may even be a GK. Naimo can always "make" a defender, from Bock, Boxx, or Kiki or from some tryout scrub. Defenders are made as such because they don't have the skill and technique to be a great forward or mid. I am/was a defender, so I know. But neither Naimo nor anyone else can create an attacking talent like Nogueira, Washington, Enyeart, or Dallstream. Together ..... combined ..... ON THE SAME TEAM. Naimo knows how thin the 2011 crop is, that's why he's stockpiling talent NOW. Michelle Enyeart at #14 is a hell of a lot better than the #4 pick in 2011.
What Cachundo says. And Sol fans, remember Cachundo's a Stanford fan and knows Riley well and rates her very, very highly. Things can go wrong and the Sol could get highly unlucky somewhere but these are Grandmaster moves that Charlie's making. Remember, he started making these moves when he traded Kendall Fletcher and Christie Welsh to St Louis and that was early last season!
i'm not sure that we can denigrate the 2011 draft so easily. i was amazed at what ohara did in this last amazing season to move herself high up the draft. she went from good player to great player all in one season. a few seniors might surprise us with draft changing years. charlie does know his soccer tho. no question. but i still think he took too much risk. it seems as tho there was nobody else in the room telling him "no", so he was able to go thru with a pretty daring scheme which just might pay off. but then it could also all come crashing down around him too.
Please don't take it the wrong way, but it would not surprise me if you didn't watch much college soccer. Re: O'Hara, ever since she stepped foot on Stanford, there was no question that she was a scorer of great goals, spectacular goals. What she did the past year was to tell her team that she'll carry them on her back. The team and the coaches played a style a bit different than in years past to take advantage of O'Hara's strengths, which she displayed when she was with the U20s. She responded by revealing the great goal-scorer that was always there.
only what i can catch on tv, from the time i first saw her in wc qualifying in 2008 i could see that she was a good player. this year the 3 games that i saw her play, she looked not just like a great player, but a great player with unconquerable drive. i have no idea where that drive came from. i was just speculating. and that difference is what i was referring to. i was just tossing out a reason why, but of course i'm not sure.
I think (and thought at the time) it is clear that the STL head coach/GM didn't have a great handle on the amount of talent in this year's draft. On the other hand, Fletcher did start pretty quickly and played well for them.
Stupid stupid move. You can't replace Abily unless it was someone like Cristiane or Bompastor in return. If someone has proof this was indeed a salary cutting move then please post it.
I agree with the poster above who questioned Sol's decision to trade Fletcher. Remember: She got benched after half a game, and the opener at that. I think Sol lost a great player when she went to St. Louis, where she made an immediate, season-long impact.