Dash 2018

No.

Unless you actually want to make a different sport, called "soccer", from the one we play in Europe, called football.

You know, the same way in USA you play football and not rugby, baseball and not cricket... It's good that basket was created in USA, or you would have changed that one also!

That would frustrate GKs even more and make them close to useless.

 

It's not the fact of a 0-0 result. Obviously not all 0-0s are equal. Some of the best matches I've seen finished 0-0. But I don't think anybody wants to watch a match where one side is so negative that they take only two shots all game.

On the selling tickets front, I'd rather win 4-3 than 1-0. In part that's a function of trying to attract an American audience in a city where you are competing for attention with pro baseball, football, basketball, men's soccer and (now) rugby. Fact that the baseball team is World Series champs and the basketball team is best in the league makes it even more difficult.

 

Tell that to the pro rugby league.

I'm not for changing anything, however it wouldn't be unprecedented. Canadian football, for example, has some pretty significant differences versus football in the US.

 

The only part of the game I would modify is Law 11, Offside. [The way officials call offside evolves all the time, and I believe the law has changed in the past. My bad memory recalls that it used to be 3 players, usually two defenders and the keeper, not two players the way it is now.]

Over the years, from time to time, I have thought hard about how to make the call easier to make by adding a line to the field. I could never make anything work.

One idea that would not solve all the issues, but might improve things somewhat, would be to extend the 18 to both touchlines and say a player could not be offside if the ball was served or passed from between the 18 and the goal line. I think that is consistent with how currently, a player receiving the ball from a throw in is not offside and also a receiving player is not offside if that player was in his/her own half when the ball was served- meaning currently, it is not always the second last defender that determines offside.

.........And I would propose to make the change FIFA-wide, not just the USA.........

 

I would note that the rules of professional basketball are different for men and women in the United States and that the rules for basketball are different in the United States and Europe.

Oh, those evil Europeans.....fouling up the beautiful game of basketball.

The difference, I suppose, is that FIFA exercises a paternalistic -- some might say imperialistic -- control of the beautiful game of soccer.

 

Absolutely, I take anything that happened in Portland with a grain of salt. With the week one opponent, Chicago, able to see you play three times there is absolutely no way you let them see how you're going to play in week one (unless you are stupid).

That having been said, the emphasis in training since she has arrived has been on defense. Which is a good thing and badly needed. I just hope she doesn't have them playing the way she had South Africa play.

 

Part of it, is goals are only worth one point. If we used American Football points it sounds a lot more high scoring. A 3-2 game becomes 21-14 which isn't thought of as a defensive game.

 

However, according to my calculation, which I hope is accurate, the average number of goals scored per game in the first women's world cup (1991) was 3.81,
In 2015, it was 2.89. That's a big difference.

I think you could calculate the same decline in the number of goals scored in the men's game.

5 goals scored per game on average in my opinion is about ideal.

 

Interesting tidbit here. Abby Elinsky who was drafted by Dash and an early cut may have caught on in a replacement player role with Orlando.

 

Of course. We basically left the main topic behind and went a little more philosophical about different views of what this sport should be.

And spiced it up with some good old rivalry between respective mindsets of USA and Europe. But all in a good spirit, I guess.

 

Check this out. Press may be going to Seattle.

Looking like Christen Press will end up with Seattle. Details still being worked out. #nwsl #uswnt

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) March 19, 2018

 

Some head scratching stuff in the Dash roster announcement, if it ever actually gets released.

 

Roccaro signed very late so maybe she was a bit conflicted.

 

Goalkeepers (3): Jane Campbell (FED-USA), Bianca Henninger, Sammy Jo Prudhomme (DD)

Defenders (5): Lindsay Agnew, Amber Brooks, Rachel Daly (INTL-England), Lotta Okvist (INTL-Sweden, DD), Janine Van Wyk (INTL-South Africa)

Midfielders (6): Claire Falknor, Michaela Hahn, Kristie Mewis, Linda Motlhalo (INTL-South Africa), Meleana Shim, Allison Wetherington

Forwards (5): Savannah Jordan, Thembi Kgatlana (INTL-South Africa), Kealia Ohai, Nichelle Prince (FED-Canada), Kyah Simon (INTL-Australia)

Topic...Pauw's team. The 11 players in bold r Pauw players either previously or brought in by her. If more draft picks r signed they will also be her players. No matter how well or how badly this goes, when u bring in over half the roster u have to take the credit or the blame. Normally a new coach would get a free pass for year...but not in this case. She needs to at least be respectable.

 

Vera decided to waive her. It was clear through preseason that Vera didn't rate her highly, but I can't believe you couldn't trade her even if it was for a 3rd round pick.

Also was talking about trading a draft pick for Weimer and then waiving her less than a month later.

 

I disagree with the premise that just because Pauw brought in so many players that she gets more blame assuming things go poorly. Regardless of how many players she brings in now, it's hard to change things in one off-season especially if you don't have a lot of "capital".

Now, I do think that Pauw should not get a free pass assuming there's a bad year for Houston, but for a different reason. The player management moves that have been made suggest people in charge that don't know the NWSL. She's bucking the trend in a lot of ways. She's gonna have to prove that it works quick.

 

I disagree with your disagreement

I look at the Dash and I see a core of very good players to build around if you make the right personnel moves. Instead, most of what they've done is pick up unproven players (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) and players that have proven already to either be benchwarmers or unable to get or stay on rosters for better teams.

In particular, she's pieced together an awful midfield. She used two international slots on young kids from an inferior national team. She has an open international slot that they show no signs of using (which they acquired in the Press trade, thinking they had 4 intl slots when they actually had 5). From what I'm hearing, based on the two weeks they've been here the South Africans are not NWSL quality (although some of that may be sour grapes, the bits and pieces I've seen suggest one of them could be useful).

And again some of that comes down to familiarity with the league. She doesn't understand the value of international slots so the notion of bringing in young kids with, what she sees, with good development potential makes sense to her whereas in the framework of NWSL it's a waste.'

Anyway,. from my part, I'm willing to give her a pass on certain things, but when she guts the team and pushes out useful players without making an effort to trade them and get pieces back, then replaces them with inferior talent, hard not to blame her if they are terrible.

 

I stop by just to say, that, if I repped both of last posts although they were disagreeing with each other, it's because I like the level of the discussion here, very insightful and respectful at the same time. I haven't got the same knowledge of NWSL in general nor of Houstan Dash in particular, but I am reading with interest. Keep it up, guys!

 

DynamoManiac, I think we're essentially saying the same thing?

Quantity wise Pauw has made a lot of changes. In terms of sheer numbers, it's hard to say a whole lot. It could be because the old team was bad, it could be because the new coach just wants "their" players, or many other reasons. So I feel that I can't make a determination based on "quantity".

But then there's the level of players that you referred to as well as the odd managing (international slots, etc.). It's these types of decisions that make me think that Pauw will either need to show up big or go home.

Question, if Houston ends the season with 1 win, 8 losses, and 15 draws (or similar), would Pauw get another year?

 

And the rep button is fun to press?

 

Well, actually I know I am a little trigger-happy with the "rep" button. Let's say I make up for those who never press it.

 

For me it is less about record and more about Pauw showing she can build a team and coach effectively. If at the end of the year most of the players she added need to be replaced u have to seriously question whether she can do it at all. With Waldrum one of the problems was he couldn't get past his opinion of players based on how they played in college. Im concerned Pauw is given way too much weight to how these players performed in lesser leagues thinking it will translate.