Alex Morgan also makes money doing commercials, and other stuff outside of soccer so yes, she is a public figure so yes her actions are fair game for criticism when she screws up like this. Trust me if this was a male pro football player or pro basketball player, they would be raked over the coals by the media.
quazichimp said it best. It makes me feel good that Alex lets the demons go and howls at the moon from time to time. Its healthy. Loosen that tie, let your hair down. You go, baby horse. Next week, Alex and her friends will be thrown out of a Chipotle after angrily tossing a burrito at an 85 year woman who disagrees with them about Trump.
Casey Short joins Brian and Pugh as WNT players to be featured in USSF's ongoing video series "The Journey":
Harvey's move has already been announced in the Seattle Reign thread, but its also USSF news related. However, no thread seems the right place since we don't know what the coaching job is, but its now official: Laura Harvey has resigned from the Reign and is coming on with USSF in an unnamed position. So U20 coach? U23 coach? Technical director? This FourFourTwo article has the most info on the move that I've seen.
The first game of the World Cup Qualifying year has been announced: https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...18-schedule-on-jan-21-vs-denmark-in-san-diego So I've done the math and California seems to be getting a lot of love from the USWNT lately. This will make 7 matches in just under 2 years. Throw in the 2 matches from May 2015 and that's 9 matches in 2.70 years. That beats Florida's 9 matches in 3.23 years.
Two small bits of news: -US will host CONCACAF WWC qualifying in early to mid-October: https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/2...ost-2018-concacaf-womens-world-cup-qualifying -Koroleva has been named to the list of 35 referees who will go to the 2019 WWC candidate seminar in February (can't find the full list anywhere): https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...18-algarve-cup-and-2019-wwc-candidate-seminar
This is probably insignificant as far as news, but still a significant step in the right direction. The @ussoccer twitter handle is now for federation-wide news/tweets, with the MNT having a separate team account for specific MNT news (just like the WNT already does). I take that to mean that they're moving away from making the MNT the default, at least as far as twitter is concerned: Everything U.S. Soccer, in one place. Welcome to the new @ussoccer. pic.twitter.com/x5phTkQN4f— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) December 11, 2017
This decision makes perfect sense and was long overdue, but I'm curious if the fallout from the disastrous close to the Hex might have contributed to it. Billing the USMNT as the primary team of U.S. Soccer [as if there had to be one] might have seemed particularly nonsensical when the women's team are currently reigning World Cup Champions and the men's team are currently World Cup Qualifying flunkies.
Alex Morgan named CONCACAF Female Player of the Year: Congratulations! United States international @alexmorgan13 was named winner of the 2017 CONCACAF Female Player of the Year. #CONCACAFAwards | @ussoccer_wnt pic.twitter.com/S1gJGSFmVq— Concacaf (@Concacaf) December 18, 2017
CONCACAF's Female Best XI include 9 Americans: Goalkeeper Adrianna Franch | United States; Portland Thorns FC Defenders Abby Dahlkemper | United States; North Carolina Courage Ali Krieger | United States; Orlando Pride Becky Sauerbrunn | United States; FC Kansas City Emily Menges | United States; Portland Thorns FC Midfielders Allie Long | United States; Portland Thorns FC Carli Lloyd | United States; Houston Dash Jessie Fleming | Canada; UCLA Lindsey Horan | United States; Portland Thorns FC Forwards Alex Morgan | United States; Orlando Pride Marta | Brazil; Orlando Pride CONCACAF's awards seem to be a popularity contest.
How does Buchanan not make that team? I didn't realize that Long was that popular. Marta is eligible? Obviously I don't know the rules for these awards (I'm not sure that I want to know).
It's official: everyone's favorite USWNT persona non grata has been recognized as a candidate for Federation President. I'll bet U.S. Soccer hates even having to put Hope Solo's name in print again [which I think probably contributed to her decision], especially in this context. https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...rmed-for-2018-us-soccer-presidential-election