The trivia nerd in me always loves the "free kicks" section on weekly EQZ "League Lowdown" articles; here are some of this week's kicks: https://equalizersoccer.com/2019/04/16/the-lowdown-ashlyn-harris-turns-up-the-heat-in-week-1/
I know the Red Stars fan base is growing. At the Season Ticket Holder event last Sunday when they did the jersey unveiling, I saw people I've never seen before. Let's see how many people stay after the Fire game this Saturday to watch the Red Stars.
Check this out folks: http://chicagoredstars.com/redstarsxnbcsch/ Chicago Red Stars & @NBCSChicago announce 2019 broadcast partnership to provide local coverage of all matches.More | https://t.co/kBzBCydb7z#MKOT | #ElevatingTheGame pic.twitter.com/2t1PSYqwNR— Chicago Red Stars (@chicagoredstars) April 17, 2019
Way to go Chicago. I hear Chicago's next move is to split off from Illinois and form their own state.
Somewhat random, but because I'm a numbers nerd, I look for things like this: According to 538's soccer stats, as of this week, Sky Blue is no longer the weakest team in the league by SPI. That inglorious title now belongs to Orlando. (Also, Utah has surpassed Seattle for the 4th-best SPI; both SPI changes are reflected in the corresponding updates to the projected playoff probabilities.) https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/nwsl/
Estelle Johnson (Sky Blue) has been named to the Cameroon WNT for the WC. Congratulations to Estelle! Wikipedia: "Born to a Cameroonian father, Johnson was contacted in 2018 by the Indomitable Lionesses head coach Joseph Ndoko about her interest in representing Cameroon. She was named to the Indomitable Lionesses' squad on May 1st, 2019." It appears Cameroon may have no warmup games until meeting Canda on June 10. Estelle Johnson and Michaela Abam named to Cameroon’s World Cup side. #NWSL https://t.co/3YgEiidhcc— Chelsey Bush (@ChelseyWrites) May 4, 2019 Johnson previously played for the Western New York Flash, the Philadelphia Independence, Sydney FC of Australia's W-League and Washington Spirit in the NWSL.
I mentioned this in the Expansion forum, but just so it's not buried (and it's a bigger issue underlying an expansion example) I'll restate it here: One of the several reasons Barca-to-NWSL seems to be dead is that Barca is a Nike club. "But NWSL is Nike too!" you say, right? Well, NWSL's Nike deal apparently ends this year, and Barca wanted a guarantee/exception that they could equip their potential NWSL squad in Nike gear even if the league overall went to a different supplier. USSF's Nike deal doesn't end until 2021. (2022? I'm not entirely sure, but either way...) That means that there's the apparently distinct possibility that NWSL breaks from USSF after this year. I know a split has been discussed before, but that fact that there's sponsor/supplier discussions attached to it now, to me, gives some solid, monetary evidence to the possibility.
Random sad note I found while looking at lower-division stuff: It seems that the Western New York Flash are officially done. IDK if they're still fielding youth teams, but they won't be participating in UWS (or WPSL) this summer. =-(
Well, that report concerning Nike vis-a-vis Barca has actually caused the league to act swiftly for once: just today EQZ learned from NWSL that they (apparently several months ago??) extended their deal with Nike to also last through 2022, thus matching the extent of the USSF Nike deal.
So, there's a new "challenge" going around on Twitter... Starting with the USWNT players showing off their juggling skills and spreading to whoever they can get (I've seen NWSL coaches and MLS players tagged as the "your turn" tags). Apparently Hulu has agreed to donate $1 for every post of this #HuluHasLiveSports challenge to the NWSLPA, up to $100k. Understandably, everyone is now asking if Hulu might be a future NWSL broadcast partner.
Not really sure where to put this, but its helpful information that was mentioned on the Mixxed Zone podcast. There's another website out there tracking woso stats, both club (including NWSL) and country: FBref.com They're slowly building the site, and it doesn't include all leagues or all past years, but I've had fun playing around on it the last couple of days.
It was a privilege to live close enough to the WNY Flash to be able to attend as many games as I could and see the team during pre-season as well. Many non-US players in this year’s World Cup spent time with the Flash. Using Jen Cooper’s NWSL Almanac (and Wikipedia for WPS), here is a list with the number of games each player played with the Flash: Australia.….....… Sam Kerr (41), Lydia Williams (14) Brazil…….......…….Marta (14) Cameroon…....….Ajara Nchout (7), Estelle Johnson (25) Canada…….....……Christine Sinclair (15), Sabrina D’Angelo (9), Adriana Leon (10) New Zealand…....Ali Riley (16), Emma Kete (3), Abby Erceg (19) Nigeria………...…..Halimatu Ayinde (9) Spain……......…….Vicky Losada (23) Sweden…….....….Caroline Seger (13)
Trade: NCC->SBFC Liz Eddy SBFC->NCC McKenzie Meehan Sounds like Liz Eddy, finally healthy after two years of injuries, is looking for playing time and Paul Riley, as he's done before (see: Alanna Kennedy and Makenzy Doniak) looks to find a better situation for the player instead of keeping them in reserve.
Zerboni may be the heart of the team, but I think Eddy is the soul. She will be missed deeply I think. But if she can get more playing time and this trade is something she wanted, then good for her and Best of Luck!
Funny that SBFC was the team that originally drafted Eddy. And they are now tied with NCC for most former Pali Blues.
P.S. I forgot, Australia’s Emily Van Egmond played 14 games for the 2012 WNY Flash in the WPSL Elite. .......2010-2016.......what a team we had..........
And apparently Denise Reddy just got fired: Announcement: Sky Blue FC Head Coach Denise Reddy was relieved of her duties today. An external search has commenced.— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) June 28, 2019