My guess is that Patterson wanted Out... can't blame her, why be on a last place team when they aren't gonna give you enough minutes. first year of 3 she won't have a chance to play for a championship
Actually, not signing Marta was one of the few things I have understood about Atlanta's roster strategy. It is quite possible, with only three road matches remaining, that Atlanta will go winless and scoreless on the road this season. They're 0-5-1 and have been outscored 13-0 on the road. Their remaining road matches are Boston tonight, and at Philadelphia and at Western New York later on, neither of which are likely to be pretty. And please explain why again that they thought that Kristina Larsen would not have helped their offense. They are a much better home team at 1-3-2. Home field advantage! Maybe the Beat will have some luck tonight, since supposedly the Breakers will have to bring in a couple of players from their Boston Aztec affiliate.
Okay, I realize the season is lost. Now is the time to try new players, etc., etc., etc. But I'm looking at the roster report and scratching my head. Dowling is out injured and Lloyd is suspended for yellow card accumulation. Sitch, Trotter, and Lenczyk are all listed as not rostered for the trip to Philadelphia. Either I'm calculating incorrectly or Atlanta is taking three keepers to Philadelphia and by leaving out Lenczyk, two of their three top scorers (okay, with Atlanta that is a bit of a misnomer) won't be active. Is Lenczyk hurt? I know Trotter has been in and out at different times.
Well, that's what happens when you choose your team from a dartboard. I will say that Salem has improved quite a bit in the midfield and Marquez has been an unsung hero in the back, so maybe the Galanis plan is working somewhat with the younger players. Jesolva, though, started out very strong but seems to have fallen out of favor somewhat over the last few months. Sorry to see Sitch left out again. Trotter I have no idea. Lots of talent going to waste between those two.
There should be a dedicated "Galanis says" topic. http://cherokeetribune.com/view/ful...ticle-Record-doesn-t-stem-Galanis--enthusiasm
They might be moving the ball around and playing intelligent soccer, but the object of the game is to put the ball in the net. Getting shutout for five straight matches, but looking pretty doing it, is not the object of the game. Atlanta has been outscored by a player they could have drafted, Christen Press. I will say that their defense is improving somewhat and apparently Whitworth has done a good job in goal for the most part.
Maybe they want to be Arsenal. Saw a meme the other day on that: Hold 65% possession, lose 1-0 in the end.
Can You Say Legend In His Own Mind----The Blunder from Down Under is an example of How to Screw up a Team,mess with players confidence, ego the size of Texas and loves to see his name in print. .He is Dan B.without the Millions in cash and somewhat of a Con Artist.
I know that I keep harping on this, but Press (you know, the draft pick that we passed on) has scored more goals than the entire Beat team combined thus far... In addition, former Beat players seem to be having a pretty good season. Zerboni, for instance, has scored 4 goals - and keep in mind that she's been playing defense, mid, and forward.
You are right to harp. Was it that important to get rid of Rasmussen's contract? Because basically that's what that trade appears to have been. It wasn't a straight pick for a pick.
A gem from a few weeks back: “We know that we don’t have any pure strikers. We’re trying to convert midfielders into strikers and, in order to do that, it just takes time. They haven’t been playing up top their whole life to solve problems instantly.” Whose fault is that now?
And why the eff did he have to try and convert midfielders to forwards in the first place. Go hire one.
i don't believe galanis' propoganda, but i'm more inclined to give the guy a break. he's doing the best with the cheap roster the owner set out to go with this year. the owner was not prepared to pay a striker reasonable $$. i'm not going to blame galanis for not picking press.
What exactly would they have had to pay Press? She was a rookie and a draft choice. Her choice was either sit out a year or sign with Atlanta, had they selected her. I don't think it would have cost them significantly more to sign her over any other rookie ( other than Morgan of course).
imho, whatever they were going to pay her, they apparently had made up their mind to put into 1 name-player-national-teamer's sizable contract. that turned out to be lloyd, in the hope that she would bring the noise and the fans. well we all know how that turned out. but, again, i'm not blaming galanis, i'm blaming fitz. however, fitz would say that he did get some ok attendance numbers while saving $$ this year, and ensuring at least that the team lives to be insulted another year.
The trade for that pick was not a straight up pick for pick trade--Rasmussen was included. That trade was a salary dump to get Rasmussen off the ATL books. I just don't see another way to read it. So discussions about the trade are less about what they would have had to pay Press or whomever they took w/ the 3rd pick. And more about what they were paying Rasmussen. Granted, you are correct that ATL did sign Lloyd & Mitts & Whitehill -- though I don't think Whitehill is getting paid nearly as much as the other two. But factor in whatever Rasmussen was making and that opened up some room in the budget. And yes, the ATL attendance hasn't been *that* bad. And I'm guessing Fitz makes money on those other events held in the stadium. If you look at MLS SSSs as a model, the outside events are the way to profitability for teams. Depends on how Fitz & KSU split the revenue from those events since they share ownership of the stadium.
The fact that attendance hasn't been bad is wonderful, although I think it's fair to say that the attendance at the last two games must be attributed to people wanting to see the USWNT players. On a personal note, we had season tickets (just like last year) and actually ended up NOT going to some of the games because we were so discouraged by the team's performance (actually, it was more the coaching approach - the players have been performing to the best of their abilities given the lack of direction and strategy). Hearing Galanis say that the whole point of this season was to prepare players for next season is less than comforting to me. What does he expect? That the other teams magically (no pun intended) forget how to play good soccer and that during the long break the Beat players have an epiphany? It would be great if the Beat started getting some quality players (we do have some, I realize, and I feel incredibly sorry for Chalupa and Lloyd), especially a goal keeper and a couple of forwards. I am not sure if I'd be willing to purchase season tickets again if the criteria when acquiring players were solely based on how "nice" they were and how much they'd reduce cost.
To be honest, I'm actually probably going to get season tickets for next year. I didn't this year even though I only missed 1 game because I like to get different seats for each game. I think it's important, though, to show support for the team and, more importantly, the players, whether I like the coach or not. I was mad as hell as the salary dump unfolded and some of my favorite players were whittled away, although it's Fitz's team and I respect his decision to do what he needs to do to stay around long-term. Regardless, I love the sport and would rather have a "high school" team than no team. I really think if we could just get a few decent forwards, we could be competitive. The defending got MUCH better as the year went on (you can read "less Mitts" into that if you want, but also a lot of credit to Reynolds and Marquez for improving as well as Whitehill's leadership). A midfield with Trotter, White, Chalupny and Parker looks pretty good (assuming any of them come back). Chris at AWK could certainly put in a good two cents on this, but with both Henderson and Leroux presumably in the draft for next year, we have a chance to make up for the Press Incident.
Reynolds had a generally decent if unsung year. On a better team (sorry) I think she'd be getting more pub. I'm not saying she should leave ATL, just that it is very hard for a defender on the last place to team to get much praise. It has already been announced that Trotter is heading to Sweden once the WPS season is over.
Right on Trotter as well as Salem (who I didn't mention but also showed great improvement in the midfield) is off to Finland. I'm assuming this is just in the offseason to get some playing time and they would come back to WPS once the new season starts (the Damallsvenskan season runs through the fall, right?). I haven't seen an announcement about their contracts one way or the other. It would be a shame to lose either, but Trotter didn't seem to get nearly as much time with the team as I'm sure she expected. I also noticed I left Lloyd out of my midfield. That was unintentional, but not really
I get it as far as putting together a "cheap" roster for 2011 goes. There was a lot of uncertainty whether or not there would be a season 4, so I can see Fitz trying not to lose a ton of money on a team that might not be in existence 6 months down the line. Now that metro Atlanta has shown they will support the team (currently leading the league in attendance even with just 1 win in 17 tries), he's got to try and put a good team out for 2012. I really think he will try to do this - or at least I really hope he'll do this. Adding a marquee player (think Hope, Abby, even Alex) will be good for 1,000 fans per match and, as we have seen, might even get the AJC to cover the team a bit. Don't prove me wrong Fitz!