Here ya' go folks: http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=22948&itype= Start bitching and moaning. -------------------------- 1 Scurry, Briana GK 5'9" 09/07/71 Dayton, Minn. UMass/Atlanta 107/0 2 Fair, Lorrie M 5'3" 08/05/78 Los Altos, Calif. North Carolina/Philadelphia 103/7 3 Hucles, Angela M 5'7" 07/05/78 Virginia Beach, Va. Virginia/Boston 6/0 4 Reddick, Cat D 5'5" 02/10/82 Birmingham, Ala. North Carolina/-- 20/1 5 Roberts, Tiffany M 5'3" 05/05/77 San Ramon, Calif. North Carolina/Carolina 85/6 6 Chastain, Brandi D 5'7" 07/21/68 San Jose, Calif. Santa Clara/San Jose 153/28 7 O'Reilly, Heather F 5'4" 01/02/85 East Brunswick, N.J. --/PDA Splash 7/1 8 MacMillan, Shannon F 5'5" 10/07/74 Escondido, Calif. Portland/San Diego 141/48 9 Hamm, Mia F 5'5" 03/17/72 Chapel Hill, N.C. North Carolina/Washington 224/135 10 Wagner, Aly M 5'5" 08/10/80 San Jose, Calif. Santa Clara/-- 27/7 11 Foudy, Julie M 5'6" 01/23/71 Mission Viejo, Calif. Stanford/San Diego 215/39 12 Parlow, Cindy F 5'11" 05/08/78 Memphis, Tenn. North Carolina/Atlanta 111/52 13 Lilly, Kristine M 5'4" 07/22/71 Wilton, Conn. North Carolina/Boston 240/89 14 Fawcett, Joy D 5'6" 02/08/68 Huntington Beach, Calif. California/San Diego 198/26 15 Sobrero, Kate D 5'7" 08/23/76 Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Notre Dame/Boston 79/0 16 Milbrett, Tiffeny F 5'3" 10/23/72 Portland, Ore. Portland/New York 178/88 17 Slaton, Danielle D 5'6" 06/10/80 San Jose, Calif. Santa Clara/Carolina 35/1 18 Mullinix, Siri GK 5'8" 05/22/78 Greensboro, N.C. North Carolina/Washington 33/0 ------------------------- One problem I have right now is the health of Slaton's knee. She had problems with it during the Nike Cup. Is it at 100% now? ------------------------ Other than Parlow...all the other forwards are 5-5 and under. How important is height on our squad?
I wonder if April figures that she wants to give Hucles one last chance because of her speed - and figures that she won't need Abby because of the lack of height in the teams that the US will face...
is a qualifying tournament really a time for her to still be giving second chances? Wambach has proven herself!!!
We are talking about facing other CONCACAF teams. Our only real threat is Canada. There is a 99.9% chance we will either finish 1 or 2 in this tourney. We'll qualify for the 2003 WWC. Tsunami..good point you brought up on our opposition.
yeah i know, but I still think the roster sucks! and I think Fair is a good option...only if she's gonna be used in the back.
Up to this point I've defended a lot of April's moves but Hucles was AWFUL in the US Cup. I can't back her up on this one at all.
REJOICE!!!! No Solo! But seriously... Hucles? She doesn't have the stuff to play the big game. I have a stong feeling we will continue to see her name on rosters. So get used to it folks. I think there is something more to the Abby thing. Could she be having fitness problems? April is a big believer in "getting the rookies" playing time. Challenging or not this tourny would be an excellent opportunity to get the young guns meaningfull playing time. So I have to wonder if Abby's absence is more complicated than 'we don't need that height'. I dunno I'm just babbling about crap I have no idea about.
Heather O'Reilly in, Abby Wambach out. Maybe that's about getting O'Reilly more playing time and now that Milbrett's back Wambach's the one to go. Wambach has obviously been way more productive than O'Reilly, so can it be about Wambach's performance or fitness? I don't think so. I dunno. But I'm flying out to Seattle for a game, and I would've liked to have seen Wambach. I just hope this doesn't mean Wambach's out for the WC.
I feel that Wambach is more productive than Heather because look at who Abby plays against?? She has the WUSA, players just as good, if not better than others on National Teams..then theres Heather. Who does she play against??? HS teams. dont forget, shes young too. She may be following in Hamm's footsteps though. I am somewhat not suprised on Abby not being called in. I felt in the Italy and Australia game, in all honestly, she sucked. I didnt notice her that much at all during the games. I remember some of the other people saying, 'Its a shitty Abby day'...well maybe she had a few too many of those, and Heather didnt and that got her stuck. Dont forget, we dont see what April see's at practices and such. Hucles, yea I was amazed at her making it cuz she sucked in the Italy game too. I duno...maybe shes got some kinda ish up her sleeve. Who knows.
Maybe so, but in Wambach we are talking about a player who has been given serious consideration on these boards as the American female soccer player of the year. That's what makes her omission from the roster so surprising. Who knows? Maybe O'Reilly reminds Heinrichs of when she herself was short and fast. I would have taken Wambach over Fair, over Hucles and probably over O'Reilly.
okay, i dont follow women's soccer religously but i catch my fair share of games and... even i know from watching the friendly against scotland in person and the nike cup matches on television that angela hucles has no place on this squad, has she ever done anything close to the level needed to play internationally for the united states? why waste a spot of the qualification games roster with her? i know we will not have a problem qualifying but seriously...if she goes to the world cup, well then i will know april has finally fallen off her rocker. and no wambach? she and hamm were easily the most impressive players in the scotland match, and she continued her fine play from the wusa through that match and through the nike cup. i just dont quite understand why you would bring along a young girl like heather when you have a proven scorer at the senior international level like wambach? another question, where is jenny benson? i though she played really well in the wusa this season and was very good in the match against scotland...did she get hurt or something? just a confused, sometimes usa womens soccer fan.
Mexico is also a sleeper in conacaf if you dont watch your step...and do you really wanna lose to canada in your qualifier...something they CAN and HAVE done before. I dont like no wambach there to take on hooper when the leafs blow in. O'rilley is NOT as good as wambach fair and hucles shouldnt even be in camp...I will give ape this slack....Jenny benson is hurt from a car wreck from US cup camp and id agree with ape that an injured slaton is better than a healthy pearce and really no one else would be there to take fair and hucles' place...brandi in the back better be ready to defend though, that Ds gonna have some holes otherwise...wagner should be starting. Reddick off the bench...with an injured slaton...well see above...better than pearce, benson is injured, better than mitts (by a longshot) otherwise a good lineup would like to see some improvement in the depth of the defense and get rid of the o'rilley expiriment before WWC though.
I'm not a huge Fair fan, but I thought she played pretty decent in the Nike Cup. I'm thrilled to see Mac and TR on the roster. After the way the announcers were trashin on Mac in the game vs Italy, I thought for sure she wouldn't be on the roster. I was surprised to see Hucles on the list and no Wambach. Hmm, interesting.
I had been a firm believer of Fair's alma mater being the main reason for her favor with Ape. However, I liked what I saw from her in the Nike Cup. I've seen a few things from Hucles that have left me optimistic, but I'm still waiting to see enough consistency to suggest that she deserves to play in the same midfield as Jules and Aly and Lilly. No Wambach...Hmm. She's coming off a terrific WUSA season followed by a stellar performance against Scotland. Between O'Reilly and Wambach, I'll take Wambach, even if the teenager did have a nice 30 minutes against Italy. Not that I'd replace her with any of the current defenders, but I didn't know about Benson's car wreck. Hope she's okay. And while I'd rather see Slaton take time off for the knee to get better for '03, I can't think of anyone worthy to take her spot. Wait, I'm not done yet. I've got something left to say...
Rejoice all you want. Don't worry, she didn't take the spot of your precious favorite keeper. Honestly, the way you and some others treat her, you'd think she was Hooper's little sister or something instead of what she really is--an American, just like you and just like me. Well, you'd better get over it or defect to another country. Because, mark my words, there will come a time--not tomorrow, maybe not even WC '03--but yes, there will come a time when it's no longer a question of "Whose spot on the roster did Hope Solo take?" but a question of "Who is challenging for Hope Solo's spot? Believe that.
Why are there so many college players on the roster? I mean, it's almost out of the question that Bruce Arena would choose a college player in his final 23 much less 18. there was a little talk of calling in Gbandi last year, but even with the severe woes at left back, that didn't happen. So why is the most talent-rich country in women's soccer calling in college girls to fill out their roster?
So many college players on the roster? There's only 2...Wagner (who is a senior) and Reddick (who is a junior). And one HS kid in Heather O'Reilly. Those 3 only make up 17% of the roster. Wagner is just a phenomenal talent that could probably be playing in the league right now. Which WUSA'er would take her spot if she wasn't named to the roster? Foudy has been the USWNT's playmaker for quite some time now...it's time to start grooming her heir apparent and that will probably be Wagner. Errr unless you want to move Mia into that position. The jury here on BigSoccer is still out on Cat Reddick.
Which midfielder should have been chosen if not Hucles? The only other mid invited to the tryout was Lori Chalupny. With the forward position pretty much loaded with Mia, Millie, Parlow and Mac, deciding between Abby and Heather, I guess Abby must remind April of FOTOP! I'm not too sure about the back line. I'll believe Brandi will stay in her position when I see it.
This is an apples and oranges situation: 1) The best young male US footballers are likely not in college; they're already professionals. And, in fact, the World Cup team did have some players (Donovan, Beasley) that are younger than the US Women's college players. 2) There isn't such a large physical discrepancy between high school and WUSA players. So, someone young like Heather O'Reilly can still physically compete with older folks and won't get pushed around (even though in her case, she is not one of the bigger players). mingyung
I have a thought about why no Wambach. I think April may be resting her. She hasn't had a break since forever. She played some matches for the US in 2000, Went right into her senior year of college and played there for Florida, Then got drafted by washington., Bang! streight into pre season work- outs and practices, played WUSA regular season as well as some US matches. Played post season for Washington, then right into the Nike cup. All in all, I'd say she one tired young pup, and probably needs the rest.
Sorry, I meant only in national team games. I thought O'Reilly had like 7 caps and 1 goal and Wambach had like 6 caps and 4 goals. That's all I meant. I'm not impugning O'Reilly as a player at all. Didn't mean to get your dander up.
Hamm should be considered as both a forward and midfielder, and if Wambach were to be included in the lineup putting Hamm at midfield (where her passing skills would enable her to set up Wambach, who is developing into a talented finisher) would make eminent good sense. As FearM9 noted, "Errr unless you want to move Mia into that position." Of course, I would rather have Hamm play there than Hucles. After all, which on-field combination would you prefer: Hamm up front and Hucles at midfield, or Wambach up front with Hamm serving passes up to her from midfield? It's a no-brainer.