Worth pointing out that her Twitter display name remains "Rampone", and she last Tweeted as recently as 4/8+4/9, within a week of the first game. I doubt it would be divorce if she had bothered to be on Twitter without changing that. And her bio says "Christie Pearce Rampone". I'm in the camp that the simplest answer seems to be that she wants to end her career showing the same name she started with. =edit= Also worth adding that her Sky Blue FC site bio says Pearce, while Google tells me that page was last updated on 4/7. Just comparing that timing to her Twitter activity, it looks to me like the Pearce on her jersey is just for fun/for show/for nostalgia.
Occam's Razor explanation for why she changed her name back to Pearce would be the same reason she changed her name to Rampone in the first place. I do not think it is deeper than that
http://equalizersoccer.com/2017/04/24/nwsl-week-in-review-tough-decisions-for-league-in-pugh-case/ Ray Curren: “North Carolina likely won’t win any possession stats, but it really shouldn’t matter in the end.” Ray, try these possession stats on for size: Half Time Shots: NC 9 POR 2 Corners: NC 4 POR 1 Possession: NC 60.7% POR 39.3% Full Time Stat…………………….…..…NC……....…......…..POR Passes……………….……..372………...…....….301 Passes Completed……272 (73%)….......190(63%) Possession………….....55.6%...................44.4%
For discussion fodder: NWSL's "official" power rankings http://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/article/week-2-power-rankings Personally, I think their top 4, middle 3, and bottom 3 are correct as larger groups, though I question the order within those groups.
Looks like they start with a basic premise that the current points standings are immovable pillars. If there are ties then they can move teams up or down subjectively. While I may disagree with this method, I also wouldn't consider it a joke. They have an objective method that has logical reasoning and they stick to it (well, they have each time I've cared to look).
NWSL has BY FAR the most parity of any women's league in the world. Probably for any women's sport leagues in the world (of any sport). No team currently in NWSL can beat LYON (in a best of 7 series), but the worst team is NWSL is better than the 3rd place team from any other league.
I think you may be confusing fútbol with MLB or NBA. There are no seven match series in women's soccer ( or any soccer) There are at least 5 teams in the league that can beat Lyon.
Best-of-seven is a hypothetical in this discussion. I agree that about half of NWSL teams probably have the ability to beat Lyon, but I would also bet that no NWSL team beat Lyon on a consistent enough basis to win such a hypothetical best-of-seven series. Put another way, I would think that even the best NWSL teams would have something like at 30% chance of beating Lyon, 20% draw, and 50% lose. Yes, a single win could easily be expected, but Lyon would still clearly be the better team in general.
Who has Lyon played that was quality? They are 50% against the only teams that can even be said to be competitive. 0-1 v Wolfsburg 3-1 v man city. Hardly World dominance.
I am persuaded that OL is the strongest club in the world right now, but it's obvious that there could only be a way to settle the question: a World Cup for clubs in women's football. How we do miss that!
I am basing way more on Champions' League, then French League. And not on the results only: I had the chance of seeing OL play live in a pair occasions (including last years' WCL final in Italy) and, at any level (individual players, smoothness of game-play, technique, atheltism, etc.), they are by far the best women's team that I've watched with my own eyes in a stadium (it must be said, though, that I didn't actually see plently of them and, especially, I never had the chance to see a NWSL's team play live).
Guys isn't there another discussion for this topic. Let's keep it out of the weekly discussion threads.
Sure, I won't mention that Lyon got beat by Man U today and are now 1-2 against any reasonable competition they faced this year. They look good because they can play at a slow pace against weak teams.