WNT Books

Nice. I saw the thread title and thought this was about finances.

 

This just in .........



"Abby Wambach has Rabies"


Um, that's actually the title of her new book.

The contents of this message is to "mock" the notion that the USWNT, and all of its current and former players are all of a sudden writing a book about any and all topics in the world. Including Rabies. What topic will be next?


Coming soon, from the mind of Michelle Akers,

"Horse Play is More Exciting than Horse-radish"

 

BaJesus, i was not expecting that. thanks for posting, i'm finally curious about Carli Lloyd.

and this:
"It is the most anticipated match of the World Cup and becomes even more so when Ryan shockingly replaces Hope Solo with Briana Scurry in goal. Hope is fuming, crushed—and it gets even worse when she learns that Kristine, one of U.S. soccer’s all-time greats, lobbied for the change, along with Abby."

 

I never cared much for Ryan as a coach, even before the 2007 drama, but I'll take Ellis and her WTF moments over Ryan every damn day of the week. He was even worse than I thought.

 

Bit of a review from Beau Dure

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/sep/27/carli-lloyd-memoir-us-women-soccer

 

I'm only halfway through Lloyd's book, but I'd say it has a lot more of the behind-the-scenes info/gossip that Wambach's book lacked. However, Lloyd's book lacks some of the self-awareness and vulnerability that Wambach had in hers, so if I'm comparing the two, I'd say it depends on what you're looking for.

Once I finish, I'll be back with some quotes from Lloyd's book, but here's a teaser: according to Lloyd, twice a year WNT players are evaluated and have their contracts renewed, or lose the contract, or move down a tier. In 2009, Lloyd was told that her contract was not being renewed, but that she would have a chance over the next 3 months to fight for her place and get back her contract. That sheds some light on the contract and CBA discussions in other threads.

 

The annual nature of the contracts I think has been known here. The twice a year comment appears to be hinted in the players' contract disclosed as part of USSF legal filings with its suit.
2005=2008 compensation
http://media.philly.com/storage/philly/tannenwald/20160204_ussf_vs_uswnt_initial_filing.pdf

 

In some thread on here (CBA thread? Solo thread?) there was speculation that it has seemed in the past that contracts of most of the Tier 1 players are renewed automatically (Lloyd was Tier 1 at the time). Its nice to know that is not the case (although I'm sure there are still politics involved if a coach were to choose to not renew a veteran player's contract).

 

And it's mostly speculation. U would think it's one of two things. Either a player has to be lowered from a tier 1 contract before they can not have their contract picked up...this explains the sixth month review where players can have their tier raised or lowered...or their is a seniority component we havent heard about yet. Since tier 1 contracts have no time of service element beyond being past the floater limit it is quite possible there r perks after a player has been on the team for a certain number of years.

 

Ok, I've finished Lloyd's book, so here's some quotes:

"Unfortunately, in a dozen years on the US Women's National Team, I've been around enough drama queens to fill a royal palace. I've seen new players get frozen out by veterans (I was one of the rookies once, and it wasn't fun), and I have seen coaches forced out. I've witnessed drama involving lineup changes and strategic formations, heard gossip about alleged favoritism. There were times when I wondered if I was in a reality TV series."

Some quotes from her first camp in 2004 prior to the '04 Olympics (she didn't get her first cap until 2005):
"Tiffeny is the same way [as Shannon MacMillan]. She greets me warmly. She feels genuine. 'Let me know if you need anything,' she ways. I find out quickly that Shannon and Tiffeny are more than the exception than the rule, because from the outset most everybody else is somewhere between aloof and downright chilly. . . . The atmosphere makes me that much more of a loner. Almost nobody introduces herself. I'm not expecting a basket of fruit, but I barely even get acknowledged. I get the feeling that they would much prefer it if I were not there. Heather Mitts, a friend and longtime national team defender, tells me later she had the same experience when she first came on. So does Danielle Fotopoulos...who goes out of her way to make me feel a part of things. 'Don't take it personally, because it's not about you in the least,' Danielle says, before sharing a story about her own early years, when she was sitting in the locker room, not far from a veteran team member who did her best to ignore Danielle. A few other newcomers came in, and the vet still wasn't talking. Then another longtime player showed up and the veteran suddenly turned into Ms. Sociable. 'Finally, somebody who I actually care about,' the veteran player said."

Also in the 2004 camp:
"On a day when we're supposed to do fitness training--a series of punishing 800-meter runs--several team leaders get together and complain to April that it's too much strain on their bodies and the fitness work needs to be called off. The players get their way. People have told me that the inmates run the asylum on the women's national taem. Here is the first example of it I've encountered. It's hard for me to believe that the players have the ability to dictate to the coach, but apparently that's how things work."

April Heinrichs on Lloyd in the 2004 camp:
"She said, 'It [the way Lloyd strikes the ball] reminded me of Michelle Akers. Here was a kid in her first national camp, and she struck the ball better than almost anyone who was already on the team.' . . . April tells me much later that I was one of the final cuts [from the 2004 Olympic roster] and that if I'd been in camp a little longer I would've made it."

On Greg Ryan:
"[A]n e-mail arrives from Greg. He is not an easy coach to read. His emotions and his assessments are about as stable as a weather vane in a windstorm. One day he might leap high praise on you. The next day he might act as if you're lucky you haven't been sent home already. . . .Even more than Greg's harsh words, what upsets me is that I have no idea where I stand with him. He changes moods and evaluations the way most people change socks."

On politics in the WNT and coming from outside of the USSF developmental system:
"You want to think that the higher up you go in a sport, political stuff becomes less important and everything is more of a meritocracy. You want to believe that the best players make the U.S. Women's National Team, and that the best of those are the starters. I am finding out that this is not necessarily the case. . . . If they've [USSF developmental staff] discovered you and nurtured you and decreed that you will be the face of the team going forward, you are assured of having the soccer equivalent of the red carpet rolled out for you. . . . If you are someone who has come up outside the developmental infrastructure, on the other hand, you are in for a long, hard climb. You are going to constantly have to prove yourself. Tiffeny Milbrett and Shannon MacMillan, two former standout forwards for the national team, can tell you about that. So can I. It's a completely different path if you are a player such as Aly Wagner. . . . I'm not saying at all that Aly hasn't earned her spot; she's a gifted player (and will go on to have a fine ten-year run with the team). All I'm saying is that we are not always viewed through the same lens. If Aly loses the ball or doesn't execute a ball well, it's an aberration and is typically overlooked. If I commit the same mistake, it's a big fat strike against me and usually result in me getting pulled out of the game. The burden of proof is one me if I want to change the pecking order. For a long time, I resent that. I feel slighted and underappreciated. With James's help, I start to use it as motivation."

On Ryan in a pre-2007 WWC camp (according to this description by Lloyd and others, the atmosphere in 2007 even before the WWC even started was very tense):
" 'All of you who were part of the 2004 Olympic team, sit over here,' he [Ryan] says, pointing to a line on the field. 'You guys--Chupa, Leslie, and Marci--you go over there,' pointing in a different direction. You can feel an explosion coming. 'These are people who will fight for each other and for me and do whatever it takes to win,' he says, referring to the two groups. Then he looks at the rest of us--Hope Solo, Tina Ellertson, Nicole Barnhart, Natasha Kai, and me--and screams, 'You are people who don't have heart and don't work hard and don't care about the team.' (Greg exempts newcomers Stephanie Lopez and Marian Dalmy from his classification.)"

On a players-only meeting after the group stage of the 2007 WWC:
"Then we players have our own meeting, and it becomes very clear how deep the frustration goes. Abby says we are focusing too much on defense and need to be more aggressive offensively, no matter what Greg says. 'I feel like I can't play-make or build up the attack because we're just sending long balls to the forward line,' I say. Just about everybody speaks up, and the unrest is as thick as the Chinese smog, even if you wouldn't know it watching the England game, which we blew open with three goals in twelve minutes early in the second half. I only play ten minutes and can't say that I understand why, but the mayhem is just beginning."

On a meeting with Abby Wambach post-2007 WWC:
" 'This has nothing to do with the Hope situation,' Abby begins. 'You expressed your opinion, and that is fine. You are a really good player, but your spot on the team is in jeopardy. You are walking a fine line. You are actually kind of like Hope, because you have to win back the hearts of the team. People don't see you fitting in, chemistry-wise. They see you not wanting to join in things, and just sitting in the corner texting all the time. They feel that you don't trust them, and they don't want you on the field because of that. You also didn't have a very good World Cup, so that adds more questions. You are turning into Hope, and you better be careful.' . . . She [Abby] wants to be on the good side of the veterans--in this case Lilly, Kate Markgraf, and Scurry. They want to punish me for siding with Hope, and now Abby wants to do the same, so she lets me have it. I don't appreciate her acting as if she is part of the judge and jury that will decide my future."

On Jill Ellis (while Ellis is Sundhage's assistant coach):
"Pia is not into statistical analysis, but Jill is. During our training sessions, she keeps track of [passing] completion percentages, and when I come off, she'll tell me, 'Sixty percent,' or 'Seventy percent." It becomes almost a game within a game for us. I totally embrace the idea of taking greater care with every possession--learning when to take risks and when to keep it simple."

Post 2009 WPS season when Lloyd is told her contract is not being renewed:
" 'Carli, I want to give you a heads-up before the official e-mail goes out,' she [Pia] says. ' You don't have a renewed contract [with U.S. Soccer] for 2009.' (Twice a year we either get renewed, not renewed, or bumped down a tier.) 'If you do get a contract, it may not be Tier 1.' . . . [Pia continues] 'Now what happens from here is up to you. You will have plenty of chances in September, October, and December to show that you have improved your game and get your contract, but I wanted to let you know.' "

On Pia possibly being forced out:
"Everybody wants to make it sound as if Pia was the one who engineered the change, but I'm not so sure, since that's usually not how things work around the U.S. Women's National Team. April Heinrichs was forced out by a core of veterans who basically ran the team, and Greg Ryan was too, though he was going to be a goner anyway the moment the terrible 2007 World Cup ended. Pia met with Sunil after London, and from what I understand, they talked about her future before tabling the discussion and deciding to meet again in a few weeks. In the interim, a so-called leadership group of players had a conference call and began to quietly push Sunil to get rid of Pia. When word leaks out on the team about what is going on, I am upset, and so are lots of other people who aren't part of the 'leadership group.'"

On Tom Sermanni:
"We are a side in flux. Abby hasn't been on the top of her game. Tom meets with her and tells her she is behind Press and Leroux right now. . . . Tom is a master strategist with a great feel for the game and very much a laissez-faire approach to things. He isn't big on structure, or planning. I like him and like his effort to make us a more sophisticated and creative team."

On the 2014 Algarve Cup and Sermanni being fired:
"We...finish with our worst Algarve result ever--seventh place. Tom is disgusted, and so are we. He says that our touches were sloppy and our giveaways contributed greatly to the result in this tournament. . . .There is a weird vibe almost from the time camp [in April] begins. On the first day we work on crossing and marking in the box and play small-sided games, none of which we have been doing under Tom. Jill Ellis, the program's technical director and Pia's former assistant, is here to observe and record training sessions. I hear that Dan Flynn and Sunil Gulati are supposed to be coming into camp, another curious development if it's true. . . . We are in the bus going back to the hotel [after the April 6 game] when a team staffer gets up. 'Sunil and Dan want to meet with the team at seven thirty tonight,' the guy says. We gather in the hotel, and soon Sunil and Dan arrive, along with the coaching staff, but not Tom. So now we know why everything has felt so odd. Tom Sermanni is out of job . . . Sunil tells us that was not a knee-jerk reaction to what happened in Portugal. . . Sunil says it basically comes down to a 'subjective evaluation of where the team is going.' . . .Several players start to cry after the announcement is made. I feel sick about it. I know we haven't played at our usual level, but I have not seen this coming at all."

I won't include all the quotes, but some notes from Lloyd's book about the 2015 WWC:
--It was Jill Ellis's plan to play the top five teams prior to the WWC (They weren't able to schedule Germany.) and to go to Brazil so that the team could experience adversity.
--Both Lloyd and Holiday were asked to play as dual #6's in the group stage of the WWC.
--Lloyd was asked by the coaching staff prior to the WWC to be careful and not too aggressive in her tackling to avoid getting 2 yellow cards and having to sit out.
--The first corner kick in the final was a play designed specifically for Lloyd by Gustavsson. It was only practiced once.

Lloyd on WNT coaches: She's pretty positive about all of them (Heinrichs, Sundhage, Sermanni, and Ellis), except for Ryan. She is particularly positive about Ellis though and says she and Ellis share a similar personality and philosophy.

 

I think that's always been the speculation; what's unclear is who are the 2-3 players who pushed for Sermanni to be fired. If Lloyd is being honest, then she wasn't part of it.

Regarding Lloyd and her trainer, I agree. I also think she comes across as a not just committed, but obsessed, person who has put everything in her life (even family) after soccer, and that's been encouraged by Galanis. I personally don't think that's healthy, but maybe that's what you have to do to get to that level. A 'fighting underdog' tone comes through in the book, too, and for those who've followed her career, you'd not be surprised that she readily admits that she plays best as the underdog with a chip on her shoulder and something to prove.

After reading the book, I don't know if I like Lloyd any more...or any less really. Perhaps I do understand her better though.

 

I know this has nothing to do with the subject matter, but holy crap is that awful to have a memoir written entirely in the present tense (or at least that passage). How utterly grating to read. Whose idea is that?

 

After browsing through these today, I will stick with Alex's kid books.

 

Fitting for posting as PacmanJR_00.

 

Kids today have no idea about Pacman. It's all Mario Kart.

 

I realize that I am totally necroposting, so apologies, but this didn't seem worthy of a new thread. Just wondering if anyone has read Briana Scurry's new book? I just started.

In scanning back through this thread, I wonder if Lloyd would say something differently about Ellis post-2019...probably so.

 

I read it and interviewed her. It’s worth your while.

 

It is what it was.